You also forgot what year it was. That was the best they could do with the technology they had. 37 years from now people will be laughing at what we have.
@@AntoineMiller No, the HT4100 was they worst they could do. They had a long history of excellent reliable engines before this pig, they don't get the "it was the 80's" excuse.
Nostalgia makes these cars better in hindsight... they weren't awful when new either... they were just ok but that's not what Cadillac should ever be about... sadly that's what they are today...
“…but if all else fails, we still have that rear-wheel drive Fleetwood Brougham.” You said it, brother. This ridiculously downsized shrimp mobile was never going to make Cadillac buyers happy. Unfortunately, CAFE brought down the once all-mighty “standard of the world”, but at least, at the time, you could still get a real Cadillac for another 11 years until the full-sized, body-on-frame, RWD Fleetwood was discontinued in 1996.
All of the old timers in the family drove big Buicks and Caddys back in the Seventies... I remember them all saying "what's this world coming to?" when the '77s were launched. They all thought they were too small.
I had an 85 DeVille and most of what they said was true, Hook and Tow 4100 notwithstanding. I bought it cheap due to the reputation and I got good service out of it. The interior and ride were outstanding. I loved the big interior and the smaller exterior. I always wanted to get a later 4.9 version but unfortunately that never happened.
Because of this car, 1985 marked the last year I ever stepped foot in a Cadillac showroom - and by the sales figures for that year, a lot of people felt the same way.
The Olds 98 and Buick Electra were better with the bulletproof even-fire 3800 and better-integrated styling with fewer attempts to shoehorn on design cues meant for bulkier cars. You still had to special order and be deft with the options list to really move on from the malaise-era Brougham look, but it was possible (even if you ended up with a model that had the actual word "Brougham" in its' name).
These models were the biggest snoozers for GM. I had a boyfriend who was at GM at this time. I recall he told me of a meeting he attended where Ford was actually congratulated for the success of the new Continental introduced at the same time. You never see these models on the road anymore, and I doubt they’ll never show up at the Concourse shows of the future.
I disagree, they sold many models of both the coupe and sedan deville and I’ve owned quite a few of each. In the late 80s early 90s, most of my family members drove these smaller FWD Cadillacs and we loved them. I still own a 90 coupe to this day. Also, there’s many groups dedicated to the “baby Cadillacs” and people still drive them for pleasure and transportation.
I would have to say this was the beginning of the end for Cadillac. The decline, thanks to the government started in 1977, When 1985 rolled around I remember thinking "where the hell is the rest of the car? They turned the Cadillacs into front-wheel drive snowmobiles. I found this video by accident and just had to see what the sales plan was to sell half the car it used to be for double the money.
Fully agreed! The Lunch Box version of Cadillac just didn't go well.. I guess they were so full of themselves that they thought they could just slap the Cadillac label on anything and people would line up in droves!
Not Cadillacs finest moment with these boxes. They drove nice and were peppy-especially with the 4.5. But the ergonomics weren't good and these things fell apart in short order. I remember the early and mid 90s where these were stacked up on used car lots with "new engine" or "rebuilt motor" written on the windshield. The Fleetwood 75 was the best looking of the bunch IMO.
These cars were (are) an embarrassment to all the is (was) Cadillac. The kind of BS think tank thinking you see in this video, is how the American Auto Industry fell. The people who bought these cars, thought they were buying the dream; it turned out to be a dream all right, the bean counters dream. Lots of folks burned on this era of Cad - lost customers, forever. And their kids, grandkids, etc., also became disenchanted... Thanks for posting this interesting historical perspective.
Not sure where some of his data is coming from...especially under the big is best group In the area I grew up in( Dallas Texas) that crowd was jumping straight into a big Mercedes in droves during this time frame and paying a LOT more money for them that a Cadillac
FORD Rouge is still drooling, after Rodger Smith droped the "Ball" on this one! "They'll buy what we sell them". Ford put a 3rd shift on the next month. Haven't looked back since !!!
