Looking back, it’s amazing that (1) somebody thought this was a good idea, and (2) a major manufacturer actually produced it. Meet the Airstream Funeral Coach, which was designed to make the funeral procession a more efficient enterprise. Airstream built these things in the early-mid 1980s, complete with seating for 13 mourners and many of the amenities of a traditional motor home. (If the commentariat can supply more specific information about these, it would be much appreciated. There’s a dearth of info online.)
According to Airstream, the funeral coach consolidated the duties of the hearse and lead limousines in one convenient, fuel-saving vehicle (the latter as opposed to two gas-guzzling 7-passenger limousines and a flower car). As it turned out, the Airstream Funeral Coach was DOA; a resounding failure in the marketplace, it was the first and last flirtation with the RV as a professional car.
As a big fan of Airstreams, I want this. Think of the storage space!
A macabre idea in my opinion.
Road Trip!!!!!!
What better vehicle to carry the casket from the funeral home to the cemetery.
Maneuvering around the cemetery, however…
I hope the refrigerator is big enough.
No, not for the beer!
no one wants to go camping with a dead body.
This sounds like the premise of a really dreadful comedy à la Weekend at Bernie’s.
They could have used it for a Vacation sequel where Aunt Edna comes back!
That would be cool to buy second hand for other uses.
Winter camping perhaps? Includes a place to carry a snowmobile.
There seem to be 5 for sale:
http://www.viewrvs.com/motorhome/airstream/airstream-funeral.php
Though it looks like they all have regular motorhome style interiors instead of the more bus like interior of the coach version, I wonder if they had to convert some of these to regular motorhomes to sell them. It says they only made 80 on that site.
I never knew these existed.
The interior looks amazing, people are dying to see it!
” No one ever went broke under estimating the taste of the American Public ” .
Even _I_ don’t want this thing although I think it’s very neat .
-Nate
The irony is the passenger in this one was driving his own Airstream only a day or two before the trip in this one.
Might be a good idea for a really dangerous camping trip. (Such as the movie Deliverance.). if you know you’re going to have at least one fatality, this would be the rig to use.
I don’t want to go camping with you! 🙂
I had heard of the coffin nose Cord, but never the coffin ass Airstream. For really small funerals, think of the time savings – you can have the funeral service DURING the funeral procession to the cemetary.
I am sitting here laughing, thinking of the meeting where a bunch of guys in suits were seriously discussing this proposal. I mean with straight faces, like it was a good idea. “The market research is really solid on this, Bob. We need to jump in here before Winnebago does, or else we are really going to miss out on this hugely underserved market.”
The only way I could think of this kind of making sense is if the planning took place around 1979 during the “doom and gloom” prediction era and they were figuring that by Walter Mondales 2nd term in office gas would be $11.00 and hour and any cars larger than a J-car would have been federally outlawed by transportation czar Joan Claybrook,
It came out in 1985, by which time gas was quite available and its price was settled down. They were obviously exploring new markets. And if they sold 80, that’s not all that bad. These were always available with custom interiors, and it surely didn’t take much to put the door in the side for the coffin. It’s quite easy to customize RVs for various purposes.
Please keep the highly/absurdly speculative politics out of it.
I sincerely apologize if my free and independent slightly humours thoughts about this vehicle clashed with your views, please feel free to report my mea culpa to the nearest thought police department.
Next time, just tell me what you would like me to post and then we can save time.
1985, yes, because as we all know…..no other downsized-diminished expectations type vehicles ever came out around that time either…..
There’s a big difference in lead time between an all-new passenger car platform and just throwing a new floor plan into an RV.
Don’t you get that it took over three years to bring that little wart to market? Do you know how long it takes to design and build a customized motorcoach? Three weeks, possibly, if everyone really hustled. Three months, in more normal circumstances. It’s like remodeling a bedroom: a new wall here; a new door there; a bit of electric work, some new upholstery and drapes. Not quite the same by a lunar landing shot.
