Although Cadillac’s slogan in the 1980s might as well have been “Pile On The Gingerbread”, and above all, the Eldorado was probably the car to do so on, by the mid-1980s it was becoming clear that vinyl roofs, acres of chrome, and wire wheels were not everyone’s preferred taste in luxury car trimmings.
American automakers started doing more to appeal to the buyer who was eyeing European luxury imports with everything from minor trim/detail variations to packages with stiffer suspensions and monochromatic appearances to separate “import fighter” models themselves.
Although the take rate for any of these was never very high, at least someone decided to order their Edorado with these less ostentatious aluminum alloy wheels instead of the common wire wheels. Somehow they just don’t seem to do this white-on-white-over-blue Eldorado the same justice as the wire wheels would.
30 years ago, a friend owned a 1985 Cadillac Biarritz. A really sharp car loaded with the tech of the time.
Why GM built these pillarless hardtops with fixed rear glass has always puzzled me, for that is what GM does better than anyone else on the planet. The car above’s glass is too large to fully retract, but the Riviera conversions used narrower glass. That would work on these.
I always wanted one of these GM mid-sizers to kitbash on for that very reason, Dodge Mirada included!
The rear side windows on a pillarless hardtop don’t wind down? What’s the point of being pillarless then?
These were offered as an after market convertible, so by making them hardtops probably made the conversion simpler.
I’m pretty sure that making things easy for aftermarket coachbuilders was the farthest thing from their mind. They made it pillarless because they wanted to, they evidently thought it looked right, and it did.
The Riviera convertible was a factory option, although I think done afterwards. But the first ones were done for the 1982 model year, so would they have planned that far ahead? They must have designed them to meet whatever standards that might come up.
The Eldorado convertible was available in 1984 through 1985 and the Cadillac Brochures advertise it.
When people think of the last grand Cadillac Eldorado. This version comes to mind.
1986 and after, were pretty bland and forgettable. Despite that 1986 and post Eldorado’s handled and drove much more sporty and refined than the prior models!
Those look like fake alloy wheel clip on covers, why? I had an identical set on a 120y Datsun the giveaway on that car was the five stud bolt pattern on four stud rims, I have to admit they look better than the junky Kmart style wire wheel covers though.
Never understood the point of hubcaps. I prefer alloy wheels, at least with alloy’s, you did not have to worry about one accidentally falling off or stolen.
On the other hand, when you curb them, which is inivetible, you have the option to replace the wheel cover for it to be good as new again. Rather live with scar and possible leak on your alloy until you replace it for a substantial cost.
People still steal hubcaps? They using the proceeds to buy their over the shoulder boombox?
XR7Matt
Ha Ha, the shoulder boombox comparison was funny.
Today you are right no one really steals them anymore like they use to back in the day.
I also give car makers credit in that they actually do design much better hub caps these days that can fool you into thinking they were actual wheels (exclude Toyota Camry). You have a point about the “scruff up” ordeal, I did not see it from that angle. I just always thought a beautifully designed car deserves beautifully designed wheels (alloy) and not plastic “plates”.
On the other hand, with these you can curb the wheel directly and lose a hubcap. WTG, GM!
Used to be huge lots with hubcaps for sale… mostly sounded like they checked out a rotation of potholes and cleaned em up.
Wheel covers on several of our Japanese cars have been secured by the lug nuts. Shiny alloys are nice, except they look worse when dirtied by brake dust.
The early models used these wheels with very large center caps. The featured car would have had the small, cheaper looking center cap. Personally, I think the earlier style cap looks nicer, and the combination on the car in the photo below looks nicer than the wire covers as well. Just my opinion though.( I was never a fan of wire covers, they were the first thing to go when I bought my 80 Monte Carlo). Never cared for the Euro look, either. Just has always looked spartan and cheap to me.
