Heritage Coach Dealer Blog USA

Earlier this month, the annual Frozen Dead Guy Days celebration took place in Colorado. The event is one that brings hearses, caskets and cold temperatures all to the same place for a fun and festive three-day celebration in honor of “Grandpa” Bredo Morstoel, a man who died in Norway about 20 years ago and was transported to Colorado after being cryogenically frozen. His grandson and the wife of Bredo kept the body behind their house in a shed. The grandson was eventually deported and his mother was evicted. However, the frozen guy stayed in the shed.

Coloradoans began holding the macabre festival in 2002 which is like a cross between Oktoberfest and Halloween, according to one student at the University of Colorado. People dress up as morticians and some paint their faces to represent death-like masks and more. There is a Parade of Hearses, coffin races, a Polar Plunge and more festivities to make the three-day event fun and exciting and a popular draw for people from all over the area. According to Nederland police Sgt. Jake Adler, the attendance at this year’s event was higher than previous years because the weather was warmer than usual.

The crowd was so large, in fact, the Brain Freeze booze tent had to expand its drinking area beyond the temporary pedestrian mall. One of the more popular drinks of the weekend was “Grandpa’s Spirit,” a vodka-based drink that had everybody feeling good.

Frozen Dead Guy Days is a fun event that happens every year. As it becomes more and more popular, there are sure to be larger crowds and more festivities to entertain the people who show up for this fun yet macabre event.

Are you looking to invest in a new hearse for your funeral home? If so, there are some really great Cadillac models coming to market in the near future. We are waiting on shipments of the following Cadillac Hearses:

• 2010 Cadillac S&S Imperial
• 2010 Cadillac S&S Medalist Hearse
• 2010 Cadillac Superior Statesman Hearse

Each of the 3 new Cadillac hearse models offer both, funeral home owners and funeral home directors, great features. We are expected to receive a new shipment of each of these three models very soon. If you’d like to find out more information on any of the 3 new Cadillac hearses OR would like to pre-order your new 2010 Cadillac hearse, we can help you with that.

Be one of the first to get email notification when the vehicle you are looking for is added to our inventory. Signing up for the Auto Locator Service gives you the inside track to our most up to date inventory and helps you find the vehicle you are looking for. For more information on a particular Cadillac hearse or to pre-order your new Cadillac hearse today, call our Internet Manager at 610-862-0560 and tell him you found his information on the Heritage Coach Dealer Blog.

Heritage Coach Insider Program

Last month we rolled out a brand new program, the Heritage Coach Insider Program, where you’ll receive deals on our hearse and limo sales. If you sign up to be Heritage Coach Insider, each month we will send you 1-2 emails. We will not overload you with emails and you can opt-out at anytime. We also will not share your information with outside parties. As part of each email, we will inform you on the latest Heritage Happenings, as well as, link you to our social media sites and provide you with savings coupons. Basically everything that you need to stay connected to Heritage Coach will be delivered to your email Inbox on a monthly basis. We hope you considering signing up to be Heritage Coach Insider today.

We are very proud to announce the launch of our new email Insider Program. Our readers can now sign up for access to exclusive savings and incentives offered to members only. This means coupons and special offers on new and pre-owned hearses and limousines. It’s a free program that can save you hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars on vehicles, as well as, parts & service.

Each month we will send out 1-2 emails to our Insiders. We will not overload you with emails and you can opt-out at anytime. We also will not share your information with outside parties. As part of each email, we will inform you on the latest Heritage Happenings, as well as, link you to our social media sites and provide you with savings coupons. Basically everything that you need to stay connected to Heritage Coach will be delivered to your email inbox on a monthly basis. All you have to do is click the image below, enter your name and email address, and click submit to sign up. It’s that easy.

