A day with nothing to do warranted a little trip to check out the new Plainridge Park Casino, Massachusetts’ first (and currently only) casino. After about 45 minutes of somewhat entertaining video roulette, I walked out with total winnings of $13; small profit, but a still a profit no less. On the walk back to my car, however, I hit the real jackpot, spotting this 1992 Cadillac Coupe de Ville parked right up front.
I would’ve taken more pictures, but the lighting was bad and I already have good pictures of a pristine white ’89 Coupe de Ville from a car show in my files. Still, there’s something more exciting about seeing one of these in the wild, even if its condition isn’t so perfect. Apart from that car show example I saw a few months back, I haven’t seen a final generation Coupe de Ville on the road in a long time. I guess I found luck in an unexpected way.
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Triple white, a beauty.
That car is just begging for skirts on the rear wheel openings. Makes the poor little thing look longer and lower.
In 1992, the fender skirts were reserved for the costlier FWD Fleetwood model. The DeVille had to make do with exposed wheels. However, if one could find a junked white Fleetwood with the skirts, it doesn’t look too difficult to install them on the Deville. The big question mark is whether the side trim matches.
The rear fenders are different around the wheels.
There seems to be an open seam around the rear fender flare of the DeVille coupe. I’ll bet that flared piece is removable. I don’t see Cadillac tooling up for two different rear fender assemblies.
They mount up perfectly as long as you get the hardware along with the skirts from the donor car.
As for the trim piece on the skirt matching, that is a crap shoot as i have seen a few CDV in the junk yards that had matching trim and color as the fleetwood.
GM sure was good at lighting their cars just right for brochures, these never looked that good in the flesh
The design of the rear quarter accentuates the wheel arch it would look retarded with a skirt there it certainly wasnt designed for them.
Nice example, looks show room new.
My elderly neighbor has a coupe de ville from this series. It’s blue, pristine, has skirts and garage kept. Right across the street with an even older lady who still drives her black 1968 Olds every Sunday- the only day she drives.
To church I presume?
All these years later, these have still failed to grow on me. This car has some of the most awkward proportions of anything else I have ever seen. A Packardbaker looks like a Bill Mitchell design compared to one of these.
The thing that’s always bothered me most about these cars are their tiny tires. Look like they came off of a ricksha.
+1. Not a looker. Hope she’s a good cook. Nice wide hips for child bearing, though.
It didn’t help that when they stretched the wheelbase 3″ in 1989, it was only for the sedans and not the coupes.
Yes, Cadillac cheaped out on the ’89 refresh for the once evergreen Coupe DeVille. The short wheelbase along with retention of the 1985 greenhouse never looked right on this car. This is the car that killed the Coupe DeVille.
The ’89 refresh (almost a new car) was very well received in four door Sedan DeVille form. Sales were up and reasonably strong for this generation. Actually pretty nice cars when they ran right.
It was said that the style was inspired by the ’67 Cadillac, but you could argue that the ’67 was inspired by the ’65, and that every Cadillac since has been inspired by the ’65 (particularly the vertical tail lights).
Agree…they have become curiosities due to age, but they haven’t gotten any more desirable to me, unlike some cars that I used to dislike and now like, like colonnade coupes and box panther Lincoln Marks.
I agree, talk about proportions, the side glass is as tall as the tires! All of GM’s front drivers, incepted between the original X Citation and the Ws, roughly, all had these goofy proportions, with itty bitty tires, narrow tracks, no tumblehome whatsoever, and in Cadillac’s case a cheesy tinseley look, reminiscent specifically to those golf carts with Rolls Royce bodies.
GM managed to have a look to their cars where they were all based on some generic and totally unsuitable for the purpose platform, like the myriad of K car based cars, but at least in Chrysler’s defense all those billion variations really WERE K car based. GM’s had all these specific FWD platforms and they still had an unflattering ancestral look to them.
After so many horrible looking cars, I think GM eventually has the best looking modern traditional front wheel drive sedan. For nearly all imports, if they want to make a car that nice, it would be either rear wheel drive or AWD, instead of making it this way.
I agree, those Park Avenues were lookers. I really don’t have anything horrible to say about GM’s design prowess in the 90s, these were quite the reprieve
For some reason, the lead photo made me think the sides looked like an ’80-82 Thunderbird – prominent side mouldings, accented wheel openings….
looking at the fleetwood coupe in the brochure, much as i like it, reminds me of whoever said cadillacs needed to stop looking like choo choo trains, as these look like locomotives somewhat,imo.
I agree. GM applied the familiar Cadillac styling cues and some of the old proportions to a completely different type of platform – and a much smaller one, as well – and it just didn’t work. The four-doors are okay, but these coupes are awkward and unattractive.
The tiny, ill-proportioned Cadillacs are the Packard-bakers of Cadillacs: lesser GM make platforms wearing Cadillac drag, but at least with an engine mostly their own.
