Due to my crazy schedule as a touring musician, I haven’t had but a moment to post any of my finds over the last three to five months, but I hope to change that a bit over my winter break. So! While on tour during VW week up in Massachusetts, I spotted this Brougham-tastic tonic (You can thank me later, Carmine) across the street from my pal’s place in Medford, still sporting an old-school green Massachusetts plate.
Green plates 4EVA
Up in the Boston area, those green plates symbolize two things: you’re an old-school New England resident, and you must have a little bit of pull, as the RMV loves confiscating these if they’re even a bit worn. Truly hard to keep your old plates up here, but the folks who do are pretty passionate about it.
The green plate, last printed in ’87, perfectly matches the light Polo Green metallic paint on this 1995 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham, and the Soft-ray glass. The vinyl top is color matched too. What a stunner. I’m uncertain about the leather, but it appeared to be light green as well (it could have been the sun through the tinted glass).
This was the last Great Cadillac of the old-school; the rightful heir to the 77-92 “Mr. Drummond” model.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LPn2Tx-0KE
“Last great Cadillac, my foot…” I can hear some of you saying…”It’s got a Chevy V8!!”
Fleetwood LT1
But such a V8; the LT1! Starting in 1994, the Fleetwood came with this grand Generation 2 small-block — an OHV power plant which was certainly in the Caddy tradition of smooth, reliable V8 power, and easily kicked the butt out of the earlier Gen 1 L05 350 that the final “Mr. D” and first-year Fleetwood got. And selecting RPO V4P got you something very special: the first dedicated heavy-duty towing package on a Caddy since 1976. Here’s what you got: upgraded suspension, engine oil cooling, better cooling fan, heavy-duty transmission with a dedicated cooling system, 140-amp alternator, and a 3.42 rear-end ratio from ’94 on. These monsters were quick — 0-60 under 9 in the 94-96 models — and YouTube has plenty of videos of folks driving them at up to 130 mph.
So let’s move into the interior. While not as much of a futuristic dream inside as, say, the above 1965 Coupe DeVille:
…The fit and finish are wonderful, it’s got all the doodads you could ever need (Twilight Sentinel!) and even now, nearly twenty years since this model came out it looks both classic and contemporary, aside from the molded-in logo-ed airbag cover.
The style of these is often skewered by folks who simply compared it to its bathtub kin, the Roadmaster/Caprice. Yes, it’s certainly all there under the skin – the D-body is simply a stretched B – but look closer.
(Butter)-knife-edge, wedgy styling pays respect to the classic finned cads, and presages the Art and Science look, while being definitely a car of its era. I particularly love the solid alloy wheels that have a wire wheel pattern built in — kind of a modern yet classic touch — and I would guess the disc design kept brake dust from sullying them too much. (The Fleetwood had 4-wheel disc brakes, in case you were wondering.)
Actually, this looks a hell of a lot like the front end of the new Impala.
With this pic, you can see the influence of the pre-facelift “aero” Town Car on this final body-on-frame Caddy sedan. (Looks like the owner has had a parking mishap…)
A big person owns this car. Look at how far the seat is pushed back…seeing this, I got freaked out trying to take these close pics as there were union stickers on it, and I didn’t wanna mess with any angry shop steward….
These door-ding guards are genius!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k41kgF_b6DU
MotorWeek gave it a glowing review.
So here comes my summing-up and opinionation. This was the best-built Caddy of its time, and is timeless. They should have kept this line going. They did all the right things to update it. Yet Arlington went to SUVs, ostensibly because of the soccer mom craze. However, having done some safety research on perhaps purchasing one of these or a Roadie, I hypothesize that GM wanted to avoid re-engineering an underselling platform for the 1997 Fed side-impact regs. While these are good cars in general and have dual airbags, compared to a ’97-up Panther, the safety ratings (passenger side especially) are terrible. And: Light trucks didn’t have the same crash standards as cars, so I’m guessing the powers-that-bean-count pulled a move right out of Unsafe at Any Speed to save the line from what would likely have been a multi-million dollar platform overhaul to meet. (I have no proof to back this up, but it’s a darn good theory, right?)
