1974 Cadillac Coupe de Ville
Pop quiz time! Now, we know that Detroit changed a lot between the 1960s and 1970s. The Great Brougham Epoch, ushered in with the 1965 Galaxie 500 LTD (or was it the 1964 Pontiac Bonneville Brougham?), changed the Big Three’s full-sized offerings for years to come. Now, there are no right or wrong answers here, so don’t be shy. What do you, the Curbside Cognoscenti, feel is the very best example of that automobile type known as the Brougham?
1975 AMC Matador Brougham
Keep in mind that ‘Brougham’ need not be in the title of your automotive choice. Lots of ’70s iron had Brougham down to a T, even if not wearing that top-trim designation, usually with lots of heraldic crests and curly script.
1964 Pontiac Bonneville Brougham
1975 Imperial LeBaron
While the Big Three produced the largest Brougham output of the 1970s, I am throwing open the gates to any car that clearly shows the Brougham treatment. That includes European and Japanese cars too! So, what say you? We’d love to hear about your favorite (or least favorite!) Brougham. The polls are now open…
1973 Mercury Marquis
Note: A blast from the past, this post originally published on April 25, 2012. The response was Brougham-tastic!
1977 T-Bird.Th-ey were everywhere.
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I’ll start with an example a bit out of the mainstream: the Chevy Monza Town Coupe. Or in other words, a Vega Brougham.
Aw, man!!! Beat me to it!
Update – apparently, they offered this on the Vega, too. – the 1976 Vega Cabriolet…
Shoot, forgot about that. Now that I’d like to find!!! Needs picture:
The Monza Town Coupe and the related Vega Cabriolet looked like the little compact siblings of the mid-sized intermediate Nova Cabriolet as shown here. They should ALL be just properly called as Landau Roof instead due to their padded roofs.
I can’t believe you found a model I have never seen! I am shocked!!!
Curses! You beat me to the Vega Cabriolet!
Right, the Vega Cabriolet. The mini Monte Carlo Landau.
Of course, that was just another case of GM following Dearborn’s lead since the Mustang II Ghia appeared two years earlier. Or, if that wasn’t enough of a Pinto Brougham for your taste, you could option the Pinto itself (or a Mercury Bobcat if you *must* have a neoclassic formal grille) to splendid Broughammyness.
A special tip of the Brougham hat to Mercury, which was the first (after Cadillac) to actually use the name, in the Brougham era: 1969 Marquis Brougham and 1969 Montego MX Brougham.
Update: They arrived in 1968 already! I guess I wasn’t spending enough time with Mercury brochures in 1968.
Pontiac actually offered a Bonneville Brougham as far back as 1964, but I’m not sure if that was a specific model or just a trim option.
http://www.oldcarbrochures.com/static/NA/Pontiac/1964%20Pontiac/album/1964%20Pontiac-02-03.html
Just noticed that someone mentioned the ’57 Cadillac Eldorado Brougham below, but the Pontiac was probably the first mainstream brougham.
Yikes! How did that get past me? Good thing I held off on the CC (in)Complete Guide to the Brougham Epoch.
So does this mean the 1965 Ford LTD didn’t actually kick off the whole Epoch? We’re re-writing history tonight.
The Bonneville was at least the top of the line Pontiac. The LTD can still probably be considered the grandaddy of the Brougham Epoch since it was an otherwise workaday Galaxie that was tarted up with automotive costume jewelry.
Yes, don’t forget the Pontiac was technically Medium-Priced, the Ford was truly in the low-price field.
Forever my favorite…the ’76 Bonneville…you got a hood ornament if you went Brougham…
Many great choices here but I will nominate the 1974-76 Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight Regency Brougham. Possibly has the longest name of the era, too. Well maybe after the Oldsmobile Delta Eighty-Eight Royale Brougham…
For the longest Brougham name, what about the Buick Electra Park Avenue Limited to have both of them tie?
Excuse me, but my mom owned an Oldsmobile Delta Eighty-Eight Royale Brougham LS. How’s THAT for long? 🙂
Not very Brougham-y, but I’ll contend that my first car had a longer name.
1974 Chevrolet Chevelle Malibu Classic Landau Collanade Coupe.
You are mistaken sir, the Oldsmobile Ninety Eight Regency Brougham did not appear until the 1980s on the newer body style. Trust me I owned a 75 Regency coupe as well as a Toronado, 2 Cutlass Supremes, a Cutlass S, an Intrigue and an Aurora. I grew up with an Olds dealership within a mile of my house.. oh the wasted hours. IMO the ultimate Brougham is the 1974 Fleetwood Talisman or the DeVille Brougham D’Eligance of the 70s.
And my final nomination is perhaps the oddest and least well known (here): the 1968 Holden Brougham, with its amazing booty extension. https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/1968-holden-brougham-a-new-philosophy-of-luxury-booty-augmentation/
+1
You Americans must look at that and say ‘when are they going to sort out the front overhang?’ 😉
Damn, beat me to it. Yes it is basically an optioned up HK V8 Premier with an 8 inch longer trunk/boot, the wheel base is the same, the rear leg room is the same. It couldn’t really compete against the Australian Version of the Fairlane. Those crazy guys at Ford, they actually added 8 inches between the front and rear wheels when they were stretching the Falcon 🙂
No, only 5 inches, all behind the rear door. The local LTD (P5 & P6) later added another 5 inches in the rear door for a wheelbase of 121 inches.
