(I saw this Eldo in traffic yesterday, so it’s time to take it out for another spin. First posted 11/17/2012) Now, my xB has some good qualities, but also a couple of major faults: it’s noisy as hell at speed when the pavement is less than baby-bottom smooth. And its ride is harsh. So now that I’m going to be crossing the threshold of a new decade before long, I’m thinking something a bit plusher and quieter is in order, like this fine Eldorado. And there would be another bonus: it would be profession-appropriate.
In Walter Moseley’s Easy Rawlins mysteries set in South-Central LA , Mofus–the manager of the apartment building that Easy (secretly) owns–glides his big Cadillac into the parking lot every Friday night, opens the window, and yells: RENT!!! RENT!!! RENT!!! Now that’s the effective way to get folks to pay their rent on time. That was in the late fifties, but if it had been a couple of decades later, an Eldorado coupe like this would have been Mofus’ ride for sure. Explains why my Xb just doesn’t seem to command any respect with my tenants.
And that’s not all; I could use it for all my other professional applications. Yes, that’s what I need to slide behind when I head off to Jerry’s for some plumbing fittings. Just need to get me a utility trailer and shit-can that rattle-trap old Ford truck of mine.
With 500 cubic inches under the hood, towing a big Bobcat or excavator would be a breeze. No more renting a big dump truck to pull them. For that matter, I could just rent one of those big double-axle dump trailers if I’m moving some dirt.
The vinyl top has a bit of skin cancer, but I’m sure I could find some similar-colored caulk to patch it up. I’ve got quite the collection by now.
Hmm; no warranty. No problem; these things are built like tanks. If that same power train can pull a motorhome down the road, it can surely pull a Bobcat without breaking a sweat.
Here’s the kicker: I can make money on the whole deal, as my Xb is worth quite a bit more than this Eldo. And someone might give me a couple of hundred for my truck.
So I’d be way ahead, anyway you look at it. Just need to practice yelling RENT!!! with the right intonation.
Hmmmmmmmmmmm Paul N. with his only vehicle being a 1976 Eldorado?
Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight, that will be the same day I decide to take on a 1972 VW Beatle as my only means of transportation. 😛
Thanks for the Saturday laugh, Paul. I too had a sleazy landlord with a Cadillac. Same color too! His was a CTS, though.
Our furnace was condemned twice by the gas company inspector, and he was so cheap he refused to fix the leaking drain in my bedroom ceiling, but he had a fly automobile.
I remember landlords like that. The wiring in our entire building was condemned, but 20 years later when he sold it nothing had been done. I can’t think what he drove, but it was always new, shiny, and very out-of-place in our street.
Paul,
You would be such a pimp! For three grand what’s there to think about? Just do it.
Had a friend bought one of these back in the eighties. His broke down a lot but this does look like a nice one. I used to buy three grand luxury liners when I was on the road selling industrial advertising (after giving up my Toyota Chinook when rust threatened safety). Enjoyed both of them, 77 Chrysler New Yorker, 82 Thunderbird. Each gave me 2 years and 50,000 miles of reliable service. The Chrysler I passed on to my sister and after driving it a couple more years she passed it on to her son who drove it even longer. Bear in mind the 77 Chrysler was 9 years old when I bought it.
I’ll take your truck for a couple hundred bucks, that OD transmission would work real nice behind the hopped up 223 in my truck.
You’ll need the difference between the eldorado and the xB just to pay for gas……it might last you a month or so. Maybe if you drive with some restraint you’ll hit 8 or 10 mpg? Small price to pay for rolling in style, and being able to look down on all the other folks in their Subaru’s!
Try parking that in any west coast compact parking space. Hehehe
I’ll use one when I need to!
Why…that car’s no bigger than a new Civic! 🙂
Here’s a great way to kill a few minutes on a lazy, rainy Saturday afternoon:
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yfbnazu9Dnk
Or this (my personal dream car)
http://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=related&v=oN7CKsqR3Eg
For those who are too young to remember what 500 cubes under the hood might sound like:
http://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=related&v=ZBsUy2VzGg0
I hope these links work ok. I’m cutting and pasting from my iPad, looks like these are mobile links..
