(first posted 11/17/2015) “You won’t believe what I just saw!” I exclaimed to my father, who never shared my exuberance and passion for all things automotive. “What was it?” he asked. “In a field not far from here, I spotted a 1986-87 Cadillac Eldorado, with the rare touring suspension option, no less!” “So do you want to drive it?” he asked me. “Well, it has the unreliable HT-4100 engine and it’s pretty much engulfed by grass, so I doubt it runs.” He paused. “Is it worth anything?” he asked. “Well, nobody seemed to think so at the time – sales fell 70% in 1986 with the new model – and it’s certainly not a collectible now. But still, wow!” Anyone else might have been puzzled to see someone so excited about an abandoned and worthless car, but my friends and family know me too well.
No downsized Cadillac of the mid-1980s fell from grace harder than the Eldorado. Contrary to popular belief, the downsized 1985 DeVille and Fleetwood were quite strong sellers. Seville sales had plummeted with its 1986 redesign, but nowhere near the whopping 72% decline of the Eldorado. Lighter, more efficient and better-handling, the Eldorado was advertised as having “driver-oriented engineering… that brings the road alive”. But no downsized Cadillac suffered more aesthetically in its redesign than the Eldorado. Sales plummeted 72% almost entirely because of the way it looked.
The personal luxury coupe market was a very style-conscious one. The 1979-85 Eldorado had been a strong seller largely on the backs of its stately and elegant lines. The 1986 Eldorado, 16.3 inches shorter, had been a victim of GM Design chief Irv Rybicki’s edict to only offer conservatively-styled vehicles with formal rooflines. Rybicki had reasoned consumers would already be rattled by the smaller dimensions and engines of downsized vehicles, and there was no point in scaring them further with radically different styling. In contrast, Ford had taken the design lead and offered highly fashionable, aerodynamic designs like the Thunderbird, Taurus and Mark VII.
General Motors – and let’s get real here, it was GM HQ in charge as Cadillac had little divisional autonomy by this point – had anticipated a decade of ever-rising fuel prices and reacted accordingly. They had served up the most compact, efficient, best-handling Cadillacs yet, but hadn’t thought of a consistent way to package and market them. If the Eldorado really did offer a “tenacious suspension” and “exhilarating performance”, if it really was a “driver’s car” as Cadillac literature said, why not go all-in? Traditional Eldorado consumers were already going to be scared off, so why not forge a new path with a new and cohesive brand identity that held ‘excellent driving dynamics’ as one of its core tenets? And while they were at it, why not offer exciting new styling?
Instead, GM tried to have it both ways and failed. The old buyers were scared off by the new, compact Eldorado and any prospective new buyers would have balked at the thought of trading in their German luxury car for a Caddy, no matter how loud GM shouted it was a driver’s car. It’s a shame because the all-independent suspension, which included a Corvette-style fiberglass transverse rear leaf spring and air-inflated struts, made even the base Eldorado handle better than the outgoing Touring Coupe. There was still one major kink in the Eldo’s mechanicals, however, and it bore the name HT-4100.
Both unreliable and slow, the HT-4100 was at least smooth and exclusive to the Cadillac range. But even in an Eldorado weighing just 3360 pounds (over 300 lbs less than the ’85), 0-60 was accomplished in a mediocre 12.5 seconds as the V8 had only 130 horsepower and 200 pound-feet of torque. Despite the boasts of athleticism and driving excitement, the Eldo also lacked an available manual transmission. The instruments were also electronic instead of the more desirable full analog instrumentation used by the Germans.
The featured car is a 1986-87 model with the optional touring suspension package. The engine was untouched, but the suspension was beefed up with a rear stabilizer bar and stiffer front stabilizer bar. The $155 package also included Goodyear Eagle GT high-performance P215/6OR15 tires and alloy wheels, albeit no other visual changes bar this badge.
For a much loftier $3,095 ($3,495 with leather), an Eldorado buyer could select the Biarritz package. Unlike most “driver’s cars”, the Biarritz package had a lot of gingerbread including a cabriolet vinyl roof, opera lamps, two-tone paint, walnut interior trim and wider bodyside moldings. On such a smaller and more nondescript coupe than its predecessor, especially one with purportedly sporting pretensions, the Biarritz package seemed just a tad daft. More appropriate options included illuminated entry, automatic headlamps (Cadillac’s “Twilight Sentinel”) and power seats.
For 1987, Eldorado had some minor tweaks including 12 new exterior colors. But production slumped further, from 21,345 to 17,775 units. GM saw how badly the Eldorado was haemorrhaging sales and rushed a refresh, which arrived for 1988 (pictured). A three-inch longer rear end, power dome hood and overall crisper lines helped return some degree of presence to the Eldorado’s styling.