Without a doubt my fave Brougham is the Ford LTD Silver Monarch.
I am amazed by the fact that Wheels magazine somehow talked the Australian Prime Minister of the day, Malcom Fraser, into doing a road test which was actually published in the magazine.
Could you imagine getting Jimmy Carter road test a car for Road and Track?
Please google for eye searing red velour trim.
Beat me to it
I guess nobody has seen the forerunner to the Holden Brougham the HR LB panelvan a factory built foot long extension behind the rear axle to accomodate corpses, they were built for the police, two were made one is in a police museum somewhere in Victoria the other is a parts hauler for a Sydney based restoration guy.
The broughman-iest broughman that ever broughamed as I recall seeing was a ’77 Olds 98 Regency, with the like “pillow top” velour, the light on the C pillar and a sturdy, confident stance. I remember it was brown, first year of the downsize and I thought Lincoln was going to eat their lunch because it was too small…but impressive just the same.
(It took me awhile to buy into the whole downsizing effort. But now the ’77 Caprice is one of my all time favorites, and broughmy in it’s own right.)
You could probably cross the country non-stop in the Olds, with a few drivers of course, and get out at the other end feeling pretty good!
I made two trips, one from Florida to Michigan, and back again in a 1987 Cutlass Supreme Brougham, and it’s true, I felt great after spending two days in that car on the road!
For me it was my first car – grandma’s hand-me-down 1977 Pontiac Bonneville Bro-Hamm 2 door(she bought it new and by 1992 it had 49,000 miles). The world’s floatiest suspension and no rear sway bar! GM’s god-awful peeling silver paint.
Mercury actually first used the name on a pair of four-doors in 1968. The brochure clearly shows them as separate models, but I’ve seem them listed as a trim option in the Park Lane series.
http://www.oldcarbrochures.com/static/NA/Mercury/1968%20Mercury/album/1968%20Mercury%20Back%20cover.html
It seems the Montego MX Brougham debuted in ’68 as well.
I’m happy to be corrected, as I’m still compiling info for the definitive CC Complete Guide to the Great Brougham Epoch. Coming, one of these years.
Probably the `74 Cadillac Talisman.
Thank you. 74-76 Fleetwood Talisman. Longest car in recent decades. Long hood. Huge trunk. 500 C.i. Monster. 5400 pounds. Padded elk grain vinyl roof. And the thickest, deepest, padded-est sinkinto velour seats ever conceived; and deep, soft fur-like carpets, padded center console, variable rate power fingertip steering, cushy air ride suspension, fiber-optic turn signal, headlight and brake light indicators… Yep, this is your winner, right here.
Almost sounds like the one Denis Leary sang about, “…with whale skin hubcaps and all leather cow interior and big brown baby seal eyes for headlights”
sb’s citreon, and a toyota are what I picture Leary in
Hadn’t heard of that variation, but having just googled it, the interior is phenomenal! It almost looks like you’d slowly sink out of sight into the velour cocoon that is the seats. Love it (seriously)! Exterior not broughamey enough though…sigh, can’t have everything..
Jack Baruth posted an excellent review of the Talisman on TTAC a while back: http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2011/07/review-1976-cadillac-fleetwood-sixty-special-talisman/
Like some of the other posters here, I’m not sure something like a Talisman qualifies. Although it would score very high on the “Carmine Broughaminess Index” (CBI), it comes by it honestly. I think more plebian cars that had the Brougham treatment glued on are better choices here.
I was going to nominate the Valiant Brougham, but I see JP Cavanaugh beat me to it. The Valiant was always about simple, basic, reliable transportation, and was about as low on the CBI as you can get. The modern equivalent would probably involve putting dubs and window tint on a Camry…
The CBI index…..nice.
I should come up with a scorecard and rating system.
How Brougham are you?
You already have a good start on the scorecard part, in the comments posted about Richard Bennett’s grandparent’s Broughamtastic Lincoln (https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-american/curbside-classic-1976-lincoln-continental-mark-iv-gas-fed-beef-steak/)
All that’s needed now is to add scores to the various checklist items!
And I thought we were going to set a record for comments on that one!
Apparently All Things Brougham strikes strikes quite the chord with many even after all these years…
Maybe not all good chords, but chords none the less.
Ding ding ding ding!! We have a winner. Broughamicity is about excess, and what could be more excessive than a nearly 20 foot car that due to the front AND REAR consoles sat only four passengers. Also, if I recall correctly, the price of the Talisman option package alone could buy a base ’74 Vega or Pinto.
Yes THAT is a particularly memorable OTT effort from Cadillac. So grotesque with it’s thick velvet seats that get dirty and it can never truly stay clean so it smells in a locked heat.
Add me in on that.
How could a vehicle named the Cadillac Fleetwood Sixty-Special Brougham Talisman not be the broughamiest car ever? Make mine a ’75 or ’76 please in dark blue with blue medici cloth interior.
There’ve been many memorable Broughams, but I think the ’77-79 Fleetwood Brougham and Olds 98 Regency Brougham top my list. It’s the combination of power, comfort, durability, relative anonymity, and truly excellent performance potential (for the genre).
In fact, any of the high spec ’77-’79 B-body models fits the bill for me, but the Olds and Caddy were particularly nice inside.