I dunno; all three of those sounded to me like they could use a tune-up- they weren’t running very smoothly.
Talk about low compression…
Beat him down to 50 cents a pound and buy!
I think that I need some privacy, a large towel, a big extra size bucket of KFC, and a few moments alone….Would not be mistaken for a generic ’83/93/2003 anything.
Paul,
Afraid you and me look at things a little differently. And I’m past the new decade (I’m 62). Going from my Porsche 924S to my ’05 xB (or bB as the trim kit is insisting) is a slight step down, but not at all that disappointing on the back roads. Going from the 924S to something like that Eldorado (I’ve driven them before) would be legitimate grounds to put the beside Browning Hi-Power 9mm to my temple and pull the trigger.
No ‘effing way. Ever. I’ll walk first.
It’s you, Paul. From the first time I had interaction with you, I said to myself “now there’s a guy who is going to wind up with a 70s Eldorado someday.” You have tried to force yourself into Eugene-style conformity for far too long. It is time to let your inner gold chains and jewelry out into the sunshine and show everyone just what the hell a carbon footprint looks like.
Personally, I think I may be with Syke. Now if it were a New Yorker Brougham or a Town Car . . . .
“It is time to let your inner gold chains and jewelry out into the sunshine and show everyone just what the hell a carbon footprint looks like.”
*golf clap*
If should have one of those “green leaf” eco gauges like the Fusion Hybrid, except it should show a burning tire dump.
Aw shucks, Jim. Nobody knows me quite like you do!
I’m not sure “carbon footprint” is quite adequate; more like “carbon steam roller” maybe. That might be a good nickname for this car, actually.
Carbon Bigfoot!
Coal Mine!
Make sure you add the optional Piss Off the Hippies (TM Denis Leary) package with whale skin hubcaps, all leather cow interior and big brown baby seal eyes for headlights.
For Bonus points you can take John Wayne out of his Cryopod and have him ride shotgun.
Somehow I have the feeling the F-100 and xBox aren’t going anywhere…
i may be wong the later yrs eldos have 425 cu ins, i knew mines was 500.
I read these transaxle use a big thick bike chain to transfer power from flywheel to torque-converter.
i saw it under the hood, the engine is kind fo sitting to the pass side. similar to a 4wd front diff.
the eldo has un-equal length drive shaft too.
I never goose her enuf to produce torque steer. the CV joint were no cheap, so I do like to baby her.
the fuel consumption is a cash burn, every time a fill up can put on mastercard and the feelings is priceless.
I never had to plow thru snow, i bet is like an ice breaker just ease forward slowly, it packs just about all the wt on the front axle. they wt 4000+ lbs
http://s233.beta.photobucket.com/user/bc8163892/media/cars/22a7.jpg.html?sort=3&o=152
Technically they have equal length shaft and are interchagable from side to side, they just use an intermediate shaft supported by a bracket attached to the pass side of the block, making the length between the CV joints the same, so they have equal but opposite geometry.
Do it.
You know what I never understood? WHY did Cadillac not color-code the wheelcovers on the ’76 Eldorados? One could by a LDO Maverick a few years earlier & get color-coded caps yet only some “special-edition” Eldo convertibles got color coded wheelcovers in ’76. This car’s black wheelcovers are both correct and wrong.
Memory time.
When I lived in the ‘burbs of Chicago, my dad had a beat-up white ’76 Eldorado convertible with red interior. My stepmother’s mother (in her eighties) had a low-mileage Florida-rusted ’76 Bonneville Brougham 2-door in Baked-Beige.
I was probably twelve & for some reason I had to ride with “Gram” in the ’76 Eldorado. We’re at a 2-way stop sign waiting to turn left. She evidently was not choosy when it came to “available openings” and she pulls directly into the path of two cars.
She floored the accelerator from a dead stop which broke traction, squealing the front tires of the Cadillac — the only time I ever saw it do an actual burnout. She stayed in it pretty much all the way through first gear while I was holding onto the seat.
