Hearse Funeral Vehicle

Hearses and other funeral service vehicles in the U.S. are often equipped with purple light bars and other flashing lights similar to those found in emergency vehicles in order to increase the visibility of the vehicle while in processions.
In Europe, most hearses are based on commercial vans. In the past, all medium-sized vans could be converted into hearses. Today, Mercedes-Benz vans are common in modern fleets. It is common to keep old fleets since they have little wear.
Since the working life of a hearse is generally one of light duty and short, sedate drives, hearses remain serviceable for a long time; hearses 30 years old or more may still be in service, although some funeral homes replace them at least once a decade. As of 2004, a new hearse in the USA usually costs in the range of $60,000 to $85,000.
Two styles of hearse bodywork are common. The older style is the limousine style; these have narrow pillars and lots of glass. These are more popular in the United Kingdom, among others. More popular in the United States is the landau style, with a heavily-padded leather or (later) vinyl roof, and long blind rear quarters, similarly covered, and decorated with large metal S-shaped bars designed to resemble those used to lower the tops on some horse-drawn coaches. It is common practice in the USA for the windows to be curtained, while in the UK the windows are normally left unobscured. Hearses resemble station wagons strictly because of the shape of the rear ends of conventional ones.