The Cadillac Eldorado was introduced as a concept car in 1952 and put into production as a 1953 model as part of Cadillac’s 50th anniversary celebration. The name Eldorado was the result of a company-wide contest to give the new model a moniker. It is a contraction of the Spanish name El Dorado for the mythical Colombian city of gold.
The Cadillac Eldorado was in production from 1953 until 2002, spanning twelve generations. The Eldorado was always at or near the top of the Cadillac line.
The ninth generation Cadillac Eldorado was introduced for the 1971 model year, with a significant redesign. The wheelbase grew by six inches, and the overall length increased by two inches. Fender skirts became standard issue, giving a fuller, heavier appearance. Power came from a 500 cubic inch V8 that was exclusive to the Eldorado. A convertible iteration of the Eldorado was available, having been absent from the model since 1966. Frameless door glass carried over from the previous year, but the rear quarter windows gave way to fixed opera windows in the larger C-pillars on the coupe model. The new Eldorado also featured a new wreath and crest hood ornament.
The interior of the 1971 Cadillac Eldorado received a new curved dash and instrument panel, more comfortable, redesigned seats, and a fiber optic lamp monitor system that kept tabs on headlights, taillights, parking lights, and turn signals, with indicators on each of the front fenders and on the deck beneath the rear window.
The Cadillac Eldorado would soldier on in this guise through the 1978 model year, with refreshed designs in 1973 (new grille, bumpers, trunk lid, rear fenders, taillights, and a few interior improvements), 1974 (vertical ends and side marker lights on the rear bumper, horizontal tail lights, tighter mesh in the grille, new wheel covers, dual-tier instrument panel with warning lights) and 1975 (rectangular headlights, revamped grille, front bumper, full rear wheel openings without the fender skirts, and crisper body lines).
The Cadillac Eldorado for 1976 was little changed from the previous year. It would be the final year for the Eldorado convertible, as slow convertible sales, coupled with anticipated government rollover safety regulations, conspired to kill the rag tops. (Those regulations never came to fruition, and the Eldorado convertible returned for the 1984 production year.) Other GM convertibles ceased production in 1975. Cadillac marketed the 1976 Eldorado convertible as the “last American convertible,” selling 14,000 units, with the last 200 “Bicentennial Edition” Eldorados finished in patriotic white with blue and red pinstripes and sporting a commemorative dash plaque.
Our feature 1976 Cadillac Eldorado convertible is finished in stunning, glossy Sable Black over Black Sierra Grain leather with a black vinyl convertible top. It is powered by a 500 cubic inch V8 backed by a three-speed Turbo Hydramatic automatic transmission. The Eldorado shows just 3,200 miles from new with only two owners prior to the selling dealer’s acquisition. It is well equipped, as one would expect with any Eldorado, with power steering, power brakes, power convertible top, Twilight Sentinel automatic headlights, AM-FM/eight-track stereo, automatic climate control, cruise control, tilt steering, power windows, and power-adjustable split-bench front seats. Included in the sale is a black parade boot and a First Place AACA Spring Meet award. Work done in preparation for the sale included converting the air conditioning to R134a refrigerant and replacing the air conditioning compressor and power antenna.
This stunning time capsule Cadillac Eldorado is currently being auctioned on Bring a Trailer, with the sale ending Thursday, June 13th.
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Comments
Oozes quiet masculine power. What a Cadillac car should be. Now only personified in the Escalade. The CT5-V Blackwing comes close, but it is not “quiet”.
Where is the auction located
Doesn’t look like a split bench to me. Just a bench.
Good observation. Anyone know whether they acutally make them this way or is this unoriginal? My Dad’s 76 Bonneville had a split, with power for the driver side and manual on passenger side. Hard to believe it was in a Pontiac but not standard in an Eldo.
I was a new car prep guy at a Cadillac dealer in 1976. The bench seat was standard on all Cadillacs except for Fleetwood Brougham and Seville.
split bench was an option known as a 60/40
Mark:
The Eldorado split seat option was the 50/50 design by 1976.
On other Cadillacs they were 60/40 unless the “d’Elegance” version (either Fleetwood Brougham or De Ville) was ordered, in which case the 50/50 split was included. 50/50 came with the Fleetwood Talisman option as well.
Absolutely beautiful
My father had a gold on gold ’75 coupe. The only difference from the ’76 was the grille and the ’75 had stainless hubcaps instead of painted. It weighed over 5,000 pounds and the torquey 500 ci engine only made 190 hp, but it would still boil the front tires off the line. Lots of fun for a road pillow.
IMO, this is the worst generation out of all generations due to styling. GM cheapen the styling and interior with fake wood.
My grandfather had a blue 1969 Eldorado with a 472 CI. That car was sweeeeeet!
This is what Cadillacs are supposed to be…Cadillac needs to forget about the Celestiq and start building and marketing cars that people actually want to buy, like that Eldorado, but maybe on a slightly smaller scale, as well as the CT6, a new version of the CTS and maybe even a new version of the Seville. And while we’re at it how about a new version of the Coupe DeVille.