What do you think about this new program? Does it sound intriguing? Let us know your thoughts by adding a comment to the post below. We want to continue to interact and listen to our readers so that we can improve our offerings to you. The more feedback you provide, the better informed we’ll be on your needs. We can then make improvements to this new program and to other future programs that may be in development. We hope that you’ll take some time out to give us your opinion and we look forward to interacting with you through our great new email Insider program.

Recently, an autistic boy in Sydney, N.S. died in a snowstorm after following his dog Chance into the woods. Search teams weren’t able to find him until it was too late, but Chance stayed faithfully by the boy’s side, trying to keep him warm in a futile fight against a snowstorm and the hypothermia that eventually set in.

At the funeral procession, among the hearses and funeral cars that traveled to the memorial, there was one whose passenger had four legs, a tail, and mournful eyes that seemed entirely in keeping with the tone of the day. Dogs have been known to lie on their master’s graves and return time and again to keep them company – but how many have actually attended the procession?

It’s a touching thought that when a community gathers together in mourning for a little boy who could not even cry out for help due to his autism, an allowance could be made for the pet who was so faithful to his master, and who tried to save him. Many funeral homes might not have allowed Chance to ride in the hearse, but they recognized that he had an important role in this little boy’s life and deserved to be a part of the memorial too.

Anyone who has ever driven funeral cars or hearses has surely had rules and regulations to follow about what is and is not acceptable within the bounds of the car. Some of those rules are simply practical, such as not eating food in the car because it might leave crumbs. Others might be more for the sake of the solemnity of the car’s task, such as not honking the horn because such a loud noise might feel disrespectful to the mourners.

Though I haven’t personally asked all the funeral car drivers out there, I’m sure many of them have rules about pets in their vehicles. I’m equally sure that almost all of them would say that they would make an exception for a situation such as this one, and a dog such as Chance. Particularly when your industry is a realm all about compassion and respect, it seems almost essential that sometimes funeral cars must give way to human emotions.

So here’s a question from us at Heritage Coach for all of you out there: when is it appropriate to make exceptions to rules regarding hearses and funeral cars out of consideration for the family and for the deceased? What circumstances would you make an exception for? And when would you say that funeral cars deserve respect too, and that certain rules need to be obeyed to make sure they stay that way?

We’d love to hear your stories about any times when funeral cars have made exceptions or chosen not to.

Securing financing for anything has been really tough lately for small businesses and consumers. Knowing this, we want to make sure that we are there to support our customers when they begin the financing process. On our website, we have financial resources and tools designed to make the hearse and limousine buying process less stressful and more successful for our customers. You can fill out an online finance/lease application, check out different lease options, and calculate your monthly payment with our online finance calculator. Click the image below to see how it works.

If you’d rather work with someone from Heritage Coach, our sales team will assist you throughout the entire financing process. There are several ways you can structure your financing in order to comfortably afford a hearse or limousine. Our consultants can guide you through the pros and cons of these various options. Basically, there are three main types of lease agreements that we deal with on a daily basis for our customers. They are:

• Straight Lease
• Lease-Purchase
• Trac Lease

Each lease type is described on our website under Finance & Lease Information.

If you’re in the market for a hearse or limousine, but think that you’ll never be able to secure financing in this economy, definitely check out our website. If you’d rather talk with someone face-to-face, don’t hesitate to give us a call at 610-862-0560 to setup an appointment with a member of our sales team, or simply stop by our Conshohocken, PA location.

You know things are getting bad these days when thieves are targeting the funeral cars of mourners during a graveside service.

That’s exactly what Stacy Egan and Thomas Beach did recently. They were arrested for stealing anything they found in the funeral cars at a cemetery while the owners of those cars were saying goodbye to a loved one.

“These two had no regard for people who are grieving,” said a spokesperson for Sheriff Tom Dart. After being arrested, the two admitted to some unsolved thefts that occurred over the summer at cemeteries. The two thieves have been charge with stealing items like GPS devices, iPods, purses, wallets, loose change and more. However, the authorities let them go after they posted 10 percent of the $75,000 bond.

