My recent trip to Southern California resulted in a bonanza of Junkyard Finds, including the first-ever Junkyard Find Jensen Interceptor, this Maserati Biturbo Spyder, this hyper-rare Sterling 827 SLi fastback, this super-scary AM General ice cream truck, and this Corinthian Leather-equipped Chrysler Cordoba. Is that all? No, that is not all! Today we’re going to admire an amazingly luxurious customized Malaise Coupe de Ville.
The problem with the factory version of this car was the lack of privacy in the back seat. Say you’re above all the lights in those high-rolling hills— do you want your romantic Cadillac activities to be visible to everyone?
500 cubic inches, 210 horsepower. That’s just barely 25 horses per liter.
Not that you really need a lot of horsepower with a sled like this. Sadly, the custom vinyl isn’t looking so good when you get up close.
Scrap metal is just worth too much to keep a car like this away from The Crusher.
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Hopefully someone saves at least some of this beautiful behemoth. Big old 70s luxobarges might not be as well loved as Camaros or Chevelles or Mustangs, but there are people out there who fix up DeVilles, Lincoln Mark IVs and Vs, New Yorker Broughams, etc.
I’m holding out for every brougham ever made to go to the crusher. Definitely the lowest point of the American car industry.
Unfortunately that just isn’t going to happen, not unless car regulations change greatly.
After all, there are still Yugos and Gremlins and even Pacers out there.
“After all, there are still Yugos and Gremlins and even Pacers out there.”
All of which I would gladly take over a bro-ham.
A V8 Gremlin X would be pretty fun, I must admit. And probably worth more than a big Chrysler.
Indeed. I have a soft spot for the Nimitz class 70’s era Lincoln Continentals, I’d love a ’77 Continental Town Car sedan in black or dark navy blue with a red or blue leather interior, with a 460 and even rear DISC brakes. I bet I could fit my ’12 Wrangler in the trunk of one!
Give me a ’72 Mark IV, and an eight track of “Trouble Man,” and I’d be happy.
Pimptastic!
The driver in the ad had a hard time wrangling it into the shot like he was supposed to. Little jerky there!
I can imagine the sad, dilapidated apartment buildings this has been parked at for the past 10-15 years.
First picture popped this into my mind
I’m Adam and I’m adamant about living large
With the white Sassoons and the looks that kill
Makin’ love in the back of my Coupe DeVille
Datin’ women on TV with the help of Chuck Woolery
If you can afford a Cadillac you can afford a Hotel room…
:D
Ah, but why not one in the same?
Back in the 60’s and 70’s, it was referred to as the Cadillac Hotel.
On one hand, kill the roof with fire, on the other, the leather was well protected. I wonder what a swab test of the back seat would yield. Amazing how it looks so much like a Pontiac with the parking lights removed in the front 3/4 shot. Would not have wanted to parallel park this beast.
Having owned a ’72 (daily driver, ’82-’84), I can tell everyone that these beasts were a joy on the freeway and, perhaps remarkably, rather easy to parallel-park. All four corners of the car were easy for the driver to see, and when you cranked the wheel over, the front wheels seemed almost sideways.
And as long as the frame held out, they were pretty cheap to repair.
As the owner of a ’69, couldn’t agree more. Was limited to urban street parking for the first year we owned her; and with weekly street sweeping, got very good at it. However that um, rear window treatment on this one is another issue. Looks as difficult as my SRX.
My dad’s ’75 had a bent frame, and that, combined with the pinky steering, made the car considerably less than joyful on the highway.
Diamond in the back, sunroof top, Diggin’ the scene with a gangsta lean…
You beat me to it!
Did someone already pull the TV antenna in the back?
With my mind on my money and my money on my mind.
+1
I’m glad it’s going to the crusher. That interior needs to die.
Why do you say that?
Terrance was in an endless pursuit.
Parked under the mottled sunlight of the big oak next to the park, the big Cad exuded a sumptuous romantic pampering. The sounds of soft lip-smacking in the back seat accompanied the Curtis Mayfield spinning in the CD player perfectly.
