Built at the pinnacle of Cadillac prestige, this Glencoe Green 1960 Cadillac Fleetwood Sixty Special is lavishly trimmed, but not lavishly equipped — a $6,500 status symbol that originally left the factory with no air conditioning and no radio.
One of the things I’ll never understand about luxury cars of the ’50s was how many very expensive high-end models still charged extra for a heater. Nearly all 1959–1960 Cadillacs had heaters, but buyers paid extra for them (to the tune of about $129) even on most of the senior models — only the Eldorado series made the heater standard.
This was especially perplexing in a car like the Fleetwood Sixty Special, which had a list price of $6,233, a relative worth of about $85,500 in 2025 dollars. The Sixty Special included a host of other standard features — power steering, power brakes, Hydra-Matic, a power seat, power windows, and even power vent windows — but not a heater or any of the little gadgets commonly associated with Cadillac, like Guide-Matic headlight control.
The car pictured here DOES have a heater, and it was ordered with tinted glass and a six-way power seat rather than the two-way one that was standard on the Sixty Special. However, that was it for factory options — there’s no cruise control, no power locks or decklid release, and no air conditioning.
Air conditioning was at a transitional point for Cadillac customers in 1960. Buyers in hotter Southern states had embraced it enthusiastically, but customers in areas with less extreme summer heat still had qualms about the $474 price tag (a relative worth of around $6,500 in 2025 dollars!), and so the overall installation rate was only 46 percent this year. The take rate kept increasing, but it would be another 15 years before Cadillac made air (with automatic climate control) standard equipment.
Although this Sixty Special NOW has a signal-seeking pushbutton radio, the trim plate codes indicate that it didn’t leave the factory with one; when this radio was installed is unclear. (Given the hefty $165 list price, Cadillac dealers might have been able to undercut the factory price by offering to install a radio after delivery.)
Even without a radio or air conditioning, a Fleetwood Sixty Special was a very expensive car, listing for over twice as much as a 1960 Oldsmobile 88 or Buick LeSabre. The Sixty Special was not the top of the Cadillac line — an Eldorado Seville hardtop or Biarritz convertible started at $7,401 — but it was $1,153 more than a Cadillac Series 62 four-door hardtop (the make’s most popular model/body style in 1960). The Sixty Special was also the top four-door model, at least as far as 99.9 percent of Cadillac customers were concerned. The Fleetwood Seventy-Five was a formal limousine, while the Pinin Farina-built Eldorado Brougham was extremely rare and very pricey, with a base price of over $13,000.
A few years later, Cadillac would give the Sixty Special a longer wheelbase that endowed it with more rear legroom than lesser models, making it well suited for livery service. In 1959–1960, the Sixty Special was the same size as a Series 62 or De Ville, and according to the specifications, it actually had fractionally less rear headroom and legroom. Neither measurement was quite as generous as you’d expect of a car this size, and getting in and out could be awkward: The door openings were relatively narrow and the sunken foot wells were below sill level, so you stepped over and down.
The “dogleg” A-pillars accompanying the wraparound windshield didn’t help, although this remains a controversial point: Period testers frequently complained about these pillars, finding the dogleg unnecessarily obstructive, but Cadillac fans inevitably insist that they presented no real problem to experienced Cadillac owners. The doglegs were large enough that Cadillac used them to house the power window regulator switches and the wiper/washer controls.
I wish that whoever took these photos for the auction listing had found a setting with a lighter background, as the trees in the background make it harder to clearly see the rich green exterior color, which is really lovely. The Sixty Special could also be ordered with a padded Vicodec fabric roof, usually furnished in body color, but this car doesn’t have that option.
It does retain the special fluted wheel covers fitted to senior Cadillac models in 1960, plus the chrome rocker/rear fender trim that helped to distinguish the Fleetwood and Eldorado from cheaper models at a glance.
Unlike the Eldorado (top), the Sixty Special didn’t have an additional chrome border on the rear fenders, but it did have a row of nine chrome hash marks just ahead of the taillights on each side.