Right as she about drove into the rear of the car we pulled in behind, she turned, looked at me with this disappointed/puzzled look on her face and said, “My! This car doesn’t have as much pickup as my Bonnie Ville!” I’ll never forget that!
The 76 had the 500. The 77 and 78 have the 425. I haven’t figured whether the car is silver or blue. My 78 is silver, but has a very unique quarter window treatment. Each quarter window is divided in half vertically. An El Deora, perhaps.
Mine has 38K on the clock. The vinyl roof is flawless. I’ve had it since 2000, it’s gotten wet twice. Really mint, except I’ve replaced the front fender extensions, and the backs are deteriorating. The back resonerator fell off this summer, haven’t had it fixed yet. It still is quiet as can be. Next year will have repaired.
That feature car is a great buy at $ 2,995. It’s a pity this genre of cars gets such a bad rap. Those silly 70’s movies and disco gave Eldos a bad reputation. The 78 and the 75 I had 20 years ago were owned by extremely conservative older men, not pimps.
You’re absolutely right. Every person I knew who owned one of these when they were new was an elderly, distinguished-looking person, never saw any superfly or mob types driving one of these. Only in movies.
I also think it’s almost a crime that someone or various people took good care of this car for 36 years and now its asking price is just $2995. Unless the car is a mechanical basket case, that just stinks.
$ 2.995 for the car is giving it away. I paid $ 7,500 for mine in year 2000, really thought the value would increase. I doubt I could get $ 5,000 now.
Last year, I was getting gas, and a guy came up to me and asked if I wanted to sell it. I told him I’d accept offers, over $ 7,500. He said thanks and walked away like I was nuts.
What gets me is 6,7,8 year old regular cars (with over 100K) are selling for 3-10 thousand. But a nice vintage bit of history is worth next to nothing.
I’ll keep my old cars.
Your high-end pricing model won’t
win you many customers. I saw a
neighborhood thrift store that had
operated for decades fold up within
one year after a new manager with
that mentality came in.
Donated items were priced according to
category for years. All used coffee
mugs $2, all books, $2. Pants $5,
shirts $4. Shoes $8/pair. Sofas $50,
tables, $30. Sales were brisk, and
stuff stayed in inventory for rarely
more than 3 days. Profits were high.
Many of the full-timers had been
there more than 5 years. Part-timers
stayed on for at least 2 years, and
college students did repeat stints
between semesters. Overall, the
store was never short-handed,
and customer service was excellent.
The final manager started pricing by
brand, with so-called high-end brands
a few dollars more per item. Second-hand
Nike shoes started selling from $15-20,
later as high as $50. Used Ethan Allen
furniture was marked up $50 over “ordinary”
brands. Certain brands and “nicer” looking
coffee mugs and drinking glasses were
priced higher than run-of-the-mill – as much
as $4-6 a *piece*.
Merchandise started crowding the sales
floor. Customers started asking staff if they
could get a deal on this item or that.
Management and staff said no: used items,
all prices and sales final. Profits stagnated
and started to fall. Some full-timers lost
their status, and part-timers left after
only several months. Store morale wasn’t
quite what it was several months earlier.
Employee acquisition and retention became
more of a challenge. The new manager then
started accepting only “high-end” brands
of certain categories of donations, figuring
that would make the place more attractive.
Pretty soon, all coffee mugs were $4 or
higher. Shoes, $15-20 minimum. Customers
who frequented the store daily or every other
day started coming less and less. They were
among the community’s poorest residents.
A few more well-to-do shoppers came in,
some on a repeat basis, but overall it wasn’t
the same foot traffic the store used to
get. It was the *poorer*, frequent stoppers-
in who made that store what it was over
several decades, and the new management’s
higher-tier pricing model had driven most
of them away!
During the store’s history, it had more than
survived several rent increases in the slot
it occupied. But when the last increase
came, the store’s profits could not cover
the rent, and within 2 months, almost 1
year after the final manager took over,
the thrift store closed. Two months later,
that decades-long locally run thrift was
replaced by a national pharmacy chain
with two other branches already in
town.
So much for higher prices.
