In today’s visit to dealerships from the past, we’ll be seeing some of the Cadillacs we’re most familiar with from the days when the division posted some of its best-selling numbers. A collection that will range from the formal yet flashy models of the 1960s to the more flamboyant ones from the 1970s. In our opening photo, a color-coordinated pair at Harmon’s Inc., in Provo, Utah.
Display at Sewell Village Cadillac, Dallas, TX.
1966 models on display at Casa de Cadillac in Southern California. More about this dealership can be learned here.
Warehouse/service area at The Valley Cadillac Corporation, Rochester, NY.
Bob Spreen Cadillac, Downey, CA.
1976 and 1977 models on display.
1977 models in the showroom at Hacker Cadillac-Oldsmobile, Moline, IL.
Lou Ehlers Cadillac annex in 1978, across the street from the dealership showroom at 5151 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA.
Closing the decade, at Thompson Cadillac-Oldsmobile in 1979, Raleigh, NC.
Ugh, those pastel 3-piece suits! That guy was my mental image of the Cadillac driver in 1977.
He looks like he’s ready for a “Saturday Night Fever” club outing.
Hahaha hahahaha
G.m. need to just give up on the cadillac. I don’t think they get it use to be the best luxury car in the world
Casa De Cadillac is still in business. I ordered my CT4 BW there in 2022!
Sewell Cadillac is still in business, serving the people of Highland Village and Highland Park(VERY tony suburbs of Dallas). One of my late friends drove a mid 90s Seville 4 door from there, black with light tan interior, and a Northstar under the hood. He was from Dallas and I think this car may have originally been his dad’s. I remember the beautiful Moderne style dealership emblem on its trunk lid…. The car was gorgeous and I never saw it dirty, but as it got older and had more mechanical issues, he had to let it go. He got a newer Cadillac though! He loved their cars and owned several during his life.
The parent company owns a Cadillac dealership in Houston, I believe it’s on the West side of town.
Me my POPS AND BROTHER WECALL HAD CADILLACS FROM 66 67 68 DID NOT LIKE 69 BUT WE ALSO HAD 77 78 79 THEN 2019 AND NOW ESCLIND2023
I like the 1966s the best of this lot. Just a nice clean design.
love this photo
They certainly used to make some beautiful cars .
The first Eldo in the first picture is stunning .
I too was gobsmacked that anyone, then or now would look proud when wearing a three piece Polyester suit .
-Nate
Well, it matches the car. And maybe it’s not polyester!
I had a 77 Eldorado around 1990 found a big Steer horns at a garage sale took the Cadillac emblem off and put it on the hood people loved it the last year I had it I took a Sawzall remove the roof and enjoyed a convertible great memories
Oh, what I’d do to be young again and just for one month live in that era again. To visit those dealerships and see those stunning cars. To smell those new car smells that just don’t seem the same today. To sit in (on) those very comfy seats and run my hands over the soft door panels and dashes. To look at all those colors and designs.
What a difference from today where everything is a truck or SUV of some sort. Where ugly black plastic adorns so much of the vehicles now. Where 60% of the interiors are black and the other 40% are tan or gray. Where most of the dashes and door panels are hard plastics with no class. Where the bottom of the doors are hard black plastics that scratch easily if your foot scrapes over it rather than the nice carpet that used to be there. I love the article, but it sure did remind me of just how awful the car industry is today.
So glad you showed Casa de Cadillac and Bob Spreen Cadillac, “a beautiful place to buy a beautiful car” “where the freeways meet, in Downey.” You can find the tv commercial on You Tube. I bought a 2004 CTS-V there when it was Massey Cadillac. Our salesman was an old pro who always advertised in the local paper. His office was filled with sports memorabilia from his professional athlete customers. Later it became Casa de Gonzalez and then it soon closed. The salesman moved to Boulevard Cadillac in Long Beach. Unfortunately, the old building was torn down and now Honda expanded to take over the lot. We all hoped they would at least keep the turntable or replicate it. They do have a
sloped circular area at the corner to park cars on display, but there’s no turntable or fountain or canopy.
I couldn’t help myself to do a then-and-now comparison on the first picture, since the dealership is still there (now Provo Buick/GMC/Cadillac). Somehow the SRX doesn’t have quite the same presence as those Eldorados.
And I like the kid in that picture – I wonder if his parents just bought one of these cars, or if he was the son of a dealership employee. Either way, it’s a great photo.
If memory is working, think we’ve seen “Bob Spreen”, dealership here before. Is that burgundy car, out the window @ “Hacker”, a “Falcon”? Maybe a “Fairlane”?
I always cringe when thinking of the sad morphing of the very attractive 1967-70 generation into its successor beginning in 1971. Hideous both then and now.
I grew up in the shadow of Ronald Moran (now Penske) Cadillac in Torrance. This was (is) the same Cadillac dealership that had a notable scene in the 1974 Gone in Sixty Seconds.
The Lou Ehlers site is now Beverly Hills BMW (location in LA notwithstanding). Maybe 20 years ago, give or take. The BMW store has what I assume to be the corporate design. Also, construction for the LA metro subway extension has had a heavy impact in that area.
Lou Ehlers Cadillac annex on Wilshire Blvd. If you look under the canopy you’ll see that Brown Sedan is an Electra or Electra park avenue! That car was new that year, so someone kept it a couple of months and traded it for a caddy! I was nine in 77′ and remember vividly my parents and uncles all complaining about the downsized GM luxury sedans!
That Buick might’ve been a former dealership courtesy car or perhaps an ex-rental car. By the ’90s, GM was notorious for cycling former National and Avis rentals through their dealer auctions, so a Chevy dealer could get Pontiac Grand Ams and Cadillac dealers could get Buicks and Oldsmobiles for their used car inventory. Auctions are great places to get stock. How else does a Mitsubishi store get a GMC Yukon on its pre-owned lot?
Bob Spreen Cadillac was the epitome of Cadillac dealerships in Southern California in the ’60s. Dad bought his first Cadillac there in 1968 and purchased a new Cadillac there (by then it was Penske Cadillac) every two years until he purchased his 1985 Eldorado. The ’86 Eldorado was a total turn-off – a Roger Bonham Smith-mobile, and Dad never purchased another car again.
The Bob Spreen dealership delivered excellence at the time of the vehicle sale, and they continued to deliver excellence when the cars needed service and repairs. When the Penske organization purchased the Downey dealership, the sales and service staff were retained and the excellence remained. The vehicle quality dropped but the dealership made the best of a worsening situation.