(first posted 9/23/2015) What you’re looking at behind that Ford Excursion SUV is a Cadillac Coupe DeVille from its second-most-plentiful year, 1979. With just under 122,000 coupes sold (out of 215,000 DeVilles total), it also represents the second-to-last model year where the two-door DeVille would outsell the four-door. The very next year, 1980, would be the last time this would happen through the coupe’s final year of ’93. That the ’79 Coupe DeVille achieved near-record sales that model year was even more remarkable given the arrival of the second energy crisis that spring.
Its base price of $11,728 would be the equivalent of about $38,700 in 2015 – which is roughly Lexus IS money. Standard on this Caddy would have been a 425-c.i. (7.0L) V8 churning out 180 hp. Combined with a three-speed automatic transmission, this powertrain would have been good for something like an 11-second 0-60 time and fuel economy of 14/20 mpg hwy/city as estimated by the EPA.
I would have been around Kindergarten-age when this car was new, which was also around the time I would start learning the makes and models of every car whose nameplates I could read. I’d ask Mom or Dad for help when I couldn’t quite make out the cursive ones. As a youth growing up in the factory town of Flint, Michigan, I came to associate these new-ish Coupe DeVilles, and cars like them, with a certain type and class of Genesee County citizen.
Back in ’79, there were no fewer than seven major General Motors plants humming away in the Flint area, with over 70,000 jobs employing folks living in both this area and those surrounding. Many men and women who had toiled in the factories for decades would reach their retirement when I was growing up. Though Flint’s blue-collar middle class would steadily diminish due to plant closures, suburban flight and other causes, it was still fairly sizable at that time. And for many retirees in this immediate region, one of the most popular cars of choice of the upper echelon appeared to be…the Cadillac Coupe DeVille.
Along with the same-era Olds Cutlass Supreme and Buick Electra 225, the first-wave of GM’s downsized DeVilles were cars that my young mind quickly learned to associate with upscale taste and prosperity. Another thing I remember from that period of the late-70’s / early-80’s was that there seemed to be a general lack of extraneous adornment on these cars that I’d observe in traffic. Sure, occasionally I’d see one riding on Cragars or aftermarket wires, but for the most part, the extra stuff I remember seeing on these cars was limited to maybe a pine-tree or Playboy-bunny air freshener dangling from the rearview mirror, a fuzzy steering wheel cover, or “static strips” dragging behind the rear bumper.
My next-door neighbor, Mr. Elia (whose lawn I mowed for years), had retired from Buick on Flint’s north end, if I remember correctly. He also had a downsized GM full-sized biggie not dissimilar from our subject car: a beautiful, silver, ’77 Buick LeSabre coupe that he kept in mint condition well into the late-1980’s. By that time, that car really stood out by virtue of being a large-ish, square-rigged, RWD near-luxury car in a swelling sea of anonymous, aero-shaped front-drivers.
Mr. Elia was a class act and a cool cat, and probably the oldest guy I had ever seen up to my pre-teenage years with a forearm tattoo. The Elias really were great neighbors in our middle-class neighborhood known as the East Village, and people the Dennises liked a lot. Mr. Elia was exactly the kind of retired autoworker I grew to associate with cars like our subject Coupe DeVille: from the old-school, hard-working, and deserving of enjoyment of his GM retirement in something better than a beater Colonnade.
As I was photographing this very stock-looking Caddy, which ended up parked in front of a barber shop, I was slightly wary only because of the transitional nature of this neighborhood. Also, the last thing I wanted was for some nice gentleman to end up with a messed-up haircut because he moved suddenly when he noticed some stranger on the sidewalk paying a little bit too much attention to his well-cared for ride. (There are some things a dab of Brylcreem won’t fix.) But I got my shots and went on my way, and hope the owner would appreciate these pictures.
I try to remain cognizant not to post anything too political on this entertaining and informative site. But even Paul Niedermeyer’s CC (his first) on a ’72 Coupe De Ville ponders somewhat related socio-economic-political realities. There’s something about a Cadillac that inevitably touches on so many aspects of the American experience. I’ll add that the American middle class as a whole still appears to be diminishing and unless a miracle happens, I’ll probably be underwriting insurance policies until I’m at least 70 years old. Having said that, I’d like to think several things will be true in the year 2045: that there will still be manually-operative cars, that they will be somewhat attractive to my eyes, and also that I’ll be able to afford one. But if and when I do reach the age when I’ll be able to enjoy a pension, I hope to roll in something that exudes as much style, class and élan in those days as this ’79 Coupe DeVille did on this otherwise uneventful Saturday afternoon.
Caddy photographs as taken by the author in Uptown, Chicago, Illinois.
Saturday, October 22, 2011.
General Motors Flint Assembly Plant as photographed by the author in Flint, Michigan.