Get what you can if you decide to sell
a car, and be content. Otherwise
you’ll be stuck with a lawn ornament
once you no longer drive it as often
or have moved on to another car.
If you actually own and rent-out homes in Eugene, especially near the campus, you are definitely a one-percenter!
To be in the one percent takes $380k annual income and $11.6 million in net worth (for my age bracket). I’m still comfortably in the 99%, but not complaining.
My houses/dubplexes (about a dozen rental units) are all in the College Hill/Friendly St. Area, and most are very modest little bungalows and cottages that I rescued from the wrecking ball (from near the campus) and moved into my neighborhood. And all my tenants are very nice, and pay their rent on time, so maybe I don’t need the Eldo after all.
When I bought my 66 Deville convertible in 1980, a co worker used to laugh that we should be slum lords. I asked what would he do if we were returning to the car after collecting rent and some young toughs were sitting on the car waiting to greet us.
The guy replied that he’d be blocks away seconds after seeing the guys. That was the end of the slum lord business.
Just teasing you. I still can’t wrap my brain around some of the home prices near the college. Small two bedroom bungalows going for $350K. If you buy near the campus, you’ll never be short of renters though.
Little Carrot:
Those small two-bedroom bungalows
would fetch up to $500,000 here in
southwestern CT. Half a MILLION
dollars for a 1,400sq ft house!
I will have a Transporter in Eugene first thing Monday morning to haul away that beat up old Ford.
Scrap prices are down but we can work something out. 😀
Just looked on ebay. There’s an El Deora listed. A gray and red two tone, it has the vertical quarter windows like mine. The ebay car has the most grotesque looking headlights I’ve ever seen, plus a chrome hood header.
I’m glad my car is “normal” with just the odd window treatment.
Well, personally, I’d rather have a Seville with custom “DS-11” plates.
Nice car, but it would look even better with a white interior and navy blue carpets and dash. I have a snap-together Jo-Han ’76 Eldo in just that color combo. The paint is a factory color, Georgian Silver.
I had that exact same snap-together model. That’s the first thing I thought of when I saw the photograph. IIRC, it featured an open sunroof.
I still have that JoHan model. It’s the only build type model I have left. All my other (about 20 or so) basically fell apart through the years and were thrown away. Years ago, I spray painted it white with maroon interior to match my 75 Eldo. Looked at it just now to note the little hood ornament is broken off.
Georgian Silver, that is the same color as my 78 Eldo. A pretty car, with the matching interior. But the Cotillion white with maroon leather has no comparison.
Don’t have the ambition to respray to match the 78. The first paint job probably lost whatever value the model had.
Hideous.
You know Paul, if you did buy that car, you would have an endless amount of fun in it by just watching the expressions on the faces of everyone who knows you every time they saw you behind the wheel!
Plus, it would be a great advertising piece for CC!!!
Quite true, on the first point.
Every day driver?.8-10mpg at $4+ per gal unleaded .Must have deep pockets or your wife is going to kill you Paul! “Weres the christmas money Paul?”
Get a 77-90 Caprice ,same experience without the wallet bashing?, which was the general
consensus when these Caddys were new!.
If it has to be a Caddy, try a 75-80 Seville. 18mpg!.
Just found a spreadsheet on my 78 Eldo. From 2000 to 2010, I drove the car 2,922 miles, used 225.05 gallons, at a 12.983934 MPG. All around town, barely, barely ever past 40 MPH.
I replaced the spark plugs in 2011, no tune up, but I’ve never updated the spreadsheet. I always thought the MPG was pretty good, better than my 75. My 66 Deville got 8 MPG, no matter what. You could see the gas gauge dropping as you drove.
As bad as gas consumption was, I’d love to have that 66 back. Miss it after 28 years.
Sorry but there is no comparison between a B-box and a real Eldo like this. The Eldo is a much more solid and substantial car with a lot more power, smother and quieter ride.
Thats what I said recently on another piece about driving old cars. I was reminded that its still cheaper than making payments on a new car.. Well that was before the curreent crop of low rate deals.
It would certainly be an interesting choice for autocross.
Look at how big and square the back end of that thing is. It wouldn’t take a great deal of modification of the sheet metal to have a six-foot pickup box between those fenders.
