The other day I saw one of these on a flat bed tow truck. It didn't have any license plates on it so much like an ambulance with sirens and flashers off, yet has a patient on board, I knew that big old boy was off to its final resting place. As I drove behind it and noticed the car shimmying as the truck hit pot hold after pothole I realized that, oddly enough considering it was a four door sedan, I really liked the design of it and I wondered what could be so wrong with it that whomever last owned it saw it best to toss it away. I mean, seriously, how bad could it be?
Introduced for 1994, these cars were famous for two reasons. First, because Cadillac had pulled the plug on the Coupe deVille for '94, they were the first Cadillac's to be called simply, "deVille". Secondly, Cadillac changed the chassis deVille was were based on from the "C-body", Buick Electra, Oldsmobile 98, etc, to the Cadillac exclusive "K-body" platform that also underpinned the Seville. They were also noted for being the first deVilles to have Cadillac's infamous NorthStar V-8 engine, some refer to it as "DeathStar", as an optional powerplant. By the way, I don't think the junker I saw on that flatbed had the NorthStar.
After the better part of a decade of clumsy looking coupes and sedans, the '94 deVille finally really looked like something. Problem was, it looked like Cadillac's of yore and in retrospect, I'm not so sure that was a good thing. I mean, while I certainly find the design to be pleasant if not handsome, that's the Cadillac loving "old man" in me saying that and not someone who was in the well heeled position to be able to afford one when these were new. And if I was of the means back then, regardless of how old I was, I know that I probably would have shopped elsewhere. At least shopped let alone purchased a BMW, Mercedes Benz, Audi, Lexus or Infiniti instead. I mean, while these cars were by no means inexpensive when new, they were a relative bargain compared to what they portended to compete against. And when you're spending that much money on a car, what's another ten grand or so to put in your driveway what would really send the Jones' into an "eat-their-heart out" tizzy?
So, the folks these cars catered to where the blue haired Cadillac faithful whom would never consider buying anything else. These cars certainly did nothing to "youth-up" Cadillac and if anything, reinforced that the brand was for oldsters.
That was a shame too considering what robust, strong performing cars these were. NorthStar V-8 and all. They sat six, yes, six!, comfortably, took off like a freaking rocket ship even with the base, 200 horsepower 4.9 liter mill, got pretty good gas mileage considering their size, weight and power, and cornered and stopped in ways no other Cadillac four door, save for the '92 vintage Seville, had ever been able to do before. Slow down, Gramps! You'll spill your Metamucil infused Arnold Palmer.
But, again, given a choice between one of these and say a mid level BMW 5-series, there was no choice. Especially for the under fifty crowd back then. Seriously, can you imagine a fifty year old executive willingly buying one of these back then? A company car? Sure. But buying one on their own? I think not. Sadly, many a "Grand Dad's last car" sat unsold and when sold, went for thousands less than the sticker price.
As we've talked about many times before, Cadillac futzed with a design update of these for 1997 doing away with the pseudo fender skirts and botched the whole thing up. Just as well. No one under sixty was buying them anyway.
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