Also, for similar reasons (though perhaps a bit less logical of me), I’ve always loved the Diplomat-based Fifth Avenue. For years I’ve had a fantasy of taking a police spec Diplomat and a loaded Fifth Avenue and making one rip-snorting Super Hi-Po Brougham of them. 🙂
Those police special Diplomats handled so nicely… Sure, it wouldn’t have such a Brougham-y ride anymore, but I could live with that.
How about a 57-58 Cadillac Eldorado Brougham. A car at 13000 at the time was really a Brougham.
Well yes, that was the real thing, which everyone decided to copy, sort of. Cadillac “owned” the Brougham name for decades, but the Brougham Epoch is all about the down-scaling of Brougham-ness.
The first was the 1947 Sixty Special Fleetwood Brougham, and the last, the 1996 Fleetwood Brougham.
Forgot a pic of the 1947 Fleetwood Brougham (or at least a Fleetwood, not sure if it’s actually a Brougham)
I believe 1965 was the first year that Cadillac actually used the word Brougham, at least the first time post WW2. Before that, the Sixty Special was just the Sixty Special. From 1965-70 you could get your long wheelbase Caddy either as a Sixty Special or a Brougham. Only the Broughams had the foot rests in back. Then in 1971 the Sixty Special nomenclature was ditched and the cars were just Fleetwood Broughams until either 1986 or ’87 when the Fleetwood part of the name was dropped and the big RWD car was a Brougham. Just to keep you confused though, in 1993 the big RWD car was once again named the Fleetwood (but not the Sixty Special) and the Brougham designation was an option. Last weekend I saw one of those 1990’s Fleetwood Not-Broughams in Charlotte near the AutoFair.
I’ll take my 68 AMC Concorde. Not because I like Brougham’s. Just because I owned one and liked the car. I would have liked it better if it had a metal top like the Hornet.
It’s just possible that good looking brougham might qualify as an oxymoron. OTOH that could just be the old timers disease speaking out again. Time for my nap.
I’d love to nominate pretty much any Ford product from 71 to 83.
One standout is the 1975-78 LTD Landau. Vinyl top, hidden headlights, velour interior, fender skirts and color keyed wheel covers.
Well done sir…color keyed wheel covers may put you over the top.
I’d forgotten those Fords and Mercs with the color-keyed wheel covers — very nice Brougham treatment indeed! A friend had a 4 door Merc like that when it was new, dark copper with matching wheelcovers and creme colored leather — sharp sled, but quite the wallower.
Suddenly I have those Monty Python vikings in my head, but they’re singing “Brougham Brougham Brougham Brougham BROOOOUGHAM, wonderful BROOOOUGHAM!”, LOL. Must be bedtime….
Nice! Haven’t thought of Monte in a loooong time..
I have to admit that I like the 73+ LTD. They carried their weight a little better than the B cars in the 70s. A nice 73 Coupe with a 429 would be a nice ride.
I think I have to vote for your LTD. The 1975-78 version particularly. To me, “Brougham” involves lots of tack-on vinyl appliques, and these were all over these cars. The crap on the headlight doors, the fender skirts on a car never meant for them (ie – one that had stamped-in wheel lip edges) and all of the nonsense between the taillights. Add in big, slow and barge-like, and there you have it. The ultimate brougham.
That fits what I think of as Broughamness as well, JP. While something like the ’58 Cadillac Brougham had the name, the luxury was real.
It’s more than a bit ironic that we’re defining a Brougham as something that something that has the surface nods to the real deal but none of the substance. Umberto Eco would have a field day with this.
Mom got a 1975 Gran Torino Elite Brougham to replace the ’72 Country Squire that got totaled after we t-boned a late-60s Cadillac whose driver ran a red. The Torino was metallic baby-shit “gold” with this nasty synthetic upholstery that snagged on everything while generating a near-lethal charge of static electricity whenever you got in or out. Fender skirts, padded half-vinyl roof, whitewalls, matching wheel covers, the works.
She hated that car so much, and the 1975-only seatbelt interlocks, and the horrible strangled engine. Two years later she had a Toyota Corona in the garage.
As an afficianado of Brougham Epoch American Iron (TM) I automatically exclude Cadillac, Lincoln, and Imperial because they were luxury cars long before Iaccoca and his designers ever wet their panty cloth. The Broughamiest Brougham that ever Broughamed automatically HAS to be a car that it was mildly inappropriate to bordello out in the first place.
I like Paul’s choice because it is a “Vega Brouham” which is just wrong on so many levels. I also like the compact Fords that were slapped with GIHA badging and designer edition AMCs. Oh and don’t forget Pontiac Pariseanne in which GM continued to pimp a once proud sporty marque. Although I just remembered how many K cars were slathered with faux luxury touches, padded roofs, and cheap wire wheel covers. Oh and don’t forget opera lamps, for the love of god don’t forget opera lamps…
The all time best of the Ford Ghias was the Mustang II Ghia. I think it’s got the Monza Town Coupe and the Vega Cabriolet beat because it’s got those weird raised earmuffs on the C pillars that Ford installed in the mid-70’s.
You just have to look at a pimped out, Pinto-based, Mustang, and say, “that ain’t right…”
It may not have had the Ghia badge affixed, but Ford also broughamed the Maverick with the Luxury Decor option.
