Ep. 29 A Struggle Called Cadillac: Part I

A classic car connaisseur gives an overview of what started American luxury brand Cadillac's great decline, and how they tried and tried and tried to revive their once legendary name.

Hold onto your butts, because this is only part one of a two-part episode!
Link:

Remember to like, subscribe and share if you want more of this!

You can always email me at:

Enjoy!

[ivaniii]

I think now more than ever I need a classically oriented Cadillac. A obscenely padded bench seat, 15 inch wheels with massive rubber and it to be removed entirely from sportiness. Today even luxury cars are too harsh and they try to be sporty.

[tazkrebbeks]

I once met a gentleman at a car show. He had a Rolls-Royce. As he was explaining stuff to a another person. I kid you not! He said this is the Cadillac of rolls-royce's.

[jon-paulfilkins]

They are like a band that was really good in the 60's and 70's that coasted on past glories in the 80's and became a joke in the 90's an this century, coasted on the retro revival circuit ever since.

[ianperkins]

Ed's Auto Reviews: The Cadillac of Car Videos on YouTube

[almeisam]

My second car was a 1967 Cadillac Coupe deVille. And yes, it really did feel like I was driving a boat.

[chrismarasco]

My 90-yr-old grandfather never liked Cadillac, even though he’s a GM guy through and through. Born and raised in rural Oklahoma through the early 50’s, the general attitude towards Cadillac among his peers at the time was that it was an old man’s car. I guess some things never change. When his kids grew up and left home, he went with a Continental Mark IV and never once considered Cadillac.

[person.w]

TBH Cadillac is in the best position they've been in for a while. In the past decade we've had the escalade getting better and better, CTS-V, ATS-V, CT6-V and the Blackwing cars.

[urbanoteal]

I love the idea of a 1970 Eldorado or Coupe DeVille, because that was luxury. Everything was padded, everything was well designed and the ride was incredibly comfortable. “Luxury” cars of today are too focused on being sporty to be luxurious, even the Alpina B5 (a BMW M5 modified by Alpina) which markets itself as a more comfortable less sporty M5 us still too much. In my opinion the best two door luxury coupe is the Rolls Royce Wraith, necause it captures the luxury and the ride without focusing on the performance aspect too much. It isn’t slow but it isn’t a sportscar either.

[deanchur]

Cadillac: Makers of the world's greatest concept cars.

Imagine where Cadillac would be if they put their concept cars into production.

[EdgyNumber]

Cadillac should've moved further up the value chain, like an American Rolls Royce, Bentley or Maybach.
But guess what? GM corporate devalued it.

[Sevenfeet]

I'm in my mid 50's and I'm driving my SEVENTH Cadillac. I grew up watching my relatives drive them....my mother had a 1979 Seville. My mother's parents had a '74 Coupe DeVille and a '76 Sedan DeVille when I was a kid, and my father's mother drove a '77 Sedan DeVille. My first was a 1980 Coupe DeVille that I got used in college. The second was a 1993 Sedan DeVille I bought from my mother, which was her last Cadillac. Not that she passed on...she's very much still alive. it's just that her local Caddy dealer treated her like she was a idiot when it came down to negotiation (she was and is a school executive in a large US city) and she stormed off and bought a Lexus. Now her NX300 is her 5th Lexus. Such is another Cadillac problem....they had dealer network problems where they couldn't even keep their legacy customers due to screw ups like that. 

But I continued with the brand next buying a 2003 CTS. The first year CTS still had the Catera's engine but the my car had the FE3 suspension so it handled really well. The interior was not up to snuff though. The story goes that GM spent a fortune on that interior and it still looked cheap. I even pointed out to my dealer all the places in the interior that should be changed. Still, my wife and I liked the CTS for its handling but kids arrived and so we sold it and bought a 2005 SRX. I had that car longer than any car I've driven before or since....nearly 10 years. When that car died, I convinced my wife to let me buy a 2015 CTS V-Sport my dealer had that was a demonstrator model. I LOVED that car. it was fast and nimble. The 420 HP twin turbo V6 made speeding tickets easy. I upgraded the tires and it got better still. 

But this was my only leased car and when the lease expired, my wife didn't want to buy out the car and I ended up taking a 2013 SRX off the lot to save money. What a downgrade. Another average mid-sized SUV with barely enough room for my increasingly growing family. I really needed an Escalade but my wife wouldn't have it (size, fuel economy). But then last year a dear family friend needed to part with his 2018 XTS AWD since he's too old to drive it now. So I sold the SRX and bought his XT5. The XT5 is far nicer as a 3rd gen replacement for my original 2005 SRX. But it doesn't make me smile like the CTS V-Sport did.

So why am I still with the brand? Some of it has to do with practicality. My extreme height (2m10cm) limits my options for vehicles and Cadillacs have worked more often than not. The second issue is that I have a great dealer who is owned and operated by a friend of mine for 30 years. His dealership was so good that they literally chased the other dealership in town out of business (the one that lost my mother's business to Lexus) and that dealership closed after being in business since 1915....105 years! But when you have a good dealer experience where everyone literally knows your name, you don't want to leave it.

[marqbarq]

Seriously one of the most entertaining car channel on YouTube. Keep it up Ed. My father had, and loved, an ‘86 Cadillac Brougham. Then went to a Lincoln Mark IV. Land yachts. You didn’t park them, you moored it. Oddly he was not old, he was 6’6” and had no taste.

[garvitchaudhary]

GM has consistently been on the cusp of greatness, but f#$ed up that moment royally that too consistently again and again and again.

[hadjiioke]

I'm surprised you didn't mention the American hip-hop scene and their love of the Escalade in the late 90's and early 00's. Put some spinners on them and you were hot shit!

[uncinarynin]

Opel actually participated in the upper class with the Diplomat and Senator in the 1960s to 1980s. Success was moderate as it was perceived more as a mass-market brand so upper management didn't find it prestigious enough, even though technically they weren't that far behind the luxury brands of the era. The common history of Opel and GM ended with the Opel Insignia / Buick Regal, now in the middle class.

[HomerJ]

When I graduated college in 1986, I bought a 1983 Coupe DeVille. It was nothing like the classic Cadillacs of the 60s and 70s, but I loved it. It felt good to drive it. I liked being a 23 year old driving a big luxury car. I still miss it.

[petercrowl]

In about 1978 after my 1952 Buick got totaled while parked I bought a 1965 Fleetwood Brougham from the original owner for $600. That was a fantastic car!

[RichieRouge]

Great video Ed! It’s sad to see how Cadillac fell so far from grace. Ironic isn’t it that suddenly everyone had Cadillacs. Fast forward to the 2000s and the roads are littered with crap 1-series, A1/A3 and A-class - cheap cars for the masses for whom image is the No.1 buying factor. I personally hope they all suffer from their own popularity - sick to death of seeing them absolutely everywhere - they are no longer the same cars as they used to be.

[CountryFarmBoyUSA]

Lincoln had a great commercial in the late 90's I believe about how the Cadillac looked like a Buick and a Pontiac and a Chevy. A guy is getting his Cadillac from a Valet and a guy says hey isn't that my Buick and another guy says no its my Chevy. Then a Lincoln pulls up and the valet gives the Lincoln guy his keys and says here's your Lincoln. They all looked at it and thought wow, that's different. It looked like totally different from the Caddy. Great commercial. 8-)

[blahblahhaha]

I absolutely love what Lincoln has been doing recently, they haven't tried to compete with the Germans or Cadillac they just make beautiful comfortable luxury vehicles they don't try to pretend to be something they're not and I think that they're beautiful