The awnings on the salon in the background seem to be asking for dimensions of these two Cadillacs sot and posted by Stephen Pellegrino, so here they are:
1953 (looks to be a 60 Special):
Length: 224.8″
Width: 80.2″
WB: 130″
Weight: 4520 lbs.
1958 (Series 63, not the extended deck version)
Length: 216.8″
Width: 80″
WB: 129.5″
Weight: 4850″
For comparison’s sake, here’s a shot of an extended deck ’58, which brings its length to 225.3″
Somewhat disappointed that none have the fender mounted scoops that would hint at Factory Air Conditioning.
Perhaps I am unduly influenced by a lifetime in perpetually Hot & Humid New Orleans; but HOW could someone buy a Caddy without A/C?
The ’53 would have had scoops for A/C; the scoops went away in the ’57 models when the whole A/C package was mounted up front.
My own thoughts, having grown up in a hot desert area. When A/C became available, a lot of Cadillacs were sold here with A/C. Where it was really, really hot for long periods, or in hot and humid areas, A/C caught on faster, I think.
I recall seeing several 1957 and ’58 models with fender mounted air intakes & package shelf mounted/clear tubes along the headliner A/C units here in New Orleans (in the early/mid 1960’s); perhaps they were aftermarket set ups.
Here’s a 58 limo with the fender mounted air intakes.
Perhaps the limousine was equipped with dual a/c, with the conventional under-the-hood setup for 1957-58 supplemented by a trunk-mounted system with the added air intakes?
My uncle had a ’58 Sixty Special 4 dr. H.T. with factory A/C. No scoops, no clear plastic tubes from the package shelf – everything was up front. Recall the vents were along the bottom of the windshield.
I have factory air in a 1958 series 6239E extended deck no fender scoops or tubes inside info Martyn Binbrook Canada (car is. From Atlanta)
My family moved to a town in southern Arizona in 1960. Higher altitude than Tucson so noticeably cooler. But almost no one buying a new car there would not be getting air conditioning at that point, even though in 2018 dollars it would be a well over $2,000 option. The first integrated AC was on Nash Ambassodors in 1954, and it cost $345 ($3,222 today).
According to Wikipedia:
By 1960 about 20% of all cars in the U.S. had air-conditioning, with the percentage increasing to 80% in the warm areas of the Southwest. American Motors made air conditioning standard equipment on all AMC Ambassadors starting with the 1968 model year, a first in the mass market, with a base price starting at $2,671. By 1969, 54% of domestic automobiles were equipped with air conditioning, with the feature needed not only for passenger comfort, but also to increase the car’s resale value.
The ’54 Pontiac was the first GM car to offer factory A/C with everything up front, but it wasn’t intergrated with the heater like Nash’s Weather Eye.
1969 was the tipping point for A/C for our family as well, as a new LTD that year was the first car dad bought with air. Seems like after this time all full-size cars, and many intermediates featured it.
My Uncle always got the first new Cadillac in his town. They put his order in the first day possible. Always a Deville coupe. Always off white with alternating green or brown cloth seats. Never ordered ac, but he lived in NE Ohio.
He died in 1958, I believe the looks of the 1959 Cadillac accelerated his demise. My Aunt was maybe 5 ft tall and did not drive, but in 1965 asked my Mother to teach her.The 1958 was still in the garage. First my Aunt ordered a new Cadillac Calais 2 dr in off white with a green cloth interior and no ac. . She passed her test on the first try including parallel parking. She passed away in 1985 and the Caddy had 11,000 miles.
My mother’s aunt did something like that. When her husband died in 1955 there was a new Sixty Special in the garage. Aunt Alma never drove but she kept the car serviced and ready for others to use when driving her places.
In 1963 she decided the 55 was too old and she bought a new Sixty Special, giving the 55 to her son. The difference is that she had no intention to take a drivers test. I eventually bought the 63 in late 1978 after her grandsons had driven the tar out of it in high school, but even then it only had about 80k miles on it.
