Here’s another spectacular survivor from the ’70s luxury car wars! I was minding my own business earlier this afternoon when my friend Jayson Coombes texted me the link to this ’75 SDV on ebay.
You all know I love these things. I particularly love this one because it’s the same color combination as the one featured in the 1975 Cadillac showroom brochure.
Back when I was 14 or so, a friend of my father’s brought over a huge box of brochures from the 70s and 80s. It had everything from Toronados and Volares to Saab 900s and K cars. And there was also a 75 Caddy brochure.
I loved all those colorful land yachts, but especially liked the Lido Green SDV with its huge flanks, fender skirts and opera windows. I remember drawing ’75 Sedan de Villes in class. I fell hard. It didn’t help that green is my favorite color.
Anyway, this one is the same color combo, but it has the Metamora plaid seats instead of the arguably wilder Maharajah fabric shown in the brochure. Say whatever you like of these mastodons, they definitely had plenty of color and fabric choices!
Per the auction: “This 1975 Cadillac DeVille Sedan is an original. The owner has had it for 1 year. The vehicle runs great and is mainly used for car shows.”
“1 family owned, actual true 2062 miles, all original paint minus the taillight inserts. Recent gas tank cleaned out, carb rebuilt.”
“Plugs and all fluids flushed, car rides like it did in 1975, all panels have original paint, all original interior, original floor mats, original trunk material, original spare.”
“All 5 tires match, New wheel cylinders, New shoes,Original tags on original shocks, no rust.”
But, the buy it now price is…please sit down first…$38,000. Yep. As I texted Jayson: “Spectacular, but 38k? Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!”
Now I love these, and this is apparently a true 2,062 mile car. But still. Come on man! You couldn’t really drive or enjoy it, with such low mileage. Every mile would depreciate it.
And these ARE getting hard to find in nice shape. There’s no point in restoring a rough one, and these really liked to rust. But still. My totally inaccurate guess is maybe, mmmaybe, 20-22k max, wild guess, to the right collector. If said collector didn’t care about value siphoning off if he drove and enjoyed the car, which is the whole point.
Though I suppose you could rent it out as a vacation home or guest house. “Comfortably sleeps 7!” Ha ha!
Tom, there was a time capsule similar to this on BAT. 1976 CDV, brown over brown, 300-ish original miles, original owner took delivery on a Wednesday, drove it over the weekend, and dropped dead on Monday! Same $38,000 asking price! That’s actually the better value of the two!
Even the filler panels look good for replacements.
I wonder if those original filler panels were made from the same biodegradable plastic the Germans used in the 1990s on their wiring harnesses, because they both seem to deteriorate just from age even on low mileage garage queens. At least with the Caddy you can still drive it without the panels, and they are not crazy expensive to replace, but with the Germans it means replacing the whole and very expensive wiring harness just to back your low mileage vintage Uberwagen out of the garage.
Had a neigbor with a 70s Volvo bought new. Thing was immaculate, wiring harness fell apart. Don’t think it was more than 5-6 years old. I remember him dumping it for VW Rabbit.
PLAID! Really enjoyed seeing this one as I have never seen this fabric before. I thought all Caddies, Olds, Buicks had brocade type fabrics. An interesting style choice to offer.
Price is good as the market will bear. Those plaid seats would be a turn off enough for me.
I think the crazy cloth patterns that were available during the wild and crazy 1970s are the equivalent to the fins and excess chrome of the 1950s and early 60s, in that they are so ugly and over the top they are cool and certainly markers of the era they came from.
For $38k, it’d have been nice if they included a picture of the engine compartment. Otherwise, this appears to be in outstanding condition.
Those ugly seats look like they belong in a period Chrysler product, not a Caddy, though.
On a price per pound basis, it is a real bargain at $38K – its cheaper than hamburger from Whole Paycheck.
I love that silver green that was popular from the mid-60’s to 70’s.
GTO’s had a good one, too.
I may be mistaken but I am pretty sure that this plaid cloth upholstery was what was used in the Calais not in the DeVille series. Guess it might have been a special order.
The Calais had a smaller checked eggcrate pattern most years, vinyl was even still available on a Calais in the 70’s.
Be still my beating heart! What great example from one of the greatest periods of American automobile design. We have noting today to compare to this for under a quarter million dollars.
BTW, I very much enjoyed “The Ladies of Broughamville” recently in Hagerty.
“And ladies were arguably classier too. Remember when people dressed up?”
There seems to be very little left these days that is special and raises above the ordinary. Maybe that’s why modern cars are so bland. There is noting exciting or special to go to?
-Scott
Nice find, Tom is correct the price is a little high, as a point of reference one of our club members listed his 6,000 mile 76 Coupe deVille, Innsbrook Blue with blue leather and blue top for $25,000 and sold it in one day. So mid 20’s would be the market price for this one. One point the plaid interior done on Cadillacs was a better grade material then what Chrysler used and the trim was leather not vinyl. This car is well optioned and I am surprised the dealer did not point that out. Will be interesting to see what it sells for.
It is nice and I do like it, I don’t $38,000 like it though. I think with careful shopping you could probably get a very nice Eldorado convertible and a Fleetwood Brougham from the same era and even still have a few bucks left over for a full tank in each one.
When it comes to the Sedan deVille of this era, I like the 74 and down ones with the more formal C-pillar without the window.
Yea, but if you get a 74 or earlier you have to get by with only 472 cubic inches.
Emissions controls were becoming ever more restrictive, so I don’t think the 500s for 1975 offered an actual increase in performance. They came closer to maintaining what the 472 provided for 1974, but they were still far less powerful than the 429s from prior to 1968. Before that, Cadillacs were among the fastest luxury cars in the world.
More cubes is always better, because owning a Caddy means you have the biggest everything.
Thats why I prefer my original option, for $38K you can get 2 500 cid Caddys and have 1000 cid.
As a collector car, it’s overpriced at $38k. But as a daily driver, it seems like an almost-sensible alternative to a $50k crossover/SUV like a Kia Telluride or a Buick Enclave, or an $80k high-end SUV like a Navigator or Yukon Denali.
Neat idea except every seal and gasket is likely dried out and about to let loose (if it hasn’t happened already), which is no doubt why it needed carb and fuel tank work (and I expect this car might be out of warranty). Wiring and solder connections are likely brittle so electrics are likely to go out regularly in daily use. And of course exposure to sun on those 48 year old plaid seats, plastic dash and seats, and salt/water exposure on that 48 year old untreated steel could turn this beauty into another old hooptie pretty fast. Then you have the issue of vehicle size and 8-15 mpg that are worse than any modern SUV, even if you can live with acceleration that will leave you in the dust of Prius drivers, and without the safety of 27 airbags, stability control and ABS, or modern infotainment.
It’s not worth $38k.
Unless you’re someone who wants a car like this in this condition.
Then where are you going to find another one?
This car had far more appeal two years ago, although the metallic pea paint would still have been a major obstacle for me.
Sharp. Look Ma, no B-pillar!
Dentist or insurance salesman?
On “The Ladies of Broughamville”: Hubba hubba! Nary a tat, piercing, or >20 BMI. I must be getting old.
Am I banned?
I doubt it!
I deleted the original column because for some reason it wasn’t spacing correctly between the text and the pictures, no matter what I did.
So I trashed it that same evening and rewrote it from scratch, taking any early comments with it.
Yes, I’m OCD…
I am glad it was just a glitch. Don’t worry commenters, it wasn’t one of my better ones, so no loss.
i have on just like it except not as nice. has 80 k miles. we have owned it since new.
same color, same plaid seats.