The 1970 model year was the last go-around for the C-body Cadillac convertible, offered only in the De Ville series. This low-mileage Bayberry convertible is the last of those final full-size De Ville ragtops — not just one of the last, but the very last car off the production line in the summer of 1970.
Although Cadillac had always offered convertibles, the De Ville convertible actually had a fairly short lifespan, only seven years. Through 1963, there was a Series 62 convertible and the droptop Eldorado Biarritz, which was notionally part of the De Ville series, but substantially more expensive. With its standard leather upholstery and power windows, the cheaper Series 62 convertible was trimmed, equipped, and priced like a De Ville anyway, so for 1964, Cadillac made it one in name as well as substance.
The De Ville convertible weathered the late ’60s downturn in convertible sales rather well. Its worst year was 1965, with 15,000 sold, while its best was 1967, when sales hit 18,200. These were respectable numbers, nothing that ought to have caused Cadillac management any alarm.
So, then, why was this model dropped after 1970? I suspect the answer had less to do with De Ville sales than with the downward trend of the other GM models that shared its C-body shell. Sales of the Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight convertible hadn’t topped 5,000 units a year since 1960, and by the late ’60s, they seldom even topped 4,000. Buick Electra 225 Custom convertible sales weren’t that grim, but they averaged a little less than half the sales of the Cadillac.
Continuing the big C-body convertible into the next major generation didn’t really make financial sense unless all three divisions were onboard, and given the sales numbers, I don’t think enthusiasm was high in Flint or Lansing. If Cadillac had to go it alone, that changed the equations when it came to price and profit & loss.
The other consideration was that the role of the high-end convertible had shifted. Once upon a time, the senior makes offered big convertibles for bon vivants who wanted something with more dash than a sedan or a coupe. That role had been assumed to some extent by hardtops, and more recently by personal luxury models like the Riviera, Toronado, and FWD Eldorado. Did the senior marques still need convertible versions of their C-body cars? The long-term prognosis didn’t look good.
So, 1970 would be the end of the line for these biggest GM convertibles. Oldsmobile, which sold only 3,161 of them, probably didn’t care, and the 6,045 Electra 225 convertibles Buick built this year probably didn’t generate any strong feelings either. However, a Cadillac was still a Cadillac in 1970 (in the minds of the public, if not necessarily in fact), and Cadillac was able to boast that the De Ville was now “the only luxury convertible built in America.” (Lincoln and Imperial had both dropped theirs by 1969.)
De Ville convertible sales for 1970 totaled 15,172, which wasn’t too bad: It was more than twice the sales of the pillared Sedan de Ville and close to three times the production of the entire Calais line. Still, the decision had been made, and the final De Ville convertible rolled off the line in early July.
The 1970 De Ville pictured here was that final car. Its trim plate shows a scheduled build date of 06D (fourth week of June). The federal safety certification tag (above) is dated 07/70, and lists the VIN, FO338723. A 1991 letter to the second owner from Cadillac’s director of historical services confirms the provenance: “According to Cadillac’s factory records, the 1970 DeVille convertible vehicle number FO338723 is the last DeVille convertible built in 1970.”
The car was originally sold on July 23, 1970 by Bayer Motors in Dudley, Massachusetts, to one Elinor H. Leland, of Northboro. If you know anything about the history of Cadillac, the Leland name might sound familiar, and it should: Cadillac was founded in 1902 by Henry Martyn Leland (who later also founded Lincoln). Elinor Leland was the wife of William H. Leland, Henry Leland’s great nephew.
This car qualified as moderately equipped for a 1970 Cadillac. Its combination of options — automatic climate control, Soft Ray tinted glass, door edge guards, a 6-way power seat, whitewall tires, and an AM/FM signal-seeking stereo — make me think it was built with what Cadillac called Basic Group 1, which added up to $1,026.35 on top of the $6,068 base price and $122 destination charge. The total sticker was $7,216.35, a relative worth of about $67,000 today — a fairly modest price for a car like this.
For 1970, Cadillacs with leather upholstery still had real Tamo wood on the doors and dashboard. Leather was standard on the convertible, so it got the wood as well. Power windows and a remote left-hand mirror were standard equipment. (A right-hand mirror was a dealer-installed option this car doesn’t have.)
Despite the power seat, this car has the standard notchback bench seat rather than the increasingly popular Dual Comfort split bench.
Ventilated front discs had belatedly become standard on all Cadillacs for 1969 and 1970, bringing a welcome improvement in emergency stopping ability. The tires on this car are supposedly the original L78-15 whitewalls, which might impress a concours judge, but gives me some pause from a safety standpoint.
The Lelands kept this car for 12 years, but drove it very little and reportedly never put the top down even once. The top boot is still in its original packaging in the trunk. When they sold the car via a 1982 ad in The Self-Starter, the magazine of the Cadillac & LaSalle club, it had only about 5,500 miles. In the intervening 44 years, two subsequent owners have added only about 500 miles more. When these pictures were taken, the odometer read 6,037 miles.
