Superior Coach Company
Encyclopedia
Superior Coach was once a school bus
body and professional car
manufacturer, but today it focuses on building hearse
s and is located in Lima
in Allen County, Ohio
.
, a small town 30 miles outside Cleveland
.
By June 1912, the company was awarded a lucrative contract with the United States Post Office. The first order called for 11 trucks; the following for 20 trucks, for a total of 31 trucks. "This is very significant of the practical efficiency of this most advanced commercial car." The post office had experimented for two years "with practically every truck made." They tried not only all the leading American trucks but the foreign trucks as well. The test resulted in the Garford being awarded first honors. The Garford proved to be the most practical truck under all conditions.
, where it occupied a new plant housing a large manufacturing facility and administrative offices. The company diversified, introducing a line of hearse and ambulance bodies (known as professional car
s and becoming a major producer of school bus
bodies for the U.S. and Canada as well as export markets. For its professional-car platforms, Superior signed an agreement with Studebaker, thus gaining instant access to some 3000 dealers and Studebaker's chassis engineering. The company saw continuing success for several years and, on the strength of this arrangement, rose to a prominent position in the professional-car business; by 1930 Superior and Studebaker had the only complete line of professional cars in the North American market. In 1938, having achieved success and having established a dealer network of its own, Superior left the partnership with Studebaker and began building bodies on General Motors platforms.
, 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. School bus bodies were built primarily on Chevrolet/GM, Dodge, Ford, and International Harvester truck chassis. In 1951 the Lima facility was expanded and a new facility in Kosciusko, Mississippi
was dedicated.
-based Sheller-Globe Corporation
. The 1977 model year saw a major downsizing in the automobile chassis used for the professional car business. The ambulance sector switched to larger vehicles based upon van, cutaway van chassis
, and truck chassis. The watershed year of 1977 also brought new Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards-(FMVSS) for school buses built after April 1, which increased both costs and engineering challenges. In addition to higher costs, at the same time, a downturn in North American school bus purchase volumes began as the children of the Baby Boom
completed their elementary and secondary educations.
By 1980, Superior was one of the "Big Six" school bus body manufacturing companies in the United States, competing with Blue Bird Body Company, Carpenter Body Company
, Thomas Built Buses, Inc., Ward Body Company
, and Wayne Corporation
, as well as Gillig Corporation and Crown Coach Corporation
(manufacturers which traded primarily on the West Coast). Bidding competition for reduced volumes became devastating to profits and even liquidity. In 1979, Ward declared bankruptcy, reorganizing as AmTran
the following year which later became IC Bus.
Faced with these challenges, industry over-capacity among school bus manufacturers, and the loss of ambulance business in the professional car sector, Sheller-Globe Corporation liquidated its Superior-related investments in late 1980, and portions of its assets were sold.
remained one of the two worst bus accidents in U.S. history. The bus had been built only 9 days before the 1977 FMVSS standards would have required additional collision protection of the fuel tank. Although no legal determination of product liability
was ever made, Sheller-Globe and Ford Motor Company
each contributed substantially to the settlement funds for those injured and the families of those who were killed.
The accident and the legal battle afterward were recounted in a 1994 book by James S. Kuen. Reckless Disregard: Corporate Greed, Government Indifference, and the Kentucky School Bus Crash was published by Simon & Schuster of New York City
. (ISBN 0-671-70533-4)
, a new small business based in Lima organized by 3 former employees, resumed production of the smallest Superior school buses, beginning with a workforce of 16 persons. The small business of Mid Bus grew successfully, and after a move to a much larger facility at Bluffton, Ohio
, was acquired by Collins Industries
in 1998.
business of Superior was sold to Tom Earnhart. Later that year, it was merged with the largest competitor, The S&S Coach Company. This formed a new company, S&S/Superior of Ohio, to oversee the further development of the two businesses. Manufacturing operations were consolidated at Superior's plant in Lima, which had been expanded 30 years earlier.
