(first posted 8/8/2016) My Pop was born in 1927, and like most everyone here at CC, he was a huge car enthusiast from a very early age. He loved to talk about new cars and share remembrances of his favorite old cars, whether he owned them, rode in them or lusted after them. Of all the cars he loved, however, there was one make he wanted above all others: Cadillac. As he built his career, he reached a point where he could afford a Cadillac, but held off getting one, primarily because he didn’t want to look “too flashy” in business. But when he took an early retirement in 1989, the time was right for indulgence, plus Cadillac had just introduced some much needed enhancements on their FWD C-bodies. So he finally took the plunge and bought a brand new 1989 Sedan DeVille. Did good things come to those who wait?
First, a bit more about the dream. My Pop was a master storyteller, and I was always thrilled to hear him vividly describe his Cadillac memories. His infatuation started early, and he enjoyed recounting how excited he would be, even as a little boy, whenever he’d see a Cadillac go by. He was mesmerized by the supremely elegant Cadillacs of the 1930s, and he pretty much made up his mind right then that they were the best cars in the world. I can definitely understand how seeing a 1939 Cadillac Sixty Special cruising down St. Charles Avenue in New Orleans could leave that impression.
Right when he turned 18 in early 1945, Pop shipped off to the Navy and was dispatched to the Pacific. Luckily for him, WWII was ended soon thereafter, so he did not see the worst of it, but he knew plenty of folks who did, and the experience certainly instilled in him a great patriotism and gratitude for being an American. Pop would serve again in the Korean War, which though not as clear-cut in victory, certainly reinforced his belief that the U.S. was indeed blessed to be the Land of the Free. And what American car brand best represented the pinnacle of success, personal expression and free enterprise? That would be the flagship division of the General Motors, the biggest and best car company in the world! The fact that GM had also willingly disrupted their business in order to support the war efforts simply added to the Cadillac halo for my Pop, and for many others of his generation.
So it was no surprise that the glamorous Cadillacs of the 1950s, like the Coupe DeVille, became dream cars for so many Americans, Pop included. Sure they were brash, but nothing put a finer point (or Dagmar bumper) on highlighting American achievement and affluence.
Through the 1960s, GM simply refined and improved its winning Cadillac formula. The dream car of that era which really caught my Pop’s fancy was the the first generation front-drive Eldorado. As an early 40-something, Pop was a prime target for the car, and sure enough, the sharp, sexy styling really spoke to him. He wanted an Eldorado something fierce! He never acted on the impulse though; having a wife and three young kids to take care of, along with a career to nurture (can’t drive a nicer car than the boss!), a Cadillac just wasn’t in the cards for him at the time.
The next Cadillacs that really pushed Pop’s buttons were the downsized DeVille/Fleetwoods. He’d been of the mind that the 1970s Cadillacs, like most full-size American cars, had really gotten too bloated. So the more efficient approach that the 1977 cars ushered-in was right on target for him once again.
My Pop’s mother, who lived on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, was next door neighbors with the matriarch of the family who owned the local Cadillac franchise. Each year, Georgia Belle (not kidding about the name!) got a brand new Fleetwood Brougham, always finished in red with red leather inside. Every time we went to visit my grandmother, I would almost immediately run next door to check out Georgia Belle’s newest Cadillac. Pop was never far behind me in heading over! Ever the savvy salesperson, Georgia Belle always let him take the Fleetwood out for a spin. I know he was so tempted!
I did my part to fuel his Cadillac lust as well. My mother had a 1975 Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight LS, and my parents typically kept her cars 4-years—long enough to get their money’s worth, but not to the point when wear and tear really took its toll. So I knew 1979 would be the year we’d get a new car, and I set my 12-year-old focus on trying to convince him that our next car should be a Cadillac.
Each Fall when the new model year cars were introduced, Pop and I would visit all the dealership to check them out and I’d collect brochures. His favorite stop, naturally, was Ponchartrain Cadillac. I’ll never forget the Sedan DeVille that they had on the showroom floor, fully loaded including the snazzy Cadillac wire wheel covers. It was finished in one of the new two-tone combinations that had just become available for 1979: Atlantis Aqua over Biscayne Aqua Firemist. The exact same color combo was showcased in the 1979 Cadillac brochure, shown on a Coupe DeVille.
My Pop and I spent a lot of time examining every inch of that DeVille, inside and out. I could tell by the look on his face that he was smitten, and frankly so was I. The interior was finished in Antique Dark Aqua leather, once again just like the catalog shot. While the color would send today’s yuppies screaming to the safety of black, gray or beige, I remember it being really unique and luxurious. So at the ripe young age of 12, I developed a big case of Cadillac lust too. I reasoned, pleaded and even begged my parents to get that two-tone ’79 Sedan DeVille, including leaving the brochure, opened to the resplendent Aqua Coupe DeVille spread, in convenient locations all around the house where they were sure to see it.
Alas, it wasn’t meant to be. Pop reasoned that a Cadillac was “too much” for a family car, and my mother was perfectly content to get another Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight—baseline LS trim, of course (no pillow-tufted Regency wonders for us), in brown/beige top with brown vinyl inside. Well, at least it had the 403!
Unfortunately, the 1980s were very unkind to Cadillac. While 1980 ushered in a handsome facelift for the DeVille/Fleetwood, engine displacement shrank and performance weakened. Dismal diesels were also on offer. The bizarre bustleback Seville arrived. 1981 was even worse, with the treacherous V8-6-4 engine that simply wasn’t ready for prime time. However, that motor looked like a gem compared to the anemic, unreliable HT4100 that arrived for 1982. In the span of just a few years, Cadillacs went from offering their traditional ample, smooth power into being dramatically underpowered and horrifically trouble prone. The American Standard of the World was tarnishing badly.
Pop and I hoped the dark days for Cadillac would soon be over. The DeVille/Fleetwood was due to be downsized again, and we kept our fingers crossed that a modern, handsome, technically sophisticated Cadillac would return the brand to a leadership position. But then we saw the new 1985 cars… The stumpy shape, awkwardly plastered with traditional Cadillac styling cues, was an embarrassment, while performance and handling were far from world class. Every last vestige of Cadillac lust was lost. These were dark times at Cadillac dealerships and in Georgia Belle’s driveway.
The market’s reaction to the new Cadillacs was as bad as ours. Press coverage wasn’t especially flattering, word of mouth was tepid, and sales were unimpressive for an all-new design in a hot market. At least Cadillac realized that they needed to do something to regain momentum quickly. So for 1989 they applied an old-school trick: lengthening the car and moving the tail lights into vertical pods at the ends of the rear fenders—almost like vestigial fins harkening back to the Cadillacs of yore. Engine displacement was also increased from 4.1 liters to 4.5, giving a reasonable boost to off-the-line responsiveness.
The buff books, at this point, were not particularly enthused about any of the Cadillac C-bodies. The Seville STS and the Allanté were really the only Cadillacs that got much coverage in the enthusiast press. Motor Trend did offer a quick blurb on Cadillac highlights for ’89, including the freshening of the DeVille/Fleetwood.
Consumer Guide Auto Series also did not bother with a more comprehensive review of the revamped Cadillac C-bodies in their 1989 Auto Test, but they did provide highlights and prices for the DeVille/Fleetwood in Auto ’89. CG lauded the changes, basically noting that the car now looked more like a traditional Cadillac while offering ample roominess, traditional luxury and reasonably lively performance.
The longest article on the 1989 Cadillac C-body that I am aware of was in Vanity Fair Magazine, of all places, in May 1989. That month’s “Cars” column featured broadcaster and producer Linda Ellerbee, who was noted for her stints on NBC News, ABC’s Good Morning America and for her own productions. The shtick of the article was to take a New York/Los Angeles jet-setter and plop her behind the wheel of a new Cadillac.
Cadillac willingly obliged, providing two different cars for Ellerbee to drive, one in Los Angeles and one in New York. Both were top-of-the-line Fleetwood Sixty Specials equipped with the unusual and very complicated 22-way-powered seats, styled by Giorgio Giugiaro and finished in Italian leather.
Ellerbee was a journalist, not a car enthusiast, but her comments–while clueless in many ways (though probably typical of average consumers)–offered some interesting insights into the challenges and promise of the Cadillac brand.
So maybe Cadillac really was getting closer to regaining some appeal with 40-somethings as being a (slightly) desirable luxury car… Ellerbee found it better than expected, though still not necessarily right for her. While Cadillac still trailed European competitors, there’s no question it had a unique vibe and did a lot of things well. Ellerbee could see why her mother had always wanted one.
Perhaps all would be right in the world after all! Cadillacs were starting to look like Cadillacs again, and they could accelerate out of their own way, just like they had in the good old days. When he saw the new 1989s, Pop suddenly renewed his interest in Cadillacs and decided he liked the changes. He did have an ulterior motive: he was planning to retire on his 62nd birthday, and as a reward he wanted to finally get the car of his dreams.
He did a little bit of shopping—we were sure to check out Lincoln, which was another of his all-time favorite brands. He really liked the Mark VII, but did not want a 2-door (unlike my mother who had insisted on a 2-door in 1988 and got a Buick Regal, a problem-plagued car chronicled here). The Town Car seemed too big and very dated by 1989, while the new Continental felt underpowered. But it didn’t matter anyway. There was only one car that would do.
Just after his birthday, freshly retired with his company car turned-in, my Pop indulged in his biggest automotive dream and took delivery of a new Cadillac Sedan DeVille. It was Black Sapphire with Dark Blue leather inside, and was pretty fully loaded, including digital instruments, Delco/Bose Gold Series Stereo/Cassette, ABS and alloy wheels. Based on Consumer Guide’s prices for the 1989 DeVille, I’d estimate the car stickered for $29,974 ($58,265 adjusted). While no where near Mercedes-Benz territory, this was the most Pop had ever spent for a car, and he was filled with high expectations for the best automotive experience ever, a lifetime of longing fulfilled.
Whoops.
In the span of 18 months that Sedan DeVille annihilated decades of goodwill toward Cadillac and was the final nail in the coffin that ended my family’s loyal and constant ownership of GM products—none of us have bought anything from The General since 1989.
Driving home for the first time from the dealer, the Check Engine light came on. It was a terrible omen to say the least. And that was one of the DeVille’s better days… Engine and electrical issues were frequent, build quality was subpar, and though they superficially looked nice, interior materials were low-grade. Based on Pop’s car, I cannot fathom how Cadillac earned a 4th place score in the JD Power quality index as reported by Consumer Guide.
Not that the driving experience itself was that impressive either: compared to the 1987 Pontiac Bonneville SE that had been my father’s last company car, the Cadillac was mushy and floaty. It would lurch back on the rear suspension under normal acceleration, and the nose would dip alarmingly on moderate braking.
Compared with the Bonneville’s clean and handsome instrument panel, the Cadillac’s dated digital displays, shiny plastic with mock stitching and little strips of fake wood seemed cheap and down-market (plus the fake wood starting coming off within months, something that was never an issue on the Pontiac). Likewise, the Pontiac’s bucket seats were far more supportive than the squishy divided bench in the Caddy. Plus the Cadillac’s leather was incredibly poor quality—within 9 months it was badly creased and wrinkled, with noticeable areas where the dark blue dye had worn-off.
