The funeral business just isn’t what it used to be, especially in a place like Eugene. Folks just don’t seem to care to spend any money on a final resting spot anymore, either scattering the ashes of their loved ones or just leaving them in an urn at home. For Mark and Jeff Musgrove, owners of several funeral homes and two cemeteries, this growing trend is an existential threat. So they’ve come up with a new idea to attract the attention of the many aging flower children: a VW bus columbarium.
There’s room for 100 aboard for the final trip to…nowhere, as the bus is firmly attached to its concrete base and lacks an engine. Price? A zaftig $995. Hmm. It might be a while before it fills up at that rate.
Another cemetery in Eugene, Sunset Hills, has offered another alternative for several years now: a bicycle hearse and natural wicker casket. But it’s not cheap: $3500.
We’ve heard that trends in the future business are looking rather grave. Getting people to finally spend money on their final celebration is becoming quite an undertaking. In fact some companies are only operating with a skeleton crew. Though a few smart operators are boning up on their studies and coming up with unique solutions – like this one.
Okay, also, the dude second from the left needs to step back further from the crematorium when it’s in operation – he’s getting a bit too tan. Especially considering that this is in Oregon.
Righteous!
May be OK for some but not for me; no sir.
That VW is too neat and clean; it doesn’t even have an engine.
I want to go like Luke Fuchs from Used Cars.
Sitting at the wheel; coins taped to my eyes (please roll up the window so the interior doesn’t get wet).
And, as Jeff says, this M**** F**** RUNS!
Thank you .
.
-Nate
Does the $995 include cremation? I suppose a ‘split-window’ bus would be extra!
Happy Motoring, Mark
No. The whole point is to be able to upsell from just basic cremation.
Burial or cremation? I don’t care…surprise me!
Instead of ‘amazing grace’ or the other music I’ve heard way too much lately, I just want them to play the music I loved at my funeral and celebration. I hope that Bus has Grateful Dead playing permanently.
Too much Magic Bus!
Not a very dignified final ride to your grave ,as the bicyclist ass is by your head .
Well maby they could turn the body around then his ass is at your feet.
Fully confirmed as I am in the belief that dead is DEAD, period, I suppose it would be consistent of me not to give a rat’s patoot what anyone does with my leftovers. Still, the Microbus columbarium just tickles me a lot. A truly hippie-era bus would be more authentic, but if you’re going to render it permanently immobile I’d hate to sacrifice one of the increasingly scarce originals, such as the one I was appointed to drive the gang all over Marin County one night because everyone else was too stoned …
All I ask is a simple Viking funeral: prop me behind the wheel of a mint Jaguar E-Type with the trunk filled with fireworks and light ‘er up. Nothing fancy.
Never really cared about what happens to me when that time comes but have had a few cars that I would have liked to given a proper send-off to.?
So for $995, they open the door on the VW, place a box with ashes inside, and close the door again?
Seems like a waste of a VW bus to me. I still want to have an aircooled Westy or Vanagon someday and do a lap of North America.
VW vans are for the living!
For some children of the ’60’s, getting baked and laying around in a VW bus with a bunch of similarly inclined strangers might be a fitting way to begin eternity.
As a cemeterian by trade, I’m just astounded by this columbarium. We like to think in terms of REALLY long term durability of monuments, that’s why we insist on bronze and/or granite. What will that VW look like in 50 years? 100 years?
While the novelty value in a hippie-dippy community like Eugene is interesting, it just seems like a bad idea.
As an aside, $995 for the columbarium niche is CHEAP.