Superior Coach Company
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Superior Coach was a
coachbuilder A coachbuilder or body-maker is someone who manufactures bodies for passenger-carrying vehicles.Construction has always been a skilled trade requiring a relatively lightweight product with sufficient strength. The manufacture of necessarily ...
in the
American automotive industry The automotive industry in the United States began in the 1890s and, as a result of the size of the domestic market and the use of mass production, rapidly evolved into the largest in the world. The United States was the first country in the w ...
. Founded in 1909 as the Garford Motor Truck Company, Superior is best known for constructing bodies for professional cars (
hearse A hearse is a large vehicle, originally a horse carriage but later with the introduction of motor vehicles, a car, used to carry the body of a deceased person in a coffin at a funeral, wake, or memorial service. They range from deliberately ano ...
s) and
school bus A school bus is any type of bus owned, leased, contracted to, or operated by a school or school district. It is regularly used to transport students to and from school or school-related activities, but not including a charter bus or transit bus ...
es. Following major downturns in both segments in the late 1970s, Superior was liquidated by its parent company in 1980. From 1925 to 1980, the company was based in
Lima, Ohio Lima ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Allen County, Ohio, United States. The municipality is located in northwest Ohio along Interstate 75 in Ohio, Interstate 75 approximately north of Dayton, Ohio, Dayton, southwest of Toledo, Ohio, T ...
. After its 1980 closure, the Superior name would live on through several other companies. The manufacturing of school buses would play a part of the formation of
Mid 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 ...
(acquired by Collins Industries in 2008) and the professional car operations would remain in Lima as part of Accubuilt.


Garford Motor Truck Company (1909-1925)

In 1909, the Garford Motor Truck Company was established in
Elyria, Ohio Elyria ( ) is a city in the Greater Cleveland metropolitan statistical area and the county seat of Lorain County, Ohio, United States, located at the forks of the Black River in Northeast Ohio 23 miles southwest of Cleveland. As of the 2020 cen ...
, a small town 30 miles outside
Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...
. By June 1912, the company was awarded a lucrative contract with the
United States Post Office The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or Postal Service, is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal service in the U. ...
. 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. File:Garford-trucks 1912-09 logo.jpg, 1912 Garford Motor Truck logo File:Garford-truck 1912.jpg, 1912 Garford COE truck File:Garford 4x2 1916.jpg, 1916 Garford 5-ton truck File:Garford-Putilov Naval Uralets.jpg, Russian Garford-Putilov armored car used in WWI (derived from Garford truck) File:1924 Garford fire truck (5983522515).jpg, 1924 Garford fire truck


Superior Body Company (1925-1940)

During the early 1920s, Garford moved its operations to
Lima, Ohio Lima ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Allen County, Ohio, United States. The municipality is located in northwest Ohio along Interstate 75 in Ohio, Interstate 75 approximately north of Dayton, Ohio, Dayton, southwest of Toledo, Ohio, T ...
. In 1925, Garford Motor Truck changed its name to the Superior Body Company and opened 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 cars) and becoming a major producer of
school bus A school bus is any type of bus owned, leased, contracted to, or operated by a school or school district. It is regularly used to transport students to and from school or school-related activities, but not including a charter bus or transit bus ...
bodies for the U.S. and Canada, as well as export markets. For its professional-car platforms, Superior signed an agreement with
Studebaker Studebaker was an American wagon and automobile manufacturer based in South Bend, Indiana, with a building at 1600 Broadway, Times Square, Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Founded in 1852 and incorporated in 1868 as the Studebaker Brothers M ...
, thus gaining instant access to some 3000 dealers and Studebaker's chassis engineering. The company had 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 The General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is the largest automaker in the United States and ...
platforms.


Superior Coach Company (1940-1980)

In 1940 the company changed its name again, to Superior Coach Company. School bus bodies were built primarily on Chevrolet/GMC, Dodge, Ford, and
International Harvester The International Harvester Company (often abbreviated by IHC, IH, or simply International ( colloq.)) was an American manufacturer of agricultural and construction equipment, automobiles, commercial trucks, lawn and garden products, household e ...
truck chassis. In 1951 the Lima facility was expanded and a new facility in
Kosciusko, Mississippi Kosciusko is a city in Attala County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 7,402 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Attala County. History Shortly before the War of 1812, David Choate, a French trader along with his wife, a Ch ...
was opened.


