Along with all of General Motor's full-size models, all Cadillac's, generally speaking save for the engine and transmission, where "all-new" for 1965. A new "full-perimeter" frame replaced the infamous "X-frame", the engine was pushed six-inches forward making the front end now longer than the distance between the front seat and the trunk and the tail-fins, a Cadillac mainstay going back to 1948, mercifully, where finally gone. Well, for the most part as the rear taillights and the top of the rear fenders still paid homage to them. Up front, the headlights were stacked and that styling detail lasted through 1968; for 1969 like on our well worn, perhaps too well worn '69 here, the side-by-side arrangement was back (federal mandate apparently) and it transformed the '65 vintage deVille into what appeared to be a new model almost as radical a departure as the '65's where from what came prior.
Although there's little underneath to decipher a '65 from a '69, save for different engine, and despite that years back I spent some significant wheel time with a '67 Coupe deVille convertible and was mortified by how primitive the whole contraption was, I've been a sucker for 1969 and 1970 deVille's for as long as I can remember. Coupe deVille's in particular.
And who knows why that is, really. When I was a kid my parents would call on Dr. Harrington, a pediatrician who made house calls (!!) and he drove a light blue Cadillac two-door; a '69 or a '70. It didn't have a vinyl top so that tells me it was a Calais; the base model Cadillac back then. He was a kind yet stentorian, authoritative gentleman who turned my mother into a babbling school girl goo. Perhaps it was her admiration for the man and anything associated with him that several years later spurred her want for a Cadillac. Subconsciously, is my affection for these cars because of Dr. Harrington as well? Under my mother's constant goading, my father bought a used 1972 Sedan deVille in the summer of '78 that never quite came up to what Dr. Harrington drove. Different generation and all but still, it didn't come close for a number of reasons in my book.
Us Cadillac cognoscenti, I blog about Cadillac's perhaps more than any other vehicle make or model, have our favorites and these might just be mine. Despite their foibles. The interior's were garbage, the one on our '69 here is a bit of an extreme of course, but even with a fresh set of seat covers and all new baubles and bits, it's a plastic-injection mold hell that was no better than something you'd find in a Buick Electra or Oldsmobile 98. Shoot, a Chevrolet Caprice of the vintage as well.
When did Cadillac's stop becoming "Cadillac's"; or as they used to obnoxiously if not erroneously tout, "The Standard of the World?" Tough to say. As with people, declines are rarely rapid; it takes years to hit rock bottom. It was a gradual decline that you could say began the instant that Cadillac reached it's styling and engineering zenith (subjectively) in the late 1940's. Each subsequent model afterwards being less special than the one's before it relying on styling gimmicks and marketing savvy to sell the image of the brand rather than something truly substantial. It all culminated ultimately in the oh-so-disastrous 1980's.
As for our subject here, it popped on my Facebook marketplace feed wanting, needing a new home. "Please, Charley...buy me. Rescue...me". With an asking price a hefty $2,200, when did $500 bombs like this all of a sudden command four-figures?, that, to me at least, seems like all the money in the world for a car that appears to need everything. Sorry, big fella. I just can't.
Owner claims the engine runs although the gas tank is shot and he feeds it fuel from a gas can. Transmission shifts well. Certainly not the end of the world if that's the extent of what it needs mechanically. But that's rarely the case with original and un-restored cars that actually need to be restored. Or crushed up and recycled.
They mention nothing about how bad the rust is. We can see some on the body here and that's bad enough but seeing it's a Wisconsin car it's probably seen its fair share of mid-western winters. If they use salt to keep roads safe out there rest assured there might be issues with the floors not to mention the frame. Get this thing on a lift to see for sure. Don't be surprised if it folds in two when you try to raise it.
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