I’ve been writing for Curbside Classic off and on for a little more than seven years now. (Mostly off lately; life’s been a little crazy.) As I look back, I see that I’ve done hit jobs on a number of cars: this Farimont, this LeSabre, this Satellite, and especially this Regal, just for starters. I guess I’m more curmudgeonly than I wish to admit. Based on my track record, you’d think I was inking up my poison pen for this Coupe DeVille, as it is a shadow of Coupes DeVille of the past. But nope.
I’m not going to heap praise on it, either. But as middle age has mellowed me, and as this car appears out of the blue well out of the context of its time, I look at it with fresh eyes. And I kind of like it.
It looks like a well-cared-for survivor. It might still be on its first owner! It was, after all, late on a Sunday morning and parked in front of a breakfast-and-lunch place filled with the post-church crowd, many of whom were of an age where a car like this would have been appealing. My youngest son and I dined there after sleeping in super late – we had traveled to suburban Chicago to see thrash-metal gods Slayer play a date on their farewell tour. That sentence probably makes this article the only one on the entire Internet that links Cadillac to Slayer.
Even the interior is in good condition. I’ll bet this car’s miles are ultra low. I know not the slightest about this generation DeVille’s reliability. But if I found one like this within spitting distance of, say, $3000, it would make a quirky but comfortable daily driver until I used it up.
These composite headlamps and this grille treatment identify this car as being from 1987 or 1988. It’s looking very good for its 30+ years.
For the most part, one either loves a car for what it is, or hates it for what it is not.
I would posit that the owner loves this car for being a Cadillac. I know that my departed Dad always wanted a Cadillac, and was supremely proud of the one he finally purchased late in life. In fact, his only regret that I know of was, in finding out that his cancer was terminal, he turned to my Mom and said “well, I guess that means I don’t get the new Cadillac…”. Even then, hope sprung eternal.
Is this car a product of Cadillac when it was less than stellar? Oh, my, yes. But the wreath and crest still carried a lot of cachet with the people who owned one, or dreamed of owning one. They did not long for a new S class, or 5 series, they wanted a Cadillac. These folks love the car for what it is, and good for them.
I worked with a guy whose father was still fit and alert and in his early 90s. He bought one of these old, used and cheap. He had a gorgeous low-mile Lumina (did I just say that?) in his garage that he had bought new, but he just loved the idea that he could drive out to dinner in a Cadillac. Even it it had duct tape holding something together on the door panel.
One of my many honorary aunts bought a new one just like this, a sedan with velour upholstery but in the same beige with brown simcon top, so her father who no longer drove could be driven in a Cadillac in his last years.
1988 would be the preferred year as that was when they changed over to the far better and more powerful 4.5 liter V8.
Yep. It’s an 88. Zoom in on the lower right rear picture “4.5 Liter V8.” If it was an 1987 it’d have been junked sometime between 1992 and during cash for clunkers at the latest.
The 4.5 was rated a 155 HP until port injection was added for 1990. Not really a big improvement over the 4100, which, by 1986, should have had the problems fixed. The 4.5 was just a larger version of the 4100.
As I creak and groan closer to my mid-50’s I can actually see the appeal of a big, quiet, bench seated, column shifted, big-long-entry-doored cruiser like this. It looks quite comfy.
It’s not my style by a long shot, and even if I had a hankering to kitsch it up with something like this I’d probably opt for the full-on over-the-top Broughamtastic deeluxe effect of a flashier color, best offset by a flashy white leather interior. (In any case this one at least needs a set of whitewalls ASAP.)
I visited a friend last weekend and had to drive his 2000 Jaguar Vanden Plas on an errand. Having lusted after a Jag since my parents owned a few in the 80’s, I was excited to give it a whirl. The narrow front doors (despite this being a LWB sedan) coupled with the extra low seating position and a tight cockpit made ingress and egress an absolute misery. 10 years ago I doubt I’d have noticed this detail, but time marches on, and while age does mellow a man in some ways it can also tighten him up in others. It might be really nice to slide across that big soft leather bench and glide in under that slender wheel, then lean back and slip it into drive.
I like Slayer, too.
