Last month I took a large figure-eight roadtrip involving going to Minnesota and back home and then continuing (after one day’s rest) to the West Coast without backtracking on any single road. At the tail end of the first portion I found myself in Murdo, South Dakota for an overnight. Wanting to get back on the road for the leg home, I woke up early and put my bag in the car. While yawning, stretching and turning around I glimpsed something perhaps CC worthy, and a slightly closer look revealed a For Sale sign. Eureka!
While the price seems shockingly high for an 39-year old AMC, it certainly did come across as being in excellent condition. But wait, there’s more! What’s this about a hearse?
Here’s the business end. Oh, so late 70’s, early 80’s with those exposed hinges but large, almost oversize, tail lights and a huge bumper extrusion with plastic or rubber end caps. The rear-most side window almost looks like it’s too small for the space it occupies, as is AMC was trying to save money on glass or something – along with saving money on everything else.
The publicity shot of a Concord Limited Wagon shows a nice little applique or painted area around the rear window that solves that problem, I suppose I am not the first person to have pointed that out. The whole car looks pretty good here, actually.
Here’s a slightly better view of the back and the license plate area pronouncing it as being part of the U.S. Government Department of Indian Affairs. Did such cars really not get actual license plates? Or is it just this one since the plates were removed? How else would one identify such a car should the need present itself? Then again, how many hearing-aid beige 1980 Concord Wagons really were/are running around?
It looks almost factory fresh in here. It’s easy to look at an old car like some of the ones we feature (especially one from Eugene without door panels etc.) and wonder how they were ever sold as new, but looking at this I can see how someone might, well, not “fall in love” with it, but could be persuaded to take it for a test drive and then maybe home for the night and then perhaps sign the big check. Maybe. It certainly doesn’t look like it got much use.
I’m pretty sure the first digit on the odometer is a 3 and it doesn’t look to have rolled over so yeah, 39,000 miles seems believable. That’s about the sparsest instrument cluster I’ve seen in some time but the car does have air conditioning so it’s not completely bare bones.
I leaned over the backseat to get that shot as the one glaring defect the car had was that the driver’s door didn’t open from the outside, the latch just pulled out and stayed out without unlatching anything. Hence I was not able to get an engine shot as I mistakenly assumed the release would be on the left side as opposed to the right side of the column.
I believe the only two engines for 1980 were the Iron Duke, sourced from GM, and the 258 AMC I-6. My money’s on the Iron Duke being under the hood, it being a gummint car but who knows, it’s got A/C after all.
If this really is some kind of hearse, well, here’s where the action is. No rear seat, but a bolted in platform covering the rear area. And a space blanket on top, not sure of the point of that, but I suppose it’s period correct. It seems kind of short for anybody (or, more properly, any body) to stretch out back there but what do I know.
If you’ve ever had a hankering for a Concord wagon, this one’s about as good as it gets.
Note: a rerun of an older post.
I thought station wagons posing as dead sleds was a local thing here, but no. that car seems to be in good order and could be a wagon again, theres a Falcon wagon hearse on marketplace locally cheap low kms but still has the rollers and other coffin carrying junk included.
This was not a hearse. It can’t even accommodate a full sized casket. Even if it could the Sportabout high lift over would make it a lousy choice.
“… the license plate area pronouncing it as being part of the U.S. Government Department of Indian Affairs. Did such cars really not get actual license plates?”
Have you ever seen a license plate on an official USPS vehicle? Or on any of the vehicles in a military convoy? I don’t know exactly what the rules are, but there are clearly some exceptions for certain federally-owned vehicles.
USPS vehicles may not have license plates but what they do have is a readily visible large ID number somewhere (usually on the back) to differentiate it should the need arise.
Military vehicles usually (always?) have some sort of unique ID number stencil-painted on the body.
On the other hand I have seen numerous “normal” vehicles with US Government issue license plates, thus my original question. Most every agency of the US Government issues license plates to its vehicles including, as I found out since this post was first run, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, part of the Interior Dept.
This vehicle is now apparently privately owned since someone had a for sale sign on it, so it no longer has the gov’t plates it likely once wore, but to be driven on the road should have normal state-issued plates. In hindsight, it probably belongs (belonged?) to the Pioneer Auto Museum which was around the corner from this location and it perhaps was part of their display collection at one time.
Jim, it looks like the regulations requiring government vehicle license plates were changed/enacted sometime around 2011. I just have to assume they were different in 1980. The current owner probably found that placard inside the car and mounted it.
Nice survivor .
-Nate
With a Bureau of Indian Affairs license plate, I’m wondering if it was used to transport
cadavers on the reservation to a mortuary.
I don’t think this is so much a hearse as a “first call” car. They are low-key, low-profile vehicles intended to transport a body from wherever the departed died to a mortuary. Given the vast distances on some Native American reservations, this may have been too far for the mortuaries to go, and so the transportation was handled by the BIA.
I think the sign about it being a hearse is total BS. First, it’s utterly obvious that it’s not suitable to be a hearse, as it’s too short and the lift gate is way too high. There’s no way to slide a casket or such in there. Also, I have no reason to think that providing such a service was/is in the BIA’s mission. The BIA has/does offer a cash funeral assistance benefit, but the payments go direct to the mortuary.
I’ve long learned not to take For Sale signs seriously.
Well, my thought was a body bag, not a casket, but…in the meantime, a bit more digging finds that we…I mean…us..CC…actually, you, Paul…talked about a different one of these in 2013.
Your take at the time:
“Well, it looks all too authentic to me. Who else would dress up a Concord wagon to look like a BIA hearse?”
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/cc-for-sale-1979-amc-concord-bureau-of-indian-affairs-hearse-the-most-modest-hearse-ever/
Three reasons:
I had forgotten about the very high lift over on the rear hatch on these (see attached photo). It’s not really a “wagon” but more of a long hatchback.
And I’ve learned more about what the BIA does and doesn’t do.
And finally, my usually quite good BS meter wasn’t working that day. I’ve seen so much stupid stuff on ads that I don’t take any of it for granted anymore. Blatant mistakes, wishful thinking, regurgitating something heard or mis-read, or just BS.
Then again WHY would anyone lie about that of all things? Personally I would much MUCH prefer my used car to have toted as few corpses as possible. Ideally zero. I don’t see it as any kind of value-add.
A company I worked for in 1980 had a fleet of 3 basic Concords with the 258 6. Mine was blue. Not very comfortable. Once when bringing it in for service, got a Concord Limited wagon as a loaner. Much more comfortable, even a better ride.
I’ve imagined MPs with a dog and a Concord Wagon.
“So are you going to pick me up and put me in there, or do I go back about 50 feet and get a running start?