As of 2007, Earnhart's venture continues to operate as a portion of Accubuilt, Inc., using the Superior Coach trade name for its line of funeral cars and specialty vehicles. Accubuilt's 200000 square feet (18,580.6 m²) flagship facility is also the exclusive production plant for the W.P. Chrysler Executive Series 300, a longer wheelbase
version of the Chrysler 300
.
Accubuilt's Limousine Division also operates a facility in Springfield, Missouri
that manufactures limousine
s with wheelbase extensions of up to 130 inches (330.2 cm).
Type C (Pioneer);
Type D (SuperCruiser)
School bus
A school bus is a type of bus designed and manufactured for student transport: carrying children and teenagers to and from school and school events...
body and professional car
Professional car
A professional car in modern times is an automobile that has been modified with extensive coachwork for service in livery transportation or in funeral home operations...
manufacturer, but today it focuses on building hearse
Hearse
A hearse is a funerary vehicle used to carry a coffin from a church or funeral home to a cemetery. In the funeral trade, hearses are often called funeral coaches.-History:...
s and is located in Lima
Lima, Ohio
Lima is a city in and the county seat of Allen County, Ohio, United States. The municipality is located in northwestern Ohio along Interstate 75 approximately north of Dayton and south-southwest of Toledo....
in Allen County, Ohio
Allen County, Ohio
Allen County is a county located in the U.S. state of Ohio. Its population was 106,331 as of the 2010 census. It is included in the Lima, Ohio Metropolitan Statistical Area as well as the Lima–Van Wert–Wapakoneta Combined Statistical Area....
.
History
Garford Motor Truck Company
In 1909, the Garford Motor Truck Company was established in Elyria, OhioElyria, Ohio
-Community:Elyria has an extensive, although financially burdened, community food pantry and "Hot Meals" program administered through the Second Harvest Food Bank and several churches Elyria is served by Elyria Memorial Hospital.-Recreation and parks:...
, a small town 30 miles outside Cleveland
Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...
.
By June 1912, the company was awarded a lucrative contract with the United States Post Office. The first order called for 11 trucks; the following for 20 trucks, for a total of 31 trucks. "This is very significant of the practical efficiency of this most advanced commercial car." The post office had experimented for two years "with practically every truck made." They tried not only all the leading American trucks but the foreign trucks as well. The test resulted in the Garford being awarded first honors. The Garford proved to be the most practical truck under all conditions.
Superior Body Company
In 1925, the company changed its name to the Superior Body Company and moved its operations to Lima, OhioLima, Ohio
Lima is a city in and the county seat of Allen County, Ohio, United States. The municipality is located in northwestern Ohio along Interstate 75 approximately north of Dayton and south-southwest of Toledo....
, where it occupied a new plant housing a large manufacturing facility and administrative offices. The company diversified, introducing a line of hearse and ambulance bodies (known as professional car
Professional car
A professional car in modern times is an automobile that has been modified with extensive coachwork for service in livery transportation or in funeral home operations...
s and becoming a major producer of school bus
School bus
A school bus is a type of bus designed and manufactured for student transport: carrying children and teenagers to and from school and school events...
bodies for the U.S. and Canada as well as export markets. For its professional-car platforms, Superior signed an agreement with Studebaker, thus gaining instant access to some 3000 dealers and Studebaker's chassis engineering. The company saw continuing success for several years and, on the strength of this arrangement, rose to a prominent position in the professional-car business; by 1930 Superior and Studebaker had the only complete line of professional cars in the North American market. In 1938, having achieved success and having established a dealer network of its own, Superior left the partnership with Studebaker and began building bodies on General Motors platforms.
Superior Coach Company
The company changed its name to Superior Coach Company in 1940. And the years that followed saw hearses styled on CadillacCadillac
Cadillac is an American luxury vehicle marque owned by General Motors . Cadillac vehicles are sold in over 50 countries and territories, but mostly in North America. Cadillac is currently the second oldest American automobile manufacturer behind fellow GM marque Buick and is among the oldest...