But it was a Cadillac right? The best that GM offered… Like the characters in the children’s fable The Emperor’s New Clothes, Pop initially decided to pretend he loved the Cadillac aura—secretly thinking that maybe he was just missing something. Surely everyone else would see it as a wonderful new Cadillac…
But Pop’s Sedan DeVille did its best to desecrate Cadillac’s name wherever it went. One of the first big embarrassments occurred when he’d had the DeVille for just a few weeks. Pop and my mother had made plans for a nice dinner in French Quarter with another couple. Pop was very proud to drive everyone in the new Cadillac, and parked, as always, at the garage in the Royal Orleans Hotel, where the valets would drive it up the narrow ramps and pack it in the tight confines of the multi-story garage.
So the story goes: the fancy dinner was wonderful, and everyone was in a great mood back at the Royal Orleans waiting for the car to come down. And waiting. And waiting. Finally, the flustered valet came running over, sweating, and apologetically said “sir, I’m afraid I can’t start your car.” Pop wound up going up into the garage with the valet to try to start the car, but his luck was no better: the DeVille would not turn over. My parents and their friends wound up taking a cab back home. The poor valets had to push the dead Cadillac back and forth for the rest of the night so they could get other cars out of the garage. And the next day, the tow truck operator took hours and hours trying to extract the DeVille from the narrow garage confines without damaging it.
The dealer said it was an electronic control module and promised it was fixed. Yeah, right…
On an annoyingly regular basis, without rhyme or reason, the engine would fail to start. Sometimes, it would ultimately fire up after several tries, sometimes it wouldn’t. Worse, sometimes it would just stop running while out driving. Usually it did that at stoplights, often restarting but occasionally not. Over and over, the Cadillac would get towed back to the dealer, who kept replacing parts but could never fully identify or rectify the problem. One time the DeVille even stalled while traveling at highway speeds on I-10—Pop was able to wrestle it over to the shoulder and get it running again, but he was furious to say the least.
Fury travelled with that car. In the summer of 1989, my parents took the Cadillac to Seagrove Beach, a very small town on the Gulf Coast of Florida, for a week-long vacation. After a 6-hour drive on a Saturday, they were getting settled in and Pop went to get the luggage out of the trunk.
But it wouldn’t open. He tried the remote release, he tried the key. Nothing. The trunk was latched tight, and other than a crowbar, there was no way in. Every single piece of their luggage, as well as my mother’s purse, was trapped inside the trunk.
Nor could Cadillac Roadside Assistance help. After all, it was Saturday night and the nearest Cadillac dealer was closed for the weekend, so nothing was getting out of that trunk. My parents had to go to drive to a Five-and-Dime in a town 45 minutes away to get toothbrushes and some clothes to tide them over. On Monday, Pop wasted the day going to another Florida Panhandle town, over an hour away, that had a Cadillac dealer. Of course, the dealer needed the entire day to fix the trunk latch mechanism, which had inexplicably failed. Great start to the vacation, thanks Cadillac!
While the trunk wouldn’t open at all on their vacation, the driver’s window would open all by itself. It just randomly went into the “express-down” mode, sometimes when the car was moving, sometimes when it was stopped. The dealer never could figure that one out, though they accused Pop of somehow hitting the power window switch. Needless to say, that explanation did not go over well with my father at all! Plus, at this point, his relations with the dealer were getting pretty testy. They kept saying the car was fixed, or that they couldn’t identify or replicate the problem. The Sedan DeVille clearly wasn’t right, and my father had started Lemon Law proceedings.
Then the Perfect Storm hit. Pop had been doing some consulting work, and had gone to a lunch across Lake Ponchartrain. It was October 1990, and he headed back to New Orleans via the Lake Ponchartrain Causeway Bridge, which runs 26 miles over open water, making it the longest continuous bridge in the world. South Louisiana is famous for severe thunderstorms, with torrential rain, heavy lightening and thunder, and that was exactly what cropped up as Pop made his return trip across the Causeway.
Around mid-span, the DeVille’s engine suddenly decided to quit. At exactly the same moment the “express-down” feature on the driver’s window decided to activate. The car turned off and stayed off. The window went down and stayed down. The rain kept pouring down, flooding in through the Cadillac’s open window and drenching my father (he even moved to the passenger side, but the rain was coming down so hard he still couldn’t avoid the water). This was in the days before cell phones were prevalent, so there was nothing Pop could do except wait, praying that no one would crash into the Cadillac as it sat immobilized on the side of the Causeway in the driving rain.
Finally a Good Samaritan pulled over and rescued Pop, and got him to a gas station in Metairie where he could call for help. He’d left the keys in the car, so he had the Cadillac dealer just go haul it off the bridge, while my mother came to get him and bring him home.
This time, the dealer was more apologetic, and said that maybe it was time to swap the DeVille for a new Cadillac. Pop, who was not one to use bad language, replied—and I have this on good authority from my mother—that he “would never drive a f___ing Cadillac again.” He told the dealer the amount he wanted for the car, asked that they look inside for any personal items, and instructed them to bring the check to our house, where he’d hand over the title and the other set of keys. Knowing that it likely wasn’t worth the fight, the dealer simply obliged and the transfer was done. With that, Pop’s Cadillac dream, which had turned out to be a nightmare, was over.
So what to get next? Pop called both me and my brother to get our thoughts. Both of us drove Hondas at the time, so we each answered “get a Honda!” We never actually thought he would. I hoped he’d try out the new Acura Legend Sedan, and I figured he’d go give Lincoln another look. Needless to say, I was pretty surprised when he called the next day to say he’d just gotten a new 1991 Honda Accord SE, in Solaris Silver with a black leather interior.
Surely it was a huge let-down moving from a V8-powered full-size luxury car to an I4-powered compact, right? Wrong! While Cadillac had used an OHV 4.5 Liter V8 to produce 155 horsepower and 240 lbs.-ft. of torque, Honda squeezed 140 horsepower and 142 lbs.-ft. of torque from a SOHC 2.2 Liter 4-cylinder. The Accord felt as quick as the DeVille (no doubt helped by the lighter weight), while delivering significantly better gas mileage.
The interior was very comfortable, reasonably roomy and luxuriously trimmed in high-grade leather. Many of the same luxury features found on the Cadillac were standard on the Accord SE, along with some items Pop’s DeVille didn’t have, like the power moonroof. Pricewise, the Accord SE had an MSRP of $19,895 ($35,209 adjusted) that was about 1/3 less than the DeVille. The whole car was impeccably built, tight and solid. In short, the Honda was everything the Cadillac was not.
To say he loved the Accord was an understatement! He was thrilled with it, and often said it might just be his favorite of all the cars he’d owned—though in truth I know that honor went to the Sunlight Yellow 1964 ½ Mustang with the 289 V8 that he’d adored in the mid-1960s. But this Honda certainly brought back some automotive magic, and Pop loved the nimble handling, zippy performance, well-tuned ride and contemporary feel. The highest compliment he paid the Accord was that it made him feel years younger.
So after a lifetime of Cadillac cravings, Pop discovered happiness in a Honda. In the immortal words of the Rolling Stones:
You can’t always get what you want
But if you try sometime
You just might find
You get what you need!
Related reading:
Curbside Classic: 1986-1991 Seville – GM’s Deadly Sin #21; And To Think That I Owned One (Briefly)!
Yep my Dad had a similar love of GM cars though lower down the scale, he thought Buick was the ultimate car from GM and sold a few though never bought one himself being content with a Chev then new Vauxhalls and Holdens on a regular basis upon retirement he swapped a recently new VL Commodore for a 90 Toyota Corona manual and a couple of years later traded that for a used 93 Amon tuned Toyota Corona, having discovered Japanese cars he never went back, he had a major stroke while driving the 93 model and died a week later, I bought the car from his estate it was a good car I got several almost trouble free years from it, I could see why he liked them.
Wow, great story, the ultimate insult is the window coming down by itself, in the pouring rain.
This also happened, during a sudden and torrential New Orleans summer thunderstorm, to my Mom & Dad, when they tried to close all four windows, the sunroof AND turn on the A/C full blast in my borrowed Jaguar XJ6…even though I had cautioned them “ONE window at a time!”
Lucas, the English Price of Darkness, blew every fuse in the Jag’s fuse panel. They were stranded on Interstate 10. In the middle lane!
Luckily an off-duty Louisiana State Police officer used his “Buddy Bumpers” equipped Ford and gently nudged the Jag off onto the center median.
Mom refused to drive the Jag, ride in it or move it out of the driveway after that incident.
A great story. I’m a little startled by how bad his experience was — my firsthand experience with these is limited, but I recall that they were generally well-regarded by consumer reviewers (though not the buff books) and did well in J.D. Power & Associates rankings. At least the dealer eventually conceded defeat; it sounds like they recognized a customer who was one wrong word away from lawyering up.
The sad thing is that when your pop first became enamored of Cadillac, it probably came a lot closer to the legend, at least by the standards of the day. Whether the ’40s and ’50s examples were worth the premium over an Olds 98 is an interesting question (maybe in resale value), but it wasn’t difficult to see why it occupied the stratum it did.
He lucked out, though, because the CB Accord was Honda at the place Cadillac was in the ’40s and ’50s. The ’91 SE, if memory serves, addressed both of the principal weaknesses of the initial U.S. model, viz., the motorized belts and the lack of ABS. Having had experience with Hondas of that vintage, they were expensive, but you got your money’s worth in both large and small ways.
’91 still had the motorized belts. I owned one, though mine was an LX rather than an SE. I do think it had ABS, though my memory is a little hazy on that point. The “real” non-motorized belts reappeared in ’92 with the very minor mid-cycle freshening.
I’m reasonably sure ABS was first added only on the SE and then became standard on the EX, either at the same time or the following year. (It’s a little odd because ABS with four-wheel discs was much more broadly available on JDM and European Accords.) I don’t think this generation offered ABS on U.S. LX models, though.
I believe you’re right about getting conventional belts for 1992. I’ve seen various later EX models of this generation that definitely no longer had mouse belts and thus must have had a driver’s airbag.
The first Accord in the U.S. market to get a driver’s airbag and “real” seat belts was the 1991 wagon body style. 1992 saw the airbags made standard on all U.S. Accords. IIRC, the ’93 SE offered dual airbags.. though I’ll need to dig out some materials to double check that.
Dual airbags were only offered in the ’93 SE sedan – the coupe was still driver-side only.
I think Pop’s DeVille was exceptionally bad, but I must say our experience with GM cars of the 1980s was pretty subpar in general. Of all the ones we had, only Mom’s ’83 Cutlass Supreme Sedan was truly well built and completely trouble free. Pop’s ’87 Bonneville company car was pretty good–several assembly gaffes and design flaws (like the hood that would flutter and shake at highway speeds), but nothing major. His other company cars were either indifferently assembled (’82 and ’84 Buick Regals) or very sloppily built with some annoying mechanical issues (’80 Chevrolet Caprice, ’85 Buick LeSabre). My mother’s ’88 Regal was a terrible car (poor design, weak engine, abysmal build quality), though at least it always started/ran, unlike the Cadillac.
