1986 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham - The Long Road Back

I knew the car buried in a snowbank at the transmission shop next to my office in Youngstown, Ohio was a 1980 to 1989 Cadillac, but I wasn't sure what it was exactly. Well, this week the permafrost finally receded and, much to my delight, I see that it's a one-year-only, Oldsmobile 307 V-8 powered, Fleetwood Brougham. Let's kick its fake "wires" and take a closer look. 

In 1985 and 1986, Cadillac had two different Fleetwood models. The new-for-1985, front-wheel-drive "Fleetwood" and the old rear-wheel-drive "Fleetwood Brougham's" like our '86 here. Cadillac had planned for the front-wheel-drive models to replace these cars, but a last-minute stay of execution. kept the hangman's noose at bay for more than a decade. 

For 1986, Cadillac finally did what they should have done going back to 1981 - put Oldsmobile's gasoline 5.0-liter V-8's in these and eschew the dated paradigm that a Cadillac should be powered by a Cadillac V-8. Holding onto that old-school axiom cost Cadillac more than just market share, it helped tarnish Cadillac's reputation with Boomers, their parents, their children and beyond. 

Granted, Cadillac had more problems back then than just the dreadful engines they put in these cars.  Baby Boomers came of age in the early to mid '80's and the newly monied ones turned their back on Cadillac taking to German imports instead because, frankly, Cadillac had nothing to offer them. An engine, though that didn't detonate without warning would have been one less headache to deal with. And a headache that did as much damage to Cadillac's image and reputation overall as not having the anything for "Boomers". 

Cadillac built its reputation on innovation and engineering as much as positioning itself as a "luxury automobile" maker, therefore it's somewhat ironic they had as many missteps under the hood as they did in the early '80's. Stinkers like the "V-8-6-4" in 1981, the "HT4100" from 1982 to 1985 not to mention the Oldsmobile diesel V-8. Lest we forget, in 1981 and 1982, Buick's 252-cu. in. V-6 was the standard engine in these cars. Now, the big Buick V-6 didn't blow up like the other engines, but a Buick V-6 in a Cadillac? Seemed Cadillac was hell bent on self-mortification. 

 

Combine the engineering faux pas with questionable product planning and we see how Cadillac lost more than just market share back then. 

 

Doing the "right thing" and putting Oldsmobile's gas V-8 in these cars seemed simple if not logical but it meant more than that - it meant that Cadillac acknowledged their past transgressions and was finally doing something about it. As is usually the case, though, the long road back hasn't always been smooth sailing. In many ways Cadillac is still on that road to recovery and will be for the foreseeable future. 

From 1987 through 1992, to mercifully simplify things, these cars became known as the just "Cadillac Brougham".