Ford broughammed the MK2 Ford Escort for a mini brougham by slapping Ghia badges and a vinyl top on it and auto trans all that on a shopping trolley.
1993 Chrysler New Yorker… the Very Very last “BRO-ham”
Not really though, Cadillac still actually used the Brougham name designation on the RWD Fleetwood until 1996, that was the last Brougham.
It still gets honorable mention as the last Mopar Brougham, though. There was also a Dynasty Brougham in ’92-’93.
Was it still called a Brougham through 93?
Though the New Yorker name did continue for a year or so on the LH Chryslers, it even had a bench seat, though it might be to aerodynamic to be a Brougham, I would vote the last K-car based Imperials as one of the final Mopar Broughams.
Not the New Yorkers, they came in plain, Salon and Fifth Avenue versions. The Dynasty Brougham’s primary feature was a landau top with Brougham script on the C-pillar.
Well, technically, only the Dynasty had the word Brougham inset into the optional padded Landau roof during 1992-93.
There was a “Daewoo Brougham” sold through MY1996. Other than Korea, I don’t know what markets it was sold in.
I vote for the Buick Electra Limited Park Avenue (that really was the full name!) which arrived in 1975 and continued downsized for 1977-84. Most model years had a ridiculously plush, wrinkly velour interior, along with fake carved wood, fancy door pulls, armrests galore, etc etc. I suppose the Cadillac DeVille and Fleetwood D’Elegance and Talismans also qualify for special honors, but I pick the early Park Avenues.
What an odd picture. That’s a 77-79 Park Avenue with a 74-76 Cadillac steering wheel in matching light blue. I don’t think GMs build quality was quite THAT bad.
In 1977 only, Buick did indeed offer that steering wheel, which Cadillac was no longer using, on the cars with the telescope wheel option. It was a “hand-me-down” from Cadillac. This is original and correct (note the Buick emblem in the center of the wheel).
Yep,they did it again later in 79-80 Buick got the straight across 2 spoke wheel that Cadillac stopped using in 1979,
I stand corrected. Yes they did get hand me downs on both those wheels. That always has, and continues to, throw me off: why did they do that? Seems almost like it was illegal or something.
I’ll tell you what, it was nice when each division had their own wheels, and when you could choose from 2 or 3 different styles for 1 car. Now, GM has roughly 3 wheel styles for all 500 model variations…
The later model GMC Motorhomes also had that wheel.
The Talisman gets my vote for the Broughamiest. IIRC there were matching velour pillows as part of the package. I’ve never heard of that on any other car this side of Crewe.
My parents had a 1978 Ninety Eight Regency. That baby was pretty darn brougham. I convinced my parents to call their insurance agent at home on a Saturday to add me on their policy (16 b’day was Friday and had just got my license). I flipped the air cleaner lid upside down and opened up those 4 barrels!
I’m going to nominate my parents’ 1984 Chrysler LeBaron 2-door, bought new and driven more or less proudly by them until ’89. Triple maroon, half-vinyl roof, fake wires, etc. A pimpmobile for pimps on a beer budget. Lord, I loathed that car. And here I am now, commemorating the damn thing. It’s a funny old world.
Oh, and great call by PN for mentioning the Monza; along with maybe the Pinto-based Mustang II notchback probably the most absurd brougham of all time. One more reason I love this place.
My parents’ 72 Mercury Marquis Brougham was pretty darn broughamy… 429 4V, power everything, sat about 3 inches off the ground, dark brown, black vinyl roof, with brown interior, except the carpet was fading toward a shade of green in the way only Ford products did 🙂 Sloshy suspension, twisty frame, headlight covers that rarely worked, but still one hell of a cruiser.
I won’t nominate this car as the brougham-iest ever since it was a one-off, but my personal favorite is Aldo Gucci’s personalized AMC Hornet Sportabout.
http://gucci.tumblr.com/tagged/hornet
I love this car – it really makes quite a statement. It is one the lowest status cars ever built with all the ecoutremont of luxury.
Surely the AMC Matador Coupe is a worthy contender, particularly in “Barcelona II” trim?
Oldsmobile 98 Regency interior …
(part of a nice Automobile Magazine gallery, here: http://www.automobilemag.com/features/news/1203_inside_man_blaine_jenkins/photo_01.html)
You beat me to it. Here’s another look:
I like this color scheme better.
While we’re on the subject of AMC, how about the Matador Brougham wagon?
I’m stealing that for my desktop wallpaper! That’ll confuse the young’ns I work with… (they were born in the bro-ham era)… 🙂
Somehow, there is just something so intrinsically wrong with both the term and the concept of a “Matador Brougham” station wagon!!!
Wonderful examples all…but my vote to out Brougham them all is the, drum roll please:
The “PROUDEST BIRD OF ALL”
1980 Ford Thunderbird Silver Anniversary
http://www.thejumpingfrog.com/?page=shop/flypage&product_id=835737&CLSN_461=13018525464617e9c94daac054a81bbb
Bloated out of all proportion, padded vinyl rooflet, opera lamps, cheesetastic hood ornament, marshmallow seats, various Art Deco and Art Nouveau add-ons, covered headlights…it raised the bar for all of the white loafered, plaid Sansabelt slacks wearing, Zodiac medaled, wide tied, lamb chop sideburned, Permanent hairstyled Swingers into the stratosphere to such heights that just like the mythical Icarus they were doomed to fall back to Earth in short order. IMHO this car should be known as Ford’s answer to the Cimarron. Never has a car strayed so far from what it used to be. I remember my former boss in college raving about how his was a collector’s item sure to be worth an “absolute fortune”!