The Honda, as you point out, was definitely more reminiscent of the best days of GM. You are right about the ’91 SE having ABS, though unfortunately it still had the motorized belts (All Accords got a driver’s side airbag and “real” seat belts). For the size and class of car, the ’90 – ’93 Accords felt amazingly solid and very high quality. Also, that generation Accord was filled with thoughtful details and premium touches as standard, even on the lower-trim LX models. Those Accords definitely felt like they were worth every penny paid and then some.
But I went down to the demonstration
To get my fair share of abuse
Singing, “We’re gonna vent our frustration
If we don’t we’re gonna blow a fifty-amp fuse”
Great read.
What a story. Your father’s patience with that Cadillac was far more than most people would be able to maintain.
It is amazing how long Honda, Toyota, and other “foreign” makers could gain such advantages over American makers for so many years, over and over, with impunity, while the customers of those American makes slowly leaked away forever. Everyone knew it was happening, and yet the eventual responses to this “customer leakage” were slow and lethargic efforts that seemed to be governed by a penny-wise-dollar-short corporate mentality.
A pet peeve of mine is the arrogance, ignorance, greed, and short term thinking of corporate “management” that is epitomized by US auto makers in the late 60s (maybe earlier especially with the Corvair’s rear suspension), and then copied by the high tech merger mania that primarily benefited the designers of those mergers rather than the companies, the employees, or their customers.
To poorly paraphrase Vin Diesel’s Dominic Toretto character, some corporate management ” … live their lives one quarter at a time.”
Financial quarters; that’s current long term thinking.
It’s the prevailing model of corporate business today because the guys most responsible for these strategies almost never face any real consequences for bad judgment. They’re not the ones who get “right-sized” and it’s not their benefits that get nickeled-and-dimed to death in the manner you experienced. Worse comes to worse, they cash out and go on to inflict their dubious wisdom on other companies.
By comparison, the Corvair suspension mess is more defensible because as ill-advised as it was, it was still related to some level of recognizable product logic. Chevrolet was trimming cost out of everything not so much to maximize profits, but because they were scared at how much direct competition the Corvair was going to face and how badly they were going to get hammered if they didn’t achieve some parity with Ford and Chrysler on price. Nickel-and-diming the suspension wasn’t a good choice, but it wasn’t outlandish in a logical sense.
The CB Accord benefited from coming out at what tends to be the most exciting and productive phase of a company’s development: when they’re starting to make some money, but know they’re still in a growth period in which they need to carve out more market share from rivals. That seems to be the phase in which companies are most willing to put a bunch of the money from the previous phase back into what they’re selling and actually improve the product rather than costing it to death. From your stories, you’ve experienced those cycles — where the company leadership says, “Hey, we’re onto something here, so let’s bolster our position and see how we can do even better.”
Unfortunately, that excitement seems to often be cyclical rather than necessarily an indication of greater savvy. Indeed, the problem sometimes becomes that the company’s leadership becomes so convinced that they’ve got it wired that they start making expensive mistakes in the subsequent phases. That happens to happens to a lot of companies after they start getting successful and it’s clearly tricky to correct. You start getting more people saying stuff like, “Let’s work smarter, not harder,” and “Let’s trim the fat so we can maximize profits,” and eventually that becomes the culture.
I can’t think of a company that did “less with more” than GM. The brand reputation and goodwill they squandered was just a crime. And as you point out, it felt like a slow-motion train wreck–all the warning signals were there–so much time was available to course correct, and yet they just kept costing down and ultimately started fielding nothing but pure mediocrity.
Of course the Roger Smith era was the ultimate insult, with billions squandered on unworkable factory automation, unneeded extra brands (Saturn) and ridiculously expensive and useless acquisitions (Hughes and EDS). Just think if that money had been put into world-class engine and platform development for the existing GM brands…
I think the biggest mistake they made in terms of the automotive divisions was that the Smith-era reorganization really squandered a huge amount of human capital. A lot of veteran engineers and manufacturing people got sidelined, downsized, or just saw where the train was headed and opted out. This is a lesson the corporate world has refused to learn; I’m sure everyone here can think of examples, possibly from personal experience, of companies dumping the people who knew what they were doing in favor of sycophants and jackasses with the “right” kind of ambition.
Cadillac certainly didn’t do itself any favours during the 80s and 90s. It’s any wonder that Cadillac is still around as a division of General Motors.
It’s taking a long time for them to get back the reputation they squandered.
Simply painful to read, watching your father’s love of Cadillacs being ruined so quickly.
I watched a similar story unfold, though it was much less dramatic. An older attorney I worked for had grown up with not much and had wanted a Cadillac all his life. He finally bought an 81 Sedan DeVille – with the V864.
I don’t recall him having trouble with the engine, but the experience disappointed him. His next car was an 86 Accord LX (for which he paid cash) and he drove Hondas until he died a few years ago.
In that same office, one other lawyer and the father of a third traded their final Cadillacs on Town Cars. It was sad watching these older men lose an old love.
That your story ends with an Accord rather than an Acura brings up the interesting discussion we were having about the Chrysler R body a few days ago. With the silent generation, we were seeing a collapse of the Sloan ladder not just at GM but all manufactures. The indulgence of a luxury car was just not as important.
Many of us have been enjoying rlplaut’s coals. While going through a yuppy car phase, we find that maturity is leading to cars whose main strength is utility and an appliance like nature. We see it also in the many Honda Firs and Scion Xb among our commenters and contributors. Many of these are mature, financially secure people. Yet few new luxury cars to be had.
I find this sad. And I don’t really see how it can be blamed on Cadillac. Maybe luxury is just something we lease during our yuppy phase now.
I struggle to find a comparable modern example of decline that those who didn’t grow up with Cadallic Envy in the 50’s and 60’s could relate to. Cadillacs were a high-price-but-worth-it,high quality, status symbol.
Perhaps if Apple were to start manufacturing iPhones in (?) Vietnam(?) with lousy sound quality, bad image quality, buggy software, and sudden-death syndrome while lowering price by $50 to expand market reach, it might trigger the same sense of betrayal and bitterness Cadillac lovers felt. I can’t think of any other product on the market today that has that “I spent way too much but I am so glad I did” aura that Cadillac did in the 60’s.
Oh, and “ Based on Pop’s car, I cannot fathom how Cadillac earned a 4th place score in the JD Power quality index as reported by Consumer Guide.”
I -think- I understand this. It’s reluctance to be the guy who first shouts The Emperor has no clothes!.
Decades of belief that Cadillac was indeed ‘The Standard Of The World’ transferred the fault for failures from the vehicle to the operator: “The engine died; I must have something wrong because Cadillacs are quality cars. I won’t blame the car for my mistake”, so they just checked the “Everything’s Wonderful” box on the survey
Toyota benefited from this a few years back when they started to have a spate of problems. We heard about them, but didn’t really believe, because: Toyota!
These cars are now showing up for sale in the car corrals of the various Carlisle car shows. Based on what I see, one reason that these Cadillacs earned good quality reviews is that plenty of owners didn’t drive them very much.
There appear to be a fair number of low-mileage, mint-condition Cadillacs of this vintage available for sale, if you want one.
I think you hit the nail on the head. It is likely that most buyers were repeat customers who were convinced that Cadillac was tops and would not hear of anything else.
Everything old is new again, The Emperor’s New Clothes happens on other companies so often.
My hubby and I were having a similar (not R-Body specific) conversation not that long ago. I maintain, and he agrees, that cars and our expectations of them generally occasionally undergo paradigm shifts. For instance, he drives a 2013 Taurus now, following a brief stint with a 2012 Fusion V6 that he said was a nice car but he only “liked” it. Before that, though, was a 1997 Town Car.
He’ll readily admit the Taurus is a nicer car than that Town Car was. It uses less gas, has a ton more power, rides nearly as smoothly, and has many more luxury items than the Town Car did. And it’s not a function of the Town Car being a stripper POS. It’s a function of the state of the art in 1997 versus the state of the art in 2013.
So in the case of Pop’s Caddy to the Accord that followed, I would argue something similar happened. The Caddy, while refreshed for 1989, embodied the ideals from before the automotive paradigm shift of the 1980s. Sure, it was downsized, but the soul of it was meant to be old-school. The engine was old technology. The assembly techniques were old. The features were well-established. And Pop was probably able to get most of the same features in the Accord (power windows, locks, cruise, etc.-the state of the art didn’t advance that far from the ’80s to the 2000s) and the same power and better mileage besides.
If you’re driving a car that’s a few years old now, any new car seems really nice. Good friends of mine drive a 2007 Taurus and a 2008 Fusion, and they remark every time they ride in Mr. X’s Taurus on what a great car it is. They also loved the 2012 Fusion he had and commented on how much nicer than theirs it was.
So, if your standard is at a certain level based on past cars, newer cars that are lower on the modern ladder might meet your standard, as the entire ladder is higher now.
At least, that’s my hypothesis.
I don’t think it’s so much of a disinterest in luxury per se as a reflection of the fact that even the middle class is feeling the economic squeeze. Even if they can afford to lease or buy a snazzy new luxury sedan, a middle class buyer still needs to get to work on time and pick up the kids from school before the school calls out the National Guard. I think a fair number of buyers in that segment have gone through the phase of being seduced by buff book hype on lots of fancy automotive gadgetry and then gotten sick of having their car constantly back at the dealer, devouring checkbook and will to live in the process.
Interestingly, my impression is that a lot of European markets have gone the other way, where the market is cheaper family hatchbacks and MPVs on one end and luxury cars on the other, with not a lot in between.
Europe may be a little distorted by so many luxury vehicles being perks of a good job. There is a tax advantage regarding social insurance premiums given to employers.
The low end where cars are actually bought by people are seeing the inexpensive appliance trend as well. Dacia Duster et all
Well, also, I think a lot of European cities have good enough transportation infrastructures that many people don’t have cars, period, so car ownership tends to bifurcate between “I do need a car, so I want something cheap to run and easy to park” and “The only reason I have this thing is to show off my affluence, so if it’s not Premium, what’s the point?”
This is spooky.
Switch the setting 80 miles northwest to Baton Rouge, and the year to 1984, and I could’ve written the same story about my father’s experience with his first and only Cadillac. It was a Fleetwood Brougham, after years of owning – you guess it – Oldsmobile 88s and Ninety-Eights. The debut version of the 4.1 liter aluminum V8 was half-baked to begin with, and putting it into the heavy rwd Cadillacs taxed the poor engine to its limits.
But then again, perhaps the tale is not so unusual, and explains a lot about why Cadillac’s reputation remains tarnished to this day.
Boy do I remember that story in our home. My father, after leaving the Chevrolet dealership, was the same kind of guy. Cadillac was the ultimate car. He could have easily afforded one. But between 1966 and 1984 he was also putting a son thru his bachelor’s degree (junior did the master’s on his own), and a daughter thru pre-med and medical school. He still could have afforded that Cadillac, but continued to drive Chevy’s and now started with Buick’s.