Performance was also much improved with the arrival of a bored-out version of the HT-4100, now displacing 4.5 liters and boasting superior reliability. Thanks to 25 extra horses, the 0-60 sprint was now accomplished in under 10 seconds. Immediately, sales increased to 33,210 units. Unfortunately, it was a brief uptick and sales would continue to fall for the rest of this generation’s run despite even more powerful V8 engines and a new Touring Coupe model. The Touring Coupe even included visual enhancements as well as the mechanical enhancements of the touring suspension option.
But any efforts to chase BMW 6-Series buyers with a tuned Eldorado were always going to be hamstrung by the presence of padded cabriolet roofed Eldorado Biarritzs and Coupe de Villes in the showroom. To GM’s credit, they managed to improve the Eldorado each year and, despite the less “pure” front-wheel-drive layout that was shunned by the Germans, the coupe could be equipped to handle and ride quite confidently and comfortably. Sadly, Cadillac would take another twenty or so years to pick a cohesive brand identity and stick with it.
While the 1988 and up Eldorados were much improved, these early models were just too flawed to be seriously considered by most luxury car buyers. The styling was too derivative and eerily reminiscent of the much cheaper N-Body compacts (although it is better in person). The exclusive engine was also little reason to pick the Eldo over its E-Body stablemates, which were both cheaper and quicker. Then there was the Lincoln Mark VII, a car at the same price point but with a more powerful engine and much more regal styling.
Had I encountered the featured Eldorado in America, I would have still been excited to see it. With their low production volumes and questionable engine, there aren’t exactly scores of these around. But I would have been excited to see it because I was looking at a misbegotten failure of a Cadillac, a car deservedly rare. However, a 1988 Eldorado sighting would elicit a different reaction: excitement at seeing a rare car, but also the pleasure of seeing a rather aesthetically pleasing one. I can only imagine how shoppers felt walking into a Cadillac showroom in 1986 and what their reactions must have been. That’s why so few drove a new Eldorado out.
Related Reading:
My Seville Series – Gen 2, Gen 3, Gen 4, Gen 5, STS
Curbside Classic: 1986 Lincoln Mark VII
Amazing to think of all the trouble someone went to getting one of these to Australia – and now look at it!
I was thinking the same thing… How relatively rare this car is in the US, and then to find one in Australia, in RHD no less?
I saw a book some years back that found Cadillacs in all stages of life and did a capsule history or who owned them and where they’d been. Mostly they were stories of the famous and near famous, but there were a few average people in there too. I would love to hear the story behind this car…
This car has got to be one of maybe 100 or less? I wonder how I would find that out…
Converted probably has a Chappel chaindrive steering unit and a cut n shut dash.
“Shudders” The things done in the name of RHD.
Were they still using chain drive conversions this late? I would have thought they would have all gone to bevel box and shaft conversions by that stage. which are far better. My 81 Fleetwood has a bevel box conversion, it is indistinguishable from stock to drive, very precise but retains the original steering and suspension geometry. Mine was done at assembly by GM in Hong Kong
I remember talking to an Aussie about this very subject, as he had imported a Trans Am around this time. The left-to-right conversion was required in Australia, unlike the UK, which had to coexist with a left-hand-drive continent.
There was a right way to do it and a wrong way, obviously. The right way was to move the steering column and pedals to the right side along with the brake master cylinder and steering box. For GM cars, one could retrofit Holden parts in places the existing ones couldn’t be used. The dash was a little more involved, but judging from this car, they figured out how to make one that worked. When GM was importing RHD Chevys, they often adapted dashes from previous years so they might not have matched.
The wrong way was to leave the master cylinder and steering box in place and add various ways to actuate them from the other side of the car. Clearly they could be made to pass inspection standards, but you have to wonder.
Unfortunately in many cases moving the steering column / box and brake master cylinder to the right is not possible as things like the airconditioning system exhaust, or other components are in the way. Actuating the brakes from the other side is the hardest part but it can be done safely if engineered correctly
Putting the steering box and brake master cylinder on the other side is not feasible with my car as the entire HVAC system is there and the steering column would have to pass through the middle of it. There are two ways to solve this, one by means of pulleys and chains which introduces severe issues with steering play amongst other things.
The other way is to split the steering column and use two bevel boxes and a shaft between the two halves to transmit steering action. Better units have adjustment screws to compensate for any wear in the bevels. This latter system works extremely well, I have had it on my car for 25 years, and the previous owner for 15 years before that. It is one of the few components of the car that has not required any attention in the whole time I have owned it!
I’m sorry, but you will never hear me say anything positive about this generation of Eldorado at all. To me, this is the ultimate symbol that represents the decline of Cadillac in the 80s.
