1979 Cadillac Sedan de Ville with Dark Carmine leather upholstery / Bring a Trailer
There are lots of things to dislike about the American luxury cars of the ’70s, but you could never call them colorless: They offered a very wide range of interior hues. Here’s a spectrum of ’70s interiors from Cadillac, Lincoln, and Imperial, with leather upholstery in a diverse range of colors.
1979 Cadillac Sedan de Ville with Dark Carmine Red leather / Classic Cars of Sarasota
For the sake of this post, I’m not concerned with exterior styling, price, or even seat comfort, and I’ll choke down my usual revulsion at the abundance of obviously fake wood in these supposedly high-end cars to concentrate solely on color. For the same reason, I’ve also decided to limit this survey to leather upholstery — the cloth upholstery offered in many of these cars was no less colorful, but the different patterns and textures can be distracting.
With all that in mind, here’s a brief sampler covering practically the whole visible spectrum:
Red
Red leather upholstery has been one of the few color choices other than gray and beige to appear with any kind of regularity on newer cars — in some years, you’ve even been able to order it on a BMW or Mercedes-Benz — although it’s often controversial, particularly in brighter hues. Buff book editors of the ’70s hated cars with interiors like this, complaining that they looked like bordellos, homicide scenes, or homicide scenes in bordellos.
1979 Cadillac Sedan de Ville with Dark Carmine leather / Classic Cars of Sarasota
The buff book crowd did sometimes have a point: The vivid Dark Carmine red leather of this 1979 Cadillac Sedan de Ville calls to mind the lurid reds of Dario Argento’s 1977 psychological horror film Suspiria. I’m on the fence about whether that’s a plus or a minus.
1979 Cadillac Sedan de Ville with Dark Carmine Red leather / Classic Cars of Sarasota
Orange
Even in the generally more tasteful ’60s, Cadillac would sell you an Eldorado with orange (“vermilion”) carpeting, but orange really hit the automotive big time in the ’70s. The auction listing for the 1974 Cadillac Eldorado pictured below called the interior “brown,” perhaps in deference to modern tastes, but I’m 98 percent sure this is what Cadillac called “Dark Terra Cotta,” which was definitely orange.
1974 Cadillac Fleetwood Eldorado with Antique Dark Terra Cotta leather / Primo Classics International
In 1974, you could get a Dark Terra Cotta vinyl top on closed-body Cadillacs, and the interior and door panels could be covered in big swaths of Dark Terra Cotta Medici crushed velour with matching shag carpeting. (I think I’d rather be trapped in a Dario Argento giallo film, honestly.) This particular color is a good deal more palatable in leather — more so than the pumpkin-colored dashboard, I think.
1974 Cadillac Fleetwood Eldorado with Antique Dark Terra Cotta leather / Primo Classics International
It looks a bit like a giant tomato, but it has character:
1974 Cadillac Fleetwood Eldorado with Antique Dark Terra Cotta leather / Primo Classics International
Yellow
Gold and yellow were popular exterior colors in this class in the ’70s, and you could often order a gold or yellow interior to match.
1974 Imperial LeBaron Crown Coupe with gold leather / Online Imperial Club
1975 Imperial LeBaron Crown Coupe with gold leather / VanDerBrink Auctions
To my eyes, the gold leather of the Imperials pictured above (two different cars with the same upholstery option) does actually qualify as gold, but what was called “gold” upholstery in this era also encompassed a variety of hues that weren’t exactly yellow, ranging from mustard-y brown to pinkish beige. By contrast, the light yellow leather upholstery of the 1978 Eldorado pictured below is definitely yellow, and has a kind of lemon icing look.
1978 Cadillac Fleetwood Eldorado with Antique Light Yellow leather / Orlando Classic Cars
1978 Cadillac Fleetwood Eldorado with Antique Light Yellow leather / Orlando Classic Cars
Green
Rarely seen on modern cars, green upholstery was fairly common on ’70s cars, much like that lime-green metallic paint color that was so popular in this era. (See for examples this 1971 Buick.) Green cars often but not always had green interiors, like this 1974 Eldorado:
1974 Cadillac Fleetwood Eldorado with Antique Medium Green leather / Bring a Trailer
1974 Cadillac Fleetwood Eldorado with Antique Medium Green leather / Bring a Trailer
Interestingly, Cadillac’s green upholstery choices became more bluish later in the decade, like the Medium Sage leather seen on this 1977 De Ville:
1977 Cadillac Coupe de Ville with Antique Medium Sage leather / Bring a Trailer
There were also some darker shades, like the Dark Jade leather of this 1978 Mark V Givenchy Edition:
1978 Lincoln Continental Mark V Givenchy Edition with Dark Jade leather / Bring a Trailer
1978 Lincoln Continental Mark V Givenchy Edition with Dark Jade leather / Bring a Trailer
Blue
I’m very big on blue, which was another common interior color choice in this era.
