Eerie Shores member "Kaiser" Dave Selle was temporarily hearseless due to a car trade. This situation couldn't last for long, so he began checking the CW Coach website, calling Carl to discuss various hearses. Since Dave likes unique cars, Carl mentioned that he had a prototype hearse arriving soon, built by Century.

In 1983, a Texas funeral director bought a new Buick 2-door Le Sabre sedan when his hearse broke down. He contacted Century, a Texas coach builder that had been building limousines for oil barons. Century had never built a hearse, and they suggested that they could use the Buick as a prototype hearse. That sounded good, so the Le Sabre got a complete makeover. After 20 years of use, the hearse was being retired and was shipped to Ohio as a trade-in.

Dave decided to buy it, and arranged to have the car trucked to the Accubuilt plant in Lima, Ohio, which would shorten our journey by about 100 miles. Dave and I set out on a wintry day down I-75 to pick up the car.

We finally arrived at Accubuilt, but the car hauler hadn't arrived. That gave us time to prowl around the lot and admire the new cars, and snag a few brochures in the office.

Here's one of the new Superiors. For a new car, it's rather handsome, and I like the color. You'd have to be careful, though, because red cars are ticket magnets! Accubuilt is also making specialized vans for wheelchair transport- that's one of them to the right.

Here are a couple of new Lincoln-based hearses. Dave likes the taillights.

 

As any hearse owner will tell you, "What kind of gas mileage do you get?" is one of the frequently asked questions. Well, here you go, at least for a new one. Not too bad, compared with a lot of S.U.V.'s.

 

Finally! Nice clean lines, and we like those wire wheels. It's badged "Century" for the coachworks, but it's based on a Le Sabre, not a Buick Century. The slim landau bars give it a sleek look.

 

Homeward bound! Very heavy truck traffic, 80mph+, made us decide to take back roads and avoid I-75, so it took quite a while to get back. Overall, a successful and interesting day.