I don't remember ever seeing one of these. This video explains how the 1976 Buick Park Avenue got its uncommonly fancy interior. These must have been quite the conveyance. A $2000 interior option. I didn't remember Cadillac base price being as cheap as $10,000 in 1974. The Buick Limited was almost that much. The '74 Talisman option only seated four in a 5000 pound car, over 20 feet long...... Wonder what the gas mileage was on one of these, probably with the 500 cid engine. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ERgLz5V4TM
In fairness, $10,000 would have bought a fully-loaded Buick Limited, while that was the base price of a Fleetwood. Plus, about everything on a Cadillac Fleetwood would be standard, options on a Buick. Don't I remember a fuel injection option on the '76 Fleeetwoods with the 500 cid engine?
I bought a new '74 Electra Limited. Air conditioning was an option. I wonder if it was standard on a '74 Fleetwood?
I haven't failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.....Thomas Alva Edison
Those fabric and velour seats might be visually stunning, but having to get one's behind to march across that added poofiness is an experience I didn't enjoy at the time. My folks would have nothing other than leather seats in their caddies. A scoot and you have arrived.
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
-Arthur C. Clarke
"It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it."
-Upton Sinclair
Grandpa's younger brother had a new 1972 Olds 98 Regency. The interior in it was almost as fancy as in the Cadillac. Velour so deep you could swim in it. The interior in that Olds was lots fancier than the interior in my '74 Electra Limited. Nothing like leather interior, I agree about that.
What year(s) of Cadillacs did your folks own, Rex?
Remember when all cars smelled different? A Cadillac smelled like leather. A Buick smelled like leaky transmission fluid. A Chrysler smelled like mothballs. The driver's door hinges should squeak on a Buick. The brake shoes should squeak as the rubbed the backing plates. The emergency brake cable should jingle on the torque tube if you were on a rough road. You could always smell the road draft tube on a Ford.
I haven't failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.....Thomas Alva Edison
They had a '71 Coupe De Ville white with red leather interior, a '71 Eldorado Grenoble green with green fabric interior, a '73 Eldorado red with white top and red leather interior and the fibreglass folded top cover, a yellow '79 Eldorado with yellow leather interior and the 4-6-8 ignition and finally, an '81 silver and black top and black leather interior Eldorado with an HT 4100 alloy block engine, that developed "the clunk".
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
-Arthur C. Clarke
"It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it."
-Upton Sinclair
The 1971 Cadillacs were my favorite year of Cadillac. Nothing about that car was ugly. Every line fit. Two door, four door, didn't matter. But, did you know that the '71 Chevy Caprice had a longer hood than a '71 Cadillac Sedan DeVille? I had a lady customer, Mrs. Heeton who would only let me work on her '71 Caddy. She bought it brand new from Coulter Cadillac when she retired from the phone company. It was a black Coupe DeVille with red interior. BEAUTIFUL car. Cost was no object. That was the only '71 Cadillac I ever remember seeing with factory dual exhausts.
I haven't failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.....Thomas Alva Edison
A/c was standard on Talisman, I looked for a '74 for a few years but never found the right one so bought a '75 Lincoln TC with 18,000 miles in 1989 and gorgeous cloth seats, it was basically a brand new car. Love brocade, some velours and would not/will not own a car with leather, but that's more of a challenge today. Modern leathers are basically plastic color-coated cheap hides, nothing like the thick and unscarred Bridge of Weir leather like was once (still?) used in Rolls, Bentley, Jags, our '83 Saab Turbo etc. GM's leather in my '75 DeVille was not of particularly high quality while the thick velour in my '74 and '76 Olds 98s was so nice to sit on, especially in hot summers and cold winters... leather is too much like vinyl for me in that uncomfortable aspect.
I feel left out having parents who drove low priced Dodges, Plymouths and VW's. Two of my Great Uncles had Lincoln Continentals, which I may have rode in briefly. But, does anyone have comment on the older Cadillac Fleetwood?
My Grandparents lived in FT Lauderdale and had a 1966 4 door that was yellow with a white top and power everything. Seats were white of course, maybe leather but not vinyl yet comfy even on a drive after it sat at all day in Pompano Beach. It replaced a 61 Imperial, which was known as the "white cloud" to my cousins when we would visit from PA, though I was too young to experience this one .
I was about 8 or 9 when we were picked up at the airport for another annual visit, it was not the caddy my grandfather drove but a 72 Fury Suburban SW it was traded for. My brother and I were not impressed by the "new" car thus began the 1970s malaise when cars eventually became uglier and even more troublesome.
I've had a '47 Fleetwood 60 Special, it was a barn find project car I got driveable that eventually went to Seattle. 346 flathead that ran soooo smooth and WW II tested Hydramatic. Most members of the Cadillac-LaSalle Club, and I agree, say that the peak years for Cad ended around '66, and '49 to '64 was when Cad really was the true Standard of the World (the 331 thru 390 were great, though the 429 initially had some issues, and the 472 was better, the 500 emasculated). The '67 re-design brought in much more plastic but still felt solid, '69 was worse, and the '71 to '75 redesign was imo the quality low point though huge and impressive looking .
My best friend Jimmy's parents had new '66 and '71 Fleetwoods, the former was a far finer car all around,the latter lost the real walnut and many of Fleetwood's quality touches, and the body structure really suffered, it felt loose and floppy, the hood would shake, and quality really suffered all around, we used to make fun of it as the rolling bordello. The '77 C-body downsize was a big improvement dynamically if not in materials, and the 425 and 368 were good, engines, the diesel, V8-6-4, 4.1, Northstar, etc after that were disasters, it took the weak chested but durable Olds 307 to improve things. But to my my mind '49 to '64 were the last truly great Cadillac. we had this Fleetwood series 75 for our wedding car:
Safe forum to mention this :
My first wedding ride as a groom was in my second wedding's Best Man's 1978 Coupe DeVille 425 Ci. 2 door copper-orange firemist, a smooth un-cracked saddle colored leather upholstery, already cracked dash and once-matching door panels that sun-aged into different colors depending on which part, armrest, switch cluster cover, etc.
Except for the aging materials (it was 12 years old then), I recall it to be very smooth.
Also mention that a friend of mine from PA moved to Palm Beach area in the early 90s, trading in a rusty 77 malibu classic for a 2 door white / red 1976 Caddy with a 500ci that got 15 mpg according to him. With those awful square headlamps, looked like a cross between a wise-guy, pimpmobile and ghetto cruiser. It had the deteriorated plastic-rubber cover at the bumper tail-lights.
I truly apologize to anyone who had one in their prime but when its over, its over. The early 70s El Dorados come to mind, few survivors.
Totally right, on top of questionable assembly and material quality (horrible interior plastics) the '70s Cads did not age well, nor any of the GM C-bodies, or all GMs really, those plastic-rubber fender extensions and bumper-fillers are almost always broken or missing now. Mopar did a much better job of adapting to energy-absorbing bumpers.
Wonder what the gas mileage was on one of these, probably with the 500 cid engine.
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