1975 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham with Antique Dark Blue leather / Pedigree Motorcars of the Palm Beaches
1975 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham with Antique Dark Blue leather / Pedigree Motorcars of the Palm Beaches
I have mixed feelings about the lighter blue leather Cadillac adopted for 1976, but the darker shades pictured here are attractive and tasteful.
1975 Lincoln Continental Mark IV with blue leather / Orlando Classic Cars
1975 Lincoln Continental Mark IV with blue leather / Orlando Classic Cars
Indigo
Okay, the interior of this Mark V Bill Blass Edition isn’t exactly indigo — Lincoln called it Midnight Blue — but it was about as close as ’70s upholstery choices came.
1979 Lincoln Continental Mark V Bill Blass Edition with Midnight Blue leather, white accents, and gold buttons / Orlando Classic Cars
1979 Lincoln Continental Mark V Bill Blass Edition with Midnight Blue leather, white accents, and gold buttons / Orlando Classic Cars
Violet
I couldn’t think of any ’70s luxury cars that offered violet or purple upholstery as a regular factory option, but there were some burgundy options that weren’t far off. The leather upholstery of the Imperial LeBaron pictured below looks almost plum-colored:
1975 Imperial LeBaron four-door hardtop with burgundy leather / Jaala1 via Hemmings
1975 Imperial LeBaron four-door hardtop with burgundy leather / Jaala1 via Hemmings
Off the Spectrum
In the ’70s, Cadillac also allowed buyers to combine certain interior colors, such as white leather upholstery with a red, green, or blue dashboard and carpeting, so you could have a splash of interior color without necessarily slathering the entire cabin in that color. The Persian Lime 1974 Coupe de Ville below has white leather seats with lime carpeting:
1974 Cadillac Coupe de Ville with white leather and lime carpeting / Classic Auto Mall
Imperial offered some similar choices in 1975, which were continued when the Imperial became the Chrysler New Yorker Brougham for 1976–1978:
1978 Chrysler New Yorker Brougham with white leather and blue carpeting / Orlando Classic Cars
Lincoln later had quite a bit of success in its Luxury Groups and Designer Editions with stripes or piping in contrasting colors. Buyers of the 1979 Bill Blass Edition Mark V, for instance, could choose either midnight blue upholstery with white highlights or white upholstery with midnight blue piping:
1979 Lincoln Continental Mark V Bill Blass Edition with white leather and midnight blue accents and carpeting / RM Auctions
Obviously, some popular ’70s color choices wouldn’t be fashionable today, and they weren’t to every taste even back then. Which was the whole point: People spending a lot of money on domestic luxury cars wanted their cars to reflect their personal style, and customers who traded in often (as many did in this class in the ’60s and ’70s) don’t seem to have been too worried about buyer’s remorse for choosing a car with a lemon yellow or baby blue interior.
1977 Cadillac Coupe de Ville with Antique Light Blue leather / Connors Motorcar Company
I assume offering a wide range of interior color choices has become a lot more expensive today (dyeing upholstery different colors is one thing, but tailoring the rest of the cabin fittings to harmonize with them is another), and the German brands that set the pace for modern luxury cars are still more aesthetically severe than the ’70s domestics. Even in a current S-Class Mercedes, the range of upholstery color options is quite limited — the usual assortment of conservative black, grays, browns, and beiges, with muted carmine red for the (mildly) daring. Of course, most of the high-end players now have personalization and “personal commissioning” divisions, like Bentley Mulliner or Mercedes-Benz Manufaktur Studio, but going that route is far less accessible (and far more expensive) than being able to choose from a dozen or more interior color and fabric choices on the regular order form.
1975 Imperial LeBaron with dark green leather / Bring a Trailer
Although I’m not a big fan of land yachts, I like some of these colors a lot — in some cases, they’re the ONLY things I like about these cars — and even the ones I wouldn’t want myself now seem charming and fun. I understand why the enthusiasts magazines of the time turned up their noses at this sort of chromatic overwhelm, but after decades of taupe and shades of gray, a nice jade green or even chiffon yellow seems like a welcome change of pace.