White belt, white shoes, toupee, plaid pants, gut hanging over the belt…….all-white fwd Cadillac….it all fits!
Wow Brendan – these are getting really scarce in New England. That one has the rare factory landau top, too. Of course I have a soft spot for these cars as my Dad had his beloved 1990 Coupe deVille Spring Edition for his very last car. It was Medium Sapphire Blue with the blue carriage top and blue leather interior. He loved that car and I have to say it drove and handled like a dream too. My Mom drove it for several years after he passed in 1993. There wasn’t a car I can remember that rode as well as that Caddy or that got as many compliments as that car did. Everyone that rode in it always said it was the best riding car ever. I still cannot believe that it has been 25 years since he took that car home – I remember the day like it was yesterday. The pic I found is actually a 1991 but it looks identical to Dad’s.Thanks for the memories!
I saw one of these Coupe De Villes a few weeks ago.
I can’t say for sure if I’ve ever seen one without a vinyl roof….but then, so many had roofs that were the same color as the body. The addition of skirts is a nice change, but really all it does is further accentuate the boxiness.
Here’s one with the painted roof.
Actually back in the day I had seen quite a few Coupe deVilles with metal roofs, especially here in RI. Most of them were the same color as the photo, too – I believe it was Light Antelope Metallic.
Very nice! I have no doubt that these were very comfortable cars, and they definitely had an element of prestige to them. The wide variety of color combinations was also a plus. I love it how certain cars can bring back fond memories of a loved one.
Tom C., (and to echo Brendan’s comment above), I love that the blue CDV in the picture reminded you of your dad’s car, and that you had great memories of it for the three years he got to own and drive it. If it looked like the blue one, it was a beauty! Kept in great shape, I’m sure it turned heads and got compliments.
As regards the styling of these CDV’s, I guess you and I must be in a minority that actually likes them. They’re not my absolute favorites of all-time, but as mainstream Cadillacs from the past quarter-century, I think they stack up nicely compared to some other ones and are good-looking in their own right.
I’ve often wondered how many “Old School” Lincoln Town Cars these “downsized”, awkward looking, slug driving & handling front wheel drive steaming piles of automotive offal sold?
If you combine De Ville sedan AND coupe sales….they come close to equaling the numbers of Town Cars sold in most years.
That still represented a sharp turnaround from the usual order of things, as the Cadillac DeVilles had always outsold the non-Mark Lincoln Continentals by a wide margin in the 1960s and 1970s.
These and the Fleetwood coupes look beautiful from some angles, but horrid from others. It’s just best to glance, not stare.
Afraid that rear-view looks like a pick-up truck with a covered deck. Not a good way for the trad Cadillac look to end up.
I don’t see the horrid, strange look that everyone is talking about. Must be that I am partial to the look of these. It’s possible that pictures don’t do them any justice, because in person Dad’s Coupe was a stunner.
In 1985 I couldn’t stand the new FWD DeVille, I also was dismayed by the ’77 RWD versions when they came out! (Wow have times changed the ’77-’92 RWD Cadillacs are now among my favorites!) Over the years I have begun to like the ’85-’93s, I think at various times our perceptions change. These DID look odd after the ’77-’84s, But today with all the misshapen claustrophobe boxes, “Smart” cars ETCs, I really would like to have a ’89-’93 CdV now. I personally think the sedan came off better, (Roofline?, 3 extra inches WB? IDK) But a large(ish) broughammy coupe? that I can see out of?,Not Grey? Yeah sign me up! – Now you kids get of my lawn!
LOL! James you are hysterical!
Dad’s car definitely had some presence. Back in 1990 there wasn’t much out there except maybe a Lincoln Town Car, Lexus LS400 or the German luxury brands that had true presence on the road. And Dad raved that his Caddy got great gas mileage, rode and handled like a dream, was fast, roomy and comfortable too. Plus it was a Cadillac. He loved that car and the memory of the smile on his face when he drove it will always be something I cherish.
Nice find Brendan. I find this generation Coupe looks remarkably like what an Eastern Bloc version of the 1980 Ford Thunderbird might look like. The ’80 ‘Bird’s styling generally gets panned, but it looks downright elegant compared to this similarly proportioned Coupe. The ‘Bird at least was a bit more adventurous in design details. Truly a leftover turkey from the ’80s lost design years at GM.
I hate to say it, but in the last year or so I’ve seen old adverts for these ‘Birds and I’ve softened my dislike for a few of them.
I don’t think I ever saw this trim with that roof band, but it actually looks sorta good (can’t believe I just admitted that on and Internet forum). There is definitely sort of a tie back look to the ’77-’79 ‘Bird that I generally liked.
Agreed. I hadn’t scrolled down to your comment before I posted mine above. Glad to see I’m not the only one who sees a resemblance – maybe my eyes don’t need testing again just yet! 🙂
Sorry, but in person those 1980 Thunderbirds were awkward looking. I can’t say that about the Cadillac and see no connection to the looks of the Ford at all!