Man, I love these fins.
Oh the green plates! I remember my mom’s dismay when she was forced to give up the green plates she had since she started driving. We still have my grandfather’s green plates last registered in 1989 in our garage. He did have a friend at the RMV, which got him a unique low alphanumeric combination.
I just entered a snide remark about the stereotypical green-plate driver – inattentive, abrupt stopping and/or acceleration, no idea what a turn signal is for – and then the site ate my comment. Grampa Saur is somewhere laughing at me. 🙂
Haha yeah whenever I come up behind a green plate I just immediately accept that I’ll be going at least 10mph slower until one of us turns off.
Oddly enough, my grandfather was not the steriotypical senior driver. He had a bit if a lead foot, liked to ride people’s tails in the fast lane, and had a bit of road rage. When I was in the car, his choice “curse word” was “TURKEY!” I’m sure it was code for a more explicit word.
Sorry in advance Brendon…
Yes! the green plate. Always know there is going to be a typical massachusetts asshole behind the wheel. Still pretending the Kennedy family matters and still voting without thinking…haha
There still seem to be plenty of these left on the road, even in California.
Every time I see this car, I still think about what could’ve been had GM not lost its way. I was always fine with the front clip, but the car’s rear proportions missed it completely. (I think Paul’s recent story on this explains it well.) thing is, this car could’ve been great. It wouldn’t have cost GM much to tighten up the bloated lines and replace the plastiwood interior bits with the real stuff found in their other models. I still don’t know why they did that.
+1
The Lincoln Town Car did a much better job of interpreting the look of American Luxury in the ’90s with it’s ’90 – ’97 car, and sales figures back this up. Too bad, this was technically the better car by most measures.
Yeah, I was none too happy when I heard that GM was discontinuing the full-size BOF B-D body. Your theory about meeting new safety regs makes sense as by 1996 they weren’t selling in the volume they had in the 80’s. It had to be easier to expand SUV capacity…
Thanks. That theory came together as I was writing the piece… it blows my mind that they discontinue a relatively revised (yet likely amortized) platform that was selling reasonably well, and then handed an entire segment to Ford. Everybody LOVED this Caddy, and following the loss of this GM had no real flagship and Caddy sank (cough Catera cough). Is it a Deadly Sin?
My memory of this is a little different…I seemed to be in the minority 20 years ago for admiring the big old boats they were still making. Most people regarded these as OMCs or limo conversion candidates. The awkward design didn’t help matters.
As an aside, the 77-92 models were so much better proportioned.
It’s always amazed me that these D-body Fleetwoods are much larger than my daily driver 1991 Volvo 740, yet they still aren’t as safe.
If you’re wondering, in 1991 Volvo was already meeting side-impact regulations that were a few years down the road. And all their cars met rollover standards as well.
V8 sedans will always have a soft spot in my heart, BIG V8 sedans will always get my attention.
Not my favorite Cadillac body, but this one seems well cared for and in particular good shape
I have very mixed feelings on these. In their favor, they will actually get out of their own way (unlike the earlier 307 cars) and the front end is vintage Cadillac. However, I will echo some others that the rear half of the car is just “off” somehow, with awkward touches like the joining of the painted door uppers to the vinyl roof.
+1 on ‘mixed feelings’ & the back 1/2 of the car.
Part of the problem is the intersection of the vinyl roof C-pillar line & the rear door window sill (scroll up the 2nd picture in this article where the issue is nicely isolated). Buick’s Roadmaster didn’t leave this ambiguous gap; the door window sills are even with the C-pillar line (see photo below -though I’m no fan of the Buick).
When you delete the vinyl roof (DeVille), there isn’t so much dissonance at the C-pillar. The Cadillac D-body was the most successful, design-wise, of them all -and I like it.
