Also, do they have these "Funeral Processions" in Europe at all?

@Animatronixx- Good explainaion, very interesting. Since I have as you say it, a "soft spot" for taxicabs, I have nicknamed myself "taxiguy". I suppose, if you wanted to, you could have done the same and called yourself "hearseguy"

Also, speaking of hearses, on this past week's vacation I took to a small town on the Lake Michigan shore, I saw a really nice looking 1995 Lincoln Town Car hearse (I suppose this would be classified as "landau" style?). I would have taken a picture, but sadly I had no camera, sorry
The interesting part was that it had a line of regular cars following it down the street, each with a small flag placed of the roof. I guess this is called a "Funeral Procession" and is appearantly is a common practice when someone dies? I had never seen one before, it's kind of a neat idea.

I have about 700 car brochures which I collected in 2001-2004 untill I ran out of space. Most of them collected from annual Helsinki Motor Show, some I ordered from car importers websites and some I received free from other collectors.

Mostly I have brochures of Saab and Volvo. Every model since the early 1990's. I have few American brochures; 2003 Town Car, Grand Marquis, Park Avenue, Rainier etc. In 2003 I senced that MG-Rover was going down soon so I bought from a British collector every brochure of new Rover and MG models there was including special editions.

Most precious brochure in my collection is of Lancia Thema 8.32 (Ferrari engine).

If some people are afraid about funeral cars (I would have no problem to own and use one, too, because I have the same view in historical things like animatronixx), you just ask them: "When you are in hospital, have you ever thought about, how many people have died in the bed, you are lying in?"

Some interesting points, I never looked at them that way before.

Oh, that´s OK. I´m used to this question and I don´t get it wrong.

I love old cars, I love big cars, I love elegant/ dignified cars, I love spacious cars, I love coachbuilt/ handbuilt/ converted cars, I love special vehicles (= out of the ordinary) and my favourite color is black. The only conclusion for me is a funeral vehicle.

On the other hand I describe myself as an automotive historian, who likes to research and gather information. There is very little history written about this special automotive field, for most funeral vehicles are one-offs or very small series, often lacking a special brochure or something comparable. Hearses are quite often "forgotten" by the classic car enthusiasts, as well as magazines. In books you find 1 or 2 pictures in the section "what they else made out of the cars being shown in this book", and that´s it in most cases.

I wanted to know more about this very special field of commercial vehicles, that appeared to be quite unknown by most enthusiasts.

Additionally, you can say that funeral vehicles are the last category of mainly coachbuilt passenger cars. Ambulances etc. turned into vans, special body conversions (convertibles, station wagons) are quite seldom nowadays, but the hearses continue being modified passenger cars.

Well, and I´m of course really fascinated by these vehicles, and I think you agree with me if I say: "You can´t totally explain a fascination."

I don´t consider this macabre or ghoulish and it never was my aim to shock people or something like that. Sure, there were many deceased inside, but there´s no reason to be afraid or disgusted by that fact. For many people, death is a scaring matter and so is it for me in some way. But on the other hand, let´s face it: It´s the truth and it belongs to our daily life.

Some like fire engines (and not fire), some other have a soft spot for taxicabs or police cars (and not for the passengers or criminals inside) - and I have a passion for funeral vehicles (not for corpses).

P.S.: I forgot to mention, that I´m impressed by so many different styles of hearses used in so many different cultures. Have a look at my website and you can see a heap of completely varying conversions, each one due to the culture it was used in. Conventional landau coaches in the US, much glass and no drapes in the UK, rolling shrines in Japan, pagoda roofs in Argentina etc.

(Edit: Changed the 2nd smily, for a liplicking one might be slightly misleading in that context... )

By the way, Animatronixx, if you don't mind my asking, why are you so interested in funeral vehicles? Don't take it the wrong way as I don't think there is something wrong with that, I am just curious, that's all.

I used to have many more from the mid-late 1980's that I collected when I first began to be interested in cars. Sadly, I no longer have most of them due to my mom's urging me to get rid of most of the stuff I left behind when I went away to college and later when I moved out on my own. At the time, my interets laid elsewhere, so it was no big deal to pitch these things I hadn't looked at in years. Now I sorely regret having done that as the difficulty and expense to replace them now would not be justifiable. I guess that just goes to show, you should never throw anything away.

I have begun to rebuild my brochure collection in the past few years. I've made it a habit to keep or obtain a brochure for every personally-owned vehicle, although I still have a few to find. Luckily, my dad is a pack-rat also so someday I will have the vintage ones he has saved from the family cars we had while I was growing up.

I´ve always been into car brochures, pictures, related giveaways, books, magazines and so on and already started to collect car brochures when I was a kid. Through the years, I was able to gather several thousand ones (from Fiat Cinquecento to Terberg heavy duty vehicles).

Later, during the early nineties, I focused my interest on *surprise* funeral vehicles and started to raise what I now call the biggest collection of funeral car related literature in Germany and - quite possibly - in Europe.

Sorrily, I have no statistics of my collection, for it´s really too much to list. So, in fact, I often find things of which I never knew that I already have them.

A bit O.T., but from that Passat the license-plates are still alive. The most plates of our other cars, too, but that pair went to the shortly openend Mercedes Benz-Museum! #

Mercedes Benz take to much care about their cars in the presentation, that they've asked one of the German license-plate-freaks, if he perhaps can organize authentic plates from the years, their cars were built. So he did. He asked around in the collector's forum and finally got a few pairs. Later on, he and a friend brought them to the museum.

I gave that pair of plates, without asking for money. The honour to know it in a big museum, was enough for me. But I made one stipulation: they got this pair only, if it will be mounted at one special car in the collection. Otherwise I would take it back.

Now you guys can guess, what Mercedes Benz in the museum is allowed to wear our old license-plates.