I didn’t see this one coming. Maybe this is a fluke, but what are the young and hip to do in the Bay Area? I’m pretty sure every W123 has been claimed to Bio-Diesel servitude at this point. Perhaps the stock of Falcons and Comets has been exhausted?
Well, even as import adoptive was the Bay Area 25 years ago, you still had a number of old-money buyers that would have nothing but a Cadillac. In addition, there were still a number of people finally reaching that point in life when they could afford a Cadillac. Suffice to say, there’s a decent supply of much derided C-Body FWD Cadillacs in the Bay Area–some still running with HT4100s!
Hipsters mature, too! These little big boats offer all of the brougham isolation they might want, but in a tidier and more modern and efficient package than most old boats of yore (I doubt Town Cars will ever become hip. Well, maybe after they’re all out of livery service). They can be reasonably economical, and have great stretch-out room for four (six, in a pinch!). Add in the fact that most people consider them among Cadillac’s major downfalls of the 1980s, and you have a perfect storm that would cause these little boxes to become the height of ironic and cynical chic 25 years later.
I think that is an actual Sixty Special in that photo, those are rare, they were the even more expensive version of the Fleetwood sedan with a 5 inch wheelbase stretch, the first real LWB Fleetwood since 1976. They were like $7000 more than a “regular” Fleetwood, they signaled the return of rear footrests to the Fleetwood series cars, they had been missing since 1978. They only made 2000 or so, so its a rare find, all Sixty Specials came with standard ABS.
What year?
1987-1988, can’t really tell from the pic, since both those years were identical, 1989 was the year of the big stretch for all the C-body deVille/Fleetwoods.
The only way you will tell an 87 from an 88, aside from a VIN check, is on the 88s there is a 4.5 V8 tag on the rear valence. With the stretching of the 89s, the Sixty Special became just a trim line. It was special though, fully trimmed out with Giorgio Grigario designed seats that were exquisite. Part of the reason for the initial jump in price was that the stretch was done by hand, much like the limos had been in the past, in fact they were done simultaneously for 1987. The Sixty Special was dropped for 1994, but a plush D’Elegance model was introduced later that more or less served the same purpose.
Those were like 32 way power seats, they had buttons everywhere!
I wonder who did them? Inland Fisher Guide? Lear?
Inland only made small stuff bits etc. If I remember correctly, the frames were substantially the same and made by Lear, but the leather was cut, trimmed, and final assembly of the seats done in the regular Cadillac trim shop. Since only like 1,500 or so on average were sold per year the jobs were batched usually in lots of 50. There were a handful of 60s pushed by he factory for display, etc. But most were Sold-Orders. Cadillac pretty much sold everyone anyone wanted since they were limited. Ironically I had dinner last October in Hershey PA with Alex Porti who was the engineer for Cadillac seats now retired and now operates his own business restoring seat mechanisms for high end cars under the name Proper Parts.
i remember those seats well. I had a summer job for my college years at a trim shop in town that got most of the new car dealer jobs.
We had one in the shop that needed something or another, I forget, but I’ll never forget that seat, and how utterly complex it was. Even the center storage console was powered, it opened frontwards like a drawer.
Ah that explains it! When I saw the brochure pic, I was *sure* it seemed somehow better proportioned than the usual fwd Cadillacs that year, yet the tail-lights seemed wrong. I had no idea that this generation came with two wheelbase options.
Sort of reminds me of the last Fleetwood Limited, though this “little” Fleetwood doesn’t have the bad-plastic-surgery scars of the Limited.
“The Cadillac of Tomorrow”, announced the 1985 brochure.
The coolest thing about these, for me anyway, was the availability of an all-electronic dash and the Delco/Bose $895 stereo on even the lesser models (as opposed to only the Eldo/Seville). And a new favorite color introduced in ’85: black cherry!!
