1970 Cadillac Calais image from the web.
(Update: on first publishing, the Calais in question was wrongly referred to as a ’72 model. Text and images have been updated accordingly.)
Back in my childhood days, I recall many adults discussing wanting to buy a Cadillac. First, Dad talked about that often with my uncle (they were both driving Buicks at the time). I’d also heard Dad talk with friends from the neighborhood, and if the subject of cars came up, someone usually seemed to talk about owning a Cadillac.
And of course, we always heard of exceptional products being referred to as “the Cadillac of…” whatever it was being talked about.
1970 Cadillac brochure cover.
Dad would wait until 1970 to buy his first of three Cadillacs. He was 48 by then and his ’67 LeSabre 400 convertible had been totaled. He proudly arrived home in a ’70 two-door Cadillac Calais. By the way, there was only one Cadillac dealer in all of Columbus back then, aptly named Columbus Motor Car.
Dad’s Calais was a nice car with very few options; I think it had a stereo, cruise control, and climate control. He was king of the hill in his mind!
But, shortly that status would begin to erode.
1970 Cadillac Calais image from the brochure.
At about the 6-month mark, we were driving to the mall and were on the freeway. He asked if I heard the noise coming from the rear end, but I didn’t –He suspected that the ring and pinion were worn.
“Smart man” –that’s exactly what the dealer told him. They replaced what they needed to, and we were back on the road.
The Calais went on a trip to Florida via my sister and her husband, and the noise started a second time. It was now at the year and three-month mark, so Dad placed a call to Cadillac requesting that a district representative meet him at the dealer.
Cadillac was very accommodating and they asked him to drop the car off a few days early. They put him into a loaner and called a day later to meet the rep. Dad was an engineer by trade so he knew enough to know something was causing these failures. He was right. According to the factory rep and dealer mechanics, the frame was off by just enough that the rear end was running at a slight angle (I was 7 then, so I’m just going by what Dad told me.)
Cadillac offered Dad two choices:
– To give him a higher trade-in, or trade assistance and put him into another car…
– Agree to repair/replace the worn units up to the 3/36,000 miles.
Dad chose the latter. He told me he was very impressed with the way they took care of him. And he would go on to own two more Cadillacs.
Image from the web.
The finale of that car‘s life was actually kind of funny. Dad was up to get a new company car, a 1973 Caprice Classic. He traded in his Cadillac and was able to keep the money that they gave him for it. I remember Dad had ordered everything on his company’s Caprice, and his boss didn’t like the fact that it was gonna be so expensive. Instead, he picked one that was a lesser trim, but the same color!
About two weeks after Dad got the Chevrolet, the dealership called and the salesman, Rick, asked how he liked his new car. He said it was nice, but he had hoped for the more highly optioned unit he had ordered. Dad then asked him about the Cadillac: Had it sold?
Rick said no. Sadly, the car had been stolen! Rick had been showing the Calais when he was paged to the showroom. Meanwhile, the gentleman who was looking at the car found the keys, took up the sun visor, and took off with it.
Dad told Rick that he knew the car was still somewhere around Columbus and that they should start looking around the outer belt. Rick joked and said: How do you know? Dad said because the ring and pinion bearing was worn and knew it was going out.
The next day Dad got a call that they had in fact, found the car with a broken driveshaft!
Rick then asked my dad why he didn’t tell about the falling ring and pinion during the trade-in. Dad’s response was, “Well would you have offered me more on my trade?” “Of course not!” Rick told him. Dad just said, “That’s why I didn’t tell you!”
1977 Eldorado image from the web.
Well, now it’s my turn and I’m gonna find out what the Cadillac hype is all about since I’m currently looking at 76-77 model Cadillacs. I’ve always wanted to own one, and my loving wife of 40 years has told me to go ahead and pull the trigger. We have saved enough money and she’s happy for me to have what I want. I am the most fortunate man in the world to have a wife so dedicated.
Will it turn out to be the standard of the world in my opinion? Time will tell.
Related CC reading:
Curbside Classic: 1972 Cadillac Coupe DeVille – The First Curbside Classic, Ten Years Later
Good story with a clear moral. Service matters more than product. Product attracts customers, service keeps them.
When Cadillac had the volume to support stand alone dealerships, the service experience was befitting a luxury brand. Lincoln was always combined with Mercury and worse, Imperial all the way down to Valiant. Of course rural Cadillac customers may have had to share the service department with dirty GMC farm trucks.
Great story! The ‘72 Cadillacs were fine looking automobiles. The gold and frosty green examples you found are particularly striking.