“Though you may not drive a great big cadillac
Diamonds in the back, sunroof top, diggin the scene
With the gangster lean
gangster whitewalls
Tv antenna in the back…”
“It gettin’ cold up in here.”, commented Lisa. The Caddy’s mammoth A/C compressor kicked out commercial refrigerator-grade air from it’s vents. “This car got some GANGSTER A/C.”, Terrance boasted. He lifted Lisa’s ankle high, then ran his hand all the way down her leg to the crotch of her cellulite-crammed daisy dukes. “Don’t worry gurl. I got something to warm you up.”, he said, licking his lips. His attempt to tickle her fancy was not well received. Lisa’s leg kicked wildly as if out of reflex, and her stiletto heel dug into the crimson headliner. Chunks of vintage foam backing sprinkled down on Terrance’s fro, angering him. “B, what da f^ck wrong wit chu?!” The girl of his dreams turned sour in an instant. Lisa’s face went ugly as she accosted the young man. “You think I’m some kinda ho? Gonna do me down right here in the park next to your boys?” She flipped the front seat forward, which bounced and squeaked on it’s leather cushion, then bolted out of the door. “Can’t believe I let myself got into this shitty Cadillac in da first play!” Terrance followed her out into the blinding sunlight. He squinted in the direction of the basketball court. One of the guys picked the ball out of play and pointed, directing their gaze at Terrance and the furious Lisa. They laughed. Terrance turned to Lisa enraged. “Bi#$H! Get da F^ck on!”, he shouted, waving her away. Lisa gave him the hand. “Don’t chu call me motherf$%*er.” She then pulled her cellphone out of the tight back pocket, and clopped down the broken sidewalk. Terrance steamed as watched that ass waddle off into the sunset.
T hopped into his hooptie. The seat received him like a landing cushion at the circus. The starter whirred the big block alight. He pulled the column lever down, and chirped a tire. Next stop, the gas station…again. “Can’t believe dis motherf$%*er on E again.” He pulled up to a pump, and flipped down the expired license plate. The gas cap was removed, and he shoved the fuel nozzle into the beast’s hungry maw. Terrance hated looking at his car from the outside. Roof ripped, one hubcap left, all urethane fillets long gone…”This car be a bucket.” He had a long time to admire it too, while he pumped gallons and gallons of mid-grade into the huge holding tank. The words “No Triv1” were scratched right there to remind him that others thought of him as a some sort of ghetto idiot. Terrance grabbed some menthol’s, a lotto ticket, 40 ounces of malt liquor, and “Big Booty” magazine at the register. The total crested well over $100. “Dayum!”
It was a depressing day, and he couldn’t wait. The cap on the bottle of Old English was spun off. The big booty of the DeVille gyrated over the bumps. One side of the rear axle stirred the air thanks to the totally blown out rear shock. When the blinding red, blue, and white light blasted through the diamond window, it came as a surprise. Terrance’s first instinct was to run. He pinned the V8, and accelerated lethargically away from LA’s finest. Terrance whipped the wheel to make the right turn into a neighborhood abyss. The DeVille responded like a staggering drunk. It under-steered into the curb, sending the last hubcap flying. The Chicago transplanted pimp-mobile’s journey would end here. With his steed mortally wounded, Terrance’s fight was gone from him. He let the Cadillac squeal to a stop.
The arresting officer was flabbergasted. “You’re gonna run from us because of expired tags?” Terrance, handcuffed in the back seat of the squad car, only shrugged. The Caddy was thoroughly searched by officers. Surely, there must be more to it than an open container, and expired registration. The carpeting was pulled up, and brittle trim was forcibly removed. They found nothing. It appeared that Terrance was simply an imbecile.
Lisa reluctantly picked up her man from the police station.
“I suppose we have to go get your stupid ass car too?”
“Nah man, fu^k that thing.”
OH MY GOD. Lol. Classic.
Mid-grade though? You fo sho bout dat?
To help with all the pinging.
Ah ha!
Blastin’ that GANGSTA A/C and sipping on some Old E…
There’s a song in there somewhere.