Sunday, November 17, 2013.
Related reading:
Orrin’s piece on his Buick Electra 225: My Curbside Classic: 1977 Buick Electra 225 – The Green Goddess Of Linden
From Tom Klockau: eBay Classic: 1977 Cadillac Coupe de Ville – More Butter Please!
From Len Peters: Road Trip Classic: 1978 Cadillac Sedan DeVille – Across The Great Divide In A Grand Old Lady
Coupe de ville with a fresh pine tree air freshener hangin in. And these wonderful seats so much comfort in 1979.
“That the ’79 Coupe DeVille achieved near-record sales that model year was even more remarkable given the arrival of the second energy crisis that spring.”
When gas first hit $4 I swear there was a huge new Silverado and Suburban give-away; I’ve never witnessed such a large flood of a particular model of vehicle hitting the streets all at once.
Go figure.
I don’t think the second energy crisis really had much of an effect on 1979 model year production. It didn’t hit until fairly late in the model year, and it probably had to go on for a little while before people were convinced that it wasn’t going to be just a brief, short-term event, and changed their behavior accordingly (and perhaps only then did car manufacturers start to change their behavior).
The 1980 model year, that was a different story….
Probably by 2045, I prefer reviving Packard than depending on big three or any other car companies making another elegant luxury sedan/coupe. ( unless CAFE works in the other way to bring back the equality between trucks and cars ) because comfort with elegant styling became something from the past. I went to Ford’s day in the campus only to be disappointed by them, as there isn’t any plan for a coupe other than Mustang, neither any plan for a larger sedan in the future except Continental. Either a niche car like Mustang, or mainstream sedan ( Fusion hybrid ) or trucks. They don’t have the luxury to offer a wide variety of body styles, nor personal cars, and cars are too alike after the ’00s. ( I’d better check out how John DeLorean started his company and how feasible to lower the frame of Expedition making a sedan, than counting on Ford at least )
While Cadillac coupe DeVille, I’m thinking about the legal issues if making replicas as kit cars again. ( or better, it isn unrealastic to make sedan at the same time to share the cost )
Excellent essay. The word Pensioner in the title is crucial. Those middle-class blue collar workers, now extinct, had PENSIONS as well as good wages. Not 401Ks that turn to 001Ks whenever JPMorgan wants to profit from a big short.
Even those who didn’t have pensions were able to SAVE their money for retirement, and earned INTEREST on the savings. Another extinct concept.
But we’re better off now without those horrible extinct dinosaurs, because everybody tells us we’re better off. And everybody must be right.
Nice car, the sticker price is a shock so cheap we were paying nearly that for a regular four door sedan with six and auto no air steer or power windows even the 2015 adjusted price wont put you in a new base Commodore or Falcon.
$39k in today’s money for a full-size luxury car with a big V8 engine and a comfortable selection of luxury doo-dads?
Meanwhile, the ATS starts out at $33k, the CTS at $45k and the XTS at $44k. I’d say those pensioners back in ’79 definitely got their money’s worth.
John, I tend to agree with you, but it’s worth pointing out a few items that complicate a direct comparison of sticker prices in “real terms”:
1) It’s my understanding that Cadillac introduced an extra-charge 3 year or 36,000 mile warranty for 1979. I believe the base warranty was 1 year or 12,000 miles. A new Cadillac today has 4 years or 50,000 miles of bumper to bumper, as well as included scheduled maintenance.
2) The federal funds rate on 9-1-1978 was 8.45. By 4-1-1980 it was 17.61. Car loans, then in this era probably ranged from a low of 10% to as high as 25% for people with good credit. Last month, Cadillac offered 0% financing for 60 months on all of our vehicles (yes I sell Cadillacs;-0)
Matt,
I agree about the loan rates. It is something that I mention repeatedly every time somebody asks why would anybody buy a Tempo or Cavalier when they could get this or this or this. The reason folks bought those cars was that there was no such thing as low interest loans from a bank in 1980’s or 1990’s and the only way that most got a new car with a decent loan was through a dealership.
As for the warranty extension. in the 1970’s Cadillac(and GM as a whole) was still arrogant and thought that their cars were the best and they were reliable. In Cadillac’s case, the 1980’s would become a very shocking decade with big engine QC issues and a downsized Deville that pushed people away. Then came German luxury cars and by the 1990’s Japanese luxury cars and Cadillac was on the ropes. So GM started making better made cars and offering a bigger warranty to instill customer confidence in the products.
I still don’t know why GM does not offer a 10 year 100,000 mile warranty like Hyundai and Kia. That turned their fortunes around and made them really profitable. I test drove a new Sonata this past summer and also test drove a new Accord and the Sonata was so much better looking and better driving then the Accord.