Related Reading
1974 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham D’Elegance And Talisman – Go Brougham Or Go Home (by me)
eBay Find: 1975 Coupe de Ville – It’s Big, It’s Green And It’s Beautiful (by Tom Klockau)
Automotive History: 1975–1976 Lincoln Continental Mark IV Lipstick Edition – A Designer Edition Without The Designer Name (by me)
Curbside Classic: 1976 Continental Mark IV Givenchy Edition – Aqua Couture (by Tom Klockau)
COAL: 1976 Lincoln Mark IV Jade/White Luxury Group — A Very Special COAL (by Chip Downs)
This article reminded me how much I hated those colored interiors from back then. My first car, a ’71 Cutlass, had blue vinyl, but we had a Caddy a few years earlier that had light blue leather, and man, I really disliked it. Make mine black, and nothing but.
While I detest black which is why none of my 10 cars has a black interior.. My wife’s does but then I rarely drive it at all.
What happened to crushed velour? Those all look plenty slippery.
I’m the opposite. I never liked the way velour grabbed your clothes.
In northern latitudes, leather upholstery is virtually useless without seat heating. At least in winter.
Since I was a kid, I never understood all the hype about leather seats. I’ve always thought velour was the real luxury. Even standard cloth is better. To me, leather is not much better than cheap vinyl. It burns you in summer and freezes you in winter. My favorite seats are the GM velour pillowback seats. Could be because I’m a lightweight too, barely over 130# to this day. I just slide around on leather and vinyl. Especially when the seats are large and wide.
While I prefer a neutral interior color, I would accept any of these except red. Even for my first car I bought myself, I had a list for the town dealer when he went to auctions. One was no bright red interior. Something about it doesn’t sit right with me. He said he actually heard that a lot.
Good point. In Japan, upscale luxury car interiors are cloth. Probably because sliding across leather makes an unappetizing noise. Not to mention the humid summers make leather not as attractive.
I’m with you re velour. As a kid in the 1970s/80s my grandparents Volvos (164 and 264) had orange leather that felt like the freezy-burny brown vinyl in my parents Ford Cortina. Then in 1984 my grandparents traded the 264 on a new Ford Fairmont Ghia with wall-to-wall grey velour, and 10-year-old me was in loooooove!! No more ricocheting all over the seats on winding roads. I love texture, and velour feels just fabulous to me, soft and warm too.
74 de ville in white leather rode in one of those, comfy.
I really miss interior color selections like the ones shown. Of the cars I have owned my 1963 T-Bird had a pearl beige vinyl interior with light antique gold accents which is still one of my all time favorites. I had a new white 1976 Eldo conv. with red leather and all red interiors I miss most in newer cars.
They sound great. My family had a cream colored fintail Mercedes with red leather. I loved it. The downside was wet clothes or legs would get some color transfer!
I also liked the turquoise-y blue of many Sixties cars.
Light colored upholstery doesn’t get as hot as the ubiquitous black of today.
Alfred: I totally agree. Today we have nothing but bland interiors that are mostly just black or black with some accent color. Nasty and I really miss color choices.
When I read other comments like one from above, it just amazes me that they could complain about having color choices and then to say just give me black.
We need color choices back and not just some little accent color added to black.
Grey interiors: One of the main reasons why modern cars look so inferior (clownish rim sizes are an other).
Certainly BEAT$ the blACK or gray of today, with exterior NON color just as BORING!! 🙁 Oh yea: my metallic white ’21 Accord Touring has a mostly blACK interior with a lt. gray headliner and pillars…whooppee. My previous Accord Touring had a “warm” Red Metallic exterior with a nice interior that had COLOR, but I forget what Honda called it! DFO
Agreed 100%
So Tired of the “everything the Same & Boring” of cars today.
I would take any of these cars shown, with their beautifully colored Interiors.
Even…. wait, Especially the Orange.
Some of the interior/exterior color combinations found on cars of the ’60’s and 70’s defied logic and taste.
One of my winter beaters in the mid-late 1980’s was a 1970 Ford Country Squire that had a yellow exterior (plus “wood” on the sides) and a green vinyl interior. Almost everything inside the car was green — seats, dashboard, carpet, interior trim, headliner, trunk compartment, etc.
Yellow and green are adjacent on the color wheel, and it was not uncommon for yellow cars to have green interiors in the late 1960s through the 1970s.
On the other hand, most of the cars my mom purchased had interior colors that matched the exteriors, including turquoise which looked quite nice in my opinion.
Dad a yellow ’69 Galaxie 500 company car with a dark green interior.
My Vega was green inside and out, my Civic was similarly all red, and my Ford Ranger was similarly monochromatic in blue, even the leather-wrapped steering wheel. But my 1997 made in Japan Toyota T100 was also 100% blue though more varying shades: paint was dark, dash and vinyl were medium, and the seat and door card fabrics were bluish gray. I think that’s the newest vehicle I’ve had that wasn’t black, gray or tan inside. Though our Land Cruiser was all dark brown inside, seats and plastic to complement the gold exterior. Not exactly colorful, but probably not common today.