At least not in 1985. By 1987 it felt more like a traditional Cadillac. I absolutely loved these, but still I agree that these didn’t have the class or prestige their predecessors did. Cadillac lost their class and prestige years prior when wealthy businessmen started seeing their golf caddies pulling up to the country club in brand new Cadillacs. That’s when their attention went over to exotic foreign imports that they knew would be out of reach of the common man.
@@TVHouseHistorian Cadillac should have never gone front wheel drive to begin with. I don’t get your assertion about 1987 - they were the same cars as ‘85. Horrible, ugly junk.
@@TVHouseHistorian people have blamed the Cimmeron and the 4.1 for the downfall of Cadillac but I blame the Calais. As snobby and undemocratic as it may seem, luxury goods need to exclusive to appeal to luxury buyers. The Calais cheapen cost of entry too much, not to mention some years a Caprice, Electra or Olds 98, even Bonneville was better equipped and more luxurious than even the DeVille
@@davidwilliams7723 - Tru but non of those cars EVER touched the price of a Calais, the top Optioned Electra was still a quite bit cheaper than the Calais
@@jakeballard7999 The Calais always sold in low numbers, the Deville was the $ maker. Calais was dropped in 1977. My parent had a 65 , first year for the Calais.
Everything was so civilized not so long ago...Back then, we didn't realize it and had no idea the world would soon be taken over by savages and barbarians, which would also be reflected in car design.
I owned an '86 Deville and gave them a second chance with an '88 Fleetwood. May I suggest an alternate title for this film..."How to put lipstick on a pig and get people to buy it."
I would prefer the diesel version of this Cadillac. Not the fastest but with a good mileage and the 4.3 litre V6 diesel was much more reliable than the 5.7 litre V8 diesel of the bigger rwd Fleetwood!😊
You just can't sugar-coat the HT4100 engine. Not even after-market insurance companies would insure it. I just can't watch all of this......wow this is too painful.
Yeah "difficult to get close to." You try to sell me a bill of goods, you better believe I'll be difficult to get close to! Come on, Mable, let's get over to the Lincoln dealer. This dude is on something if he thinks I can't see that half the car is missing.
Of course nobody was cross shopping this Cadillac with a Mercedes. The Merc was a good 10-20 grand more in real dollars at that time which was astronomical. Think like 50 grand or more in today’s dollars.
At that time there was no advantage to rear wheel drive over front wheel drive. Especially in the snow belt. More room. Better handling in show. No torque steer due to average acceleration. I liked the styling of these cars. GM quality was suspect
The worst bunch of liars I’ve ever seen. These were literally the worst cars GM ever built. That’s not just an opinion, just look at the sales figures. These cars literally bankrupted the company
15:53 LOL! Bunch of moon talk dude! Real people knew what real class was. This was not it. You didn't see Rolls Royce, Mercedes, and BMW convert to FWD awfulness.
When he called the HT4100 world class, I almost fell out my chair
Hah! Right?
You also forgot what year it was. That was the best they could do with the technology they had. 37 years from now people will be laughing at what we have.
@@AntoineMiller No, the HT4100 was they worst they could do. They had a long history of excellent reliable engines before this pig, they don't get the "it was the 80's" excuse.
Oh, but the HT4100 was world class ... a world class failure.
Iron heads on an aluminum block. What could possibly go wrong?!
was 85, they didnt have the mass of warrantee claims yet.
It's called the Hook & Tow 4100
I found this highly interesting and informative regarding human psychology and personality types.
LOL 13:20 mark "look at this great HT4100 engine!"
I guees I need to google and do my own research..I don't know what the catch is.
Nostalgia makes these cars better in hindsight... they weren't awful when new either... they were just ok but that's not what Cadillac should ever be about... sadly that's what they are today...
“…but if all else fails, we still have that rear-wheel drive Fleetwood Brougham.”
You said it, brother. This ridiculously downsized shrimp mobile was never going to make Cadillac buyers happy. Unfortunately, CAFE brought down the once all-mighty “standard of the world”, but at least, at the time, you could still get a real Cadillac for another 11 years until the full-sized, body-on-frame, RWD Fleetwood was discontinued in 1996.
All of the old timers in the family drove big Buicks and Caddys back in the Seventies...