Cadillac didn’t get out of the convertible business after the demise of the De Ville convertible, at least not right away. For 1971, the division took the next logical step and created a convertible version of the Eldorado. From a prestige standpoint, this avoided any question of how the convertible was supposed to rank relative to the Eldo, and since the 1971 E-body cars had a lot of structural commonality with the GM B-body models (which were offered as convertibles one last time), the Eldorado could piggyback on their convertible engineering.
The Eldorado ragtop never sold as well as the De Ville convertible, but since Cadillac had taken the opportunity to jack up the prices substantially (the 1971 Eldorado convertible started $1,716 above the last De Ville convertible), they made lots of money on it anyway. The ragtop Eldorado survived through 1976.
I have mixed feelings about these speculator-bait collector cars, which are unlikely to ever be driven any more than absolutely necessary to transfer them between long-term storage and auction or consignment sellers. As the last C-body Cadillac convertible, this one has some historical significance, and there’s something to be said for keeping it in showroom condition. However, the idea of a convertible whose top has never been and probably never will be lowered still somehow seems wrong to me, like getting a dog and then never letting it go outside.
Related Reading
Curbside Classic: 1969 Cadillac DeVille Convertible – Please Turn Out the Lights When You Leave (by J P Cavanaugh)
Car Show Classic: 1970 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham – The Last True Cadillac? (by Tom Klockau)
Aaron, your last statement is EVER so true. I grew up with a kid up the street whose Mom drove a gold `63 DeVille cvt., tan top & leather interior. She too, never once put the top down; having told me as a kid “I just like the look of a cvt. with the top raised”. Which even at 7-8 yrs old sounded strange. To me she missed the entire point of having a convertible. Oh well, to each their own I guess.
Thank you for featuring this “last of” 1970 DeVille cvt.! This is one of those milestone cars that crosses minds once in a blue moon. Glad this one was pampered from day #1….at least they knew what they had!
She might have had a (very minor) point, when I look at this car’s profile vs. the same year’s Coupe DeVille, top up convertible looks better proportioned to me. Nevertheless, if it were my car the top would never be up!
A very handsome car but I would never want a car that could not be driven. Even less a convertible that could never be topless. As the last C-Body convertible, it’s merely a curiosity to me. There were other American convertibles afterward in the Seventies and then a few more beginning in the Eighties.
My position is that if you aren’t going to drive a car, then take a picture, put it in your living room, and sell the car to someone who will enjoy it. Preservation is good but few are interested in cars older than their grandfather. It’s okay at that point to park it in a museum.
Two owners over 44 years put on no more than 500 miles. Initially I would go WTH. Yet clearly those two are just investors, who instead of buying Treasury bills, buy a car and store it away till it reaches maturity and then sell to reap the interest. Then wash, rinse, and repeat with the next investor. So the car sits in a climate controlled garage, never to see the sun upon it’s hood, never let it’s hair down, and roll down a road in the fresh air.
I wouldn’t say so. The original owners were all hardcore Cadillac collectors who liked the idea of owning the last C-body convertible. None of the three had the car less than 12 years (and the original owners, who owned it the least amount of time, did actually drive it some, just not very much). Some collectors are investors, at least in a theoretical sense, but many just like having the things. (A lot of collectibles are treated in a similar manner: Stamp collectors don’t stick rare stamps on the gas bill, after all.) Many only really think of parting with their collections when they’re moving into a nursing home, or the estate is looking to convert Grandpa’s old junk into something more liquid.
I do think that the future of this car is likely flippers and speculators, though.
Top, never been down. Lord! All kinds a ‘wrong”, there. Smart, looking, machine!! The “bench seat” in a “Caddy” is another “wrong”, on the list btw.
Why did buyers at this price point accept fake wood? The dash just looks so tacky.
These were the last of the “real” Cadillacs, as witnessed by the real wood trim. In 1971, it was plastic all the way and Cadillac was in the process of ruining its brand.
I really never understood these cars. They are enormous, but that enormity is mostly hood and trunk. The passenger compartment is not that big, especially in the rear. I suppose GM assumed the rear seat would remain empty most of the time.
My dad was a Buick distribution manager back in the day, every time he brought home an Electra or LeSabre convertible I couldn’t believe how tiny the back seat area was, too small for me, an average skinny kid, to be comfortable for more than a short ride. Certainly my mom never deigned to ride back there. Really a 2+2, not a true four seater.
I’m with you here ~ this is a beautiful and stunning car but a rag top is supposed to have the top down, no ? .
I don’t like driving / working on big cars but I sure do love them .
-Nate
The ’70 Cadillac was a great driving and handling car. Maybe not for the narrow twisty roads, but on highways and county roads, these cars were a joy to drive. Pretty quick too. I had a ’70 Coupe de Ville and since I was a young guy in my 20’s who also rode a motorcycle. I wasn’t driving like a grandpa either. I really liked those big front seats with the high back, like riding around in an armchair.I don’t think the back seat was that bad. One night we blew off work and headed down south for an automotive event; Lowrider Happening #1 in Fresno. Two of my buddies made their girlfriends drive their cars to Fresno while they slept in the back seat of my Coupe de Ville.