Last night I was perusing Marketplace for my own amusement when I came across this magnificently red 1970 Fleetwood Brougham. It appears to be San Mateo Red, but what really got me was the red leather interior! Whoa mama!
Yes, once upon a time in America, before lame electric vehicles, lamer combovers, oops I mean crossovers, and when you could still buy a new Saab, Oldsmobile or Plymouth, cars had–believe it or not!–color-keyed interiors.
None of this “let’s call it a red interior but only make the top surfaces of each seat and a taco-sized part of the armrest actually red, while the rest of the interior remains rental-hell blackish gray.”
Nope. In 1970 your interior was RED! Or AQUA! or BLUE! The seats matched the carpeting, the carpeting matched the seat belts, the seat belts matched the tiny knob for the turn signal lever, etc, etc. OK, in 1970 the steering wheel and column WERE black on Cadillacs, but in 1971 that would be rectified.
It was a better time. At least for Detroit rolling stock! And that’s why I loved this Fleetwood Brougham so much. For my regular readers (all four of you!), you may recall the very first Cadillac I rode in was a ’70 Fleetwood Brougham, and also that my friend Laurie Kraynick has a much-loved version in Lucerne Aqua Firemist.
But I digress. As for our subject, it is currently available in Chicago for $13,900. As the ad relayed: “1970 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham 90k original miles. All original Beautiful red leather interior in perfect condition.
“Runs & drives great. All original. Car has a bunch of original receipts including a mile log. Clean title on hand! No trades please.”
As I frequently do, I forwarded the link to my friend Jayson, who immediately responded that I should buy it, haha. But I don’t have a spare aircraft hanger for it. But whoever gets it will definitely roam the countryside in style!
And must really like red.
Tom, did you send this advertisment to Laurie to see if The Ark needed a stable mate? I think it would make a nice contrast to the Ark’s Aqua Firemist… In addition, Laurie has had additional mechanical issues with The Ark (it died and would not restart after spend $40K in repairs over the last four years, according to Forum posts of late). Anyway, someone will grab that on pretty quickly, if that interor is as nice as the pictures show it is well worth the money.
Best,
1/4 or your readership 🙂
Amazing how well that leather held up after 90k and 53 years. I wonder if they retinted it, how could a bright color like that not fade even a little?
It looks way better than my car’s driver seat after 6 years and 40k. I keep scrubbing it, hoping it looks better when I sell it when the new car comes in.
JohnC, long time no hear, hope all is well in Savannah or there abouts. On the leather interior question, up until the early 1970’s the leather suppliers to the auto industry really provided a quality product. Rare to see the seams split or the leather crack and split on those late 1960’s and early 1970’s cars. Not true begining in the mid 1970’s when plastic replaced metal, plastic replaced wood, and the leather got thinner and thinner. This is a really nice example the interior could not be reproduced for the asking price and as Tom said red is everywhere. It helps that this was an upper midwest car and was most likely not used in the winter. The interiors are always in better condition then those from our Dixie because our summer heat and sun dry them out.Anyway, I only see one issue with this car and that is the cancer that is forming under the original vinyl top. You can see a number of bubbles in the C pillar and at the rear window. Also, this car must have been painted sometime in the last 53 years. No matter how well you take car of the car a lacquer red car would show some fading or chips after all these years. IMHO it is a buy if the undercarrage is clean, You could not reproduce that interior at the purchase price. Again hope all is well.
Things are great in Savannah, if you like high heat and violent 4 pm monsoons. I have lived here most of my life and have yet to make peace with the summers. You up there in greater D.C. must be excited about the prospect of draining the swamp and what that would do for summers and traffic.
Good eye on the c pillar. The only flaw I saw was the steering wheel askew with straight front wheels. The owner may have been just trying to give a better shot of the dash. Love how they grouped all the controls so close to the driver.
You are right of course about leather thickness, exacerbated on my car by the perforations for the cooling/heating. Who would have thought God would have allowed cows to become so much thinner skinned over so few generations. Maybe the cows are tired of all the complaints about flatulence while they go about their noble duty of turning grass and hay into proper human food and warmth.
While I’m not a fan of Broughams, that one is gorgeous. I hope it goes to a good home.
Love it!
I miss colors, inside and out!
And look at that back seat legroom, footrests and all!
Say, was there a color called Firethorn back then?
Yes, Firethorn came out mid-75 and was very popular in ’76. Available on many GM cars from Novas to Eldorados.
I fit my 2002 F150 XLT Supercab in my attached garage built 6 years before this Caddy and the Ford was 16 inches longer and a lot less Brougham than the Fleetwood. I don’t think garaging it would be much of a problem.
I would enjoy driving this Ship of Scarlett around town even though I’m more of a B-body lover.
That’s beautiful .
I didn’t like red when this was a new car but I do now .
So much curbside presence even sitting still .
I too hope this goes to someone who will cherish and enjoy driving it .
-Nate
(your 5th reader)
Make that five readers! I usually read, but don’t often comment.
Those are better seats than we get on 1st class flights today not to mention service we once had in coach.
-Scott
Make it 6!
Damn, I was just in Chicago. I could have used this to sail the high seas of the Ohio Turnpike home. Three Dog Night for the video of the interior was *chef’s kiss.
I had a ’72 Eldo, black with that same red leather interior. Pimpmobile extraordinaire!