Cadillac knew it had a serious problem with its buyers’ demographics already back in the ’70s; they were well on their way to becoming an old geezer’s car. In other words, terminal decline, as the bitter truth of life is that death is inevitable, and folks over 65 are statistically much more inclined to that affliction than younger ones. But who would have thought that Cadillac would actually embrace death? As in design and build cars specifically targeted to the elderly, as in this Eldorado Touring Coupe? It’s almost as if Cadillac had a death wish. And they executed it perfectly.
Here’s the patient’s chart. 1985 was something of a high water mark for the Eldorado, as it was in its final year of the fairly handsome 1979-1985 incarnation.
The dealers obviously ordered up more than the usual numbers that year, having had a preview of the shrunken-head 1986 version. They knew that wasn’t going to go over well, and it sure didn’t. It was the kiss of death. And I’m shocked to find that we’ve never done a Deadly Sin on that car. Cadillac totally misread its aging buyers with that one; the Greatest Generation weren’t going to enjoy their golden years driving to the all-you-can-eat buffet in an itty-bitty compact Cadillac with a low-calorie engine under the hood.
The 1986 Eldorado (and sister DS Seville) have the dubious distinction of utterly failing with both the younger and older demographic. A remarkable doubly-deadly mistake; if you’re going to go down with your buyers, at least show them a bit of respect. The Eldorado was now in the ICU, well ahead of its intended buyers. That’s not at all good.
The desperately-rushed plastic surgery intervention was to stretch its rear end by three inches for 1988, dome the hood and increase the grille, to make it look more like a real Cadillac. Why didn’t it at the very least look like this in ’86? GM should have known that adding a bit of length invariably improves a car’s aerodynamics, especially a short one to begin with. So it’s not like fuel efficiency had to take a hit.
The result was a dead-cat bounce in sales, up to 33k. But it was all downhill again from there, through 1991, the last year of this (non-greatest) generation.
If it’s convenient, we can blame Irv Rybicki for that anodyne and miniaturized ’86. But whom can we blame for this generation, that was supposed to redeem the Eldorado? It’s stubby, boxy, ill-proportioned, still sitting on that same 108″ wheelbase, and its roof is anything but attractive. None other than the great Chuck Jordan!
The man responsible for so many dynamic designs at Opel and in the US, including this 1971 Opel Rekord D coupe. But then he claims responsibility for the Buick Reatta, another DS. And a few other stinkers or just not-so-sweet-smelling GM cars of the era.
It was a difficult time, and he was forced to make do with what he had, but still, this Eldorado coupe is just sad.
Here’s what the non-Cadillac coupe-buying demographic was snapping up. For obvious reasons.
Here’s another, if they could afford it.
Jordan replaced Rybicki as GM’s design chief in 1986, so pretty much anything that came along in the 1999-2005 period bears his mark. That includes this 1992 Seville, which many find quite attractive. It was certainly a huge improvement over its stubby predecessor, but I was never really a big fan. Something about it is a bit off; it just doesn’t quite all come together for me. But it was still vastly better than the Eldorado. Which of course is pathetic, inasmuch as coupes are supposed to be the more attractive take on their sedan stablemate. But that didn’t happen this time; is this the glaring exception to that rule?
Admittedly, by this time, I was pretty jaded about Cadillac and its constant efforts to rejuvenate itself. It just wasn’t going to happen. The painful reality is that just like humans are destined to die, so are brands. Well, maybe not necessarily die, but at the minimum, to lose their luster of youth and vitality. And no matter what Cadillac has tried since the ’80s, none of it has really worked. If it weren’t for the Escalade, Cadillac would just be a zombie.
Ok; not all buyers of these Eldorados were over the age of 70; there were some exceptions, but they didn’t exactly do much for its image either.
The irony is that Lincoln managed to do with its new 1984 Mark VII what utterly eluded Cadillac: bring in a younger, better educated and more dynamic demographic, thanks in part to plenty of gushing by the buff books. The double irony is that it was cobbled together on the cheap: a stretched 1983 Fox-body Thunderbird. It just goes to show that being very cash-poor—as Ford was at the time—was not only an impediment to designing better cars, it may well have been one of the key ingredients.