The hash marks, which were supposed to be simulated vents, were at least more restrained than the grandiose chrome-highlighted simulated jet intakes on the 1959 Sixty Special. I’ve always thought those were a bit much for a senior four-door model, like showing up to a black-tie event wearing a toy space helmet. They’re not without a certain Spaceman Spliff charm, but they would probably have seemed less out of place on a two-door Eldorado.
Later ’60s Fleetwood models would have wood veneer on the doors and dash, but the 1960 Sixty Special just had acres of bright metal — enough, on a sunny day, to make you readily understand why the 1968 Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 107 (which limits the reflectivity of components directly in the driver’s field of view) was long overdue.
The interior of this car is an attractive green ensemble, with a biscuit-and-button pattern. Unlike the 1953 Chrysler Custom Imperial I found earlier, the pattern continued over the seat faces, not just on the doors.
Although the lighting of the auction photos makes it almost impossible to discern except on the door trim, the “Cardinal pattern” nylon upholstery had a muted diamond pattern, framed in green leather-and-vinyl bolsters.
In the rear, the seat backs had finally shed the traditional robe cords in favor of map pockets. Lap robes were no longer on the accessory list, although some Cadillac dealers probably still had a few left in stock for the benefit of stubborn dowagers who refused to be talked into paying $129 for a heater. Both seat cushions and seat backs on the Sixty Special used coil springs rather than mere foam pads.
My favorite interior item is the two-tone green Tenite steering wheel, although on this car, the darker Groton Green grips seem to have been faded from long use.
I have previously expressed my fondness for the styling of the 1960 Cadillac line, which dialed back the excesses of the 1959 models while retaining a pleasing flamboyance. Nevertheless, this wasn’t the best year for Cadillac as a driver’s car. Cadillac had further softened the suspension for 1960, and the massive turning circle didn’t make these cars easy to manage in tight spaces. Power was adequate (0 to 60 in around 11 seconds), aided by the versatility of the dual-range four-speed Hydra-Matic transmission, but the brakes (now self-adjusting, and finned in back) were overmatched by the 5,000+ lb curb weight.
When I wrote about the 1966–1967 Fleetwood Sixty Special a while back, I wondered how many of them were ordered as de facto limousines and how many were just top-of-the-line sedans for people who insisted on always having the best of everything. With these 1959–1960 cars, I think most probably fell into the latter category. The 1960 Sixty Special was well-appointed, and its exterior styling was more restrained than the ’59, but its tangible advantages over a Sedan de Ville were subtle. This was still an era where buying a more expensive model typically got you higher-quality materials and trim rather than a lot of additional features. Whether that was worth the substantial price premium was arguable.
The biggest reason to buy a Sixty Special in 1960 was to be able to lord it over the peasants driving lesser Cadillac models. Even in those days, a lot of middle-class people bought Cadillacs, making some financial sacrifices to be able to afford the monthly payments on a Series 62 or De Ville. The price jump between the Sixty Special and the Series 62 was roughly the same as the jump between a Series 62 and a mid-level Buick or Oldsmobile, which served to filter out a lot of less-affluent status-seekers. In 1960, 11,800 Cadillac buyers were willing to pay an extra thousand dollars to demonstrate that they were rich enough to do so, even if they wouldn’t also pop for air conditioning or a factory radio.
For 1961, the Sixty Special would become a bit shorter (by all of 3 inches) and notably soberer in appearance, although it hadn’t entirely left all the “Sky Masters of the Space Force” styling cues behind. I spent a long time looking at this black 1961 Sixty Special, and finally decided that I respect it more and like it less than the 1960 model.
The ’61 was easier to park (front suspension changes cut the turning circle by 3 feet), the brakes were a bit better (now finned both front and rear), and the new “tonneau design” roof added both dignity and headroom. However, the proportions of all the 1961 closed models look just slightly off to me, like the greenhouse is out of sync with the body.