A 1940 series 62 Cadillac in todays dollars is about $30,000. The V16’s in todays prices is $85,000. A pre war Rolls Royce Wraith was about the same as the V16 in price.
As someone who came of age in the late 1970s, I’d say we have to keep some things in perspective.
The 1979 Cadillacs (the non-diesel ones) were good cars for their time. But when comparing their sticker prices, after adjusting for inflation, to a 2015 Cadillac, remember some important key points.
On the 1979 Cadillac De Villes, a fair amount of equipment was still optional. The base sticker price was just that – the base price – and most did not leave the factory without any options.
Meanwhile, the 2015 Cadillac will:
– last longer, particularly when it comes to resisting rust (it wasn’t uncommon to see serious rust on even a GM C-body after six years, and they were better than most cars of that time in this area);
-accelerate faster;
-cruise comfortably at speeds that were not even legal on rural interstates at that time;
-handle much better;
-stop in a far shorter distance, and without swapping ends during a panic stop (which happened to my father in his 1982 Oldsmobile Delta 88 Royale when he had to slam on the brakes on I-95 outside of Philadelphia);
-pollute MUCH less;
-do a far better job of protecting you in a serious accident;
-use less fuel;
-offer entertainment center options that make the top-of-the-line stereo system in the 1979 car look and sound like a homebuilt unit.
A late 1970s car was considered to be “worn out” by 100,000 miles – even a full-size Cadillac – and ready for replacement. People didn’t keep cars for 200,000 miles and 10 years if they had any ability to buy something else – even a used car.
In many ways, THESE are the “good old days” when it comes to driving and car ownership.
You raise some great points. Regarding the sticker price, Car and Driver road tested a 1978 Coupe DeVille (by the way, they liked it!). I just got that issue out of my attic (I know, I’m a geek), and the as-tested price on that car was $13,375 ($48,888). So it was loaded up with about $3,000 worth of options, which I think was very typical for a Cadillac. Given that much of the volume of sales in the luxury segment today typically fall in the $45K to $60K range, on vehicles featuring much, much more in the way of safety features, etc., I’d say this Cadillac was priced just about right for a volume luxury car back then.
On ownership cycles, I think the majority of first owners traded out of their Cadillacs every two or three years. They may have purchased versus leased, but it’s not that different than today’s luxury market with volume leasing for 3 year terms. Part of the snob appeal of a Cadillac when I was a kid was having the newest model. Especially when the downsized cars came out, the old huge Caddies seemed very dated.
Cadillac did a brilliant job of marketing their used cars as well. Since many late model Cadillacs were frequently traded in on new ones, there was abundant inventory of cars that could be sold as a more affordable gateway to Cadillac ownership. It was a smart strategy, as it focused on continuity of design and desire of possession, tailored to meet a range of pocketbooks. It also helped keep resale values high, which kept those first owners quickly coming back for more.
Indeed many things were optional even on Cadillacs in 1979: AM/FM cassette, tilt/telescopic steering, electric mirrors, illuminated visor mirrors, power seatback recliners, illuminated entry, theft deterent system. And of course a sunroof added to the base price.
All good points which raises several problems with today’s cars that weren’t an issue back then. You could actually fit 6 adults comfortably in this car. Today’s much narrower sedans have a hard time fitting 5 adults and legroom on two of Cadillac;s current offerings in the rear seat (ATS/CTS) is sub-par and confined.
The trunk on these cars was considerably larger with a much bigger opening than any Cadillac sedan offered today.
You had the choice of many interior colors and configurations back then. Today your lucky to have black or tan as choices.
Visibility was excellent on these old cars for the most part, especially sedans.
They were also way simpler and easy to work on so if one of these did break down on the side of the road it was much easier to get back in running order than today’s electronic packed rolling video game vehicles.
Also IMO they had much more presence and visual style with real names, unmistakable exterior appointments, lots of chrome with real chromed bumpers etc and were not mistaken for a German or Asian car which is a huge problem today. I can’t tell you how many times I see a luxury sedan today from the side and have no idea what I’m looking at until the rear of the vehicle goes by and I see a badge.
If only there were a way to combine today’s virtues with yesteryear’s charm and advantages. That would be really cool.
Having owned an Olds 98 from the 1978 model year I can say that while 6 teenagers might fit, 6 adults would all have to be on the small size.
Seating passengers in comfort is less of a selling point because we now have (almost) more cars than people. Sedans are narrower because if you want to sit six or more people in comfort, you don’t put them abreast. You put them in a crew cab pickup, SUV or large CUV. Same with cargo space–you don’t get a sedan, you get a minivan or one of the above. We have more choices now than we’ve ever had.
Less maintenance can be done on new cars, but also less maintenance needs to be done. You can go much farther and longer between tune-ups. It’s no longer a requirement that you have mechanical know-how just to drive a car. Your dismissal of modern cars as “electronic packed rolling video game vehicles” is not helping the view that cars are a hobby for old people and us young’uns can’t be bothered.
