(First Posted September 4, 2013) After finishing the repair work on my ’95 F150 yesterday, I drove up into town (pop. 1400) to fill up the gas tanks. As I crested the final hill, I immediately noticed the prow of this Big Ol’ Caddy parked across the street from the station, still exuding a commanding presence despite its road weary appearance, and definitely *not* a car I would expect to find in our small farming community.
The last of the stacked-headlight de Villes, the 1968 Cadillac could be had in one of twenty exterior paint color combinations. Incredibly, there were 147 possible interior finish combinations, with 76 cloth, 67 leather and four vinyl options. Our subject car is a rolling hat trick in white (I’m going to guess leather for the interior). Under the hood is lurking a 472 cu. in. (7.7l) V8 rated at 375 hp, which would later get bored out to 500 cu. in. (8.2l) to power the 1970 Eldorado and subsequently nearly every Cadillac through 1976.
Weighing in at 4,600lb. and at almost 225 inches long, this car cost $5,736 new ($38,500 adjusted for inflation to 2013 dollars) and is one of 18,025 de Ville convertibles produced in 1968.
Niiice
Very cool car I see em in coup’e a fair bit but not in ragtop
I once thought this bodystyle was unattractive but after owning a 68 Coupe Deville for a couple of years I think it is not only the most dependable Cadillac I ever owned but now is one of my favorite. I was 13 when I bought the car for a couple of hundred dollars. The outside was warn out but the inside was perfect. It lived out the rest of it’s life with me running across the fields of my family’s farm. The engine and transmission were bulletproof. Thanks for sharing this story, which has brought back wonderful memories.
I like 68 Cadillacs, its kind of a peak year for them, good styling all around, they diddled with the Eldorado, which made it EVEN BETTER looking than the 67, the new 472, what an engine, 375hp and 525lb ft. of torque, these cars don’t have engines, they have a standing power plant.
My grandfather bought new Cadillacs every other year or so starting in the late 50s, and had a ’68 Sedan DeVille. Switched to Lincolns sometime in the 1970s.
Believe Don Draper, as of Season 6 (1967-68) is driving a ’68 Coupe DeVille in grey.
He’s been driving a 65 Coupe, I was hoping he would get an Eldorado this season.
This was about the time that some of the early adopters started switching to Lincoln with the Mark III. The Benz would likely come around 1972-73 for someone like Don.
If he gets his job back.
SPOILER!
true through.
Sorry, I thought everyone had seen it already:(
I was thinking the same thing, there’s still time.
One of my favourite years for Cadillac. The stacked headlight treatementand forward canted grille gave the car and eager, almost sporty, visage. The simple and elegant flanks set the tone for a side treatment that would carry Cadillac through the mid-seventies.
This is the last Cadillac that really speaks to me in that classic Cadillac way. I love the way that the sharp contours of the front end play with the sunlight and shadow in these pictures.
These ’68s would really pick up their skirts and scoot. I would guess this is the fastest regular Cadillac ever, until one gets into the more modern era. The 472 was strong and un-muzzled, and the ’69 probably weighed a bit more, as Caddys always seemed to do every year….until the great downsizing.
Actually the ’69 DeVille Convert weighed in at 4590lbs, 10lbs less, looks heavier
Paul, I would be willing to bet you are exactly right. I have never had one since that would move like they will.
I think one of these could run up to around 125, maybe even a little more. They were pretty conservatively geared, for smoothness, but they can scream of the line if you stomp the gigantic gas pedal.
They don’t snap your neck, but its more like a 747 roll out, you get this sense of a massive object picking up a lot of speed.
Love the front end. Dislike the tail lights. If only I could get a ’68 with the tail lights of a ’69!
The attractive old girl is not ready for close-ups…would love to know her life story.
Your post immediately reminded me of this (yes, I realize that one is a ’67) :
“Well pumpkins, it comes down to that age-old decision: Style, or substance?”
I love the 1967-68 Cadillacs. They were really hitting all the right buttons that year, as Carmine has already mentioned. And the triple white is very sharp. Also nice to see it has the whitewalls and factory wheel covers, instead of K-Mart hub caps and (ugh) white letter tires.
What a beautiful car, especially in triple-white configuration. Is it wearing ’69-’70 wheelcovers? I’m too lazy to research but I like this style wheelcover so much better than those flat fake wire things that showed up around ’76 or so.
That edgy front end is sharp, literally and figuratively — my favorite part of the car.
68-69 hubcaps are pretty close, the 70’s a flatter, I think these are correct for the car. Not a huge fan of the “flat” style wire on a 71-76 car. They seem correct for a 77 and up car, its seems that they were on like 80% of those through the late 70’s and into the 90’s.
A very nice find, Ed! Very interesting about the price, thanks for that. Yes, there are not really many modern features etc included (mandated or otherwise) but that adjusted price today buys you nothing with the road presence this had (still has, I suppose).