I miss the wide choice of colors that were available on automobiles when I was a child (1970s). Orange Pintos, purple Barracudas, green Vegas, etc. Orange Jeeps with Levi’s denim interiors. Now, EVERY car seems to be white, silver, black or gray with an interior that’s black or beige. Boring! Bring back some variety and inject some color into our lives once again.
I think the tendency to more muted colors has a lot to do with the longer ownership periods of modern vehicles. The cars of the ’60s and ’70s were often pretty used up after five or six years, especially in areas with winter salt, and buyers of more expensive cars often traded in frequently — if not every year, then maybe ever other year. It’s easier to rationalize more adventuresome color choices for a car you probably won’t have indefinitely.
If I were trading in on a new Cadillac ever year or so, a Persian Lime car with white leather and lime carpeting might sound like fun, but if I were looking at a 60-month car loan on a car I was probably going to keep for a decade or more, a lot of brighter, more interesting colors might get very tiresome.
I kind of miss color, but I get why it’s gone. I’m pretty sure that every “next year” there were warehouses full of last year’s seats and interiors for cars that never got built. I think many (most?) manufacturers outsource their seats to sub-vendors, so things like seats weren’t built to order, but instead stockpiled in case the orders came in. Sound kind of wasteful and unprofitable.
I too lament the loss of colourful interiors in cars. In my opinion, the read leather featured here looks marvelous, especially since the entire interior matches. The red carpets are the icing on the cake.
WOW! What a thorough put down of The OTT luxury that many of us appreciate. My TOO much is NEVER enough philosophy applies to interiors as well as the glorious LAND YACHTS I’ve been fortunate enough to own. As mentioned, give me a deeply tufted velvet interior any time. My favorite interiors were in my 83 and 85 Fifth Avenues and my 89 Fleetwood Brougham DeElegance, all with the same appeal of the LeBaron shown but in that comfortable, plush velvet (or velour).As for color, again I want NY cars to stand out. Give me red, blue or most any COLOR over the bland basic gray or beige unfortunately the only available choices on today’s bland, BLOATED SUVS will even more BLOATED prices. As usual, the peasant cars are revolting, so I’m On to VERSAILLES in my Town Car!
Could not have said it better.
I’m getting the feeling that MANY other people are tired of “today’s offerings”, they just don’t have much choice. (not just on this site, I mean regular humans too).
I’m looking for a Used Tacoma as my next vehicle. My searches consistently show that any “fun Colors” are always priced higher. (Yes, I know thy usually cost more when new). Still, I believe people want more color choices than black/white/silver/gray/grey.
Bring back color-keyer interiors! The interiors today are of few choices unless you happen to buy a particular automobile that offers an extra color interior trim. In 1954 my grandparents bought a 1954 Plymouth Belvedere sedan with a blue and white exterior and a blue and white interior. My low-line 1966 Dodge Coronet sedan I ordered in a teal green with matching interior. I did not have to crave this because my car was a plain jane. Apologies to all of you named Jane. My CMC Safari minivan was a dark red with a matching velour interior. BRING BACK MULTIPLE INTERIOR COLOR SELECTIONS!
I don’t miss some of those choices, but at least there was choice.
My taste runs to the tan-brown spectrum, and anything except black.
If you notice most of the cars pictured here the interior color closely matches the exterior color. Those Contillion Yellow Cadillacs(some with matching Elk Grain vinyl tops) were very popular then. My parents had a ‘76 Electra Park Ave in triple Bronze; interior(velour)/exterior/vinyl top and a ‘78 Grand Marquis 2dr in two-tone light green over jade with matching jade/mint interior with a matching light green 3/4 “canopy” vinyl roof.
Automakers had charts of recommended exterior and interior color combinations, with varying degrees of emphaticness depending on the brand. (Chevrolet lists generally claimed non-recommended combinations weren’t available, although I assume there were some COPO exceptions for fleet customers; Cadillac dealer literature had extensive discussion of handling special requests for trim.) It’s clear that there was a lot of buyer interest in color coordination, down to the vinyl roof color, but there were also some other variations. If you had a white car, for instance, you could get most of the available interior colors as well as triple white.
“as well as triple white”
This reminds me of a guy I knew, had an early 80’s Corvette. He called it “Triple Black”. (The car had RED interior).
I tried to explain what ‘Triple Black’ actually meant. He said the exterior PAINT color was called triple black. LOL.