In Hell.
I have to admit that this car deserves special consideration, considering it started out life as a Fairmont. Jeez; did I hate these at the time…..
A late entry – the Valiant Brougham. This goes under category of most unlikely car to be broughamed, along with the Monza. Color keyed wheel covers here too!
Another oxymoronic Brougham would have been the Gran Torino Brougham. I love that one because it took TWO attempts to make it brougham-ier. Evidently, making a Torino into a Gran Torino did not make it clear enough.
The Gran Torino Brougham is a good call, but if we are to continue the Torino-Gran Torino progression to its logical end, there’s only one answer: ’76 Ford Elite.
Why? Three simple words: TWIN OPERA LAMPS!
Then the 1974 Grand Torino Elite Brougham has the 75-76 Elite beat!
Don’t forget the 74 Charger SE had QUAD OPERA WINDOWS!
Opera windows, not opera lamps.
As Car and Driver commented in their August 1974 issue in which they road tested this model:
“How can a Valiant be (a) Brougham? It sounds like a joke, like ‘Raoul of Bayonne,’ a furious contradiction in terms which completely cancel each other out before they reach your inner ear, leaving only a residue of mirth.”
In spite of that remark, C/D’s impressions of the car were generally favorable and they praised it for its combination of “efficiency and comfort without ostentation.”
I guess “Valiant Brougham” made for a shorter nameplate than “A Valiant that We Have Finally Trimmed Out Decently”
I really liked the Valiant Brougham and did not Dodge have a Dart SE to go along with it. Luxury and Economy combined.
Indeed, there was a Dart SE. Same vinyl roof and color keyed hubcaps.
http://www.oldcarbrochures.com/static/NA/Dodge/1975_Dodge/1975_Dodge_Dart_Brochure/1975%20Dodge%20Dart%2002-03.html
This is almost too tasteful to qualify.
In that case the Aussie Chrysler by Chrysler should rate a mention vinyl roof loose pillow upholstery and anything else they could cram in it.
Going to have to go with any 1969-78 Marquis. Ugly, expensive and everywhere. Historically Merc never quite had an identity, but after selling so many of these we have to crown them the Brand of the Brougham.
Here’s a 78. The red 73 in the original post is just as awful, but the colors got even worse. Our neighbors had a late-seventies four-door in a strange lime metallic, with vinyl and accents and interior fabric and dash in at least four other shades of yuck.
Call me crazy, but I would really love one of those 2 door Marquis’ from the 1975-78 era. Make mine a solid color, though. I agree with your assessment: by 1972 or so, Mercury was All Broughams All the Time.
Wow, that’s quite the look. (I don’t mean that as a compliment.) The paint scheme is actually very close to the 1970 Chrysler 300H. Are those headlight doors covered in padded vinyl, or do they just LOOK puffy?
Pretty sure that’s genuine padded pleather on there. Now if only they could have worked in some fake wood as well…
My grandfather had a 1975. My grandmother liked it so much she bought a 1976. So for a while they had identical car makes.
With quadrasonic
My grandmother and an aunt each had a ’75 Marquis (one coupe, one sedan), and whenever I think “Brougham” (or just “tacky car”), I think of these. So ugly they’re beautiful.
Can anyone come up with a longer name than the1984 Oldsmobile Delta Eighty-Eight Royale Brougham LS?
My first car was a 1975 Monza Towne Coupe, blue with a black vinyl top, and a 4.3 liter V8 crammed under the hood. It never occurred to me that it fit into the Brougham category.
1978 Cadillac Fleetwood Eldorado Biarritz Custom Classic, almost as long!
How about the Lincoln Continental Town Car Williamsburg Edition? Produced from 1977-79. It had the opera window deleted, full vinyl roof instead of a landau roof, and dual-shade paint.
So funny you post this, Carmine. I was going to nomiate the ’78 Eldorado Biarritz Custom Classic for this post. My parents had one when I was born and I was driven home from the hospital in it. Theirs was white on white on white, with colorkeyed wheel covers, special thick chrome bodyside boulding that ran all the way down the hood, CB radio, 8-track player, opera lights (inside and outside), the list goes on…
The car was so over the top I think I absorbed some of it in my blood as I now drive a current-gen CTS.
It looked exactly like this one:
These have one of the most opulent interiors of any car, the seats are like giant leather marshmallows. They take a little getting used to while driving, they seem wider than the lane that they are in.
But its a great view, you have a hood the size of a pool table out in front of you with a giant wreath and crest the size of fist at the end of it.
Well, the LS emblems did say on them in small font, “Luxury Sedan”, so let’s take this to the extreme….
(Clears Throat)
“Presenting the 1984 Oldsmobile Delta Eighty-Eight Royale Brougham Luxury Sedan, the Utimate in Brougham!!!”
Well, the LS emblems did say on them in small font, “Luxury Sedan”, so let’s take this to the extreme….
(Clears Throat)
“Presenting the 1984 Oldsmobile Delta Eighty-Eight Royale Brougham Luxury Sedan, the Ultimate in Brougham!!!”