While the HT4100, the diesel engines, and the V-8-6-4 certainly ruined the reputation Cadillac had for a bulletproof engine, these mechanical faults were put into cars that, for better or worse, still kept an image of what Cadillac was. That may not have been attractive to the baby boomer crowd, but these cars were still identifiable and you could (potentially) see why someone would by a Cadillac (The only exception would be the bustle-back Seville which I regard as a styling disaster)
These however, were just a GM solution to a GM problem. “Why don’t we alienate all our storied nameplates and take our most treasured brand and drag it through the mud, alienating our customer base in the process and not doing anything to convince our cars are any good to the import crowd as well! Genius!” It was no surprise these cars failed, to me, this is the personification of everything wrong with Roger Smith’s tenure of GM in the 80s. When a brand that was known as “the standard of the world” gets reduced to this, and a name that evoked one of the most radical and stylish cars of 1967 ends up looking like this, that tells you all you need to know about how far GM has fallen.
It makes me madder as well, because the Eldorado remains my favorite Cadillac models that the company made. The 67 Eldorado is my all-time favorite Cadillac, I like the 79-85 generation just fine, my daily driver and first car is a 98 ETC that I enjoy owning with a sense of pride, and I even like the 71-78s to some extant. These on the other hand, are cars that I continually deny the existence of, much to no avail.
And the sad thing is, there was a euro-style car that proved that American luxury makes could create something that might lure in the import crowd while remaining distinctly American in the process. It was called the Mark VII LSC, and even if it wasn’t a complete success, it was at least a solid effort regardless. Lincoln cleaned Cadillac’s clock in this decade, and they deserved to.
The 1992 Seville couldn’t come soon enough.
Its horrible to look at never mind if it handles,
Let’s all try to guess what William’s getting this Christmas!
“Gee, thanks Dad…”
Haha I wouldn’t complain. Although I’d prefer this generation of Seville, for which I have a curious affection. But 4.5 or 4.9 only thanks, none of this HT-4100 nonsense…
Socks and underwear? 😀
These are actually nicer in person, Just not enough car to be Eldorados/ Sevilles. I wonder if the downsized “E/K” cars were called “Cimmaron” rather than the “J”s…..Hmmm.
I still think the ugliest Cadillac is the 85 deville. This would have made a great cimarron especially with a Chevy v 8.
What shocked me the most is the car only saved 300 pounds in becoming a cheap looking mini me car. Amazing
The minimal weight savings that accompanied the radical downsizing was really appalling. The whole car looked so cheapened and small, yet it was barely any lighter than its handsome predecessor.
Which always makes me wonder just what they really were trying to accomplish. They had to have known that this radical step only saved a few hundred pounds and didn’t improve anything like gas mileage radically.
GM was planning for the future. Though the downsized Deville, Seville and Eldo, were misguidedly designed due to them looking like lesser GM cars. GM was seeing that FWD was the future of the automobile and was pushing to design almost of its cars with FWD. In 1994 when the redesigned Deville arrived(and looked nothing like a lesser GM car) most cars being made were FWD
It is interesting that folks in the 1980’s and even today moaned about how GM replaced the 1984 with a FWD abomination and yet nobody seems to remember that the 1984 Deville just changed its name to Brougham and was made in the style until 1992.
GM was planning for the future, but they seemed to have done a rather crappy job with it.
The Fleetwood Brougham (not the Sedan DeVille) became the Brougham (and then back to Fleetwood Brougham at some point) and was made in the boxy style until 1992 and until 1996 in the aero style.
The Brougham got it’s Fleetwood back with the 1993 ”areo” restyle.
True about the Fleetwood but by the early 1980’s the only thing that set the Fleetwood apart from the Deville was a different hood ornament, plusher interior with more standard options and a more formal looking vinyl roof. With the exception of the hood ornament, everything else that set the Fleetwood apart was able to be ordered for the Deville.
So to the general public that loved the large Deville of 1984 and cursed GM in 1985 for killing it off for a smaller car, the Fleetwood Brougham should have satisfied them as they look the same(heck even I have trouble picking a 1984 Deville and a 1985 Fleetwood Brougham out)
Fairly accurate description of the RWD DeVille/Fleetwood situation in the Early 80s. Prior to the 1977 downsizing you got a longer wheelebase, and from 77-79 at least a different looking “b” pillar. The 80-84 Fleetwood differed largely on the details you describe. While it was a good hedge for Cadillac to keep the RWD around, And personally I’m glad they did (they’re among my faves) The 85+ FWDs were not the failures that people seem to remember (or like me thought they would be) They actually did well in the market, unlike the 86 “E/K”s.