, LaSalle and Pontiac
Pontiac
Pontiac was an automobile brand that was established in 1926 as a companion make for General Motors' Oakland. Quickly overtaking its parent in popularity, it supplanted the Oakland brand entirely by 1933 and, for most of its life, became a companion make for Chevrolet. Pontiac was sold in the...
chassis. By 1949, the company had added Chrysler
Chrysler (division)
Chrysler is the flagship brand of Chrysler Group LLC, named after founder Walter P. Chrysler.-Overview:The Chrysler brand was originally a premium luxury position competing with Cadillac and Lincoln, owned respectively by Chrysler Group's Detroit rivals, General Motors and Ford Motor Company...
, DeSoto
DeSoto (automobile)
The DeSoto was a brand of automobile based in the United States, manufactured and marketed by the Chrysler Corporation from 1928 to 1961. The DeSoto logo featured a stylized image of Hernando de Soto...
and Dodge
Dodge
Dodge is a United States-based brand of automobiles, minivans, and sport utility vehicles, manufactured and marketed by Chrysler Group LLC in more than 60 different countries and territories worldwide....
chassis to its funeral coach line, offering customers a smaller investment and lower overhead. School bus bodies were built primarily on Chevrolet/GM, Dodge, Ford, and International Harvester truck chassis. In 1951 the Lima facility was expanded and a new facility in Kosciusko, Mississippi
Kosciusko, Mississippi
Kosciusko is a city in Attala County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 7,372 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Attala County....
was dedicated.
Sheller-Globe Corporation
In 1969, Superior Coach Company was acquired by an industrial conglomerate and auto parts maker, the Toledo, OhioToledo, Ohio
Toledo is the fourth most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Lucas County. Toledo is in northwest Ohio, on the western end of Lake Erie, and borders the State of Michigan...
-based Sheller-Globe Corporation
Sheller-Globe Corporation
Sheller-Globe Corporation was a U.S. auto parts manufacturer and industrial conglomerate based in Toledo, Ohio. Formed in 1966 on a heritage of much older companies, Sheller-Globe grew through the acquisition of many other businesses before it was acquired by United Technologies Corporation in...
. The 1977 model year saw a major downsizing in the automobile chassis used for the professional car business. The ambulance sector switched to larger vehicles based upon van, cutaway van chassis
Cutaway van chassis
Cutaway van chassis are used by second stage manufacturers for a wide range of completed motor vehicles. Especially popular in the United States, they are usually based upon incomplete vans made by manufacturers such as Chrysler Corporation, Ford Motor Company, and General Motors which are...
, and truck chassis. The watershed year of 1977 also brought new Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards-(FMVSS) for school buses built after April 1, which increased both costs and engineering challenges. In addition to higher costs, at the same time, a downturn in North American school bus purchase volumes began as the children of the Baby Boom
Baby boom
A baby boom is any period marked by a greatly increased birth rate. This demographic phenomenon is usually ascribed within certain geographical bounds and when the number of annual births exceeds 2 per 100 women...
completed their elementary and secondary educations.
By 1980, Superior was one of the "Big Six" school bus body manufacturing companies in the United States, competing with Blue Bird Body Company, Carpenter Body Company
Carpenter Body Company
Carpenter Body Company, also known over the years as the Ralph H. Carpenter Body Company, Carpenter Body Works, Inc., Carpenter Manufacturing Company, Carpenter Industries, Inc., and Crown By Carpenter, was a bus body manufacturer based in Mitchell, Indiana, United States...
, Thomas Built Buses, Inc., Ward Body Company
AmTran
American Transportation Corporation was a builder of school buses in the United States. Founded in 1980, the company traces its roots back to Ward Body Works, which was established in 1933. AmTran was acquired by Navistar International in 1994-1995, a move that would begin a series of alignment...