Sheller-Globe Corporation

In 1969 Superior was acquired by the
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 (and divesture) of many other business ...
, an industrial conglomerate and auto parts maker based in
Toledo, Ohio Toledo ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Lucas County, Ohio, United States. A major Midwestern United States port city, Toledo is the fourth-most populous city in the state of Ohio, after Columbus, Cleveland, and Cincinnati, and according ...
. The 1977 model year saw a major downsizing in the Cadillac automobile chassis used for the professional car business. In addition to being smaller, Cadillac's commercial chassis was significantly more expensive. Superior and other ambulance and funeral car manufacturers had to design new bodies and retool their factories, resulting in much higher consumer costs. The ambulance sector switched to larger van-based vehicles or and truck chassis. 1977 also brought new
Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards The Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) are U.S. federal vehicle regulations specifying design, construction, performance, and durability requirements for motor vehicles and regulated automobile safety-related components, systems, and d ...
for school buses built after 1 April, which increased both costs and engineering challenges. At the same time, a downturn in North American school bus purchase volumes began as the children of the
Baby Boom A baby boom is a period marked by a significant increase of birth rate. This demographic phenomenon is usually ascribed within certain geographical bounds of defined national and cultural populations. People born during these periods are often ca ...
generation completed their elementary and secondary educations. By 1980, Superior was one of the six major school bus body manufacturing companies in the United States, competing with
Blue Bird The bluebirds are a North American group of medium-sized, mostly insectivorous or omnivorous birds in the order of Passerines in the genus ''Sialia'' of the thrush family (Turdidae). Bluebirds are one of the few thrush genera in the Americas. B ...
,
Carpenter Carpentry is a skilled trade and a craft in which the primary work performed is the cutting, shaping and installation of building materials during the construction of buildings, Shipbuilding, ships, timber bridges, concrete formwork, etc. ...
,
Thomas Thomas may refer to: People * List of people with given name Thomas * Thomas (name) * Thomas (surname) * Saint Thomas (disambiguation) * Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church * Thomas the Ap ...
,
Ward Ward may refer to: Division or unit * Hospital ward, a hospital division, floor, or room set aside for a particular class or group of patients, for example the psychiatric ward * Prison ward, a division of a penal institution such as a pris ...
, and Wayne, as well as
Gillig Gillig (formerly Gillig Brothers) is an American designer and manufacturer of buses. The company headquarters, along with its manufacturing operations, is located in Livermore, California (in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area) ...
and
Crown A crown is a traditional form of head adornment, or hat, worn by monarchs as a symbol of their power and dignity. A crown is often, by extension, a symbol of the monarch's government or items endorsed by it. The word itself is used, partic ...
whose buses were primarily sold on the West Coast. Bidding competition for reduced volumes became devastating to profits and even liquidity; in 1979, Ward declared bankruptcy, reorganizing as
AmTran American Transportation Corporation (better known as AmTran) was an American manufacturer of school bus bodies. Tracing its roots to Ward Body Works (established in 1933), AmTran was formed in 1980 following the 1979 bankruptcy of Ward to cont ...
the following year, which later became
IC Bus IC Bus (originally IC Corporation) is an American bus manufacturer. Headquartered in Lisle, Illinois, IC is a wholly owned subsidiary of Navistar International. Established in 2002 by Navistar through the reorganization of subsidiary manufact ...
. Faced with these challenges, school bus industry overcapacity, the loss of ambulance business in the professional car sector, and decreased sales of funeral coaches due to higher production and sales costs, Sheller-Globe liquidated its Superior Coach-related investments in late 1980, and portions of its assets were sold.


Post-liquidation

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.


School buses

Although large school bus manufacturing was discontinued with the 1980 model year,
Mid 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 ...
—a new small business based in Lima organized by three former employees—resumed production of the smallest Superior school buses, beginning with a workforce of seven people. The business grew successfully, and after a move to a much larger facility at
Bluffton, Ohio Bluffton, originally known as Shannon, is a village (United States)#Ohio, village in Allen County, Ohio, Allen and Hancock County, Ohio, Hancock counties in the U.S. state of Ohio. The population was 4,125 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 ce ...
, it was acquired by
Collins Industries Collins Industries is an American bus manufacturer headquartered in Hutchinson, Kansas. Best known for production of yellow school buses, the company produces buses for multiple applications; all bodies designed by the company have been produced ...
in 1998.