I’m also not that impressed by the interior’s green “Cambridge pattern” upholstery, whose wide vertical piping doesn’t look upmarket enough for a car this expensive. (It also hasn’t weathered well, although the black car had only about 14,000 miles when these photos were taken.) I again love the two-tone steering wheel, but looking at the dealer data book, I was dismayed to see that a heater STILL wasn’t standard — it would finally be added to the standard equipment list for all Cadillacs for 1962.
So, I’d take the 1960, although I remain more partial to the two-door hardtops — and I think that doing without air conditioning was just miserly in a car whose purpose was to show everyone that you were king of the hill.
Related Reading
1960 Cadillac Eldorado Seville: An Artifact Of The Tomorrow That Never Was (by me)
Curbside Musings: 1960 Cadillac Series 62 Convertible – The Big Breakfast (by Joseph Dennis)
Car Show Classic: 1960 Cadillac Series 62 – Patina With Class (by Tom Klockau)
Lincoln Continental Vs. Cadillac Sedan De Ville – Which Held Its Value Better In The Early 1960s? (by me)
1967 Cadillac Fleetwood Sixty Special And Brougham: Cadillac Builds The Ultimate Passenger’s Car (by me)
My dad bought a 1960 Cadillac 2 door hardtop in 1967. I learned to drive in that car. Had a heater but no A/C but there was room for an aftermarket unit that worked well. It was the glory days of AM radio and the factory AM radio with signal seeking Touch Bar sounded better than the radios of today.
Seeing these Cadillacs always makes me appreciate the ‘61 Lincoln even more.
Not too unusual to see a ‘60 without a/c, as the take rate was still below 50%. Strange about a heater still being an option. I don’t think I’ve ever seen an American car in the last 70 years without a heater. Weren’t they de facto standard equipment, but with a delete option available? I would be surprised if there were any Cadillacs built without a heater in 1960.
As for the radio, perhaps the dealers practice was to order all cars without a factory radio, then install one at the dealership. Back in the sixties and early seventies there was a large Chevy dealer nearby that always had over 100 cars in inventory – all ordered without radios. The customer would then pick out one and it would be installed before delivery. They were factory Delco radios, just dealer installed. Of course back then the choices were minimal, being manually tuned, a push button, or the rare wonder bar or AM-FM.
That’s what it became for Cadillac in 1962, but not prior to that.
There were a few — about 1 percent of production (i.e., around 1,400 cars).
FWIW, the ’53 Eldorado had a standard heater.
I think all the Eldorado series did. As it says in the text, it was still standard on the Eldorado Seville and Biarritz in 1959–1960.
Thank you for this story. The pricing structure American auto manufacturers used looks amazingly complicated. Was it a law that made heaters standard equipment? Tinted glass as an example: wouldn’t it have been cheaper and easier for tinted glass to be standard and then not having to stock every piece of glass in tinted and clear versions?
Cadillac finally made climate control standard in 1975. But prior to that heater controls and vents had to be designed and installed for the small number of non-a/c cars made in the early 1970s. And probably clear glass for those few cars too unless the buyer paid extra for the tinted glass, which was sometimes bundled with the air conditioning.
Indeed, the problem of not having a heater wouldn’t seem to have as much to do with creature comfort as safety, i.e., isn’t the heater an integral part of the front window defroster?
That would seem to be the biggest issue of lacking a heater. I guess there could be a standard defroster that simply blew cold air, but it still doesn’t sound like a very safe situation. I once had a 1985 Corvette where the heater quit working and the defroster did virtually nothing in certain weather conditions.
Automakers really clung to wanting to be able to advertise lower advertised prices by making common features technically optional (even if no cars were built without them). On a basic Chevrolet Biscayne or Ford Falcon, I can certainly understand that, but what I find so perplexing is doing the same thing on high-end cars like this, where power windows and even a power seat were standard, but the heater was not.
I have an unverified theory that the reason Cadillac finally made automatic climate control standard in 1975 was mostly because for a while they they ended up doing multiple inflation-driven price increases a year, rather substantial ones, and adding climate control (which like 99 percent of buyers were ordering by then) was a way to try to soften the blow.
Somewhat ironically the 1939 VW Beetle was the first car with a standard heater.
