Feature
New world record set as car brands display their wares at Funerex
The expo dedicated to the SA funeral industry was hosted at Kyalami and featured a host of automotive brands
SA’s thriving funeral services industry has been growing at an annual rate of 12% and, according to reports, there are about 70,000 active undertakers and about 15,000 operational funeral parlours in the country. The industry has experienced its busiest period since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
This is where some of the minibuses and panel vans such as the Volkswagen Kombis and Transporters end up serving as hearses and family cars. About 160 models of the Volkswagen Kombis and Transporters were sold in February, and the lion’s share of 130 went to the passenger Kombi variants.
There were 46 of the high-end Caravelle lifestyle minibus sold and 20% of the total sales head for VW Commercial for bespoke customisation such as hearses or funeral family cars. The company has an in-house skunk works that transforms these vehicles for any application.
Some of these cars were showcased at Funerex, an expo dedicated to the SA funeral industry, at Kyalami last week.
I attended the sombre exhibition and, among the array of coffins and caskets that lined the entrance, one of them made me forget my necrophobia for a second. It was a BMW-themed casket resplendent in navy blue and featuring logos of the brand, revealing that we live among hardened petrolheads.
VW’s product line-up earmarked for funeral uses included a hearse conversion of a VW Transporter panel van. The empty cargo space is filled with a platform where a casket or coffin is placed with rails for easy wheeling out of the dearly departed. The rest of the cabin is decorated with diamond-quilt leather and highly polished metal points for a dignified rest area.
On show were other VW products, notably a Touareg with the Black Edition featuring black styling details on alloy wheels, grille and door mirrors. VWSA says the styling makes it a perfect family car addition. There was also the all-new Caddy that is expected to launch in SA soon.
This was a pre-launch look of the model with its new interior with a modern dashboard. The Caddy can be earmarked as a vehicle for carrying smaller funeral paraphernalia such as wreaths, shovels and other utensils.
Outside the VW catalogue the morbid enthusiasm continued when I encountered another BMW product — a bespoke BMW X5 hearse made by Ashcraft coachworks. The Durban company converts all sorts of cars into hearses or limousines.
The extra-long BMW X5 features a driver’s pew and rear passenger quarters and a boot, with the coffin section in the middle of the car. Gull-wing doors open wide and high and there is a mechanism that rotates the coffin for easy access.
Other activities at Funerex included high-performance driving courses, ostensibly a system of staving off road deaths, and a new unofficial world record for the largest parade of hearses.
Still to be officially ratified by Guinness World Records, there were 120 hearses on the racetrack, beating the previous record of 107 set at the same venue in 2019.