Unfortunately it also kept Cadillac’s image solidly in the “Must be over 50 to Buy This” category. Contrast that image with the current XTS…
As the owner of a ’94 Fleetwood, I feel I have to speak up. The only inaccuracy is that these do not have rear disc brakes. It is a front disc/rear drum almost identical to the civilian Caprice or Roadmaster. They do have unique four-channel ABS with individual rear wheel speed sensors instead of the single differential speed sensor in the B-body cars.
That said, on my car I have installed the police package brakes from my dear departed 9C1. In the rear it required drilling holes in the backing plates for the speed sensors and custom made steel brake lines.
Interesting; I could have sworn they were disc/disc. I know I got that figure somewhere. Ah, well. Thanks for the correction. You should do a “My Curbside Classic” follow-up!
Even when these came out, it was pretty obvious that this was the swansong on the Big Body on Frame V-8 Sled. I am glad that GM did it up right, even if it involved using a plebeian engine. Imagine putting a Chevy motor in a Caddy in 1977. It’d be all over the news. Nobody was complaining about it in ’96!
These cars also detail the schizophrenic nature of GM. In GM’s decline period, there were two attempts at making the cars higher quality. One was in 1987 and it lasted until 1990, and the next was 1996. The 1987 Caprices were much nicer, for example, than the ’86 but you could see them slipping back to their old habits by 1991. However, when GM did want to make a good product, cars like this Caddy showed they most certainly could.
But then again, it’s is in fact much easier to make a knock-out luxury car than a knock-out economy car. GM to this day has still not gotten this.
Have you driven a Cruze or a Verano?, its not 1984 anymore dude.
Yes, Carmine, I have. I do not believe they are at the top of their respective classes. GM has improved but I do not seem them as an industry leader.
I’d say the Cruze isn’t really an economy car and the Verano certainly isn’t, think Sonic or Spark – but the Sonic at least in 1.4T form is best-in-class or close to it and the Spark’s reviews are mostly of the “pleasantly surprised after entering with low expectations” variety.
None of these vehicles are top in their respective classes. The Spark and Sonic are, however, very inexpensive to buy. Their lower OTR price structure and long term financing help sales a lot.
The Cruze is #8 in car sales, not including trucks, while the Sonic is not in the top 20. Camry, Civic and Accord are the top three.
2 of those aren’t economy cars either, there really isn’t anything stunning about any of those 3.
Chevy motor in a Cadillac? Even in 1996 that was nothing new. GM’s been playing the engine swap game since the 1950s. While 3100-series Chevy pickups had to make do with the stovebolt six, their GMC counterparts were available with various Olds or Pontiac mills for more guts.
The base engine in the 71-77 ( ? ) Pontiac Ventura was the Chevy 250. An optional engine in the 75-80 Chevy Monza and Pontiac Sunbird was the Buick 3.8 liter V6. The Gen 1 Cadillac Seville used an Olds 350.
“While 3100-series Chevy pickups had to make do with the stovebolt six, their GMC counterparts were available with various Olds or Pontiac mills for more guts.”
GMC operated differently from the GM car brands, though; GMC light trucks were always heavily based on their Chevrolet counterparts even in terms of styling, but the various car brands always had their own styling and engineering. I don’t think there was any engine-sharing among the car divisions at all until the 1960s, and it didn’t really start to become common until after 1975. Some examples that come to mind:
The 1961-63 215 CID V8 was shared by the B-O-P brands in their Y-bodies.
From the time the introduction of the A-bodies in 1964 prompted the B-O-P brands to bring back six-cylinder engines, Oldsmobile never built its own sixes. IINM, they used Buick V6s from 1964-66, then Chevy straight sixes from 1967 on. By the early ’70s Pontiac and Buick had decided that they weren’t selling enough cars with sixes to justify making their own, and had begun using the Chevy straight six as well.
The 1971-72 Pontiac Ventura was built on the same assembly lines as the Chevrolet Nova and used the same engines that the Nova did, including Chevy V8s. For several years starting with the appearance of Olds and Buick X-bodies in 1973, all B-O-P X-bodies were built on the same assembly lines and used the same mix of engines regardless of brand (Chevy straight six, Buick 350 V8, Olds 260 V8 starting in 1975 or 1976).
