The hearse is a vehicle that draws our attention whenever we see it on the road. We know its purpose, but only few people know the history of this special vehicle. The hearse was invented and used for the first time in the United States in 1911 and many companies of western Europe had this kind of vehicle suitable for funerary use since the 1960s.
The first hearses were horse-drawn wagons made for funeral services. Two horses of the same colour were usually used, but considering the deceased person’s social status the wagons could be drawn by four, six or eight horses.
The first adjustments were made on car bodies of normal cars, which later became motorized vehicles, in the United States since the 1920s. It is possible to use horse-drawn carriage even today, but it is a choice made to highlight the importance of the deceased.
American manufacturers made their hearses on the car body of big saloons, those you can see in Hollywood films, at the beginning of the 1920s. Lincoln Town Car and Cadillac models were the favourite thanks to their large size, the sturdy structure, and the luxury image they had at that time.
Later, General Motors started to modify the car body of the Fleetwood model, longer and wider than a standard saloon, with a smaller and sturdier structure than a standard production car. The car body type of the Fleetwood has been the model with the longest life in the history of hearses and the production of this model was stopped only in the 1980s. The changes of this car body type were made on other models too.
Two were the types of hearses in the first half of the last century: large and massive vehicles with 6000 cc gas engines, without windows in the coffin compartment, in the United States; models with wide windows in the coffin compartment and a cross above, in Europe.
In the same period, Japanese hearses were made without windows in the coffin compartment where was assembled the sculpture of a Buddhist temple. The sculpture design is modified according to religion.
Another funeral vehicle is the motorcycle hearse. It is a trailer model, towed by a motorcycle (usually an Harley Davidson). This kind of vehicle is rarely used and it is just for motorcycle lovers.
In Italy, the first transition from the wagon to the car happened in a very short time. After the Second World War it wasn’t difficult to find an ambulance, littered by the US Army. Having the necessary space, after some modifications this became a funeral vehicle. Verification wasn’t required for funeral vehicles, at that time. Italy was the first European nation where almost every funeral home had hearses, between 1950 and 1963.
Hearses manufacturing began in the following years and Italy became in a short time (10-15 years) the nation with the highest request of hearses in Europe. This trend continues even today and quality and luxury with which hearses are made it’s clearly visible. The hearse manufacturing began with the economic growth in the Europe of the second half of last century. Year after year, Italian manufacturers established themselves on the market with new models, overtaking the sale numbers of manufacturers of United States and Germany. The request for hearses manufactured in Italy between 1960 and 1990 steadily increased and those made in Italy were sold even in the other European nations in the late 1980s.
The W123 was the best-selling model of Mercedes-Benz. Almost 2,7 millions of vehicles were produced for the upper middle class from November 1975 and January 1986. The car body of Mercedes Benz W123 set the security standard for this type of vehicle and was used by many companies as a base for projects and car bodies. The structure of the W123 was so sturdy that was used in other fields such as police forces, fire department and emergency department. The transformation of this model in hearses couldn’t be left out.
The transformation of the Mercedes Benz W123 in hearse was made by both Italian firms and the German company Binz, in the same period. The sales in this market segment were more or less 80 vehicles per year only in Italy. The transmission with adaptor incorporated was made as a standard and was used in the production until the 1998. Vehicles made only with the automatic transmission were made from the year 2000. Clients had to wait around 12-24 months to have an Italian hearse made on the platform Mercedes Benz W123, in the years 1975-1985. The W124 model was introduced in 1986.
The request far exceeded the production capability and this made the price of used hearses (the old W123 and W124) go up. The service period of this type of car is between 10 and 20 years.
It happened to me, so I can confirm, that many funeral homes used and possessed models manufactured in the years 1980s-1990s in the period between 2005 and 2010.
The manufacturing of hearses in Italy has been dominated for 20 years by three companies of northern Italy (Pilato, Zanardo and Casale). Due to the growing demand of hearses, the 2-3 years old vehicles were sold for the same price of the new ones during the years 1980s-1990s.
Many Italian companies began to produce car models with a better quality and luxury since the 1990s and the Mercedes Benz W124 model was almost the only one transformed, thanks to the sturdiness of the structure and the diesel or gas engine with high performance. Mercedes Benz is the most famous brand of car body on which were made hearses of E and S classes. Lincoln or Cadillac models too were imported from United States and transformed in hearses in this period. New production techniques made their entrance after the year 2000 and thanks to new technologies and new composite materials, such as fiberglass, the manufacturing switched from craftsmanship to industrial system. New models of Mercedes Benz funeral cars (W211 and S class) imposed themselves on the market with a frame partially or totally made with fiberglass in the period 2000-2009. All the hearses were made in fiberglass between 2003 and 2005 and from the 2005 until now all the funeral cars models are made with the same technique
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