My father’s pride and joy is a red ’67 DeVille that he bought in 1973 and still drives regularly. Pretty much the same car.
This is a beautiful car. I agree with others that Cadillac lost something with the front end redesign for 1969 which got rid of the stacked headlights and moved them inboard from the corners. The 69-70 front looks too much like a Lincoln.
I’m a big fan of both DeVilles and Fleetwoods but most of the models from ’67-’79 leave me cold, even though some of them come, as has been pointed out, with great power plants. I like the ’75-’76, and the ’70. Everything else, especially the ’71-’74…meh.
although the comment above that the ’69-’70s look Lincoln-esque is, I think, dead-on, they really went in for the slab sides. However, I have a twist on it, I think they look less like the ’61-’69 Lincoln than the ’75-’79 Lincoln looks like the ’69-’70 Cadillac. Maybe just me, but I see a lot of ’70 Fleetwood on a ’79 Town Car.
My father arrived home from work and announced he had purchased a new 1968 Coupe DeVille. The family hopped in his work car and headed back to the dealership to pick up our new pride and joy.
Pulling into the dealership there it was parked right out front….that rich dark brown metallic with off white padded top. To my astonishment I was allowed to drive the car home…..Mom said she wanted to watch it glide down the highway….I was living large.
I now have a 66 Coupe DeVille. I really am a fan of 66 through 68 Caddies.
Gorgeous
I am also biased towards the 67-68 Fleetwoods. To me, the styling and the interior quality took a nosedive after 1968.
I love reading Cadillac threads because of this (no personal criticism intended by what follows). There are so many conflicting opinions on the history of the quality of Cadillacs. Everybody seems to agree that they were very good cars, overall, through and including 1966.
After ’66, the deluge. Some people say that the interior began to decline in MY 1967 with the advent of more plastics, less chrome, and less class-leading technology innovations. Others claim that, plastics aside, the actual decline began in 1969 when some of the plastics became generic and they stopped (?) using any real wood. Also they say the ’69-’70 look too much like Lincolns, although I think the mid-late 70s Lincolns actually look too much like THEM (I like both). Others claim that everything was actually fine until 1971 when the ’71-’76 generation was introduced and was nothing but an overpriced Caprice. Still others say ’71-’73 was the nadir and that interior build quality improved again starting in ’74.
Then there is a huge difference of opinion on whether the ’71-’76 vs. the ’77-’79 were a step up or down in quality. Proponents for the older model say that while the downsized version maybe was better screwed together, the upholstery was cheap and shreddy compared to the last of the really big ones. And they decontented it by getting rid of the rear footrests in the Fleetwood. Then other people say the ’71-’76 was a large, rusty cannister of Jell-o and the ’77-’79 were an utter revelation in transportation and interior quality. Then, it’s invariably added that nothing was any good after ’79, ’80, ’81, ’89, ’92, or ’96, depending on who you ask and whether you’re talking about interior, exterior, engine, acceleration, place of manufacture, or popularity.
I enjoy it. I can think of no other make on this website that generates so much controversy. It’s genuinely wonderful.
(Disclaimer: The ’63 and, increasingly, the ’76 Fleetwoods are my favorite, but the only Cadillac I’ve owned was an ’87 Brougham, which had great leather, nice interior details, lots of chrome fixtures, and a quiet, but painfully underpowered engine. I have absolutely no basis for comparison between it and earlier, or later, Cadillacs, except for a ’95 Sedan DeVille I once drove which accelerated better but otherwise seemed to be made of far cheaper stuff and pitched around like a little Camry, and a CTS which, while I’m sure it does whatever GM wants it to do, is not what I think of as a Cadillac.)
Yup; it’s what make Caddy posts predictably popular here. And why we keep having them 🙂
I really enjoy it. It’s just funny how much controversy they elicit. I suppose because they are the fundamental symbol of American cars to many people.
I had a 65 Coupe Deville in midnight blue with matching leather with cloth inserts interior….one of the nicest, easiest to own, easiest to repair cars I ever owned. i wish I never sold it. Found it in a train station parking lot in 02 for $4,500 with 67k original miles. The seats had been covered in plastic…and the rugs had been replaced in the 70’s by Cadillac..it was true time capsule car…and of course the ride-where else could you drive 5 of your friends in complete Cadillac comfort??…
Orrin, the last year for real wood in the pre-1980s Cadillacs was the 1969 model. Both the 1968 and 1969 had rosewood. Oddly, the 1967 models had no wood at all.
No one immortalized the stacked headlight Cadillac better then Moe Bandy and Joe Samples. Joe’s last name isn’t Samples but auto correct insists that it is. Auto Correct Sucks big!
One of my father’s close friends pulled up to our house for a visit in his yellow ’68 Caddy convertible (I was 18 in ’68, and the car was a few months old as I recall).
He walks into the house, hands the keys to me and casually says “take it for a spin”.
After picking up my jaw from the floor, I collected my buddies and we had a grand time parading around town. I never forgot THAT surprise.