Yes, I know how long it takes, planning for the downsized C-body actually started in the Advanced Studio in 1978, I don’t know how long it took to plan the “Wake-A-Bago”, but, since there were SEVERAL posts inquiring as to how something like this unusual vehicle came to be(because of its massive popularity of course, since about 99.99999% of the people here, who are mostly obsessed over cars and motorcycles and hearses, and ambulances, had never seen such a thing as the Wake-A-Bago…..because it was massively popular, as you pointed, they made 80 in like 6 years….very popular) I posted a response as to how it might have come to be using some admitted tongue in cheek humor and some exaggerated examples that clearly struck a nerve, what I would suggest next time is taking things with a grain of salt.
Man, I miss Carmine. Whatever happened to him?
I can certainly imagine a ’83 Chrysler New Yorker professional hearse.
My deep sympathy to the engine though.
Early morning here – I misread your comment as “…hugely undeserved market”.
I’m laughing along with you, Jim. I’m trying to imagine the pitch on this one. I actually imagined this happening after work, about three or four martinis into the evening. That’s when something like this sounds like a good idea… 😉
https://www.flickr.com/photos/autohistorian/15410386207
I don’t know if this is CC effect or what, but there was a brochure on this posted on Flikr the other day.
This IMHO seems like an idea that may have sprung from the late Carter era and took a couple of years to implement. A funeral “bus” i.e. public transportation for an projected era of expensive fuel, diminished expectations and lots of guilt. After all, the future surely wouldn’t tolerate “gas guzzling limousines” even for a funeral corsage.
Well, guess what, this is America, and in America you get to ride in your own car, even when you’re dead! And the loved ones? They also get to, in their own stately 6-door sedans following.
Truth be told, I have seen “Funeral Buses” before, in Korea in the 90s, when the country was less affluent than today.
Even then, I recall thinking to myself, when this country gets wealthier, they are going to dump that bus concept and start using a hearse and appropriate autos. And these days, that’s just what they have done, although the bus concept hasn’t been totally supplanted, especially in certain poorer rural areas.
Given North American culture, mores and attitudes, it’s small wonder this concept flopped.
Wow, we almost posted the same thoughts!
This did miss a niche by a couple of years, the broughamy interior is predictive of modern “party bus” style limo-buses that are popular today, Airstream didn’t have their head in the right place, they should have been thinking of the go-go 80’s, I could see a pin-striped suited Michael Douglas doing blow in the back of one of these, just add a bar mirrored tables and some mood lighting, bam, road going executive lounge, paint the exterior black and you could have really had something.
In relation to your original post, I imagine that Airstream was also freaking out about the RV market, which had already taken a big hit in the 70’s, I mean if hearses and limos were going to out, I imagine that ownership of an RV would have been enough to have you shipped off to the nearest “re-education” camp.
Thank God the era of diminished expectations was not to be.
Thank God the era of diminished expectations was not to be.
You don’t think it came to be? Do you keep current with the news and the trends in US family median incomes since 1972?
Nope, I’m too busy stepping on the necks of the underprivileged classes while simultaneously polluting the planet and poisoning the food….when I’m not “desperately” clinging to my gun and bible of course….
🙂
Well, guess what, this is America, and in America you get to ride in your own car, even when you’re dead!
Sure, if you want to pay the fat bill. Cremation is the fastest growing trend, now some 40% of the market. And folks are ditching expensive funeral services, visitations, hearses, etc. in huge numbers, There’s a sea change in attitudes in the US. Cremation, with a non-funeral home memorial service is becoming rapidly the new choice. Why do you think the average age of hearses is so high? They aren’t getting used nearly as much anymore.
And good riddance, as far as I’m concerned. What a waste of money….
I agree. The hearse is carrying a dead body.
Nobody during a funeral would say “This Cadillac was produced between xxxx and xxxx. In xxxx, the front bumper cover was revised.
They’re kind of like school buses. As long as the job gets done, people are happy.
I would, but then I get all these mean stares and then I get an elbow to the ribs….