I remember them all saying "what's this world coming to?" when the '77s were launched.
They all thought they were too small.
Not close to the earlier Caddy's!
These cars did a great job of selling Lincolns, BMWs, and other foreign makes as well as making import customers for life.
This is the kind of laserdisc that i want in my collection
When the guy was sitting behind the wheel and he was outside on his knees talking to him… that about sums it up
Not only was the 4.1L v8 trash, the transmission was too! "a real winning combination"
I had an 85 DeVille and most of what they said was true, Hook and Tow 4100 notwithstanding. I bought it cheap due to the reputation and I got good service out of it. The interior and ride were outstanding. I loved the big interior and the smaller exterior. I always wanted to get a later 4.9 version but unfortunately that never happened.
Because of this car, 1985 marked the last year I ever stepped foot in a Cadillac showroom - and by the sales figures for that year, a lot of people felt the same way.
The Olds 98 and Buick Electra were better with the bulletproof even-fire 3800 and better-integrated styling with fewer attempts to shoehorn on design cues meant for bulkier cars. You still had to special order and be deft with the options list to really move on from the malaise-era Brougham look, but it was possible (even if you ended up with a model that had the actual word "Brougham" in its' name).
These models were the biggest snoozers for GM. I had a boyfriend who was at GM at this time. I recall he told me of a meeting he attended where Ford was actually congratulated for the success of the new Continental introduced at the same time. You never see these models on the road anymore, and I doubt they’ll never show up at the Concourse shows of the future.
I disagree, they sold many models of both the coupe and sedan deville and I’ve owned quite a few of each. In the late 80s early 90s, most of my family members drove these smaller FWD Cadillacs and we loved them. I still own a 90 coupe to this day. Also, there’s many groups dedicated to the “baby Cadillacs” and people still drive them for pleasure and transportation.
I would have to say this was the beginning of the end for Cadillac. The decline, thanks to the government started in 1977, When 1985 rolled around I remember thinking "where the hell is the rest of the car? They turned the Cadillacs into front-wheel drive snowmobiles. I found this video by accident and just had to see what the sales plan was to sell half the car it used to be for double the money.
Fully agreed! The Lunch Box version of Cadillac just didn't go well.. I guess they were so full of themselves that they thought they could just slap the Cadillac label on anything and people would line up in droves!
@@LearnAboutFlow Right?
@@ENDTIMEsVideoLibrary you're absolutely CORRECT.
Cadillac honchos figured exactly that... And boy, did it ever backfire on them.
Not Cadillacs finest moment with these boxes. They drove nice and were peppy-especially with the 4.5. But the ergonomics weren't good and these things fell apart in short order. I remember the early and mid 90s where these were stacked up on used car lots with "new engine" or "rebuilt motor" written on the windshield. The Fleetwood 75 was the best looking of the bunch IMO.
These cars were (are) an embarrassment to all the is (was) Cadillac. The kind of BS think tank thinking you see in this video, is how the American Auto Industry fell. The people who bought these cars, thought they were buying the dream; it turned out to be a dream all right, the bean counters dream. Lots of folks burned on this era of Cad - lost customers, forever. And their kids, grandkids, etc., also became disenchanted... Thanks for posting this interesting historical perspective.
"I can choose to feed my ego or feed my family." This whole thing is hilarious.
Not sure where some of his data is coming from...especially under the big is best group
In the area I grew up in( Dallas Texas) that crowd was jumping straight into a big Mercedes in droves during this time frame and paying a LOT more money for them that a Cadillac
They must have been in line behind JR Ewing at the Mercedes dealer
@@gm12551 Yes..LOL ..they were
Step 1 - make sure your customer is doing plenty of cocaine, or has a crack pipe in his hand. 🙂
FORD Rouge is still drooling, after Rodger Smith droped the "Ball" on this one! "They'll buy what we sell them". Ford put a 3rd shift on the next month. Haven't looked back since !!!
Roger Smith did a lot of ball dropping
Very interesting.
1:27 - "It still got the class. Still makes you feel like you're driving a Cadillac".
