Most of you will remember my friend in Washington state, Jason Bagge. Several of his cars have graced these digital pages, including his 1976 Caprice Landau, 1972 Bonneville, 1978 Mercury Marquis and several others.
His current fleet includes a ruby red 1977 Dodge Royal Monaco Brougham, blue 454 V8 powered 1974 Monte Carlo and more recently, a triple black 1994 Cadillac Fleetwood. But his most recent acquisition is the focus of today’s article, this lovely 1978 Cadillac Sedan Deville in optional Autumn Haze Firemist.
As he related, “Can’t go wrong with a $600 rust free 1978 Cadillac. Fresh oil change and filter, fluid top off and she runs and drives great. 8-track sounds amazing. Still has all the manuals, paperwork and the Cadillac 8-track in plastic in the glove box. Trunk looks like new and even the opera lights work.”
“Wasn’t looking for a new project to tinker on, but I found this car again after 5 years. Almost bought this car back then but I didn’t. It was $3,000. Well-I found it again and it isn’t much different than it used to be-except the price!”
“I bought to fix it up and flip it but…uhhh…I don’t think so! It’s basically a new 1978 Cadillac. Air blows cold too. Runs AWESOME! Clicked on the cruise today and yep, it works great too. 34,418 miles as of this afternoon.”
But wait, you may be thinking. 30-odd thousand miles on a 42 year old, $600 Caddy? But Jason believes it to be true. And he’s revived dozens of ’70s land yachts over the past ten plus years.
“Lots of things I am looking at are pushing me to think it’s a 30,000 mile car. Not 130,000. There is just no way. Those seats, the arm rests, brake pedal, the space saver tire has never been removed with the jack. The trunk looks brand new. It runs like a brand new car. It got weather checked on the paint but the vinyl top is mint. Carpet has zero wear, everything works like new.”
In addition, what he thought was peeling plasti-wood on the radio was actually the original protective plastic. What should have been removed during delivery prep has survived to middle age.
But wait, there’s even more! He found out the history of this car, and it was sold new right there in Spokane.
“On December 9th 1977, Mr. David Green walked into Utter Cadillac in downtown Spokane and picked up his new 1978 Cadillac Sedan DeVille with 68 miles on it and parked it right at this house in this driveway. The ladies at this house were super cool to let me back it up there and take this picture. I brought the car back home-one last time.”
So, congratulations to Jason, for finding this cool old luxury car and having a ton of fun with it. He’s already testing color-matched spray paint on the replacement bumper fillers. With his skills, this car will look even better, very soon!