I thought Old English was a furniture polish, or a floor cleaner.
Clearly, you are not as gangsta as I am :)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olde_English_800
Colt 45 seems to be the go to around these parts. Back in college, a Steel Reserve 22 oz can was the best buy for $1 or so.
I live in the burbs now, and my kegerator filled with Founder’s Porter is certainly not gangsta.
@bball
I’m truly taken aback… Founders porter… not the oatmeal stout nobody likes, not the moderately good IPA, but the kick-ass-and-take-names-lets-go-bomb-Hanoi-again porter. It’s like you read my mind.
Its the beer I always go back to. I try so many beers now, but I always have a case/barrel of Founders Porter in my house. If I get some cases of Founders Kentucky Breakfest Stout (KBS) this year, I will gladly ship some your way.
Thx for the kind offer. Until about 2009 I didn’t even drink beer and preferred vodka or gin/tonic. Now so many beers, so little time. Have you ever sampled Great Lakes’ Edmund Fitzgerald?
I have. I like it as well. I’m in the Cleveland/Akron area for work often. It seems to be on tap alot of places in Northern Ohio (probably since its made in Cleveland).
Founders is my porter of choice, but the Fitz is a close second for me.
Pittsburgh’s microbrews don’t really have a porter I am aware of but Church Brew works offers a nice dunkel and Penn Brewery has a range of excellent beers including a wicked seasonal bock. The pale ale isn’t too bad either.
http://www.churchbrew.com/
http://www.pennbrew.com/
I’ll have to try them next time I’m in Western PA. I’ll also check with my friend to see if they are distributed in Michigan.
Every time I’m in Ohio, I find myself bombarded with requests to bring back Yuengling. We don’t get it in Michigan. I don’t buy it for myself, but everyone else seems to like it.
Yuengling? That’s interesting.
Yuengling or “yinling” as it is pronounced in these parts isn’t bad but isn’t particularly good enough for export, IMO.
I think its like a VW Polo three cylinder diesel. Since we can’t get it, people want it. Once you have it a few times, you realize there is a reason no one bothered to import it.
GLB Edmund Fitz FTW all the way, baby!!! Not normally a “heavy” beer person (I always joke that the only use for Guinness is for when my crankcase is down), but GLB’s concoctions are damn nice! (And of course, take a walk around the corner to the West Side Market and grab some Steve’s Gyros!!! Adam Richman on Man Vs. Food made it famous, and I got to sample some last October–OMIGAWD!!! :-D )
I’ve gotten into craft beers a little bit over the last year, and India Pale Ales (IPAs) in particular, with Maumee Bay Brewing Company IPA being my local fave.
And I cannot figure out what the big deal is about Ying-Yang..err..Yuengling! Nothing to write home about, IHMO! Just like the Coors stuff back in the “Smokey And The Bandit” days: simply a forbidden fruit!
Maumee Bay? Where are they out of?
Maumee Bay Brewing Company is out of Toledo. Back in the day, Buckeye Beer was a famous Toledo export along with Tony Packo’s Hungarian Hot Dogs and Jamie Farr (Klinger on M*A*S*H). Several years ago when MBBC started up, they brought back the recipe for it.
Wow. That’s almost exactly how I pictured the end for this Cadillac.
Hey bball, next time you’re in Cleveland, go to Ohio City, near west side, and visit the Great Lakes brewery. It’s a great little place to have good food and great beer. Make sure you check out their basement pub as well. Cool old building.
As I stated, that is a neat area, very eclectic! While going to obtain my Steve’s Gyros, I just had to stop and sample a tomato from one of the myriad produce vendors; it doesn’t get ANY fresher! And those Gyros are the best outside of Greece or a New York pushcart, IMHO! (Right across from where I work, a hole-in-the-wall had HUGE, dinner-plate-sized gyros for a song, with a HUGE order of fries to go with, until the health department (or INS) closed them down!! They were quantity!! But Steve’s tzatziki sauce (not like normal, but with perhaps a little) and their marinated lamb (with a little more “snap” than usual — could be a little horseradish or a touch of Worcestershire in it) is QUALITY!!! And even then, the meat in a Jumbo gyro will fill a normal Rubbermaid round container! I bought two Jumbos, plus a Regular to eat after driving home to the Toledo area, along with a baggie of pita shells, and the grease went through the bag these things were in and onto my trunk floor, which, thankfully, has a liner!! After sharing several gyros with a buddy and his wife, I still had several meals left!! Not bad for ~$35!!)