The ’88’s through ’93’s with the 4.5/4.9 would be the better bet. At the time these were new, I was living in Petaluma and then Suisun City and I was smitten with the ’89 restyle. Drooled over these at Woodard in Fairfield (at the time, I purchased two Geo’s). I’m sure those wanting to be ‘hip’ will find these series Caddies a-plenty in the land of ground zero for clean old cruisers. Start with estate sales in Marin; cruise the used car lots in San Leandro . . .
Funny how times change. Lots of folks (me included) would LOVE a clean, 60’s or 70’s station wagon. Yet, from age 18 to 30, I wouldn’t have been caught dead driving a wagon. Go figure . . .
Living in Oakland, the tagline for this caught my eye. I wouldn’t consider myself a hipster, as I lack the requisite tattoos, piercings, fixie bike and skinny jeans. On the other hand, I’ll pay more for a 4 pack of craft brew than most will pay for a case, I only drink my tea loose leaf, and I prefer single origin coffee and chocolate. Hmm, maybe there is some hipster in me 🙂
But back to cars. As the author noted, these cars are becoming pretty cheap. You can pick up decent examples for around $2-$3k. Toyotas and Hondas are so expensive around here, I can see taking a chance with a Caddy and having a bit of old school (for a twenty something person) retro-mobile.
I’ve been seeing this trend here too; they’re so “out” that they’re “in”. Which is of course how it works.
I haven’t seen hipsters rocking these yet in L.A., but I could be hanging out in the wrong part of town. I’m pretty sure I have seen some high fashion print ads featuring models around ’80s Cadillacs and similar, though — sure sign of a trend. I remember about ten or twelve years ago when one of the rags like GQ featured Jake Gyllenhaal (I think) posing in a GM clamshell station wagon from the early ’70s. That seemed radical then, but wouldn’t so much now…
Well seeing these cars are 25 years old now, you would have to be at least 30 to remember these in everyday life. Usually anything that is beyond one’s generation is usually fair game to be recycled. I have a non working Philco floor model radio as furniture in my house for that reason from 1942.
To paraphrase a print magazine article I read a while back:
Hipster culture is maybe a bit silly and phoney, but they do a good job of repurposing stuff and creating some interesting small businesses.
So it sure beats the alternative, either handing all of New York City over to the investment bankers (which was what the print article was about) or handing over all the unwanted Caddies to the crusher.
I’ve been driving vehicles from the late 80s and early 90s for 14 years.
I guess I’d rather be labeled a hipster than a poor person.
Poor? Sensible is more like it. There is no reason a well maintained 1980’s-1990’s car cannot do the daily slog.
I never understood the mentality to get a new car when the old one works fine and is paid off. my friend traded in his “gas guzzler” 2002 Explorer (which was paid off and only had 60,000 miles on it) for a new Toyota Corolla. He said it cost $300 to fill it up each month. With the new Corolla he only pays $100 on gas……BUT…… he now has a $350 payment so that Corolla costs $450 a month on car payments and gas. He is now spending $150 more a month then before. Quite stupid since the Exploder needed nothing.
So keep driving those old cars and keep the decade of greed(1980’s) alive
Scientific American actually looked at that issue:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=when-used-cars-are-more-ecofriendly
It is actually more environmentally sound, as well as financially cheaper as the example that you give shows, to keep an older car running. My 93Century wagon has over 300k on it but operates perfectly gets good gas mileage and it’s cost factor is ridiculously low. I have driven it to MI in April but mostly it’s an around town car now. Engineering has come along enough that the modern gas powered car is very efficient and environmentally friendly compared to before. Unless an older car is so severely out of tune it’s spewing extreme levels of CO and HC, the marginal difference in MPG between a hybrid and a non hybrid affects mostly our use of fossil fuels. While depleting them certainly is a problem, it’s not the same as pollution. So the trick is to buy a well maintained 2-3 year old car keep up on the maintenance and drive it a good while – you will both be saving your wallet and helping ease the environment a bit.