Visibility is so much better on old cars. But when you learn to drive on trucks and vans that may not have any rear visibility at all, you quickly learn that you can do just fine with just your side mirrors.
“Unmistakeable exteriors” is an entirely subjective metric, based on when you grew up. I can tell a Hyundai from a Honda from a Cadillac from a Chrysler in any year going back to about 1980, but before that it starts to get fuzzy. A ’75 LTD and ’75 Caprice looked 90-95% similar to each other. a ’15 Taurus and ’15 Impala can be distinguished at any distance in the day, and at night by their headlights and taillights. Chrome bumpers may look cool, but they’re heavy and overkill for anything besides a pickup or SUV.
Now we just need more colors! That’s one place where old cars will always have new ones beat.
“You had the choice of many interior colors and configurations back then. Today your lucky to have black or tan as choices.”
Sadly, true.
Surely part of the whole luxury experience is having the power to choose, to specify, to order it built the way you want it. You could do it back then, and choose from an amazing range of colour and trim choices – not to mention the options. That’s the way it had always been, with Cadillacs.
Today? Hmmm….no. So tell me, just what is so luxurious about the modern mass-production standardised ‘prestige’ car?
Cadillac’s CTS now offers 5 different interior color combinations, two are black seats, one with black trim and one with red.
There are options for wood trim (I have black/black with carbon fiber). The interesting color is brown for the seats, which comes with black trim and wood. There is a light colored interior with light trim and wood.
The comment about being able to fit 6 adults in the older cars, I doubt you could fit 6 teenagers in a new car or even the older cars due to fact that the average teenager is is way lager than the adults of 30-50 years ago. The six passenger car of the 40’s through the 70’s would only fit 4 maybe 5 in a pinch teenagers today. What I base this on was when my children were teenagers 15 years ago they were taller and outweighed me my 60-90lbs. I was 5’10” and 160lbs. A lot of their friends were bigger. I would say the average adult under 40 is 1\3 to 1\2 bigger than the average adult in the 30’s through the 70’s.
Old comment but yes, this is what I always say. The nearly perfect car would be something like this with a modern pickup V8 and transmission made from today’s higher quality steels. And there is no reason beyond external intervention by outside forces for their own reasons that we can’t have this.
Nice story and very nice car. In this era, the house in the suburbs to raise your children in peace and safety, a secure retirement, and a little extra maybe to send your kids to college and a Coupe Deville and maybe a dream vacation as a reward for a hard work of a physical labor job and a responsible personal life. It sounds so simple and basic but the twentieth century was the first it was ever achieved, and even then for a select few.
Once achieved, life moves on. Cars are commodities, work is ephemeral and unsecure. Whole areas empty out as factories thin out and die. All children most go to college and obtain a marketable skill. There apparently is not a market for a car like this Coupe Deville today. People now seem to simplify and redirect as the career winds down.
When you came upon this handsome relic of another time. you stopped and stared and snapped a few pictures. Must happen all the time with the lucky owner. The world having changed, he has probably given up brill cream.
I miss these cars, and also what they represented. This was the last gasp for Cadillac in so many ways, though we didn’t know it at the time. It was also the end of the era for what I’ll call the “Cadillac Man,” someone who would go a lifetime for a chance to own their piece of the American dream.
For much of its history, Cadillac was positioned as a reward and a 4-wheeled example of “the good life.” It was not an instant gratification car, it was an “earned” car. Cadillac targeted people who had achieved some degree of success and/or material comfort, whether that was toiling in a factory in Flint or working as a banker. That egalitarian spirit in a luxury car was wonderfully American: work hard and you too can enter the glamorous world of Cadillac. Plutocrat, plumber or pimp, it didn’t matter, there was a Cadillac waiting for you.
Sadly, the type of car, the mindset, the marketing and the Cadillac man himself are all gone now.
We have a 2016 Cadillac CTS-V sitting outside the showroom about to be delivered with a $93,000 msrp and with the fastest lap time car and driver has ever measured for a sedan. Last gasp might be overstated. Maybe last gasp for the “old” Cadillac;-)
I would not say the last gasp for traditional Cadillac luxury. Yes the mid 1980’s was a dark period with downsized cars that looked like lesser GM models and unreliable engines like the 4.1 V8 but by 1989, the Deville was lengthened and the traditional Caddy tail lights were back.
In 1994 the Deville was redesigned and it was made slightly longer and this time it looked like no lesser GM car. It was also very luxurious and had more power then the smog strangled engine in that 1979. It also seems that the rear doors seem to open wider then the front doors.
I feel the 94-99 Deville is the last of the traditional big Cadillacs made. The 2000-2005 Deville and the 2006-2012 DTS feel and look cheap.
