Bustypeoversigt:

Superior Coach Company, Lima (USA)

Nationalitet:

Koncern: -

Firmaet grundlagt: 1915

Produktion 19??: -

Internetadresse: www.

Firmaets postadresse: Superior Coach Company, Lima, Ohio, USA

The roots of the Superior Coach Company date back to 1915 when The Garford Motor Truck Company of Elyria, Ohio, transferred its production operations to Lima, Ohio. Garford, established in 1909, manufactured heavy trucks. By 1925, with business booming, the firm required larger facilities. A new plant, which housed all manufacturing and administrative operations, was built in Lima. The firm's name was changed to The Superior Body Company.

In 1925, The Superior Body Company introduced a line of hearse and ambulance bodies. These professional cars, built on the Studebaker chassis, were contemporary in appearance and constructed to high quality standards. Later in the early '30s, after Studebaker had merged with Pierce-Arrow, Superior began producing a line of hearses on the Pierce Arrow chassis. By 1936, the company expanded its product offerings to include hearse models on a Pontiac chassis.

The company's name was changed to The Superior Coach Company in 1940. And the years that followed saw hearses styled on Cadillac, LaSalle and Pontiac chassis. By 1949, the company had added Chrysler, DeSoto and Dodge chassis to its funeral coach line, offering customers a smaller investment and lower overhead.

In 1951 the Lima facility was expanded and a new facility in Koscuisko, Miss., was dedicated. The '50s were a time of styling changes, both inside the vehicles and out. Many models were offered at this time, as well. Major redesigns came in 1957, 1965, 1971 and 1977, the year professional vehicles were dramatically downsized. During that time, the company had been purchased by Sheller-Globe Corporation which later sold its Superior Coach funeral-car business in 1981 to Tom Earnhart, an entrepreneur with strong roots in the limousine industry. Darrel Metzger, Superior's long-time funeral car and ambulance sales manager, ran the business for Mr. Earnhart and later became president.

In 1981, Mr. Earnhart acquired another funeral coach company: the Sayers & Scovill portion of the Hess & Eisenhardt Company, at which time Sayers & Scovill production was transferred to Lima.

As sales grew, the company constructed a new Lima plant in 1995 which is where Superior funeral coaches are built today on Cadillac, Lincoln and Ford chassis.

With more than 75 years in the funeral-coach business, Superior Coach has made significant contributions to the advancement of the modern hearse. Today, as we enter the third millennium, Superior is recognized as the leader in traditional styling in its design and manufacture of funeral coaches and limousines. The vehicles are still built in Lima, Ohio, but today under the Accubuilt, Inc. corporate title. This facility also manufactures quality professional vehicles for three other distinct brand names.

This history has been partially excerpted from: Superior: The Complete History, by Thomas A. McPerson, Specialty Vehicle Press, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada: 1995.