Sedans and coupes are dead my friend
Has anyone told, Mercedes-Benz, Lexus, BMW, Audi, Infiniti, Rolls-Royce, Bentley, Honda, Nissan, Toyota, Kia, Hyundai?
No Fatone sedans and coupes are not dead it’s just that as far as the American car companies go they are the more expensive offerings now so just Cadillac Chevys dropping the Malibu they already dropped the Impala. So why do you say that Sedan’s are dead if Cadillac is still going to make sure the sedans have a future beyond 2025 they’re still working on new sedans EV or ICE powered. I think sedans have become passe let’s say you know like if you can afford one then you can buy one The only cheap sedans left are Hyundai maybe a cheap Camry there aren’t any to me there aren’t any more value like budget sedans those are the small SUVs now crossovers, I do however wish and hope that Buick would make a shenan again and Chevy let’s see at least one sedan from each brand.
So the fact that Ford, GM and Stellantis have dropping all small, medium and large sedans and coupes other sports cars is a temporary condition?
You can die on that hill
All the shortsighted companies…..yes, if Telsa made a Lincoln Mark IV copy tomorrow, GM, Ford and whatever would be drawing Eldorados and Rivieras Wednesday….
Whatever pumps the stock up for another week or month…..
SUVs should be dead ! Difficult to tell one make from another, and
even you could…… who cares.
I had a 1976 Eldorado convertible, white with red interior with under 10k miles. I sold it to a gentleman who wanted to have it shipped to London. I took it myself to the docks in Miami and drove into a shipping container. Nice car but probably not made for the streets of London.
Victor Wilbur My father once owned a 1971 Cadillac sedan DeVille that was one of the nicest cars he ever owned I used to ride in it as a little kid and I loved it The car rode like a dream, it had the big block 502 V8 in it, it had plenty of room for everybody and everything, and it was one the heck of a highway cruiser. Oh at least I forget that car was also built like a tank It’s demise came when my father is driving in the city on his way to work and a van blew through a red light and my father’s light was green so he hit the van a full size van mind you and that full size van spun around four blocks and the only thing that happened to that Cadillac was the front end was pushed in a little he had it told home and he just figured let me try and start it up and it started right up I don’t know why he didn’t fix it because that car was supposed to be mine but that’s ancient history so maybe one day I can find one like it. In conclusion if you’ve never drove or rode in one of these Cadillacs from the ’70s I suggest you do it because you’re missing out yeah they can’t handle well but men do they ride like a dream like you’re like you’re riding on a cloud that’s the only way I can put it you don’t feel any bumps though so whoever out there is never done it if you ever get the chance drive or ride in s ’70s Cadillac.
One thing about this era. You are not going to find their bumpers laying on the side of expressways like the modern cars. We used a transmission jack to help facilitate removal and installation of those bumpers. Heavy!!
Current bid is $57,500, final bid should be close to $80,000.
I had a 1972 Eldorado Convertible myself. Cotillion White, matching top and an Oxblood interior. The design of the interior wasn’t as over-wrought and vulgar as the later cars like the one pictured here. The wood was fake but there was far less of it. Nor was it moulded into strange and tacky shapes like these later cars.
These cars are a relic of the past.
They rode very smooth but handing was not something that instill confidence. It was more like guiding a Chris Craft than a car.
This car was of a different time and era and would die a quick death today.
Driving these were a challenge. You can’t see anything outside and people today can’t drive cars half this size without 16 angles of camera views.
The sad truth is this was well into the point that Cadillac really was not what it used to be. the car was just a restyled Olds. Too much Cooperate car and not enough Cadillac by this point of time and it only got worse.
The last real Cadillacs has stainless roofs and a bar in the glove box in the 50’s.
The sad old crumbled American Dream of the
distant past, the faded glamour and once-coveted aspiration of a now-forgotten symbol of “social status, achievement, and material success”. Even the Escalade is beginning to lose that “desirability” factor in the eye of the wanton wealthy classes, further proof
of time’s cruel and fickle way with all things of manufactured perception rather than actual worth or timeless value.
That is one nice old Cadillac that should be bought and driven but preserved as well so that future generations know what a Cadillac used to be and what “standard of the world” really stood for. If I had the money I would buy it. Yes it might be a relic of the past but I would take this over a new Cadillac any day. It might not be able to handle as well as a new car, it might not have a touch screen in the dash, it might be heavy and get bad gas mileage, but there’s nothing like that ride that only 70s Cadillac’s had.
I’d like to see what the Roadster Shop or Ring Brothers could do with one of these things.
$ 200,000.00
$$$ 200,000.00
Don’t pay these clowns any mind when it comes to the EL D of that era the performance was superb, the handling outstanding and the ride well let’s just say it was smoother than owl poop on a doorknob. If you’re not from that era then you cannot appreciate the car. That’s it. That’s all.
This car could only reproduce an awkward Starskey and Hutch police chase like they used to for performance. There is no feeling in the steering unless you count torque steer.
This car us a cheap remnant of a past era that was over by the time it was built.
I have driven them. Hard to believe what people counted as a car back then.