1953 60 Special Height: 62.7 in
1958 Series 63 Height: 59 in
I just can’t imagine driving either car with 11″ drum brakes. The 1958 could often get up to close to 6000 lb with six people and their gear, not to mention a full tank of gas.
Truly scary.
For the reasons you describe, Jay Leno always makes a point of changing drums to discs on his vintage cars.
It’s why I don’t begrudge restomods with wider grippier tires either. Small aesthetic sacrifice if you want to drive these things along side modern traffic.
Makes a lot of sense. When I first started reading car magazines in the sixties, brakes were one thing they always criticised. If they were thought to be poor back then, how much more do they need upgrading nowadays.
By the end of the decade, the trend was ‘longer, lower, wider.’ But in the photo, the ’53 seems to be the longer, lower one.
I think 2 elements lend this impression:
1. The ’58 fins give an appearance of height & of course, flight.
2. The lack of fender skirts on this ’58. ( but 60-Specials with hulking, chromed skirts, really glue the car to the ground)
To settle it, I wonder about a comparison of ground clearance between the ’53 & ’58.
Looks about right. Americans wanted bigger cars, and the Big 3 were more than happy to oblige them. Seems silly, but hindsight is 20/20. 50 years from now people will look back at today’s modern trucks with giant cabs and tiny beds and wonder what the hell was wrong with people. It’s simply what the market wants.
I wonder if Morgan Freeman was in the driver’s seat of the black ’53 Caddy…
I hope not. Jessica Tandy’d be looking a bit awful by now, propped up in the back.
Weekend at Miss Daisy’s?
Clever photo. I’d have put money on the ’58 being appreciably longer.
Perhaps the ’53 is showing the ’58 it where it got it’s rear nailfins clipped?
I am a fan of the 58 Cadillac. The 59 gets all the love but I would take a 58 any day. Unless the one parked in front of it is my other option. Those pre-54 cars were bigger than they look.
Love the ’58 versus a ’59. And, to my eye the passage of time has been kind to all the shorter body style Cadillacs…relatively athletic looking (hard to say that about a Caddy!) compared to the overhang on that extended version.
In 1958, Cadillac sold 13,335 of the Series 62 short deck sedans, and 20,952 extended decks. This means that most customers thought 216.8″ WASN’T LONG ENOUGH and spent $188 more to get 8.5″ more length!
Under-hood original owner identification card from the ’58 Cadillac shown in the picture above:
Actually, surprised they sold that many of the short decks…they may be my favorite, but can’t imagine a lot of circa 1958 Cadillac customers walking around the showroom saying “let’s get the short one honey, it’s so much less pretentious!”
Misterl discovered that upscale buyers were more than happy to spend more for more sheet metal length, even without additional interior space they might enjoy. First Cadillac, then Olds 98 and Pontiac Star Chief, finally Electra 225. Long trunks sold, pure and simple. They might have been functionally useless on a daily basis but they served their true purpose: impressing one’s contemporaries that one had made it.
“They might have been functionally useless on a daily basis but they served their true purpose: impressing one’s contemporaries that one had made it.”
The same thing today’s tricked out Ford Leviathans, Ram’s Normandies and Chevy’s Titanics do now.
It’s sad when your truck payment is more than your house payment, isn’t it?
How about when your cable TV payments are higher than your car payments? I can live without the cable because there is never anything good to watch, but I can`t live without my car.
At least in that era, it was the “pleasant in sanity of innocent excess”
Paul: is the black 58 considered the “standard” Sedan DeVille and the grey one the “optional” short deck? I recall the 58 Sixty Special sedan with fender skirts, I assume that was even longer than the regular DeVille?
I truly miss the days when Cadillac was the King!!! The Standard of the world!! The car most Americans aspired to own!!!
The 58 Fleetwood was the same length as the standard Caddy…225 inches. The skirts and stainless side trim made it appear longer. The short deck sedan, 215 inches had to be ordered. 225 was the standard length of the sedan whether series 62 or sedan deville keep cruisin Jay H