Finally, by the 1986 model year both kids were graduated, married off (we still call my sister’s wedding “mom and dad’s coming out party” and Beth forever wishes they had eloped), and mom finally got one dad’s butt to “buy the damned Cadillac”.
They went to the dealership, mom picked out a silver blue Fleetwood, and all was well in the world.
Six months later, mom was dead.
That killed the car for dad. On top of that, a like (but not as extensive) litany of defects, problems and niggling little build problems soured whatever little enjoyment was left for him in the car. I drove it once, borrowing it for probably the only fancy dress shindig my wife and I ever attended. And somehow, showing up in an ’82 Omni just didn’t cut it. The car was a complete disappointment to me, the interior wasn’t as well put together as the couple of Buick LeSabre’s he had owned previously
The car was gone by early 1987. And no mention was ever made of owning a Cadillac again. Dad went back to Chevy Caprice’s which he owned until he died six years later.
Buddy of mine had the 1991 Sedan DeVille (just like below) for which I was not impressed.
Had a roomy back seat and mileage was OK (~16 MPG), but it wallowed over the slightest bump and handled terribly. Also the A/C fan was stuck in high speed. The resolution was to kill the A/C, set the temperature selection to 85 or above, then restart the A/C. Then gradually reduce the temperature setting every few minutes to prevent the fan from jumping into high speed mode. Eventually, cool air came thru the registers. Then the compressor failed just outside the warranty period. The dealer “reluctantly” agreed to replace it, but with a re-built unit.
Later, he rode in my Camry and was dully impressed with the strong A/C. An important factor when living in south Louisiana. Within two months, he ditched the Cadillac for an Infinity and never looked back.
The wallowing, pitching and brake dive on these FWD C-bodies was just incredible! It was like every corner of the car was doing its own thing which made it frightening to drive fast. My ’86 Brougham with the 307 V8 placed well behind the front wheel axle and low in the platform is stable as a rock during hard braking and cornering.
Theres a dark blue almost black Caddy identical to that model parked not far from where I live it looks nice but Ive never seen it not there in fact it doesnt appear to have moved for the two years Ive lived here.
I’ve often wondered how many V8 powered, rear wheel drive Lincoln Town Cars theses poor quality, unreliable, downsized “Baby Cadillacs” sold for the Lincoln Motor Company.
Almost as many sales as the poor quality, unreliable Taurus Continentals were costing Lincoln.
Doubtful, John, extremely doubtful. A quick check of the sales figures for Town Cars and Continentals will prove blow your hypothesis out of the water.
Any car buyer of that time period looking for a V8 powered, rear wheel drive, full frame on body luxury car would not have even considered the tarted up Taurus/Continental.
I don’t know about your area of the country; but around New Orleans the Taurus/Continental was not a big seller. The local Lincoln-Mercury dealer sold a LOT of Town Cars and Grand Marquis models; but few front wheel drive Continentals.
If I recall correctly, the Taurus-based Lincoln Continental was initially a good seller. It sold better than the Continental based on the Fox platform.
In retrospect, it would have been better if Ford had revamped the Fox-based Continental instead of bringing out the version that it did. Between the troublesome 3.8 V-6 and automatic transmission, and buggy electronics, the first Continentals based on the Taurus did, in the long run, cost Lincoln a fair number of customers.
FWD Continental was a good idea to compete against FWD GM larger cars, but it had a bad motor and transmission to start with. They sold pretty well in snow areas, but their rust resistance isn’t great ( Still, much much better than Infiniti, and Acura, probably similar to Lexus FWD models )
I had this exact thought the other day when the Lincoln piece ran. I always wished Ford had developed the mn-12 platform to be more flexible so they could have had a Lincoln Continental version too. This could have helped to spread the costs out more and possibly given the platform a longer life.
The fox Continental could have been smoothed out in 86 or so to resemble the Mark VII and the upcoming 90 Town Car and the mn-12 Conti launched in 89 or 90.
By the way, we Really need an 88-94 Continental CC. Trouble is, are their any left?
Hundreds of thousands of Town Cars were sold by the engineers and product planners at GM.
BAWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!
Sad But True.
Thanks, Dave B!
An automotive reputation, just like a personal reputation, is slow to build and quick to loose.
More than a few of my Parent’s upper middle class, suburban friends will turn purple with rage and spew out unexpurgated words & phrases at the mention of their “LAST CADILLAC”.
Excellent article. I agree with the comparison with the Bonneville SE. I owned an ’88 SE which I liked, roomy, nimble nice handling, great dash, fine visibility and reliable. I found it diappointing that my ’97 Deville simply was worse in some respects. It was tuned to have numb steering, and a ponderous feel.
On the upside, those Devilles have excellent paint and interior materials, very durable. The wrecking yards are full of them; 15 year old Devilles that look like new, all with blown Northstars, left there by another generation of owners like me who will never buy another Caddy.
The Sedan Deville having an overall length of 205.3″ was still shorter than the Plymouth Volare’ based Chrysler Fifth Avenue which was close to or a little over 206″ and about 250-300 pounds heavier than the Sedan DeVille. 3470 pounds for the Cadillac vs. 3800 pounds for the Chrysler.
If the author is reading these do you know why your dad didn’t get the traditional b body Brougham? And if he did do you think the experience would have been different for him?
Actually Pop had zero interest in the Brougham, and did not consider it at all. To him it was a very old car–he knew it had been around essentially unchanged since 1977. Also, what minimal changes the RWD C-Body Cadillac did have during that period were for the worse: going from a robust 425 V8 to the horrific 4100 V8 to an Oldsmobile 307 V8 not powerful enough for the car. Just as he would not have considered getting a new version of a 1966 Cadillac in 1979, or a new 1955 Cadillac in 1968, he did not want a 1970s product at the dawn of the 1990s.
I would hope that Cadillac had figured out how to properly build the Brougham by 1989, and the old mechanicals should have been “tried and true” at that point. So maybe it would have been a better quality experience, though with GM, you never know. For example, Pop had a 1985 Buick LeSabre Collector’s Edition as a company car. But in spite of having been in production for 9 years, that ’85 LeSabre was very shoddily built. Mechanically it ran OK, but the assembly quality was embarrassingly poor.
A high school friend had a DeVille in the family that was from the end of production of this body style (right around 1991 or 1992) and they found it to be solidly built. He borrowed it for prom (in 1995) and we had way too much fun lighting up the front tires.
I think the experience would’ve been different based on (a) how many are still on the road today vs the FWD cars even with high mileage and (b) my own experience.
BUT. GN’s dad was just over 60 in 1989. Still young enough to not want to look like a fogey. And a Brougham by 1989 was a car either for ultra-tradionalist fogeys, or, maybe, gangsters. My grandfather, if Consumer Reports hadn’t steered him to Panthers by that time, would’ve been a Brougham candidate; in 1989 he was 79 years old and wandered around in cardigan sweaters, plaid golf pants, and white Hush Puppy slip-ons: the retirement uniform of 1975. But he was 18 years older than GN’s dad, really another generation. He wouldn’t care if a car made him look “old”…he WAS. GN’s dad probably wasn’t ready to be placed in that bracket yet! So he went with the “modern” Caddy, hoping it’d still be cutting edge as Cadillac had so often been when men my grandfather’s age had been buying them.
I will second your experience. As my father got into his 50s and 60s, he bought 2 last Lincolns – a Fox Continental and the last Continental with the 32V 4.6 V8. He was not ready for an “old man’s car”, and even though a Town Car would have given him the comfort he craved, the Continentals were (at least in his mind) more advanced cars suitable for a younger man. Strangely, had his final car been a Town Car instead of his 97 (I think) Continental, I might have tried to buy it after his death. The Town Car may have been an old man’s car, but it was a durable and reliable old man’s car, as opposed to the money pit that I predicted that V8 Continental becoming as it aged.
Spot on, Orrin! He definitely was not ready for an “old man’s” car, and wanted something that seemed contemporary and desirable–ironically exactly what he wound up getting with the Accord.
To add to this, even Cadillac knew that the Brougham’s buyers would be *ahem* mature. I pulled out the ’89 Cadillac brochure to get images and information for this post, and one thing that really stands out is the fashion models that were used. As you’d expect, all the people looked younger and more stylish than the actual age of the target buyers–but you could see intended/aspirational age ranges (reality was probably at least +10-15 years from the fashion models):
Allanté and Seville Touring Sedan–models in their mid-30s
Eldorado, Seville–models in their late-30s to early-40s
DeVille, Fleetwood–models in their early-40s to early-50s
Brougham–models in their early-60s
GM didn’t “willingly disrupt their business” during World War 2. They and all of the other car companies were ordered by the government to stop building cars and start war production. The ad might make it sound patriotic but the choice was not GM’s.
True, the U.S. government did ask the car companies to assist, but based on all accounts I’ve read, they did so willingly. The following excerpts are from military.com:
“The right corporate leadership attitude started at the very top of GM. About the time the Nazis advanced into Holland, Belgium and France in the late spring of 1940, President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked GM’s chief William S. Knudsen to head the new National Defense Advisory Commission. “Big Bill” felt like he had no choice but to accept the offer. As he told his daughter when she asked why he was making such a professionally risky move, Knudsen said, “This country has been good to me, and I want to pay it back.” Knudsen relocated to Washington to lead the mobilization of American industry to build the nation’s defense arsenal (a move that ultimately came with significant personal cost).”
“Meanwhile back in Detroit the new GM president C.E. Wilson began shepherding the corporation into its “guns and butter” phase – the period where GM made its first moves towards manufacturing military hardware while maintaining a steady level of civilian-focused automobile production. Wilson challenged each GM division with basic military projects, ones that, where possible, to some degree fit with that division’s commercial expertise and production facilities.”
I do firmly believe that these companies were patriotically motivated, a mindset that seemingly doesn’t exist today, but was much more prevalent then.
I think that we are talking about two different things here. The references that you refer to are from early in WW2, before the U.S. was in the war. That defense production would have been voluntary. With the U.S. entering the war in Dec. 1941, the War Production Board was established in early 1942 to regulate industrial production and allocate war material and fuel. It was the War Production Board that ordered that all auto production would stop in Feb 1942, and conversion to war production would begin. With the war cutting off access to most rubber plantations, had car production continued it isn’t likely that they’d have had any tires to put on new cars anyway.
Everything I’ve long read supports GN’s point. It would not surprise me if there was also a genuine concern by Americans from all walks of life that powerful monsters were growing in Europe and Asia, and they didn’t want to wait and find out what the future might bring if they didn’t act.
“I do firmly believe that these companies were patriotically motivated, a mindset that seemingly doesn’t exist today, but was much more prevalent then.”
I have to respectfully disagree. WWII was a very different time, with war manufacturing lifting many companies out of the lingering Depression doldrums.
I felt the country’s response to 9/11 was just as strong given the circumstances.
But that’s just my opinion.
