(first posted 1/2/2018) Involuntary unemployment can wreak havoc on one’s self-confidence. Being laid off from my job of ten plus years at the end of 2010 was totally unexpected, and it took me a couple of weeks before I realized that not going back to my old cubicle was a permanent thing. Craving structure, I almost immediately set about recreating a “workday” that consisted of spending my mornings at my desk (my new, temporary cube), scanning job postings, reaching out to old contacts and making new ones, and taking other initiatives to get back into the workforce.
My afternoons were then mine, barring receipt of any returned correspondence. I then started or resumed various photography projects, which was restorative in a lot of ways. Being laid off also suddenly put into my perspective what many of my townsfolk back in my hometown of Flint, Michigan had gone through after wave upon wave of job eliminations from GM. Admittedly, one key difference with my situation was that there were many other job opportunities to be had in Chicago, and not everyone in the Windy City was vying for any and every one of the few positions that remained.
It was while on an afternoon jaunt to somewhere (on my newly-restricted, weekly allowance) that I spotted our featured car in front of National Car Wash in the neighborhood just south of mine. I have always loved the mid-century modern architecture and signage of this building, and have returned to it often to get a few more snapshots of it. Also, with so many things always in flux, one just never knows when a previously admired landmark will be demolished and replaced with something more modern on increasingly more-valuable real estate.
My title to this piece is not necessarily a dig at this Eldorado. I’m aware that while this generation doesn’t seem to be the favorite of a lot of people, there must be a least a few folks who had a genuinely decent experience with and/or affection for one. With that said, this example, which appeared to be a daily driver that was two decades old at the time of these photographs, was likely the nicest car its owner could afford. Why buy a Y2K-era Impala or Taurus when you could ride in actual (relative) style? “After all, it’s a Cadillac.”
It doesn’t matter that this Eldorado isn’t the sharpest, newest thing on wheels. It even has the $395 Gold Ornamentation Package! Oooo, la la! Many of us have been faced with a situation when a transportation car was needed, or where we couldn’t have our first choice of exactly what we wanted. In such instances, how we face our situation is up to us. We can begrudge what we can’t have and what others do.
Or, we make the most of our sudden abundance of free time. We spring for the old luxury car. We ride the bus with no particular destination in mind simply just to get out of the house. We refuse to give up. Our optimism may be baffling to some, or perhaps downright irritating to others. No matter. We deserve the simple pleasures afforded us by choosing to make the most of things. Our optimism is yet possible because when life gives us lemons, we paint that s*** gold.
Uptown, Chicago, Illinois.
Monday, December 20, 2010.
Oh Joe. Here we are on January 2. I have spent too much money, consumed too many calories, gained too much weight and put off too many things both at work and at home. So today I (and probably a few others) begin to face the music.
So . . . today, of all days, when we really need an emotional boost, you give us this sad little yellow Eldorado mini-me????? Not. Helpful.
🙂
Be Nice!!
Give it a good wash and wax. It maybe or could become a young man’s 1st set of wheels and he will have fond memories of it in the future even if his friends made harsh remarks.
I know, because I started with something “much” less than above. So treat it with respect.
You can’t polish a turd.
You can, but it still stinks.
‘It even has the $395 Gold Ornamentation Package! Oooo, la la! ”
But you sure can roll it in glitter!
Hahaha!! Touché. I suppose that when I drafted this piece last month (among five, total during a burst of creativity), I might have scheduled one of the more uplifting ones as my first piece of 2018.
I do really like this creamy yellow color. I think of it as “Tom Klockau Yellow”. 🙂
Don’t give it to a young man : he’s gonna plasti-dip all those faux gold ornamentation . No manufacturer does produce applied carbon for this model .
I guess one of the big disappointments about this generation of Eldorado, at least in my view, is that it doesn’t look special. This could be almost any Cadillac coupe, there isn’t any that I can see that differentiates it from any other 2 door Cadillac.
I do like that shade of yellow, though. For me, the big question mark would be the engine/transmission.
In fact it could be almost any GM front-driver from the mid-late 80s, and that was the biggest problem: lack of differentiation. Nothing special about this thing at all.
Hmmm. I would say that the Eldorado, for most of its existence up until the 1967 model, didn’t always look strikingly different from its 62-series stablemates. The 1953’s visual differences from a 62 convertible of that year are subtle. The 1954 acquired extra bright metal trim. The 1955 through 1958 models did get unique sheet metal in the rear. From 1959 through 1966, they went back to trim differences from the 62 and DeVille convertibles. When the Eldorado went to FWD, it finally looked a lot different from the rest of the Cadillacs.