There was something honest and relatable about the Mk VII, with the possible exception of its fake conti spare trunk bulge. I would have been quite happy to rock a Mk VII LSC; I would have died of embarrassment to be seen in an Eldorado. And I was just the kind of young but well-heeled customer that both these companies desperately needed in the mid-late ’80s and into the ’90s.
Of course Ford screwed the pooch with its successor, the 1993 Mk VIII. They were rich again by then, and did a GM: went overboard on its development, trying to impress themselves with their ability to cram all the latest hi-tech into it. And the result was that it lost the Mk VII’s honest, down-to-earth hot-rod Lincoln vibe. I was instantly turned off by the Mk VIII, probably because I didn’t trust Ford to execute it properly, which was of course the case. It was practically impossible to screw up a Fox-body car with a pushrod Windsor 5.0, but this was now a moonshot, and it missed. Or at least had a hard landing, on its empty air springs.
But a leaky air suspension is nothing compared to leaky head gaskets, oil seals, valve covers, piston rings…did I forget someone? Oh right, the Torque To Yield head bolts, also called the devil’s bolts. And the finicky oil pressure relief valve. Well, that’s good enough for this exercise.
And of course the irony is that 99% of the Eldo’s demographics never used more than a fraction of the Northstar’s power potential. Cadillac should have kept the by-then reliable 4.9 L pushrod V8 as standard, and made the Northstar highly optional. Actually that was the case in 1993, but by ’94 it was standard. As were its almost-inevitable issues. Death Without Dignity.
We need to point out that this is not just a Plain-Jane Eldorado. This is an Eldorado Touring Coupe.
Otherwise known as an ETC.
Which means it came without all the tacky chrome, gold trim, vinyl roofs, etc. and all the other obvious affectations of Broughamhood. No sir; this was a blue-blood European-style touring machine. Watch out BMW!
The interior, shared with the Seville, was in relative terms the best thing about these. Cadillac finally saw the light and ditched the woefully obsolete and fussy interior design of its predecessors. Instead there was now a decent interpretation of a Mercedes-BMW style interior. Good job! And it only took two decades. Oh well…who’s in a hurry? The Eldorado’s demographic certainly weren’t throwing out their velour Barcaloungers at home at a faster pace.
Unlike the Seville, which got a major refresh in 1998, the Eldorado just soldiered along for eleven years. All of 7,105 were sold in its final year, 2002.
Cadillac had been pursuing gold with its Eldorado for exactly 50 years. The first one made quite a splash when it appeared in 1953. The last one just quietly laid down and died, without as much as a whimper. And nobody cared.
Note: a rerun of an older post.
Enjoy see the picture of Stephanie & ‘Lil Big Man.
That’s an older picture. Sadly he passed away last May.
The `86 downsize was definitely a tough sell to our returning elderly customers.
Couples in particular took issue with the console shift.
Because they didn’t like the separation between themselves.
Many switched over to FWD DeVille models by default, in which a bench seat was still standard. (They liked cuddling one told me)
The `86 Eldorado was directly marketed to younger buyers in TV ads.
Chicago Bear Gary Fencik was in one such commercial in which he stated “This isn’t your father’s big Cadillac of old.”
I gave him a loaner Eldorado while his complimentary spokesperson’s version was in for service.
Somewhere it may be rolling around with his parking valet card still stuck inside the driver’s side visor.
I was the fleet manager at Fanning Cadillac-Buick in Chicago at the time.
I liked no-separation bench seats as a teenager and I still do! I don’t get the point of a big console with a few small compartments in it. the ideal setup was as on the ’00s Taurus – column shifter, a 60/40 split bench seat with a fold-down armrest and a center seat cushion that could fold forward to a console with trays and cupholders when you need them.
ANYTHING with a Northstar engine was a dog.