I hate to be the one to throw a spanner in the works, but having had one of these, I can say that they are not good cars- at least mine wasn’t- and I’m saying that as an ex- Lancia Gamma owner, so I know a thing or two about unreliability (or character as they say here in the UK.)
I had mine in 1994. That was when petrol was 78 cents a gallon, so even on my 25 hours a week at Western Auto, I could to use it to commute from the squat I was living in in Kansas City after I left home to my high school in Shawnee. (that is a story for another time)
The Eldorado- called Supafly by my friends, that ‘big old ugly car’ by my family, was a very nice looking ’78 with no rust to be found anywhere. It was clearly well maintained, because a friend had a ’76 that had big rust holes in the middle of the panels- not on the edges, but proper rust belt holes where you could see the power window mechanism. In spite of looking good, it had a number of faults. The trim on the inside of the doors is made of brittle plastic on top of foam with a design life less than the life expectancy of the average new Eldorado buyer. The rest of the trim was equally poor in quality. That said, it was a comfortable thing, and I can attest to its ability in snow- I could drive uphill on the icy road that the news crews always film the cars sliding down when we got an ice storm.
However, it did have a few issues. Namely, it had the worst personality of any vehicle I’d ever had. This was the vehicular equivalent of a southern plantation owner or a pimp who beats his ho’s. It certainly did not take kindly to being driven around by a scrawny commie-punk boy with a purple (or sometimes blue) mohican.
A ‘nice’ car is one who will give its last ounce of strength to get you somewhere safe before dying. Supafly was not one of those.
Driving back in the morning rush hour from a party in North Kansas City, it decided to blow its radiator and water pump on the Broadway Bridge, something I became very aware of due to the cursing of those trying to get past, and the choice words of the traffic reporter on the radio while I was waiting for someone to call the police to call the AAA. (remember breakdowns before mobile phones?)
I remember driving up the Paseo at 2am in a very rough neighborhood when there were gunshots on the street above. Now, a heroic, or even moderately nice car would drive past quickly, getting me somewhere safe, maybe even home. What did Supafly decide to do? Why throw a driveshaft on the hill. Obviously the parking brake didn’t work, nor did park gear without the driveshaft. The police driving the other direction must have thought the bullets came from my car, and then pulled behind me and tried to get me out of the car, guns drawn- not hearing my protests that if they removed me from the brake, 5000lbs of malaise would crash into their Panther- which it did. I should point out that they were very confused by my car, which fit the profile of one involved in such an incident, scrawny, white, suburban mohicaned me certainly did not.
Months later, I awoke to WHAAAAAAAAAAA and on a -8 night, went outside to hear the horn on Supafly waking the entire neighbourhood. I finally lost my patience with him, grabbed a hammer, opened the hood and beat on the horn until it died. He paid me back by popping all of the paint and primer off of the bootlid.
He was promptly sold and replaced by an ’83 Mk1 Jetta GLI- equally unreliable and costly to keep going, yet that VW took me across the country and always chose convienent times to become unwell.
The moral of the story- Eldorados are evil. Evil.
It is a shame you didn’t know my old car-mentor Howard. He would have told you “Never buy an old luxury car.” But, I guess its a good thing you didn’t know him, or else I would not have been laughing out loud while reading about your Eldo ownership. Fortunately, when I ignored him, my 63 Fleetwood did not treat me quite so badly.
That is one VERY clean Eldorado, although, I personally prefer RWD Caddies of the day. One thing I found very cheesy is the addition of a stainless steel (or plastic stainless steel looking “clip”) that is half-assed attached between the lower front fender trim up to the bumper. Of all the Eldos of this vintage I’ve seen, NONE of them had this piece attached ‘flush”. Really looked cheap. Interior, on the other hand, very plush and elegant even if the “wood” trim was faux . . . . compared to lesser cars of the day, it really stood out.
Yeah- your mentor is very right. After Supafly, I owned a number of ‘big’ cars, but they were always base models- Furies, Newports- and never anything from GM. Supafly killed GM for me.