One of my co workers was an Eldo fan. He bought a new ’79 or ’80 and kept it ten years and then bought one of these brand new. He kept it for at least ten years and told me that he loved it. Never any problems with it. When he retired he was still driving it. That was quite a few years ago. Joseph, best wishes and looking forward to a New Year of reading your contributions.
Awesome! Jose, I was hoping to read at least one or two comments along the same lines as yours. Happy New Year to you, as well!
I’m so conflicted, I 100% agree with the optimistic sentiment, yet can’t help but look at this Eldorado as anything but tragic. There’s just no modern day relevance this design has to the Cadillac brand and no physical presence to proclaim the brand’s former glory, it’s even more depressing as a metaphor under the circumstances.
Ironically the failure of this car is the result of GM’s lack of positive outlook of the times, certain fuel would be expensive forever and that people would ultimately come to thier mini Caddies in droves when their feet dragging German and soon Japanese competitors became too expensive to operate.
The loss of a job can be devastating, so my hat is off to you for the way in which you handled it. Your ability to see the goodness in this Eldorado ultimately is a better reflection on you than it is on the car.
At least it’s the version that has the extended rear quarter panel caps for the taillights. That was one emergency move made by GM in the wake of this car’s catastrophic failure in the market. The restyled, “butt-lifted” Riviera and Toronado, however, came off better than this Eldorado, in my opinion.
I agree with you that the restyled, same-generation Toronado and Riviera looked appreciably better. I thought the Olds Toronado and Troféo were genuinely good-looking cars, without qualifiers.
I still wouldn’t mind having one of the final Toronados today. For that matter, I wouldn’t turn down a revised Riviera.
When I read that you were at the carwash, Jim Croce’s “Workin’ at the carwash Blues” started going through my head. Not sure how to link it, but a fun song. Glad your trip past the carwash didn’t stop there, Joseph!
+1 for Jim Croce! Taken from us way too soon.
“…We ride the bus with no particular destination in mind simply just to get out of the house…”
Been there, sort of did that, but it was on San Francisco-area BART trains when they had some panache, didn’t smell bad, weren’t crowded, and didn’t include as many drunks and street people among the clientele as they do now. You also learned quickly that if you boarded at one downtown station and got off at the next after riding the whole system, never exiting from the fare-paid areas. If you did that in Berkeley or Oakland, you also got a free ticket good for a free ride on a transit bus, back to your original station…or to somewhere else, if you wanted.
This Eldorado has enjoyed some pride from its owner(s). The aftermarket faux-radiator grille lends a bit more presence than the weak GM original. At twenty years old in the photos, it didn’t show the ravages of all that many years in car-eating road salt, and the cream-yellow paint had, in all llkelihood, felt the caresses of a polishing rag from time to time.
I omitted part of a sentence, and from here in iPadland, I can no longer edit or delete my own comments.
It should have read,
“…You also learned quickly that if you boarded at one downtown station and got off at the next after riding the whole system, never exiting from the fare-paid areas, YOUR FARE WAS ONLY 25 CENTS. If you did that in Berkeley or Oakland, you also got a free ticket good for a free ride on a transit bus, back to your original station…or to somewhere else, if you wanted…”
G. Poon, I love public transit and am on the CTA Red Line as I type this. I have actually ridden the BART before, with my last time being roughly fifteen years ago. I remember it being (seeming) really clean and modern.
The thing that used to trip me up was the exit fare, same as with the Metro in DC. What do those folks do if there’s not enough left on their fare cards? Hit the ATM or kiosk? Thankfully, Chicago’s system is not like that.
I feel like these giant neon car wash signs used to be everywhere in the area- but one by one, as places either modernized or closed down, they’ve been disappearing.
I also love old signs! Particularly this one. I must have photographed it on at least five different occasions.
Ha! I didn’t immediately click on this article because I saw a yellow 1980s Cadillac and I thought it might have been a re-run of one of Tom Klockau’s articles, which I’ve already read all of multiple times (hey, I find 1980s Cadillacs interesting). Then I was scrolling again and saw the filter effect on the first photo and I thought, “Hmm, that seems like more of a Joe Dennis photo”. And here we are!
Yeah, these are pretty sad but the ’88 revision did sharpen things up a bit. I wouldn’t kick one out of my garage.
Happy new year, Joe!
