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As we learned in our previous installment, 1965 saw a revamp in Cadillac’s lineup: The “Series” naming scheme that began in the Thirties ended as Calais became the entry-level model, all models (excepting Seventy-Five) received stacked quad headlamps for a new visage, and the Eldorado was elevated to Fleetwood Eldorado status. Cadillac also made some engineering changes, in hopes to quiet some pesky customers and lawyers who kept bringing up safety.

Cadillac implemented a shakeup for the 1965 model year in its lineup, styling, and approach to the market in general. The two-year modernization effort of the sixth-generation Eldorado was immediately cast aside as Cadillac surged forward into modernity with a new stylish prow, new model names, and further shrinkage of the iconic tailfin.

Today we wrap up coverage of the sixth generation Eldorado. Last time, we saw the 1964 edition of the sixth-gen revised inside and out. Subtle editing everywhere added up to a more modern looking vehicle, particularly where the interior was concerned. Time marched forward underneath the Eldorado as well, and there were some mechanical improvements for its second year as Cadillac continued its stellar sales.

In our last Eldorado episode, we reviewed the interior changes made to Cadillac’s flagship convertible as it was refreshed for 1963. In its move upmarket, the Eldorado joined the Fleetwood assembly line with the Sixty Special and Seventy-Five. It received wood trim for the first time in 1963, alongside a modernized and more cockpit-style dashboard. Outside, it adopted the subtle de-chromed look present on other contemporary Fleetwood models. In 1964 for the sixth generation’s second and final year, Eldorado was refreshed yet again.

Whereas the Toyota Tacoma has embraced many of the traits of other mid-size pickups as part of its redesign, the Nissan Frontier has stuck more closely to its roots. The former now offers hybrid power while the latter has become the only pickup in its segment offering six cylinders on the base trim.

In our last Eldorado installment, a reworked and Fleetwood-bodied 1963 Eldorado’s exterior styling was a bit of a surprise. It stepped away from the dowdy and Chevrolet adjacent styling it carried in 1961 and 1962 and became more slab-sided and refined looking. And even though it was not an entirely new car (as claimed by GM), the styling revisions were enough to set the sixth generation car apart from its predecessor. This week we open the long, heavy doors and see what interior updates were made for ‘63.

The world lost a great automotive designer in September, as it surfaced earlier this week that Bruno Sacco passed away at the age of 90. An Italian by birth, Sacco’s career and indeed the majority of his life took place in Germany. There, his flair for serious and orderly designs were put to use on the exclusive luxury wares from Mercedes-Benz.

We return to Eldorado coverage with the “all-new” claim applied to the Eldorado of 1963. It was misleading, as the luxury convertible embarked on a new generation while the rest of the lineup was considered a refresh. The Cadillac marketing people justified their grandiose claims because in addition to a visual rework, the Eldorado changed its manufacturing location. It moved upmarket (shedding the two-year DeVille association) and joined the exclusive Fleetwood assembly line with the Sixty Special and Seventy-Five models. And part of its new upper-crust lifestyle meant a reduction in chrome trappings in addition to its refreshed corporate appearance.

As we covered in our last installment, the Cadillac Eldorado was “all-new” for 1963 as GM repositioned its flailing flagship convertible. While the rest of the lineup existed as a refresh of the 1961-1962 generation, Eldorado was set apart. Not that it looked different to the rest of the model range, as it received the same visual updates. Eldorado was considered new, special, because of its change in construction: It ascended the ranks in 1963 to the Fleetwood assembly line. And there were a few new details under the skin to draw in the consumer.

In 1961 Cadillac lowered the status of the Eldorado for its fifth generation, after the fourth-gen received lackluster sales. Eldorado transitioned from a pair of body styles (coupe and convertible) sitting atop the company’s standard car range to a weird cousin within the DeVille line, offered only as the convertible Biarritz. Customers saw little to no reason to spend 16 percent more for an Eldorado Biarritz than they would for the nearly identical Sixty-Two convertible, and sales remained poor at 1,450 per year in 1961 and 1962. Eldorado needed a change, a clean break.

In our last Eldorado installment, we reviewed the styling revisions that arrived for the fifth generation Eldorado’s second and final year in 1962. Styling was smoothed, fins were made less aggressive, and the look headed toward a more familial and generalized GM appearance as distinguishing Eldorado details went by the wayside. As it turned out, this less-for-more approach did not work particularly well with regard to the appeal of the top-tier Eldorado Biarritz.