Yup, my 314,000km 1997 Nissan Laurel is paid for, comfy, quiet, reliable, consistently gets 8L/100km of diesel, and has much better quality interior trim than most new Nissans. It’s worth very little now, and would be scrapped if I traded it in. I’m not expecially green-minded, but scrapping a car just because it’s old seems ridiculously wasteful to me. Hence I keep maintaining it and driving it. It has ABS, EBD and airbags, and I fitted bluetooth to the factory stereo/TV/satnav, so I’m not missing much from new cars. Oh, and it has a low waistline and big windows so I can see out really, really well compared with modern bunkers!
I don’t see any hipsters driving Cadillacs. Ostentation isn’t a part of hipster culture.
But irony is almost the essence of it.
Anyway, a 25 year old Cadillac isn’t exactly ostentatious.
But it was back in the day (or tried to be 🙂 ). Cadillac is about as commercial and ostentatious as it gets. Hipsters really don’t even drive cars to be honest…
Exactly, it may have been ostentatious in 1987, like a the old sport coat a hipster might pick up at the Good Will might have once been an expensive Hugo Boss sport coat, but once it become old and out of style……
I’d like to see any liberal-minded hipster driving an 18 mpg Cadillac around town. Not happening. ‘Cuz I said so!
My grandmother had one of these – hers was a Fleetwood d’Elegance – cream with light tan cloth interior. She bought it with 14,000 miles on it and had it for about 15 years, right up until she couldn’t drive any more – 92 years old! She LOVED that car and babied it like you would not believe. It was rare too – it came from California and we live in Rhode Island – probably the only Cadillac in New England without a rear defroster but loaded to the hilt with options! It also had the vinyl roof delete as vinyl roofs were standard on the Fleetwood. I drove that car many times, always thought it was a bit underpowered but loved how roomy and comfortable it was without being a land yacht. I really think GM did a great job with these cars, although many will disagree with me. It was a car that did not have much excess but performed nicely and was decent on gas too. I think the public was shocked because our impression of a Caddy was always big and showy. When the 1989’s came out, I think GM had hit the nail on the head and perfected the flaws that my grandmother’s had. My Dad bought a 1990 Spring Edition Coupe 3 years before he passed away and LOVED it too! His was the 4.5 V-8 and was quick! It looked more substantial but still was a nicely proportioned car. He bragged about that car to everyone – it was nice to see him so happy before getting sick and passing away. My Mom drove that car for 5 more years after he died and it was a very reliable car.
So hipsters will not drive a mid eighties caddy but they will drive a ratty looking 34 ford that probably cost three to ten times to build tban what kne of these caddys does. And while I realize that some of these hipsters are quite resourceful and can fab some of the parts, some have to be sourced and in some cases a used drop front axle can cost .as much as a fwd caddy.
I think you are on something. Not just DeVilles but anything domestic IMO. I haven’t seen much of this trend here in the midwest but on my weekly checks of used future classics on sites like cars.com,autotrader,etc I see quite a bit of desparity for the price of a car on the left coast as compared to, say those in the middle and southeast parts of the country.
Make mine a CoupeDeVille. I don’t care what it started out as. I’d swap in the HT4900 from a 91-92 Allante(200HP and equally hip TunedPort intake manifold!).
A first gen DTS would be my second choice. Like this one.
I have never seen rows of junkyard cars on concrete before. That must have cost a fortune to put down.
Really? All the big yards down here in Miami are all paved, remember these are quick turn U-pull(U sweat U curse U pay) yards, they have forklifts running around bringing cars in and out all the time, cars don’t last long there.
Yes all the yards in NC and the ones I have been to in MI and a few in OH and PA are all the usual grass and weeds deal. Even the Pull-A-Part here in Charlotte, while very organized, is done in crushed stone. I wonder if there are local or state enviro regs that cause that to be. There was one yard in PA that specialized in older cars (and they did back to the 30s), you had to take a sickle and weed killer to get to half the stuff.
I don’t think the Allante ever came with the 4.9L.
From ’89 to ’92 it had the 4.5L, but it had some upgrades so it was rated at 200hp.
I know mine has the 4.5L.