My brother had one, and it developed head gasket coolant leaks. IF GM had spent ANOTHER $20 per car, and put in thread inserts, they could have avoided ALL THAT TROUBLE from the start. THAT is how I learned to NEVER BUY ANY CADILLAC EVER! What a bunch of morons they were! To think THIS is what the company of Henry Leland wound up as. I KNOW he would have fired every engineer at Cadillac for incompetence if he was still in charge.
I was an airplane mechanic, so I went and bought the insert kit and tools, and we found it easier to actually jack up the car, roll the ENTIRE sub-frame, front axle and drive assembly out from underneath, and then lower the bereft body onto blocks until we were ready to re-install the engine and subframe after correcting the cylinder head studs. I was shaking my head the entire time.
Doctor, I believe Mr. ETC is in cardiac arrest.
I rather like the looks of the last El Dorado. A lot better looking than the CTS coupe that came after it.
Thanks Paul. I parked next to one of these final gen coupes yesterday at Home Depot Blue with my 2004 Town Car. In pearl white without the horrible landau roof and isolated from it’s contemporaries, it’s pretty sharp looking. Parked next to a Mark VI, it’s a tragedy. An 89 Eldo was for sale in the parking lot of my former employer and I took the opportunity to check it out. Weird instrument panel, sharp edges everywhere and cheap execution. Started right up and ran smooth. Standing outside I promptly swung the door closed and it locked, engine running. Great. How did these extremely expensive cars not have an electronic/manual interlock? No spare key on hand either.
I owned a 1994 Seville STS as a near 40-year-old. It was the only Cadillac that appealed to me at that time. In my opinion and experience, the power and handling for a car this size were really good. Ironically, my experience with the Northstar engine was really good in comparison to the horror stories others were experiencing. After buying a new 2002 Corvette, I decided to trade the Seville in for a new Mercedes E320 for my wife. To this day, I still have fond memories of my Seville.
I think the last Eldorado had a nice swagger to it in the looks department. I looked at buying one years ago until I started reading about how much of a turd the Northstar is.
Also the rest of the car isnt that well built either, the trans has a sensor that goes bad and requires removal for a $40 part. The electronic struts were crazy expensive but I think there are work arounds. Every single one I looked at had a warped dash pad and was starting to peel up at the dash edge. Even low mile otherwise cosmetically perfect cars.
And the whole idea of transverse front drive V8 just sucks. The other post mentioned unbolting the whole front subframe and lifting the body off to do headstuds. That is the factory recommened procedure, its a hell of a lot easier if you have a lift.
I dont get why they went away from the longitudinal front drive v8, aka 67-85 eldorado and 80-85 seville. Those are easier to work on and you can position the engine further back for better weight distribution. Granted it gives you a hella long hood, but that looks great on a Cadillac
Ira Rybicki has a lot to answer for, didn’t ‘t he have something to do with the ’58 Olds? Chuck Jordan wasn’t perfect but was the guy that should have had the job that Irv got before him, he was darn good. I’d love to own that Opel.
I’ve always thought that the ’92 Seville was a real hit in the design department, very clean and timeless and one of the best looking cars of the era. At the same time they made a fall-guy out of Bob Stempel, a real engineer who had influenced the Seville and was a heck of a lot better than that idiot Smith that he replaced and the useless morons who followed him.
The ’92 Seville suffers a bit from its characteristic transverse-engine FWD proportions, with the long front overhang and front wheels set back almost to the door openings. Other than that it’s an attractive design, what the 1980 Seville should have looked like.
That landau top is doing it no favors, but otherwise I thought the 1992+ final Eldorado coupe was a fairly modern and appealing car from this brand. I was a teenager in the 90s and Cadillac was laughable until these showed up. It was a still a grandpa car, but you assumed it was a far younger and more lively grandpa.
The front seats still look like the living room recliner that an old man would fall asleep in watching daytime TV, though.
The Lexus SC was a better machine but I think even it suffered some pretty massive sales declines by the end of the 90s. It may not have mattered what Cadillac released.