I liked the factory alloy wheels Cadillac offered for the 1980-85 Eldo and Seville. Especially interesting was the Eldorado Touring coupe which I had first hand experience with. I was pretty close friend’s with the neighbor’s son. Imagine my surprise when his older brother showed up one evening in a gorgeous 1983 Eldorado Touring coupe in black with camel interior. This was of course back in the day when A Cadillac commanded a lot of respect in the Summer of 1984. I think he got the car as a low mileage demo and quite a bit off the sticker.
Not knowing much about the then new and much talked about HT 4100 I was literally dying to go for a ride in that car. Naturally his brother Eddie succumbed and took us for a 20 minute drive around town. The car was such a radical departure from my parents 1979 Fairmont (soon to be mine a few years later) and the parents 1981 AMC Spirit. It was like a smooth swift mini battle cruiser to our 14 year old eyes and we were quite impressed. It was like gliding on air but without the wallow and float of the older big cars. The 4100 was nearly dead silent inside the car and provided convincing 0-40 power for the time and especially compared to those noisier wheezing straight sixes.
Eddie loved that car and was so proud of it. That is until he lost his job several years later and was forced to sell off his pride and joy. He never owned a Caddy since and currently still drives a battered 2005 Taurus having just retired from his current mill job which was all he could find at the time as manufacturing was slowly leaving the area and country.
Aah, the chestnut interior…so much richer looking that the lighter tan. A neighbor had a ’79 or so Sedan DeVille, black with painted beige and chestnut pinstripe and the chestnut interior. I seem to recall that it didn’t have a vinyl top either…beautiful car and a great color combination. He was a bank president and it suited him, and his station in life, well.
Much nicer than the medium green DeVille his next door neighbor had…medium pea green, white vinyl top, dark green velour…if was a ’77 or ’78 and the color scheme made ALL the difference. That gentleman was an executive with Federated Department Stores.
These ’79-85 Eldorados are just beautiful, even today.
I prefer these myself. I despise wire wheel covers from this era.
XR7Matt
Same also, never understood the allure of wire wheel covers. Actually by the mid 80’s, any car outside of say a Chrysler Fith Avenue that had wire wheel covers. Made that car look old and dated (backwards).
I have seen non car people that got lazy if say they lost an original hubcap. Just say “F” it and placed wire wheel covers on the car since they did not feel like locating the original set. So imagine seeing wire wheel covers on something like a 1987 Pontiac 6000, or Wire wheel covers on a 1987 Dodge Aries. This mis-match was an eye sore.
An 1982 Eldorado model, the Touring Coupe, was offered with a slightly stiffer suspension, these real alloy wheels with black wall tires, buckets and console, and some blacked out trim. This suspension package was also offered on other models. There was a small badge proclaiming “Touring suspension”affixed to the deck lid and maybe one under the HT4100 badge on the fender. The High Tech 4.1 litre engine featured cast iron heads on an aluminum block, this led to a long series of problems with blown head gaskets. These engines featured digital fuel injection as standard equipment. A first for Cadillac, not counting diesels. They only had 125 horsepower. A co worker had one and told me he could get 25mpg. on the highway and could cruise at 70 mph. but he had to use full throttle to get up to speed on the freeway on ramp. I’ve always liked this style but I would choose an earlier model with the 350 ci. motor.
If Cadillac had offered the export taillamps, that would make Touring Coupé more ‘proper’ Touring Coupé.
Photo source: https://farm4.static.flickr.com/3894/14651633539_ce5d5fcd85_b.jpg
I thought those wheels looked familiar. Were the Touring Coupe wheels available as a stand-alone option (maybe even a no-cost delete option in lieu of the wire wheels) on the Biarritz? That might explain their appearance on the feature car.
The 4100 did gain 10 hp and torque for 1983 onward through a revised intake and higher compression ratio which went from 8.0:1 to 8.5:1. Even still the little V8 was happier around town than on the highway and passing power on a two lane highway was marginal.
Interestingly some owners have perked there 4100’s up with cooler spark plugs, a freer flowing catalytic converter and a few degrees more timing and claim it made a noticeable difference. I suspect these were tuned on the mild side due to the fragile nature of these motors in general.
I don’t like the wire caps either, although appliance made some decent wire wheels for Cadillac.
