Tag: Cadillac

Road Test: 2019 Cadillac XTS Luxury

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Here it is, the last Sedan de Ville. Well, for all intents and purposes. As I’m sure you’ve heard, production of the Cadillac XTS, which replaced the Northstar V8 powered 2007-2011 DTS, is ending sometime in October of this year.

And it will end close to thirty-five years of production of full-sized, front wheel drive Cadillacs. Most people won’t notice, most people would prefer an XT5 or XT4, if they’re shopping Cadillacs at all. But I’ll notice. I liked these cars. And I’ll miss them when they’re gone.

When the XTS first appeared as a 2013 model, I thought it was a nice car. From its swept-back, almost fastback-like rear end, it reminded me a bit of the neoclassical 1980-85 Cadillac Seville, Bill Mitchell’s swan song at General Motors. I even tested a 2014 for the old website, and enjoyed it very much. Over the intervening five years, I half kept an eye on XTS certified pre-owned trade-ins at McLaughlin Cadillac, in case they get one in in pearl white or ruby red with the creme leather interior. So far, the right one hasn’t appeared. But I remain vigilant.

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1969 Cadillac Eldorado Dealer Promotional: I Love Gooooold!

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So, if you read Parts I and II of my Ettleson Cadillac car show posts, you’ll know I was in Chicagoland about a month ago. I always take Interstate 80, and if they are still open when I pass by on the way home, I always stop by the Peru Antique Mall, clearly visible from 80 itself, in Peru, IL. When I attended the Shirey Cadillac show on Memorial Day weekend, I discovered and bought a 1971 Cadillac Fleetwood Eldorado dealer promo there.

At that time, there was also a gold 1969 Fleetwood Eldorado promo sitting right next to it in the showcase.

Sharp, but no taillights. Dagnabit!

But I picked the ’71 as it was missing only its stand-up hood ornament, while the ’69 had both taillights absent.

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Ettleson Cadillac Part II: Second Helping of Broughams

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You knew it was going to happen. I took approximately 335 pictures at this show, so I was pretty sure one round wasn’t going to do it!

And although the earlier post on this event was all Cadillac, all the time, Buick owners were also invited to bring their cars, so we’ll see a few of Flint’s finest for this round. Enjoy the ride!

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1970 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham: Ahoy Polloi!

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I’ve always loved Cadillacs. It goes way back. As a kid, watching Magnum, P.I. and various and sundry 1970s movies like The Enforcer and Magnum Force, I was more interested in the bad guys’ Cadillacs chasing Magnum or being followed by Harry Callahan in his Custom 500. Starting with its inception in 1902 and continuing more or less through the Sixties, Cadillac produced well-built, well-finished, impressive–and expensive–cars.

Inside and out, wherever you looked you saw chromed, die-cast metal, leather, fine fabrics and extensive gadgetry. Smooth, quiet, powerful. That was Cadillac. Increasing safety regulations, increasing sales of Cadillacs (and the need to speed up production accordingly) meant that some of that very visible quality and integrity went down, just a little bit. But in 1970, Cadillacs still looked good, and provided proper motivation if one felt the need to mat the accelerator pedal.

The 1970 Cadillacs were mildly restyled versions of the 1969 models. In my opinion, the 1970 Cadillac is that uncommon event when a facelift actually winds up looking better than the original version.

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Car Show Tour: The 2019 Ettleson Cadillac Show

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On June 22nd, I once more pointed the Cartier towards Chicagoland and yet another Cadillac show. This time, it was Ettleson Cadillac in Hodgkins, within sight of the Holiday Inn in Countryside we stayed at in the ’90s when my parents used to take us to the Chicago Auto Show.

Yes, I’d just been there a month prior, at the Shirey Cadillac show in Oak Lawn (covered here). But there are only two really good ’70s luxocruiser shows in the greater Chicago area, and these two are it. And unlike last month, my cochlear implant behaved itself and made no untoward noises that I mistook for weird car sounds. So much the better.

