Some people would look at these big front wheel drive Cadillac's and see just an old car. Others, like us, see a perfectly embalmed time capsule of the way Cadillac used to be. That said, though, they've always vexed us. In a vacuum, they're plush, refined and capable automobiles. However, compared to vehicles that it was allegedly targeted against, those being the heady rear wheel drive makes and models from Germany, they were wannabes in a race of thoroughbreds. Cadillac's philosophy was that these automobiles offered enough of what the far more expensive German makes and models offered at substantial savings.
Offering value, though, is a slippery proposition and no two people view it the same way. Therein lay a large part of the problem Cadillac had with these cars. Buyers of tony German cars have always been willing to pay the cost of admission to a very exclusive club. Buyers of these cars most typically were older Cadillac faithful who bought the logo because they believed it still meant something; even if it was obvious that "Cadillac" didn't mean what it once did.
What "Cadillac" meant at one time was that it was the "Standard of the World". Might have been an advertising pitch but in many ways back then it was true. Before World War II a Cadillac was for all intents and purposes an American Rolls Royce and was defined as much by the exclusive features it offered as much as being marketed as an appliance for the affluent. As the creature comfort and convenience features that Cadillac offered became mainstream and engineering and development of their cars became relatively stagnant, General Motors resorted to marketing their prestige division as an aspirational brand above and beyond anything else. Even if, creature comfort wise, it offered nothing that you couldn't get in the lowest rung Chevrolet. A Cadillac, therefore, became nothing more than a higher priced Chevrolet.
The sea change occurred in the mid 1960's when tastemakers on the coasts began forgoing Cadillac's for supremely well engineered German makes and models. They were, to illustrate what people will pay for prestige, considerably more expensive than Cadillac's too. Just-like-that, if you really wanted to impress the Jones', you bought a Mercedes, not a Cadillac. Throughout the 1970's, while the imports got increasingly better Cadillac, save, arguably, for the Seville which Cadillac failed to keep reinventing after initial sales success, did little to stem the tide of their decline. Said decline, "Best of all it's a Cadillac", culminating in a perfect storm of circumstance, poor planning and less than stellar execution. What rose from the ashes, meanwhile, is not the Cadillac that we're familiar with today but a Cadillac that attempted to Band-Aid multiple bullet wounds with cars like our Fleetwood here.
We forget, though, just how off in the woods Cadillac was with these cars. Again, these aren't "bad cars" per se, it's just that you can't compare them to their competition. Years ago there were rumblings that General Motors was working on a "European inspired", rear wheel drive platform to compete with the imports, but the best that Cadillac came up with was in 1997 when they rebadged an Opel they called "Catera". Meanwhile, back at the opera, Cadillac continued to peddle automobiles that the blue hairs loved and "Baby Boomers" abhorred.
Meanwhile, riddle us this, Toyota and Nissan were able to introduce exquisitely engineered luxury makes and models that turned the tables on the Germans. What's more, they were priced comparably to Cadillac's thus splitting the luxury car market even further. The worst was, they hit the bullseye on what "Boomers" perceived to be a prestige buy. Why couldn't or didn't GM do the same? Seriously, in retrospect, you can't say that they even attempted to. Cadillac didn't have a legitimate hit in the 1990's until they, again, a rebadge, slapped "Escalade" on a GMC Yukon in 1999. Even that was more of a reaction to Ford's Lincoln Navigator rather than anything proactive to offset the imports. Cadillac's target buyers continued to get older and older and as the retirement funds began to run dry, so did their penchant to open the checkbook to buy or lease another Cadillac. Again, and we've said this time and time again, it's a miracle Cadillac is still around today.
Oddly enough, these 1989-1992 Fleetwoods have aged better than any of the other front wheel drive Cadillac's of this vintage. If we were so inclined to buy any Cadillac sedan back then it would be a one of these. Probably has to do with its traditional styling cues and its elongated wheelbase giving the design proper balance. The added length, though, made the cars appear too narrow. The lack of a vinyl top helps to accent its formal roof line in such a way that it gives our subject here a, dare we say, air of Sinatra cool. These days that's a good thing; quarter-century ago that was construed as "old". Have at our big little Fleetwood here if for no other reason you could have a Cadillac that won't embarrass you at the stop light or gas pump and could make you appear cooler and hipper than you ever thought possible. After all, everything old is new again. Here's the listing.
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