Totally unrelated, I’ve outgrown most of my childhood phobias. One I haven’t is water on both sides of the car. That picture of the Lake Pontchartrain causeway gave me the sweats, just like the drive has each of the 8 times I’ve been over it in the past 35 years. Yeesh.
It’s somewhat academic. They really had no choice, so it certainly looked better to do it “voluntarily”. And it’s not like there weren’t good profits to be made in war production.
“You shouldn’t meet your hero.”
I have the same irrational attraction to an E/S Class Mercedes. I know that it has more to do with what they were when I was a boy (b. 1977) then what they are now. Then again it will likely be another 10 years before I could even consider leasing such a thing.
My father had that lust with Cadillac but has never been able to scratch the itch. It is likely for the better.
You have your father’s gift as a master story teller. Excellent build up of the Cadillac as an icon to be desired, perhaps the best summary of what happened to Cadillac in the ’80s I’ve read.
As Ate Up With Motor said, the ’89 DeVille was regarded by many as something of Cadillac’s revival in the early ’90s, augmented by the generally well received ’92 Seville. While I doubt your father’s experience was fully unique, it appears he truly got a lemon from GM.
Your father’s experience with a premium priced brand, followed by his happiness with a well equipped non premium brand speaks volumes about how easily a premium brand will disappoint if it can’t start and get you to your destination. Mercedes and BMW would seem to be on thin ice with their current reputation as vehicles you don’t want to own out of warranty.
But, while your father was hesitant to own his dream car at the risk of being too flashy, I think there will always be a contingent of people that will feel the need to show off that they can afford an Infiniti, Lexus, Mercedes, Cadillac, etc, when a Nissan, Toyota or Chevy would probably better serve them from a cost and service standpoint.
At least that is what the marketers are hoping for, but they may be running out of superlatives to make their case. I just saw a new TV ad for the BMW 7 Series, and it was dripping with the word “luxury” spoken by a man that thinks the word has a “g” in it. Saying the word luxury over and again doesn’t say anything. The ad turned me off as badly as any of GM’s more misguided promotional campaigns.
That mispronunciation would annoy me too, and make me think the voiceover guy needed adenoid surgery. Not quite the right image…..
Reminds me of the passage in The Great Gatsby where Meyer Wolfsheim mentions him as an “Oggsford man”.
For years, I dreamed of owning a new car. In 1988, I sold my 1969 Hurst/Olds, and I traded my very reliable 1976 Pontiac Gran Prix LJ in on a new Monte Carlo SS. The check engine light came on while I was driving home from the dealer. This car was a reliability nightmare! It left me in the middle of nowhere three times, with transmission failures and overheating. I put up with it for 8 years. I finally got tired of fixing it, and I bought a beautiful 1994 Thunderbird Super Coupe with a 5 speed trans. I still have it; it’s been a great car.
Guess I dodged a bullet on this one. I had been lusting after the SSs ever since I saw my first one (1982?). When I stopped into the local Chevy dealer to take a look toward the end of the model year I was ready to buy but all they had in stock were non-console aero couples which I wasn’t interested in. They said they could get me the one I wanted but after mulling over the payments on the way home I talked myself out of it.
A lady customer where I used to work drove a white 1965 Coupe DeVille, that she’d inherited from her dad. She loved that car, but by 1987 age and rust had caught up with it. So she decided it was time for a replacement and bought a brand new Coupe DeVille.
After two years of trouble and crappy treatment by the local Caddy dealer, she traded it for a new Lexus and never looked back!
Happy Motoring, Mark
Also born in New Orleans in the early 80s and can well relate to your descriptions, in fact, I know my grandfather had his DeVille serviced at Pontchartrain Cadillac while visiting from Hobe Sound and my father, who had gotten his doctorate at Tulane (we lived off So. Carrollton in a borderline neighborhood) and was working for Mosquito Control once observed a waterspout from the causeway.
I had an ’87 Brougham 10 years ago and I think the older cars were definitely more tried and true. Had some trouble with the eQJet but the electronics were sound as General Electric. Yet, as the target buyer I get why your dad would’ve seen them as antiquated and underpowered. But they were much better built than the FWD models, in my view. A later ’93 Fleetwood Brougham I owned developed electrical gremlins as well so maybe it was endemic to all of the non “old school” Cadillacs.
My grandfather followed a similar trajectory to your dad, but was luckily about 20 years older and enjoyed his Cadillac. Had a Ford in high school (in the late 1920s), a 1940 Pontiac, and a series of Oldsmobiles before a major sale (he was the state General Agent of a national insurance company as well as President of a local bank) brought him a whopping commission and he bought himself a new 1960 Cadillac and built a new ranch house with the first swimming pool in town on a hill overlooking his blue collar mill hometown in Connecticut. He bought new Cadillac every few years after that through the 1960s, then a 1974 Lincoln Continental, and then, following his retirement in 1975 at least one of the downsized DeVilles. But he also read Consumer Reports. By the early 80s, they were rating the Panther cars the best. So in 1983, 1986, and 1988 he purchased new Mercury Grand Marquis LSes. Never went back to GM. The 1988 was his last car, my grandmother died in 1989, and he died in 1996 at age 86. I don’t think the Cadillac dream died for him…but he knew when to make the switch…and did so.
Funny, I was just thinking about a colleague’s Caddy from this period (89?). We were working on different project sites and were pretty much captive for safety reasons. So I was surprised one day when he drove up and asked if I could help with the driver’s seat because he wanted to drive home soon and it was cocked back.
When I dug into it, the rear driver’s seat mount was DOA, there was a gap there. I found some 2x chunks in the project dumpster and shaped them with a pry bar hammered into the ends, then drove them into place under the seat with a drilling hammer so they’d stay until he could get home. Solid, and the electric adjusters up-top still worked.
He got back in and looked relieved that he could sit straight. I still don’t understand why he kept it at all. During the 2-3 months we were out there, it had been in the shop for major repairs several times.
The trim and finish in that car was depressing. At that point I don’t think Cadillac knew what it was or who it was building cars for.
Cadillac wasn’t building cars, GM was.
My dad bought a brand new 1967 Plymouth valiant signent and suffered the embarrassment of getting stuck with a new car that would not start.
The ballast resistor was defective. It was replaced and he had no problems.
After the first time I always carried a spare in the glovebox. The first time I had to walk a mile in the rain to buy one. At the counter I decided to buy two.
Man, that is just heartbreaking to read. You work so hard, and you finally have the time and the cash and you can have your dream. And it turns out to be the worst experience you’ve ever had in your life. Reading your dad’s love for wanting a Cadillac and having the result turn out to be a massive turd is just painful. Nothing is more disheartening in life than having a lifelong dream turn out to be the biggest kick in the teeth you’ve received.
The car for me that I dreamed about all my life when I was a kid was a W140 Mercedes Benz S-Class, now that I’m older, it’s a tie between a 1965 GTO and a 1977-78 Mark V. I would still like to own a W140 someday, but knowing some of the stuff associated with it, I bet the experience would be a massive case of never meeting your heroes.
You’re father’s experience seems to be indicative of a problem that was going on with Cadillac. Even if the downsized bodies weren’t appealing, GM could’ve at least made up for the divisive styling with rock solid mechanicals and better than average build quality. But, GM didn’t do that, and Lincoln laughed all the way to the bank.
This is precisely why Lexus, Infiniti and Acura saw a gaping hole in the American market – a status cruiser. For 70% of the price of a Benz, you could get luxury and reliability. The original LS400 was a revelation despite it’s knock-off MB styling. Lexus especially completely disrupted the market as MB and BMW sniffed with the airs about them, never thinking a Japanese company could gain a foothold.
With the exception of specialty models, MB and BMW even today still wish their cars could hold value like a Lexus.
Yep the LS400 was a kick up the butt for the expensive Germans and the poor quality downsized American luxury cars. Bet both at their own game. Travaris on UTube has a buddy who’s LS 400 has covered 1 million miles.
Swear it look like it’s only done 200 thousand
I’m not at all surprised by the author’s dad’s experience with an unreliable, problem-prone new Cadillac poorly thrown together of cheap materials, and a dealer clueless enough to suggest he replace it with another new Cadillac.
No, what surprises me is commentary to the effect of “But…butbut…but JD Power!”. It appears there are still people labouring under the misapprehension that JD Power are some kind of paragon of objective, disinterested evaluators of automobiles.
Um, no. They’re basically a buff book, nothing more or less. Their propaganda is structured and presented a little differently than that from the likes of Road & Driver or Car & Track, but it’s just a slightly different flavour of the same manure. Oooh, lookie, JD Power say this car is “most appealing” and that car’s buyers are “most satisfied” in the first 90 days, and this other car over here rates highest in “initial quality”. What the hell does any of that mean? Of course there’s an answer; bring your own (word-)salad dressing. Their awards aren’t much different than the almost-openly bought, sold, and paid “Car of the Year” awards of years past(?) from Motor Trend.
Not that a particular Consumer magazine that Purports to be a fount of rectitude in vehicular evaluation is much better—that’s a different flavour of a different kind of manure (they’re not in biz to sell the automakers’ cars, they’re in biz to sell their own magazines, products, and services) but in the end it’s still manure.
Ironically enough, recent Chevrolet commercials are touting all the JD Power awards they’ve been receiving. I guess Enterprise, Hertz, and Avis are very happy with the first 90 days.
You are right the J D Power initial quality rating is not worth much. I think that their long term dependability ratings are useful.
I think they’re full of shìt, through and through. For long-term dependability ratings that actually reflect reality, I like TrueDelta.
rubbish in rubbish out
+1
Is TrueDelta the one that uses auction car data? If so it was explained to me once and I found it easy to poke holes in the methodology. Maybe they improved it? BTW your bolding of everything is kind of annoying.
It’s pretty simple on the good JDP scores for the Caddy. Older buyers are easier graders. That’s why year after year you would see Mercurys and Oldsmobiles near the top, and their sister cars from Ford and Chevy — built at the same plant! — near the middle.
What “bolding of everything” are you objecting to? There is one bold word in the comment you’re replying to, and it’s bold because it’s a link.
I have no interest in boosting or evangelising TD or their methodology; go read up on it on their site if you wish. You can get there by clicking the, ah, link. 🙂
Ah bold means a link, I get it now. I thought you were trying to shout out TRUEDELTA! and found a way to use bold. Some guys here know all the tricks and can do italics.
In the post about the ’79 Cadillac you were getting worked up over the taillamp safety issue and I thought you were bolding everything there for effect.
Oh. Yeah, I see where you’re coming from; people bug me, too, who CAN’T seem to REFRAIN from SHOUTING in the mistaken BELIEF this MAKES THEIR POINT STRONGER. But no, those you saw are clickable links. Some of them might even be worth clicking. 😉
calibrick – the way to get special stuff (italics/bold) is to use HTML. There are tutorials online which can help. I think trudelta relies on owner responses in much the same way the Consumer Reports does, which means that everyone with a problem sends in their stuff, but owners with trouble free probably don’t.