And, yet, another esoteric CC tidbit rears its ugly head. I had no idea that chrome brightwork became federally limited in 1968. Really puts into perspective stuff like Harley Earl’s alleged requirement of at least fifty pounds of chrome on the cars he championed.
As to the A/C and heater thing, first, I wonder when Lincolns and Imperials began having those two options as standard equipment. Surely, the heater was standard way before good ‘ole GM had it as a Cadillac option, but standard A/C had to be at least past 1968, primarily because AMC made a big deal of it being the first on every Ambassador that year. IIRC, I think it was the following year A/C became standard equipment on Lincolns, perhaps due to AMC’s marketing.
And although it seems a bit far-fetched, I wonder if it was actually possible to get a Cadillac with A/C but ‘without’ a heater. Even an underdash, dealer installation in such a way would be odd. If so, one equipped in such a manner would be one rare Caddy. Further, any Cadillac sans heater would surely have to have been a special order car. I can’t feature any Cadillac in dealer inventory without a heater.
Did Cadillacs have model-specific heater controls? If they were the same as more plebian models and used the same no heater block-off plate, well, I can kind of see the logic since the cost would be relatively low. It would simply be a low-cost marketing move to see if it would stick.
Likewise, the optional Cadillac lap robes may have been a throwback to an age when wealthy old timers were stuck in their ways of luxury cars that did not have heaters. You know, back in the day of the ‘Big 3’ luxury marques: Packard, Pierce-Arrow, and Peerless.
The explicit scope of FMVSS 107 was relatively limited (it applied to items in the driver’s direct field of view: windshield wipers, inside windshield moldings, horn rings and steering wheel hubs, and inside rearview mirror frames/mounts), but it’s pretty clear that it pushed automakers to dial back their interior brightwork habit, knowing that it was now being scrutinized.
I don’t see anything that says it wasn’t, and the heater and A/C controls were separate (on opposite sides of the steering column, even), so it’s conceivable, although I’m sure any such thing would have been very rare — maybe some eccentric rich person in a hot desert area.
Nope.
Lincoln made the heater standard
on the 1961 Continentalin 1960. It looks like Chrysler may not have made a heater technically standard on the Imperial until 1965 (!), although I think all or nearly all had one.“I wish that whoever took these photos for the auction listing had found a setting with a lighter background, as the trees in the background make it harder to clearly see the rich green exterior color, which is really lovely.”
Right. And since BAT is picky about photos sent and charges $330 to send their own photographer, you’d think they would have done a better job.
I think they sort of outwitted themselves. The setting is picturesque, and if this had been a white or silver car, it would have been fine, but Glencoe Green against an arboreal background, well…..
The text of the listing says the car was offered on behalf of an estate, so it’s possible that there were multiple cars offered for sale and they just photographed them all in that same setting.
What great pics & a great era! I would actually prefer no A/C. Nothing but problems most times anyway
Try living in Phoenix with no A/C! I live in Southern NM and the A/C is a blessing. A/C is the very definition of a luxury car.
Every model year from 59-66 the rear fins on the Caddy got smaller and smaller. Made it easy to identify you had the latest.
Great work Aaron.
To your point about luxury cars of the 1950s charging extra for heaters, I was also surprised by this when I was doing the article on windshield wipers and washers. Aside from the pretty much standard practice back then of charging extra for heaters and/or defrosters, there was also an extra charge for windshield washers. Nearly every car had them, but they were technically “options”. As you say about radios, I have come to the belief that a large number of these optional things were simply dealer-installed. This probably worked out better all around in that it gave some customers (those who cared) a chance to reduce the sticker price on vehicle, and the dealer a chance to upcharge and negotiate for dealer installed devices.
Not unlike the practice I recall being common in the 1970s/1980s of charging extra for floor mats. I recall more than once walking out of a failed showroom “negotiation” because I refused to pay for the dealer-installed floor mats.
I think a lot of automakers still do the floor mat thing — they did well into the ’00s, at any rate. It’s such an easy way to add a little gravy, since floor mats involve practically zero dealer labor to “install” and the markup is obviously high.
