The huge cars of that era never really ended it just transferred to SUV’s. My neighbor has a new Escalade and I can’t imagine it’s much smaller than the Cadillac shown here if not even bigger. I would take this Coupe De Ville over any of these fancy SUV’s as they actually have very beautiful lines
Yeah the Escalade is bigger in terms of sheer mass but this Coupe Deville is 3 inches longer than the Long Wheelbase Escalade ESV, which is crazy to wrap your head around! 🤯
Even though the old school coupes and sedans are rather bricklike in shape, I'll bet that they still beat the modern SUVs in terms of aerodynamic drag at highway speeds. With a modern powertrain, the old land yachts would be more economical to drive than the SUVs and crew cab pick-ups that many people use today as family vehicles.
Robert Smith - That's a very good point & observation. I remember being horrified with the size & weight of the new 2000 Ford Excursion.....I just couldn't believe we were going backwards by creating a new ultra-large SUV market....
I had one of these 76 coupes.. The de'Elegance version with the clear hood ornament.. That 500 is a BEAST.. Even choked down, it could leave tire marks. But that happened only ONCE.. The way my gas needle moved, i learned to coast from a stop light. Easily one of the best cars ive owned
I ran mine to near empty once, and put a few gallons of race has in it. Drove it a bit to get it to the carb. On a side street, I came to a dead stop, then floored it. After a few car lengths I had to let up on the throttle to get the peelout to stop!
I bought a 1975 Coupe Deville d'Elegance back in 77 that was a low mileage trade-in. Light blue metallic with dark blue velour seats. It was the first of many Cadillacs. So smooth and comfortable, it was a joy to be in. Wonderful stereo sound system that put the Lincolns of the day to shame. Still have fond memories of that behemoth and the way it wrapped you in luxury and me feel like a king.
Adam, again thank you for the memories of an era gone by. I worked at a Pontiac dealership when I started in the business in 1972. In late 1974 I went to the Buick Cadillac Oldsmobile store. Was always in service except from the summer of 1976 to late summer of 1977. For that one year I was in sales. In late September 1976 I sold my first new Cadillac to a recently retired career Army officer. He had just retired and moved from Alabama to Iowa. Drove up to the dealership in a 1973 Coupe Deville, walked into the showroom in bib overalls with his checkbook in the front pocket. Showed him the last 1976 Coupe Deville we had in stock. Silver with red leather. Was the retired owner's demo with barely a 1,000 miles on it. Within less than an hour the gentleman wrote a check for full window sticker less the wholesale allowance for his 1973 model . He drove off delighted, I was proud for selling my first new Cadillac. Then the aged Sales Manager called me into his office and chastised me for selling Mr. Allen's demo as the downsize 1977's were a few weeks away and there were not any new Cadillacs left in inventory. Mr. Allen called me into his office Monday and congratulated me for selling the last 1976 in inventory. Said he was just fine and would drive his Buick Regal coupe till some new models arrived. That sale has stuck in my memory as being my first Cadillac delivered and what a gorgeous car it was!
'Bib overalls with his checkbook in the front pocket.' 😂🤣 From Alabama to Iowa........why am I not surprised? LOL So based on your story about the sale, I see middle management was pretty much the same even 45 years ago....ASSHOLES!
I sorely miss my Cotillion White, 1976 Cadillac Sedan de Ville. I bought it in 1979 with 28,000 miles on it. I had to sell it in 2008 due to loss of and lack of storage facilities. Almost 30 years of ownership. Best driving automobile I have ever owned. Great highway cruiser. Loved the big, silent 500cid V8 with plenty of reserve power. She had 90,000 miles when I sold her. I miss it terribly.
Someone told me that Cadillac got away from the "casket handles" on the '77 DeVille simply because people started calling them that, and typical Cadillac buyers were old people for whom casket handles might have a somewhat more sinister connotation....
When I see one of these I cannot help but think of the scene in Risky Business where Guido the Killer Pimp chases Joel in the 928.... [Trivia: Three 928's were used in the movie. One was a fire damaged car that had no engine or interior; That's the one that went into the water. The second one was used for the interior scenes and is no longer in existence. The third one was the one in the exterior scenes and sold last year for $1.98 million. Tom Cruise learned to drive a manual transmission in this car and signed the dashboard. I had the opportunity to buy that car in 2005 for $50,000 and turned it down as being outrageously priced....] Great video!
1976 Cadillac, most comfortable seats, front or rear, I ever sat in. Also I could parallel park this car on one try…did it numerous times. It was a great handler with super quick steering. Such an absolute joy.
YOU'RE MR. CLUELESS=😳😳THAT'S WHY THERE'S NONE AROUND LONG TERM! THE FEW AROUND, TODAY WERE HARDLY DRIVEN! THEY WERE STORED AWAY SO AS NOT BE THAT CONSTANT MONEY PIT. MY GRANDFATHER LOVED THESE. THESE OLD RATTLE GAS HOGS😦😦🐷🐷FILLED UP HIS REPAIR SHOPS.💰💰💰💰💰💰
These do indeed handle quite well, i use my 76 Fleetwood Brougham as a daily driver in the summer and i find it to be surprisingly stable. I've also replaced all the shocks and bushings which might help, these tend to be worn out on most causing the bad handling.
Adam, I seriously doubt there's a single item in the parts bin of any domestic auto manufacturer that you don't have cataloged in that mainframe brain of yours, and every one of them with a complete history of development and utilization. Amazing!
My dad and I was in the used car business all of our lives sold a ton of muscle cars ( back in the day ) and 4 Dr. ( Family cars ) we traded for a 76 couple that was a really nice car . My wife and I were going on vacation and went all out through the west .We drove the Coupe De Ville and was really comfortable road fantastic and got pretty decent gas mileage . . My wife only being 5' 4" would crawl in the back seat and take naps and said it was as comfortable as he bed at home . . I loved it . . I ended up keeping it for quite a while after we got back . She drove it every day for maybe a year but when I had in changing the oil a fella come in fell in love with it and I sold it . . I'm still living that one down . . If I could find a nice today I'd buy it in a heart beat . .
One note on cloth seats. My grandfather owned many Cadillacs through the 60s and 70s. He, and many people his age, equated leather seats with open top cars of the 30s. Open top cars, being more affordable in those days, had leather seating. Therefore, they felt the cloth seating was more luxurious.
1910s and 1920s were the heyday of open top cars. By the 1930s, the closed top was more prevalant. By the 1960s, closed tops were universal. Peferring cloth in the 1960s because 40 and 50 year old cars featured leather on cheaper offerings seems odd to me.
My buddy drove one in high school around '88/'89. I drove an MGB, and he would crawl into his trunk to show it had more room than my cars cockpit. Great car.
I was in college in 1976 and my golf professor had an unusual white DeVille coupe w/o the vinyl roof with a beautiful blue interior. It rode and handled like the Queen Mary! I can remember well the shock when the beautiful '77 models came out. Great video!
@@philojudaeusofalexandria9556 A great one, Dr. John Corley. He was a railroad attorney until he retired at 65, then returned to college and worked his way into a Ph.D. in athletics, the oldest doctoral candidate the university ever awarded. He was in his early 80's when I studied under him. I'm left handed and he spent a semester training me to golf right handed with an equal handicap. He used to spend his summers touring the nation's golf courses. A fine man from several decades ago.
Your knowledge is astounding Sir! I love these old oversized cars. Nothing since has compared to the ride of any fullsize American car prior to about 1990 at the end with the peak being from 62 to 76 across GM's offerings in my opinion. Thank you for sharing.
