Rare Rides Icons: The Cadillac Eldorado, Distinctly Luxurious (Part LIII)

The Eldorado’s new looks for 1967 were received very well, and generated immediate sales success for Cadillac’s halo coupe. Eldorado had continually struggled to find anything but a niche customer base since its inception in 1953, but it seemed its time had finally arrived. As discussed in our last entry, both 1967 and 1968 were banner years for the Cadillac brand and Eldorado, and the company broke its overall sales record on both occasions. 

In 1968 Cadillac sold 230,003 vehicles, and despite a hefty 11 percent price increase 24,528 of those were Fleetwood Eldorados. 1969 brought new styling across the line, and Eldorado strayed away from its sleek origins. But would customers take notice and shop elsewhere?

(Note: The bearded 18th century man glares angrily at the 1969 Eldorado because it is significantly uglier than the previous year.)

As Cadillac ran out its remaining two model years prior to a full-line redesign, the big news for all models were the revised front ends. Stacked headlamps were played out as a design cue, and were swapped in favor of horizontally-oriented quad lamps. For all models aside from Eldorado, the change in lighting was accompanied by a brand new grille shape.

The grille wore a larger egg crate design and was vertically larger than before, but narrower horizontally. Indicator lamps moved to the corners, which were newly pointed on all models to mimic the Eldorado. Hoods were more upright and squared off as the slabby surfaces of the Seventies arrived a year early. We’ve covered the 1969 Eldorado’s visual changes in detail previously, but its most notable revision was the (regulation-mandated) loss of covered headlamps.

The base model Calais continued in 1969 with coupe and hardtop sedan offerings. The most basic Calais coupe cost $5,466 ($48,991 adj.) that year, and moved 5,600 examples. The hardtop sedan was more popular and more expensive than the coupe. At an ask of $5,642 ($50,569 adj.), Cadillac sold 6,825 four-doors.

DeVille continued as the bread and butter of the Cadillac lineup, offered in coupe, sedan, pillared sedan, and convertible guises. The Coupe DeVille was the entry point at $5,703 ($51,115 adj.), and proved very popular with its new looks via 65,755 sales. The relatively value priced DeVille convertible was $5,887 ($52,765 adj.), and managed 7,890 sales. Above it were the sedan and hardtop DeVilles, identically priced at $5,936 ($53,204 adj.). The pillared sedan proved very unpopular at the DeVille level (as it had with Calais) and sold 7,890 cars to the 72,958 of the hardtop.

In the Fleetwood lineup, the increasing gulf between the pillared sedan Sixty Special and the Sixty Special Brougham grew. The base model was $6,761 ($60,598 adj.) while the Brougham was $7,092 ($63,565 adj.). A total of 17,300 customers were eager to pony up for the formal Brougham sedan with its vinyl roof, while just 2,545 base models were sold.

Pricing for the Eldorado increased slightly in 1969, to $6,693 ($59,989 adj.). And as it turned out, customers were either content to hold on to their 1967-1968 Eldorado or didn’t care as much for the 1969’s looks. Sales declined slightly to 23,333.

The revised, more modern visage appealed to the Seventy-Five buyer in 1969, and both models showed an increase in sales. The enormous Sedan asked $10,823 ($97,006 adj.) and sold 880 copies. The Limousine was more popular and more expensive, and sold 1,156 cars for $10,961 ($98,243 adj.). But overall brand sales declined in 1969 as the lineup aged, falling to 223,237.

A new decade arrived in 1970 as dealers trotted out the oldest overall Cadillac lineup ever. Eldorado was four years old, while Seventy-Five models were five, and all others were in their sixth model year. Recall that prior to 1965, the model cycle was three or four years long. But times were changing: Fewer body styles and greater spans between generations were a most pleasing change to accountants.

Prices took a jump across the board in 1970, but were overall a bit lower than 1969 when adjusted for inflation. A base Calais coupe started at $5,637 ($47,583 adj.). The hardtop was $5,813 ($49,069 adj.). Sales of both models fell notably, to 4,724 coupes and 5,187 hardtops.

DeVille continued to carry the brunt of the revenue for Cadillac. The Coupe DeVille was $5,884 ($49,668 adj.) in 1970 and sales jumped by over 10,000, to an impressive 76,043. DeVille’s convertible was suddenly twice as popular as it had been, and sold 15,172 examples for $6,068 ($51,221 adj.). Both hardtop and pillared Sedan DeVilles cost $6,118 ($51,644 adj.) in 1970. The hardtop hit a sales record of 83,274, while the sedan fared worse than the prior year with 7,230 sales.

Fleetwood Sixty Special saw its sales fall off a bit in 1970. The base model asked $6,953 ($58,692 adj.) and had its worst sales year ever at just 1,738 cars. The Brougham managed 16,913 sales at an ask of $7,284 ($61,486 adj.). Put into perspective, the Sixty Special in Brougham trim sold more cars than both body styles of the Calais combined.

Eldorado saw its price increase $210 ($1,772 adj.) in 1970, to $6,903 ($58,270 adj.). Sales were slightly better than in 1969 as 23,842 were shifted. Even though the styling was gawky, the eighth Eldorado finished its tenure with sales 24.8 percent higher than where they started in 1967.

Fleetwood Seventy-Five finished out its run with slightly higher pricing and stable sales. Cadillacs crested the $11,000 mark for the first time as the sedan asked $11,039 ($93,183 adj.) and sold 876 cars. The Limousine was $11,178 ($94,357 adj.) and sold better at 1,240 examples. 

Despite its aged lineup, Cadillac’s sales soared to new heights in 1970: 238,744 cars. Cadillac likely picked up customers who’d visited their Lincoln showroom for a look at the all-new Continental, only to find it was a sort of stretched version of the Mercury Marquis, which was itself a stretch of the Ford LTD. Poor!

That’s not to say Cadillac was without its own issues. Despite having an enormous V8 like the competition, Cadillac was about to enter a very awkward time with regard to its styling. Brougham chintz would increase exponentially as the disco era arrived, and inversely build quality fell. The Eldorado would find itself folded back into corporate styling of the leisure suit variety, but return to its convertible roots. We’ll pick up there next time.

[Images: GM, Ford]

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