Cars at the NFDA convention

B

Bill Carlin

PCS Life Member
Here are some pics of the new 2013 hearses at the NFDA convention. Accubuilt really missed the boat on this. In my opinion, eagle seemed to have the nicest looking car
 

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Just out of curiousity what was the concensus of the funeral directors at the show,as they are the ones that must purchase and use them,good to hear some of their thoughts.Also as I am not in the profession,are they longer than before or just sleeker,if longer will some of the older homes have room in the garages????
 
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This picture shows the eagle and also the new rear door on the accubuilt along with the "extension table" of the accubuilt. The rear door operates by pusing a button under the trim on the center of the door. The door moves out and then swings to the side. The center arm that controls the door is wrapped in leather like fabric and looks like an odd arm. There is a rubber weather stripping around the entire door that will easily be torn by a removal cot or casket. The extension table is nothing more than a piece of plywood that you manually move (think of a cutting board in your kitchen) Overall, the Accubuilt was a huge dissapointment. The saleman had no idea about the cars because they also were just introduced to them. There were also no brochures to take away.

Reaction seemed to be mixed, but noone seemed to be thrilled.
 

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Oh no

Thanks for sharing the photos, Bill. I think the coachbuilders have really outdone themselves this time...and I don't mean favorably. Those Cadillac XTS hearses with the tiny windows and huge top hats look like submarines to me; I expect to see somebody peering out of the tiny side "ports" as it goes down. Not being there to see them in person, I can only gauge proportions based on the people standing by the cars and it looks to me like an average height adult would need to bend way over just to look in the windows, not to mention climbing behind the wheel.

I predict that just as the 1994-96 Cadillac Fleetwood chassis professional cars with the LT1 engine have become more collectible, so too will the 2006-2011 coaches on the Cadillac B9Q heavy-duty chassis.

Rather than one of these new XTS hearses, my money would be spent on a superb used 2006-2011 Eagle Cadillac Ultimate Elite with 1/2 crown roof and oval windows or a S&S Cadillac Masterpiece limousine-style (with formal drapes) of the same vintage.
 
Those are just stupid looking. As Ive said before, I dont understand why they dont put taller glass like in the older days. If I were to buy a new one it would defanatly be the Eagle Lincoln, they are the best looking thing out there.
 
I agree, im quite new in the funeral industry, started in 2002 but already miss the olde 1995 Masterpiece I used to drive when I became funeral director. Those agressive looking let me think they wanted to give them a "panther" look which remove the dignity of a funeral. I far prefer our 2011 Tuxedo white Masterpiece than a brand new like this.. The classy Cadillacs are gone, or they will be back I dont know,. How can you match a lead car with this big "hot wheel"?
 
As bad as the Eagle and Federal coaches are from a design perspective, the Accubuilt vehicles are far worse. My faith in the folks in Lima to produce attractive or even acceptable vehicles on this new Cadillac platfrom has been completely shattered. Accubuilt? Where is S&S? Where is Superior? These are iconic names in the professional car business. To the average funeral director, Accubuilt means nothing....less than nothing. That would be like re-nameing all Cadillacs, Chevrolets and Buicks as simply - General Motors! Completely inane. They obviously have some creative ideas but have employed Keller and Wonder as stylists. These are absolutely horrible. Perhaps it's better that they haven't sullied the old brand names (yet) by applying them to these travisties that they call professional cars. The brand equity built by the S&S name for over a century will be soiled by such ugly vehicles. A heritage of over 70 years would be flushed by applying the Superior name and logo to such absolutely horrific automobiles. Surely those at GM styling couldn't have approved these designs and are probably cringing at the sight of such monstrosities. I can't filly express my revulsion and disappointment at these vehicles from Lima. I feel fairly certain that this nation's discriminating funeral service professionals will give these cars all the attention and sales they deserve....very little or none. I just hope that they make their voices heard and that someone in Lima is listening. Unfortunately, I'm convinced from what I've seen and heard that there's little hope of that. May I be so bold as to predict the unfortunate - but obviously well deserved - demise of the storied S&S and Superior brands in the not to distant future. To bad they couldn't have died with some dignity.
 
Seems to me that the largest number of orders for these new coaches will come from the big Corporate chain funeral providers, where the "number$" guys in charge of buying don't give a damn about styling, just the bottom line.

So out with the older coaches from the homes where the directors really have no say, and in with the new tax deductible write-off coaches.:whip:

And the cycle of cost effective boring styling will continue.....
 