My mother owned a 1976 DeVille in the color shown but with all leather upholstering. I LOVED it. Like driving a tank! Wish I had it today. Wonderful, totally quiet ride. Thanks.
My sister had a 75 coupe de ville, rosewood metallic with a body colored vinyl landau top. Seats had a courdoroy surface (it was actually breathable and very comfortable). I got to drive from Ft. Lauderdale to Disneyworld in 76 when I was 16. It was a magic carpet on a cloud.
wow never ceases to amaze me these videos. my 76 was a touring edition with a few extra features but i had a radiator fail on the highway and the engine was toasted. i sold her too. she was bright yellow with lite brown interior and beautiful wire wheel covers.
Adam Thank You as you are always, so very informative. I bought 2 1976 Caddy's. A Coupe DeVille and Sedan DeVille d'Elegance. Both Kingswood Dark Green. The Coupe had White leather interior and Sedan had Pillow Cushion Seats of a Dark Green Corduroy! My 73' and 76' Cadillacs were the favorite of all the many brand new cars I've bought in my life. I Love, Love, Love automobiles as much as you do!
I recall this car. A woman I worked for when I was in college who is no longer with us owned a 1976 Cadillac Coupe Deville. You are right...the doors are heavy. I remember that more than anything else. The one she had had the same wheel covers and hers had a leather interior. It was not beat up either. I liked the interior casket door handles. She was a small woman. It amazed me how she drove this car. She did. It was fun. She also owned a downsized 1985 Cadillac Coupe Deville at 195 inches long. I rode in the back to back at times in the cars and you could tell and see and feel the difference in major ways. It took me back to see this video. The last Coupe Deville was 1993. GM/Cadillac felt that Eldorado could fill the coupe segment nicely because of its size and the market had changed. Thank you Adam.
Of all of the cars that Adam has shown on this channel that I've wanted, this is the only one that I actually owned for a brief period of time. My grandfather was a small town country doctor in Alabama and when i was a kid, he purchased a 1974 Coupe DeVille (his last car before his death). Two years later he upgraded my grandmother's previous Cadillac with a new 1976 model. But he bought a more expensive Fleetwood Brougham for her, not the Deville. As the story goes, while she was driving the delivered car off the lot, the rear axle cracked. My grandmother wanted nothing to do with a Fleetwood at this point so the deal was modified for a '76 Sedan DeVille that happened to be already on the dealer lot. It's this car that i spent a fair amount of my later childhood in, from age 11 up until college whenever I would spend summers with them or when she visited our home city in Tennessee. After my grandfather passed away in 1977, his car was sold and my grandmother never traded the Deville for the rest of her life. In fact she drove the car until 1991 and it was this car that made us determine that she had passed the point she could safely drive the land yacht when she lightly damaged the front fender pulling into her carport, which she'd done hundreds of times over the years. At that point we moved her to our city, sold her house and parked the Deville under a carport behind her sister's house in the same small town. The problem is that the carport was not completely shielded from weather and although i did want the vehicle, I had no place to store it and time began to erode the car. I would return to the car every so often and turn over the engine and drive it for a little bit. The 8.2L V8 always sprang to life and drove just fine as well as the transmission. But the fender scrape was beginning to rust as was the points at the rear window where the vinyl roof met the trunk. It probably had about 92,000 miles on it toward the end. After my grandmother's death in 1999, we made a family decision to part with the car, a decision i still regret because of the sentimental attachment I had to it. Unlike the Fleetwood, the Deville wasn't that well equipped. It was gun metal gray with the gray interior. It did have leather seats (bench) although the leather quality made you wonder if they were really vinyl. It had a stereo 8-track player, automatic headlamps (but not the guidematic option). The rear seat was ridiculously cavernous.....4 adults could seat back there in a pinch. There was no hood ornament. Otherwise, it wasn't a remarkable equipped vehicle. But it still brings me smiles when i think about it.
Fascinating story dude! I had an uncle who bought a brand new 1980 Fleetwood Brougham which today is a highly sought after car. Awesome color combo too! Black with gray cloth interior. I think it was the D'Elegance model too. He picked it up new at the dealer, drove it literally 3 miles and the entire transmission fell out of it! 😂 He walked to a pay phone, called the dealer and told them 'come and pick up your junk!' As he was a good customer, the dealer ordered the service department to take a transmission out of another new one that was on the lot and put it in my uncle's car. I LOVED that car. He only kept it a year and traded it in on a 1981 Sedan DeVille with the 4-6-8 engine. That was the very first Cadillac I ever drove when I turned 17 and he let me drive it on Thanksgiving day. Having always loved Cadillacs since he bought his 1973 Eldorado, I thought I was in Heaven! I would go on to own 11 Cadillacs and I still drive one (an Escalade). I can't believe your family did that to your grandmother over one little ding in the carport. Even a 25 year old can misjudge ONCE. I know I sure as hell did! LOL And I'm an excellent driver, having learned from my father who was probably the best driver I ever knew. You shouldn't have gotten rid of the car. That little bit of rust where the rear window vinyl meets the trunk was VERY common in the '74 to '76 Cadillacs. It's actually a relatively easy and somewhat cheap fix as long as you do it while its superficial and before it eats in and forms an actual hole. I have a 1976 Fleetwood myself (the D'Elegance model) with only 38K original miles. I have that rust too. It's to big to fit in my garage so I had it under a custom made cover. Well, due to a flaw, the cover ripped. Before they would send me a new one free, I had to send the old one back for them to do 'tests.' It took them a couple months over the winter. Sadly, because it was exposed to the snow and ice, that rust spot formed as well as one other where the passenger door meets the fender. You are right about the quality of the leather. About 20 years ago, I also had a 1976 Sedan DeVille with leather interior. It was HORRIBLE especially in the winter. It didn't feel like leather at all but more like my grandmothers 1973 Buick which had vinyl interior. Strange that your grandmother's car was gray on gray. When I was a kid, my neighbor up the street had a '76 Sedan DeVille in that exact same color scheme. I don't like gray in cars. Too neutral and reminds me of a Navy ship! LOL
@@jay241971 Tell me about it! If I could only have my late uncle's '73 Eldorado and '80 Fleetwood Brougham today! Funny thing is, I used to beg him to put that Eldorado away until I turned 17 and could buy it from him.
There is just something special and important about these few soles out there who have decided to be the stewards of memory & knowledge in something that has long since been forgotten by everyone else. Well done.
in '81, when I was six, my parents flew down to Fort Lauderdale, borrowed my grandparent '76 Coupe deVille, shoved me and my siblings in the back seat, and drove north to Orlando for Disney. Memories ingrained in my conscience forever.
I remember watching Harrison Fox Sr. played by Jack Warden flying down the hilly San Francisco streets in his 1976 Cadillac Coupe DeVille in the 1980's show Crazy Like A Fox.
Beautiful car. I remember them well. I always refer to the 76 Cads as the last of the real Caddies. I will say as someone working in a tire shop in those days that changing and mounting the wheel assemblies of those monstrous L-78 × 15s in those days on the larger GM cars during a heat wave was a real workout.
I had a 76 Fleetwood Brougham. Dark blue with full paaded roof and light blue leather interior. I wish it was velour. Foot rests in the back seat. Road like a cloud.
I purchased one of these used in 1994. It was white with a red gut. I drove that car for years and can not remember it ever giving me any trouble. Sadly, I definitely can not say that with the fantastic plastic computer circus cars.