This generation Eldorado was clearly an inspiration for the 1992 redesign. Its too bad Chuck Jordan wasn’t in charge when the 1986 model was conceived.
The only cars which wear wire wheels right are certain classic British, in flat silver & with the spin-on hub. Otherwise they look like Vegas kitsch.
Always been disappointed with the 1979-85 ELdorados always though the Olds/Buick versions outdid them in luxury/tech…..i.e real wood steering wheels in Rivierias or the fancy talking Tornados with Suede seats
Lincman
I agree, the 1985 Riviera could be had with the early version of the (CTR) screen, or Buick’s touch automatic climate control. The Oldsmobile looked the least appealing of the three. However, I found that since most came with the digital dash option was pretty cool, with very crisper graphics.
The Eldorado had the better better wood grain trim (I think it was real) out of all the three. Where the Cadillac wins is in the color choices. In Onyx Black exterior, or any dark color the Eldorado really became the star of the three. For some reason in dark exterior colors the Eldorado really looked expensive and a bit more prestigious than the other three!
The 1979 Cadillac Eldorado brochure says …simulated…wood…
I am not sure when Cadillac got real wood, although the 1995 Aurora had real wood trim, along with rather ugly plastics.
SomeOneInTheWildWest
Well that is a shame and disgrace.
How can a car be considered a “Ultra Premium” vehicle, while carrying a hefty price tag. Yet have fake bogus wood grain. That makes me angry.
Well Caddy did at least their wood look real due to the low gloss finish, which did give it a genuine feel. Still a shame they did not use the real thing.
The real disgrace is what Cadillac did post World War Two. The Fleetwood series 75’s were the top of the line V8 models before WW2. After the War the series 75 line faded to just the big sedan/limo model. Granted this was more the market place but Cadillac should have been able to restore a more up-market car. The Eldorado Brougham could have been that car, but Cadillac was so determined to out do the Ford Continental, that they made a complete mess of it.
Real wood trim seems to fade away toward the end of the 60’s, but seems to come back near the end of the 80’s, at least on the Fleetwoods.
Real wood was an option on the ’85 Riviera. I think all the other E body variants had the fake stuff.
Eric
To me this is where GM failed.
This is where again the imports excel. BMW used real wood on it’s 7-series, and so did Jaguar. The imports also used wood trim in the correct places (tasteful)-usually the center counsel and a splash of wood on dash etc. while American cars would place bogus ultra fake looking wood covering most of the door panels, sometimes covering up to 65% of the entire dash board surface (think early 80’s Riviera Buick LeSabre). GM even put fake wood grain trim in entry level econo cheap boxes back then, like the 83 Oldsmobile Omega & Skylark. That would be like Toyota putting woodgrain in it’s Tercel & Corolla’s. Makes no sense just dumb.
GM did finally get it right in 1992 when it used exotic “REAL” genuine Zebrano wood grain trim (imported from Africa) on it’s Seville/Eldorado and it looked very nice. 1990 De’Ville Touring Edition also could be ordered with “Real” wood trim.
The 77-85 Buick RWD B/Cs had one of my favorite dash designs, fake wood or not.
Definitely doesn’t look right on what looks to be a triple white Eldo. Alloy wheels can certainly look upscale, but these look generic and cheap.
I hope the pendulum swings back to gingerbread. I’m really tired of black (actually more charcoal and not even real black!) interiors and black wall rubber bands on mostly forgettable rims. I’m tired of mostly gray/silver/charcoal/gunmetal colors for the paint.
Most everyone could conceivably rock the Brougham aesthetic if they cleaned up a bit and maybe listened to classical or Herb Alpert while driving. Seeing blue hairs or librarian cat lady spinster aunts or nuveaux riche in the new Sportmaster Sport STS S Model with Sport package is an effing joke.
+1!?
What I wouldn’t do for a nice blue interior on a modern car. The new Lincoln Continental does offer one on the pricey Black label trim level but I’m not a real fan of this car or it’s price tag. Even the Chrysler 200 offered some blue interior and seating accents on the 200S but those are done now.