Haha! Hey, if you want to read a new one of mine, this one went up at 9AM, central Ohio time. http://jackbaruth.com/?p=8052
Tom, that was a typically Klockauian, fantastic read.
(And Happy New Year, Will!)
Thank you Mr Dennis for referencing a favorite album of mine during my brief time of “underemployment” several years ago. Admittedly the album title was the first thing to come to mind upon seeing your article title and the car pictured, so your closing line caused me to yell out loud at my desk… I have been using that quote any time I see any make with a variation of the Gold Ornamentation Package. My 07 Cobalt with the gold Chevy bow ties that replaced the wonderful blue bow ties of the prior generation Chevrolets, a girlfriends 09 Corrolla, teal with gold badging, and my 2nd gen 03 Outback with the “Gold All The Things!” badging and lettering…. So Classy.
Outstanding – all of this. And I’m glad someone (you) got the musical reference
The little Eldorados are not my cup of tea, but if a 20 year old car looked that good in a Chicago winter somebody liked it enough to make some effort to keep it that way. And that’s good enough for me.
Dan, I agree – this car’s great apparent condition (with a few, minor cosmetic niggles) was proof of prior care, and I liked it even more for that reason.
I’m driving a 15 year old minivan. Any Cadillac, any color, in the same condition where do I sign?
Twenty years ago when I was making good coin and driving a silver and black RWD Fleetwood, wouldn’t have touched it with YOUR ten foot pole!
Life changes, perspectives change.
At the end of the day, just happy to still be motoring both figuratively and lliterally.
Ain’t that what it’s all about Folks??
Heh heh! I just snapped a picture of a sticker on the back of a 2003 Odyssey in my work parking lot a few days ago. It read: “I used to be cool.”
My wife used to daily-drive our 2001 Odyssey, and we recently upgraded (and boy oh boy that is really true in so many ways) to a 2007 EX leather with rear entertainment system and the NAV system (includes backup camera which is why I wanted it).
Now over the hill, I am seeing life downhill on the other side, and boy you are right on the perspective change!
Hang in there bud. My company has jobs open in Goshen, Indiana. If you are interested, let me know.
FTR, I liked those little Eldorado and Sevilles. They were fun-sized Caddys with V8s. What’s not to like?
Corey, thank you so much – I really appreciate that. The situation I described was from seven years ago, and I was without employment for only about three / four months (thankfully) at the depth of that nasty economic recession.
“Fun-sized” – I think I like that description for these cars!
It’s always sad when you talk about Cadillac in the 1980s and how they had to play catch-up as the 1990s came about.
Is there anything POSITIVE to say about Cadillac between 1981 and 1989?
1981: The V-8-6-4
1982: The HT-4100
1983: The Cimmaron
1984: Quality delays for the new FWD DeVille/Fleetwood
1985: The new FWD DeVille/Fleetwood
1986: New Eldorado and Seville
1987: The Allante
1988: Playing catch-up with the new Eldorado and Seville
1989: Playing catch-up with the FWD DeVille/Fleetwood
I tried to find out more, but even the Wikipedia article for Cadillac seems to skip right past the 1980s save for a mention of downsizing and the Cimmaron introduction.
If you can’t say anything nice…
Yes, it made me take a look at the Lexus dealerships and am a loyal customer to this day and
I think one positive was the 1980 De Ville/Fleetwood, with 368 ci V8, before the madness. Another would be keeping the RWD Brougham, and adding Olds/Chevy V8’s.
And maybe upsizing the FWD De Ville and adding HP to the 4500? But should have been sooner.
When you look at it like that, yes. GM cars just seemed to be getting worse year after year.
Sometimes I wonder whether GM actually did society a great favour in (accidentally) leading people to look beyond mere branding and advertising to the actual quality of the product in the showroom and on the road, compared to the competition.
No, not “after all, it’s a Cadillac.” It’s “Best of all, it’s a Cadillac.” It was their slogan at around roughly that era.
Right you are! Thanks for the correction.
Joe, awesome photography and write up. Its so great to see such optimism even when one faces adversity. I am glad it sounds like you were able to make it through this rough patch in your life with your head held high. I have always tried to be an optimist even when in a negative situation or surrounded by negative people. Focusing o the negative never seems to help anyone.
That last photo is absolutely amazing. A great start to 2018 on CC.
Thanks so much, everyone. I hope everyone’s first week of 2018 is going well.
A Nice old Caddy, I like the color too .
-Nate
I’ll fire off the random thoughts cannon here, and see what I hit.