The Fleetwood Sixty Special (aka Brougham at some point) did not always have a longer wheelbase than the Deville (series 62). That varied from year to year. However, the body styling was different, which faded significantly with the 77 model year. Fleetwood bodies were something special up to the early 30’s after which Fleetwood was downgraded to a trim level.
The reason the still-available RWD Brougham didn’t satisfy late-’80s de Ville buyers is that GM had clearly given up development of the Brougham and let it become antiquated in regards to tech and safety features. Despite its price and supposed prestige, the Brougham lacked fuel injection, anti-lock brakes, airbags, rear disk brakes, and IRS. It also had GM’s annoying door-mounted shoulder and lap belts.
I bet Cadillac had to fight to retain the V8 during the switch to transverse front drive. The Buick 3.8 V6 was otherwise ubiquitous and GM was expending a lot of effort to turn a lousy engine into a great one. For at the same time Cadillac to be developing a light weight compact V8 that will fit transversely must have been a hard sell to the bean counters.
.As a contrast, Honda was not willing to spend the same money as the Legend/ Acura RL got larger and screamed out for one.
Bad luck for Caddy though, the V8-6-4 was too far ahead of it’s time and couldn’t be used to leave the RWD models with a big block that they needed, but without the V8-6-4 system was not CAFE approved. So the underdeveloped 4.1 goes into the much heavier RWD early. It would not have been intellectually consistent to beg for a unique engine and then ask GM for a Chevy 350 for the RWDs and UPPs, but they still should have.
This was Cadillac’s nadir. It was shocking how GM’s flagship brand just collapsed. While all the mid-80s shrunken FWD Cadillacs were very poorly styled, this one just looks so incredibly awkward. One of the worst parts of the design is how far back the rear wheels sit–the whole car looks like it was placed incorrectly on the wheelbase. The impression is amplified by the rectangular wheel arches. Irv Rybicki belongs in the Hall of Shame for this one.
The engine was terrible. The options packages were cheesy. The car seemingly appealed to no one. Frankly, it’s a wonder they sold as many as they did. My guess is most of the buyers were quite old at that point and were simply accustomed to having a new Cadillac every few years. Can’t imagine they would have been very pleased with this one…
The rush facelift did help a smidge (though the flawed basic proportions remained), and things got better under-hood. Had this 1988 car come out in say 1983 (when people were just coming off the recessionary thinking and fear of high gas prices), maybe it would have fared OK. But for 1988, the successful and stylish crowd of buyers (like the ones who had snapped up the ’67 Eldorado when it was new) would have wanted an Acura Legend Coupe, or if they had more money, a Mercedes 300CE.
Cadillac was just so lost back then it was painful.
I’m thinking the only reason they sold as many as they did was from the type of people who traded in their Caddy every three years religiously come hell or high water. To those folks, it doesn’t really matter what they look like or how they drive-they are getting into a new Cadillac! I suppose only when they’ve been burned so bad that they were shaken from their stupor did they move on to greener pastures or wait for something better.
I see and know a decent number of people who probably would be perfectly content, probably would even rather have an updated Fleetwood (i.e. big and festooned with Broughammy gingerbread) but have a CTS or XTS simply because that is what Cadillac is serving up in 2015.
“…..they sold as many as they did was from the type of people who traded in their Caddy every three years religiously come hell or high water. To those folks, it doesn’t really matter what they look like or how they drive-they are getting into a new Cadillac.”
That was and is sales momentum that every carmaker depends on for a base of its sales volume. Cadillac had built tremendous make loyalty and resulting sales momentum over the prior decades, but nearly every misstep after 1980 either mechanically or package size and content quickly destroyed that loyalty. Better choices elsewhere simply took advantage of that.
Maybe it’s because I didn’t grow up in the days when the “BIG” Cadillac Eldorado was the ultimate status symbol, but I much prefer this Eldorado to the preceding two generations. I’m sure it’s not much fun to drive, but I’ve always liked it no less.
The exterior styling isn’t exciting, but it’s nonetheless inoffensive and formal in my mind, something that I always associate with Cadillac. The interior looks comfortable and luxurious in a very American car sort of way, and this is one of the few cases where I like the button-tufted leather seats.
Would I have bought one if I was driving back then? Certainly not. But it’s nonetheless a car I have some kind of unexplained acceptance for, notwithstanding its negative effects to the Cadillac brand, that is.
I did grow up in the days when Cadillac was the ultimate status symbol. The Eldorado especially was a car for those who had arrived, had money, and wanted everyone to know it. Eldorado owners tended to be flashy and extroverted types who wanted only the biggest, best and most expensive. For these the huge, 500 cubic inch Eldos of the 70’s were nirvana. The next generation, though trimmer, still had fine styling and prestige, and most importantly looked like a Cadillac to traditional Eldo buyers..