, and Wayne Corporation
Wayne Corporation
Wayne Corporation was a large manufacturer of buses and other vehicles branded with the trade name "Wayne." The corporate headquarters were in Richmond, Indiana, in Wayne County, Indiana, in the United States...
, as well as Gillig Corporation and Crown Coach Corporation
Crown Coach Corporation
Crown Coach Corporation was a manufacturer of school buses and fire trucks located in southern California. Crown closed in March 1991 due to declining demand for school buses at the time.-History:Crown Coach Corporation was founded by Don M...
(manufacturers which traded primarily on the West Coast). Bidding competition for reduced volumes became devastating to profits and even liquidity. In 1979, Ward declared bankruptcy, reorganizing as AmTran
AmTran
American Transportation Corporation was a builder of school buses in the United States. Founded in 1980, the company traces its roots back to Ward Body Works, which was established in 1933. AmTran was acquired by Navistar International in 1994-1995, a move that would begin a series of alignment...
the following year which later became IC Bus.
Faced with these challenges, industry over-capacity among school bus manufacturers, and the loss of ambulance business in the professional car sector, Sheller-Globe Corporation liquidated its Superior-related investments in late 1980, and portions of its assets were sold.
Carrollton bus disaster
In 1988, nearly a decade after Sheller-Globe exited the school bus manufacturing business, a disastrous accident occurred with one of the Superior bus bodies it had built. As of 2010, the Carrollton bus disasterCarrollton bus disaster
The Carrollton, Kentucky bus collision was one of the deadliest bus disasters in United States history.About 11:00 p.m. EDT on Saturday May 14, 1988, Larry Mahoney, a drunk driver in a pickup truck traveling in the wrong direction on an interstate highway in a rural, unincorporated area of Carroll...
remained one of the two worst bus accidents in U.S. history. The bus had been built only 9 days before the 1977 FMVSS standards would have required additional collision protection of the fuel tank. Although no legal determination of product liability
Product liability
Product liability is the area of law in which manufacturers, distributors, suppliers, retailers, and others who make products available to the public are held responsible for the injuries those products cause...
was ever made, Sheller-Globe and Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company is an American multinational automaker based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. In addition to the Ford and Lincoln brands, Ford also owns a small stake in Mazda in Japan and Aston Martin in the UK...
each contributed substantially to the settlement funds for those injured and the families of those who were killed.
The accident and the legal battle afterward were recounted in a 1994 book by James S. Kuen. Reckless Disregard: Corporate Greed, Government Indifference, and the Kentucky School Bus Crash was published by Simon & Schuster of New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. (ISBN 0-671-70533-4)
Small businesses emerge from Superior after Sheller-Globe
After Sheller-Globe announced the closure of its Lima bus and professional car manufacturing operations in 1980, several small businesses purchased portions of the assets, and carried on successfully with several product lines.Mid Bus: Small school buses
Although large school bus manufacturing was discontinued with the 1980 model year, Mid BusMid Bus
Mid Bus was a corporation which specialized in manufacturing customized school buses. Formed in 1981 by former employees of Superior Coach Company in Lima, Ohio, it grew from a dozen employees working in a small facility in Lima to become one of the country's largest manufacturers of smaller school...
, a new small business based in Lima organized by 3 former employees, resumed production of the smallest Superior school buses, beginning with a workforce of 16 persons. The small business of Mid Bus grew successfully, and after a move to a much larger facility at Bluffton, Ohio
Bluffton, Ohio
Bluffton is a village in Allen and Hancock counties in the U.S. state of Ohio. It had a population of 3,896 at the 2000 census. Bluffton is home to Bluffton University, a four-year educational institution affiliated with Mennonite Church USA. Bluffton is served by the Bluffton general aviation...
