Sometimes folks are a bit shy or self-conscious about having their car shot for CC. Like the owner of this Eldorado Doral. He’s a young guy (in background), who lives in the hipster Whitaker District. I’m seeing more and more older American cars there, but this is the first Eldorado there (of this vintage) and definitely the first Doral. What is a Doral, anyway? Hey. it’s cool; you’ve got a very rare car there.
Looks like a dealer installed package; I can just make out the “by E & G” there. So what’s Doral stand for? The City in Florida? That would make a certain amount of sense.
But then there’s this ad of a woman driving what’s surely a Cadillac. I know; who cares? Doral, sounds right, especially coming right after Eldorado.Anyway, the owner feels a bit less self-conscious about his Eldo now, knowing it’s a rarity. I didn’t mislead him, did I?
It’s been my experience that E&G will come up with any kind of name they think sounds “classy” and slap it on a car with a vinyl top.
Some (okay many) are just plain tacky. Personally, I liked the Cougar MX Brougham treatment that was popular in SE Michigan in the 90’s.
When I worked at Sesi’s car lot in Ypsilanti, I saw lots of Town Cars with such grand names as “Congressional Town Sedan”, “Presidential”, and “La Panache”, which if you said it fast sounded more like “Lopnotch”.
Oh, and let’s not forget the “Florida Edition”, “Suncoast Edition”, and local dealer edition cars, such as the “Citrus Edition” Oldsmobiles I have seen.
Maybe this Eldorado was marketed to smokers???
Who’s this E&G? Did they ever do a Mercury Marquis de Sade Edition?
Heehee
I wonder if it is the E & G Classics that shows up on Google. “The Restyling Leader since 1972” It looks like the place to go for continental kits, grilles, and probably is the source of all of those Buick-style portholes I keep seeing on Chrysler 300s.
Ha, the good old de Sade edition. I used to look forward to C&Ds annual crack in their new car issue. Sadly, it is no more.
Back when I worked for SE Toyota, we would get the “Bob Moran specials”, Toyota Corollas and Camrys with these awful fake convertible canvas or vinyl roofs on them. Some of them were padded so much, they looked like they were 6 inches deep! They got other weird things in the interior and assorted badges and crap you’d never normally order on one of these cars.
However, there was a certain clientele that would buy these things. It seems all of their taste was in their mouths. I think the Corollas were the worst, they had that overly padded vinyl roof (full brougham effect) that looked like a bad toupee or a hat on top of the car. Yikes!
My favorite stick-on name has got to be the “Mini Continental” package I saw many times in the Tulsa area. They’d put a cloth top on a midlevel (I don’t even think they did it on the “nice” ones) Mercury Topaz, usually in dark blue, and presto! Mini Continental!
Looks like Sarah Palin holding the Doral in the Caddy! Leopard skins? Who knew?
Even rarer is the tri-tone color package…..
It is like the current version of a VW Harlequin paint scheme. Multiple shades of grey instead of panels in a variety of real colors.
So what do we think of this era El Dorado anyway? Being Obsessed with The Trofeo as I am, I see this as a DIRCT descendant of the 90-92 Toronado. How closely related is it? Fractions of an inch?
As for The names assigned to these packages, I always liked the 2 door Seville’s St. Moritz, and some other Ciao like name for the convertible Seville…
Wasn’t there a special ElDorado decked out for the boating crown in Blue & White.
Id like a Red Eldorado ETC…are there any reliable ones?
That colour sheme would be quite unusual definitely a special order.
My boss was in Japan a few years ago and told us of a car with the moniker “Super Exceed.” Not sure how you top that one…
That thinking must have inspired the Ford Aspire.
That would be the Mitsubishi Delica Super Exceed. We see them more and more here in Canada as grey market used car imports from Japan. Right hand drive and taller than they are wide. They certainly super exceed in height!
Yes, plenty of those used imports here in NZ too. The Super Exceed name seems to be a trim level (like Ghia was for Ford) as it also features on the Pajero, Dion, Chariot Grandis etc. Though I personally am waiting for the Super-double-triple-mega Exceed to come out.