I’m 58 years old and oddly enough, have only gone for one short journey in a Cadillac - about a six-block to and back ride for Midnight Mass one snowy Christmas Eve back in the late-80’s! The car was owned by my brother-in-law’s father who was known around our small town for buying a new Brougham every three years - usually trading them in after that amount of time with about 3000 miles on the odometer…….😮
Very 1970s and the square headlights enhanced the elegance of the vehicle. It was a nice way to end a design started back in 1965. They have become collectibles and the nice ones are not cheap, some worth more today than when they were new.
I remember back in 1976 the word had gotten around that the next year would be downsized. I remember a lot of people buying these full sized GM because it would be their last chance. This may partially explain why they sold so well.
In my first job at a car stereo shop, a feller came in with a brand new '85 Riviera and he said the same thing. This is the last year before they chop them up again. This was only 9 years since the first butcher job.
My Dad did exactly that. He wanted the last of the big ones and had a choice of 3 left in Toronto. He chose a brown sedan de ville D’Elegance. I learned to drive and parallel park in that car. Never seemed ridiculously big then, but when I see one now it’s a bit surprising.
An uncle of mine bought a new Cadillac every four years, starting in 1957. When he went to trade his 1973 Fleetwood, and saw the downsized 1977 models, he went straight to the Lincoln dealer and never looked back. He was not alone in that reaction.
That was unfortunate for him. My father bought one of the 1977 Fleetwoods in triple black. It was gorgeous. Solidly built and reliable, much higher build quality than earlier 1970s versions.
@@RareClassicCars No doubt. But in 1976, that same uncle had bought 2 of the Bicentennial Edition Eldorado convertibles. So, he drove a Cadillac for the rest of his life. His daughter is still driving the one he put away to save.
I'm with your other viewer on the cloth seats. More comfortable and luxurious than leather. The only thing I dont like is that steering wheel. It doesnt flow with the design. The 1977 model steering wheel looks like it belongs.
Thank you Adam. My father had a 1973 and a 1975 Sedan Deville. I loved these cars. Our vacation drives from Philadelphia to Florida were so comfortable, even for a family of 6! I am much more of an import car enthusiast, but I have a special place in my heart for these cars. I am so happy that you have the knowledge and the passion to document and share them on youtube!
Great video. My grandparents had a 1975 Sedan deVille, white vinyl roof over white with a red interior and white leather seats. It felt so modern and opulent at the time. Although he heavily criticized the 1977 downsizing he eventually replaced the ‘75 with an ‘84 before the second downsizing to front wheel drive. I had the opportunity to drive it a couple of times and it was quite an experience.
Excellent piece. Wonderfully accurate and comprehensive. I've had several 1973-76 Cadillacs, and somehow escaped the sagging door issue, perhaps because they were all sedans, but I know it exists from what friends went through. While the sheer weight of the doors was obviously part of it, I think another factor was the new-for-1971 method used to ensure better sealing of the side glass. The glass leaned in farther with the door open, and closing the door shoved it up into the weather stripping as it straightened a bit, putting added downward force on the door. On high-cycle cars, particularly coupes, the hinges don't stand a chance.
Great video! I learned to drive on a '76 with the 500 FI engine (when it was new). My old man had me back-up around our driveway and not hit anything, at the time a nightmare, now I can drive anything! It was a great car.
Nothing can compare to these. People have no idea what they missed and will never choose to experience with the few that are left. I think my favorite car of all time, at least of those I actually rode in, would be the 1973 Convertible El Dorado. Just massive and welcoming. Any combination of the red and white, but I do like the white leather on this one. The 500 ci behemoth was in that one. I remember the incredibly smooth torque on it and I do NOT remember that it wasn't as strong as anything else. Just a stunning car. I personally had an '84 Oldsmobile Toronado that was essentially an El Dorado. Repairs kicked in, but it was a very cool car. I had blue velour!
Been enjoying watching your videos. I learned how to drive in my mom's 75 Sedan deVille that she bought in the mid 80s and had till the mid 90s. Before that she had a 2 door 73 Mercury Marquis Brougham. So I got my appreciation from them
I had one of these, but it was a 1975 Sedan DeVille. I picked up at our local junkyard for $500, back around 1986 or so. It ran beautifully and floated down the road. The ride was incredible. But we moved to Florida and I wore it out down there. I even delivered pizza with it for a while. I was putting 25 gallons of gas in it, every 125 miles, which equals 5 MPG. Otherwise I was getting 9. After while everything started going bad on it and I had to get rid of it. It was just a money pit. But by then it had a lot of miles on it. But I've had several Cadillacs over the years, and always loved them.
I got a slightly used '75 and loved it. It had a three speed transmission and a four barrel carb, a quadrajet, I think it was called, that normally ran on just two barrels. If you floored it at, say 75 or 80, all four barrels opened up, and it felt like a downshift kick, but you knew it wasn't dropping down a gear, and it took off like a rocket! When you opened up the hood, the engine had a big white '500 ci' label on it. Awesome, out of this world ride! Gorgeous car! Silver outside with the vinyl half top and interiors in blood red.
Back in the day when I was a kid in Puerto Rico my grandpa had a caddy of this same year and my dad had a '74 chevy caprice in this burgundy color, they were both proud of their big boats. This was 1977 when I was in kindergarten.
I like how you called the fan running on low speed while OFF a GM feature. LOL. I had both a fan cutoff switch as well as a compressor cut off switch installed on my 76 Seville. Worked great. Also, 76 had best steering wheel as well as telescopic column ever.
Adam a wonderful review! I’ve had plenty of experience on these my first car was a rusty 73 coupe back in 85! Dad wanted me to learn by doing so it was a rolling restoration project. Had loads of fun running it down back roads for tractors and field hopping in it when we lived in rural Michigan. Anyways when we moved to Pennsylvania my neighbor was a Cadillac specialist particularly BY older models needing TLC and he and I bought fixed and resold many over the late 80s early 90s. My 70 Fleetwood easily favorite of all formal roof dark blue rear reading lamps and foot rests. 472 high compression kicked butt. Had a 75 coupe and 76 sedan much more sedate those cars even had a fuel economy gauge that went red on heavy throttle then yellow when you back off. Keeping it in the green meant ultra slow driving. My first downsized one a 78 coupe I remember was every bit as smooth quieter and better performance from its 425 motor. How those cars got so big in mid 70s seems almost cartoonish. Those headlight aiming bolts annoying control arm bushings and strut rod bushings common issues when they shed. Often times exhaust manifold bolts break driver side I’ve heard many of those give a little exhaust noise. Can be a difficult job to resolve. Thanks for another thorough review and smooth ride down memory lane.
In the 70s,I knew a guy,he had a small dealership in Chicago,he used to sniff the drivers seat to tell how well a car was taken care of... One day a guy drove in, Carl sniffed the seat and just about needed an ambulance ...the guy farted right as he pulled in . I was like told ya so
This was the EXACT first car I ever owned check NYS registration records from 1994. I loved that car! Floated like it was on air. More power than it knew what to do with. She would hit 100 in the blink of an eye!
My Great Aunt Alice had one... She had a tennis ball hanging down for the hood ornament to touch when parking and the garage door would still not close all the way! She still drove it at 90 with a lead foot!!!
Kool! I remember an article in Hot Rod about putting one of those 500 ci engines in an early Chevelle. Even the low compression versions with some tuning and duals would put you in the low 13’s. And they were cheap in the boneyards. This was back in the early 90’s.
My older sister's father in law owned a Chevron station in the 60s and 70s.He would buy a new caddy every couple years.the last caddy he bought was a green on green 76 coup de Ville.what beautiful car that was.