Looks like auto correct slipped one in on you. “Outer Belt” (Interstate 270) instead of “elder belt.” Made me scratch my head for a minute until the several references to Columbus Ohio sank in. 😉
Wishing you GOOD LUCK in your quest. You may indeed find a good Cadillac from that era. But prices for quality will be steep, even for a Calais (which was Cadillacs entry level car). Unfortunately you will either have to do repairs and maintenance yourself or find a good repair shop. For years we had a Cadillac dealer in our (then) town of about 20,000. Now although we have a much larger population, the only Cadillac dealership is 30 miles away. I’ve owned two Cadillacs, a 1989 Fleetwood Brougham deElegance, which still was The Standard of the WORLD and a 1993 Brougham, which IMO was much inferior to the 89. The beginning of Cadillacs long slide into it current state of insipid glorified trucks masquerading as Luxury vehicles.
Well said Rick W.
No the slide began around 1965-68. Anyone who owned new Cadillacs from the early ’60s or before into the ’70s would know this. It improved just a bit in ’77 for about 3 years, but then the real terminal reputation-ending disaster struck.
I consider the 71-72 Cadillac coupe among the most attractive cars they built after the 1963-64. A friend’s father always wanted a Cadillac and bought a 72 Sedan DeVille. My friend got the car about a decade later after his father died. By then, it was descending down to beater status, but my friend loved it. He would joke that the leather used in the seats was worth more than the rest of the car, and he may have been right. Those seats were very comfy.
That rear axle issue on your father’s car – that must have been unusual. The knock on these cars is the bodies and interiors, while the running gear was always praised.
I guess used car dealers can’t complain when they unknowingly buy a car with a looming problem.
My grandmother had to replace her ’70 Calais with a ’72 because the seat back was too high for her to reverse. I much preferred the chisel-tip fenders and crisp lines, but the ’72 interior was nicer. The ’72’s windows made noise against the seals until we doused them in WD-40, so there was more body flexing going on. Dad kept it after she died and finally gave it to my step-brother about 2010, after spending a small fortune on the suspension.
Congrats on having a spouse that will let you buy a “play car”. I long for a vintage car of my own – a 58 Continental Mark II, a 61 Imperial, a 65 Buick Sportwagon (my first car). But no… every time I point out ad an for such a vehicle I get my husband’s famous “Death Stare”, along with the reminder that our garage only holds two cars and he is NOT going to keep his outside so I can take up both spaces.
Good story, and best of luck on fulfilling your version of the American Dream.
Thank you. I trust you are liking my articles. Every car has a story
Your story made me think of my own family and a neighbor. My parents were driving nice Chevy’s until dad (around that same age as your father) decided he worked hard enough to own a Cadillac. My uncle owned a small used car lot, and so the search for my parents new (used) Cadillac began. Soon they were driving a stunning light green 1975 Sedan Deville. A few years later, they traded it with my uncle and got a slightly used 1979 Sedan Deville. This few years is what started my own personal love of the Cadillac brand.
Our neighbor down the road was a sales rep for Electro Lux vacuum cleaners and he was a good sales person. He earned one level in sales and was given a dark brown 1977 Buick Lesabre custum with tan cloth seats and tan top. In 1979 he earned the next level up and he got a dark brown with tan leather (must have been the companies colors) Cadillac Sedan Deville. Shortly after getting it, dad asked him how he liked it and he said it was the nicest car he’d ever owned. He said it made the Buick feel like it was stuck in second gear! Not sure what that meant, but we all laughed.
Finally, I now proudly own two of my personal favorites from the 80’s when I was a teenager. I have my 1986 Seville with only 23,400 miles and my 1988 Cimarron with 61,900 miles. Great cars.
The ’76 is the last of the really big Cadillacs, the ’77 is the first of the downsized models and in my opinion the best of the series. I had a ’77 Coupe de Ville and with the 425 was still a good runner and handled great. I also had a ’70 CdV which was a great car. After ’70, the Devilles got bigger a bit bulkier looking. A Cadillac from this period is a real Cadillac that feels connected to it’s heritage in a way that newer models can’t. Good luck in your search.
I had a new 1976 white Eldo convertible, red interior. After about 4 months and a round trip from VA to FL, a slight engine noise developed. Cadillac replaced the engine, without issue. It had something to do with the bearings but I am not mechanically inclined so never asked to many questions. While they were working on my car they gave me a loaner 1976 Coupe de Ville, Compared to the Eldorado I was not impressed.
