I got this e-mail from CC reader Isaac: I was wondering if you guys know anything about AMC selling cars to the U.S. government in the 1970s, and if AMC offered a hearse option on their wagons. I found this listing on Craigslist in South Dakota and have never seen anything like this. I tried doing an internet search on the validity of this vehicle, but did not have any luck. I am not interested in purchasing this car, but I am just curious if this vehicle is authentic.
Well, it looks all too authentic to me. Who else would dress up a Concord wagon to look like a BIA hearse?
Here’s the sign on the door. That looks pretty authentic and original.
The ad says: Rear armrest, window cranks, door handels and seat factory deleted. Not bad, for craigslist-speak. And that looks and sounds authentic. It would probably be hard to come by a Concord rear door trim without the holes otherwise.
Here’s the business end of this rather unique “hearse wagon”. No frills; just the basics.
The upholstery looks great. The ad does say Low miles. Not surprisingly. It also says 258ci, auto transmission, COLD A/C. I guess it isn’t all that modest then. The only thing that doesn’t look authentic are chrome wheels and bay moons.
There’s that A/C and parcel shelf we talked about the other day. Price? $4,000. Bet you’re not likely to run into another one too soon. But somehow, I’m not attracted to the idea of driving this around. A bit too much karma for my taste.
It would be really fun if it was a 4×4 hearse.
I would bet this is a “workshop conversion” in which the government purchased a low option Concord wagon (perhaps with rear seat delete) and then with the use of a welder, some steel and a little ingenuity, viola a HEARSE! I mean it doesn’t even look like the rollers that are in a normal hearse to facilitate rolling the casket in and out are there.
What looks like a hairbrush on the front seat might be concerning to a potential buyer.
Wondering what the Eagle version would look like?…
If you buy today, they’ll throw in the rubber Mickey Mouse driver side floormat at no extra charge.
I was going to ask about the Mickey floor mats in a hearse.
AMC built Spirits and Concords with rear seat delete for the USPS so it’s not much of a stretch that one could have been chosen for cadaver hauling duties.
“But somehow, I’m not attracted to the idea of driving this around. A bit too much karma for my taste.”
My thoughts exactly…
If it were closer….
does it come with those bad ass plates?
Very utilitarian and non-elegant for a hearse. I remember a car mag from late ’70s or early ’80s ran a B+W photo from some conversion company that was making hearses out of full-size US vans (forget which make). The mag described the van as being “perfect for transporting blue-collar stiffs.”
I’ve always felt cheated when a hearse isn’t a Cadillac, but a mere Pontiac or similar. At the prices funeral homes charge, I expect to see little chrome wreaths and shields, damn it! Next time I update my will, I think I’ll add a clause that my remains have to be hauled away in a Caddy or Lincoln, no mid-price brands. And certainly not an AMC Concord.
Agreed. I have given my wife very specific instructions about what kind of hearses are acceptable: rwd Cadillacs only! (I could be more particular, but I figure she’ll have other stuff on her mind…)
Yeah, as if we haven’t treated the Indians shabbily enough over the last few centuries, we even have to insult them with this in death?
Amazing, you hear about $700.00 toilet seats and plush Congressional offices, but when it comes to the BIA, suddenly the government discovers thrift.
No one commented on the Mickey Mouse floormats?
This seems creepier than a more typical Cadillac hearse, perhaps because it is such a stripper vehicle (what you’d expect from a government agency, perhaps most of all from the BIA, having seen a couple of BIA field offices), emphasizing even more than usual the idea of one’s earthly remains as mere freight…if your last ride was in this, your life likely ended without a surplus of dignity. 🙁
(Edit: Oops, someone did mention the floormats.)
Well, it is a hearse, so the coldest A/C possible would be a plus, right? 😉
If you have ever visited or have kept an eye on Native news in SD, you can about imagine where and what condition the Unfortunates being picked up were in. If it’s actually a “hearse”, I’m sure it’s more of an ambulance/coroner’s body mover than funeral/processional duty.
Mustn’t have been easy for the pallbearers either, given the Concord’s high liftover. Really, a Fairmont or Aspen/Volare would’ve been more suitable since at least their hatches open all the way down to the load floor.
RWD ain’t gonna get ‘ya far in a blizzard.
I would be shocked, if back in 1979, South Dakota didn’t allow studded tires or chains in the winter months for traction.
They likely got a very good price on this Concord.
