One 1980s Cadillac you don’t see often is the Fleetwood Brougham coupe. Wait, you may be thinking. Fleetwood Broughams were always pillared sedans or four-door hardtops! At least until the downsized front wheel drive Cadillacs appeared for model year 1985! Au contraire. Mid-year in 1980, for the first time ever, a Fleetwood Brougham two-door entered stage left!
As with the newly-restyled 1980 Fleetwood Brougham sedan, Coupe de Ville and Sedan de Ville, the Fleetwood Brougham coupe featured a smoother body and front end to aid fuel economy, in addition to a more upright C-pillar and backlite.
If you like American luxury cars, you have to agree this was a great design. Strong, bold and clean, with squared-off styling that left no doubt you were looking at a Cadillac. From the bold grille, to the quad headlights…
…to the rear finlets and vertical taillights, this was the car to arrive in at the golf course here in the Midwest. Although he drove a Silver Cloud III convertible in Caddyshack, I can easily picture one of these sitting next to the Roller in his garage. These Cadillacs, and especially the Fleetwood Brougham coupe and sedan, were a signal that you knew exactly what you wanted, and you didn’t care about flaunting your wealth!
Especially in yacht club approved Cotillion White with matching top and matching Sierra Grain leather, with navy carpeting and trim! Yowza.
I am a big fan of triple white American luxury cars of the 1970s and 1980s, so when I first spotted this immaculate example on the electronic bay a few years back, I knew I had to show its Broughamtastic finery with the world! And I did so, in a post over at some other site that doesn’t need to be mentioned by name.
How could you drive this car and not have a big, stupid grin on your face! These were the last of the really big American luxocruisers, though this chassis had been the first downsized variant in 1977.
But after the 1980 refresh, and seen among its 1985 Aries, Celebrity and Tempo contemporaries, it looked pretty darn big. Park an ’85 Fleetwood Brougham coupe next to a 1985 Sedan de Ville and it’s no contest.
As far as style was concerned, the traditional “big” Cadillac had it in spades during the first half of the Eighties. So did the Eldorado, and even the polarizing Seville–especially if you loved Hooper-bodied Rolls-Royce Silver Wraiths and Daimler DS420 limousines.
The retro-styled bustle back Seville may or may not have been the best idea after the remarkably contemporary 1976-79 Seville, but the 1979-85 Eldorado and these deVilles and Fleetwoods were beauties.They were so classic that they lasted through model year 1992 with only a minor restyling in 1990, with flush headlamps and a slightly revised instrument panel.
Halfway through model year 1980, the Fleetwood Brougham, a four-door sedan exclusively since its inception decades before, introduced a coupe model. Like the elegant sedan, it offered even plusher accommodations, a padded vinyl roof, and a limousine-style backlight.
Fleetwood Coupes utilized a landau-style top instead of the full-length version used on the four-door, but added a frenched-in opera window instead of the more conventional quarter light used on the more common Coupe deVille. The chrome rocker trim from the sedan was also applied.
The Coupe, as attractive as it was, never sold like its four-door companion, and 1985, the year of our eBay find shown here, was the last time you could get the “big” Fleetwood Brougham Coupe. That same year, a non-Brougham “Fleetwood Coupe” appeared on the downsized, FWD C-body, but it obviously did not have the sheer presence and heft of the 1980-85 Brougham Coupe.
I love these cars. And I also love these Cadillacs (and Lincolns, and Imperials…) in triple white. This one is just a stunning time capsule, with only 43K miles on it. The condition is amazing. And the blue trim contrasts nicely with all that plush white leather.
And, approximately fourteen square feet of simulated wood trim! Chrome trim on the accelerator and brake pedals, too. It’s all these little touches that make me love these cars. I love the little Cadillac logos and wreath and crest emblems everywhere. They’re like little Easter eggs for you to find. The classy exterior styling makes it even better.
Even the driver’s seat is pristine on this car. Someone really loved this Cadillac. It is essentially in showroom condition.
Yes, that is original mileage, 43,900 and change. It shows in the remarkable condition throughout.
These Fleetwood Brougham coupes were certainly a car of their time and place. Especially if that place was a country club in Grosse Pointe in the fall of 1984. So, what price Broughaminess? Well, there were seventy-five bids for this Cadillac, and it finally hammered down for $16,500 in 2014.
But wait! There’s even more! I didn’t know him at the time, but the car was owned by Robert Reed, a Cadillac collector in the Golden State. I have since connected with him via Facebook and many of its Cadillac- and Brougham-related hobby groups. His website, FleetofCads.com, I can recall browsing as far back as 2005-06. At any rate, I learned recently that he had bought the car back!
Since it had been sold, the car had been driven only two miles! So he got the car back in identical condition. The only change he’s made since the car returned home is to replace the wire wheel covers with genuine wire wheels, a factory accessory. Which makes it look even better in my opinion! You can see even more pictures of this car on its page over at FleetofCads.com. Check it out. And Brougham on!
All photos courtesy of Robert Reed and FleetofCads.com. Thanks Robert!