I drove my Eldo for ten years and mostly 100,000 trouble free miles. Only issues I had were with the front axel boots, causing front axel problems. Only indication something not right was a front end buzz sound. Other than that at about 50,000 miles the rear self-leveling started to fail, dropping the the rear. Dealership installed a bypass located in the trunk so with one valve stem I could add air to the rear shocks as needed and I loved that fix.
I loved that Eldo conv. and would buy another fast if I did not already have my 1966 T-Bird conv. to keep me occupied. I watch Bring A Trailer and frequently find some really nice low mileage Cadillacs for reasonable prices. Hope you find what you are looking for.
The Cadillac Calais was a rare car in its time because it presented a dilemma.
Why buy a relatively stripped Cadillac for pretty close to the same price as a better-equipped Oldsmobile 98 or Buick Electra?
Back when they were very different cars with their own engines, you could have chosen one based on the driving experience. Cadillac had status, but the people you might have sought to impress knew you had the cheap one. Get the high-end Buick or Olds, people would think you just liked them better. Or didn’t want to look pretentious.
So you hardly ever saw a Calais even when new.
there was a mistake made on my end during submission of this. He actually owned a 1970 Calais. Cadillac made 4724 of this model-the same number as the standard engine which was a 472 with a 4 barrel!
I would have chosen entry level Cadillac over top Buick or Olds back then for resale value and the luxury sales and service experience. Styling is subjective, but that would be another compelling reason for me. As far as impressing others, wouldnt care less. However, if I had a social position where I could not appear rich, such as Midwestern preacher, the Olds might have to do.
A very good-looking machine, with the gargoyle exception of the headlights. Truly, it has always looked to me as if the designers found too late that they’d so much width to fill up, and so added those awful little rectangular lights, which give such a gormless, spaced-out visage. The Chev of the same year actually has the classier-looking arrangement, in my not-at-all-humble opinion.
It’s interesting the expression, “Standard of the World”, because that rather depends upon what is meant by “world”. I suspect that it means “America”, in a tradition of US natives that’s quite familiar to those who aren’t inhabitants of that place. In England and her many colonies, present and former, the inculcated answer to the best-in-world proposition would be “Rolls Royce”: in Europe, perhaps Mercedes-Benz. Rather comically, by ’71, neither Roller nor Caddy were anything like the best of anything.
A nice tale here. I’m amazed your dad stuck with a car containing an unresolvable fault, even with guarantees of fixing the inevitable breakages resulting. I think I’d have agreed to the very generous trade in deal to be shot of the thing.
Good story about the Calais. I actually own one, a ‘68 ex San Francisco I bought in 2005 and had it shipped to NZ. It was very original and after some 6 months restoration it looks possibly like it did when sold new from Shepard Cadillac Oldsmobile in Oakland CA on 27th December 1967. Baroque gold paint job redone by a Master car painter here where I live. He learned his trade in California! Sandalwood interior with unmarked dashboard. Has original trunk kit, all decals, all chrome. Drives wonderfully. I even have the original plates still on the car below the NZ personalised plates. Rear plate is in mint condition. Anyone that has any historic info on Shepard Cadillac I’d love to hear about it or Oakland in 1967/68. Regards Ron Tauranga NZ
At least now you won’t have problems with sprocket alignment and misaligned transfers chain.
Back in the day, Motor Trend magazine would have their new car issue where they would predictably list every make’s best model for a given category. There was best sporty car, best luxury car, best economy and test, I don’t remember what. I remember that for a couple of year the Cadillac Calais was listed as Cadillac’s best economy model. LOL!
I think Cadillac was still producing a better quality car than average in the 60s and early 70s. Then cost cutting and disgruntled workers started lowering Cadillac’s quality. The misaligned frame on your father’s car speaks volumes, it’s good they offered an extended warranty, it’s bad they didn’t straight up replace the car, but then again Rolls-Royce or Mercedes Benz would have caught that before dispatch.
By 1973 a loaded Caprice could have almost the same options as a lesser Cadillac so Dad wasn’t losing much function.
Anecdotally a great uncle actually did just that in the late 80s, he replaced a Sedan de Ville with a loaded Caprice, partly because it was the same basic platform and partly because he disliked the new FWD Sedan de Ville.
Good luck with your mid 70s Eldorado purchase, I look forward to the COAL.
I own a 1968 Cadillac DeVille convertible that I cosmetically restored over the past 2 years. The engine and transmission are both original and internally untouched at 108,000 miles and burns no oil after 56 years. The ride is glorious. I am 70 and remember them new. Recently a man offered me to trade even for his new paid for cts something Cadillac. I declined politely.