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

The tenth generation Cadillac Eldorado proved a breath of fresh air over its long-lived and bloated predecessor. When the old car bowed out at the conclusion of 1978 it was amidst big changes in the domestic luxury car market, and indeed in the car market in general. The oversized enormous 225-inch American car had come to its end via market and regulatory pressures. 

Competition from Europe was also ever-hotter and demanded more Continental-style automobiles. To that end (and prior to screwing up its entire lineup, more on that in future) the Eldorado of 1979 was svelte and crisp, and even added a Touring Coupe trim for further European cred. Let’s see how Cadillac’s sales fared at the end of its market dominating era.

The downsizing and lineup simplification of Cadillac that occurred for 1977 did nothing to dampen the American consumer’s desire for (shrunken) full-size luxury. The company broke its all-time sales record in ‘77 with 358,488 sales. The company nearly matched that total in 1978, with 349,684 cars sold.

In 1979 the only new product at Cadillac was the Eldorado, as the coupe finally received its downsizing and modernization. The entry-level model remained the DeVille, and its upmarket trim Fleetwood Brougham. The Fleetwood Brougham stood in for the discontinued long-wheelbase Sixty Special model, which fell out of favor by the mid-Seventies.

Seville was above either of those as the company’s first midsize flagship vehicle. The largest and most expensive cars the company sold were the Fleetwood Limousine (no passenger divider) and Fleetwood Formal Limousine (divider). The Eldorado’s arrival as a new model in ‘79 replaced the Seville as the company’s flagship in the marketing materials, as it was listed first when the models were presented together.

In what would turn out to be the last blockbuster year for Cadillac, the company sold a new record of 381,113 cars and its greatest ever domestic market share of 4.2 percent. Of those, the entry-level DeVille was the company’s most important model. The Coupe DeVille was the most popular car at Cadillac with 121,890 sales, each asking $11,200 ($52,974 adj.). Sedan DeVille and Fleetwood Brougham were the runners-up with 93,211 examples sold. Sedan DeVille cost roughly the same as the coupe, but Fleetwood Brougham was more expensive. The 42,200 Fleetwood Broughams sold for $13,450 ($63,616 adj.)

Seville was notably more expensive than either DeVille or Brougham and asked $15,560 ($73,596 adj.). Still a very successful model in its own right, 53,487 were sold that year. Eldorado prices increased as the model regained its flagship status, but it was still less expensive than Seville at $14,420 ($68,204 adj.).

Eldorado had a very impressive sales year in its new guise and sold 67,436 cars - its best sales year to date. The expensive Limousine models remained slow sellers, with 864 cars built in 1979. The eight-passenger sedan cost $20,990 ($99,279 adj.), and the Formal Limousine was even dearer at $21,735 ($102,803 adj.).

Cadillac was thoroughly unprepared for what 1980 would bring after its banner year in 1979. There was an oil crisis, interest rates were high, and high inflation reared its head. Unemployment would skyrocket to 10.8 percent by 1982. All of those factors combined to sink luxury car sales like the Titanic. Cadillac’s product was largely a carryover in 1980 as the lineup remained the same, apart from the Seville. 

The new sedan featured a bustleback design and moved onto the front-drive K-body platform. The K-body was an edited version of the Eldorado’s E-body and was used exclusively for the Seville from 1980 to 1985. The bustleback took the square jawed good looks of the first model and exchanged them for a passing design fancy of the automakers (see Lincoln Continental and Imperial).

Cadillac’s sales fell precipitously to 213,002 cars in 1980. Again DeVille remained the bread-and-butter model, with 55,490 Coupe DeVilles sold, and 49,188 for Sedan DeVille inclusive of Fleetwood Brougham. Deville’s price that year was around $12,400 ($51,488 adj.) inflation-addled dollars.

Eldorado remained a sales star, but its fortunes fell slightly in the difficult market. 52,683 coupes rolled off showroom floors in 1980. Each of them asked $15,510 ($64,401 adj.) or a bit more depending upon trim layering. The bustleback Seville had a hard fall that year as consumers were decidedly not into its styling and managed only 39,344 sales. The base price of the Seville in 1980 was $19,662 ($81,642 adj.) but escalated to $23,560 ($97,827 adj.) for an Elegante diesel.

Pricing and sales figures for the Limousine models are not available for 1980, but we can assume even lower sales in an inflationary year with a rough economy. There are 16,297 cars unaccounted for in 1980; the figure is a mix of commercial chassis and Limousine sales.

With 1980 and the turn of the decade, the shine had worn off of Cadillac’s golden crest. Never again would the company dominate the domestic luxury landscape. Consumers and regulation changed throughout the Seventies and that trend would only continue throughout the remainder of the Eighties and Nineties. 

Competition increased markedly in the Eighties as the yuppie class emerged and sought European motoring experiences. All the while, European car makers increased their presence in America as the gray market import was legislated away (thanks Mercedes). New players came into the fold with innovative offerings like Audi with 4WD Quattro, a feature with which domestic manufacturers could not compete. By the late Eighties a new variant of luxury vehicle would arrive, the high-end SUV.

And in short order the Japanese would set up shop with luxury wares from the likes of Acura (1986), and Infiniti and Lexus (1990). All of which offered better build quality and more features in a more economical car at a lower cost. Unfortunately for Cadillac, this happened around the time the company went full copy/paste with its model lineup and shrunk its cars a size and a half too far. We’ll cover the 10th Eldorado’s other sales years in our next installment; Cadillac had a big stumble in 1981.

[Images: GM]

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