Tony Karsnia - Deceased - 1971-2020
September 12, 1971 - November 2, 2020
I didn't want to hijack Attila's thread in the Technical Section regarding commercial glass hearses, so I decided to start a new thread here to discuss a seldom-seen commercial glass car that was built in the mid-90s.
In 1995, S&S and Superior were offering commercial glass cars S&S with the traditional, squared-off look of their Masterpiece and Victoria hearses and the same style on the Lincoln Park Hill and Park Lane hearses. Superior offered aerodynamic commercial glass on their line of Sovereign and Crown Sovereign hearses.
Over in Norwalk, Ohio at CCE, Eureka and Miller-Meteor hearses were built as standard glass cars only for 1993 and 1994. Then, in 1995, commercial glass cars were designed under both nameplates: The Miller-Meteor Olympian and the Eureka Monticello, which were built on the rear-wheel-drive Cadillac Fleetwood chassis. I was selling Eurekas and Miller-Meteors at the time and I remember the news coming down the pike about the new, larger models. If my recollections are correct, the Olympian and Monticello came out later in 1995, as they weren't even listed in the brochures for that year.
These cars joined the model lineup for 1996 and were listed in the brochures (along with the Buick Special "Builac" concept that had started out as a coprorate offering only.)
Other than the nameplates, about the only differneces between a Miller-Meteor and a Eureka in those days were (a) the style of the landau bows; Eureka had straight bows while M-M's came with the "double S" style, and (b) the rear floor hardware; M-M coaches typically had rectangular roller housings while Eurekas used the "pointed-end" style roller housings.
Therefore, cars tended to be badged as whatever they might need to be to fulfill an order on any given day. We sold a Miller-Meteor Olympian that was technically a rebadged Eureka Monticello (that exact car is now owned by PCS member Matt Mahutga.)
I've scanned most of the 1996 Miller-Meteor brochure. At an outward glance, the standard glass LeClassic and commercial glass Olympian look similar, but the Olympian's dimensions are larger all the way around and this is noticable if you are standing next to the car.
I would assume (and suspect we'll soon know for sure based on the discussion in the Technical forum) that the CCE commercial glass cars used the same aerodynamic windshield as the Superior Sovereign series.
In 1995, S&S and Superior were offering commercial glass cars S&S with the traditional, squared-off look of their Masterpiece and Victoria hearses and the same style on the Lincoln Park Hill and Park Lane hearses. Superior offered aerodynamic commercial glass on their line of Sovereign and Crown Sovereign hearses.
Over in Norwalk, Ohio at CCE, Eureka and Miller-Meteor hearses were built as standard glass cars only for 1993 and 1994. Then, in 1995, commercial glass cars were designed under both nameplates: The Miller-Meteor Olympian and the Eureka Monticello, which were built on the rear-wheel-drive Cadillac Fleetwood chassis. I was selling Eurekas and Miller-Meteors at the time and I remember the news coming down the pike about the new, larger models. If my recollections are correct, the Olympian and Monticello came out later in 1995, as they weren't even listed in the brochures for that year.
These cars joined the model lineup for 1996 and were listed in the brochures (along with the Buick Special "Builac" concept that had started out as a coprorate offering only.)
Other than the nameplates, about the only differneces between a Miller-Meteor and a Eureka in those days were (a) the style of the landau bows; Eureka had straight bows while M-M's came with the "double S" style, and (b) the rear floor hardware; M-M coaches typically had rectangular roller housings while Eurekas used the "pointed-end" style roller housings.
Therefore, cars tended to be badged as whatever they might need to be to fulfill an order on any given day. We sold a Miller-Meteor Olympian that was technically a rebadged Eureka Monticello (that exact car is now owned by PCS member Matt Mahutga.)
I've scanned most of the 1996 Miller-Meteor brochure. At an outward glance, the standard glass LeClassic and commercial glass Olympian look similar, but the Olympian's dimensions are larger all the way around and this is noticable if you are standing next to the car.
I would assume (and suspect we'll soon know for sure based on the discussion in the Technical forum) that the CCE commercial glass cars used the same aerodynamic windshield as the Superior Sovereign series.