If you take your car in for service to the dealership, you will probably receive a fairly average rental car to use while the technicians are busy working on your vehicle. Even owners of more expensive vehicles get left with a basic economy car every now and then.
Former Detroit-area Cadillac dealership Wilson-Crissman did things a little bit more elegantly, however. It commissioned R.S. Harper Custom Coachbuilders to build them this 1979 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham station wagon to shuttle customers in that brought their cars in for service. The Fleetwood Brougham of this model year was already quite imposing, even compared to other cars of the era, but this wagon conversion gives it a huge amount of presence.
The owner of the Cadillac dealership’s mother liked this car so much, she ended up using it as her personal car. We can’t really blame her – Cadillac didn’t make a station wagon at the time, so if you wanted to ride in the ultimate expression of American luxury and retain the convenience of a wagon, a custom-built one like this is really your only option.
The Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham wagon will go under the gavel at RM Sotheby’s Auburn Fall auction in late August/early September. The auction house is predicting it will sell for between $15,000 and $20,000, which is certainly more than a Fleetwood Brougham of this vintage may otherwise sell for, but this car is quite unique, after all. It’s also been well taken care of, having sat in the Michigan-based Ed Meuer collection for a number of years.
Check out the listing at this link and feel free to let us know what you think of this Cadillac Fleetwood wagon in the comments down below.
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Source/photos: RM Auctions
Comments
I’ve seen a few pics of Caddy wagons from this era a few times. I’ve always liked them and this car is very nice looking, although I’m a little put off by the strange design of the rear door tops and the very square back side windows. Of course, as a conversion, it’s what you get. But imagine if that was designed and built in the factory without that strange mis-matched trim.
No matter, I’d certainly enjoy it!
That`s the first thing that caught my eye, the weird back windows!
What an abortion. Those rear doors look even worse than the ones on Volvo 240 wagons.
They should have started with a hearse and converted that to station wagon.
From the days when cars had whitewall tires and lots of chrome. Perhaps because it’s a Cadillac, I do get a “hearse” vibe from it.
When the Cadillac DeVille/ Fleetwoods were built alongside the Olds Vista Cruiser at the Clark St. plant, the folks there built a Cady wagon using the Vista Cruiser body. It was pretty cool looking. I have pictures of it in a booklet commemorating the Clark St plant after it closed.
I thought only Cadillacs were built at Clark Street. I’ve long advocated for a return to the days when Cadillacs were built at a Cadillac only plant so hearing that the Vista Cruiser was built among Caddy’s is quite surprising.
Olds 88s and Chevy Impala/Caprice/Cop car/taxi sedans and wagons also went down that line before is shut down.
Det/Ham was All Cady for a bit (Eldo/Seville/FWD Deville/DTS).
Beautiful vehicle … would like to see those make a come back. The Caprice and Buick Estate wagons commanded attention as did the Ford Country Squire. Ah the old days when class was well classy. The SUV generation will never know just how much more utility was built into those station wagons. Today’s SUV’s are good on sport … but dern near no utility. The Buick Encore an Chevy Trax aren’t meant to tow a trailer. That big Caddy … I’d imagine 4.500 pounds and the car wouldn’t even know it was back there.
The 1979 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham D’Elegance wagon reminds me of a comment someone once said about the 2012 Cadillac CTS-V sport wagon where seeing one on the street was like sighting of the Loch Ness monster.
For the price of the new caddys, GM really should take a real, long, hard, look at the interior of this old lady……Now THAT was worth of the name Cadillac!
I’m curious to know which engine it has – my 78 Fleetwood Brougham had every single option except for the Fuel Injected 425CID & Two-Tone paint. Ironically at the time, a 7 year old car owned by a 21 y.o. – all those options started commiting suicide & I traded it in as it was FAR too expensive to fix at the time.
This car is just awesome, I dreamed about it when I was in college and worked very hard to save money for it. And I am very grateful to UK PapersOwl, which is the best place for buying dissertation paper online, so I successfully combined work and study. It took me several years to collect the necessary amount to buy this car. And now I am happy.
So you bought this?? Curious on $$ amount.
Really good article!
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