“Nobody during a funeral would say “This Cadillac was produced between xxxx and xxxx. In xxxx, the front bumper cover was revised’
Guess what? It does happen. Only in Australia, perhaps? As a minister of religion I have overheard a number of conversations about the hearse being used, particularly if it was something out of the ordinary.
One time sticks in my mind – a ’71 (IIRC) US Ford hearse and a matching grey ’73 LTD mourning coach, back in the mid-seventies. Somehow it devolved into a discussion of the relative merits of the 390 in the hearse and the 400 in the coach, and a whispered confession that the drivers sometimes raced them coming back from out-of-town funerals.
Confession time over.
Hot rod hearses?
Why do you think the average age of hearses is so high?
Because the new XTS and MKT-based hearses are so hideously ugly. Much like law enforcement faced with the demise of the 9C1 Caprice and P71 Crown Vic, there was a bit of a buying spree among funeral homes prior to the end of the DTS and Town Car.
As for the trend toward cremation, most hearses today have an option for an urn holder that lifts up out of the floor.
Like they say ‘it`s your funeral”. Aside from cremation, more and more people are pre-paying their funerals, specifying what they want-and don`t want when that time comes. Pay now and die later.
Living in Adelaide, Australia for a while, I was struck by how many funeral ads there were on TV and radio. Very competitive funeral service market; economics in decline and every sane young person fleeing the state will result in that I suppose.
I like what Keith Richards did with his Dad’s ashes. Not sure any of my folk will do the same for me.
Baby Boomers are driving up Funerals and medications too….
Expect a continued increase in need for a few more years then it’ll taper off again .
-Nate
A funeral doesn’t have to be expensive. I’ve learned that from a Ren & Stimpy episode. IIRC the cheapest funeral was only $ 5.00: Getting wrapped in a newspaper and then thrown out from a moving vehicle.
Ah Ren and Stimpy. And the powdered toast man. Great days.
Ren did a stunning impression of a cadaver once…at least, that’s what Stimpy thought….
It must have been pure horror to kids now and then. And maybe even to adults.
Steeeempy, you eeeedeot! Don’t whiz on the electric fence!
Look, sweet children, your little buddy Ren Hoëk really needs a toothache treatment. (It’s Halloween, so this is perfectly fine)
This was obviously doomed from the start. Everyone knows that a hearse is black…just as everyone knows AirStreams don’t come in black.
I’ll bet in the 50s or 60s this idea could have worked. I mean, folks were open to a lot of things that looked “space agey” in the 50s and in the 60s hippies would have loved this “all in one” vehicle.
Why the hell not? Just today I read a story in the news that a funeral home is having great success with a Harley Davidson motorcycle hearse. Just type, “Funeral Home’s New Harley Hearse Is a Hit” on your favorite search engine. Nothing surprises me anymore 🙂
Shoot, I’ve known about that (in various locations) for over a decade now. Its the funeral vehicle of choice for most of the brothers I ride with.
The picture looks suspiciously Photoshoppy, but it sounds like there’s evidence for the reality of this horrible idea.
Would the ceremony include permanently retiring your Wally Byam Caravan Number? Or would the number be changed into a Wally Bye-Bye Carcassavan Number?
I can see this serving an excellent use. It could be rented out to allow someone to drive their family member home who died across the country away from home. Certainly not a pleasure trip, but done this way because it’s how they’d prefer to travel with the body. There are enough people who are afraid to fly around that I can see it serving a niche market.
Ever seen National Lampoon’s Vacation? That’s how a dead body should be transported. On top of the Wagon Queen Family Truckster.
carmine for president! 🙂 at least we’d get to see a really classy limo for once, I bet….
O.K. so I have a warped sense of humour (hell , I even like the ‘ Sick & Twisted Animation Festival “) ~ I don’t mind the off center comments and jokes we occasionally get .
If everyone thought the same we’d be dull and drab ~ like say , Poland or England .
(runs & hides) .
-Nate
It’s a concept like a funeral home bed and breakfast. That could actually work, every funeral I’ve attended involved finding a hotel, or staying with a distant family member I barely know. Although sleeping in a funeral home would be creepy, I would likely chicken out.
