Watch: would you be buried with your car?

The trend for unusual funerals is gaining pace, but in the UK while you might be considered to be getting creative if you ask people to wear bright colours, or play 'Always Look on the Bright Side of Life', in China one man has taken things even further: he was buried with his car. And it's far from the only unusual funeral to hit the headlines.

Unusual funerals

He's not the first person ever to be buried in their car. Sandra West, a California socialite was famously buried in the front seat of her Ferrari 40 years ago. The light blue 1965 Ferarri 250GT would be worth more than £1 million today - which is one reason why the car was buried in a crate, and covered with cement.

An unusual twist on this request was the New Jersey man who built a full size replica of a Mercedes as a gravestone for his brother in the 1970s. The brother had dreamed of owning a Mercedes, but died at 16 before getting the chance to drive one, so his brother gave him his wish in a more unusual way.
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More common

These are fairly extreme examples, but unusual funerals are becoming more common in the UK too. A study by Co-Operative Funeralcare found that 25% of people now ask mourners to wear brightly coloured clothes, while around half of all funeral directors have arranged services with even more unusual dress codes - including football shirts and fancy dress.

A survey by the National Association of Funeral Directors last year revealed that unusual requests had included a Morris dancing-themed funeral, a farmer being asked to be buried at the highest point on his land and a company director being buried at the end of his garden next to his beloved golf course.

People had also requested to be buried with specific items, including tea bags, yoghurt pots, conkers, cigarette packets and bottles of champagne.

But what do you think? Would you opt for an unusual funeral, burial or headstone? Or would you rather leave the money for your loves ones to spend? Let us know in the comments

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