This particular example is a mish mash. It has the body colored grille of the ETC, but it has the extra chrome trim and half vinyl top that simulated the earlier Biarritz version. ETCs did not come from the factory with chrome trim and vinyl tops. These were probably dealer add ons.
GM improved the NorthStar on later vehicles. My ’94 suffered from the oil leak problem and a few other issues. It was a very powerful engine and the car was a rocket. I agree that though the design of the engine was exemplary, it should have been problem free from the beginning.
My Buddy bought an ETC while I owned my Seville STS. I liked it, but Cadillac could have leaned into the direction of the Acura Legend coupe. Instead they remained true to the classic PLC profile. The ATS coupe is the best example of a contemporary Cadillac design.
Here’s a photo of an actual ETC. Yeah, that was a dumb name to wear as an emblem. They should have just spelled out “touring coupe.”
Try again.
Early Northstars had some problems but later ones were just fine IF maintained by the factory schedule. They were smooth and powerful and to call them “dogs” is quite moronic.
I think these actually look pretty good in ETC trim. The styling is basically a copy of the Mark VII, subtract the fake tire hump and round it out for 90s standards it’s not far off. The Lincoln Mark VIII was a stylistic miss, but it was actually a good car, the air suspension could be problematic but that afflicted many Mark VIIs too. If it looked more like this Eldorado with its RWD IRS its DOHC V8 that doesn’t blow head gaskets left and right and leak oil everywhere it would have been a home run in this ultimately declining market.
Torque to yield bolds were used in Ford’s Modular V8s btw. These engines are not known for blowing headgaskets, this was a GM engineering/specification issue, not an issue with those sorts of bolts
The 86-91 is my least favorite Caddy ever. Worse than Catera or Cimmaron.
These to me were decent then in ’92 but still selling them a decade later at 4-figure volumes showed that GM could not say no to the dealer body, the UAW or a rounding error on market share. It did share a showroom with my favorite semi modern Cadillac the ’94 style DeVille.
I’d never heard of these “torque to yield” bolts so I looked ’em up -“..single-use fasteners designed to stretch into a plastic (permanent) deformation zone, providing precise, consistent clamping force essential for modern aluminium cylinder heads… ”
So how did they get the name of being the “devil’s bolts” ?
Mostly because of Northstar horror stories and the fact that they can’t (shouldn’t) be reused. In the many engines TYY bolts are installed in(chances are whatever you are driving today) they work perfectly fine as intended for the lifetime of the vehicle. The core concept isn’t to blame, but the execution.
I feel you are a bit harsh on the last edition of the Eldorado and corresponding Seville. Yes, the personal luxury coupe market was in decline, but it still had a profitable audience. The one in the photo is a mish mash, no doubt.
My issue is a Cadillac (or Lincoln) is no different than a Chevy or Ford. The brands have been dumbed down and have little appeal or aspiration. Same engine, same transmission, same suspension, etc. Just a warmed over SUV body with spray-on-leather seats. Thirty-six month leasing and corresponding tax deductions keep these brands alive.
Wow! that 53 is Beautiful!
Also, I am gonna go on ahead and disagree about the Mark VIII. I think it’s the best looking since the Mark V. (seriously). And I’m usually a fan of Big n Boxy old cars. The Mk VIII is smoov Like Buttah. Black & Lowered.. mmm, Mmm, MMM!
(Maybe not as low as the one pictured, but kinda low).
YMMV
Also, I knew Cadillac was not doing well since the 80’s, but that CHART! Ya really get a perspective. YIKES!
My mother-in-law had one of those Mark Vll ‘Bill Blass’ editions in dark blue w/ a dark blue leather interior. Full boat version. She had a tire issue so I “advised” her to upgrade to wider and better tires all around. I had a great dislike of the old lady so I hammered that car whenever I got the chance. I think that it had a HO V8 from the Mustang so it did the job. Back road drifting that thing was a blast. What a beast. Screw the old lady – pedal to the metal, Captain!