I enjoy my 1995 Deville
It’s a handsome car, but there’s a problem when a $40k-equivalent car is the top-of-the-heap in GM’s lineup. (Maybe the Seville was more… but not by that much.) In the mid 1960s, I don’t think a retired auto worker could hope to own a Coupe de Ville. GM squeezed Cadillac’s reputation for exclusivity in exchange for a couple decades of sales… I’m sure it seemed like a good idea at the time. And now they’re struggling to win back sales in one of the most profitable segments. (And they completely abandoned the S-class/7-series segement.)
It’s a shame that we can’t have it all: cheap cars that are truly high-class, or pensions for everyone!
I heard that!
I am not sure even an S class/7 series is high class any more. Whether here or Germany, when someone sees an S class, one’s mind go to showoff or ill gotten gain, not so much achievement or even status. Mercedes, BMW, and Jaguar are exactly where Cadillac was about 10 years after this Coupe Deville. Maybe the old magic still works in Russia or China? in the 1st world, not so much.
Mercedes is moving the S-class up market, with the Mercedes S-class Maybach top of the line. BMW’s 7-series is lower end.
It’s my understanding that Cadillac is working on a competitor to the S class and 7 series. Of course, the same “sources” report Chevrolet has a mid-engined Corvette almost ready for production.
GM is now kind of stuck: to reach the position it held in the 50s-60s it needs a true “flagship”….but can they afford (to produce) it?
If there is going to be a new flagship today, it will be born in Russia or China. So a better question is whether Zil or Red Flag can afford it.
After World War Two, Cadillac’s 7-series class (the Fleetwood 75 series) was reduced to a pair of low end limo’s. The Series 60 (including 61 through 64) were Cadillac’s basic models before WWII.
The diminished Post War 75 Series lineup so soon after GM management axed the original Buick Limited for fear it was encroaching on Caddiacs turf is ironic. The Series 61 and decontenting Series 62 pushed Caddy to Buick’s’ traditional market. and Buick to Oldsmobile level (eventually making Olds redundant) Short term production gains for Caddy, Yes, but after a couple decades everyone looks around and says “What happened?”
I agree Cadillacs should have been more expensive, even back in the day, and they eroded exclusivity/desirability as a result. They certainly needed much more expensive flagship models to carry the torch for the brand’s snob appeal. That said, at the time the Coupe DeVille was Cadillac’s “entry level” car and its price leader, so it makes some sense that Cadillac used the car to compete for “near luxury” customers.
The entry level 1979 Mercedes 240D was $15,068, inflation adjusted to $43,579. So it’s true that Cadillac was falling behind in premium pricing by the late 1970s. In the 1960s, things were closer, with the volume selling 1965 Sedan DeVille costing $5,666 ($42,866 adjusted), versus the “volume-selling” 1965 Mercedes 220 Sedan, which would have been $5,187 or $39,242 adjusted. Yes, you could get a top-of-the-line 1965 Mercedes Convertible for much more (300 SE Convertible $12,573, $95,122 adjusted) compared to a Cadillac Eldorado ($6,754, $51,098 adjusted), but sales at that price point were so small that GM likely didn’t care. After all, Cadillac sold 182,435 cars in 1965, compared with total global Mercedes output of 174,007 (including the 12,117 Mercedes sold in the U.S.) many of which were diesels and 4-cylinders designed for yeoman’s duty versus the broad-based luxury at premium prices that Cadillac was offering.
Ironically, the Germans are following exactly the same lower-pricing strategy today, especially Mercedes-Benz, as they aggressively promote the CLA at $31,500 ($31,500 adjusted!). “YOU don’t have to wait! YOU can afford a brand new Mercedes right now today! Why drive an Accord when YOU can have a Mercedes? YOU will be the envy of all your friends in your new Benz!”
Volume sales is like an evil addiction for luxury brands: the profits are enormous, and until the market is oversaturated, buyers gobble up your wares. Then suddenly, the party is over, and the luxury intenders have moved on to the next hot thing.
I think the fact that Cadillac was the king of the luxury segment in the U.S. so consistently for so long (far longer than the product warranted it, actually) was a testament to the power of the brand they built.
the V16 was in the prewar Rolls Royce price range.
The problem is that hardly anyone bought it, because the Series 60 Cadillacs were far better values.
No that is not a problem, that is as it should be. Rolls Royce’s did not sell to any great extent either.
Sales had been falling dramatically for all of the super-luxury cars during the 1930s. This was happening across the board – it affected Cadillac, Lincoln and Packard. What saved Cadillac and Lincoln, and temporarily saved Packard, were their less expensive offerings – LaSalle and Series 60, Zephyr and 120.
The trend put Pierce-Arrow out of business, as the company never offered a cheaper model that could have kept the wolf from the door.