This demographic was simply left cold by this next generation. I can only imagine the startled customer reactions in Cadillac showrooms in 1985 when it came time to trade their beloved ’70’s Eldos and they saw one of these. GM stupidly thought that Cadillac buyers would just buy anything with the Cadillac name on it. They weren’t fooled and Lincoln and later Lexus reaped the rewards.
“types who wanted only the biggest, best and most expensive”
HaHa, you remind me of one of the most insufferable attorneys I ever met. He was late to a hearing one snowy day in the mid 1990s, and was sure to throw into his traffic story that he drove an Eldorado “that thing’s got a hood six feet long” yada yada yada. I was driving a 68 Newport at the time and wanted so much to say something like “those are cute little cars and all, but I’m kind of surprised that you had trouble controlling something with so little power.” But I kept my big yap shut.
“HaHa, you remind me of one of the most insufferable attorneys I ever met”
JP, hope it was just my post that reminded you of that oafish boor 🙂 I’m a devoted Acura guy, luxury and quality without being too ostentatious.
Oops, sorry, yes it was your statement and not you that reminded me of “that guy.” 🙂 That’s what I get for trying to dash off a comment between thoughts at work on a busy day.
Insufferable attorney? Is there any other kind?
Brendan, they actually do drive and handle nicely. I have driven both and ’89 Eldo and ’91 Seville and with the 4.5 and especially the 1991 only 4.9 V8, they giddy up just fine.
Just don’t mention the HT4100 1986-87s!
Reminds me of something I heard in 1985, when my mother was in the showroom waiting for something to be fixed on her Fleetwood. She mentioned to the salesman that she loved the lines of the Eldorado, but she found the doors to be a bit too long and heavy for her to handle (she’s 5’1″, or 155 cm). The salesman replied, “Well, ma’am, next year those doors will be smaller…in fact, the whole car will be smaller!”
I know that GM at the time was myopic and anticipating no end to rising fuel prices. But for a savings of a measly 300 pounds, I’ve always wondered why GM didn’t simply switch these from body-on-frame to unibody (which in itself would have cut weight), and retain the longitudinal power train orientation for these, as well as for the C- and H- platforms. God knows the proportions might have been a bit better, and it would have allowed more engine options, and even possibilities for AWD and RWD.
The Continental Mark VII outclassed this car in every way. These are just sad.
I am always amazed at the way one manufacturer will watch a competitor screw up and then do the same thing itself. Cadillac sold a lot of Eldorados after Lincoln tried to shrink a Mark V and turned it into the ungainly Mark VI. Then Cadillac does the very same thing with the Eldo, with the same result. Oy!
That’s the irony of the situation that I’m glad you pointed out. Those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it I suppose. Personally, I think that GM shouldn’t have downsized Cadillac for the gas crisis and just taken whatever potential Gas Guzzler tax that might’ve come their way.
Right hand drive and half-amber taillights – how many such examples were produced given the paltry US sales?
That profile is just…awful.
But as noted in the article, this would be a rare-enough sighting here in the US, at least in the Rust Belt…I can’t think they sold many of these in AUS to begin with. Cool find.
Never officially sold here. It would have been brought in to order.
It’s one thing to have walked into a Cadillac dealership, seen one and drove it. But this one! Somebody had to have walked into a Holden dealership having only seen pictures, ordered it (or tried to and been sent to a third-party importer) and waited months for the car to be built/found on the West Coast, shipped to Australia and converted to RHD.
At least Holden didn’t have anything that looked as similar to these for one-third the price as the Grand Am did.
It was a joke then and it’s a joke now.
Cars like this are why Cadillac still has a way to go to recapture its once-unassailable prestige…that’s if the public will give it a chance.
The last Caddy I drove, nearly a decade ago – an ’05 STS4 with a Northstar – was an amazing ride for someone like me, admittedly more used to Chevies. It certainly beat other Caddies I’d had the chance to pilot – including the contemporary DTS that despite all its appointments…still drove and rode like a nicer W-body, which was only marginally better than the old As of yore.
Although I’m no longer running in the circles that would afford me opportunity to drive a Cadillac today, it sounds as if recent models are miles ahead of even the CTS/STS’s of a decade ago.
The biggest thing for this division is to eschew market share and concentrate on rebuilding that once-unassailable image that will return sustainable profits-per-unit and
cast added prestige across the other GM brands.
While these aren’t *terrible* with the touring alloys and without the silly vinyl roof, it’s still a badly proportioned car overall, and I do wonder who okayed it. Not to mention the Mark VII had already been on the market for two full years at that point–I’m guessing they gambled that the VII would flop and locked down this ultra-conservative design, then by the time that they saw the VII was a success, it was too late?