As we’ve learned over the past couple of weeks, the fifth generation Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz really struggled to justify its high price tag. With Chevrolet-adjacent exterior styling and an interior that lacked any upmarket badging whatsoever, the Eldorado had become a shadow of its former glamorous self. Cadillac made some changes to its halo convertible for 1962, the second and final outing of the fifth generation design. To summarize the updates succinctly: Designers removed even more details.

When the 1961 Cadillac Eldorado debuted in its newly diminished state, it wore the company’s more restrained and less finned new styling, and fewer exterior indicators of its special top-of-the-line nature than any previous Eldorado. In our last installment we reviewed the ‘61’s exterior styling, and noted there were only a couple of indicators (badges) that a customer sprung for the Eldorado Biarritz over a standard Sixty-Two. Today we’ll swing open a huge door and see how the Biarritz interior was modernized for the model’s fifth generation. 

Among the myriad of alterations made to the Cadillac lineup for 1961 was a change in approach for the Eldorado. As we learned in our last installment, poor sales successively after 1958 led to a de-emphasized Eldorado model in 1961. GM realized no amount of largesse, pink paint, or fins could save its sales figures. And so for 1961 the model was relegated to a part of the much more popular DeVille line of cars, and was available only in convertible Biarritz format. The model’s toned down 1961 looks were accompanied by modest engineering changes.

With emissions regulations encouraging automakers to pivot toward tiny engines and all-electric vehicles, some have likewise expressed a renewed interest in synthetic fuels. German brands, particularly Porsche, have been stressing the importance of “e-fuels” and Subaru recently announced plans to run the 2024 Super Taikyu Series using a WRX converted to run on synthetic fuels “making internal combustion engines more environmentally friendly.”

But the concept isn’t exactly a new one, leading many to question how sustainable it actually is.

After a delayed and limited roll-out of the new Northstar engine (in two power configurations) for the 1993 and 1994 model year, Cadillac enjoyed a wave of positive press. With an entirely new product portfolio in place by 1994, the Northstar-filled (except Fleetwood Brougham) Cadillac lineup was ready to roll through the remainder of the Nineties. Cadillac immediately set about tweaking their V8 for 1995, and it was around that time some issues began to poke holes in the Northstar’s trophy collection.

After an extensive five-plus year development period fraught with engineering adversity, unfortunate focus group decisions, and delays via magnesium material mishaps, the Northstar V8 was ready for production. Paired with it were new associated systems and technology which the marketing team at GM trademarked as the Northstar System. Prior to the Northstar’s debut in the model year 1993 Allanté, it was time for a big marketing push. The Northstar System was all-encompassing!

While snagging some lunch in downtown Chicago Friday afternoon, I spied rising NASCAR star and last year's winner of the inaugural Chicago Street Race Shane van Gisbergen walking down Michigan Avenue. Only one or two fans stopped him for autographs -- he was, despite being one of the best racecar drivers in the entire world, walking down a busy street in America's third-largest city in the middle of the day and going almost unrecognized.

In our last installment of the Cadillac Northstar story, we reviewed the engineering decisions made early in the engine’s development. From the sensible choice of 4.5 liters of displacement (4.6 in production) to the hubris of consumer focus groups filled with aging current owners, the project rolled forward but faced many engineering challenges. The development was daunting as Cadillac’s first dual overhead cam V8 engine after decades of overhead valve power plants. The difficulty of pairing a cast aluminum block to iron cylinder liners was complete, but engineers opened up a new can of worms with the induction system.

We return to Abandoned History’s coverage of the Cadillac Northstar engine this week, at a pivotal moment in the engine’s development. Stiff competition from luxury cars of domestic, European, and Japanese origin put big pressure on Cadillac. The era of the dual overhead cam engine was on the horizon, and it looked as though Cadillac was about to be left in the dust with its High Technology 4.5-liter. After hemming and hawing about an update to the 4.5 rather than the development of a new engine, GM brass decided a new power plant was in fact necessary. However, aside from the necessity of DOHC technology, the rest of the engine was just a word cloud of ideas that needed to be nailed down quickly.

The rivalry between Japanese and domestic automobiles was fairly intense. American muscle had fallen off and arguably failed to regain its swagger until the 1990s. While things have improved, we’re now confronting a situation where the 2024 Ford Mustang GT is running out of local rivals — so we have decided to pit it against the 2024 Nissan Z.

Back in 2022 Abandoned History covered the development and usage of Cadillac’s all-star engine for the Eighties, the High Technology V8. As the 4.1-liter pile showed promptly that it was terrible, General Motors massaged, improved, and enlarged it into the HT4500 and finally the (not HT) 4.9-liter. But by the time the 4.9 arrived, the engine was already at the end of its service life. The General had an all-new, much better V8 that would trounce the 4.9 and bring Cadillac back into the luxury fray: Northstar.