So sorry your poor dad went through this. He would have been much happier with a Mark VII or a Town Car. By 1989 Ford’s TFI module had its kinks all solved and the electronic fuel injection was bulletproof. The Mark’s air springs would have started to get tired at 150k miles or 10+ years of service (whichever came first) but until then it would have been largely trouble free. The Town Car would just have been bulletproof, period. AND – neither car had a window Auto Down feature.
Glad he finally found automotive happiness though 😀
This story was repeated 10’s of thousands of times as GM went to He## during the 80’s and 90’s. Their arrogance was no match for the lousy products they hoisted upon the public. Likewise , I won’t be seen in a GM dealership for the rest of my driving days.
Isn’t He## a town in Michigan? Caddy assembly plant there, perhaps…
No one in my immediate family has quite this type of story (somehow I can’t think of a single GM product purchased new in the 80’s by any of them), But my cousins’ grandfather (aunt by marriage’s Dad), who was like a great-uncle to me, had exactly the same plan. After a career spent driving low to mid-market cars, upon his retirement in 1986 Harry bought a brand new Sedan Deville, in a slighly peculiar color of pinkish tan (I think his wife probably had a say in that one). I can’t seem to find a color chip that matches; it may have started Chamois and then faded? HT4100 and all the early-model quirks. You’d think his experience would have been similar to the writer’s father.
Not exactly. While the car was certainly not trouble-free, it also wasn’t a lemon. Far from it. Harry drove that Deville until he could no longer drive shortly before his death in 1997. When he passed on, his wife took over the car, and she drove it until she gave up driving in the early 2000’s. At that point the Caddy passed to their youngest daughter, who drove it for another couple of years, before it was finally traded in on an SUV in the mid 00’s. Not a bad run for a car that seems to catch near universal derision. Though, just like the writer’s father got one that was solidly a lemon, perhaps Harry’s car was an unusually well-built example for ’86.
I also have one thing in common with the writer’s father: color choice. I chose Cadillac Black Sapphire as the new color when I had my Malibu repainted in the mid 90’s after it caught my eye on the new Sevilles in ’92. While it lost a little in the transition from base/clear to single-stage Maaco paint, it was still quite a sharp color.
Black Sapphire was a great color. The best thing about Pop’s DeVille was the paint–it was beautiful.
Wow GN, to say your Dad’s Caddy was a lemon is an understatement! My Dad always had the same desire to own one and finally bought one when he was 63. His was a Medium Sapphire Blue 1990 Spring Edition Coupe deVille, and honestly it was a flawless vehicle. In fact after he passed my Mom drove it until 1998 when it had roughly 80k miles or so. It NEVER gave us an ounce of trouble and was one of the best cars he had ever owned. It never even went back once for warranty work! Dad came out of an ’87 Maxima that he hated, so the Caddy was a refreshing change for him. He loved the size, comfort and ride that Caddy gave. In fact many people that rode in that car commented on how nice it was all the time. Perhaps your Dad’s was one of the first 1989’s made, and it needed the bugs out? Typical GM – release a car before it is perfected – and let the innocent buyer be the ones to test it!
Now, the 1990-93 Accords are one of my favorite cars of all time. I owned several of them – including a 1991 SE that was Brittany Blue Green Metallic with beige leather. Great car! I also had a 1993 EX 5-speed wagon. It was Seattle Silver with the Red cloth interior. Owned it for 12 years, and had about 240k miles on it when I sold it due to rust issues. Miss that car every day! There were things about that car you couldn’t explain but just made it feel so awesome. The 4th gen Accords will always be one of my favorite cars, ever!
During the 1980s, many luxury car buyers in the US were turning to European brands like Mercedes-Benz and BMW since the Cadillacs at the time had pretty crummy engines (V8-6-4, HT4100 and Olds Diesel) and were pretty stodgy. Don’t forget the Cimarron which was an abomination from day one. I’m surprised that the Cimarron (basically a rebadged Cavalier) stayed until 1988. By the 90s, many Luxury car buyers were turning to Lexus (Toyota’s new luxury brand) as they combined luxury and reliability. Just like Cadillac in the 1950s/1960s.
The irony is Honda has become more 80’s Cadillac and less Honda. The newer Hondas have become bigger, softer, and although more powerful, less agile. Consumer reports and some of the other car mags have claimed quality has slipped as well, although they have improved with the latest redesigns.
Cadillac on the other hand has become more 80’s Honda and less Cadillac. They have made their models smaller, tighter and more agile. This has had mixed results on sales, as the car mags claimed sales are slipping.
Interestingly, yesterday I walked by a recent-model Accord V-6 and was struck by how chromey it was — really old-school Buick level brightwork.
Further to this. The brightwork on the dash in current Mercedes products is at mid 1950s Detroit levels.
Reliability is still not a strong point for Cadillac. The 2015 ATS’s reliability was solidly at the bottom of the pack according to Consumer Reports – even behind the cut-rate Mercedes CLA and the beautiful but initially glitchy all-new C-Class. Unfortunately, 2015 was the ATS’s third model year…yikes.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/research/the-most-and-least-reliable-cars-by-class/ss-BBpWtqL?ocid=spartandhp#image=11
I want to see the Alpha platform do well because it has great dynamics – hopefully consumers will like it better in Camaro form.
My uncle bought his ‘dream’ car in 1984, a black Eldorado. Beautiful car, but the HT4100 true to form blew up just out of warranty. The dealer did right, replaced the engine for a nominal charge, and not too much trouble after that. Nonetheless I thought he wouldn’t buy another Caddy after that experience, but in 1989 he traded that beautiful Eldo in on one of those ugly duck Sevilles. That Seville was absolutely trouble free, the 4.5L V-8 a vast improvement over the 4100. Solidly back in the Cadillac fold, he traded the ’89 in on a ’93 Seville STS, another gorgeous car but one rife with minor issues. Never had any major engine/transmission problems, but every time it went back to the dealer for scheduled service there was always some repair to be made. In this case I think the dealer experience played a big part in keeping him in Cadillac’s, they always steeped up to the plate.
I didn’t take the time to read the comments so forgive me if I repeat what others might have said. First let me just say that I took from this article love and respect for “Pop” from you. Wonderful. Second, there are few things that make me squirm more than hearing about someone who waited their whole life to get the car of their dreams and have it turn in to such a nightmare. It ain’t right and I don’t know if GM had anything that would have made it right, but it doesn’t seem that they tried very hard. And finally that it appears “Pop” was a microcosm for what was happening all over the country by this time. I’m glad that he was so happy with the Honda. Like many others, I suppose.
Ah, good old Cadillac-especially from the 80s on. Was it really any better than an Olds 98 or Buick Electra save for the Caddy schtick? Not really.
I like the Caddy schtick, I like the increased hp (Northstar vs. 3400) and I liked the hood ornament as well as the ride, but really my work Deville really just had that old Caddy schtick to make it better than my Impala. Still loved it, and loved all the looks I got but was glad I didn’t actually own it.
I will always fondly remember the first Caddy I had at my disposal, crappy plastic and chintzy looking 80s Texas Instruments looking digital dash and all.
Too bad your dad didn’t go for an 89 Lincoln Town Car. No doubt the experience would have been better. I rented a few for trips back in the old days and loved them. I purchased a beautiful 89 Lincoln Continental for my wife in 1992 and experienced a lot of trouble as your dad did with the Cadillac. The heater/air conditioning never worked; we got cold air in the winter and hot air in the summer. Also the temperature gauge would go to overheat range whenever it wanted to. Never stranded us but came close a few times. I returned it to the dealer and the service manager drove it for a month while giving us a Mercury Tracer loaner. He said he couldn’t find anything wrong with the Lincoln though claimed to have replaced multiple parts for which we never got any paperwork. The serpentine belt broke at one point and the car had to be towed to the dealer. I think there were other towing experiences but I have forgotten all of them. The car was beautiful and probably the most comfortable vehicle we ever owned. Nevertheless, after 18 months of trouble we traded it for a brand new 1993 Nissan Maxima that ended up staying with us for 10 years and 250,000 miles with never a tow. The engine and transmission in the Maxima worked just as smartly after 250,000 miles as when new but we were relentless on maintenance. The car went to a trusted transmission shop every 30,000 miles for tuneup and fluid change. The Maxima was the quickest accelerating car we ever owned but I have to say it was far from the most comfortable. We were willing to give up the living room comfort though for trouble free transportation. Though I stayed away from Ford products for many years after, we now drive a 2014 Ford Fusion Hybrid. For retirement transportation it is quite satisfactory, the price was right, and we spend about $80 a month for gasoline here in California where gas is always expensive.
The shifting away from luxury that Dennis is describing is what I was getting at above. The Maxima and the Fusion are discussed in ever more respectful but appliance like terms. The “I have arrived, or indeed the intrinsic comfort of the Lincoln in his case being just a memory from a certain long ago phase of life. It was not this way for many in previous generations when the Sloan ladder was still in play.
Try buying a Nissan today – nothing like they were 20 years ago, sorry.
One must be careful not to extrapolate a first year lemon experience as a universal. I see this era of Caddy quite regularly, obviously they can’t all be buggy junk.
If one hangs around the internet car world long enough, you will hear horror stories about every single type of car-even 3800 equipped Buicks and Panthers, as well as Accords, Corollas, Altimas-you name it.
True Dominic. I said the same thing. His Dad’s car may have been an early production model, and certainly it sounds like a lemon. But to me his car was an anomaly. Overall, these were durable, well-built cars that were universally loved by their owners. My Dad included. I still see quite a few on the road as well!
Good story telling here , the bond between Father and Son shows and is a beautiful thing when it occurs .
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A pity GM dropped the ball so badly , I’m no Cadillac Man but I am of the age group that thinks they’re a serious aspirational car .
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I love my 1980 S & S Fleetwood Hearse , it’s everything a good Caddy should be : stylish , runs well , no problems and no build quality issues what so ever in spite of it being built on the cheapest Fleetwood platform .
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-Nate
Finally had time to sit down and read this GN. What a sad tale! I can’t get this image out of my head…
“The poor valets had to push the dead Cadillac back and forth for the rest of the night so they could get other cars out of the garage.”
Love how you told the story. There are many lessons here including, maybe, that Cadillac wasn’t so stupid after all for sticking with a carb on the 86-90 5.0 liter Broughams.
I saw very similar situations play out with Mercedes Benz products in the early 2000’s. One in particular was a friend with a 2000 E-class that had to get rid of it before the warranty was up. He knew he would not be able to afford the constant repairs.
Speaking of equipment not living up to expectations, what about the Bell P-39 in the WWII era advertisement?
Great car. I had a 1986 Oldsmobile 98 Regency Brougham i loved it.
As least your dad didn’t burn the Cadillac in front of the dealership like Eddie Campos did in California in August, 1971. So fed up with his Lincoln Mark III, he parked it on the front lawn of the Ford assembly plant in Pico Rivera CA and SET IT A FIRE I!!
https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2199&dat=19710922&id=sZAzAAAAIBAJ&sjid=j-cFAAAAIBAJ&pg=7290,2672227
I sort of think that at least some of the problems may have been a faulty or damaged wiring harness. I know that the Allante had a multiplexed wiring system. By 1989 Cadillac may have upgraded the Devilles to this, I don’t know. The dealer had the right idea, that it was time to give up on fixing it, but your Father would not have felt that a new Cadillac would be any more reliable.
