I'd say that the smaller window was bigger, but the design is quite similar, thanks

Oh, don´t mention it.

Any further funeral car requests? My archives contain more than 40.000 pictures, including several oddities one wouldn´t expect.

If you have other Saabs than the one I posted in 1st page, I am interested

I'd like the see a Grand Marquis of the generation I have, if you happen to have a picture of one

Here's one. Might be a Colony Park, close though.

I was thinking about Japanese sedans, but that's a rather broad umbrella.
Would you happen to know/have pictures of Emperor Hirohito's final transportation?
I'm betting Toyota Century.

@Blackice_GTS: I just offered to show some pictures out of my collection in this thread - why do you keep answering associated requests before I could do that myself?

@Antoine: Saab is a total rarity throughout the funeral car field. Even in Sweden they´re almost not existent, which is a shame. This is ridiculous, but I can offer exactly two more:

The 9-5 which can still be ordered at Coleman Milne, UK



The only Saab 9000 that I know of - besides the one already seen above - is this example, coachbuilt by Solstad of Sweden.



@taxiguy: Yes, the Grand Marquis was a common base for rather simple station wagon conversions, made by several bodyshops throughout the USA (e.g. Thacker Coach) and supposedly Canada. Their look is always the same: A wagon equipped with a vinyl roof, smoked windows (or occasionally fitted with drapes instead), a set of landau bows and a casket floor inside. Nothing spectacular.

But: The Eagle Coach Co. of Amelia, Ohio, offered a fully coachbuilt hearse based on the Grand Marquis, which looked pretty good.

Thanks I find that the Saab 9000 looks much better than the 9-5. Probably because the proportions of the car are closer to the original one.

About rarities, hearses are usually based on wagons/vans or large sedans, but are there hearses based on smaller hatchbacks for example?

I'm too interested in what Antoine asks, also, are there any modern Seats as hearses? we all know about older models serving as such but what about from the eighties/nineties onwards? any?

Danke Animatronixx, the Grand Marquises look quite nice

I would like to see some Flxible Premier of any 1958-1960 Buick or any coachbuilt 1959 Dodge. Were there any late 50s (1957-1962) Imperial funeral cars? Thanks in advance.

Sorry . I was poking around wikipedia and that picture came up coincidentally, so I thought I'd post it. Your pictures are much better though.

So... any Toyota Centuries or Nissan Presidents? Or have I been too annoying?

Well, this is a whole lot, so I just show a few examples - just to save me from working on this reply for the rest of the day. And here we go:

@antp: Yes, there are a couple hearses based on smaller hatchbacks and comparable cars, even though I don´t know why they are there... In my eyes, nobody needs them, but it seems like other people use different eyes. Maybe it´s just me, because I wear glasses.

For example:

Coachbuilder Orejano of Uruguay found it funny to convert a Peugeot 306:


Rosano of Argentina did a greater lot of compact hearses. Among them Toyota Corolla, Renault Mégane, Renault 19, Peugeot 306 and a Ford Focus.











Even more strange is the Opel Kadett E, coachbuilt by Planchisteria Xativa of Spain and the Ford Fiesta, done by International Limousines of Mexico. I have pictures of both, but currently out of reach.

Better known in Europe is the Opel Astra hearse, built by Bella of Poland and sold in several countries:



@CCF: Correct, the older, Fiat-based Seats were quite often converted to funeral use, but it appears like nobody did such a thing during Seat´s VW era. Probably just the Toledo would have been a suitable chassis, but I´ve never heard of such things. The latest Seat hearse I know of is the Malaga by Bergadana:



@taxiguy: Wie bitte? Ich verstehe Dich nicht. Du mußt mir schon auf Deutsch antworten.

@58_Roadmaster: I´m sure there were 1959 Dodge funeral cars, but I have to search for them and have no digital images available right now. I could imagine variations by Memphis Coach, National Mfg. Co or maybe early Abbott & Hast conversions.

I have a copy of the complete Flxible archive, so there´ll be vast amounts of pictures in stock, but I have to scan them. That´s why I just show some 1959 factory photos of Premier professional cars (including 2 rare production shots).









And now some Imperials. Most notable is the 1957 Landau by National Manufacturing Co.





And here´s another one, coachbuilt by Boonacker of the Netherlands (World premiere: 1st release of this picture on the internet. This car is almost unknown!)



@BlackIce_GTS: Sorry, I disregarded your question. Here is the hearse that carried Hirohito, but I have no idea, what it is and who built it.



Furthermore, there are many Toyota Centuries and Nissan Presidents out there and almost all Japanese hearse coachbuilders have converted at least one of them. Some examples.

1989 President (coachbuilder unknown)


President by Targa/ TRG:


A 2004 Century by Targa/ TRG:


Stretched Century by Technopolis:


And finally, a Century shrine hearse. The manufacturer is unknown, but I believe it was Yonezu Kobo.


I think that´s it for the moment.

Cool-do you have any pictutres of sports cars that have been turned into a hearse? If you have an Aussie cars that would be also appriciated

Nice pics! Thanks I was really not expecting a 306, R19, Focus, etc.

That first 306 looks good, I wonder why they used the hatchback instead of the wagon as basis.

Wow,

Ich kann nich die Worten für Dank suchen!

That "Forward Look" Imperial fleet is amazing. That's the way I would like to go.

Also very exciting to see buses being built on the line adjacent to the Buick funeral cars. Thank you, sir, once more.

Nice! but this is a Peugeot 406 Break of the first series




The Málaga had actually nothing to do with Fiat since it was like a Ronda sedán and shared it's platform, and since the Ronda is not a Fiat (they even went to court because Fiat claimed the opposite) it means that this is a car that didn't share Fiat things but anyway nice pictures though some of the lasts ones are a bit......erm......kind... of......well ugly?

And those 306 and 19 look a bit like a yatch on the back

That answers to my question "why hatchback rather than a wagon"
I noticed it was not based on 306 break, but did not notice that it was a 406

Funny

Here the actually 74 Hearses, offered at mobile.de in Europe:
http://suchen.mobile.de/fahrzeuge/searchresults.html?pageNumber=1&__lp=4&scopeId=- C&sortOption.sortBy=price.consumerGrossEuro&sortOption.sortOrder=ASCENDING&makeModelVariant1.- modelDescription=leichenwagen&makeModelVariant1.searchInFreetext=false&makeModelVariant2.- searchInFreetext=false&makeModelVariant3.searchInFreetext=false&vehicleCategory=- Car&segment=Car&siteId=GERMANY&negativeFeatures=EXPORT&damageUnrepaired=NO_DAMAG- E_UNREPAIRED&customerIdsAsString=&lang=de

Obviously there are three dealers be specialized in Hearses, one in Wuppertal, one in Pforzheim and one in Vriezenveen(NL).

Unusual in my opinion is the Passat, also the Audi (@walter )
For wickey are some Volvo's

In my opinion is the Omega very expensive. For just 2000 Euro more you can get a Mercedes S 300.

Animatronixx: Wow, those are great, thanks! (love the Imperials, too)
Hirohito's hearse appears to be a third generation (A30) Nissan Gloria.