Rolls Royce survived thanks to global sales, and its aircraft engine division (which later went into receivership). Even then, the automotive division was seriously undercapitalized for many years during the postwar era.
Cadillac should have offered a true competitor to the Mercedes S-Class in the 1970s and 1980s. But there is no way that it could have abandoned the De Ville series (which was the really the successor to the old Series 60), which was its bread-and-butter.
“The problem is that hardly anyone bought it, because the Series 60 Cadillacs were far better values.”
True. But the fact that it was available to order, should Sir be so inclined – that was the point.
I think the ramp up in Mercedes’ price levels in the late 1970s had a lot to do with currency appreciation of the D-Mark, more than a deliberate pricing strategy by Daimler Benz.
When I was a kid in Ohio, we got the Sunday New York Times and would read it as a family, and the kids would be quizzed later to be sure we were reading and paying attention. This would have been late 70s, very early 80s. Potamkin Cadillac ran full page ads in the Times with loss-leader Coupe deVilles at a low, low price. My dad just about drove my mom nuts because he wanted a Cadillac so badly.
He never did get one, and they both drive little SUVs now, a Kia Sportage and a brand spankin’ new Honda CRV.
If I may give some advice, don’t wait for retireme nt to buy such a cool car !
Because I’m not sure we’ll still have cars in my retirement years and/or and I’ll even have a pension, I choose not to wait and to drive the car I want right now ! So I’m currently the happy owner of a 79 Caprice I use everyday. Moreover, it still is less expensive than any new car I could afford, which could only be a subccompact penalty box.
Nice post, and a good link to back home. Thanks.
There were lots of these 77-79 DeVilles in Long Island in the late 70s. As a kid, I’d watch them majestically sail by us on the LI Expway or the parkways (my dad drove 55-60).
In that time and place, automotive status meant Cadillac, Mercedes, or Porsche.
Things have changed.
But not for the better.
I agree
I disagree.
Great article, Joseph. My sister lived in that neighborhood in the early 2000s, on Chandler near Robert T. It was still pretty well kept at that point but one could tell that it was going downhill quickly. Crime was on the rise and property values were declining, and I remember that one winter they didn’t plow any of the side streets. She ended up moving to Davison shortly thereafter.
I think Cadillac, Buick and Oldsmobile started coming together more than was beneficial by the mid 70s, both in price and equipment. It seems to me by this point, you picked a GM brand more for how you wanted to appear than what equipment it had, since you could spec any of the three (and come very close with Pontiac as well) about equally for not a huge difference in price. I suspect that the divisions traded a lot of sales back and forth, but the real loser as others have noted was probably the absence of top tier cars, especially after the Gen 1 Seville went away.
Thank you, Cresys. I do miss that neighborhood in Flint – we were closer to Court & Dort. My old house still looks in decent shape (I try to pass by it every time I’m back). I think the turning point for that neighborhood (and Flint in general) was when Buick closed on the north end and moved HQ to Detroit.
I do agree with your idea of the big offerings from the GM divisions becoming more similar by the mid-70’s, depending on the brand-affiliation of customers. I’ve seen tricked out Bonnevilles that looked as least as nice as some LeSabres – with the Buick being ostensibly upmarket from the Pontiac.
Even though the 80s would usher in hard times for Cadillac,the brand still had cachet in the 70s. This car is from a time when Cadillac epitomized the American Dream on wheels.
It was fun to dust off and reread Car and Driver’s review of the 1978 Coupe DeVille. I think David E. Davis wrote a great summation of the car and the brand. I’ve scanned it in here in case others would enjoy reading. I apologize in advance for the quality of the scans, but hopefully they will still be readable. It’s a total of 6 pages, starting with this one.
Page 2
Page 3. I think Car and Driver Counterpoints from this era always make for a good read too.
Page 4, with a couple of period ads as well.
Page 5
Last but not least, the specs.
The 260+ feet 70-0 braking distance on that 77 Lincoln Mark V is surprising considering it had 4 wheel disc brakes. The Cadillac’s 207 foot stop with front discs/rear drums was average for the time. Today’s sedans typically have a 70-0 distance in the 170 foot range and of course are much more resistant to fade.
This is so awesome – thank you, GN, for posting this period review!
Thanks. I’m going to turn these into a post.
Thanks Paul, I appreciate you turning them into a post. I think it’s a good read.
Paul, you should post a C/D, M/T or R&T review of the week on Sunday. We all inhaled those articles as we grew up back then and the reviews of the Deadly Sins would be interesting considering the hindsight we have now.
“That the ’79 Coupe DeVille achieved near-record sales that model year was even more remarkable given the arrival of the second energy crisis …”
I am guessing that many owners of pre 77’s finally accepted the smaller size and traded in to ‘save gas’. Going from 10 mpg to 16 is quite a savings, even for richer folks.