Keith Snyder said:
As bad as the Eagle and Federal coaches are from a design perspective, the Accubuilt vehicles are far worse. My faith in the folks in Lima to produce attractive or even acceptable vehicles on this new Cadillac platfrom has been completely shattered. Accubuilt? Where is S&S? Where is Superior? These are iconic names in the professional car business. To the average funeral director, Accubuilt means nothing....less than nothing. That would be like re-nameing all Cadillacs, Chevrolets and Buicks as simply - General Motors! Completely inane. They obviously have some creative ideas but have employed Keller and Wonder as stylists. These are absolutely horrible. Perhaps it's better that they haven't sullied the old brand names (yet) by applying them to these travisties that they call professional cars. The brand equity built by the S&S name for over a century will be soiled by such ugly vehicles. A heritage of over 70 years would be flushed by applying the Superior name and logo to such absolutely horrific automobiles. Surely those at GM styling couldn't have approved these designs and are probably cringing at the sight of such monstrosities. I can't filly express my revulsion and disappointment at these vehicles from Lima. I feel fairly certain that this nation's discriminating funeral service professionals will give these cars all the attention and sales they deserve....very little or none. I just hope that they make their voices heard and that someone in Lima is listening. Unfortunately, I'm convinced from what I've seen and heard that there's little hope of that. May I be so bold as to predict the unfortunate - but obviously well deserved - demise of the storied S&S and Superior brands in the not to distant future. To bad they couldn't have died with some dignity.
Click to expand...

Im sure the poster used the term Accubuilt because they probably had all their brands in one section. If you look at the one with the grey top it looks like its wearing Superior landau bars and the Flur-de-lis is on the sale panel.
 
I have never owned a standard glass hearse and really didn't ever want to but I am not sure how a commercial glass coach made from this chasis would look. The fluid design and flow of the roofline died when M&M closed their doors. Eagle has come the closest to a proportionate roof but it still looks like a Cadillac hauling a jon boat on top when you meet one. I am not sure of the amount of room that we are proportioned in the back with. A tricked out Escalade looks much more professional than these BUT a reconditioned hearse from the 60's or the 70's is something to think about. It would be acceptable and they worked for us once, why not again?
 
I spent some more time around the cars today. They all stated that the new Cadillac hearses are proto-types because they only got the new chassis from General Motors. They didn't have time to do everything they wanted. Accubuilt only had a Superior hearse, there isn't an S&S yet, but the only difference will be trim. Accubuilt has taken 118 orders so far in the past two days. Someone must like them. The trim on the eagle was already falling off and they stated that the windows on the production cars will be bigger. In my opinion, the Eagle was the best looking of all. White wall tires are gone, and vinyl tops are on the way out.

The Cadillac six door limos look great, but you can't get three larger people in one seat. SO they are more like cars for 6, including the driver. The lincoln 6 doors will handle 8 people.

I also had a long conversation with the professional car engineer from Cadillac. A very nice man. We talked about the design of cars and the fact that they look like european cars. He expllained that Cadillac has determined that their comsumers that will purchase the most cars want that style. The numberof traditional Cadillac buyers are fading away (think old people dying). While I really, really like the new Cadillacs, I groaned that they are not a traditional Cadillac. He asked me to name a luxery car that is the same as it was 10 years ago. While he wouldn't admit that Cadillac was working on a larger car to be intorduced in a few years, he did agree that Cadillac has not had a true "flagship" since the mid 1990's, but that may change in the future. Rumor has it that Lincoln is also working on a sedan again.

Of notice...there were not any Mercedes Benz hearses this year.
 
Bill Carlin said:
I also had a long conversation with the professional car engineer from Cadillac. A very nice man. He expllained that Cadillac has determined that their comsumers that will purchase the most cars want that style. The number of traditional Cadillac buyers are fading away (think old people dying). While I really, really like the new Cadillacs, I groaned that they are not a traditional Cadillac. he did agree that Cadillac has not had a true "flagship" since the mid 1990's, but that may change in the future. Rumor has it that Lincoln is also working on a sedan again.
Click to expand...

I wounder how they determ this if they don't offer you any other choice. he sounds like the same man at GM that determined that if you wanted a 4 door pickup you ony wanted a 5 passanger one
 
The roof line on the Eagle and Federal in person to me looked better - the Superior looked like a john boat turned upside down, not just the curvature above the windshield but the whole shape of the roof line looked poorly designed.
I did like the hard top pretty well...
It looked like there was a lot of interest in that rear door on the Superior.
 
I think all of those coaches look horrible. I am glad that we upgraded our fleet in 2011. I could not imagine buying those. I saw a couple of photos of the limos in the new Director and they are equally as bad. I think I would rather purchase a clean 2006-2011.

Jeremy
 
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