We concluded our coverage of the fourth-generation Eldorado last week, as the 1959 to 1960 run resulted in very mediocre sales. The Eldorado Seville and Biarritz sold poorly compared to the rest of the Cadillac line, and the Eldorado Brougham was the slowest selling model the brand had on offer. While low sales of the Brougham were more understandable given its huge asking price, the regular Eldorados seemed to have lost their mid-Fifties appeal. Cadillac needed to take action and rework its lineup, particularly where Eldorado was concerned.

We close out the fourth generation Cadillac Eldorado and second (and final) Eldorado Brougham sedan with a discussion on sales figures and pricing. The figures set the stage for a time of decline in the Eldorado’s fortunes, while the pricing (particularly of the Brougham) meant General Motors would never attempt a halo Eldorado ever again. Adding insult to injury, it was the last time Eldorado was an independent model for some time.

With automakers having lost the plot in terms of new-vehicle pricing and dealers still tacking on markups, there are loads of people in need of cheap, reliable transportation. While you may not believe it, there are still models to be had for under $20,000 (USD). But your choices are effectively limited to the soon-to-be-discontinued Nissan Versa and Mitsubishi Mirage, begging the question of which one should you buy before they’re gone.

In our last Eldorado episode, we reviewed the interior changes made to the high-line Eldorado Brougham in its new-for-1959 guise. In the transition to more uniform product alignment with its Biarritz and Seville siblings, the Brougham lost almost all unique interior features. Its more formal pillarless hardtop roofline and smaller wings (a preview of 1960 Cadillacs) and a couple pieces of interior trim were what set the Brougham apart from other Cadillac sedans. However, the Brougham did have one new claim to fame: exotic Italian construction!

In last week’s Eldorado installment, we reviewed the interior updates made to the Eldorado Seville and Biarritz. Their revised interiors added additional chrome, modernized gauges, and ditched the wrap-around look of the 1958 model. Across the showroom (probably behind velvet ropes) was the 1959 Eldorado Biarritz with its new interior. But were the changes made to the halo sedan a good thing?

In 1959, Bill Mitchell was newly in charge of Cadillac’s design department. Keen to shrug off his predecessor’s gaudy choices, Mitchell made sweeping exterior changes for a single all-out year full of sweeping body lines and excessive fins. Alongside the exterior design changes on the new Eldorado Seville, Biarritz, and four-door Eldorado Brougham of 1959 were interior advancements and upgrades.

Piggybacking off our earlier match between the Honda CR-V and Toyota RAV4, this week’s throw-down will be between the 2024 Honda Civic and Toyota Corolla.

While neither model sells quite like it used to, due to the popularity of their crossover equivalents, there are few mass-market rivalries as long lived as the Civic and Corolla. Be you someone in the market for basic transportation on a budget or an individual that wants something more sporting than the character-free CUVs that currently dominate the market, Japanese automakers still have your back.

Last week’s match-up between the Honda CR-V and Toyota RAV4 was fairly close. However, readers seemed to gravitate toward the Toyota due to several factors. It boasted a traditional 8-speed automatic transmission, rather than a CVT, and made power from a larger motor that sidestepped forced induction. This led to many assuming the Toyota would handle long-term abuse better than the Honda — which was further supported by the vehicle having been on the market longer and proven itself as reliable.

As the point of this segment is to create the automotive equivalent of Sophie’s Choice, we’re bringing back the RAV4 and pitting it against the 2024 Mazda CX-5.

Time flies, doesn’t it? Seems just a year or two ago your author took a troubled and stressful trip to Austin to pick up a lightly used GS 350. But that was a full five years ago now, prior to pandemic times! We last spoke about the GS in April of 2021 at the two-year mark. Three years on, this is the longest I’ve ever kept a single automobile.

If you’re interested in a career in automotive journalism, here’s a piece of unsolicited advice – don’t get in the passenger seat of a Lucid Air Sapphire with the car’s development engineer for hot laps of a major racetrack shortly after eating lunch.

Last week we reviewed the dramatic and super finned exterior design of the 1959 Eldorado, in its two-door Seville hardtop coupe format. While its less popular convertible sibling Biarritz received matching styling in all ways except its roof, there was exclusive and different styling reserved for the third type of Eldorado: the four-door Brougham. Assembled by hand in Italy at Pininfarina, the large sedan was very rare, a last-of-type, and was a sneak peek of future Cadillacs.