Eventually he had a For Sale sign in the window that said, “Triple Black, Red Interior”. (It also said, “ASKING $12,000 FIRM”. That was another conversation altogether).
Somebody in my town had a 2-tone blue ’77 Camaro Rallye Sport with a Carmine red interior…..was it a mistake or an order that somebody insisted upon? Lord knows why.
I had no way of knowing that the 1990 Mercury Sable I bought with a gray cloth interior (red exterior) would be the start of a long line of vehicles with similar gray interiors. The only exceptions have been a 1997 Camry with a blue-gray interior (probably similar to the color dman mentions for his 1997 T100) and light tan leather for our 2015 Camry Hybrid.
I’d love to be able to have a blue interior again, but it seems red is the only somewhat common hue that isn’t black, gray, or tan.
I love burgandy, i had a beautiful 1964 Toranoto with that interior and a digiyal speedometer, extremely rare. I yet to fund another one
1964 Toranoto? Never heard of one. Must be rare! Is it foreign?
And advanced too, what with a digital speedo in ’64 !
A couple to add from Imperial in 1972, including a fairly bright blue.
And gold
Also, both Cadillac and Lincoln offered an oxblood red in the late 70s, in addition to brighter reds. Lincoln called theirs cordovan.
I could certainly live with that. But I’ve often wondered where they got some of those funky colour names from. They’re more like non-descriptive identifiers. If you told someone your car had a Cordovan interior, unless they worked for Lincoln they wouldn’t know what you were talking about. Unless maybe if they were an artist?
Oxblood and Cordovan were common and well-known colors in the wider world or leather dying. You could get men’s shoes in both colors, for example.
The 1965 Dodge Monaco I featured a few months back also had a cordovan interior: https://www.curbsideclassic.com/vintage-reviews/1960s-vintage-reviews/chrysler-brands-1960s-vintage-reviews/vintage-m-t-review-1965-dodge-monaco-as-rugged-as-it-is-rich/
It’s true that some of the color names were not especially descriptive without reference to an actual color and trim book (for this post, I spent some time looking at textual lists of upholstery options muttering, “Uh, so, is that green?”), although that went for exterior colors as well.
Aside from sounding fancy and romantic, which was often a priority for luxury car customers, the names were significant in that the shades and patterns weren’t the same, either from year to year or sometimes within the same year. (There were often multiple shades of certain colors, like blue or green, that were available concurrently.)
The downsized 1977 GM B-bodies suffered from a higher front passenger floor, 2″ higher iirc. To give space for the cat converter. Was noticeable & uncomfortable, not luxurious. Can see it in the 1st picture, the Cadillac.
I ordered my black ’79 Malibu with the carmine red interior. I still find the color combination attractive after all these years. Unfortunately, the plastic parts on the interior tend to fade to a kind of pink. I have had to dye virtually all these parts over the years to keep the color matched. I am also on my 4th headliner, although one was replaced due to water damage when it was parked with the sunroof open during a sudden rain storm. Lucky for me, my dash pad is still in mint condition with absolutely no cracks or fading.
The “gray” interior on my 2009 Mustang sure looks black to me.
The remarkably restrained grey leather interior of the ’77 Fleetwood Brougham I bought on Ebay back in 2006 – I was hoping for something a bit more lurid , it being American and all. ]
What a car, never missed a beat – I only sold it [ for the same as I paid for it] because I discovered the A pillars were rotten.
I was down at the Lincoln Dealer checking out the new line of SUVs a couple of years ago. They offered a bunch of great exterior colors as well as interiors. Many pearl metallic exterior colors. One cream white pearl Aviator Black Label had a beautiful cordovan leather interior with contrasting wood accents, which featured laser engraving. I can’t afford a new Lincoln, but I still like the color combo of my ’06 Navigator: Ruby Red metallic exterior with tan leather interior. I will probably buy another used Lincoln in the near future, but probably only four or five years old. But it’s got to be the right color, inside and out.
Some pretty nice colours in there – I love the
orangeAntique Dark Terra Cotta in the ’74 Caddy. Growing up, my grandparents Volvo 164 and 264 each had great-looking orange leather, and my parents Toyota Townace was all blue inside (albeit cloth). But nowadays there seems to be such a minimal choice – would sir like dark grey or black? Both our Peugeots have black leather which seems a tad lifeless and cold – although the 508’s leather is Nappa and has orange stitching which provides a nice spot of character. My Ford Sierra’s interior is grey, but at least it’s velour which adds texture and warmth. Saw a 2013 Range Rover for sale recently with red leather interior, I’d buy it in a heartbeat!