I made the Fender Extenders. I first removed those brittle plastic fender extenders and then I made one cardboard mock up by cutting and lay and taped together stiff 1.5mm large cardboard templates flat over the fenders to accurately follow all body lines. After the mock up taped in place looked perfect I then used it to mark out, cut and fold the 1.5 mm aluminium sheet and it was then reasonably easy to work with to get it right. The total shape is slightly tricky with a mild dog leg shape and a very mild curve where it attaches the vertical rear outside edge of the fender. It has 3 folds on the top. Best part it was all made in one single folded piece and no welding and very cheap to make and rather logical once you have made it. Probably could be metal but I chose aluminium. I first made separate 5/8" folds on the front leading edge sections because it needs to attach to the fender with screws inside off memory, so then I cut many many small 5/8 long cuts about half inch apart so the flat long sides can easily bend and match the fender curve shape. If you get it all right it will hold it's own shape and looks good as original. On the 74 year it needs some body filler and shaping that weird small inside concave where I round folded it in at the lower inside. ---------- 232 inches (19'4") is the inside length of 20ft containers, it might have been one influencing limitation to their maddening lengths. I had a 20 x 20ft tin shed with a weight hung off the roof by a string to touch my 74 caddy hood emblem so to park it within several inches each end.
Aside from the 1980 Seville........THIS is my favorite Caddy! A friend bought a banana yellow one, and he let me drive it one summer. I fell in love with this car so badly!!!
Enjoyed the video, a very nice Coupe indeed. I will show my age in saying these full size Cadillacs back in the day meant you had arrived. Maybe why I have never now or back then been put off by the size of these motorcars. Today's Cadillac driving experience is seen through the lens of an SUV crafted from a brick. That is why I am so very fortunate talented person's such as yourself have a show that keeps people like me informed and entertained when it comes to full size luxury cars from yesteryear .
My parents always had Cadillacs in the 70s and 80s. They shrunk down slightly in the late 70s but were still pretty big. If I remember right it had like a 426 ci or something like that. They would do awesome brake stands and they floated down the highway at 120.
This has always been one of my favorite cars & I was thrilled when I saw that it was one of YOUR videos, Adam. I love watching/listening to your presentations because your info’s always on-point, you know things about these vehicles nobody else seems to know & I almost always concur with your opinions - whatever they may be. I particularly enjoy when you discuss a specific feature (front end styling, for instance) & provide a pic of the vehicle you’re comparing (the 74/75 DeVille). It really serves to clarify your point & educate the viewer. Thanks for putting in the time & effort…and keep up the excellent work!
Had 2 of the 76 years in my lifetime, but sedans. Smoothest ride ever. The 2nd one I had was same color but with red leather interior. Exterior color is quintessential 70s. Have an EFI 76 walk-around on my channel as well as 1 or 2 others of this gen. Great video!
My mom had a 1968 Sedan DeVille back in the early 80s. I loved the front end on it with the stacked headlights and front end that came to a V. The billet aluminum grille was a work of art IMO. I remember detailing the car for her when I was like 14-15. Many of the grille bar slots were bent. I carefully used a needle nose pliers with cardboard wrapped around each grille bar slot to straighten them out. When I was done I used an SOS Pad to clean all the years of dirt and dead bugs off the aluminum. It looked brand new when I was done! Mom bragged about how nice a job I did on that for awhile !!!
My dad had one of those. In Buffalo New York, you could sit on your front porch and listen to them rust. The rear bumper of ours rusted from the middle out.
Great video brought back memories I had two of these in the mid-80s. Paid $100 for one and 200 for my second one. The burn outs that they would do would leave me with a rusted tired. The drive train was tough as a three-quarter ton Chevy pick up couldn’t kill them even back the woods
I had and uncle who drove caddies from 1956 untill they shrink them in the late 70s. I'd ride with him many times and on the interstate the car was in it's prime element. At around 75 the front end would "float". Which means it would slowly bob up and down gently. He would generally drive at 80- 90 in the 70s . The ride was magically smooth and boat like, and he simply loved it. Come to think of it: so did I!
I love those old big Power sled. I had a full size Old Town Car and I had a Cadillac Eldorado convertible I love them and they were power and they love gas
Nothing could ever beat the smooth ride & comfort of these beautiful Cadillacs!!! 👍👍🙂
FALSE! READ MY MAIN POST. MY GRAMPS WAS A MASTER MECHANIC. AND AUTO DEALER. HE WORKED ON 1OOO'S OF THESE RATTLING RUST BUCKETS.
@@captainamericaamerica8090 Jesus why all caps!
@@craigc1879 I'm a vision handicapped Functioning AUTIST!👓👓🔭🔭🔭
@@captainamericaamerica8090 My goodness, Is everything okay with you???
@@captainamericaamerica8090 Are you in some sort of pain? Do you require medical assistance?
Now THAT was a Cadillac! What they’re selling today is a pale reflection of what Cadillac used to be.
The huge cars of that era never really ended it just transferred to SUV’s. My neighbor has a new Escalade and I can’t imagine it’s much smaller than the Cadillac shown here if not even bigger. I would take this Coupe De Ville over any of these fancy SUV’s as they actually have very beautiful lines
Yeah the Escalade is bigger in terms of sheer mass but this Coupe Deville is 3 inches longer than the Long Wheelbase Escalade ESV, which is crazy to wrap your head around! 🤯
Even though the old school coupes and sedans are rather bricklike in shape, I'll bet that they still beat the modern SUVs in terms of aerodynamic drag at highway speeds. With a modern powertrain, the old land yachts would be more economical to drive than the SUVs and crew cab pick-ups that many people use today as family vehicles.
Robert Smith - That's a very good point & observation.
I remember being horrified with the size & weight of the new 2000 Ford Excursion.....I just couldn't believe we were going backwards by creating a new ultra-large SUV market....
Thankfully the gas milage has increased greatly!
yeah they ended
I bought a 76 Coupe DeVille in Somerset Ma. In 1991 for $1100.
I drove it for a year and gave it to my mom. She drove it for 7 years.
I had one of these 76 coupes.. The de'Elegance version with the clear hood ornament.. That 500 is a BEAST.. Even choked down, it could leave tire marks. But that happened only ONCE.. The way my gas needle moved, i learned to coast from a stop light. Easily one of the best cars ive owned
I ran mine to near empty once, and put a few gallons of race has in it. Drove it a bit to get it to the carb. On a side street, I came to a dead stop, then floored it. After a few car lengths I had to let up on the throttle to get the peelout to stop!
Hey that was my car!!! NICE!! I have several walk around videos and driving videos on my youtube channel!! Thanks for sharing this one!!
Yes indeed. You and I have competed for some of the cars!
I bought a 1975 Coupe Deville d'Elegance back in 77 that was a low mileage trade-in. Light blue metallic with dark blue velour seats. It was the first of many Cadillacs. So smooth and comfortable, it was a joy to be in. Wonderful stereo sound system that put the Lincolns of the day to shame. Still have fond memories of that behemoth and the way it wrapped you in luxury and me feel like a king.
Adam, again thank you for the memories of an era gone by. I worked at a Pontiac dealership when I started in the business in 1972. In late 1974 I went to the Buick Cadillac Oldsmobile store. Was always in service except from the summer of 1976 to late summer of 1977.
For that one year I was in sales. In late September 1976 I sold my first new Cadillac to a recently retired career Army officer. He had just retired and moved from Alabama to Iowa. Drove up to the dealership in a 1973 Coupe Deville, walked into the showroom in bib overalls with his checkbook in the front pocket.
