The 1973 Cadillac Sixty Special Brougham has to be positioned somewhere near the height of hedonism in the automotive world. It’s 231.5 inches long. It has a 472-cubic-inch engine. It has an interior with velour fabric that Cadillac called “Medici” after that powerful Florentine family of song and legend. And it’s for sale on eBay in Navasota, Texas, with an asking price of $18,000 or best offer.
Those big Cadillac engines didn’t seem quite so mighty when 1973 came around, but much of that was the result of the new-for-1972 net horsepower ratings across the board. The 472 made 220 horsepower and 365 lb-ft of torque, and its 27-gallon fuel tank certainly needed regular refilling. The seller says that “there are no issues with the engine and transmission,” but “the alarm system automatically sets” when the car is turned off, so they’ve been simply unhooking the battery. You can add the sorting of some electrical gimcrackery to the post-purchase to-do list. By the way, a theft-deterrent system was a factory option.
But the engine and all its ancillaries are just things to get you around; the interior in a Fleetwood Brougham is where it’s at. There is nothing in the current automotive landscape that even remotely resembles these overstuffed couches. The power seat still works, as do the power windows, radio, and even the air conditioning. A 53-year-old car for sale with working AC is a virtual one-of-one.
While the upholstery pattern does seem to match the “Medici” fabrics shown in the catalog (and online—see the links below), sorting out the color is a little touchier. The Medici crushed velour came in four colors: Dark Blue, Maize, Taupe, and Beige. My intuition tells me this might be taupe, but I’m open to discussion on this point. The carpet? Deep-pile shag.
Even the door panels are “pillowed,” just in case you need to lie down for a nap at the rest stop. An interesting styling touch is the washer/wiper control pod mounted at the top of the panel itself.
It seems absurd until you realize that it becomes a part of the dashboard when you close the door. Neat.
The only noticeable flaw in the body, according to the owner, is this cracked paint on the passenger rear fender skirt. There are no comments about bodywork done in the past, but the seller claims that there are “only 38,798 miles on the odometer,” so perhaps it’s original.
The paint color itself appears to be Harvest Yellow, a nice, subdued color for such a hedonistic piece of Americana. At $18,000, is the price a little over the top, or is it just right for the kind of luxury that just isn’t available on a Cadillac lot today?
Related Reading
Curbside Classic: 1973 Cadillac Fleetwood 75 – The Longest Standard Production Car Ever (by Paul N)
1974 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham D’Elegance And Talisman – Go Brougham Or Go Home (by Aaron Severson)
My Dad had a ’73 Coupe Deville back in the eighties. Used it to drive to the Jersey Shore on the weekends. It was a beautiful beast. It got thirstier as time went by…by the time he sold it, it was getting less than 4 miles per gallon!
I had an uncle who literally won the lottery and purchased a ’73 Sedan DeVille. It was certainly beautiful and opulent for the time; and as a kid I enjoyed all the interior power options and doodads. But I thought my dad’s ’72 Buick rode better.
To think that for someone at Cadillac this car just wasn’t plush enough, and that situation needed to be rectified starting the next year with the even more over-the-top Fleetwood Talisman…
All of the 1971-73 big GM cars of its five brands had different dashboards, yet they looked oddly alike. The one here isn’t that different than that of a Caprice. Cadillac, Buick, and Olds would get new instrument panels for ’74 or ’75, partway through this generation, that actually looked different from each other.
The Fleetwood Talisman has to be the most hedonistic car ever made in the USA, even more so than the Continental Mark V Diamond Jubilee Edition.
HEY, s a 77 Mark V Owner I… agree with that comment. (Not the Jubilee though, But Definitely the 460, not the “little girl” 400, I ain’t no Sissy).
😉
A car from a vanished era, built for vanished Americans.
I had an asthma attack looking at the interior. The interior of my dad’s Park Avenue had a similar style and I suffocated every time I had to ride in it. To me it’s like riding in a sack of dirty rags.
I would imagine the dust mites have made themselves at home in this car!!
Yes, the dashboard is a pedestrian effort, and the steering wheel strikes me as being unattractive, as it’s both chunky and awkward with the Cadillac crest off-center. That would bother me every time I got behind the wheel.
This car would a been a bit a “meh”, even when new. Likely rides nice.
That interior fabric choice just doesn’t do it for me at all.
My family had a 1973 Sedan DeVille when I was a child, dark blue in and out with leather seats. We would drive it from Detroit to Northern Michigan all the time, and all loaded up, the back end would sag down under the weight. We would have to stop for gas half-way there and my father would complain about it. “It took ten dollars to fill up this hog!”
Cars didn’t last very long back then; after only 4 years and about 37,000 miles on it, it was already rusting in several places, especially along the sides where that molding was screwed to the body and every screw hole was rusting. And this was a garage-kept, well-maintained vehicle. I remember he put it up for sale after buying a 1977 Lincoln Continental Town Car and some blue-collar kind of guy came to our house and bought it, but I don’t recall the selling price now.
I didn’t know anyone that owned one of those Fleetwood Broughams. I would see a few in the church parking lot on Sundays; they seemed like cars that older people (60+) drove, not younger people with kids in tote.
I like that it still exists in such nice condition, but make me a solid no. One of these could maybe kind of sort of tempt me, but the color combo of this car places it outside of that rarified group. Triple navy and somebody MIGHT get me to look a little harder.
One night I was driving one way on a two-lane road when I thought I spotted two motorcycles riding side by side with their headlights pointing at me. Turned out It was an early 70’s Sedan DeVille.
They seem gargantuan by today’s standards.
My uncle had a 1973 DeVille four door hardtop. It was a really cool car that rode like a dream. It also had a hard time getting 10 MPG, and that was with Imperial gallons. He kept it for many years, eventually replacing it with an Eldorado with the horrid 4100 V-8. That was his last Cadillac.
Truly a Land Yacht .
I remember these when new, they seemed so powerful for the size they were .
Nice to see this one still looking good .
-Nate
I LOVE GMs from “the day”, and Love the Bigguns, like this one.
Just wanted to comment about the title “Truly a Couch on Wheels”, From today’s perspective, I think it’s safe to say It was basically a whole “Living Room on Wheels”.( and I Like it).