So many choices…..I cant pick just one.
I’ll throw in one of the smallest Broughams to come down Brougham st, how about an X-rated Brougham?
The 1980 Oldsmobile Omega Brougham, this baby Cutlass/98 had the full brougham treatment thrown on it, vinyl top, stand up hood ornament, color keyed wheel covers or available wires and of course, silver faced gauges(very Brougham)full velour interior with small pillow topped seats.
I’ll give 2nd runner up in the baby Brougham category to the Omegas platform mate, the Buick Skylark Limited, Buick may have not had full design control of their X-car since it was a multi-divisional project, but by golly if they were going to have a compact car, it was going to be a Buick, and its for he Skylark Limited that Buick reserved their best, big thick pillow topped seats, silver faced gauges, thick carpet and even red an white courtesy lights on the doors like a big boy luxury car.
I could see the reasoning, if people were going to flee from big cars in the fuel miserly 80’s, why should they have to scrimp on broughamliness? The 1980-85 Skylark Limited is proabably one of the smallest cars to have such a broughamed out interior, but of cours in small portions, its kinda like eating Thanksgiving dinner on an airplane, everything is there, a little cranberry, a little stuffing, a little turkey….but in small sized portions.
For the baby brougham hat trick…
The 1974-1976 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham with the Talisman option is the god of Brougham cars, with the 1974 version being at the top of the parthenon.
First, it has Brougham in its nameplate, which is worth a good number of points, not to mention its double throw down Brougham with an extra side of Brougham interior, with a full 4 ashtrays and lighters, rear foot rests, individual reading lamps for each rear seat passenger plus one for the front seat passenger too, illuminated consoles for the front and rear seats, turning this 5000lb monster into a 4 seater!(what oil embargo?) the front console had an illuminated writing tablet with a pen holder, the rear one was was for storage, but I believe it had a samll fold out table for a drink.extra thick carpeting, Cadillacs neat light monitors at the front doubling as navigational lights for port and starboard sides at night, opera lamps(how can you go to the opera if you dont have the proper illumination?) The Fleetwood Talismans were the Chariman of the Board of Brougham.
It’s not a Talisman, but there’s a Fleetwood currently for sale on ebay with this outrageous interior (I think my grandparents had a couch that resembled this):
mommy I ate all the red velvet cake and now I don’t feel so good…..
You should have taken your brougham-o-seltzer like I told you to!
Funny.
Yep…the ’74-’76 Cadillac Fleetwood “Talisman” gets my vote too. Sheer “excess for the sake of excess” and “conspicuous consumption” at it’s finest! 😀 I WANT one!!!
Is there a side category for most tastefully done Brougham? If so, I nominate the 1976-78 Chrysler New Yorker Brougham. A fleet shape with elegant trim with the full luxo-Brougham treatment inside, including those great loose-pillow seats.
Scores extra points for tasteful style and broughaminess at the same time! But better yet would be any imperial made between 1969 and 1983! Now that would be a tasty brougham!
I agree JP, but we’re just being Mopar homers.
Brougham-homers…Broughmers…OK I gotta step away from this thread. 🙂
I agree! The 74-75 Imperials and 76-78 New Yorker Broughams Still set my heart a flutter. Beautiful cars! That and the Boat Tail Riviera are on my list of cars I want to have. I will take mine as a New Yorker in Burgundy with Burgundy Velour and with the Road Wheel option.
For “Most Tasteful” I’d nominate the 1968 LTD Brougham 4 DR HT. (Beginning in 67 you had to opt for the Brougham option to get the embroidered panty cloth interior and thick carpet) It had die cast aluminum hidden headlights (1st for an LTD)…..no tacky appliques, no opera windows, no wide moldings, no landau tops……clean looks. And with a non=smog 390 or 428 they were quick enough and quiet enough.
Any Zimmer, the Bustleback Seville by Global Coach, and the Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham Talisman.
I think this may be the most Brougham-like hatchback: the ’79 Concord DL, complete with landau roof!
Could be. But it’s hard to beat the bro-hamm-ed Hornet, the Concord D/L…
The 71-76 Lincoln Mark IV. The car was and is the epitome of Broughamified excess.
And buyers of the period loved them.
Go to stillruns.com for a really funny and beat-up-by-old-age 1972 chevrolet impala (it’s a brougham)!
I’ve got to mention the Versailles. You take a bread and butter Granada, add every Brougham styling cue possible, and price it ABOVE the Continentals and Mark IV/V. The ’79 and ’80 models even got a landau roof.
I agree with this one. Technically it shouldn’t qualify because it is a Lincoln and I kind of agree that the broughams should be tarted up regular cars. But this thing was Lincoln in name only. I remember seeing one in a parking lot one day and I thought the owner had put Lincoln tags on his granada.
+1. A Maverick with a Baroque body and a compressed fake-ass bustleback has serious Brougham cred.
To me, though, there will never be anything as ‘Brougham’ as the mid-1970s Cadillac Eldorado. The heights this car descended from, after its 1967 debut! 500 cubic inches, front-wheel-drive, vanilla styling, and multiple appearances as “pimp cars” in questionable 1980s action movies… surely there’s a uniquely Brougham-y fall from grace there.
