Driving along the flat paddocks of Hauraki, in between herds of friesians and lumbering milk tankers, be prepared for a disconcerting sight. Parked up outside a milk shed halfway between Paeroa and Tahuna is farm assistant Dawn Ranui's jet black 1999 hearse.

Imported from Japan by a Hamilton car dealer, Ranui, 24, paid $20,000 for the Toyota Crown Super Deluxe euphemistically referred to as a 'transfer vehicle.”

The vehicle is in such good condition one would be forgiven for thinking Ranui's hearse still makes the occasional trip to the cemetery.

Outfitted with peony patterned pewter velour, timber inlays and discreet lace privacy curtains the car which only has 35,000km – to and from the cemetery – on its clock, has become Ranui's venerable 'daily.”

Running errands, like going into town for groceries, has become a spectacle, laughs Ranui.

'I turn heads everywhere I go. All the time. Sometimes people even bow their heads as I roll by.”

It was love at first sight for Ranui, who saw the unconventional car on the lot of Hamilton car dealership Just4U autos six months ago.

'I couldn't look past it.”

Although the car has a look all of its own, Ranui says that buying it was also a matter of practicality.

'I like the station wagon look – it's practical, stylish and sort of suits my aesthetic. I was looking for a car and this popped up. As soon as I saw it I couldn't look past it. I knew I had to have it.”

The tradition of Japanese funerary cars is storied. Known as miyagata, some designs feature ornate Shinto shrines affixed to the rear of the vehicle.

While Ranui's hearse is no miyagata, it is replete with features envisaged for the Japanese market.

The length of the coffin compartment, for instance, is shorter than one seen in a Kiwi counterpart – owing to the fact that Japanese people are on average slightly shorter than New Zealanders.

Devoid of personality, modern cars often appear as if they were copied and pasted from the same generic set of blueprints.

Not so with Ranui's hearse.

Chrome is used liberally on the hubcaps embossed with the car's namesake crowns; an elegant silver cheatline runs the length of the body work tracing the car's pressed steel panels, and role defining landau bars round out the car, which is equally at home traversing the peaty plains of Paeroa as it is on the asphalt of Japanese metropolises.

Purring away under the hood is a 2.5L straight six engine. Ranui says although 'it's a bit of a gas guzzler”, her hearse makes for a comfortable ride.

'I just keep going 80kph. I feel like that's what the car likes... It's beautiful, such a nice car to drive.”

Ranui is the car's first New Zealand owner and would 'absolutely” recommend a hearse to those looking for a car that will cut a dash while inadvertently keeping you safe.

'If you want to be safe on the road I actually recommend a hearse because of the way other drivers react.”

Ranui says that drivers who usually take a gung-ho approach to the road rules are brought into line when they come up on her hearse on the road.

'What I find the most amazing thing about driving this is the behaviour of the drivers behind me. Some of them will come up real quick – I like to cruise in this as if there were a dead body in the back – they just stay far back, they don't even bother passing. Respect.”

Given the shape of the car, Ranui is considering converting the vehicle into camper.

'You could use it for camping. Rip out all the rollers, put a mattress in the back. Zhuzh it up a bit”

For Ranui though, the first priority is a new head unit. And the first song?

'Probably something from Lamb of God,” she smiles.

-Jonah Franke/Stuff.