What I find funny is re-purposed funeral home, here in Miami there is a pizza restaurant that used to be a funeral home in the 70’s, and when I mention that to people that never knew, they seemed so creeped out.
The Belo Mansion in downtown Dallas is a former funeral home, that is now the headquarters of the Dallas Bar Association. Fitting choice.
Nice. There is a reverse here, a small funeral parlor that took over a closed Kenny Rogers Roasted Chicken restaurant!
‘Leave the oven, we can use it’
There were drive through viewing mortuaries in Southern California at one time. Makes sense, like the drive through wedding chapels in Vegas, and drive through bars in Louisiana. Now for drive through massage parlors…
Drive through massage parlors did happen! http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/08/31/bikini-barista-washington-prostitution/14892553/
I want an all-in-one funeral parlor and Asian massage parlor with a drive through package goods/liquor store.
If Amendment 2 passes, you could add a herb shop to the above.
There used to be a drive through “gentleman’s club” near Pittsburgh. But that was over 20 years ago…
How would the drive through gentlemans club work?
Would she dance on the hood?
Was there a special “Champagne Garage” that they would take you to?
Could you, for example do a 2 for one? Where she would dance on the hood of your Seville and your buddy’s Civic at the same time?
It worked for Tawny Kitaen…
England may be dull and drab, but look on you tube for One Foot In The Grave…the episode entitled “Exterminating Angel”. What happens to 3 cars is fairly hilarious.
I can’t find it on the internets, the site must be extinct- but wasn’t there a ten door mega stretched airport shuttle type Toronado hearse that once existed? I think it was used by a mortuary in LA in the 70’s.
There was!
http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2008/07/05/lost-and-found-overflow-multilegged-toronado-and-caged-fiero/
Thanks! That’s a beast. I totally forgot they had dual rear axels, like the GMC motorhome. Although the one I remembered was white, the rear compartment for the departed was windowless and vinyl covered with landau bars. Hopefully the rear compartment had a secondary cooling system, to prevent embarrassing situations.
It just occurred to me that both the Airstream and Toro would have been a handful to maneuver on cemetery roads- they are narrow and winding in many cases.
I didn’t even know these things existed. But I can think of a lot of possibilities for it.
Could be it didn’t do so well because people that still believe in burial as opposed to cremation wouldn’t be open to anything other than a traditional burial. It’s a dying (sorry) tradition, so it makes sense probably elderly people are more apt to go this route and change from the norm would not be well accepted.
I’m with Carmine & pete here .
Plus , I’d jump at the chance to go to a Mortuary….
-Nate
Yep, i did it recently too. Found out about an old Mercedes hearse i still have to chase up.
Waiting…waiting…this should be good! There’s a W108 based car still at work in Sydney, I’ve seen photos of local W111 conversions (but never a car) and we all remember Carl Williams’ send off with Tobin’s W126 which gave the whole affair an entirely undeserved touch of class.
Damn, it was the Tobins! Only a w126; was hoping for something a bit more exotic.
RE : Mercedes Hearse ~
Here in La La Land (where else ?) a guy I met imported a really cheapo Mercedes Hearse converted from a W-123 240D base model Sedan in The Netherlands , he used it in some Cable T.V. Show where kids drove it on veggie oil , then he made a (rather nice IMO) video with it and tried to sell it off locally .
*BUT* ~ the entire front of the car from the firewall forward had (has) gaping rust holes in it ~ I passed on it as it’d need at least $20,000.o0 worth of body works plus a donor W-123…..
Too bad as it looked nice enough but was cheap -and- tatty as well as unsafe to drive .
-Nate
Overall, not a bad idea, but you would have to get ‘America’ to rethink what their idea of a ‘normal’ funeral is. Personally I think the standard method of an escorted ‘funeral procession’ from the church/mortuary to the cemetery is ridiculous, not to mention dangerous in some situations. I wouldn’t have any complaint about the use of the ‘AFC’, but I don’t think it solves much, either.
