1969 Fleetwood is Here!!!

[kenmore1978]

GuideMatic

is an easy retrofit, a trip to a Pick-A-Part would probaly yield a working one. Mostly a simply lug-=in installation.

 

[Kevinpreston3]

Took it for extended drives...

Including some full throttle runs on the freeway. Still gets up and goes great. Took the wife out in it, she had not been in the car since my mom stopped driving it over 7 years ago, and she was impressed.

Having a ball in it....

KP

 

[petek]

Yes

well there's plenty of room in the backseat for that

 

[westytoploader]

YAY, glad to see you're having a blast driving it! I have to admit, all of these posts about vintage Cadillacs is really influencing my decision to sell my (slow) truck and start looking for one! A 1969-1976 Eldorado convertible (with the 500 CID V8) or late-60's Coupe DeVille (with the 472) is what I have in mind...and gas mileage isn't a problem as long as it's powerful!

Jaune, complements are nice. Don't be afraid to use them once in a while.

 

[Kevinpreston3]

Westy....

There is a guy around here driving a late 60s CDV, but it is a really strange green. Trying to figure out if it is a stock, and rarely used, color. It is in really nice shape.

I had a friend who had an Eldorado...make sure the front end (transmission and front drive) is really in good shape when you get it, the transmission, etc. My understanding is that they are quality built but a pain and $$$ when they break.

You are going to have more back seat room in a CDV than an Eldo, if that is important to you...one reason why my dad went for the CDV.

Gas mileage is dependent of course on how you put your foot into it, and whether you have a long commute. Some people complain that the ride on these older vehicles is TOO soft. My response to that is just don't race them or turn fast corners! They are not made for it. They are made for luxurious cruising, and if you open it up, cruising at a rapid and comfortable pace.

The nice thing Westy is that these are cheap enough that you don't have to sell your driver to get one, unless of course space or insurance are key factors. For insurance, Amica has a collector car policy that as long as you have a regular car under insurance (it does not have to be thru them) you can get their collector car policy for CHEAP, agreed upon value, as long as you promise to garage it and keep the mileage down. Food for thought!

One other thing, who is Jaune?!

 

[rickr]

Kevin, I had a 1976 Eldorado convertible for 19 years. It was a very nice flashy car,however it was the worst automobile I ever owned! And I LOVE Cadillacs!! I am sorry,the quality of those Eldorados (1971-1978) was very poor. Between the repairs costs and high fuel usage,it could send a wealthy man to the poor house to try to use one of those as daily transportation. Mine would fall apart just sitting in the garage!

Austin, you would be way ahead to look for a 1977 to 1979 Coupe de'Ville with the 425 CID. The late 1970's were better than the early 1970's for Cadillac.And the Devilles of those years were much better that the Eldorados.

Rick (who has owned many)

 

[programcomputer]

I love the

Wow sweet ride. I have only driven one Cadillac in my lifetime considering that I came from a Lincoln-Mercury or Ford Division household.

I found out what "Cadillac Style" meant when my dad brought home a mint cond 1980 Coupe Deville with the 500ci in June 1997, it only had 63,110 miles on it that summer day when I saw this gold General Motors monster park up in our driveway. He traded a 1984 Crown Victoria for it plus some cash to a guy who bought it for his daughter...but she wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole.

It was a sweet ride roomier than anything I had driven with the sole exception of my 1979 TownCar... Was a metallic gold with a wite vinyl florentine style rear coach style roof, white leather upholstery with beige carpet and enough woodgrain on the dash to make a person puke.

The engine was smooth and quiet and had plenty of ooomph to move it along smartly. I have no idea of what the horsepower was but it did have dual exhausts. It was a former Cadillac dealers personal car as it was ( the glovebox) loaded with every slip of paper that was even deemed nescescary to keep and three logbooks of what he felt could be done to newer Cadillacs that apparnatly he was sending off to GM or some such thing.

The transmission was a Hydramatic of some sort...but not a true four speed as I thought it might be, especially after reading just a few day before about a 1956 Cadillac. After driving around the first three miles that I drove it..in the second drive potion and the engine was running rather high in the rpm's and running very loudly...( yes I was 20 and stupid) that it was nothing more than a three speed transmission.