, was acquired by Collins Industries
Collins Bus
Collins Industries is a Hutchinson, Kansas company that specializes in manufacturing of Type A school buses, and also manufactures ambulances and other special-purpose vehicles. The company was founded in 1971 and as of 1998 it was made up of four subsidiaries: Collins Bus Corporation, Wheeled...
in 1998.
Accubuilt: Professional cars
In 1981, the funeral carHearse
A hearse is a funerary vehicle used to carry a coffin from a church or funeral home to a cemetery. In the funeral trade, hearses are often called funeral coaches.-History:...
business of Superior was sold to Tom Earnhart. Later that year, it was merged with the largest competitor, The S&S Coach Company. This formed a new company, S&S/Superior of Ohio, to oversee the further development of the two businesses. Manufacturing operations were consolidated at Superior's plant in Lima, which had been expanded 30 years earlier.
As of 2007, Earnhart's venture continues to operate as a portion of Accubuilt, Inc., using the Superior Coach trade name for its line of funeral cars and specialty vehicles. Accubuilt's 200000 square feet (18,580.6 m²) flagship facility is also the exclusive production plant for the W.P. Chrysler Executive Series 300, a longer wheelbase
Wheelbase
In both road and rail vehicles, the wheelbase is the distance between the centers of the front and rear wheels.- Road :In automobiles, the wheelbase is the horizontal distance between the center of the front wheel and the center of the rear wheel...
version of the Chrysler 300
Chrysler 300
The Chrysler 300 is a full-size upscale car first shown at the 2003 New York Auto Show as a concept car. Sales in the U.S. began in the spring of 2004 as an early 2005 model year car. Designed by Ralph Gilles, the new 300 was built as a high-end sedan while the SRT-8 model was designed to be the...
.
Accubuilt's Limousine Division also operates a facility in Springfield, Missouri
Springfield, Missouri
Springfield is the third largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and the county seat of Greene County. According to the 2010 census data, the population was 159,498, an increase of 5.2% since the 2000 census. The Springfield Metropolitan Area, population 436,712, includes the counties of...
that manufactures limousine
Limousine
A limousine is a luxury sedan or saloon car, especially one with a lengthened wheelbase or driven by a chauffeur. The chassis of a limousine may have been extended by the manufacturer or by an independent coachbuilder. These are called "stretch" limousines and are traditionally black or white....
s with wheelbase extensions of up to 130 inches (330.2 cm).
Bus products
Type B (Pacemaker);- ChevroletChevroletChevrolet , also known as Chevy , is a brand of vehicle produced by General Motors Company . Founded by Louis Chevrolet and ousted GM founder William C. Durant on November 3, 1911, General Motors acquired Chevrolet in 1918...
P30 chassis
Type C (Pioneer);
- Chevrolet/GMC B-SeriesGMC B-SeriesThe Chevrolet and GMC B-Series was a Class 7 medium duty cowled chassis produced by General Motors for the school bus industry. The B-Series was introduced for the 1966 model year...
chassis - Ford B-SeriesFord B-SeriesThe Ford B-Series was a Type C bus chassis manufactured by Ford Motor Company from 1948 to 1998 and was used primarily for school bus applications...
chassis - International Harvester LoadstarInternational Harvester LoadstarLoadstar is a series of medium-duty trucks made by International Harvester from 1962 to 1979. It was primarily used for local delivery, including school buses and fire engines. It was also used extensively in the agricultural and construction industries....
chassis (1962-1978) - International Harvester S-Series "Schoolmaster"International Harvester S-Series (bus chassis)The International S-Series "Schoolmaster" was a Type C bus chassis manufactured by International Harvester, which became Navistar during its production run. It was introduced in 1979 as the replacement for the Loadstar bus chassis; it was used for both school bus and commercial bus applications...
chassis (1979-1985)
Type D (SuperCruiser)
- International HarvesterInternational HarvesterInternational Harvester Company was a United States agricultural machinery, construction equipment, vehicle, commercial truck, and household and commercial products manufacturer. In 1902, J.P...
chassis - front and rear-engine models