I owned a ’77 Eldorado, what a wonderful car it was.
I agree, I hate seeing stuff like this crushed. I would love some sort of eccentric rich person to start a foundation to save cars like this from the crusher, but that’s a pipe dream.
The problem with this era of car is that it truly is just too expensive to drive around and no one wants to put big money into a restoration with zero chance of getting that investment back.
For whatever reason big Chryslers are basically worthless. You can even get a pretty immaculate 1970 300 for like 15 grand, and any lesser model is going to be far cheaper than that. I bet you can get a 76-78 New Yorker Brougham coupe with under 100k miles in great condition for less than 10 grand.
I suppose it’s good for the future car collector I’d like to be, but it’s still rather sad.
Because these aren’t considered classics, they’re dirt cheap.
But anything that has a whiff of a “muscle car” has exploded in price.
You could find a really nice example of the Cadillac in the article for probably under $5,000.
These some day will probably be worth a lot more, but cars usually make horrible investments.
Big 70’s Chryslers were almost always sold at huge discounts because of the fuel crisis and the fact they didn’t have the cachet of a Cadillac. A lot of them survive today, but they’re missing several key factors that make them desirable. I do love me come fuselage C bodies, but haven’t found a good enough reason to own one. Really nice Newports and New Yorkers can be readily had under $5000.
The 79 New Yorker (one on ebay now in white/red) is a symphony of brougham awfulness. But it’s like $2500.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Chrysler-New-Yorker-1979-chrysler-new-yorker-really-nice-original-car-runs-great-leather-just-2599-/141175251619?forcerrptr=true&hash=item20deb362a3&item=141175251619&pt=US_Cars_Trucks
This one? R-bodies are really rare. Not particularly valuable, but I can’t say I’ve ever seen one.
And the way I see it, the best reason to own a C-body is if you like the styling, because all of the Chryslers (the Plymouths and Dodges less so) of that time were rather nicely styled cars. The 74-75 Imperial/76-78 New Yorker Brougham is a big beautiful behemoth in this commenter’s opinion.
I had a soft spot for these especially the St. Regis. Once the GM B bodies were introduced in 77 and Ford introduced the Panther in 79 it seemed like Chrysler pre-bailout had to right size their full-sizers. Back around 79 until the early 80’s the town I grew up in had St. Regis police cruisers which replaced mid-70’s Fury’s and Coronets. For some reason they had the clear plexiglass headlight doors propped in the upright position.
“This was a bargain. I picked it up at the Mount Prospect City police auction last spring. It’s an old Mount Prospect police car. They were practically giving them away.”
Yes that one! Pretty rare, I think because they were so hideous. Lol.
I think they’d be more valuable as restomods, if their interiors are serviceable and bodies have no rust.. An all black Caddy of this vintage with a modernized big block and disc brakes could be a lot of fun..
(don’t forget the chandeliers on the front fenders, and V antenna on the trunklid!)
I’m guessing if this was a RWD Deville/Fleetwood it may fall into that category, but the Eldos have that longitudinal FWD setup. In theory you could purchase a new THM400 (or whatever RWD used) or even get creative and swap in a new drivetrain in a Deville, for Eldo I’m not sure and it might limit its potential.
There’s speed parts available for the 368/425/472/500 family to boost power to 500hp easily. find an EFI intake for the 500 and you can adapt your port injected Caddy engine after tossing the early EFI system to a megasquirt or something else.
I don’t think the floor would allow the driveline to the rear, but the rear axle is just a beam with some leaf springs.
Chandeliers on the fenders?
Who are you – the Duke of New York or something?