You are right. Never a 4.9 BUT it did get the 4.6l Northstar engine for the 1993 model year(which was its last year made). This engine put out 290HP
My ’89 Coupe DeVille gets high teens in the city and high twenties on the highway with the 4.5. If you buy a 4.9 you get 50 more HP but it needs premium.
Bought it in 2009 to get the emmissions test exemption in my state for older cars.
I had the same year Brougham and the legroom in the front isn’t much different.
Funny how these things work. One of my varied groups of friends is big into the Los Angeles / Silverlake hipster scene. Work at Farmer’s markets, live in original craftsman homes, all clothing from thrift shops, big mustaches / beards for the guys, etc. etc. I could absolutely see any one of them rocking an old Caddy like this as an ironic statement that’s a bit of a guilty pleasure as well.
I’d personally take an ’89-’93 Sedan DeVille, as I spent countless hours as a kid of about 5 years old tooling around in the back seat of my best friend’s mom’s. But I’m not hipster enough, so I make do with a current-gen CTS.
Ok I didn’t know about the 87-88 Sixty Special either. Don’t think I ever saw one in the flesh. Pretty cool and a little nicer looking than the standard models.
Great brochure pic of the DeVille in front of the McDonnell Planetarium in Forest Park.
I’ve only seen a few, I remember sitting in one at the Auto Show, all the Cadillacs in the display were white, all the stands were white and the centerpiece was a white Allante with a red interior on the turntable, they had one Sixty Special, in…white, with a tan interior…I think, they even had a white Fleetwood 75 Limousine.
I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen one in the metal. I do know about them because the very first Chicago Auto Show was the 1988 event. I was eight and very interested in Cadillacs and Lincolns. I remember that pic from the ’88 brochure very well!
They are the best looking of the 1985-88 C-body Cadillacs, though I really like the 1987-88 Sedan de Villes too, maybe due to the movie Twins, where a light tan one was prominently featured. Danny DeVito drove it through most of the film (image from imcdb.org).
Gosh that looks beautiful new. These Li’l Caddies are one of my favorite cars of the 80s. The remaining few are sure dogged out and didn’t hold up as well as the ’89-’93s (which I grew up driving) throughout the years (I suspect they didn’t sell many of this size either).
My favorite color for this style is dark blue (I assume this one from Google Images is dark blue, it’s hard to tell). My aunt had one just like it after owning glam Sevilles for years. Needless to say, she didn’t keep this one very long!
I didn’t know about the Sixty Special version either. I quite like it – the proportions improve the looks no end over the standard wheelbase spec.
I recall that in the 1980s, every local rock band seemed to have at least one member with a beat-up early 1970s Cadillac. They made sense at the time: pre-downsizing Caddies were seen as gas guzzlers and were therefore dirt cheap, you could fit your entire band in it comfortably, and the trunk was big enough for instruments (aside from the drum set). The look of cast-off glamor created the right image, too. Repeating that experience in the 2000s with a 1980s Caddy makes perfect sense. They are cheap, possibly free from a grandparent too old to drive; big enough to carry you and five friends; and have trunks that can hold enormous amounts of vintage clothes and Pabst Blue Ribbon. And as Paul pointed out earlier, the irony of cast-off luxury works in the young hipster world.
In the fourth season of Arrested Development, George-Michael Bluth (who isn’t *supposed to be* a hipster, but *is* played by Michael Cera…) ends up driving Lucille Austero (Liza Minelli – make of that what you will)’s French-vanilla ’87 Coupe de Ville in a swap too convoluted to explain.
Wait, now all of a sudden we all love the shrunken Caddies?? (Where are the B-Body boys when you need ’em most?)
On the subject of the HT4100, perhaps it’s time to take a deeper look…I’ve been seeing more than a few Fleetwood Broughams and mini-Cads down on the NYC street rockin that badge lately…
Let’s hope the hipsters stick to the FWD versions and leave the RWD Fleetwood Broughams, Electras, and 98s for geezerly 30 year old lawyers like myself.