Checker Wagon

It was for sale at Motorland in Arundel, Maine. Something about it makes me think of those Soviet limos of the 1960s--wasn't there a Zil?  Or maybe it's more like a much bigger version of a British Austin of that era. That battleship grey --that was an Austin Cambridge color, along with red leather seats. Checkers were dependable. I remember when they dominated the taxi fleet in NYC. 
  Jalopnik thinks they ought to return to NYC. Te hell with the Prius, he says.
Going by those black Calif. plates, this seems to be a 1969-at-the-latest car.