Have you ever wondered who makes the hearses that you see at hearse dealerships? Actually, there are several companies in the United States that manufacture these “last rides.” But the main company that produces about 70 percent of the Cadillac hearses you see at hearse dealerships is AccuBuilt.
Accubuilt is “The Leading Manufacturer of Specialty Vehicles,” according to the homepage on the company’s website. The company has branches in Lima, Ohio, Springfield, Missouri and Elkhart, Indiana. The main manufacturing branch, however, is in Lima.
The basic process for creating the funeral coaches you see at the hearse dealerships seems rather simple. The engineers take a luxury vehicle (most of them are Lincoln Town Cars or Cadillac Sevilles) and modify them. They dismantle everything from the dashboard to the back end and add a number of supports and other modifications that stretch the car without sacrificing safety. They then place a structured frame on the back of the vehicle to make it look like the vehicles at the hearse dealerships that we’ve all come to recognize.
Accubuilt’s Ohio plant has about 200 employees that manufacture more than 1,500 funeral coaches every year. They also produce six-door limousines that funeral homes use for transporting families. And since death is a certainty in life, they plan on staying in business and providing hearse dealerships with these funeral cars for many years to come.