Buick began building its own V6s again in 1975 (most ’75 Buicks with six-cylinder engines, and all Buicks with six-cylinder engines from ’76 on, had the Buick V6). The Olds and Pontiac counterparts to the Buick Skyhawk — the Starfire, introduced in 1975, and Sunbird, introduced in 1976 — used the Buick V6, since a straight six wouldn’t fit in the H-body. Starting in 1977, Olds and Pontiac dumped the Chevy straight six across their entire lines and switched to the Buick V6 for all six-cylinder models. (Note: the 1975-77 Chevy Monza avoided the “straight six won’t fit” issue by simply not offering a six-cylinder engine at all, but when it began offering a V6 in 1978, it was the Buick V6.)
Pontiac was the only one of the B-O-P brands that offered four-cylinder H-bodies; 1975-76 models used the Chevy four-cylinder engine found in the Vega, until Pontiac came up with a four of its own (the Iron Duke).
As Christopher mentioned, the Cadillac Seville used an Olds 350 from the time it was introduced in 1975.
I believe that the Olds 260 was offered by Pontiac and/or Buick in a few select 1976 models aside from than the X-bodies (which had a shared engine lineup, as discussed above).
1977 was when the dam really broke open. Pontiac stopped building 350s after 1976, so any 350 in a 1977 or later Pontiac was sourced from another division. Olds downsized its 455 to 403 cubic inches, but Buick no longer had a counterpart; it simply used the Olds 403. Starting around 1977-78, Olds and Buick began using the Chevy 305 or Pontiac 301, since they didn’t have engines that size. By the end of the ’70s it sometimes seemed like assembly lines would just use whatever appropriately sized engine they happened to have available. The Iron Duke also began spreading to non-Pontiacs.
From 1977-80, the Big Pontiacs and Buicks sold in California & high-altitude regions used the Oldsmobile version of the 350 since it burned cleaner than the Buick and Pontiac versions. Also the 6.6 litre engine used in 1977-79 Firebirds/Trans Ams sold in California is the Olds 403.
A car like that parked in Medford?
Must be some low level guy making his collections for the week. Maybe one of the Winter Hill gang?
Nice find, cool car.
I was thinking the same thing, a low level enforcer? collections?
Hehe! Actually I was in Medford for two days, and the car never moved from this spot. But yes, I thought the same thing at first…not to reinforce stereotypes, of course! But it is Boston…
Naaaaaaaaaah……..
Though I am reminded of Jack Nicholson’s big red Buick Roadmaster in The Departed.
Maybe you should have checked the trunk area for a certain smell after seeing it sit for two days…
ewwww 🙂
Welcome to Boston.
I always liked the lines on these, the last big Gangster Cadillac, the near foot of chrome on the lower rocker panels, the last appearance of GM’s Vigilite lamp monitor system, last GM car with a factory vinyl top. The long a square rectangle exterior styling was great for the car, enough aerodynamic influences to look modern, but yet still retaining the crisp formal touches that make it a Cadillac.
I think the interior on these is nice, but its definitely a step down from the earlier Broughams, which in spite of their almost 1977-1980 vintage dash and interior, had much more detail in the interior that was just replaced with marginal plastic on these. I wished they would have “sweated the details” a little more on the interior on these Fleetwoods.
What I also find interesting about these is that the 1994-1996 DeVille is nearly the same car styling wise in a 8/10ths package, with FWD. There is a good amount of Cadillac Voyage styling cues in this Fleetwood.
I agree completely. It’s funny coming right after the DeVille vs. Deville CCs we had earlier in the week…it’s so decontented compared to those lovely chromed goodies. I do wonder how much of that had to do with regulations, though? I seem to recall most metal disappearing from car interiors by ’92 or so (the introduction of the “aero” Panthers). In fact, the ’98 Escort I’m driving this week has an exposed metal retaining clip on the back seatbelts…it’s odd how much that stood out to me, after driving so many plastic-coated rides recently…
They were indeed a cool and cool-looking car. A fitting send-off for the genre.