This brings to mind Aaron65’s QOTD, does your car hate you, although a better question might be is your car compatible with you.
Oddly enough many folks I know that had 1990 and above Cadillac deVilles (my father included) loved them and got many years of reliable, luxurious transportation out of them. I think his Dad’s ’89 may have been an early production model and obviously a lemon as you didn’t hear of these cars being THAT unreliable.
Picking up on a previous post, my lust growing up in the early 90s was also for the Benz E and S Class. They were special. Rare. Earned. They were unable to be scooped up whimsically on a lease by every debt-ridden ‘up-and-comer’ obsessed with impressing their ‘friends’ with a selfie behind the wheel like the ones seemingly everywhere these days. The Benzes of my youth were tanks. Form followed function. Bank-vault reliability first. Showiness last. Not even a cupholder. I remember the first 600SEL I saw. Black. Massive. Grossly expensive, sure. But something to aspire to because everything I read confirmed it was the absolute best. My English teacher’s racing-green 300CE (her husband worked at IBM) glided through the high school parking lot gracefully and exotically and somehow conveyed a dignified pissed-off look while ignoring the speed bumps strategically placed to slow down the teen drivers. This website called it the best car of the last 30 years. Then- like Cadillac- this brand of prestige in America was cast upon a trash heap by hordes of corporate bum kissers blindly following their never-ending drive to screw up what’s good for the long-term in order to maximum short-term profits and career goals. As a result, today we have the dreadful CLA and CLS, the hideous GLK, and a string of odious other examples of marketing gimmicks and engineering gadgetry that could make an old Cadillac loyalist wilt. And just look at the similar examples at other companies: Toyota’s stunning ’92 Camry replaced with the dud in ’97. Lexus slowly morphing into Buick with no innovation or coherent design theme. Honda too- the Accord is the new family barge (?). And, the BMW 5 Series: WHAT happened? My point: It seems every company that strikes gold just can’t hold off the bean counters long enough to avoid slipping back into mediocrity. I know Benz faced huge outside pressures in the 90s and that’s why things changed. I know currency values eventually caught up to Lexus’s ‘relentless pursuit.’ But, can anyone name me a mainstream brand that has stayed loyal to its purists and endured tough times to come out on the other side stronger? Cadillac isn’t one of them. Neither is Benz. I don’t think there is one!
Staying loyal to purists isn’t the mission of most companies. Car purists tend to be loud but few. You’ve got a fair point with the ’92 vs. ’97 Camry, much less of one with the Accord. It’s the new family barge? Any automaker would kill for that “problem”, because family barges sell in very high volume at tidy profit—especially perennially high-rated ones like the Accord.
As for Mercedes: Yes, the oldies were tanks. They had been tanks in the best sense of the word back in the days of the W108, W114/115, and W123, but by the time the W126 came around they were obsolete tanks, and by the time the W124 came along they were obsolete tanks with a reputation for nasty quality and reliability problems and negative value for money. Rich people don’t get or stay rich by flushing money down the crapper; they think about value for money, too.
In some ways it’s a pity that we have no way of freeze-framing reality at the high points—Chrysler in about 1965, Mercedes in perhaps 1984, Lexus in 1994 or so—but sure and begorrah, you can’t be 20 on Sugar Mountain and eventually most of us find ourselves no longer in the target demographic for most consumer products and services, including cars. We roll our eyes and sigh and kvetch about it and reminisce about how much better it was back in the day. And so it goes.
I had an ’88 Chevy Celebrity that was possessed by some of the same demons.
I also owned an ’89 Fleetwood Coupe — like the one pictured in the Motor Trend story. Mechanically the same as this DeVille. I bought it in pristine condition with 53K miles in 2001. At first I loved it. Even though it was my daily driver, I showed it at the Cadillac La Salle Club Grand National Meet in Dearborn in 2002. That was where things started to go wrong. The passenger window went down, and then refused to go up, WHILE THE CAR WAS BEING JUDGED. After suffering that embarrassment, I drove to a nearby Cadillac dealer to get it fixed. When I got out of the car, the driver’s window dropped about 4 inches and stayed stuck there! The same plastic piece had failed on both sides in the span of an hour.
The next year, all kinds of things started happening. The digital gas gauge stopped working and stayed unfixed two dealers and $800 later. The radio died because the teensy power button broke. The turn signal switch fried (literally, there was briefly smoke coming out of the column). The fuel pump died. The dash lights went on full bright and refused to dim. The engine chronically pinged.
I gave up in 2004, sold it on eBay as-is with the gas gauge, radio, lights and pinging still unfixed, and bought a used Town Car. I have had Town Cars as my daily drivers ever since.
By the way, believe it or not, despite the window issue, the ’89 Fleetwood won a national first prize at Dearborn, which means it is a CLC Senior Car, that does not need to be judged again. If you are a CLC member, you can look it up in your directory (it’s mis-listed as a sedan with an incomplete VIN). I hope the car still exists but I really don’t know. I gave the Senior badge and the paperwork to the buyer.
GN, thanks for one of the best stories I’ve read here in a while. You really had me going with your descriptions of all those luscious Cadillacs you wanted your dad to buy, and then it all came crashing down at the end! I think I am about your age and I have/had parents about your age, so I really identify with this, although the Cadillac didn’t come until my dad passed away and my mom got a 1997 DeVille. Fortunately, none of their GM cars were as bad as that ’89 DeVille! On top of that, I am and have been a big Honda fan for a long time, and bought my first new Honda (a Civic LX) in 1990. My dad didn’t want to admit it (he was buy American only) but I could tell he thought it was a pretty nice car.
Great story! I understand that your dad wasn’t interested in the image of the old Brougham or the Town Car. I can’t help thinking if his attitude would be any different if he had been in the market a year later when the Brougham had a mild facelift and major engine upgrade and the Town Car had a new, beautiful modern body. Either one could have easily let him down, though, if he lost the quality lottery like he he did with the DeVille. I believe 1990 brought a much improved 4.9 V8 for the FWD cars, as well.
I’ve been disappointed by products I’ve owned, but they were a lot less expensive than cars, and I hadn’t had my heart set on them for decades. I feel your Dad’s pain. I’d be sorely tempted to descend on Cadillac HQ with an assault rifle.
Sounds much like the experience we had with my wife’s ’86 Cutlass Cruiser which was supposed to be an upgrade over the worn but solid Volare/Duster she had been driving for a number of years. It was a pretty little wagon in it’s light maroon metallic paint, ‘oak’ paneling, burgundy interior and wire wheel covers but, at 64K miles, It was unreliable to the point of being unsafe. Maybe it just didn’t like us as I understand the original owner didn’t have any complaints with it. The third and presumably last owner was Goodwill Industries as I couldn’t bring myself to try to foist it off on some other poor soul.
Sounds like my mom’s experiences with our long gone and definitely unlamented ’74 Hornet Sportabout. That car would die for no reason at the most inopportune moments, the door windows would fall off their tracks regularly, the a/c quit about 15 seconds after the warranty expired, well, you get the picture.
Wow. At the beginning this was starting to sound like MY father! He’s a year older than your father, but was also drafted into the Navy at the end of WWII. He was out and married by the time Korea broke out…
His life took some different paths, obviously, but, as with yours, Cadillac was always the dream car. He took the plunge a little earlier than yours, but even there, there are some interesting overlaps: I’m at the tail end of a big family, with a big gap between the oldest group and a couple of us at the end, so the first car I remember us having was a 1965 Chrysler Newport wagon. By the time I was around 5, though, many of my older siblings were out of the house and/or had cars of their own, so my parents decided to downsize (sort of!), and Dad took the plunge on a used ’69 Sedan de Ville in Palmetto Green. I loved that car! I miss that car! Six or seven years on, though, it was a bit rough around the edges, and Dad sold it to a friend and picked up a used ’78 Coupe de Ville in Pewter/Platinum two-tone. To my child’s mind this one was even better (it even became my first car for a few years), but looking back, I’d take the ’69 over it.
When I got the Coupe, Dad decided (or, really, Mom decided for him) that he could afford his first new car since the 1959 Mercury that preceded the Chrysler wagon. My brother convinced him to look at Benzes, but he wasn’t impressed, and the Chrysler New Yorker he looked at was, to him, a cheap knock-off of the “real thing” with a small engine to boot. So, off to the Cadillac dealer he was, and he came home with the last of the super-downsized Sedan de Villes, an ’88 in white with a black vinyl roof.
So sorry your Pop had such a bad experience with his ’89; Dad’s ’88 lasted him 20 years with only a bad air conditioner at the end. In fact, the car that replaced it is a Cadillac, as well – a 2006 CTS – and he’s been pretty happy with that, too (though, now that he’s almost 90, I do most of the driving these days).
I loved reading this story. I recently inherited my mom’s 1989 Sedan DeVille and decided to restore it. It has sat in her driveway under the hot Texas sun for over 5 years. I started it while visiting her a year ago but now it will not start. The only real problem she ever had with it was the alternator would short out for some reason. She replaced 3 of them from 1989 until 2012 when she quit driving. Now to figure what is wrong and why it won’t start.
I’m reminded of the old joke about the guy who beat his head against the wall because it felt good when he stopped.
What a great story. Made me think about the few issues I had with some of the cars I’ve owned in the past. Even my Vega caused me less grieve over the years than your father’s Caddy.
No wonder we see so few of that generation of Cadillac.
It’s better to buy a used Cadillac. Aside from missing the worst depreciation, the lemons should have been squeezed out. Plus, you’re more accepting of a few things going wrong.
Cadillac went from being ‘American Standard of the World’ to arguably not even the best car in GM. Doubtful engineering, ‘challenging’ styling, and quality… well, look what happened to GN’s dad.
All of a sudden, there’s no reason to purchase any more. Reputation is dead.
From what I’ve read on CC, I get the impression a period Buick would have been a wiser purchase. Or would that have been just as bad in a different way?
Why, oh, why do companies repeatedly not grasp the vital importance of quality?
I don’t think (other than excluding certain known bad models) you could really objectively exclude or include any other brand from 1989 GM as a de facto “wiser” purchase than GN’s Dad’s car. I would say that (all aesthetics and socioeconomic considerations put aside) you had decent odds of making a wiser purchase if instead of a C-Body you bought one of:
– the full-size C GMC and Chevy trucks
– the full-size (not mini) vans
– the Chevy Caprice and Cadillac Brougham sedans, and the traditional B Wagons from Chevy, Pontiac, Olds, and Buick.
That is not to say that any or all of those were universally reliable or high quality.
For example, GN’s Dad wasn’t happy with his 1985 LeSabre Collector’s Series either, and that car had more or less what would be in a 1989 Buick Estate Wagon.
