Cadillac's 1968 vintage deVille was not what Cadillacs of less than a decade prior were
Growing up in the vast concrete and asphalt prairie of southwest Long Island, I felt as though I was suffering from a hangover from a party that I missed. My mother, reminded me of that every chance she could with her terse mantra of, "things are just not what they used to be."
My mother's idea of what a Cadillac was all about it. 1955.
Mom had a point. By the '70s, for sure, things were not what they used to be. The glow of post War America and the boundless enthusiasm and optimism that came with it had vanished. The country was reeling from the impact of the Vietnam War. Watergate was percolating. A recession, bell bottoms, disco music and leisure suits were taking hold. On the home front, my mother struggled with crippling depression spurred on, she claimed, by the death of her parents and sister.
Could they have been any more wrong?
On top of all this, my father was facing a massive life change that, much like my mother's depression, affected us all; he lost his job. Apparently, we went from a family that never talked about money to one that scrimped on everything. Not that I knew any better. As far as I was concerned we were always poor. I wanted to turn back the clock so I could attend the party that I was born too late to attend. If things were not what they used to be my only hope was that things would somehow, someway get better.
Where I grew up was more than a cross roads of streets. It was a cross roads of classes.
Cars were a most welcomed distraction. On the block I grew up on, there were mundane Bel Airs, a couple of Ford Country Squires, Plymouth Valiants, Cutlass sedans. There were "cool cars" too like a 1964 and a 1967 Impala SS coupe, a '67 Camaro, a '66 Olds 98, a '72 Lincoln Continental, a 1952 Pontiac Chieftain (I thought it, along with its owners ancient), a '69 Buick Skylark and the apple of my eye, a jet black 1962 Cadillac Series 62 convertible that belonged to the Donovan family. They lived across the street from us. For the record, we had a rental light, sky blue, 1968 Ford Ranch Wagon. Think Ford Country Squire with no soul. Oh, the pain. The pain.
There it is. It looks virtually the same from the outside as it did when I was a kid. The interior has been completely redone.
Built between 1918 and 1927, Overlook Place is very narrow. Back then, they had no reason to believe that cars would become as big as they would become in less than fifty years. No one could park across the street from a driveway. You couldn't get out if someone did.
Riding in the back, that Cadillac was everything I could've imagined it to be. And more so. The soft white leather, the chrome, the cool air blowing gently out of the dash board. The music playing all around me. The mood lighting. It was spectacular. I felt I was in a movie. I didn't want to get out.
The Donovans house. I thought they were wealthy because they owned Cadillacs
One day, a red Cadillac appeared in the Donovan's drive way. Unbeknown st to me, the '62 had been stolen and it was found partially dismantled and burnt out in Long Island City. The Big Red Cadillac, a 1970 Coupe deVille convertible, was its replacement. The Big Red Cadillac caused a commotion on Overlook Place. After all, it wasn't everyday that a new car, albeit three years old at the time, appeared on our block. And, best of all, it was a Cadillac.
Cadillac "magnificence" was alive and well in 1962. Cadillacs featured a level of comfort, convenience and style that you could not find on "lesser" cars. Storm clouds were brewing, though. As GM stopped refining Cadillac Mercedes Benz and other European makes were also about to become the luxury car of choice for taste makers. Instead of adapting to that sea change, Cadillac marketed their brand appeal on nothing more than on image of what the brand used to stand for.
I dragged my father across the street to the mini press conference that had sprung up in the Donovan's driveway. Ohhhs and ahhhs ensured as Mr. D opened the door on the Big Red Cadillac to show it off. My father was right there, first in line, to give Mr. D an emphatic pat on the back and a vigorous handshake. "One day, George" my father bellowed in his best game show host like baritone, "we'll get one too. Till then, we'll just have to eat our hearts out!" I rolled my eyes. First at how cheesy my father was and more so because the way things were going back at our house, I knew that our rusty, soulless, light blue Ford Ranch Wagon was going to be our terminally awful ride for a miserably long time.
Our neighbor's '62 was the most magnificent car I had ever seen. I still think it spectacular.
Mr. Donovan, a Daily News delivery truck driver was a humble man of few words. A humble man who happened to love Cadillacs. He thanked my father for the accolades but he looked fore lorn. He took a step back from the impossibly large car, looked down and mumbled, "You know, as nice as this is, it's not the '62. They don't make 'em like they used to." My heart sank. The last thing I wanted to hear was that. It seemed there was no respite from, "not what it used to be..." Are you kidding me? I missed the party again?
Mr. Donovan was right, though. While the Big Red 1970 Cadillac was nice, it lacked the elan or "je ne sais quoi" that the '62 had. The '70 seemed more like a big fancy Chevy than the "The Standard of The World".
Things were not what they used to be. But...what had they been?
Things were not what they used to be. But...what had they been?
By 1970, you could get any number of cars that featured what Cadillac marketed not 10 years prior as luxury items.
By the mid '50s, GM's post war boom as in full bloom and they had grown into the largest corporation in America. Cadillac was its most prestigious brand. Profits were astronomical and shareholders wanted them to keep it that way. To do so, efficiently (cheaply), GM began offering features previously only available on Cadillacs on their "lesser models". This is what is referred to as "trickle down", something GM and most manufacturers with multiple brands practice even today. Problem was, GM stopped pouring developmental dollars into Cadillac and offered their buyers little more than prestige. Those who wanted cutting edge technology and trend setting design were forced to look elsewhere. GM also began making Cadillacs with same injected mold plastic bits and pieces found on lesser models.
It all came to a nonsensical, image only conscious head in the 1980s when Cadillac hawked their wares with the adage, "Best of All, It's a Cadillac!".
For the record, the handsome Fleetwood Brougham in this is ad is little more than a Chevrolet Impala with a long wheelbase powered by an Oldsmobile engine.
By the time Mr. Donovan got the Big Red 1970 Cadillac, the gig was up. Just like that, Cadillac lost its pole position as The Standard of the World. German brands like Mercedes Benz gave their buyers the very best of everything up to an including prestige and status. Not only were things not what they used to be they now had no chance of every even having chance to be what they were.
Mercedes have always commanded a significant tariff. This 1970 sedan was pushed out the door at nearly $16,000; nearly twice the price of a typical Cadillac. It didn't matter. Status seekers pay exorbitantly for exclusivity.
The family that lived behind us where the wealthiest people on the block. Their house was two and a half times the size of anyone else's and it was furnished more lavishly than the house was grand. Their car of choice was Mercedes Benz. Mrs. Richter had a 280 SL. Mr. Richter the SEL sedan. Hand it to The Richters, those rich stiffs, whether they knew it or not, were ahead of the times.
In an attempt to maximize sales, Cadillac became almost too obtainable for the masses. By moving "down", Cadillac opened up a huge hole in the luxury market that Mercedes Benz dove into. BMW followed as well. Luxury makes from Honda (Acura), Toyota (Lexus) and Nissan (Infiniti) in the 1980's further reduced Cadillac's claim of being a premium brand.
What I didn't know at the time was that there was a sea change already a foot, or I should say, "a float". Taste makers like the hoity toity Richters, those trendsetters whose opinions on such things such as style and fashion, had already begun their irrevocable shift over to those European luxury makes like Mercedes Benz and to a lesser extent at the time, BMW.
Not only is the interior of this car sumptuous and exquisitely detailed, the car itself performs at a level that is light years ahead of where not only Cadillac was at the time, but all American makes.
The world class Cadillacs of today owe a lot to Cadillacs like The Big Red Cadillac
Amen to that.
No comments:
Post a Comment