Too bad that Caddy had to bring out the V-8-6-4 and HT4100 after 1980, instead of using the tried and true Olds 350 V8!
a throttle body fuel injected version of the 350 olds/seville engine with an overdrive transmission would have been a better choice than the 8-6-4.
They also could have kept using the FI 368 and tied it to the new 200R-4 overdrive transmission. Well a beefed up version at least. Heck even a Fi version of the Olds 307 with that transmission would have been preferable to the 8-6-4 or HT4100. The fuel injection and slight power increase say to 150-160 HP instead of the carbed 140 horses would have made it “better” than the typical Olds 98 or Buick Electra.
The downsized full-size cars from GM were the “next big thing” in 1977, and made their predecessors – and the Ford and Chrysler competition – look old and outdated.
It did take a while for some big-car owners to adjust. My parents were Oldsmobile loyalists. When the new 1977 models debuted, my mother wasn’t sure that she liked them. By 1979, she was telling my dad that she wanted to trade our 1976 Delta 88 Royale on a new Oldsmobile Delta 88.
Not everyone that drove these cars when they were new was old. I have family on Staten Island in New York, and Coupe DeVilles were the single most popular car with the guys who’s kids grew up to be on MTV’s Jersey Shore. Even then they were known as guidos. I’m not sure where the money came from, but every young man had to have a current model year Coupe DeVille. There were even unique crimes due to their popularity, like bumper thefts the day you brought your new car home. The bumpers were just bolted on, and you needed to have them welded as soon as you took delivery to avoid the theft of the bumper,s rumored to cost as much to replace new as a Chevette Scooter. Someone in the dealers was tipping the thieves where to find cars that hadn’t been welded yet, or else it wouldn’t have happened so frequently.
The guys that drove these cars were the same sort of folks that lease BMWs now, with the same narrowly defined status hierarchy. Most of them aspired to Eldorado Biaritz ownership, but something caused the next generation to have zero interest in such things.
The neighbor behind us (sales manager for a large cemetery) when I was growing up owned a special-ordered ’78 CdV d’Elegance. Every option except leather. He couldn’t have been more than 35 at the time.
Growing up in Brooklyn NY was even worse. All of us guido’s had to have new or very late model Caddy’s, and they had to be Coupe de Ville’s cause only our parents drove Sedan de Ville’s.
My first car was a 1978 Coupe de Ville d’Elegance. My parents brought it for me from our next door neighbor. I was 18 years old, and the car was 3 years old at the time.
The car had every single option. True Caddyfactory spoke wheels, the brushed chrome body side spears instead of pinstripes, AM/FM/8track with built in CB radio, tilt, telescopic, twilight sentennial, guidmatic lights, twin 6 way power seats, power trunk release, delay wipers, remote right side mirror, vanity mirror, moon roof, cabriolet roof, opera lamps, rear defogger.
It was white, white vinyl top, burgundy velour interior.
First thing I did to the car was tint the windows, had my name pinstriped on each front door, had a playboy bunny pinstriped on the deck lid, put dark plexiglass over the headlights, and of course, had the bumpers welded.
My Coupe de Ville d’Elegance was the perfect car for cruising under “the el” on 86th Street in Bensonhurst Brooklyn. If you or your family didn’t have a Caddy, you just didn’t fit in… It was a lifestyle !!! Gee, I miss those days !!!
In 1979 my Uncle bought a brand new Sedan deVille from Criss Cadillac in Providence, Rhode Island. He ordered it right from the factory as most Caddy owners did to customize the car to their personal tastes. He was 48 at the time when he bought it and I thought to myself – “Wow – he must be doing well to afford a brand new Caddy.” He had the catalog at home and saw the Cedar Firemist color showcased in it so he ordered that color. He even ordered a factory power astroroof which took extra time to come in because of the way GM had these cars built. So when it finally came in, it turns out he wasn’t too happy with the color, and the factory messed up his order as he wanted a dual comfort power seat with separate controls and recliner and it came through as a full bench. The Caddy dealer was willing to reorder him another car but he waited for over 2 months for his to come in so he took it anyway. He loved that car and put well over 120k miles on it before my Grandmother inherited it from him. She drove it another few years and then sold it to get her 1987 FWD Fleetwood d’Elegance. Those 425 V-8s were extremely durable engines, too. Neither my Uncle or Grandmother ever had a problem with that car.
These cars had a nice balance of class and prestige. They were by no means stripped even if you didn’t order any options as Caddy always made sure their customers had the luxury they deserved. In later years Caddy started to make more options standard equipment, yet for 1977 standards they were a nicely equipped car even if ordered with just a few options.