Hyperv6 you have to think in 1970s terms not 2024 because back then people didn’t know any better, back then steering feel and handling you know those weren’t people’s primary concerns when they bought a car they wanted a car that road nice and had a nice interior and if you wanted a car that had steering feeland handle a good you bought a Corvette or a Camaro or a mustang something like that you know it was a different world back then I’m not trying to say to your comment was wrong but you know you got to think in 1970s terms when you talk about old cars because what they had back then is different than we have now.
I had a repair shop that worked primarily on Cadillac, Rolls, Bentley and Jaguar. I use to tell my Rolls customers not to take them beyond the city limits. Get yourself a Cadillac for any trips you plan on taking.
I also had a customer that bought a new Eldorado convertible 1976 Centennial Edition off of the showroom floor. Cadillac only made 200, coinciding with our 200 year anniversary of our country. He paid $50k for it, quite a price for 1976.
They were reliable cars. We primarily worked on AC, P/S leaks, Bosch fuel injection (which was pretty good), and FWD axle boots. I would drive one across the U.S.today without hesitation.
Nice cars but I much prefer the 1979 to 1984 version. When you look at the power to cubic inch ratio the 500 was absolutely terrible. Only 190 Horses out of 500 cubic inches! And so many crap on the HT 4100 for making no power. Well let this sink in. It made 135 HP with exactly half the cubic inches of the 500 at 250 CID or if you do the math the 500 would have made 95 HP at 250 cubic inches if it used the same tuning as the 500. With that said I’ll bet there is at least another 30-40 HP hiding in those 500’s with simple timing advance and some carb tweaking.
For me and many the late 70s downsizing is when the bottom started to drop out for Detroit not just Cadillac. So much platform/engine/parts sharing that everything started to look the same
Everyone focuses on the hp and completely ignores the 365-380lb-ft of torque at a diesel like 2,000 rpm…..
The 4100 by contrast had a 190bl-ft of torque.
So yeah, the 472-500-425-368 engines are still better, they also were made out of paper mache like 4100 was.
Was that supposed to be “weren’t made out of paper mache”?
Yes, weren’t but the edit expired.
My post was mainly focusing on the HP numbers not how well the engine was made. Everybody knows the 472/500/425/368 series of engines were awesome bulletproof motors. They were just not very efficient at making HP after around 1975. And the HT 4100 made 200 LBS Ft of torque which was competitive with slightly larger GM and Ford 4.2 and 4.3 liter V8’s of the time period. So again 135 HP wasn’t all that bad like some say for an engine of 4.1 liters especially considering some 302 and 318 V8’s of the same time could only muster 130. Yes torque was the achilles heel of the 4100 but they somewhat addressed that with the 3.42 rear axle ratios and higher stall speed torque converters. An interesting fact is that a 1976 500 Cid Deville or Eldorado does around the same 12-12.5 second 0-60 as a 4100 Deville or Eldo from 1983 to 1985. At least the ones I tuned up and got running good were running those times at any rate.
@Joe Yoman this is why us the 1971 series of the Cadillac 502 V8 engine where much better: : The engine powering the 1971 Cadillac DeVille was a V 8 (7735 cc | 472.0 cu in. | 7.7 L.) with 345 BHP (253.92 KW) @ 4400 RPM and 500 Ft-Lbs (678 NM) @ 2800 RPM. My father had a 1971 sedan DeVille with the 500 cubic inch engine that car was powerful…until they put all the emissions crap on these engines and ruined them!
All gross hp numbers before 1972 are mostly tall tales with some truth…..that 365hp was really more like 275-285 hp.
Fatone you you do know that platform sharing is still here and still goes on a traverse, enclave and a GMC Acadia or all really same vehicle underneath with the exception of body work and and such so companies do still platform share. The engines are also all the same so what is your point for comparing the late 70s to now? And if you ask me all these SUVs and CUVs they all look the same they really do they all have a similar shape even more so than cars in the late ’70s and ’80s that’s my opinion.
Yes as I stated above platform sharing went nuclear with the late 70s downsizing.
Remember the Time cover from the 80s with the line id Century, Celebrity, 6000 etc only differentiated by a grill job?
And a trunk, and taillights, and dashboard, and interior trim and roof line, and the entire front fascia….but yeah, besides that, they were all exactly the same.
MrR yes I agree with you but that didn’t stop people from buying them back then so I’m not saying that people now would buy them but back then that’s what people wanted so they bought them so that was then and this is now. You can’t keep comparing the past to the present, yes what we have in the present time in 2024 is much better than what they had in the 1970s but that was a different time different people you know people wanted different things than they do now. It’s almost like comparing the 1950s to now you can’t People’s ideals people’s concept of life was different for better or for worse it was a different time That’s my point I’m not trying to agree or disagree with anybody and cause an argument that’s all. Have a good day and God bless 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼
Unfortunately, my uncle believed the hype and thought that the 1976 Eldorado was going to be the last convertible that GM ever produced. So, he sold his 1970 440 Six Pack 4 speed Plymouth Super Bird and bought 2 of these. He came to regret that decision.