I agree with everything that Carmine said in his last post.
I’ve always liked these.
I love these. I had picked out a mint condition 95 red one. Then I found my Lincoln mark vi sedan. Cadillac biggger faster less gas more modern. Lincoln made by ford n Cadillac gm. I bought the Lincoln.
IIRC GM was under some pressure regarding CAFE when these cars were out. They occasionally threatened to pull the plug on the Arlington plant, and there was some noise from an organization called the “Alliance for Vehicle Choice” or something like that defending large cars and SUVs. Does any of this sound familiar?
CAFE issues aside, it quickly became apparent that the all of the final big rear drive GM cars did not resonate with the public like large SUV’s that were selling better every day, and the widely panned styling helped push these cars into the grave. Outside of the commercial vehicle market, I think it was an easy decision for GM to ditch these cars and convert the Arlington plant to Tahoe production. SUV’s also allowed GM to escaped some of the CAFE scrutiny.
In theory, I was part of the demographic for the Caprice. Newly married and heading toward having kids, a large car was a logical move. A lot of friends went for Tahoes. I went for a Chrysler Concorde and a Thunderbird in this era, moving to a mini van and later SUVs.
My friends all thought I’d love this Fleetwood, but I felt I couldn’t buck the old man’s image of large cars at the time if I couldn’t get fully comfortable with the styling of them myself.
A side note about the final B and D bodies, Martin Scorsese could not resist putting these cars in his mob movie, “The Departed,” even though they had been out of production for 10 years. I enjoyed seeing them, but being enough of a car guy it sort of through me off that mob guys that would want a flashy look would drive 10 year old cars.
The thing is, a lot of “real” mob guys try to be as low key as possible, Carlo Gambino drove an Olds 98. It was the over the top flashy guys like Gotti that drew too much attention.
The demographics for these cars was on the decline, I sold Chevrolets at the time the B-body was on its way out, the only ones we sold regularly were the Impala SS version, and even then, not that many, we had 4 or 5 regular Caprices on the lot, no one even gave them a second glance. I sold one to an older lady, she traded in a boxy Caprice for the last of the 96’s,but that’s about it.
There was some life to the Impala SS concept, if only they had tried something like that a decade earlier, like around 84 or 85, with the 9C1 suspension and say the Tuned-Port 5.7 from the Corvette or Camaro, some black out trim. Perhaps it could have spurned some interest in big cars again, especially when there still was a coupe version of the Caprice available. The 1994 Impala SS was cool, but it was too little too late, there was interest in the car, but by that point the B-body was “walking the last mile” to use a death row term.
“The green plate, last printed in ’87…”
We all have our pet peeves. For some people, it’s cars with back windows that don’t roll down, or broughams, or 1971 Ford Motor Company products. Mine is the myth that the Mass. green-on-white plates have not been issued since 1987, and all examples currently on the road are at least that old. This is absolutely, positively incorrect. See the previous discussion in the thread below:
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/getting-passed-on-the-left-by-a-chrysler-lebaron/
To make a long story short: The current Spirit of America plates were first issued in 1987, and the original plan was to have them completely replace the green-on-white plates fairly quickly. That’s not what ended up happening, though. The SOAs took over quickly for most specialized series of plates (commerical, handicapped, vanity, reserved, etc.), but for regular passenger car series plates, the RMW continued to use the green-on-white plates exclusively until around 1994 (if you could go back in time to 1993 or 1994, you’d find that every single vehicle in the state with a regular passenger car series plate had a green-on-white plate, even vehicles that were newly registered), and did not completely exhaust its supply of green-on-white plates and stop issuing them entirely until about 1997.
When I registered my first car in 1988, I got a green-on-white plate. Until about two years ago, one of our vehicles had a green-on-white plate from a registration that my wife took out in 1991. My brother’s girlfriend had a green-on-white plate for years (I’m not sure if she still has it), and while I don’t know exactly when she got it, she wasn’t even old enough to have a drivers’ license until 1994. When my wife and I bought our first new car as a married couple in February 1995, we were surprised to get an SOA; they were really just starting to appear as regular passenger car issues right around that time. I know married couples in their 40s where both spouses have green-on-white plates on their car.