The first DOT if you will under the massive DRIVE letters allowed it to progress up thru three sequential gearchanges, where the second DOT if you will let it progress up into second gear or intermediate wher it held out until like 70 where it would upshift anyway to thrid or direct. Without your moving the lever...( yes I tried this and so did my younger brother) and then of course had the LOW position after.

PARK R N .DRIVE. Low

This car was a gashog and my brother and I usually full throttled it from stoiplights to see the amber light glow on the dash telling us that the car was drinking fuel like a drunken sailor...and that when crusing out on the interstate it would finally change to green. The switch for our cruise control was on the dash, and the button was at the end of the turn signal stalk.

Ours did have the tilt and telescope so it allowed our young selves to "pimp out" so to speak while having the seat back lay virtually flat. The radio was mediocre in our opinions at the time, but then again coming form the multpile Fords and Mercury's that I owned with just usually a stock AM/Fm casette this radio wasn't so bad.

It held faithful service until one day in 2000 with a carload of freinds we were coming back from a Concert in Detroit where as we hit about 30 miles away from Lansing...the car began to slow down like I had just hit a VERY strong headwind. I of course pushed down on the throttle to hear the engine race...and the car was slowing more still. I figured that the Hydramatic had given out... and thankfully costed off the interstate onto a off ramp.

I caled my dad and AAA towed it home to find that the splines in the rear axles had finally given out, at which time he was told that it seemed like abuse was a major culprit. Which in a sense it was.. he replaced the whole axle assembly and sold it promptly. He never owned another one. Nor di we get the opportunity to use another car of his agian for any extended period.

I miss it. In fact I was just at a car show in Lansing recently and thought I saw our "old Caddy"...almost made me wish that I was more respectable of it..Maybe it wouyld stillbe around.

On a lighter note...i can see wher the upholstery looks like the vacuum cleaner bags of the time....what a pattern that is....LOL

Chad

 

[kenmore1978]

late 70's Cadillacs

"Austin, you would be way ahead to look for a 1977 to 1979 Coupe de'Ville with the 425 CID. The late 1970's were better than the early 1970's for Cadillac.And the Devilles of those years were much better that the Eldorados."

Me and two ofmy roommates had 77 Cadddies, and they were pretty good mechanically, but ther interiors just fell apart. Plastic cracked showing the foam underneath, instrument panel always crakced in the same spot, steering wheels deterioate, power window swith mountings would break and fall into the armrest, the filler panels between the taillights and the body would crumble.

 

[Kevinpreston3]

Mid to late 70s not good for Domestics!

This was the worst time I agree.

I used to get those huge "World Car Catalogs" from Italy, that have every car made in the world in them. To see what happened to the American car industry, I compare my 1971 guide to the 1976 guide...what horrible thing our industry morphed into, and never did really recover until the mid to late 80s and 90s (some question that, but that's how I feel).

I don't doubt the quality issues about your interior Kenmore and Rick's points too. Cadillacs were still very good in 71 though, in my opinion. My dad's CDV was a 1971 with leather, driven much harder and longer than my mom's Fleetwood. He sold it for like $300 when it had just sat for years in front of his house. 160,000 miles with no problems, aside from typical things such as brakes, an alternator and a water pump. I was amazed. The leather wore a bit on the drivers seat, yet never cracked.

My dad, love the guy, but he would sometimes take the budget way out of things, which is 180 degrees from me. He let the "vocation arts" students repaint his car, which had been a great metallic bronze. Not only did they have it for 5 months, it came back in a color best described as somewhere between salmon, almond and 1000 Island dressing. They said it was "close". Yechhh!

It did serve us very, very well however.

 

[rickr]

picture c. 1985

I worked as service manager at a Cadillac,Oldmobile,Saab dealer from 1980 until 1998. Some of the worst,lack of quality cars Cadillac built were the 1973 to 1976 Fleetwood and de'Villes and the 1971 to 1978 Eldorados. However the grand prize of the worst of the worst was the 1985 to 1987 FWD de'Villes and Fleetwoods. We replaced engines at 4'000 miles on some of those cars.Everything went wrong with those cars. They really were terrible! The 1977 to 1979 de'Villes were really nice Cadillacs though. They were fast,nice looking,easy to drive, trouble free solid cars. We had many customers that wished they had kept those models.