My father-in-law was in sales in the Ohio River Valley in the 1950s. He told me that somebody in the company HQ arbitrarily drew a line across the United States and dictated that company cars north of that line got heaters, and south of the line got AC units. Pity the poor salesman who was based in the southern Appalachians.
A/C was an expensive and relatively rare option in the 1950s. Maybe one existed, but I never heard of a factory air conditioned car without a heater.
They did exist. Collectible Auto once did a photo feature on a Texas car (I think an early Chevy II) with factory AC but no heater.
Oddly, Studebaker made heaters standard on their super-stripped Scotsman in ’58.
Excellent article. There was a wonderful time when you could order your car the way you wanted. Add stuff, delete stuff, not like today.
Our families first car with AC was our 1963 T-Bird. I can not imagine a car today without AC.
Funny story: Last summer I had my 1966 T-Bird convertible at home, and the neighbors across the street had young children. Those little children raced across the street to see this old relic. My Bird has four power windows but not the option of power vent windows. The Dad pointed out to his very young children, you had to manual operate the vent windows. Something these very young children had never experienced.
When did the wheelbase return? 1965? Also interesting to see all the Big Three top-end luxury cars reverting to wood interior trim in the early 60s – Cadillac and Lincoln in ’61, and Imperial in ’63. Noticing Mercedes, perhaps?
Yup, the Sixty Special again got its own longer wheelbase for 1965.
The 1960 looks like a space ship, I’m ready to take off in it .
-Nate
What a magnificent automobile, the period of time when Cadillac truly was “The Standard of the World” in many respects, when materials and assembly were really top drawer. This ’60 is a gorgeous example, the color is lovely.
The ’61 and ’62 60S have always been my favorite “modern” Cadillac, along with the postwar ’47 60S we had. Our neighbor down the street Dr. Stapelton was Superintendent of Schools then and they had a black ’61 60s just like the one shown here. It impressed me as an elegant and highly exclusive car at my young age, which it was. The toning down of flamboyance was a very smart move by Cadillac, as it had gotten out of hand by 1959, even though quality was very high.
It’s curious what was regarded as essential on a luxury car – and what wasn’t. Power vent windows even, but no heater? I can’t remember our family ever having a car without one. Sure they were options, but I wouldn’t have thought of them as a luxury item. I guess that might make sense if you lived in a hot climate.
And the radio – it’s hard to imagine somebody laying out all that money on a Cadillac really wanting to save a few dollars by having the dealer install one. Perhaps the second owner had it added.
A lovely car though, if curiously specced.
Well my dad was an Olds guy but Grandpa T, mom’s dad, was definitely a Sedan de Ville Caddy guy. Traded every four years as so many Americans did back then. Living in Minnesota they Definitely had heaters. I think AC too though people today forget that many people didn’t like AC then, at least in the North. My gramby was one of them, thought it made the house “stuffy”.
The featured 1960 Sixty Special is so elegant in the Glencoe Green shade with a green interior. I greatly prefer the 1960 model over the flamboyant ’59.
My great uncle Frank, who was a successful small business owner, had a series of Cadillacs, the first one being a ’58 Sixty Special he purchased around 1960 as part of an estate sale. It had a/c and power windows including the front vent windows, but the rear vent windows were manually operated. It was the first car I rode in with a/c.
This car was quite the contrast with my mom’s 1961 Chevy Bel Air 6-cylinder with manual transmission!
As an owner of a modern Cadillac in a similar color love seeing this beauty from the past!
I don’t think I have ever seen a 60 in that color of green – it is really lovely, both inside and out!
I agree that the 1960 60 Special is a massive improvement over the 59 – I remember the first time I saw a photo of the 59 60
Special, thinking “No, they couldn’t have done that!” But they did. The 60 toned down the excesses. I struggle with the 61 – I think that roofline looked fabulous on the 62-64 versions, but the 61 has always seemed a little “off” to me too, for reasons I can’t quite put my finger on.