In fairness, I am convinced that the RMV’s PR department (and maybe even upper management) believes that the green-on-white plates haven’t been issued since 1987, so pervasive is this myth.
“the RMV loves confiscating these if they’re even a bit worn”
The RMV has definitely made some efforts in the past few years to get as many of these off the road as possible, but enforcement seems to be wildly uneven. Some inspection stations will flunk them if they’re even a little bit worn (that’s how we lost ours), while others don’t seem to care.
Thank you! This myth probably lives on because MA did not phase in SOA plates in the way other states phase in new designs, and the old green plates will hopefully stay around for years to come. No need to drill holes in the front of your car! I remember my parents renting a ’97 (maybe ’98?) Caravan to drive around some relatives visiting from Europe, and it had a green plate. You can have them restored – the inspection stations in my part of the state (Bristol County) don’t seem to care too much about their condition anyway according to my unscientific observations.
My biggest complaint with newer SOA plates is that the numbering is getting convoluted (i.e. 1ABC 23). Obviously they are getting their money’s worth out of old equipment, but seven-digit plates will have to come eventually!
And by the way, my parents had to switch to SOA plates not because their old green plates were in poor condition, but because they could not be transferred to leased cars.
I share the mixed feelings above on these. Having owned the predecessor 1977-92 version, I agree that the design is not a classic or well proportioned, nor is the interior–though modernized–as nice or as handsomely detailed.
That said, they had to move forward from the 70s eventually, and this kind of look was popular at the time. And of course the two best things about this car were the improved engines (the L05 was no LT1 but I’ll take either over an Oldsmobile 307 in a New York minute) and the fact that, for one brief, shining moment, big Cadillacs actually got LONGER again. Upsizing! God the 90s were a good time.
I think my greatest regret about Cadillac is that they did not keep modernizing this model. Much like the Toyota Century, this should have been given superior interior components, and allowed to continue. It could have been produced and sold in this iteration for another 15 years, just as occurred with its predecessor. Some of those would have been hearse and limousine conversions but these would still sell in small numbers to “civilians”. We would just now be coming due for “Generation 3”.
It’s sad to me that many discount these and say that some product Cadillac makes now is worthy of “flagship” status. They say this even though the Japanese brands and German brands all have a “big” sedan. Not this big, of course, but the idea is there. Cadillac should have kept a big sedan.
An elderly cousin of mine owned Cadillacs from the 1970s (when he was in his 40s) onward. He had always purchased Sedan DeVilles but in 1993 bought the new Fleetwood…dark silver color with burgundy leather and a grey vinyl top. He still has it with close to 200K, and it still looks and drives beautifully. So much more pop than my ’87 had.
I never knew these came in green, but I like it. Also a fan of silver, black, and dark blue. In lighter colors, their bulbousness is highlighted and consequently, to me, renders them less attractive.
Would take one over any Town Car since the last 1979.
Here’s to the last passenger car I can recall with real bumpers.
Here’s to the last of the flagship Cadillacs.
Although I prefer the 1977-92 version a bit more, I have an extreme soft spot for these final Broughams. I was 12 when the ’93 Fleetwood debuted, and I managed to talk Dad into going to Horst-Zimmerman and getting me a brochure, as the dealer was right across the street from his office. In fact, that was the same dealer he got his 1979 Bonneville company car from, though he’d had nothing but Volvo company cars since ’81.
If I had found one of these in similar condition to my 2000 Town Car, I might well be driving a Cadillac instead.
Here’s one I spotted at a car lot back in 2012. My favorite is the deep emerald green–the subject CC is more of a teal green. I also like them in triple navy blue or triple maroon.
Sadly, emerald green leather was not available on this generation 🙁
There was a really nice amethyst type mauve color on some of these that was very sharp, black was always a good choice, I recall ice blue and champagne. I remember the last year these were available, the one at the auto show was teal with the tan/cream leather interior, that was pretty nice too.