I hate to keep bagging on this era of Ford cars (because I actually liked quite a few of them), but beyond the bro-hamm-ness of the mid 70’s T-bird, its little brother, the Elite was a particularly egregious example.
As outlined in the Cougar story a few days ago, there was an organic progression from nicer muscle car to mid size bro-ham mobile, as the Montego was strictly aimed at working class guys (like my father) who had a few bucks to spend after gaining seniority down at the plant (or terminal or wherever). But these same guys were raised (or young adults) during the depression and were uneasy with flashy items, cars particularly.
The Elite was just the audacity of awesomeness distilled down to a more manageable size. It rang all of the mid 70’s bells, two door coupe, opera windows, velour interior, smoggified V8, stand up hood ornament. Yep, all accounted for. Cordoba, eat your fine Corinthian leather heart out… Cougar XR7, I’m gunning for you too, bud…
A good friend had one back in the early 80’s, at the same time I owned my big block 1969 Torino GT. We would commiserate about high gas prices, and the fact that both cars got about 9 MPG. But good Lord, I could actually accelerate and get out of my own way, the 400 (Windsor) equipped Elite, hesitated, backfired and then took off. And it was in perfect tune. Such was the early pleistosmog era.
It may not be full sized bro-hamm-ness, but it’s chock full of it.
If EVER a car so perfectly describes “great brougham epoch”…it’s the Ford Elite.
Or to put it this way:
Would the above design EVER have gotten off the drawing board if there had been no brougham roofs?
Is a car with Brougham in its name still being produced anywhere in the world?
Carmine, some ideas for your Brougham scorecard:
Ugliest. brougham. e.v.e.r. – ’78 AMC Concord.
The brougham that looked most luxurious – ’74 Coupe DeVille at the top of the post.
Gaudiest brougham – ’76 Eldorado Biarritz.
Coolest yet absurd Vega variation brougham – ’75 Monza Town Coupe. Must have V8.
Best B-Body brougham – ’77 Bonneville.
Best ever Ford brougham – ’77-’79 T-Bird.
Lipstick on a pig A-Body brougham – ’74-’77 Malibu Classic.
My favorite brougham of all time – ’70 Monte Carlo. If that’s not broughamy enough for the rest of you…I’ll take a ’73-’77.
Most prolific Brougham: Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme Brougham, made for at least 10-12 years and always sold in the 100K plus or more.
Most prolific abuser of Brougham nameplate: Oldsmobile again, they had a brougham in everything except the Firenza, Starfires and wagons, there even was a Toronado Brougham for a while, as if the reguar Toronado was not broughamly enough for you.
Damn, you beat me to it. Here is an example; a 76 Cutlass Supreme Brougham for sale in the Seattle area that I am seriously considering buying. The Brougham of Broughams, a CCCCC Brougham with color keyed wheels, landau vinyl top and a pillow topped color keyed interior. Drooooooooooooooool
Wow, sharp. My Aunt Candy had one just like this, only it had the standard wheel covers. I believe that color was called Firethorn Red. Unfortunately they lived down the street from Blackhawk Foundry, and the soot and assorted emissions pitted the glass and ruined the paint in short order. She kept it until 1988 or so, replaced it with a navy blue ’78 T-Bird with the chamois interior and bucket seats.
I thought of the Cutlass Supreme Brougham but did not have time to post earlier. Probably the most desired of all Broughams. One of my College Roommates Dad was sales Mgr. of a Olds Dealer in Dallasin the mid to late 70’s. His Demo was usually a 98 Brougham and his wifes was a Cutlass Supreme Brougham. Pillow Top Seats all around. I heard tales of people trading Cadillacs for them. Anyway the run of Cutlass Supremes from 73-88 were some of the best thought out Broughams of the bunch, crisp clean styling plus all the right cues with out going overboard which Ford tended to do.
Although Mercury didn’t call them broughams, how about the thoroughly tacked-out Bobcats one used to see, with vinyl tops and overstuffed interiors? I think they were broughams for Munchkins.
While I couldn’t find one with a vinyl top, the Austin Allegro Vanden Plas definitely deserves a mention for sticking a formal grille and a limousine maker’s name on an egg shaped economy car. In its defense the Allegro did a get a full wood and leather interior treatment and was a follow on to the popular Vanden Plas 1100/1300 (see pic in reply below)
1300 Vanden Plas, also a candidate, but not as wacky as the Alllegro.
That Allegro reminds me of a VW Beetle with a Rolls-Royce grill.
It reminds me more of a Mercury Bobcat.
Proof you can polish a turd!My social climbing snob headmaster bought an Allegro Vanden Plas for his wife.After he died she traded it in for a Ford Capri,lost weight,went blonde and hooked up with a guy 8 years younger.
So many wonderful choices a true winner is impossible to select. I thank Carmine and chas108 have sorted out about right though.
My vote for the one feature that best exemplifies tacky, tasteless, and ugly (the true definition of the Brougham era) all in one convenient package – dark red crushed velour.
How about some Sushi Brougham?
The 1979 Toyota Cressida, its like a mini Mercury Monarch.
1976 Mazda Cosmo….its how you say Torino Elite in Japanese.
Roll down opera windows!
Look up the Cosmo L Landau, which is even moreso.
I’ve heard the original Toyota (Celica) Supra described as a Japanese Monte Carlo.
Tom, Great job on this post! You have certainly stirred some interest.