In my non-expert opinion, those favorable odds were largely because those cars still contained a lot of tried and true “old GM” tech even as GM tried to de-content them with too-small transmissions, underpowered engines, thinner sheet metal, etc. It’s harder to completely screw up something you already know how to build at least semi-competently. Doubtless plenty of them still had problems as well.
And once you re-insert the inevitable socioeconomic and aesthetic factors, not everyone was going to want to drive a slightly updated 1970s car in 1989, so even if they were likely somewhat better, not everyone was going to choose one as a viable alternative to something more modern.
Worth noting that, without detracting from the disaster it was, GN’s dad had a particularly bad individual car, though, as he’s acknowledged. A lemon. A lot of other peoples’ didn’t give them this level of trouble, or things would have been even worse than they already have been from GM since 1989.
Talk about a CC coincidence. Just couple hours ago I Googled the quote “Perception Is Reality” and found a very fitting example.
“Brand is just a perception, and perception will match reality over time. Sometimes it will be ahead, other times it will be behind. But brand is simply a collective impression some have about a product.”
Elon Musk
It is great to reread this story after 6 years. You hit the nail on the head painfully for the perception issues GM faces for both our (rapidly dwindling) parents’ generation and ours – GMs have sucked for so long that they sell either on price (Malibu etc) or very specific need/want (Corvette, Suburban, etc). I knew they were screwed when my WWII vet uncle, a lifelong Buick man, bought a Datsun 210 in 1980. Sure, they bought my aunt a new Buick Regal in 1993…but her next car was a 1997 Camry.
Meanwhile, in my entire immediate family (siblings, spouses, in-laws, kids)…no one has owned a GM. Pretty sad legacy for GM.
Oh, that’s easy, it requires only rethinking some assumptions (and a whole lot of promotional bilge) about JD Power’s awards.
Look, here’s the European-spec version. The two-colour taillights are flush with the rear surface of the tailfin, rather than recessed, to meet the 80°-outboard visibility requirements (versus the American 45°). Dual rear fog lamps and single reversing lamp fitted (more or mostly-less) into the bumper bar. Rear reflectors tackily tacked onto the decklid, and a thrown-together licence plate mount-and-light setup. Rear side marker crudely removed and the empty hole just left there. Side turn signal repeater just behind the front wheel, with a thick rubber gasket, lookin’ like it was grabbed off a truck or bus. All in all, it’s a car worthy of the GM Mark of Excrement.
Thanks for the great yet tragic story. My father too was of similar mind set. He came from St. Clairsville Ohio, was the first member of his family to go to college. He worked extremely hard in Advertising in NYC (Think the TV show Mad Men) then moved on to forming his own business. The first car story he told me was “Never Drive A Flashier Car Then Your Boss”. His first major purchase as a young AD Executive was a 1963 Thunderbird. After being seen pulling into the building garage by his boss he was summoned to the corner office and literally asked “Why are you driving a Thunderbird when I drive a Catalina?” For the next decade he would take the train into work. But that episode remained with him for the rest of his career. His choice in cars followed many others for the rest of his career. The cars that followed were: 73 Thunderbird, 77 Caprice Classic, 83 Buick Century Limited, and an 86 Buick Park Avenue. It was the Park Avenue he drove to Suburban Cadillac in Stamford Connecticut when he decided he was finally buying the dream…a 1989 Cadillac Sedan Deville in Silver Metallic with matching grey leather. Like the issues you Dad had, my father had those plus had the rear doors unlock and open while doing 65 MPH down the NY Taconic Parkway with his in-laws in the backseat. My father, who is always good under pressure, pulled off the road and pulled his trusty tow rope from the trunk. He then asked his in-laws to sit still while he tied the two doors closed. Needless to say, it was a long quite ride home. That was the last GM car he ever bought, and he moved up to the imports where he stayed until he could no longer drive. Nothing is sadder then viewing purchase regret on a car that someone worked hard to by. Thanks again for a great story.
St. Clairsville?? That was “The big city” to my folks, who hailed from Yorkville (my Mom, more specifically, Rayland). My Dad didn’t make it to college but quickly learned in the Marines while at Camp Pendleton he needed to get the hell out of the valley and permanently to SoCal as fast as possible (thankfully, spending the Cuban Missile Crisis bobbing around in the Caribbean and avoiding being vaprorized while landing ashore in an ill-fated invasion)
I don’t remember the exact year, but the folks finally celebrated the success of getting the kids outta the house for good replacing a 1990 Cutlass Supreme sedan with a CPO Sedan de Ville of early 90s vintage. White with blue leather. I think it the the first of the 4.9s and did have an airbag. Now me being mid 20s it was not stylistically what I’d have chosen but ~for what it was~ looked appropriately successful. I’d valet parked a number of the truly downsized SdV’s with the 4.1 and this generation had improved quite a bit, and I was impressed that at a hair over 6′ I could comfortably cross my legs in the back seat.
Unlike the author’s experiences, there were no major QC lapses on this one. It was just starting to get a little long-in-the-tooth when they returned to the Cadillac well later that decade for the restyled in 1994 version – Dad must’ve finally aged to where he’d tolerate a vinyl roof. This one was a sage green color. Here though, after a few minor quibbles there was some suspension/shocks issue that was going to be $4000 to fix as the car had aged… but not miled… out of warranty. That was too much – not just in dollar value but in headache. They traded for an ES300. Within a month he’d dumped a problematic Trailblazer for an RX300. Every car they’ve bought since has been a Lexus – and really considering they were coming from two consecutive SdV’s they were bullseye in the quiet, relaxed, not too sporty, I just want it to run demographic Lexus had been chasing.
My last Cadillac ownership experience wasn’t near as bad as in the story. I bought my dream ’94 Seville STS in 1996 with 24,000 miles. Black in and out, with ’96 chrome take off wheels that had been put on by the salesperson that had been driving it. I even added a 1,200 dollar moon roof to the purchase. The car was immaculate and looked brand new, especially since the design wasn’t even slightly changed until 1997. The car cost me a bit over thirty grand, it’s still the most expensive car that I’ve ever bought.
This was the next “dream car” after my ’77 Coupe de Ville, which had also been a few years old when I purchased it. Unfortunately the Seville wasn’t quite as trouble free as my ’77, but it was still under warranty so that wasn’t such a problem. Always got a new model Caddy to drive during service and warranty work. The car was gorgeous, both in and out, ran like a bat out of hell, and was ferocious on the road. The design and the performance were all that I could ask for.
I had few problems until the mileage hit the 100k mark. Then they started, eventually two starters, and a radiator, the thermostat. The worst things were the oil leaks from from the rear engine seal. It made a mess and made the interior smell like burned oil. A proper repair required engine removal and would not be cheap. I resisted fixing it, just drove it less. When the a/c went out, then the driver’s window quit and the air suspension stopped working (at least it stopped in the normal ride height position) I decided that I didn’t want to mess with it any more.
I checked out and considered the newer rear drive STS, the DTS, and even the cheap looking (at the time) CTS. None of them really grabbed my heart so I gave up on Cadillac. At least for now.
I had been a huge Cadillac fan since I was a little kid, my Uncle had a’49 Sedanette, I saw so many mid 50’s through 60’s Cadillacs growing up in Oakland, vowing to have my own some day. I did finally own a string of old Caddys over the years. A ’64 convertible, a ’70 CDV, ’57 Sedan de Ville, ’77 Coupe, ’94 STS, and finally a ’56 Sedan de Ville.
I was never a fan because I liked the gadgets, I liked the styling and the performance. Cads up until the mid ’80’s were always runners. I had great hopes for the NorthStar cars. I suppose that the new cars are better than ever, but they haven’t elicited much enthusiasm. Maybe the CT6?
Thanks for a great article, very well written and a very accurate description of millions of disappointed Cadillac owners in that time period.
My aunt and uncle had driven Oldsmobile 98s for several years and they traded up to a 1988 SdV, blue over blue leather. As is fairly common it was riddled with issues, some minor and annoying, others were more problematic (such as air conditioning that never did work consistently no matter what the dealers tried). I remember they were vacationing one summer and had an 8 hour trip home and the AC died yet again. The local dealer where they were staying couldn’t fit them in for at least 2 weeks so they made the trip the old fashioned way with the windows down. Once they arrived home the car spent more time at the dealer than in their driveway trying to get the AC fixed. It was very shortly replaced by a 1991 Lincoln Continental which had its own issues and was replaced in short order by a 1993 Lexus LS. They’ve only owned Lexus vehicles for the last 30 years and are just one of many examples of how GM ran customers away in droves and forever.
Great article, thanks for taking time to write it up and share!
“Unfortunately the Seville wasn’t quite as trouble free as my ’77,”
GM [Roger S.] just “dumbed down” on quality, thinking, “they will just trade in for new ones” if break down. Sure did, for a new other brand.
Obviously late to this article by several years. Anyhow, I see a few others have recently commented, so I will too.
I went into sales at a Buick, Cadillac, GMC and Honda store in 1988. I can say with certainty that my experiences personally and with customers was NOT like this. Ok, all cars have problems and will give us grief at some point. I’ll also admit that there are the occasional cars (in any brand) that will give way more problems than is the norm. With that said, I can say with many sales to back it up that I had as many or more problems with the Honda’s than with the GM’s. In my 12 years total working at that dealership, I personally sold about 5 GM cars to every one Honda. In those 12 years, I never had one GM purchased back, but I did have several Honda’s purchased back from the customer. Funny thing, the first was actually a 1991 Accord EX. That lady has so many issues that after fighting with Honda for months they finally gave her another 1992 Accord. I called her back after several months to check in and she had already traded it in on a Nissan because the ’92 started doing the same things the ’91 did and she had it with Honda. Several years later she came back and purchased a new GMC and last I knew she was still driving GM.
Sounds to me like a bad apple ruined the whole bag and after reading many of the comments it sounds to me like we have a lot of Japanese brand apologist on here. On a personal level with myself and many family members, we have all had outstanding luck with GM vehicles and I still (proudly) drive a 2021 Chevrolet Malibu.
I think an H- or C-body Buick LeSabre or Parkie would have worked. Almost as luxurious, less flashy, and proven mechanicals. With the 3800 you also had solid power (150-170 hp for early ones, 205-240 for later ones).
An ’89 LeSabre Limited or Parkie would have had 165 hp out of 3.8 and solid reliability, and near-Caddy luxury. And more upscale than the 88/98, although the 98 Touring Sedan was legitimately understated, kinda like the ’98 Intrigue (another good car that had no real market).
You’re a gifted writer as well–heartbreaking story but it shows you had a great relationship with your father in that sense.
Similar to you, I was a 12-year-old smitten with cadillacs. Ended up with an 89 Allante a couple years ago, like to have more but how many cars can you have and how much money do you have? My grandmother had an 89 eldorado, same engine same year. Her car had none of these issues and was sold to a family member who ended racking up close to 300,000 miles on it. My impression was these cars were reliable, the 4.5 was a turning point. Sounds like your dad got a lemon. He probably could have gotten it replaced as such. Plenty of 4.5s and certainly 4.9s out there that are strong survivors.