We’re introducing a new segment where we intentionally pit two vehicles against each other that are exceedingly difficult to choose between. The idea is to create a would-you-rather situation where we compare the strengths and weaknesses of both models and take input from our readers.

Our first match-up is an incredibly tough one, because these are some of the best-selling vehicles in all of North America that aren’t pickup trucks — the Honda CR-V vs the Toyota RAV4.

The entertaining Ford Heritage Vault is a treasure trove of photos and information from the Blue Oval’s yesteryear, including the scattered forgotten concept vehicle. Whilst looking for details to inform another story, we stumbled upon this fantastic concept from when the Ford Explorer was brand new and taking the world by storm.

It was time for a new styling theme at Cadillac in 1959, when lead designer Harley Earl reached mandatory retirement age. Bill Mitchell, longtime right hand man and team succeeded Earl and implemented immediate styling changes. Some of those - like huge fins - were to compete with Chrysler and Imperial designs, but others were an effort at streamlining and modernization; moving away from post-War looks. Today we’ll take a look at the changes underneath these grandiose and (often) pink metallic bodies.

There’s no shortage of debate in this country about electric vehicles – and for good reason. For some, the technology just isn’t quite there yet to fulfil the daily duties they require of their primary vehicle. For others, existing levels of range being offered in the marketplace suits their needs just fine. Other considerations like affordability and performance are as much case-by-case as an individual’s dinner order at a restaurant.

One thing almost everyone can agree on? The appalling state of public charging infrastructure. Faced with broken chargers or a simple lack thereof, your decided to make the leap and install a Level 2 charger in the garage space attached to his home.

One of my favorite little nuggets of irony is that the Hell's Kitchen area of Manhattan is actually very well-to-do. It's not anything like any commonly imagined vision of hell, unless your vision of hell consists of yuppies, puppies, and way too many people.

We’re back with more Cadillac Eldorado today, in our final entry on the third generation models. We spent our last installment reviewing the special and sometimes troublesome engineering that was standard on the Brougham. Since then, I discovered this April 1957 edition of The Cadillac Serviceman, GM’s in-house magazine publication for its dealer service centers. Twelve clearly scanned pages of technical and service detail await you! After reading, return here and learn about the changes made to the Eldorado line in 1958.

We’re back with more Cadillac Eldorado coverage this week. In our last installment (over a month ago) we reviewed the interior accouterments of the Eldorado Brougham that were far beyond the standard Eldorado. Aside from its coach door hardtop body style, the other area where the Brougham went its own way was in engineering. And some of that engineering was of the experimental variety. What could go wrong?

The world lost one of its preeminent car designers today, as Marcello Gandini has passed away at the age of 85. Though perhaps best known for the flashy and outrageous Lamborghini Countach, Gandini’s pen was applied to many other Italian, German, French, British, Japanese, and Swedish concepts and production designs. Gandini’s prolific portfolio of work made a permanent mark on automotive design.

After a decade-long project that saw changes in approach, multiple delays, staff changes, planning and replanning, and conflicting reports, Apple’s Titan autonomous electric car project is dead. The company made an internal announcement on February 27th, 2024 which leaked to the press immediately via several Apple employees. The project’s cancellation created our most recent Abandoned History subject matter to date. Let’s start at the beginning, in 2014.

In our last installment of Rare Rides, we checked out the interior changes Cadillac’s engineers and designers made for the new and improved third generation Eldorado in 1957. And while the interior of the standard Eldorados that year was largely shared with the rest of the Cadillac lineup, there was an exception: Eldorado Brougham. Like we saw previously with the Brougham’s mix-and-match approach in use of old and new exterior styling cues, the interior went its own direction as well.

We spent our last installment reviewing the more modern exterior styling of the 1957 Eldorado Seville, and new-yet-dated looking Eldorado Brougham. Those two followed our coverage of the Eldorado Biarritz, which was unable to adopt Cadilac’s 1957 roof and pillars design because of its canvas roof. This week we step inside the Eldorado, and see how removed it was from the 1956 models.

Last week in our Cadillac Eldorado saga, we covered the visual updates in the new-for-’57 Eldorado Biarritz. Part of a styling revision across the line at Cadillac that year, the Eldorado in particular drifted away from the bulbous fenders and tall hood shapes that were a hallmark of post-WWII American car design. But there were two more Eldorados in 1957! One of them looked more daring than the Biarritz, and the other looked almost like it was from the past.

As we learned in our previous installment, the third generation Eldorado debuted in 1957 with a daring new X-frame chassis design. Launched across the entire Cadillac lineup that year, the X-frame would become controversial in short order due to safety concerns in side-impact crashes. Up top, Cadillac decided to make less controversial styling changes on the 1957 Eldorados. Designers advanced a styling theme that would reach its fin-happy and chrome bedazzled crescendo a couple of years later.