 

[kenmore1978]

1977 Cadillac

The interior problems were the only issues I had with my '77 Sedan DeVille. Mechanically,, I had little trouble with it, just things one would expect like alternator failure, smog pump seizing up, water pump, fuel pump, leaky radiators, master cylinder wearing out. The only other issues I had withit were thath though the ride was generally smooth, going over rough pathes would make all the doors bang against their strikers. And one had to SLAM the doors to close them, though I noticed this problem seemed to extend even back to before the '77 re-do. ('74 Buick Estate wagaon had the same problem with havvign to SLAM the doors). Another weak point is that the headlight adjusters on them (and the other GM cars) were plastic, would break, and your headlights would all go cock-eyed.

Rick, the car fans here called the Caddies you mentioned the "toy" Cadillacs. We absolutely couldn't believe they would bring out something like those.

 

[Kevinpreston3]

Toy Cadillacs........

That would also include the Cimmaron (sp?) which was a freaking Cavalier! The "Caddy that Zigs" campaign, V8-6-4, diesel, the hump back Seville, and others were mis-steps along the way too. The division does very well now, although none of their cars does anything for me. The new Deville, however, is nice from the back, nice interior, but with kind of a sad face in front. At least it looks like that to me! From the back it reminds me of a Bentley.

Loading…

www.cadillac.com

 

[westytoploader]

The Cimmaron definitely takes the cake for the second-worst Cadillac in my opinion. An already unattractive car (the 80's Cavalier) made even uglier! These weren't very reliable either, were they?

The "Bustleback" Seville was another ugly Cadillac; I always thought the back looked like someone had rear-ended it. Never could figure out the point of that design...

Now the biggest FLOP to ever roll off the line was the CATERA of the late-90's. After I read the CR report when they tested it and saw the pictures, I thought it had the worst fit and finish I have ever seen. The ultimate "El Cheapo" look on both the exterior and interior...I can't really describe it but it just looked BAD. OY.

 

[westytoploader]

Oops...misspelled Cimarron.

 

[drmitch]

I noticed they don`t show the Eldorado on the web page. I guess two door Coupe`s and Sedans are a thing of the past. I loved the Eldos!

 

[rickr]

my 1977 Cadillac

Was a champ!The styling was clean,and the lines were crisp. The coupes were pretty cars. The tail treatment was a one year only style. I really liked these. Used this one as a driver for many years and miles. Sold it in 1998 for $2700.00 at 197,000 miles.
It was one of the best cars I ever owned. I had bought a 1993 Cadillac to replace this one. The days of free cars to drive were over after leaving the dealership.

The only major problem I ever had was a transmition reseal at 145,000 miles. My leather interior did not deteriorate,however it was not baked in the sun for years either.
The 1985 to 1987 Cadillacs were puke,however the 1988 and up were fine cars. Still see them running around everywhere.

 

[kenmore1978]

GM screw-ups

"V8-6-4, diesel, the hump back Seville"

V8-6-4

was a good idea, but as usual was badly executed by GM. Same for Diesel

Peugeot, Mercedes, and VW had had successful diesel cars for years, but leave it to GM to screw it up.

And the "humpback" Sevilles were OK cars mechanically, but it's the kind of styling that's a "love it or hate it" type thing. Onen of thoe things that looked good on the classic Rolls they were trying to imitate, but not necessarily on a modern car.

Age is a great equalizer, even though we all know the Cimmaron is just a Cavalier, after they are both 10 years old, they're worth the same, so might as well go for the Cimmarron and get all the Cadillac "extras" that weren't available on a Cavalier.

As for Eldorados, the '78 downsized ones were the last decent ones until this last generation. Where'd that market go? Doesn't anyone like Eldorado/Continental Mark series cars anymore?

 

[drmitch]

check this out! The owner is a Jeweler for celebritys.

 

[Kevinpreston3]

Very nice DR

Looks like a 69/70 SDV. Very straight and good for him! Interesting treatment, although I don't like "wagon wheel rims" if you know what I mean! Aside from that it is one crisp car.

Goes to show you that in the right hands, even a boxy design can be really nice. Love the 60s/70s!

 

[petek]

Yes that's what I like

I agree Kevin, those wheels would hafta go. The rear wheel skirts I've always loved.
Just today on my thrift store circuit I happened upon a 1968ish Lincoln Town Car with for sale sign in rear window only so so appearance and a bit tatty inside, waited a bit for the owners to come out but gave up, just wanted to find what they were asking without making a phone call.