GM and their 1980s formal roof fixation… Chrysler always seemed to make it work, but GM never could get it quite righr. And did they ever try. Everything, from Cavalier to Coupe DeVille, and all Olds, Buicks, and Pontiacs in between. I suppose it was the universe evening out from the dashing fastback 60s60s designs. The big C body rwd Electra and Ninety Eight pull it off the best. Almost everything FWD looks stubby and disproportionate. They almost got it right with the lengthened 90 Toronado, then killed it in favor of swoopy sedan C pillars. The triangular sail panels of the last Eldorado also don’t offend me.
I don’t suppose they botched the styling deliberately to move the buyer up to a full-size full-of-profit RWD sedan? Nah, GM wouldn’t do that….. 😉
Not something I’d ever give a second glance to in the Midwest. Well, the coupe versions are less common because they sold a lot less – but the sedans litter the streets in various stages of beater-dom. One of the many broke, third-tier taxi companies in the city run a 1991-ish gray sedan as a cab.
I am shocked how quickly cars disappear from regular use in the Northeast. We have terrible long winters and lots of salt here too, but the average age of our cars has to be 5 or even 10 years older. I suppose it all comes down to the lack of (any) annual inspections along with the overall lower incomes and socio-economic status compared to New England. Apart from old bottom-feeder Hyundais and Aspires, I wouldn’t say there’s anything built after 1990 that’s truly impossible to find if you cruise around the bad neighborhoods long enough. ’80s domestics are starting to die out, but still background scenery, usually covered in layers of dust and with three flat tires, mercilessly shoved in the back of an inner city driveway with a newer Maibu/Impala/Avenger blocking it in as the “everyday” car.
As for these FWD Cadillacs, they just leave me cold, and the coupe version accentuates the weird proportions way worse than the sedan. I think the 1994-1999 models are a more cohesive design with more pleasing “hefty” proportions befitting a large Cadillac.
When I saw this ’92 Caddy along with “casino” in the text and a garage scene, I thought maybe you were in Vegas.
Made me think of my honeymoon there (and other stops) in 1993. We were married quite conventionally back home in Nebrsaka, the cliché honeymoon was in part because we have considerable family living in Vegas, so the stop there was dual purpose. Also, we traveled with another couple including my best man, and he loved Vegas at the time.
In several casinos, a Cadillac of this era, usually the much better looking four door sedan, was frequently up on a stand and could be part of a jackpot winning. The Cadillacs invariably had “Cashman Cadillac Las Vegas” dealer emblems on the back. I always thought that Cashman was about the perfect name for a Cadillac dealer in Las Vegas.
I checked to see if Cashman was still around, but unfortunately, another family owned dealer was sold to a large holding company in 2000. Turns out Cashman really was the last name of the owner – Tim Cashman.
I kind of liked the new ’85 FWD Caddy’s. I thought the Coupe de Ville looked best with the matching metal roof. I believe Caddy offered 2 different landau’s from the factory. One had a larger side window and less padding, one had a smaller side window, more padding. Also, the dealers installed many horrible looking roofs including landaus, faux convertibles, etc. I even remember seeing a few that had “toupee” roofs, similar to the factory vinyl roofs installed on the 1971 to 1973 Coupe de Ville models.
The Fleetwood sedan looked horrendous with the factory vinyl roof. I’m not sure if it was originally offered when these cars appeared, or if it was available on the ’86. Anyway, in case you never seen it, it was a 1/2 vinyl roof with vinyl that surrounded the back door windows, making them kind of look like opera windows. This roof treatment made the car look lopsided. It was so bad.
once the back windows on coupes no longer went down, i much prefer the 4 door models, for the open back windows, if not the convenient back doors.
i like the square roofs gm haD , probably why i bought both the grand am and the 89 trofeo i still want to own again if i can find one.
I have never been a fan of the 85-93 Deville Coupe and I have never understood Cadillac’s need for have two luxury coupes in the line up(Eldorado and Deville)
The CDV seems to look awkward at some angles.
“…need for 2 coupes?”
Before downsizing era, the Eldo and CDV were more distinct. Eldo was the ‘sportier, more expessive’ coupe. Coupe DeVille was the entry level “two door sedan” for average Caddy customers. Sort of like the Lincoln Town Coupe vs. Mark IV.
But, as with other makes, the ‘plainer’ coupes lost sales to their flashier brethren. To a younger car fan it does look odd to see old line ups with so many coupes, but back then buyers wanted more choices.
Pleased to read that I am not the only one who doesn’t think much of this body’s styling.
I think these were an improvement over the original version. However the proportions are out of whack. The sedan roof and side window treatment looks much better. The longer wheel base certainly helps also. Still I like them enough to have considered buying one a while back. I wonder if a roof like a 77 Le Sabre sport coupe might have worked.