Re: “He’s a young guy, who lives in the hipster Whitaker District. I’m seeing more and more older American cars there…”
I know it’s only anecdotal, but my teenage daughter who has some hipster tendencies (but wouldn’t want to admit it…) always notices and makes favourable comments about old land yachts and muscle cars. Almost all new cars, even fancy aspirational ones, are met with indifference.
I’ve also noticed a few young hipster looking guys driving older Town Cars and the like lately.
I wonder if there is the start of a trend here? If so, I wonder if Detroit could somehow bottle it up and sell it? Maybe when those young guys get out of school and have money to replace grandpa’s old Town Car they will already have a taste for pimptastic Detroit luxury and would consider a modern equivalent rather than driving a grey Camry like their parents.
Perhaps Chrysler ~should~ produce the 300 hardtop posted earlier (http://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/what-if-chrysler-300-hardtop-coupe/)…
I think its a modern take on How in 1982, When I moved to LA, The Area Hipsters were driving early-mid 1960s Sedan DeVilles, Cadillacs or even suicide door Lincolns to a lessor extent.
It was Punk or New Wave to drive around in one, More so than Rock Or Disco.
They had replaced the Fin bedecked cars these musician types previously preferred, when not travelling in a Van or Bus.
I hope people don’t think I’m a hipster…
Reading this I see that again I fall somewhat into the dreaded “hipster” category, but this time for rejecting modern cars and being cheap? I’m starting to think “hipster” is a pejorative intended to peer-pressure us all into being good little consumers — we have the very popular “straight consumer” version and the uber-kewl “hipster” package for the extremest extremist. OMGLOLBBQ!111onezzzz!!!!!
Ah well, if we’re all caricatures in this new age I guess better a “hipster” than “corporate drone” or “consumer”. I just like what I like, if that offends or amuses others, I guess I’ll just have to count it as a lucky bonus. Now where did I leave my black beret? 🙂
Hey, if the V-neck cardigan fits…
Yeah, but I’ve had the same “taste” and same “style” since I was 12 (I’ll be 52 in a few days). Most of the time between then and now I was considered a “geek”, a “dork”, a “nerd”, etc. Now all of a sudden I’m a “hipster”, and “think I’m cool”?
Talk about meaningless, pointless, pigeonholing!
It’s funny how things can unintentionally become “cool”.
A friend of mine once told me how his late father, who was a retired Navy guy, often wore long sleeve shirts in Summer to hide the tattoos on his arms. When he originally got his tattoos, sailors and bikers were pretty much the only people who had them.
Apparently when he finally ~did~ show himself in public with a short sleeved shirt in the late ’90s, he got all kinds of compliments on his ink from 20 something strangers…
That’s pretty cool. He finally got his “props” on the ink.
I I Like The 92 Fleetwood Sixty Specials If I Could Find one, or a Fleetwood Coupe rare in its day even. But much sweeter looking that the simpler Coupe DeVille.
I’d Love one of These Eldo’s with the Top Chopped off by Eisehhower Hess.
Hess & Eisenhardt, they were one of the companies that used to chop this vintage Eldorado into an almost factory quality convertible, they used to retail for like $80K(remember this is pre XLR Cadillac time)when the most expensive Caddies on the lot were like $50K
I remember that the Cadillac dealership in Ft Lauderdale where I bought my used car had 2 of them back in showroom, this was back in like 2000, I sat in one while UI was killing time and I asked the salesman about how many of these they sell, thinking it would be low number like 3 or 4 a year, he said they sold like 8 or 9 A MONTH……all usually to cash buyers too.
Dear Mr. Tactful, I am seeking to update my image, and need some fashion advice from a man at the forefront of modern good taste . . . . .
I sense a new CC feature in the making 🙂
Heh, anyone asking me for fashion advice has another thing coming….I like the idea too!
I liked the idea so much I created an email address for it!