Ship them over to Europe. At least here in Norway they are rare enough that they can fetch some money in nice condition. No point on buying an American car if its a sensible, small and handling car, you can get that anywhere…
No one can hear your screams!
I dare you to put a black light on that back seat.
Good Lord, the only thing worse than that red leather (I think) would be the same interior in Miami Coke Lord White.
Seventies gas sucking pig brougham sedans and similar abominations like the above Coupe DeVille are unloved, but I find them far more interesting than the ’57 Chevys and Sixties muscle cars everybody seems to want. A neighbor has a pimped out ’72 Eldo with CB radio, shag carpeting, custom vinyl roof and front clip–ugly but oddly appealing. Give me that any day, or an early Seventies Imperial.
The early 70s Imperial is a work of art with its hidden headlights and downright enormous grille, like a titanic mouth devouring subcompacts to feed its V8 heart.
I guess I’m the only one who loves that red interior. Even the dash matches! In the rare car in which you can still get a red or blue interior, they don’t bother with matching dashboards anymore.
And am I the only one couldn’t stop thinking about the Highlander during that commercial?
Me too. I would love to find a way to pull it and turn into a love seat, which would be appropriate because I would probably be searching for a new wife as my wife would say “sayonara”…
Loveseat?? That’s a sofa, good for 3 across, even with the armrests built into the sides.
My dad had a ’74 Sedan DeVille- the Endura panels in the rear fins rotted out around 1978.
Fun Fact: the little pod above the interior rear window contain mini brake lights, which alert the driver (via the rear view mirror) as to when the brakes are depressed.
Thanks for that, now I will have to search every old Cadillac I see at the pull a part to add to my Strange Accessories collection.
Most of the big GM barges had that, as did my stepfathers loaded Grand Prix. There should be little repeaters on the front fender that show the headlights and turn signals are working too. Early fibre optics application.
Some poor pimp is walking these days.
Thought Chrysler had a simpler system on the front fenders for front signals only, plus the left one, called “Fuel Pacer,” would light up when you floored it.
They blinked in concert with the turn signals too.
And don’t forget the removable trash bin in the front passenger footwell, and the little light in the door handle that illuminated the keyhole below. Those little pods on the front fenders had indicators that lit up when you hit the high-beams.
These cars were f**kin’ boss.
Ahh…to have limitless time and limitless funds.
This would be on my fix-up list. Love the diamond shaped rear window.
Can you imagine these 70s Nimitz class cars built today with the precision of robots, direct injection, computers to sort out the smog controls, and 8 speed transmissions?
That’s the future I wanted back in the 80s when I became aware of cars as a young lad.
Ahem.
https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2011/01/fiction-the-cafe-continuum/
Oh I know that one Jack…
But thanks for bringing that one back up for all of those who have joined our little party since 2011. ;)
Any fever dreams like that while you were in recovery? From that accident involving your Lincoln Continental with the Town Car package…
There will always be the Panther Ford had at Livonia transmission with the 5.0L among other modern upgrades. If only they would have spent the money to modernize the Panthers. Maybe Wixom could still be open too….
The jingle in the ad is nuts. “This one is the leader…” of a cheesy ’70s hippie cult maybe.
Send it to Cuba to live out its life as it should
Ah, reminds me of my dad’s ’75 Coupe DeVille. The thing was delivered to him with a bent frame, and it wandered all over the highway like a lost soul.
Well -I- like it just fine .
Especially the whorehouse red interior .
As mentioned these thirty beasts were wonderful open road cars and easy to park too .
Sadly , it looks like my 1980 Fleetwood S & S Victoria Hearse may need to be sold this Spring .
-Nate
I also appreciate that interior.
When (if) I am able to start collecting and restoring cars (again), malaise era Big 3 luxury barges will be my auto of choice.
Keep the body and interior original and then upgrade the other components.
Parallel parking these as others have mentioned was not that hard. Fairly good visibility and one finger steering. I took my driver’s exam in a ’73 Lincoln, with no problems. The examiner was so impressed with the car that he basically gave me a ‘pass’ from the start but still made me parallel park.