Showed him the last 1976 Coupe Deville we had in stock. Silver with red leather. Was the retired owner's demo with barely a 1,000 miles on it.
Within less than an hour the gentleman wrote a check for full window sticker less the wholesale allowance for his 1973 model . He drove off delighted, I was proud for selling my first new Cadillac. Then the aged Sales Manager called me into his office and chastised me for selling Mr. Allen's demo as the downsize 1977's were a few weeks away and there were not any new Cadillacs left in inventory. Mr. Allen called me into his office Monday and congratulated me for selling the last 1976 in inventory. Said he was just fine and would drive his Buick Regal coupe till some new models arrived.
That sale has stuck in my memory as being my first Cadillac delivered and what a gorgeous car it was!
Sales manager was under pressure from himself and not the owner I bet.
'Bib overalls with his checkbook in the front pocket.' 😂🤣 From Alabama to Iowa........why am I not surprised? LOL
So based on your story about the sale, I see middle management was pretty much the same even 45 years ago....ASSHOLES!
I sorely miss my Cotillion White, 1976 Cadillac Sedan de Ville. I bought it in 1979 with 28,000 miles on it. I had to sell it in 2008 due to loss of and lack of storage facilities. Almost 30 years of ownership. Best driving automobile I have ever owned. Great highway cruiser. Loved the big, silent 500cid V8 with plenty of reserve power. She had 90,000 miles when I sold her.
I miss it terribly.
Someone told me that Cadillac got away from the "casket handles" on the '77 DeVille simply because people started calling them that, and typical Cadillac buyers were old people for whom casket handles might have a somewhat more sinister connotation....
When I see one of these I cannot help but think of the scene in Risky Business where Guido the Killer Pimp chases Joel in the 928....
[Trivia: Three 928's were used in the movie. One was a fire damaged car that had no engine or interior; That's the one that went into the water. The second one was used for the interior scenes and is no longer in existence. The third one was the one in the exterior scenes and sold last year for $1.98 million. Tom Cruise learned to drive a manual transmission in this car and signed the dashboard. I had the opportunity to buy that car in 2005 for $50,000 and turned it down as being outrageously priced....]
Great video!
That scene where he stalls backing out of the garage- music stalls too 😂😂
So many funny scenes and lines from that movie.👍
“I’m really not enjoying this!”
1976 Cadillac, most comfortable seats, front or rear, I ever sat in. Also I could parallel park this car on one try…did it numerous times. It was a great handler with super quick steering. Such an absolute joy.
YOU'RE MR. CLUELESS=😳😳THAT'S WHY THERE'S NONE AROUND
LONG TERM! THE FEW AROUND, TODAY WERE HARDLY DRIVEN! THEY WERE STORED AWAY SO AS NOT BE THAT CONSTANT MONEY PIT. MY GRANDFATHER LOVED THESE. THESE OLD RATTLE GAS HOGS😦😦🐷🐷FILLED UP HIS REPAIR SHOPS.💰💰💰💰💰💰
I'm sure you're comparing it's handling to a yacht.
@Robert D. Nobody ever bought cars like that for their handling. Apparently some people, Consumer Reports among them, still cannot comprehend that.
These do indeed handle quite well, i use my 76 Fleetwood Brougham as a daily driver in the summer and i find it to be surprisingly stable. I've also replaced all the shocks and bushings which might help, these tend to be worn out on most causing the bad handling.
Adam, I seriously doubt there's a single item in the parts bin of any domestic auto manufacturer that you don't have cataloged in that mainframe brain of yours, and every one of them with a complete history of development and utilization. Amazing!
I CONCUR!!!!!
I just love the idea of Adam having a main frame computer.
What a large car. And 2 door as well. I was 16 years young when it rolled off the assembly line.
My dad and I was in the used car business all of our lives sold a ton of muscle cars ( back in the day ) and 4 Dr. ( Family cars ) we traded for a 76 couple that was a really nice car . My wife and I were going on vacation and went all out through the west .We drove the Coupe De Ville and was really comfortable road fantastic and got pretty decent gas mileage . . My wife only being 5' 4" would crawl in the back seat and take naps and said it was as comfortable as he bed at home . . I loved it . . I ended up keeping it for quite a while after we got back . She drove it every day for maybe a year but when I had in changing the oil a fella come in fell in love with it and I sold it . . I'm still living that one down . . If I could find a nice today I'd buy it in a heart beat . .
When cars were as long as crew cab pickups are today.
One note on cloth seats. My grandfather owned many Cadillacs through the 60s and 70s. He, and many people his age, equated leather seats with open top cars of the 30s. Open top cars, being more affordable in those days, had leather seating. Therefore, they felt the cloth seating was more luxurious.
Leather didn't hold up well in those days especially the stitching. Cloth was the better option and more comfortable.
What a beauty they are!
1910s and 1920s were the heyday of open top cars. By the 1930s, the closed top was more prevalant. By the 1960s, closed tops were universal. Peferring cloth in the 1960s because 40 and 50 year old cars featured leather on cheaper offerings seems odd to me.
@@MarinCipollina Yeah, human nature can be interesting. It’s like taste in music, it tends to be formed when we’re young, and then stays with us.
@@manitoba-op4jx MUCH nicer.
My next door neighbor had a brand new 73' or 74' Coupe DeVille when I was in HS. And she was a female in her 30s or maybe early 40s.
My buddy drove one in high school around '88/'89. I drove an MGB, and he would crawl into his trunk to show it had more room than my cars cockpit. Great car.
Oh, but the Sheer BEAUTY!!!!!!!!!!! Oh my gosh!
I was in college in 1976 and my golf professor had an unusual white DeVille coupe w/o the vinyl roof with a beautiful blue interior. It rode and handled like the Queen Mary! I can remember well the shock when the beautiful '77 models came out. Great video!
Dashboards looked about the same for 30-40 years... full size and Seville...
@@BuzzLOLOL Something always never worked on these old rust buckets gas hogs🐖🐷
You had a golf professor?!
@@philojudaeusofalexandria9556 A great one, Dr. John Corley. He was a railroad attorney until he retired at 65, then returned to college and worked his way into a Ph.D. in athletics, the oldest doctoral candidate the university ever awarded. He was in his early 80's when I studied under him. I'm left handed and he spent a semester training me to golf right handed with an equal handicap. He used to spend his summers touring the nation's golf courses. A fine man from several decades ago.
Was it a good shock or bad?When the 77 came out?
Competition Cars!!! I recognize the showroom from Bill's videos!!
Yea! Bill has some awesome autos. I watch all of his videos.
Your knowledge is astounding Sir! I love these old oversized cars. Nothing since has compared to the ride of any fullsize American car prior to about 1990 at the end with the peak being from 62 to 76 across GM's offerings in my opinion. Thank you for sharing.
My mother owned a 1976 DeVille in the color shown but with all leather upholstering. I LOVED it. Like driving a tank! Wish I had it today. Wonderful, totally quiet ride. Thanks.
My sister had a 75 coupe de ville, rosewood metallic with a body colored vinyl landau top. Seats had a courdoroy surface (it was actually breathable and very comfortable). I got to drive from Ft. Lauderdale to Disneyworld in 76 when I was 16. It was a magic carpet on a cloud.
wow never ceases to amaze me these videos. my 76 was a touring edition with a few extra features but i had a radiator fail on the highway and the engine was toasted. i sold her too. she was bright yellow with lite brown interior and beautiful wire wheel covers.