My next auto fiasco was another luxury car- a Lancia Gamma. The difference, was that now I had the money to maintain it without crippling me. This meant that I spent thousands of pounds on something that was perhaps a worse investment than flushing money down the toilet, clogging the sewer pipe that ran under the house and having to dig up the slab to replace it. I could have put a bigger deposit on our house had it not been for the Gamma. Sigh.
I now drive a Classic Saab 900 SE loaded with aircon and sunroof and am very happy to write a cheque to the specialist whenever it needs something. It is a very nice car though, giving lots of warning before needing its very regular and expensive hospital treatments- and generally breaking in very sensible rather than infuriating ways.
The moral should be if you can’t afford it new, you shouldn’t buy it used! Regardless, Eldorados, like Hecubus, are still evil. Evil.
In 1976 I was in the 5th grade. I went to a Catholic elementary school and when we got dropped off it was a big deal to see what the parents were driving each morning. I remember one of my classmates Cindy getting dropped off in a 1969 gold Coupe deVIlle. It was her grandmother’s car, and every day we would see Cindy get out of that car. Then one morning what happened to appear? A stunning charcoal grey 1976 Eldorado Biarritz. Yes, that’s right. It was one of the first ever Eldorados made with the Biarritz package. Apparently it was a very late 1976 model and Cadillac introduced the package, sans the pillowed interior, in late ’76. It had the stainless chrome accent molding and the heavily padded landau top with opera lights and smaller rear opera windows plus the matching color keyed hubcaps as mentioned in earlier posts, not the black ones. I think that may be the reason they didn’t offer the color keyed ones that year on the base models, to save them for the future Biarritz model that would be introduced. I truly remember how striking that car was. My Mom had a 1972 Olds Toronado at the time and I remember wanting her to sell it to get an Eldorado because it looked so much nicer! The ironic thing is that Cindy’s mom owned a diner in Providence that operated for many, many years. I would frequent that diner and spoke to Cindy and her Mom for many years to come. She kept that Eldorado well into the late 80’s, and sadly it deteriorated badly due to neglect. One day she actually showed me the brochure/pamphlet that GM had produced for the ’76 Biarritz “special edition”. She even had the window sticker, and the Biarritz added about $1500 to the price of the base model. I remember her telling me it was on the showroom floor when she brought her mother’s deVille in for service one day and she fell in love with it and had to have it. The neighborhood they lived in went through a very rough period, and I know that the car was stolen once and recovered. She said it was never the same after that and replaced it with what she referred to as a little sportster, i think it was an ’89 or ’90 Cutlass Calais GT! Quite a difference from the Eldorado!!
The “RENT!” in this thread title is
confusing. I thought it was about a
car rental place that rents out old
cars like this Eldorado.
Nice find, by the way.
$2995 for a 76 Eldo that looks to be rust free with a very good interior. Where I live they would be asking $6000 for one like that. They want $3000 for rusted Eldorados with ripped leather here.
That was 4 years ago. Wghat would be the price today?.
Paul:
Other than the vinyl top, that’s one fine looking Eldo!
When you were getting ready to re-run this article, did you kick yourself thinking “Coulda, woulda, shoulda?” 😉
A total of six front bumper overriders/guards.
Mustn’t let that 5mph bumper get damaged!
I love these. Sick, I know, but I do. I’d highly prefer the convertible–there was one I saw in Durham multiple times, a white convertible with red leather interior, that was absolutely lust-worthy–but this one is quite nice in its own right. And for $2995? Even controlling for the fact that this is an old article, unless there was something bad wrong with the engine or transmission, that’s a deal.
Sadly ;
Even here in Los Angeles these are getting very thin on the ground…..
Old Caddys or any stripe are nice IMO , I really miss the early 50’s and all the 60’s ones that were plentiful and cheap for decades .
-Nate
Paul, sometime in the early 90s I bought a 1978 Eldorado Biarritz for $900. It had low mileage but all the plastic “filler” pieces between the bumper and the sheetmetal were gone otherwise it wasn’t bad. My kids call it the Banana Boat because it was all yellow. I sold it in the summer of 2006 for the same amount I paid for it.