The low end Cadillac in 1929 was priced @$48,700 in today dollars. By 1940 a series 62 is $28,900. After the war the series 62 is $27,600. By 1960 the price is up to $38,600. Down for 1970 to $36,200 (DeVille). So this 78 is up. In terms of the consumer price index, Cadillac’s lower end is most affordable just after World War Two. Affordability is a function of earnings and CPI, however, and who could afford them when is not all that clear.
If a person took out a loan during those years, the down payment requirements were stricter, and loan repayment schedules were MUCH shorter. I believe that the repayment period was two years in the 1950s, and you were expected to have a down payment equal to 20 percent of the price of the new car (the trade-in would count for part or all of that figure).
Prior to World War II, many luxury car buyers simply paid cash for their vehicles. I remember reading that, in the late 1920s, Packard tried to expand sales by encouraging dealers to push financing, as most buyers simply paid cash for their new Packards.
After WW2, worker’s earning increased relative to the CPI, making everything more affordable. Cadillac’s prices increase, but slower than earnings I think, making a Cadillac more affordable for the average worker, although not necessarily something the average worker could really afford.
The depression brought Cadillac’s prices down. Post WW2, Cadillac brought pricing up, but not to pre-depression levels. The automobile market changed after WW2. Todays trends are quite different from the 1960’s too, so direct comparisons are difficult.
I really enjoyed this article. The 77-70 Cadillac was a great and reliable car with pre sense and power. It was what a Cadillac should be. It was better made than the rust bucket 71-76 and more powerful and reliable than the 80s version. This car needs to be brought back in modern form. The ugly baby Cadillac cars don’t do a thing for me. I know many people who had these Cadillac and got many hundreds is thousands of miles out of them. My favorite is the Fleetwood with a rolls grill. After 80 Cadillac lost its way along with the rest of the country. I bet given the choice a big reliable rear wheel drive Cadillac would sell. I don’t get why it’s so damn hard to build a flag ship. Just don’t build one of the mid sized crap boxes they are planning and build a big, flashy rear wheel drive v8 that seats 6 and floats down the road in comfort. It can not be that hard. If Lincoln had not built any 1 model of the current line up and used the money to rebody the last town car along with fitting the new 5.0? they would have owned the luxury market and limo market and black car market. Caddy should do the same. Such a shame Cadillac is irrelevant now as is Lincoln. Chrysler owns the domestic luxury market now what little is left. I think lack of style and choice and size killed Lincoln and Cadillac. Lame as the new ones are one might as well buy a Toyota Avalon or Camry or Kia.
There is a reason why these cars went away. The 2016 Cadillac CT6 will be closer to what you are talking about than the CTS is. A big flashy car would probably have to cost $250,000 and I don’t think that is what you have in mind. Chevrolet has the SS, which is much cheaper, and very close to what you may have in mind. I wish it could come with AWD and a V6.
Remember being offered a great deal on a powder blue ’72 2 door with a beautiful white leather interior and white top. Would have had to park on the street in this very neighborhood. Was taking night courses at Truman CC at the time, single. Nice chic bait, I thought. Wanted a pleasure car, didn’t want to walk to night school though. Bought the Manta instead. Remember getting boxed in right in front of school. Tuition at Truman when this car was new was $15 a credit, as I recall. Already graduated back East and just wanted to add some IT courses. Fortunately found a GF and a car that wasn’t high maintenance. Things have a way of working out.
It’s nice to see one without the popular fake wire wheels. Even rarer would be without the cabriolet roof, which was always white or matching (boring). I can’t recall a late 70’s Coupe de Ville with a full vinyl roof. After the opera window was introduced in ’74, full or bare were seldom seen.
But I think it was the aftermarket fake convertible tops that ruined what was left of Cadillac’s snob appeal. Not quite our class, dear.
the full vinyl roof was a custom phaeton option which was more costly. I would not call the rear side windows “opera’s” though.
Great write up as per usual, Joseph!
I bought mine a number of years ago, and hopefully I will be driving it into retirement (this past March). These are easy classics to pick up and run on a budget, and can fit into more garages than the older units.
That’s quite a pothole on this side of the double line in the lead in photo? Maybe those workers are about to get to that job next…
In 2045, no one can say with any great reliance what the vehicular landscape will look like. Safe to say as we can see that far ahead right now, gas powered cars will be in CC form only.
Thanks for this piece.
Don’t expect I’ll be driving in ’45. Do think that IC will be around and also hydrogen. Not so much a fan of these batteries being used today. Would be O.K. with lead/acid since I don’t need much speed or range. Remember when The Best Steak House on Wilson first opened. I think about 1980. Anyone remember The Green Mill? Goldblatt’s Uptown store? After work most of my wanderings were on Clark St. or west along Lawrence Ave. Golden Nugget Pancake still there. They served giant pancakes c. 1980. Most of the restaurants and stores I knew are gone.