The Germans were doing this back in the 50s, with a lengthened VW Bus that could seat six as well as the coffin and get 28mpg. Typical German efficiency.
And regular-length VW Bus hearses were very commonplace. No second row seating; everyone just crowded into the back.
I’m no saint and have surely done worse, but at least I’ve never owned an inflatable companion, not to mention a whole harem that I publicly display. I hope his Mother never learns of this.
Wow, take away the crosses and stuff and that would make an amazing camper. Imagine waking up to the view that window would give.
Yep, its been known for a while that the Germans were always good at knowing what to do with dead bodies….
(Ducks..)
I’ll only say despite a good part of my DNA is German, thank G-d my ancestors left in the late 1800’s.
Here’s some of the attention you seem to be craving today.
Don’t…..
John Cleese nailed that.
“I can walk, Mien Führer!”
Sir, with all due respect; your reply to Carmine is embarrassing.
That first bus (hearse) would be almost perfect for my old pastor. With the exception of the large side glass. That would have been way too showy for her as a Lutheran minister… LOL!
1985 ad:
1980s news column, not entirely lacking in humor:
That side door for the casket reminds me of the golf club compartment on some 30s roadsters.
Back in 1970 in conservative Tasmania my elder sister was friends with a group of smart,intelligent and artistic hippies.One bloke was about 6feet 2 inches tall with a huge curly black Afro style hair.He wore tails and a top hat and some of the women reminded me of Janis Joplin.The top hatted bloke drove a black 1936 Dodge hearse and one night my girlfriend and I squeezed into the front seat of my mate’s EH Holden ute and went to the drive-in to watch a film.The hearse had a single very large pane of glass on each side and as we drove in there it was parked sideways,instead of facing the movie screen.They had a long couch in the back and many seated on the couch watching the film through the side glass,with one speaker in the front door window and another through the rear hearse door.They looked very funny.
most funeral directors in Tasmania used Buick hearses.We visited one who had a 1956 Buick sedan and who owned a house next to the beach on the river in Hobart.My father was driving his black and white 1955 Buick Special.The funeral director took us downstairs to show us his boats,a large red and stained timber motor cruiser and an equally large bright pink speedboat with pink and white seats.He could open the doors to the sandy beach and the boats were on trolleys with two tracks crossing the beach to the river,so he could let each boat into the water and then winch them back up into and under his house.Big science for a small boy from flat treeless sheep grazing country.
Body roll?
If you slow down to let someone pass are you undertaking?
hehehe to both of you
Order the R1P package for extra suspension “stiffening”
Why does “Pez” keep popping into my mind?
Do I dare call this thing “Mass Transit”?
WINNER!
The mourn the merrier. Unusual, to say the least.
New Orleans’ motto: “we put the fun in funeral.”
That Airstream may have been a hit if it had a wet bar, funerals are such much better if you’ve had a few belts, and potentially fun if everyone else has imbibed. Funeral Homes should have also have bars. I’m a moderate drinker, but I always seem to want a stiff drink or three during viewings and services.
Or as a wise colleague once said: “Many Catholic funerals are more pleasant than a Calvinist wedding ceremony”.
Here’s an earlier version of the concept; “Decanso,” a “funeral car” that used to operate on the Pacific Electric interurban railway. Before good roads and car ownership both became commonplace, most interurban railways owned at least one. (“Decanso” is now at the Orange Empire Railroad Museum, whose site is the source of the photo.)
This is not a new concept. Around the turn of the 20th century and with the advent of motoring in modern countries, the funeral bus made its first appearance.
Special Interest Autos ran a feature on them some years ago.
http://retrorides.proboards.com/post/1924427
And it’s a Packard-not bad!
Overseas, especially in Japan, the idea behind this is the norm. There used to be a coachbuilder in Warsaw Indiana that built hearses that were extra long to allow seating for the family. From what I am told, this is very much part of the culture there, the family rides with the deceased.
A concept that has not caught on here in the States.
So not really macabre…..but perception is reality