Granted I may be biased as the Mark VII was always one of my favorite cars of the era, but except for die-hard Cadillac traditionalists that would never consider anything else, I just can’t imagine why anyone would choose an Eldorado of this generation over the Mark VII.
The 79-85 Eldorado is one of my favorite Cadillacs, but this model? The idiots who thought potential buyers wanted this instead of something like the aero T-bird or Lincoln Mark VII should have been fired….at the very least.
This looks like so many other GM cars of the era, like a Buick Somerset/Skylark, it appears as though the styling department was put on vacation and a “skeleton” team designed a series of boxy cars in 4 or 5 sizes then slapped tried and true grilles on the front box. Then to add insult to injury, that “marvelous” 4100 V8 was stuffed in the front box for power.
When you think of the 1st Cadillac to bear the Biarritz trim….then look at this model….how the mighty fell.
Many people aren’t aware of it but for emissions purposes cars and trucks are (were?) grouped according to weight, not physical size. It MIGHT have made fiscal sense for GM to lose “only” as little as 300 pounds in a re-design….and adding a new engine in the process may have been a further incentive or just a bonus.
Strangely, when GM downsized the B-body cars the 1st time it’s like they said “….what the heck, throw out all the old assumptions about what the customer MIGHT want, and just build a great car.” But after those first cars, they went back to being ultra – conservative GM.
Were. Under the 2011 revision to CAFE, passenger cars and light trucks now use a formula based on the footprint of the car.
I think you’re right-by this time, they’d exercised all the “dissidents” from the ranks. Irv Rybecki was picked over (don’t recall his name) Mitchell’s hand-picked successor to head design in large part because he was a “team player.” Team player meant he rolled over instead of stood firm. John DeLorean was in prison. Who was left that could stand up and suggest they were pissing Cadillac down the drain?
I mean, the Cimarron made it to 1988, for crying out loud! Any thinking person should have been able to see it was a disaster even then. I mean, Lincoln’s Versailles was a more thorough restyling of an existing product than Cimarron was, and FoMoCo figured out after only a year or two they needed to do more and killed it not too much later. Cadillac, though? Seven long years of crest-and-laurel Cavaliers defiling the once-great Cadillac name.
There ain’t no way anyone who cared about product vis-a-vis brand management could have been in any position of power at GM, not with the stuff they came out with in that era. The only brands that had identity were Chevy and Pontiac. The rest went off wandering in the wilderness for awhile.
I don’t even think I’d say Pontiac had real brand identity in the mid 80’s. “We Build Excitement”–unless it’s a Parisienne (aka the “oh sh!t we cancelled the B-body Bonneville way too early…). Or a dinoc-sided Safari or 6000 Safari. Or a full-brougham G-body Grand Prix with a padded vinyl roof and wire hubcaps. Or a base Sunbird, which was nothing but a Cavalier with a nose job. Or…
Maybe Pontiac’s brand identity at the time was “we’re like Chevy but we offer more schizophrenic trim levels.”
The problem with these (beyond the mechanical) was simply a failure to provide a product that matched up with customer expectations.
The (prior) Eldorados were blatant declarations of success – a self-indulence. They were a Mont Blanc pen in car form. Thriftiness of ink consumption is a low priority when you pull out your Mont Blanc to sign a deal.
When you arrived in your downsized Eldorado, it looked very much like deflated success – as if you had lost so much money that you’d had to go back to golfing on public course.
“Honey, we’re goin’ to the Mercedes Dealer – I ain’t buyin one of these little things.”
It’s sad how much $$$ GM wasted designing and building this junk that so few people actually wanted. I was shaking my head in disbelief 30 yrs ago and still do the same today.
Same.
We jokingly talk of ‘alternative universe’ cars on this site – this car belongs in an alternative universe. preferably one far, far away!
The owner importer quite likely got sick of being laughed at and tried to hide this thing in the long grass, only to be foiled by someone with a mower.
“Honey, we are getting Lincoln Town Car!” more likely was said.
Supposedly, exterior styling was predicted to be ‘out’ and interiors would be defining factor in mid 80’s, by GM after Bill Mitchell retired.
I’m thinking the bosses that approved the cheap cars simply took a “golden parachute” and moved to the Tropics, no accountability.
These marked the beginning of the end for the Eldorado, and a sad end it was.
Gosh, those 1980s were the lamest in automotive history
GM didn’t have any competition in the US market from their traditional US rivals, and they lost their way. GM didn’t seem to care about much more than the bottom line profit under Roger Smith and it showed in their cars. They all looked alike. They all seemed to come with the same paint colors. You could buy a Chevy and not tell it wasn’t a Cadillac, saving yourself $10,000.