In an odd parallel, I think these Caddies and metalheads were a bit disdained back then. The attitude now seems to be “Wow, you survived pretty intact. You must be OK after all.”
Wearing a Scorpions tour shirt today, BTW…
I got the 80s Cadillac thing out of my system about 15 years ago. To be honest, if my neighbor down the street had owned one like this instead of the rwd 1989 Brougham sedan that he parked at the end of his driveway with the “for sale” sign, I probably would not have even stopped to look.
You make a good point that it is time to stop looking at these in the context of their trying to be Cadillacs, and just look at it as a product of its time. I am still not sure I would be ready for one, but I would accept a ride to lunch if it turns out that you are. 🙂
I could like this a LOT better sans the faux vinyl “convertible” top! I’ve seen a couple nice ones of this vintage w/ no vinyl top in dark colors, which looked good to me. Whitewalls are absolutely necessary, but I also don’t care for those wire wheel covers. 🙂
In there time, I thought this car would have been a great Seville. Sans fake convertible top, it reminded me of the then contemporary Volvo. An American take on a more internationally acceptable car. The C body Caddies should have been updated appropriately, but retaining their 1979 drivetrain until something more modern was really ready. That would have rewritten the Cadillac story of the 80s with the potential of a happier ending!
A car like this offers a lot of comfort and decent performance (with the 4.5L V8) for not a lot of money. Of course its not peak Cadillac or even close, but a lot more roomy and comfy than a used Chevy Aveo or some other horrid thing in the price range.
Still a product of GM’s ruler-and-set-square design era, even if the window frames do show the beginnings of (shh….!) little curves.
These don’t look so bad when you see them out of the context of the previous generations. The hard part for buyers at the time would have been forgetting what came before, and being able to judge one this on its merits.
If I absolutely had to have a notchback coupe, I’d still rather have the Celica that Tatra found.
My dad had the 4 door ‘87 version of this, bought used in 1992 not long after we moved to Florida. It had the 4.1 and I seem to remember it treating my dad alright.
He traded it in on a 91 Seville with the 4.9 around 1996 after his mechanic advised him the trans was about to blow.
The Seville was a decent car up until about 2000 when electrical issues started popping up.
They looked funny, but at least the 4.5L was reliable. Reminds me of a friend of my grandparents years ago, after retiring he bought his dream car, a gorgeous ’79 Eldorado. Triple light blue, pinstripes, wire wheel wheelcovers. Oh yeah, and a 5.7L diesel. Every morning he would pull it out of his garage and warm it up (loudly) for 10 minutes or so. Funny I don’t remember him having much trouble with it, but it was certainly pampered and not driven much.
I won´t forget the moment – five seconds or ten – when I saw one of these turn a corner on the Neumarkt in Cologne, Germany in 2005. It was navy blue, black interior and looked royal as it arced around the block. These are actually rather lovely machines understood as town cars – not racers, not GTs but comfortable vehicles for those trips around town when a bike or bus won´t do the job. I´d own one in a shot if I could.
This Cadillac DEFINITELY stands out when nearly every other vehicle in the background is a crossover or minivan, further emphasizing the fact of being a product from a bygone era. Oh, and the KISS band will have done their final tour this year also.
I know everyone loves to tell about how terrible the Cadillac 4.1 V-8 engine was, but my
experience was just the opposite. I owned a 1986 Deville which I bought in 1998, and it
only had 59,000 miles on it. It was like new inside & out. It had been traded in on a new
Cadillac by it’s original owner (elderly widow). I drove that car for almost 5 years and never had any significant problems (I put about 30,000 miles on it during that time).
I wish I still had that car today, as it was one of the best cars I’ve ever owned!
The featured car looks very nice, but I do hate those ridiculous fake canvas tops. Even
so, I would still love to have another one. (Thank goodness it doesn’t have a stupid
continental kit- those were the worst idea anyone ever came up with!)
GM or Cadillac did sort out the problems with the 4100. It did take them some time to do it, but sometime during the 84 model year I think the problem was solved and fixed before the 1986 model year. The FWD 85 Cadillacs were put into production early, so I am not sure if they were fixed at the beginning of the model year or not.