I love the colour; most unusual then and now. An interesting creamy yellow that was probably quite conservative back then, from memory.
I hate the gold badgery; typical eighties/nineties dealer dreck more usually found on Hondas (down here, anyway). Side thought: why does society think gold is so great anyway? Valuable, sure, but why? I don’t get it; I think it looks tacky. Personally I’d prefer a nice shiny chrome. But that’s me. YMMV.
The size: about right.
The style, No way. It just doesn’t look prestigious, and that’s the killer. No matter how many crests and gold stuff they slather over it, it just does not look aspirational. It just looks generic-GM, with some extra prestige cues pasted on. Taillights aside, it looks like a Cimmarron coupe. I’d say it looks an old man’s car, but I’m an old man now and I wouldn’t have wanted one. Yester-style, in a smaller size.
If I’d been a Cadillac buyer, I’d have kept my old model (THAT was sharp!) and waited for the next generation. And saved a bucket of money in depreciation. And hoped Cadillac’s crystal ball was on the fritz, and this style was not the way of the future.
Nice colour though.
Just one place on earth were this car really works: Las Vegas. All trumpery.
I know this is a reprinted entry but I never understood why Cadillac used a coat of arms as their badge, Packard to? I would have thought that very un American.
The crest and wreath standup bonnet mascot is tacky in the extreme and a bit of a fraud, the US has no history in the European sense, I grew up in a house as old as the US
Why hark back to old Europe with landed families and all the privilege and snobbery that comes with it. Thought you were supposed to reject all that.
I do like the Goddess mascot, in its stylised form, looked modern and appropriate
Isnt´t the problem with this car the same as the (much more extrem) Gremlin? The proportions are wrong. It´s evident GM used unchanged the car forward of the B-pillar for a much shorter car than the vehicle it was derived from? Maybe a E-body expert can tell me which car had the same structure front of the B-pillar (and I don´t mean the other E-bodies).
I thought I could take a side profile of the car and adjust it so that the proportions worked. The wrongness is so baked-in that adding more car aft of the door doesn´t work. It still looks really wonky.
The 1986-up E-Body only shared its basic body and proportions with the similarly badly proportioned K-Body Seville. This is just how they were (ill) conceived and designed. GM was trying to make them as small as possible, but it just didn’t come off right. The rear axle is set back to enhance rear seat room. And they were quite roomy for their exterior dimensions.
My take on the E-Body:
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-american/curbside-classic-1986-buick-riviera-gms-deadly-sin-no-1/
My take on the Seville and its stylistic issues:
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-american/curbside-classic-1986-1991-seville-gms-deadly-sin-21-and-to-think-that-i-owned-one/
This is my third (sketch!) attempt. In my first two I tried to keep the formal C-pillar. Nothing worked too well so I decided to a regular C-pillar.
This is a step in the right direction, and not too unlike the FWD Buick LeSabre coupe, which was a handsome car.
And it had a large back seat without contorting the styling. Having owned one, there is no practical reason it couldn’t have been used as the basis for a Cadillac, it was no worse than anything Cadillac offered at the time and the styling was one of GMs better attempts of the era; beyond the horrific proportions of the Cadillac it also came across as visually too thin for its length, kind of pinched, the Buick (and Pontiac Grand Prix coupe) didn’t have that issue. On the other hand they may have been slightly too “sporty”-looking if that’s even a possibility.
Thanks – I´d forgotten about the LeSabre. The Cadillac people probably wanted to distinguish their car from the Buick and ended up painted into a corner. The Eldorado was what they could do that did not look like a LeSabre.
That’s not the reason. All Cadillacs had “formal” roofs; it was a key part of their design language. They were not going to go to a sport sloping roof.
FWIW, that LeSabre (and Olds 88) coupe style did not sell well; the Buick Electra, Olds 98 and Cadillac DeVille all had more formal roofs, like the Electra. It was similar to the Eldorado, but the proportions were better on the larger body.
Thanks – I´d forgotten about the LeSabre. The Cadillac people probably wanted to distinguish their car from the Buick and ended up painted into a corner. The Eldorado was what they could do that did not look like a LeSabre.
I knew they liked formal roofs – I didn´t know the sloped roof wasn´t a success though.
This was the first reworked version:
In this version I´ve lengthened the boot a bit, moved the rear axle forward and made a more upright C-pillar for a formal look the raked one does not have.
I also raised the base of the DLO so there was no step from that line to the base of the windscreen. I think it looks better but also a little more mid-1980s and possibly a bit more like a Buick.