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Page B5
JANUARY 2015
FUNERAL HOME & CEMETERY NEWS
S ec t i on B
CLEVELAND,OH—
Have
you noticed how the seat-
ing on airlines has changed
over the past years? In their
quest to squeeze out every
inch of available space, the
airlines have reduced the
amount of “passenger com-
fort room” in order to add
additional seating. As both
the seat pitch and legroom
decrease, the ones who ul-
timately suffer are the pas-
sengers who are paying for
the right to be transported.
It seems as if everything as-
sociated with transporta-
tion is shrinking.
The same thing is hap-
pening in the automo-
tive sector. In recent years,
as automobile compa-
nies worked hard to im-
prove the gas mileage of
their cars, what suffered
most was the overall size of
the vehicles, especially the
shrinking interior room.
The funeral home’s roll-
ing stock was not spared in
this shift, as the big funeral
limousines no longer seem
“big”. With the ever in-
creasing waistline of Amer-
icans, funeral directors re-
alized they had a challenge
in meeting the “passenger
comfort” needs of their
families.
This trend did not go un-
noticed by
Bob Mazza-
rella
of
American Coach
Sales.
Mazzarella believed
that with the downsizing
of the current limousine
styles, there was a growing
need for a larger capacity
vehicle. Mazzarella and his
team made inquiries with
his customers to confirm
his suspicions and then did
research on the automotive
companies to identify what
manufacturer might have a
solution.
Mazzarella soon found his
answer with
Mercedes
and
its
Sprinter Limousine.
This
limousine offers the quality
and luxury associated with
the Mercedes brand along
with unmatched versatility
for Mazzarella’s livery oper-
ation. Many of the funeral
American Coach Sales Responds to the Changing Funeral Vehicle Landscape
Mercedes Sprinter
Mercedes Sprinter Interior
homes served by the Amer-
ican Limo Service opera-
tion have adopted it as the
vehicle of choice to accom-
modate large families.
In addition, many of
the funeral homes that
have purchased the Mer-
cedes Sprinter from Amer-
ican Coach Sales have re-
alized the value of serving
their families in multiple
ways with the vehicle. The
limousine can comfortably
carry 12 family members,
so it truly is a versatile vehi-
cle. Like all limousines of-
fered by American Coach
Sales, this vehicle can be
customized and built spe-
cifically to satisfy the needs
of the funeral home by col-
or, accessibility, and capac-
ity to name a few.
“The families we serve
are very pleased with the
Sprinter limousine versus
the traditional limousine,”
reports
Dan Chambers,
president of
Chambers
Funeral Home
in Cleve-
land “The Sprinter allows
for easy in and out by pas-
sengers, especially the el-
derly and physically chal-
lenged. We find that the
Sprinter Limousine has
much more dignity when
compared to the tradition-
al stretch limo.”
“The majority of our fam-
ilies that select the Sprinter
do so because of the space.
The entire family can ride
together in one vehicle
as opposed to multiple
cars,” says
Sandra Ant-
ablian,
funeral director at
Smith Corcoran Funeral
Home
in Chicago. “In ad-
dition, the Sprinter is great
when you have a parking
issue at a church. Families
meet at the funeral home
and leave their cars there
and ride in the Sprinter to
church. If you average two
people in a car, this frees
up six parking spaces for
their guests.”
American Coach Sales got
its start in the livery busi-
ness in 1948 as
American
Limo Service
by Mazza-
rella’s father. Over the next
twenty years, the company
grew into a full service liv-
ery and ambulance com-
pany. In the fall of 1969,
the company began to sell
hearses and limousines un-
der the name, American
Coach Sales. Since that
time, the company has
continued to grow as Bob
and his team put customer
service in the forefront.
American Coach Sales
continues to serve funer-
al directors and livery pro-
fessionals as the Midwest
dealer for the traditional
line of limousines offered
by
Eagle Coach Compa-
ny.
In addition to brand
new vehicles, American
Coach Sales also has a vast
inventory of pre-owned
limousines, hearses, first
call cars and specialty ve-
hicles like the Mercedes
Sprinter. In addition, they
are able to offer leasing and