With the economy getting worse every day, you’re not even safe when you are at the cemetery grieving the loss of you friends and loved ones. These types of crimes are going to become more common as people have fewer financial resources. Be sure to lock your cars when you are parked at the cemetery and anywhere else for that matter. You never know when you are going to be the victim of one of these thieves.

Have you heard the one about the 16 year old girl who haunts a local funeral home? If not, click the image above to play the video. With Halloween right around the corner, this is our time of year. Our time to shine. When you sell new and used hearses, you get excited around Devil’s Night.

When I watched the video of the 16 year old girl, it gave me the idea of setting up a haunted funeral home, similar to a haunted house on Halloween. Have any of the funeral directors out there reading this blog ever turned your funeral home into a haunted funeral home? If so, I hope you’ll share your story with us in the comments section of this blog. If you haven’t tried this, perhaps you should? I think it would be fun and it would definitely get your name out there in the local community.

If you do decide to setup a haunted funeral home, check out our post on renting a hearse for Halloween.

Happy Halloween from the Heritage Coach Company.

Mark Guest was known for his enthusiasm for his motorcycle and riding it every chance he could. So when a procession of funeral cars followed him to his final resting place after being killed in a traffic accident, a large group of his biker friends followed behind for an impressive show of goodbyes.

Guest was only 46 years old when he was killed. He was a father and he had many friends that mourn the loss. At the funeral chapel, it was standing room only because there were so many people that wanted to pay their respects to the man they nicknamed “Pedro.”

“Pedro died when life still offered so much to him, his family and his friends,” said Reverend Cecil Mann during the service. “Motorbikes were his life. He enjoyed being on the open road.”

Pedro was also known for loving music and reading. “He was a deep thinker and a truly loving and caring person. That’s why there are so many people here today,” said the reverend.

It’s always sad when such a beloved person gets killed in the prime of their life. We probably all know someone like this in our life. We should all strive to be like this to others. Maybe the world would be a much better place if there were more people like Pedro.

If you want to make a point about death or some dangerous habits that lead to death, funeral cars are an ideal attention-grabber. One sheriff in Marshall County, Alabama realizes this and he plans to use a hearse in an effort to deter the area’s youth from drugs.

The hearse, which is a simple one used for carrying caskets to their final resting places, now has images and words on it that make teenagers think twice before using drugs. Phrases like “Meth: Your Highway to Death” and “Don’t let meth make this your last ride” are designed to equate meth and drugs with death so kids and teenagers will stay away from these substances. Teens may even see the coffin inside and feel like that could be them if they use drugs.

“We want kids to realize where meth will lead you. It’s one of those things, a visual aid, it’s attractive to kids, they see it and it’s interest to them,” explained Scott Walls, the Marshall County Sheriff. He got the idea to use a hearse for this purpose from another department quite some time ago, but he could not implement it until recently when an anonymous donor donated the hearse to the sheriff’s office. He plans to take it to various schools throughout the area to teach kids the danger of drugs before they even start using them.

One of the ways partygoers get the most from the Halloween holiday is to rent a hearse. But if you have never rented a hearse, how do you go about renting one for the night? Here are some suggestions to finding hearses and funeral cars that you may be able to rent.

• Call your local hearse dealers. Some dealerships specialize in selling hearses and funeral cars. Since this is a very specialized market, they may be looking to make some extra money by renting out their hearses for the evening. Even if your local hearse dealer does not do this, it doesn’t hurt to call and ask. They might be able to tell you someone who will rent a hearse to you.
• Find local hearse clubs. With the popularity of hearses these days, there are dozens of hearse clubs across the country. Find the websites of the ones in your area and see if they have classified ads that list owners who rent out their hearses.
• Post an ad on Craigslist. Put the word out there that you want to rent a hearse for Halloween. A hearse owner may read your ad and offer their hearse for the night. They may even offer to chauffeur it for you for the evening.