The real green color is Calypso Green Metallic, probably right behind my Carmine Red one, that I have, as my favorite. Believe the subject car is a 96 in Slate Green though my screen makes it look more like medium adriatic Blue, I believe it is the Slate Green which is the Grey Green which was also offered on the SS. Interior colors were tan, black, gray, blue and burgundy, if i remember right. The main visible differences between a 96 and 95 are the radio, the 95 had all sorts of equalizer buttons on it, the front armrest at least in the early 95’s had the front part that dropped down for drink holders, and the 96 had DRL. The 2005’s you reviewed earlier seems so mundane to these or even the Devilles pre-2000. No Lamp monitors or that Cadillac Horn. GM did earlier what Ford did recently to the panther after about 06. Decontenting, no marketing. Wonder how the B and the D would have sold if it had all the gizmo’s the Park Ave. or Bonneville had available at the time and had been marketed like the fwd high end models. I know I thought about the gizmos my Impala was lacking compared to the front drivers. Eventually I settled for the solid feel of rwd and a full frame, glad I did.
Impalafleetta,
Oh yes, Calypso Green is the one, like this one I found on cardomain.com. Your red Brougham is a really stunning combo too–I don’t recall seeing many around here in that color when new. Most I remember seeing were navy blue, black or white. My grandmother’s neighbor, Dr. Romeo, had one in maroon.
You’re right about the FWD Cadillacs after ’99 or so. Though that ’05 Deville was a nice car, it was very bland compared to one of these Fleetwoods. I really wish they’d have kept this car in at least limited production–maybe they could have set aside part of the Corvette’s Bowling Green plant to make 1500-2000 Fleetwoods a year.
What a beauty! Oh well GM made their decision to let them go and us lovers of real american old style luxury are with out any new choices. How are you liking your TC. It is a beauty. I would love to find a good low mileage 06 or so TC Designer Series in Burgundy. Something a little newer than my B’s and D for a road car.
I’m loving the Town Car, my 2006 Volvo is the “winter beater” now. I did get to drive the Lincoln yesterday as the roads were clear, and a storm was coming to dump 4″-8″ of snow. So I filled up the tank, put some Sea Foam in it, and took it for a nice long ride.
If you’re thinking of getting a newer land yacht I’d highly recommend a Town Car! Last summer I saw a maroon 2005-06 Designer for sale in Clinton, IA. It was mint, no landau/fake convertible top and it had beige leather with taupe piping. Seeing that car may well have been the turning point that led to my getting the Cartier a few months later.
Umm, I would have been in trouble had I seen that car. Can not stand the fake tops. My first brand new car was a 79 Mercury Marquis Brougham Coupe in medium Red Glamour Paint. Pretty much identical to the one in the brochure for that year. It had plenty of issues which most cars of that period did which keeps me leery of the panthers, though I know they got better as they aged. Glad you are enjoying yours.
That was the color of the one at the auto show.
Wikked retodded cah, man.
I’ve always loved these as well. Somehow the strange mix of old and new styling cues just looks “right” on this beast. It definitely looks a lot more imposing than a DeVille!
Frankly, I’ve been tempted to buy one of these “last of the RWD” Broughams…. but I’m afraid of high maintenance costs. The ones with the LT-1 engine have very expensive ignition system replacement costs. Also, rear quarter lower stainless panels have a nasty tendency to fall off. And I’m not sure I could tolerate those switches & buttons on the door-side edge of the driver’s SEAT. The leather seating surfaces seem fragile: I’ve noticed a higher amount of ones with cracked & torn leather seating surfaces that I would have expected.
But, they’re beautiful…. and the Chevy engines beat those awful & slow Olds 307s, by a lot. But, two things: the V4P (performance) option is RARE…. and seemingly, 94% of ’em are in DARK colors: black, dark blue, dark green, dark, dark, dark. Mercy! Why not a nice LIGHT green, a daffodil yellow, or a baby blue??