Professional cars


Superior Coaches


CarCraft


Accubuilt

In 1981 Superior's
hearse A hearse is a large vehicle, originally a horse carriage but later with the introduction of motor vehicles, a car, used to carry the body of a deceased person in a coffin at a funeral, wake, or memorial service. They range from deliberately ano ...
business was sold to Tom Earnhart. Later that year, it was merged with the largest competitor, the S&S Coach Company.Accubuilt History, undated
, retrieved on 18 February 2009.
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, S&S/Superior now operates as a division of Accubuilt, using the Superior Coach trade name for its line of funeral cars and specialty vehicles. Accubuilt's flagship facility was also the exclusive production plant for the W.P. Chrysler Executive Series 300, a longer-
wheelbase In both road and rail vehicles, the wheelbase is the horizontal distance between the centers of the front and rear wheels. For road vehicles with more than two axles (e.g. some trucks), the wheelbase is the distance between the steering (front ...
version of the
Chrysler 300 The Chrysler 300 is a full-size luxury car manufactured and marketed by Stellantis North America (and its predecessor companies) as a four-door sedan and station wagon in its first generation (model years 2005–2010) and solely as a four-do ...
. In late 2017 Accubuilt was purchased by Sean Myers, owner of Armbruster Stageway, and was once again named S&S/Superior Coach Company. Accubuilt's Limousine Division also operates a facility in
Springfield, Missouri Springfield is the third largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and the county seat of Greene County. The city's population was 169,176 at the 2020 census. It is the principal city of the Springfield metropolitan area, which had an estimat ...
, that manufactures
limousine A limousine ( or ), or limo () for short, is a large, chauffeur-driven luxury vehicle with a partition between the driver compartment and the passenger compartment. A very long wheelbase luxury sedan (with more than four doors) driven by a prof ...
s with wheelbase extensions up to .


Superior Credit Union

The
credit union A credit union, a type of financial institution similar to a commercial bank, is a member-owned nonprofit organization, nonprofit financial cooperative. Credit unions generally provide services to members similar to retail banks, including depo ...
for the Superior Coach Company's employees, now known as Superior Credit Union, grew in the decades following the company's closure to become the fourth largest credit union in Ohio.


Bus products

;Van based; *Ford Econoline *Chevrolet/GMC G30 *Dodge ;Type A (Partner); :*
Ford Ford commonly refers to: * Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford * Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river Ford may also refer to: Ford Motor Company * Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company * Ford F ...
Econoline chassis The partner only lasted for one year. ;Type B (Pacemaker); :*
Chevrolet Chevrolet ( ), colloquially referred to as Chevy and formally the Chevrolet Motor Division of General Motors Company, is an American automobile division of the American manufacturer General Motors (GM). Louis Chevrolet (1878–1941) and ous ...
P30 chassis ;Type C (Pioneer); :* Chevrolet/ GMC B-Series chassis :*
Ford B-Series The Ford B series is a bus chassis that was manufactured by the Ford Motor Company. Produced across six generations from 1948 to 1998, the B series was a variant of the medium-duty Ford F series. As a cowled-chassis design, the B series was a b ...
chassis :*
International Harvester Loadstar The International Loadstar is a series of trucks that were produced by International Harvester from 1962 to 1978. The first product line of the company developed specifically as a medium-duty truck, the Loadstar was slotted between C-Line picku ...
chassis (1962–1978) :* International Harvester S-series "Schoolmaster" chassis (1979–1985) ;Type D (SuperCruiser) :*
International Harvester The International Harvester Company (often abbreviated by IHC, IH, or simply International ( colloq.)) was an American manufacturer of agricultural and construction equipment, automobiles, commercial trucks, lawn and garden products, household e ...
chassis :* front and rear-engine models


Carrollton bus disaster

In 1988, nearly a decade after Sheller-Globe exited the school bus manufacturing business, a Superior bus was involved in a disastrous crash. The bus had been built only 9 days before the more stringent 1977 Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards would have required better collision protection of the fuel tank, a wider central aisle for better access to the emergency door, and other safety improvements. Although no legal determination of
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. Although the word "product" has br ...
was ever made, Sheller-Globe and
Ford Motor Company Ford Motor Company (commonly known as Ford) is an American multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. The company sells automobi ...
each contributed substantially to the settlement funds for those injured and the families of those who were killed. As of 2010, the
Carrollton bus disaster The Carrollton bus collision occurred on May 14, 1988, on Interstate 71 in unincorporated Carroll County, Kentucky. The collision involved a former school bus in use by a church youth group and a pickup truck driven by an alcohol-impaired drive ...
remained one of the two worst bus accidents in U.S. history. 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, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
. ()


See also

*
Arthur Garford Arthur Lovett Garford (August 4, 1858 – January 23, 1933) was a noted industrialist, inventor, and politician. Today, Garford's home serves as the Hickories Museum and home of the Lorain County Historical Society. Biography Garford was born o ...
* Garford-Putilov Armoured Car *
Studebaker-Garford Studebaker-Garford was an automobile produced and distributed jointly by the Garford Company of Elyria, Ohio, and the Studebaker Corporation of South Bend, Indiana, from 1904 through 1911. During its production, the car was sold as a Studebak ...


References


Fundinguniverse.com: United Technologies Automotive Inc Company History


External links

*
Superior Coach Company website
– ''history''

– ''history'' {{North American bus builders Coachbuilders of the United States Defunct motor vehicle manufacturers of the United States Defunct bus manufacturers of the United States School bus manufacturers Motor vehicle manufacturers based in Ohio Lima, Ohio Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1909 Manufacturing companies disestablished in 1980 1909 establishments in Ohio 1980 disestablishments in Ohio Defunct truck manufacturers of the United States Defunct manufacturing companies based in Ohio