Here we are at another St. Patrick’s Day. I don’t usually go out and drink green beer, though I did have to stop at McDonald’s last Thursday and get a Shamrock shake. But if you are all set to make a night of it, you could show up in this fine vintage Cadillac.
A 1978 Sedan de Ville with 54,000 miles on it. And sporting Seamist Green paint, matching vinyl roof, and optional wire wheel discs.
I spotted it on one of my favorite FB groups, Finding Future Classic Cars. I’ve always had a soft spot for the newly downsized 1977 to 1979 Cadillac C bodies. And green is my favorite color so this car appealed to me and why not show it off on Saint Patty’s Day?
The price is on the optimistic side, but the car does look great. At any rate, it’s on Toledo craigslist if you are interested in the details:
https://toledo.craigslist.org/cto/d/1978-cadillac-deville/6841751945.html
I’m currently ensconced in my living room watching The Bob Newhart Show but if any of you fine folks are making a night of the holiday please take it easy. And don’t forget to tip your bartender!
Great car but lousy ad and even worse price. Here is how not to write an advertisement:
I got 1978 cadillac deville in seamist green very very rare I’m the tired owner the car is in excellent condition everything is original runs and drives like caddy should it has 54,000 mils on it this head turner I get compliment every time I drive the car around everything works like it should this rare nice caddy. If you don’t have the money don’t waste my time text show contact info
cash only$$13000 OBO
I don’t need help selling it
I’m curious. How would you write the ad?
I’ve sold quite a bit of things on the List of Craig, and it’s turning into the Back Alley of the Internet. Every scammer and hype artist takes a stroll down there – beckoning the unwary. My favorite is the spam emails offering to “help” sell it with some classified service you’ve never heard of, which will cost you “only” $XX.xx.
Harvesting active phone numbers has also become a cottage industry – someone emails you, My mother is really interested but she doesn’t have a computer/tablet/email account, can she call you, what’s your number. And then for a week, the robo-calls are blowing up your phone.
Cynicism and hostility are the postures to be seen in Craig’s World, these days. A shame, but it is what it is.
“‘m the tired owner the car ”
First thing I thought of was “I don’t feel tardy!” David Lee Roth
I’m more concerned with a seller who doesn’t make an attempt to proof the ad.
Touche.
I didn’t catch the “tired” goof.
That, too, is another sad-but-common sort of sight at CL.
On to the car. I’m not a big Cadillac man, but I like the color…but, more to the point, I’m becoming a true fan of the downsized 1977 GM Full-Sizers. (Was the Cadillac of that era considered, also, a B body? I could look it up, I suppose…) I didn’t know it at the time, but that was Peak GM.
But while this pinnacle accomplishment blossomed over everything, the rot at the roots was becoming critical. The Vega debacle was in full flame. Less noticeable was the more-general shoddiness of the Chevette – which liked to toss engine rods at about 40,000 miles. (Ask me how I know this). Even the Nova, a holdover nondescript car which held up with time (which it had a lot of, being a 1968 design) paled in comparison to the new brilliant German and Japanese offerings.
Such corporate drama, those years. Someone should make a docu-drama out of it for cable…along the lines of David Halberstam’s The Reckoning.
Not sure all was going wrong at the GM of the day. They had the sense to get rid of that of that showboat Coke freak DeLorean. On a clear or cloudy day GM was better off without him, with his everything that went well was all him and challenges were the fault of some guy with white shoes. Think of all the investment being done to turn the car line front drive. Ford sure wasn’t doing that and all Chrysler had was the K.
What if the Nova replacement was no more adventurous than the Maverick/Fairmont transition. From your import lover point of view, that would have meant no Camry, just Corona updates forever as in their taxis, and the Accord staying small, with no fwd A body to shoot for. Well it might have been good for VW, would have made the 85 Golf/Jetta a worldbeater.
Well-done on the snark. Yes, I’m an “import lover” – because I get the value, see the value, out of imports, that I didn’t get with my Chevette. Thrown rod at 40,000 miles…and you want to know why I’ll never, ever buy a domestic for more than three figures used.
Honda would not have been rear-wheel drive – Honda, a motorized-bicycle maker, than a small-motorcycle specialist, got their auto start with the Honda 600. A two-cylinder FWD car, using an engine modified from its motorcycle lineup.
Toyota, not Honda, was the RWD holdout.
VW was in the thick with the FWD revolution – but not of its own planning. It was given the bankrupt NSU, about 1970 – and with it, their designs and product plans. The Golf/Rabbt was conceived by the NSU designers. The Passat/Dasher was cobbled together using VW Type 1 transmissions, in the front, not rear. Water cooling was something VW knew nothing of.
And for that reason, a dearth of modern product planning, NSU took over VW from within. Not unlike how AMC’s people took over Chrysler, 25 years later. Difference is, NSU had some issues. Chief among them was non-rugged design and contempt for customers; and those attributes remain with the VAG today.
No, as it happens, this month – with unexpected money coming in – I made what will probably be my last vehicle buy. A new Korean model. Competing Chevrolet models were rated far lower and depreciate far faster. And I don’t buy on the strength of jingoism or to support overpaid unionists who have contempt for THEIR fellow Americans.