Adam Thank You as you are always, so very informative. I bought 2 1976 Caddy's. A Coupe DeVille and Sedan DeVille d'Elegance. Both Kingswood Dark Green. The Coupe had White leather interior and Sedan had Pillow Cushion Seats of a Dark Green Corduroy! My 73' and 76' Cadillacs were the favorite of all the many brand new cars I've bought in my life. I Love, Love, Love automobiles as much as you do!
I recall this car. A woman I worked for when I was in college who is no longer with us owned a 1976 Cadillac Coupe Deville. You are right...the doors are heavy. I remember that more than anything else. The one she had had the same wheel covers and hers had a leather interior. It was not beat up either. I liked the interior casket door handles. She was a small woman. It amazed me how she drove this car. She did. It was fun. She also owned a downsized 1985 Cadillac Coupe Deville at 195 inches long. I rode in the back to back at times in the cars and you could tell and see and feel the difference in major ways. It took me back to see this video. The last Coupe Deville was 1993. GM/Cadillac felt that Eldorado could fill the coupe segment nicely because of its size and the market had changed. Thank you Adam.
I consider the 1980 the last true Coupe de Ville. I owned one. Those nasty front wheel drive warts that came out in 1985 were not true Cadillacs.
Wicked cars these huge cruisers
Thank you for the video Adam
Of all of the cars that Adam has shown on this channel that I've wanted, this is the only one that I actually owned for a brief period of time. My grandfather was a small town country doctor in Alabama and when i was a kid, he purchased a 1974 Coupe DeVille (his last car before his death). Two years later he upgraded my grandmother's previous Cadillac with a new 1976 model. But he bought a more expensive Fleetwood Brougham for her, not the Deville. As the story goes, while she was driving the delivered car off the lot, the rear axle cracked. My grandmother wanted nothing to do with a Fleetwood at this point so the deal was modified for a '76 Sedan DeVille that happened to be already on the dealer lot. It's this car that i spent a fair amount of my later childhood in, from age 11 up until college whenever I would spend summers with them or when she visited our home city in Tennessee. After my grandfather passed away in 1977, his car was sold and my grandmother never traded the Deville for the rest of her life. In fact she drove the car until 1991 and it was this car that made us determine that she had passed the point she could safely drive the land yacht when she lightly damaged the front fender pulling into her carport, which she'd done hundreds of times over the years. At that point we moved her to our city, sold her house and parked the Deville under a carport behind her sister's house in the same small town. The problem is that the carport was not completely shielded from weather and although i did want the vehicle, I had no place to store it and time began to erode the car. I would return to the car every so often and turn over the engine and drive it for a little bit. The 8.2L V8 always sprang to life and drove just fine as well as the transmission. But the fender scrape was beginning to rust as was the points at the rear window where the vinyl roof met the trunk. It probably had about 92,000 miles on it toward the end. After my grandmother's death in 1999, we made a family decision to part with the car, a decision i still regret because of the sentimental attachment I had to it. Unlike the Fleetwood, the Deville wasn't that well equipped. It was gun metal gray with the gray interior. It did have leather seats (bench) although the leather quality made you wonder if they were really vinyl. It had a stereo 8-track player, automatic headlamps (but not the guidematic option). The rear seat was ridiculously cavernous.....4 adults could seat back there in a pinch. There was no hood ornament. Otherwise, it wasn't a remarkable equipped vehicle. But it still brings me smiles when i think about it.
Great story! Thank you for sharing it. 🙂
Fascinating story dude! I had an uncle who bought a brand new 1980 Fleetwood Brougham which today is a highly sought after car. Awesome color combo too! Black with gray cloth interior. I think it was the D'Elegance model too. He picked it up new at the dealer, drove it literally 3 miles and the entire transmission fell out of it! 😂 He walked to a pay phone, called the dealer and told them 'come and pick up your junk!' As he was a good customer, the dealer ordered the service department to take a transmission out of another new one that was on the lot and put it in my uncle's car. I LOVED that car. He only kept it a year and traded it in on a 1981 Sedan DeVille with the 4-6-8 engine. That was the very first Cadillac I ever drove when I turned 17 and he let me drive it on Thanksgiving day. Having always loved Cadillacs since he bought his 1973 Eldorado, I thought I was in Heaven! I would go on to own 11 Cadillacs and I still drive one (an Escalade).
I can't believe your family did that to your grandmother over one little ding in the carport. Even a 25 year old can misjudge ONCE. I know I sure as hell did! LOL And I'm an excellent driver, having learned from my father who was probably the best driver I ever knew.
You shouldn't have gotten rid of the car. That little bit of rust where the rear window vinyl meets the trunk was VERY common in the '74 to '76 Cadillacs. It's actually a relatively easy and somewhat cheap fix as long as you do it while its superficial and before it eats in and forms an actual hole. I have a 1976 Fleetwood myself (the D'Elegance model) with only 38K original miles. I have that rust too. It's to big to fit in my garage so I had it under a custom made cover. Well, due to a flaw, the cover ripped. Before they would send me a new one free, I had to send the old one back for them to do 'tests.' It took them a couple months over the winter. Sadly, because it was exposed to the snow and ice, that rust spot formed as well as one other where the passenger door meets the fender.
You are right about the quality of the leather. About 20 years ago, I also had a 1976 Sedan DeVille with leather interior. It was HORRIBLE especially in the winter. It didn't feel like leather at all but more like my grandmothers 1973 Buick which had vinyl interior.
Strange that your grandmother's car was gray on gray. When I was a kid, my neighbor up the street had a '76 Sedan DeVille in that exact same color scheme. I don't like gray in cars. Too neutral and reminds me of a Navy ship! LOL
Great story about your grandparents and their cars. If we could only get the cars back that we regret letting go! 😄
@@jay241971 Tell me about it! If I could only have my late uncle's '73 Eldorado and '80 Fleetwood Brougham today!
Funny thing is, I used to beg him to put that Eldorado away until I turned 17 and could buy it from him.
There is just something special and important about these few soles out there who have decided to be the stewards of memory & knowledge in something that has long since been forgotten by everyone else. Well done.
in '81, when I was six, my parents flew down to Fort Lauderdale, borrowed my grandparent '76 Coupe deVille, shoved me and my siblings in the back seat, and drove north to Orlando for Disney. Memories ingrained in my conscience forever.
I remember watching Harrison Fox Sr. played by Jack Warden flying down the hilly San Francisco streets in his 1976 Cadillac Coupe DeVille in the 1980's show Crazy Like A Fox.
This baby deserves its own ZIP code!
She is such a beauty! I drove my Grannie's 1976 Calumet Cream Coupe de Ville in high school and college and I love her!
Beautiful car.
I remember them well.
I always refer to the 76 Cads as the last of the real Caddies.
I will say as someone working in a tire shop in those days that changing and mounting the wheel assemblies of those monstrous L-78 × 15s in those days on the larger GM cars during a heat wave was a real workout.
I had a 76 Fleetwood Brougham. Dark blue with full paaded roof and light blue leather interior. I wish it was velour. Foot rests in the back seat. Road like a cloud.
I purchased one of these used in 1994. It was white with a red gut. I drove that car for years and can not remember it ever giving me any trouble. Sadly, I definitely can not say that with the fantastic plastic computer circus cars.
I’m 58 years old and oddly enough, have only gone for one short journey in a Cadillac - about a six-block to and back ride for Midnight Mass one snowy Christmas Eve back in the late-80’s! The car was owned by my brother-in-law’s father who was known around our small town for buying a new Brougham every three years - usually trading them in after that amount of time with about 3000 miles on the odometer…….😮
For me, this is THE quintessential Cadillac of all time.