GM’s problem made it right into the front cover of Fortune magazine and other business magazines. We covered it here.
So we have an Eldorado that looks like an Oldsmobile Cutlass. For thousands more. With a schlocky engine. The car looked small, cheap and completely forgettable. No self respecting Eldorado driver could look at this and want one.
It kept happening too. Once GM started making all their cars look alike, they just couldn’t seem to stop doing it to all the models coming out of their factories. It was as though they forgot what made a Cadillac, a Buick, an Oldsmobile, a Pontiac and a Chevrolet different from each other. What was a 60% US market share in 1980, had slid to half that by 1985, to barely 20% within a generation.
So, to me, this isn’t a Cadillac anymore than a 1958 Packard was a Packard.
I tend to think GM at this time was just in plain old flat-out panic mode. “Quick, get something to put on the market – anything!”
I’ve said that same thing, that GM was in perpetual crisis mode starting with the second OPEC crisis and the X-Car debacles and running all the way through at least the early 1990s. Cimarron was a panic decision, plain and simple. V8-6-4 was a panic decision, plain and simple. HT-4100 being released when it was (because V8-6-4 didn’t work) was a panic decision.
Every time they tried to find the silver bullet, the quick fix, the way back to the right road, they were worse off. Allante, Fiero, GM-10, robots that painted themselves instead of cars, all reek of panic decisions where they threw whatever half-baked thing they had at the wall and hoped it stuck.
Look at Ford in that same era. They had been losing profitability through the end of the ’70s before they posted what was then the second-largest loss in U.S. corporate history (1.5 Billion) in 1980. They only had two modern platforms (Fox and Panther) on the market until they finished Project Erica (the 1981 Escort). So what did they do as they were bleeding billions?
They bucked down. They focused on quality. They went bold and innovative with their designs. They did the opposite of GM. They kept their collective heads about them, and it paid off. The products were largely consistent, the brands were largely managed well, and Ford was nicely profitable by the end of the ’80s.
“Sad” is the word mentioned here a number of times, and that’s exactly what I thought about the car (and the Seville) when it was introduced.
But I will say that GM sure knew how to make them look as good as possible in their press/brochure/ad shots. That red car almost looks good, actually.
And props for the gorgeous alloys…how I wish we’d see wheels like this on today’s cars, rather than the same 5 spoke design on every car.
I’ve always thought that Cadillacs best efforts were styled as if they were architecture. In the 80’s they stopped doing that. Since then I haven’t gotten exited about anything they build.
I think that the 86 E-bodies were designed to be 1985 model year production models. The C-bodies were to be 1984 production models, but a problem with the transaxle design delayed introduction, which then pushed the rest of the “large” bodies off by a year I think. What needs to be remembered, is that inflation was out of control in the late 70’s and gasoline prices were spiraling up. Gas priced spiked around 1980 and then leveled off, but GM had no way of knowing what the future would bring (not with a Hollywood actor becoming fearless leader). So the large (C, B and E) bodies were designed around a new FWD transaxle design. By 1986 the fiscal situation had greatly improved, but it was to late to change the E’s.
It was that actor’s decontrol of gas prices (and schmoozing of the Saudis with jets) that lowered the price by the mid 80’s. The smart people all thought it would go in the other direction.
The 1988 re-fresh should have been what the 1986-87 was. And the fact that Cadillac had a more powerful and better made 4100 with port injection for Allante use only speaks volumes on how the company was run during the 80’s. Think how much better this car would have been received with 170 hp instead of 130, the larger and more expressive lines of the 88 car and much less of the padded roof and tacky wire wheels used on the previous cars. The suspension was already good and the interior wasn’t bad with the use of bucket seats and floor shift. I think the poor Eldo would have been taken more seriously if it were setup like this than what we ultimately got.
Every day from my house to the campus, I can see two different Eldorados of the same generation, a cream one on Oak Park Blvd, and a black one near 10 Mile Rd and Greenfield. As I see them every day sitting there, I don’t even realize they are rare!
Finding an 86 Eldorado in Australia is like finding a unicorn turd, especially one left in this kind of state. So I completely understand your enthusiasm. It even has a tidy looking RHD conversion. Big bucks were spent on this baby at one point, that’s for sure. Such a waste to see it dumped in the weeds despite having zero collectibility.
Some years ago when I lived in WA, I saw a man driving around in a ratty Chevy Citation 5 door hatchback. One could only beg to understand why it ended up there. Quite the unicorn turd indeed.
I like it, I had an 86 Seville years ago, I found a set of those “touring suspension” alloys in the trunk of a Deville at a salvage and also the “touring suspension” badge and replaced the wire caps. Attached is a photo, this is when the timing chain sprocket came off, new timing set and otherwise was a very reliable car the 6 years I had it. I also got a “HT 4100 DFI” badge from a 83 Seville Fender and put it on the trunk.