“… that I didn’t get with my Chevette. Thrown rod at 40,000 miles…and you want to know why I’ll never, ever buy a domestic for more than three figures used.”
Holding an (at least) a 3 decade grudge over a Chevette isn’t any more reasonable than John’s “rose-colored glasses” for this era.
I had a friend in college that was still driving an early Chevette with the 1.4 and the four speed with 180.000 miles that had been in his family since new. So actual customer experience will vary. Remember the Chevette was also sort of an import type me too car with the Brazil design and Japanese engine and Opel parts bin. The sin I suppose was making it in Atlanta paying UAW wages. That of course is the real sin because even if you built what an import buyer wants, they don’t want it from you.
There are so many brands and so many cars there’s no reason why you can’t hold a grudge.
Choice is good.
As the great philosopher – Gomer Pyle once said:
Fool me once, shame on you.
Fool me twice, shame on me.
Cars aren’t like disposable shavers, where if you are wrong it’s just a couple of bucks.
Personally for me, I danced for joy when Saab went under. Took 30+ years but I was
extremely happy. They certainly didn’t care that the car I bought was garbage, so I was thrilled
that everyone associated with that place was out of a job. That car was a hangover Monday car
after a week long bender. I realize that the 90% of people put on the street weren’t there when my car
was screwed together. I don’t care.
“Holding an (at least) a 3 decade grudge over a Chevette isn’t any more reasonable than John’s “rose-colored glasses” for this era.”
Not reasonable? How about the cam that was worn almost perfectly round on an Escort, ten years later, at 70,000 miles. All the cams were fine but ONE. No evidence of lubrication issues – and at the time there were rumors of issues with hardening on those things.
Paid for out of my pocket.
How about the Ultradrive fiasco, that cost me with a CrysCo minivan 15 years after THAT. Fortunately the vehicle in question was otherwise reasonably-worn – made the choice to get rid of it, easy.
No, it keeps on happening. Mostly with domestic makes. I never had one, but I had read of the ordeal that comes with battery-replacement in one of CrysCo’s “cloud cars.” Of how GM conveniently rejected all outstanding warranty claims, with their fake bankruptcy ten years ago.
Nuff’s enough. Fortunately, I’m probably past having to worry about that anymore. The car I bought should last me the balance of my life.
John, you’ve been making the same point recently -GM on the forefront of cutting edge technology. Much of which was half-baked, consumers became tired of being the test subjects. That is where GM really faltered.
Half-baked, half-assed doesn’t work when Ford andChrysler were no longer the only competition. And anytime GM tried anew market with a great product, it was too late or over promised and under delivered.
Take off the rose colored glasses John. Either you’re a pensioner, employer, or dealer- because no one should do vigorously defend a corporation. Especially one with a proven record of screwing consumers.
I’m glad I never lived in the rust belt, where I felt obligated to support dying industries. It’s terrible to think that so much dependence was placed on a single industry, much less a single corporation.
PS. Idaho sucks, please don’t waste your time to come visit 😉
Never worked for GM or any other industrial corporation, foreign or domestic. Nor dealer. My opinions are my own and I don’t live in the rust belt. Sometimes Texn there are other ways to look at things. No one has too agree and obviously many don’t.
So then why are so defensive of people who don’t share your opinion about GM?
Nobody should have such blind allegiance to a corporation.
There is no blind allegiance. I am no fan of modern GM. Their cars are all being cancelled and I am no fan of trucks or even crossovers. They are apparently about to ruin the Corvette by making it midengined, I am not sure that I ever got over it going to a rear transaxle. The Camaro is now styled to be a second car for pathetic old men that never grew up instead of something a young up and comer can strive for. We are talking about cars long out of production and none of them were perfect but some more interesting then would be obvious from the drive by snark that pervades the discussion.
This car brings back the memories….early-mid 90’s, high school, conspirator of mine had a ’78 Caddy, except it was the 2 door variant, resplendent in brown with extra-brown interior. 425 engine. I don’t know what kind of power it made (I’m guessing it was barely cracking the 200 mark) but that old boat moved. We called her “Opulent Splendor”. Hard to imagine that back then that was simply some 15-ish year old fully-depreciated luxury car. Good times. And a ride smoother than any other car I can recall.
Trouble is, when you’re 16-ish and bombing around in a worn-out Caddy you bought for 3-figure money, you tend to not be so conscientious about things like….checking the oil, say. Around the time we graduated high school, the Caddy threw a rod, and that was all she wrote. My friend’s next ride was an 80-something Olds, also a 2 door, but with a “lethargic is being generous” 307. I can recall that car having trouble making grades. What a dog.
My wife had this exact same car, only it was pearly white. The biggest problem: old electronics that failed and had no replacements. The bluebook value was $3,000 and we were lucky to sell it for just under $600, even though it was in the same shape as this one allegedly is. The saddest day was when we were talking to a car dealer: “That car has no value! No one needs it for the parts, so it’s only good for scrap, what we call a ‘crusher’. But it is a pretty car.”
Luckily, in 2019 you can find a replacement for anything.
Where can I get bumper fill-panels for a Cadillac Cimarron?
Just because you can replace anything doesn’t mean you can replace any particular thing for a cost that makes remote economic sense.