Beautiful cars with a great ride. The bumpers really could take substantial hits
Very 1970s and the square headlights enhanced the elegance of the vehicle. It was a nice way to end a design started back in 1965. They have become collectibles and the nice ones are not cheap, some worth more today than when they were new.
I remember back in 1976 the word had gotten around that the next year would be downsized. I remember a lot of people buying these full sized GM because it would be their last chance. This may partially explain why they sold so well.
In my first job at a car stereo shop, a feller came in with a brand new '85 Riviera and he said the same thing. This is the last year before they chop them up again. This was only 9 years since the first butcher job.
My Dad did exactly that. He wanted the last of the big ones and had a choice of 3 left in Toronto. He chose a brown sedan de ville D’Elegance. I learned to drive and parallel park in that car. Never seemed ridiculously big then, but when I see one now it’s a bit surprising.
@@hurricane2649 The 1979 downsizing was hardly a 'butcher' job.. It was perfect. The subsequent downsizing in '86 went too far and was unnecessary.
@@thomasw4709 The big Cadillacs could turn sharper than some cars with smaller wheelbases.
An uncle of mine bought a new Cadillac every four years, starting in 1957. When he went to trade his 1973 Fleetwood, and saw the downsized 1977 models, he went straight to the Lincoln dealer and never looked back. He was not alone in that reaction.
That was unfortunate for him. My father bought one of the 1977 Fleetwoods in triple black. It was gorgeous. Solidly built and reliable, much higher build quality than earlier 1970s versions.
No. But Cadillac had far more sales in 1977 vs 1976. 380k Vs 320kish
@@RareClassicCars No doubt. But in 1976, that same uncle had bought 2 of the Bicentennial Edition Eldorado convertibles. So, he drove a Cadillac for the rest of his life. His daughter is still driving the one he put away to save.
I'm with your other viewer on the cloth seats. More comfortable and luxurious than leather. The only thing I dont like is that steering wheel. It doesnt flow with the design. The 1977 model steering wheel looks like it belongs.
I agree with your uncle. 👍
My dad had a 76 Coupe De Ville !!! what a fabulous car !!!! I loved cruising in it !!!! And it was very reliable !
Thank you Adam. My father had a 1973 and a 1975 Sedan Deville. I loved these cars. Our vacation drives from Philadelphia to Florida were so comfortable, even for a family of 6! I am much more of an import car enthusiast, but I have a special place in my heart for these cars. I am so happy that you have the knowledge and the passion to document and share them on youtube!
Great video. My grandparents had a 1975 Sedan deVille, white vinyl roof over white with a red interior and white leather seats. It felt so modern and opulent at the time. Although he heavily criticized the 1977 downsizing he eventually replaced the ‘75 with an ‘84 before the second downsizing to front wheel drive. I had the opportunity to drive it a couple of times and it was quite an experience.
This Caddy only has 3,700 miles. Sold for $35,000 on Bring A Trailer online auction May 8, 2022. Gorgeous car!
I'll never forget taking a 1972 silver Coupe de Ville on trade for a new 1981 Pontiac Bonneville with only 1200 actual miles. That was astonishing.
Excellent piece. Wonderfully accurate and comprehensive.
I've had several 1973-76 Cadillacs, and somehow escaped the sagging door issue, perhaps because they were all sedans, but I know it exists from what friends went through. While the sheer weight of the doors was obviously part of it, I think another factor was the new-for-1971 method used to ensure better sealing of the side glass. The glass leaned in farther with the door open, and closing the door shoved it up into the weather stripping as it straightened a bit, putting added downward force on the door. On high-cycle cars, particularly coupes, the hinges don't stand a chance.
This Caddy is absolutely beautiful!!! Outstanding!
Beautiful old cars,like sitting in a lounge sofa,smooth as silk.
Grow up junior,I drove cars like that when I was going to highschool❤😂, hated working on them though.
Another great video. One of these in triple dark green was just beautiful.
Great video! I learned to drive on a '76 with the 500 FI engine (when it was new). My old man had me back-up around our driveway and not hit anything, at the time a nightmare, now I can drive anything! It was a great car.
I was 16 years old in 1976 and I remember this Cadillac Coupe Deville very well.
Nothing can compare to these. People have no idea what they missed and will never choose to experience with the few that are left. I think my favorite car of all time, at least of those I actually rode in, would be the 1973 Convertible El Dorado. Just massive and welcoming. Any combination of the red and white, but I do like the white leather on this one. The 500 ci behemoth was in that one. I remember the incredibly smooth torque on it and I do NOT remember that it wasn't as strong as anything else. Just a stunning car. I personally had an '84 Oldsmobile Toronado that was essentially an El Dorado. Repairs kicked in, but it was a very cool car. I had blue velour!
Been enjoying watching your videos. I learned how to drive in my mom's 75 Sedan deVille that she bought in the mid 80s and had till the mid 90s. Before that she had a 2 door 73 Mercury Marquis Brougham. So I got my appreciation from them
Thank you for your history lessons. My first car was a '64 Plymouth Fury four door with the 318. I still miss that car.
I had one of these, but it was a 1975 Sedan DeVille. I picked up at our local junkyard for $500, back around 1986 or so. It ran beautifully and floated down the road. The ride was incredible. But we moved to Florida and I wore it out down there. I even delivered pizza with it for a while. I was putting 25 gallons of gas in it, every 125 miles, which equals 5 MPG. Otherwise I was getting 9. After while everything started going bad on it and I had to get rid of it. It was just a money pit. But by then it had a lot of miles on it. But I've had several Cadillacs over the years, and always loved them.
GM never fails to disappoint. Proud to say I've never owned one and never will.
Beautiful! I was 16 when these came out , they look real nice in Sky Blue paint.
1976 was virtually identical to the 1975, and only minor styling differences separate it from the 1971 - 1974..
My uncle had a 1976 Cadillac,it was a beautiful car and a 2-door.
I got a slightly used '75 and loved it. It had a three speed transmission and a four barrel carb, a quadrajet, I think it was called, that normally ran on just two barrels. If you floored it at, say 75 or 80, all four barrels opened up, and it felt like a downshift kick, but you knew it wasn't dropping down a gear, and it took off like a rocket! When you opened up the hood, the engine had a big white '500 ci' label on it. Awesome, out of this world ride! Gorgeous car! Silver outside with the vinyl half top and interiors in blood red.
Growing up our neighbor had a 76 Coupe in Dun barton Green with a green cloth interior. Actually the interior looked rich and I thought very tasteful.
2:25 Those fender-top lights were, in my view, wonderful. Looking fully straight ahead, you could see your turn signals, et al. at a glance.
Back in the day when I was a kid in Puerto Rico my grandpa had a caddy of this same year and my dad had a '74 chevy caprice in this burgundy color, they were both proud of their big boats. This was 1977 when I was in kindergarten.
I like how you called the fan running on low speed while OFF a GM feature. LOL. I had both a fan cutoff switch as well as a compressor cut off switch installed on my 76 Seville. Worked great. Also, 76 had best steering wheel as well as telescopic column ever.
Adam a wonderful review! I’ve had plenty of experience on these my first car was a rusty 73 coupe back in 85! Dad wanted me to learn by doing so it was a rolling restoration project. Had loads of fun running it down back roads for tractors and field hopping in it when we lived in rural Michigan.
Anyways when we moved to Pennsylvania my neighbor was a Cadillac specialist particularly BY older models needing TLC and he and I bought fixed and resold many over the late 80s early 90s.