I arrived around 11:15, and quickly spotted Ron Schweitzer and Mike Risatti. Mike brought his 1960 Sedan de Ville, affectionately named Estelle, to the show. I had heard of the car, and seen pictures online, but this day was the first time I’d seen her in person. And she was sharp!

Mike added the Fleetwood wheel covers, technically incorrect, but they are correct for the model year. And they look great! The Aleutian Gray metallic paint paired with the dove gray interior was especially classy.

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1993 Cadillac Sedan de Ville: Cadillac Style!

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Note: This morning’s post was written by my friend, Tom Conti. He has previously written about his dad’s and his grandmother’s Cadillacs (here and here) and today, he’s going to tell us about his recently-acquired Sedan de Ville. Enjoy. -TK

I’ve always loved cars. My family was into cars, and I was born right into it. As a kid the yearly auto show at the Providence Civic Center was my favorite event! Back then, it wasn’t the foreign models that impressed me….oh no. It was the Cadillacs and Lincolns I was drawn to! And Caddies were always around me too….lots of them! My Grandma’s second husband loved Coupe deVilles. He had a ’64, ’69, ’74 and ’78. My Uncle Bob had a ’79 Sedan de Ville, ’86 and ’90 Fleetwood Brougham, ’98 de Ville d’Elegance, ’03 Seville and lastly a ’10 DTS before he passed – only Caddies for over 30 years!

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Road Test: Cadillac CT6 3.6L Luxury AWD

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I’ve been wanting to try out a Cadillac CT6 ever since it was first announced and large, plush sedans started rolling into the inventory at McLaughlin Cadillac. They looked good, and combined with the also reintroduced Lincoln Continental, it seemed both remaining U.S. luxury makes once again had a proper flagship.

Oh sure, for many, the current flagships are the Escalade and the Navigator, but as a big fan of 1950s-1970s Cadillacs, Lincolns and Imperials, I have always, and will always, associate the top models with the vintage Fleetwood Broughams, Continentals and Town Cars, rather than anything truck-based.

Since both cars came onto the market, I’ve thought a modern ‘King of the Hill’ article would be pretty cool. For those too young to remember or not as into Brougham-era luxury as your author, back in the ’70s Motor Trend did several articles comparing the Cadillac Eldorado to the Continental Mark III, and later Mark IV.

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Quick Look: 1957 Cadillac Series 62

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As you know, my friend down in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, Jayson Coombes, attends many, many car shows around those environs. Several posts I’ve written on this fine site have come from his camera.

It helps that we like the same kinds of vintage rolling stock! Namely, 1930s-1990s big American cars. So today, here’s a nice example of 1957 Cadillac he spotted last month. For further reading, you may want to check out my post on a 1957 Coupe de Ville. Which, coincidentally, was also photographed by Jayson!

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1980 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz Diesel: A Survivor!

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Do you remember the GM 5.7-liter Diesel? Even those of a certain age who haven’t directly experienced one undoubtedly have heard of them. My parents’ friends down at the marina had a Dark Jadestone 1982 Delta 88 Diesel coupe, and I can distinctly remember its lud-lud-lud-lud engine beat. The Werthmanns had good luck with that car, and kept it for 10 years. While theirs ran like a top, that wasn’t exactly the most common experience…

Oldsmobile was the pioneer in engineering GM’s Diesel V8. The engine was also available for the Cadillac Seville in 1978, and for the Eldorado, Fleetwood Brougham, Coupe deVille and Sedan deVille in 1979.

Despite many horror stories over the years, the much-maligned 5.7 Diesel, when properly maintained, could be reliable. However, many of the buyers of GM cars fitted with this engine were quite unfamiliar with the additional care and feeding diesel engines required vis a vis the gasoline V8s many of them traded off for one of these. As a result, many of them experienced headaches from their cars. The whole GM Diesel V8 episode turned many Americans off to Diesel engines for years. Though by 1982 they had been reengineered and as a whole were much less needy. But by them it was too late; people were staying away.

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