Ok, what I believe is that this is a “service car” which most funeral homes have. They use wagons or vans with no windows so that they can retrieve the passenger from where they expired, then drive them back to the funeral home before all the preparation happens. The windows are dark to avoid attention to the rear.
These weren’t tinted in 1979. Lol.
nope probably not!
I tend to agree that it was likely a service car. I doubt a casket would fit in that car. I remember seeing an unmodified GM claimshell wagon hearse, and the casket barely fit in that monster.
The guess that this is a service car is probably correct. One of my high school jobs in the late 1980’s was driving for my Uncle’s funeral service company. 8 Passenger Dodge Van. Check. Tinted windows. Check. Cell phone. Oh hell yeah! Driving all day. Absolute paradise at 16 & 17.
Anyhow, as a “remover,” we used 8 passenger vans with rubber floors and two aluminum gurneys in the back to transport the deceased from the location of death (or the morgue) to the embalmers and then from the embalmers to the client funeral home. The tinted windows were to keep prying eyes out and lend an air of respect for the dead. Chances the car above had the same duty. Generally, the vans never saw a casket unless it was an empty wooden one. They do not show the back bumper, but I bet you would see marks from the collapsible gurney legs. The legs collapsed against the bumper as you shoved the gurney into the back and extended and locked (most of the time) as you pulled it back out. There are also probably metal “cups” that would hold the posts of the gurney in place for transport. Unless you hit a heavy bump, that is.
By the way, we had one Chevy Surburban (black with gray) with 4 wheel drive in case of snow. Never got to drive it though I would have much preferred that to the Dodge vans. All told, the company had a 6 vehicle fleet.
Let me guess, the standard, 2 Cadillac hearses, 2 Cadillac “family cars”, the Dodge Van and the Suburban?
5 Dodge Vans and a Suburban. My Uncle owned several funeral parlors, but I worked for the embalming/removal/crematory service. We were basically the outsourced “back of house” for a large number of area funeral homes. The mid/late 1980’s was the beginning of publicly-held companies buying out family owned funeral homes and cutting staff. So the company I worked for did all the behind the scenes work and were the ones that got up at 3:00am on a Saturday morning to remove Grandma’s body when she expired at home in the middle of the night.
Here’s a picture of the back, showing the bumper (from the craigslist ad). I am not seeing any marks from gurneys or aftermarket brackets/supports. Maybe because the liftover was so high?
The badges may say ‘Concord’, but I immediately think ‘Hornet” when I look at this car.
Especially in this stripper version. I don’t recall AMC getting that much negative press back in ’78 for presenting the Concord as a new model, when it was a 1970 design. It was basically a Hornet with a new front clip and more luxury appointments… if you bought an upgraded model. Perhaps the automotive writers felt some pity for AMC, given they were the underdog with a limited budget. Even by 1979 standards, the interior looks straight out of 1972. At the time, it was these signs of cutting costs that never made me consider AMC cars. I used to think, misguided beliefs or not, that they must use inferior quality parts. I wondered if people bought AMC cars simply because they hadn’t done their research, or didn’t want to pay extra for a new car.
The Concord got OK reviews since it was counter to the Granada, Volare, and luxed up GM RWD X bodies. The 1978 models sold over 100,000, which for AMC was good business, but too little too late, and Renault had to take over, etc.
Weird place for the inertia reels for the seat belts high up on the B-Pillar! Creative though – I guess AMC saved a few cents by using a slightly shorter belt?!
I’m not getting the wheels and the bug shield. A long-term government fleet strippo would never have these. Did someone buy it from the feds at an auction in the 80s and keep the sign on? I am not familiar with markings for this agency, so who knows. The baby blue also seems an odd color, but maybe that’s just me. The lack of a back seat and the unusual back door panels are cool.
These wagons may be my favorite 70s AMC car.
Hard to say if this was a BIA car. Generally, all decals are obliterated when these cars are auctioned. The production forecast ticket (usually under the seat) might give a hint on whether or not this was a government car.
That’s the ultimate in rear-seat child safety equipment. Yer goin nowhere!
This is a coroner’s car, not a hearse for a funeral procession. Also, this was when gas prices suddenly went over a dollar, and fleets were ordered to ‘save gas’.
Here is another one:
http://www.autabuy.com/Vehicles/Details.cfm?VID=5308247&Year=1980&Model=CONCORD