Send car-buying-related (and fashion-related!) questions to:
[email protected]
(Yes, really, if Paul lets us play!)
Mr. Tactful: help yourself. We’re about to launch a technical advice series, so the more, the merrier. How does “Curbside Clueless” sound for that?
Sounds good, and as for tech, I was a (real) technician for years, I wanna play!
More like replacement hip-ster. 🙂
“Almost all new cars, even fancy aspirational ones, are met with indifference.”
ESPECIALLY fancy aspirational ones.
Rejection of “trendy” conspicuous consumption is THE sine qua non of hipsterdom.
Trendy conspicuous consumption seems to mean consuming things that the folks who shop in big box stores have probably never heard of, or have long forgotten. I’d say a 20 year old “Doral” edition Cadillac, driven ironically, fits the bill nicely…
Well put. Irony is essential. (Irony combined with smug superiority is preferred!)
You can’t drive a new Audi S5 ironically, for instance.
Old Detroit Iron (pun intended)… absolutely!
Make my ironic hipster-mobile a Colonnade!
(Stock wheels required)
Dope, bro.
“You can’t drive a new Audi S5 ironically, for instance.
Old Detroit Iron (pun intended)… absolutely!”
*Now* I understand why Jack Baruth over at TTAC ditched his S5 for a Town Car. Come to think of it, he seems to have an encyclopedic knowledge of obscure music and literature…
Well if that Eldorado is old enough to have a 4.9V8 instead of a Northstar I’d consider it pretty special.
As commented above there are a ton of “Presidential Town Sedans” listed on eBay almost all in Florida.
There were many “Bostonian” packages added to 1989-97 Cougars here in Chi-Town. For the aging leisure suit set, who’ve now moved on to Pearly Gates [or have given up driving]. I hardly see anymore ‘carriage roof’ packages on new cars. More like ‘bling rims’ instead added.
Ha! I was about to chime in on those “Bostonians.” Never occurred to me that they’d sell them outside New England.
As for Doral, that’s apparently Joe Biden’s choice for smokes:
http://www.theonion.com/articles/shirtless-biden-washes-trans-am-in-white-house-dri,2718/
Maybe he trades in the Poncho for an Eldo? 🙂
Down here in Miami we had the hot Southern version of the Bostonian, the Cougar Caliente!
As a neo-maxi-zoom-dweebie myself, I have no idea what all this “hipster” talk is about….
I owned a 93 Sedan Deville Spring Edition from 1995-2005. White with blue leather interior, it had a fake Navy fabric top, gold badges all around, and white door handles. In the Pittsburgh area, these special editions were common. When I bought mine, the dealer had two identical sedans and a Coupe to choose from, all the same trim. I see a few new Cadillacs decked out every once in a while. The new Cadillacs seem to have more distinctive styling, making the pimped out junk unnecessary.
I think the dealers must do some of the custom work. I have an excellent 78 Eldo that I bought in 2000 from the original owner. It has a tasteful crown molding on the hood, in addition to a stock looking half vinyl roof. I think it had to be done custom due to the roof band with an “A” badge, standing for Allman Cadillac (dealer), in addition to the fixed quarter window having a vertical molding dividing it. I have never seen an Eldo with that window treatment. Cheers!
I wonder what that lady looks like now. Look at the logo the lower right corner of the ad; it looks like Daewoo.
I know why “Doral”! I think it’s because they didn’t have to make any new plastic letters. Being a dealership, they were able to just order up a second set of the original lettering. Snip off the “EL” and “DO”, stick the “L” back on the end, and voila, instant prestige. Eldorado buyers were obviously already proven suckers, why not tack on another couple grand?
I agree with you Drew. I was once the proud owner of a 1981 “Oldsmobobile” Cutlass Supreme because I had found some identical plastic lettering literally in the gutter one day, with only the OBILE part intact. A little glue and some pliers and I had a one-of-one cruiser. Not too many people even noticed my silly trick.
Thank you so much! It makes sense now, kinda…I have an 03, with 60k, my dad left me. I was really perplexed til now. Thanx again