'86 MM model?

Odd proportions caught my eye from the highway on last week's road trip. Exited and doubled back to shoot...just so someone here into '80s FWD coaches may relay what exactly it is. No model name on body.

I knew I had seen this specific rear window design before, and sure enough, if you turn to page 109 in Gregg Merksamer's book 'Professional Cars', there it is at the top of the page. So based on that, I'm going to hazard a guess that it was made by the same company, Jack Hardesty's Barron Corporation and their regeneration of the Miller-Meteor badge.

In a single word... UGLY!!!

they did fairly will on it till the rear door. at least they have extended the tops of the doors so it looks proportion from the side. but that after thought rear hatch. bad

That was made by Collins in Hutchinson, Kansas. Very few built as most Collins buyers opted for the RWD Cadillac. They called this the Royale.

It's a Collins. A horrid vehicle that, like most Collins coaches, was glued, screwed and scotch-taped together. I'm amazed that it has lasted this along.

I bought a new 1984 Collins Cadillac RWD from them and was very pleased with the looks, workmanship, and warranty. Picked the car up at the factory(120 miles from Dodge City) and toured the plant and met the president. That car is still in service and still looks very presentable.
The FWD car does not look a bit like mine. They did do a lousy job on the back door, as a flat piece of plywood would have looked as good.

In my travels, West FH in Benson,NC had a blue like this that the back door caught my attention too... This would have been in the mid 90's... (years, not temperatures... think temps in 50's that day....) thanks for photo

There was one of these coachs at the 2007 Miller-Meteor Reunion. Check out the Miller-Meteor Chapter website so see photo.

While these Collins FWD Cadillacs ( and Buicks as well) were nasty little cars it does give us an opportunity to compare the strategies of the main participants in the industry at the time - Collins, Eureka, Superior and S&S - from an appearance standpoint. The Collins "designers" took a unique approach without the benefit of commercial glass they incorporated a weirdly styled back door, two-piece side door window glass along with a strange belt line and extended the doors into the side of the roof. Superior and S&S offerings with commercial glass were long and unusually low - some at the time felt that they were too long and low - but at least they featured a conventional appearance - to a degree. The Eureka FWD cars looked as much as possible like their RWD predecessors and had almost as much rear compartment space as the RWD cars. They also used commerial glass all around with a significant increase in the size of the side door windows. They could have been a tad lower but, offered the best overall styling balance of any FWD coaches on the market at the time.

And when Collins is stated, Collins Miller-Meteor (or maybe Collins era Miller-Meteor) is intended? Those chrome plates above the waistline behind rear doors do say Miller-Meteor. With only 30k miles and being original, I wouldn't guess those MM plates were added later. Splitting hairs, merely trying to learn. Which is technically most correct:

a) Collins Royale
b) Collins Miller-Meteor Royale
c) Miller-Meteor by Collins Royale
d) Miller-Meteor Royale

I think I saw a similar rear door at Lowes, or the airport, oh, wait the barn. When you think of how our modern design has (progressed) there is always something someone found on the side of the road that makes you go what were they (not) thinking??? Thanks for sharing.

Atti

Answer: a. Collins Royale

Thank you, Mike

Attila Bethlenfalvy said:

And when Collins is stated, Collins Miller-Meteor (or maybe Collins era Miller-Meteor) is intended? Those chrome plates above the waistline behind rear doors do say Miller-Meteor. With only 30k miles and being original, I wouldn't guess those MM plates were added later. Splitting hairs, merely trying to learn. Which is technically most correct:

a) Collins Royale
b) Collins Miller-Meteor Royale
c) Miller-Meteor by Collins Royale
d) Miller-Meteor Royale

Click to expand...

e) Collins built Miller-Meteor Royale per Coachbuilt Cars Encyclopedia of American
Coachbuilders

Correct, I have three cases of the sales literature on these vehicles from T/N professional cars in Minneapolis that they did not use. LOL