No. No it did not.
At least not in 1985. By 1987 it felt more like a traditional Cadillac. I absolutely loved these, but still I agree that these didn’t have the class or prestige their predecessors did. Cadillac lost their class and prestige years prior when wealthy businessmen started seeing their golf caddies pulling up to the country club in brand new Cadillacs. That’s when their attention went over to exotic foreign imports that they knew would be out of reach of the common man.
@@TVHouseHistorian Cadillac should have never gone front wheel drive to begin with. I don’t get your assertion about 1987 - they were the same cars as ‘85. Horrible, ugly junk.
@@TVHouseHistorian people have blamed the Cimmeron and the 4.1 for the downfall of Cadillac but I blame the Calais. As snobby and undemocratic as it may seem, luxury goods need to exclusive to appeal to luxury buyers. The Calais cheapen cost of entry too much, not to mention some years a Caprice, Electra or Olds 98, even Bonneville was better equipped and more luxurious than even the DeVille
@@davidwilliams7723 - Tru but non of those cars EVER touched the price of a Calais, the top Optioned Electra was still a quite bit cheaper than the Calais
@@jakeballard7999 The Calais always sold in low numbers, the Deville was the $ maker. Calais was dropped in 1977. My parent had a 65 , first year for the Calais.
Everything was so civilized not so long ago...Back then, we didn't realize it and had no idea the world would soon be taken over by savages and barbarians, which would also be reflected in car design.
So True
I owned an '86 Deville and gave them a second chance with an '88 Fleetwood. May I suggest an alternate title for this film..."How to put lipstick on a pig and get people to buy it."
I wonder where Sutton parked his big BMW that morning?🤣
I remember that those front drive Cadillacs being considered a real travesty.
I would prefer the diesel version of this Cadillac. Not the fastest but with a good mileage and the 4.3 litre V6 diesel was much more reliable than the 5.7 litre V8 diesel of the bigger rwd Fleetwood!😊
How many Caddy salesmen looked over a customer and asked, "What quadrant is this guy?"
I looked up this guy and couldn’t find him. The video wasn’t about the Caddy it was about him and the early 80s.
He switched careers and died in Nakatomi Tower at the Christmas party that was raided by terrorists.
You just can't sugar-coat the HT4100 engine. Not even after-market insurance companies would insure it. I just can't watch all of this......wow this is too painful.
I own two 4.1s no issues. Pre 85 had the issues corrected in mid 85
@@davidlocke1668they really weren’t😂
Yeah "difficult to get close to." You try to sell me a bill of goods, you better believe I'll be difficult to get close to! Come on, Mable, let's get over to the Lincoln dealer. This dude is on something if he thinks I can't see that half the car is missing.
The hood noise at 13:10 😭
11:00. He should have bought a Mercedes then..
Cimarron was world class
Since when?
Of course nobody was cross shopping this Cadillac with a Mercedes. The Merc was a good 10-20 grand more in real dollars at that time which was astronomical. Think like 50 grand or more in today’s dollars.
These people should be CRIMINALLY CHARGED for blatantly lying calling the 4100 highly reliable! 😂
At that time there was no advantage to rear wheel drive over front wheel drive. Especially in the snow belt. More room. Better handling in show. No torque steer due to average acceleration. I liked the styling of these cars. GM quality was suspect
Thanks Roger smith lol
Eric Trump presenting the sales video back in 1984 lmao
Target the buyers with grey hair. Video over.
I don't know how they came up with anything that could instill any confidence in selling those things. They were horrible.
They look like Mafia members
The worst bunch of liars I’ve ever seen. These were literally the worst cars GM ever built. That’s not just an opinion, just look at the sales figures. These cars literally bankrupted the company
Man with beard seems like he should be teaching economics, or law....rather that schilling Cadillacs.
the real full size fleetwood brougham was way better than these small piles of junk!
All these men are dead now. Wasted lives selling poor quality caddies
15:53 LOL! Bunch of moon talk dude! Real people knew what real class was. This was not it. You didn't see Rolls Royce, Mercedes, and BMW convert to FWD awfulness.
Junk lol