As we learned in our last installment, the Cadillac lineup was revised visually for 1957, and would be revised again in 1958 once quad headlamps became legal. Fins grew, hoods smoothed, roofs leaned backward, and there were more Eldorado variants than ever before. But styling and lineup changes weren’t the only new features in 1957: Cadillac was also eager to tout its Standard of the World engineering, safety, and engine advancements!

The second generation Cadillac Eldorado was met with immediate sales success after its repositioning from a halo vehicle to a more affordable upmarket trim package in 1954. Expanding upon the success in its third and final model year, the second-gen Eldorado sprouted a new body style (a hardtop coupe) called Seville in addition to the mainstay convertible sibling christened Biarritz. In 1958 it was time for all-new Eldorado(s), in a moment that would see the nameplate expand into a small lineup in two very distinct price brackets. Time for model range detail!

A leading electric vehicle manufacturer, recently shared its production and delivery figures for the fourth quarter and the entire year of 2023, reflecting a noteworthy accomplishment in the electric vehicle industry. The company, based in Normal, Illinois, reported producing 17,541 vehicles in the last quarter, culminating in a total of 57,232 vehicles for the year, thus surpassing the company's forecast of 54,000 vehicles for 2023.

The product people at Cadillac made a crucial decision early in the Fifties with regard to the positioning of the second generation Eldorado: It would be less expensive, and less special. The unique content of the exclusive limited-run 1953 Eldorado meant it had a stratospheric price that put it out of reach for the vast majority of consumers. The subsequent 1954 Eldorado appeared with a more reasonable price, and was a fancy trim package atop the new Series 62 convertible. Sales skyrocketed, and the trajectory for the remainder of the second generation was set!

Sacrificing much, GM spent billions and billions of 1980s dollars on technology and engineering entities at the behest of CEO Roger Smith, who wanted to transform The General into a company more resembling a conglomerate like GE. Half a decade later Smith was gone, and the remaining brass began to unwind the costly EDS and Hughes deals and return GM to its standard operating procedure. But behind the layers of finance and paperwork, Guidestar GPS was developed. And the first time the public got to see it was in 1994 in a very exciting debut.

As we learned in our last installment in this series, the lowering of the digital and governmental barrier between civilian and military GPS assets in 1996 was a boon to the consumer side of navigation, and (per our comments) land surveying as well. It was a timely turn of events for General Motors after the Orlando area TravTek experiment of 1992 proved either too costly to scale, or alternatively not valuable enough in the eyes of consumers. Before we get to GuideStar, we need to cover much context around why GM was so keen on high-tech things in the Nineties, and the massive amounts of money it spent in its pursuit.

When it debuted in its second generation guise for the 1954 model year, the Cadillac Eldorado changed its approach from low-production halo car to expensive trim package. The new take and lower price resonated with consumers and sales jumped immediately. Boldened, in 1955 a refreshed Eldorado appeared with a new rear end treatment that featured large fins not found on other Cadillac models. Upon the Eldorado’s return to (partially) unique styling, sales nearly doubled. Cadillac wanted more, and so for its final second generation outing in 1956 Eldorado was expanded into a new body style and two luxurious new trim names. 

We return to our Rare Rides Eldorado coverage this week, after a thorough review of the exterior and interior of the new-for-’54 Eldorado. The new model was meant to continue the excitement of the limited-run, very expensive 1953 Eldorado at a price that was notably more affordable to the American luxury car buyer. A more cynical take on a halo convertible, the 1954 went without any unique styling and instead focused on trim and badges to differentiate it from the garden variety Series 62 convertible upon which it was based. Normally this is the point where we’d talk about trims, but there weren’t any at the second Eldorado’s debut. It was not until after the model became a sales success that Cadillac debuted more variants.

General Motors spent a lot of time and money in the development of TravTek GPS. As we learned in our last installment, the comprehensive (if clunky) navigation system used a touchscreen, had live traffic information, and could even make phone calls. Installed in 100 Toronados used in the greater Orlando area for an entire year, GM, AAA, and various government parties were eager to see just how useful the system was and if it was worthwhile. Narrator: It wasn’t. Let’s find out why.

We return to our spicy Oldsmobile content this week, with the introduction of GM’s first publicly tested in-car navigation system, TravTek. Arriving in the early Nineties, TravTek was launched more than two decades after GM’s magnet-based DAIR prototype failed to make production. This time The General was determined to make good on their big investment. Onward, to Orlando!