My 1978 Buick Electra Limited Park Avenue. After a while you learn to despise those velour pillow covered seats. Hard to keep clean and you cannot slide across them easily on entry or exit. Oh, and in typical UAW fashion, a defective u-joint yoke was installed in the rear end with a gouge in the shaft directly in line with the lip seal. That told me all I needed to know about the UAW.
I think the prize for most inappropriately broughamized car has to go to the 1977 Datsun B-210 fastback coupe that my supervisor at the time bought. That nasty little thing had a white vinyl top over pale metallic green paint, with tan seats, a brown carpet, and black steering wheel and instrument panel. I never saw another one like it.
Funny. I searched, but was completely unable to come up with a factory-Broughamed pickup truck. Apparently there were, however, aftermarket vinyl roof kits available (either real vinyl or “spray-on”).
Well you could count the GMC Gentleman Jim and Beau James special edition trucks, not full on brougham, but luxed up. Also the 1979 and up Jeep Grand Wagoneer Limited is a full on broughamed SUV if there ever was one.
Don’t forget the “Super” Wagoneer. Factory vinyl top!
With bucket seats inside, they were almost like a muscle car jeep, the had a Buick 401 in them I think.
The AMC 401 was still a variant of AMC’s own V8 engine family, like the 360 and 390. It was not a Buick engine.
Super Wagoneer was made from 1966-1969 or so, and at the time the Wagoneer was still a Kaiser product, not an AMC, and from 1968-1971 a Buick 350 V8(not the 401 Buick nailhead like I was thinking) was found under the hood of the Wagoneer, I dont think the AMC 401 came out until 70 or so?
Don’t forget the Buick Estate Wagons. Not only did it have vinyl woodgrain on the sides you could also add a vinyl roof with luggage rack on top of that!
I know that gmc made a late 1970s truck with three shades of blue pin striping and the screaming eagle on the hood but I have never tracked down a photo on the web of it. To my 13 year old mine it was far out.
It came out long after the end of the Great Brougham Epoch, but the Lincoln Blackwood (What on earth were they thinking???) has to be the closest thing there’s been to a factory broughamed pickup.
Down the street from me is a late 90s Bravada. White with a black cloth fake convertible top and a sunroof. It makes me weep.
I weep for Oldsmobile… RIP
I weep that the Custom Cruiser was killed to make room for SUVs…
I weep that once proud Oldsmobile had an SUV foisted upon it…
I weep that someone put a fake top on a Bravada…
If anybody ever put a padded top on an early-1990s Chrysler Town & Country minivan, I think that would win…
I see the Ford Elite has been mentioned a couple of times. Good!
I think it just wouldn’t be fair to FoMoCo if we didn’t include the Elite’s successor the LTD II Brougham!
I keep forgetting this one existed. So much Brougham spilled over from the LTD Landau that the Elite mutated into a Thunderbird clone.
Check that sweet front overhang! 😀
I still remember the commercial: “Isn’t it you, in an LTD II? You’ll never know ’til you tryyyy…”
Ford was and is the master of pooping in it’s own bed.
The II robbed from Lincoln, Mercury and Ford itself(Thunderbird).. Amazing.
I think the Elite became essentially the Thunderbird in 1977. In 1976 it was the top of the line and no longer a ” Grand Torino”.
My first thought was the Fleetwood Talisman, probably because it was just MORE Brougham on the regular Brougham, and probably the ultimate (not including oddities like Gucci Sevilles).
But I definitely get the argument for the ordinary cars getting the Brougham treatment, and there’ve been a lot of great examples here. When I was a kid, I used to draw cars, and I would draw a very plain one, and then load it up with Brougham cues until it was totally over the top.
Thanks to whomever mentioned the Mustang II Ghia. I’ve tried to erase this car from my memory, but I haven’t been sucessful. My parents had been getting big new GM cars every two years or so, but hung onto a ’69 Olds Delta 88 Convertible as their “second car”, which really only got used on weekends, as my dad commuted by train. When my brother started driving in 1977, someone apparently thought it would be a good idea to dump the gas-eating Olds, and buy my parents’ friend’s “small” 1975 Mustang II Ghia. Well, my brother then got a 79 Camaro as a reward for good grades in college (or was it a bribe for getting him up from bad grades?), and in 1981, when I started driving, the Mustang was ready for me. What a piece of crap (it had extreme turbo lag, without a turbo) – which I could deal with. I was thankful for free wheels, but I cannot lie – I was mildly embarrassed to be seen in this white Ghia, with a full white vinyl roof, tan interior. Somehow I felt like the Brougham treatment made this car worse than it should have been.
Wait, what about the Royal Deluxe Brougham II?
True but Cadillac not only had the Brougham but the Brougham D Elegance. A true Broughams Brougham
If we’re thinking Japan, we’re forgetting the broughamiest of all- the ridiculously priced royalty-mobiles by the big three:
Nissan President,
Mistubishi Debonair (spelling correct)
and the winner, the Toyota Century
These cars came with velour pillow topped seats and strip speedos well into the 90s. Most owners also fitted seat top doilies. These cars aped American styling and then took it to a level that could be described as pastiche. We have the Lexus LS400 and Infiniti Q45 to thank for teaching the Asians that luxury does not mean fake chrome and pillows, although you can still get doilies for your lexus.