My 70 Fleetwood easily favorite of all formal roof dark blue rear reading lamps and foot rests. 472 high compression kicked butt. Had a 75 coupe and 76 sedan much more sedate those cars even had a fuel economy gauge that went red on heavy throttle then yellow when you back off. Keeping it in the green meant ultra slow driving.
My first downsized one a 78 coupe I remember was every bit as smooth quieter and better performance from its 425 motor. How those cars got so big in mid 70s seems almost cartoonish. Those headlight aiming bolts annoying control arm bushings and strut rod bushings common issues when they shed. Often times exhaust manifold bolts break driver side I’ve heard many of those give a little exhaust noise. Can be a difficult job to resolve. Thanks for another thorough review and smooth ride down memory lane.
In the 70s,I knew a guy,he had a small dealership in Chicago,he used to sniff the drivers seat to tell how well a car was taken care of... One day a guy drove in, Carl sniffed the seat and just about needed an ambulance ...the guy farted right as he pulled in . I was like told ya so
That’s hilarious
This was the EXACT first car I ever owned check NYS registration records from 1994. I loved that car! Floated like it was on air. More power than it knew what to do with. She would hit 100 in the blink of an eye!
My Great Aunt Alice had one... She had a tennis ball hanging down for the hood ornament to touch when parking and the garage door would still not close all the way! She still drove it at 90 with a lead foot!!!
Kool! I remember an article in Hot Rod about putting one of those 500 ci engines in an early Chevelle. Even the low compression versions with some tuning and duals would put you in the low 13’s. And they were cheap in the boneyards. This was back in the early 90’s.
They are no longer cheap and are hard to get. They can be built to over 1000 HP.
@@rogersmith7396 That’s why I said “were”… 😂👍
@@rogersmith7396 I used to get running 440’s for under $100. You had to take the car with it though. 😎
@@drippinglass They are pulling them out of motorhomes now. I have seen 440s and 428s in boats. Common in the 70s. Now its all 454s. And diesels.
My older sister's father in law owned a Chevron station in the 60s and 70s.He would buy a new caddy every couple years.the last caddy he bought was a green on green 76 coup de Ville.what beautiful car that was.
I made the Fender Extenders.
I first removed those brittle plastic fender extenders and then I made one cardboard mock up by cutting and lay and taped together stiff 1.5mm large cardboard templates flat over the fenders to accurately follow all body lines.
After the mock up taped in place looked perfect I then used it to mark out, cut and fold the 1.5 mm aluminium sheet and it was then reasonably easy to work with to get it right.
The total shape is slightly tricky with a mild dog leg shape and a very mild curve where it attaches the vertical rear outside edge of the fender.
It has 3 folds on the top.
Best part it was all made in one single folded piece and no welding and very cheap to make and rather logical once you have made it.
Probably could be metal but I chose aluminium.
I first made separate 5/8" folds on the front leading edge sections because it needs to attach to the fender with screws inside off memory, so then I cut many many small 5/8 long cuts about half inch apart so the flat long sides can easily bend and match the fender curve shape.
If you get it all right it will hold it's own shape and looks good as original.
On the 74 year it needs some body filler and shaping that weird small inside concave where I round folded it in at the lower inside.
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232 inches (19'4") is the inside length of 20ft containers, it might have been one influencing limitation to their maddening lengths.
I had a 20 x 20ft tin shed with a weight hung off the roof by a string to touch my 74 caddy hood emblem so to park it within several inches each end.
Always wanted one of those.
This is what you call True Luxury,...beautiful.
Aside from the 1980 Seville........THIS is my favorite Caddy! A friend bought a banana yellow one, and he let me drive it one summer. I fell in love with this car so badly!!!
You find the 1980 Seville redesign appealing?
Enjoyed the video, a very nice Coupe indeed. I will show my age in saying these full size Cadillacs back in the day meant you had arrived. Maybe why I have never now or back then been put off by the size of these motorcars. Today's Cadillac driving experience is seen through the lens of an SUV crafted from a brick. That is why I am so very fortunate talented person's such as yourself have a show that keeps people like me informed and entertained when it comes to full size luxury cars from yesteryear .
My parents always had Cadillacs in the 70s and 80s. They shrunk down slightly in the late 70s but were still pretty big. If I remember right it had like a 426 ci or something like that. They would do awesome brake stands and they floated down the highway at 120.
I distinctly remember seeing the cockeyed headlamps when these cars were brand new!
👍✨ Thanks for another great video Adam.
Looks like a great ride . And if your an adrenaline junkie a drive through ice covered mountain roads could be a real treat.
75-76 and 77 Devilles are my all time favorite Cadillacs
This has always been one of my favorite cars & I was thrilled when I saw that it was one of YOUR videos, Adam. I love watching/listening to your presentations because your info’s always on-point, you know things about these vehicles nobody else seems to know & I almost always concur with your opinions - whatever they may be. I particularly enjoy when you discuss a specific feature (front end styling, for instance) & provide a pic of the vehicle you’re comparing (the 74/75 DeVille). It really serves to clarify your point & educate the viewer. Thanks for putting in the time & effort…and keep up the excellent work!
Thx!
He forgot to mention the '76 has two horizontal chrome ribs in the front turn signals that aren't on the '75.
i like the sedan deville. i like big cars. my 1976 Eldorado convertible i had a switch installed to turn off/on ac compressor.
Had 2 of the 76 years in my lifetime, but sedans. Smoothest ride ever. The 2nd one I had was same color but with red leather interior. Exterior color is quintessential 70s. Have an EFI 76 walk-around on my channel as well as 1 or 2 others of this gen. Great video!
Us car nerds love, love, love your videos.
We had caddys from 1971 to 79. A new one every 2 years. They were boats up until 77.
My dad was partial to the 4 door version.....was one hell of a car, in its day....
Always loved the 1968, thank you Adam
My mom had a 1968 Sedan DeVille back in the early 80s. I loved the front end on it with the stacked headlights and front end that came to a V. The billet aluminum grille was a work of art IMO. I remember detailing the car for her when I was like 14-15. Many of the grille bar slots were bent. I carefully used a needle nose pliers with cardboard wrapped around each grille bar slot to straighten them out. When I was done I used an SOS Pad to clean all the years of dirt and dead bugs off the aluminum. It looked brand new when I was done! Mom bragged about how nice a job I did on that for awhile !!!
My dad had one of those. In Buffalo New York, you could sit on your front porch and listen to them rust. The rear bumper of ours rusted from the middle out.
That's awesome ❤ but what's the difference 89fletwood images together
Great video brought back memories I had two of these in the mid-80s. Paid $100 for one and 200 for my second one. The burn outs that they would do would leave me with a rusted tired.
The drive train was tough as a three-quarter ton Chevy pick up couldn’t kill them even back the woods
Carl Johnson Cadillac, Norwood, Massachusetts at the Rotary in Norwood, Massachusetts. I remember these 1975-1976 Cadillacs!
My daily driver was three years earlier. Still regret selling it.
A gorgeous Caddy and a very informative video.
I had and uncle who drove caddies from 1956 untill they shrink them in the late 70s. I'd ride with him many times and on the interstate the car was in it's prime element. At around 75 the front end would "float". Which means it would slowly bob up and down gently. He would generally drive at 80- 90 in the 70s .
The ride was magically smooth and boat like, and he simply loved it. Come to think of it: so did I!
I love those old big Power sled. I had a full size Old Town Car and I had a Cadillac Eldorado convertible I love them and they were power and they love gas
I like the exterior color 😎
This is my favorite Caddy of all time. You haven't lived until you've ridden in one.