I had a co worker that drove a green HT 4100 Eldo then moved to the restyled smaller model several years later. It was a 4.5 car and he kept it a long time. He told me that it was trouble free, unlike the earlier 4100 models. He was still driving it until he retired in the late 1990s. I had a lot of co workers who had bought HT 4100 Eldo, Sevilles, and DeVilles, they all had lots of serious troubles with them. These guys were in their 50’s at the time, and I don’t think that they ever bought another Cadillac after that.
My Uncle was a barber who cut hair for the mechanics at the Cadillac/Oldsmobile dealer. Mechanic takes my uncle behind the Cadillac dealership one night and shows him pallets of 4100 “warranty replacement” engines. Mechanic Tells my uncle to buy 3800s instead.
My uncle had a 1988 Delta 88, 1997 Delta 88, and 2004 Buick LeSabre all 3800 powered. Never had much issue with any of them. Imagine the money GM and Cadillac lost with this “strategy.”
Well with the 4.5L in my ’89 it had adequate power. Enough torque for easy cruising.
Those seats were -very- comfortable.
It was quiet and felt solidly built.
Weird dash of course because 1989 GM.
If it would have been an exquisite Buick.
You get the impression GM high-ups and Cadillac divisional execs were just totally out of touch with the market, to have approved this, with that dubious engine, and thought it was a good idea. Especially coming off the back of the previous model. It’s enough to make you think of conspiracy theories of other companies salting GM management with their own plants, to deliberately mismanage the company and drive it into the ground! You could write it that way in fiction, but GM did it all by themselves, for real. Just amazing. From “Standard of the World” to “Meh.”
Wonder what the executive car park contained, though? It would have been interesting to have a look. Did they drive these things? Were they content? Did they even drive Cadillacs? If not – there’s your problem. Did they not think “This is the halo car for the world’s biggest automobile company – we must be able to do better than this.” I’m sure most of us would have. What held them back from achieving it?
And how about the line workers. Wonder how they felt about this model when it came out? Was this a car they would aspire to? if not – there’s your problem, again. Or did they see the train wreck ahead….
And the dealers. Must have been a horrible period with slim pickings for them to live through. We know how the general public felt.
GM – how could you?
Guessing they drove Corvettes, Fleetwoods, Grand Nationals, 6000 STE, Parisiennes, Grand Prix, maybe some Suburbans…
Paul once said when talking about his Buick Skylark “Heavy duty.” GM still was capable of making the best cars in the world. Even in the 1980’s, its just that it wasn’t easy to do. Just about everything except maybe the Grand Nationals had to be special ordered ala COPO to get the right equipment. It’s really sad when you think about it.
I drove a 1991 Deville Touring Sedan and a 1990 Sedan DeVille. The Touring Sedan was such an improved car. But it was limited production and you had to twist arms to get one. When they ALL SHOULD HAVE BEEN BUILT THAT WAY!!! Especially with the dawn of Lexus, Infiniti, and Acura.
Don’t let anybody BS you because I was there. GM had a car in the Deville Touring Sedan that could offer 2/3 of what Lexus was offering with its LS400. They simply refused to build enough of them and market them to the correct demographic (Yuppies).
I reckon that’s even worse, to have had the good stuff in the corporate parts bin, but not standardize it.
“You get the impression GM high-ups and Cadillac divisional execs were just totally out of touch with the market, to have approved this, with that dubious engine, and thought it was a good idea”
Out of touch? More like blind. Not so much at the time, but a little, but more now as I’m older, I can kind of see some styles that I just thought were horrific at the time as just not to my tastes. But not this one. Yeah, it was kind of the rage for a certain market segment, but that roofline. The nose, well, not my idea of good styling, but I can see how it might appeal to some. It’s not all bad, just not my preference. But that roofline. Oh. Oh no. And not only was it coyote ugly, but it was gutless.
Everybody forgets that in 1986 you could still get a full-size Cadillac coupe. The Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham was available as a coupe in 1986 with a 307 Oldsmobile Gas V8 too!
Anybody who brought an Eldorado that year was a stone cold sucker!
Buick had the Grand National and T-Type on the books.
Lincoln had the Mark VII LSC.
You could make an argument that 1986 was in fact, peak Personal Luxury Coupe in America and the Eldorado was the suckers bet.
With a bit of fertilizer and periodic watering the weeds should make viewing this car impossible. Please Mother Nature, make it happen!
This was their first car with a largely dechromed interior (that must have shocked current owners) and first real wood in two decades.
The bare metal roof is almost as rare as the Touring Suspension.