I recently attended a large car show here in Boise and it was packed with all kinds of neat cars, but one car threw me for a bit of a loop. It was a low mileage survivor ’91 Oldsmobile and what was really amazing was the crowd it was attracting. Just a few years ago, it would have been overlooked and viewed just as an unwanted used car. Now that it and cars like this Cadillac Fleetwood are 25 years old, people are starting to see them as future collectibles, well at least the low mileage survivors. This Caddy has just 1,842 miles on the clock and it still looks new! You can find it here on eBay in Henrico, Virginia with an impressive current bid of $12,100.
Beyond being low mileage, this Caddy is also features the extra-luxurious d’Elegance option. Have a look at the interior and you’ll see just how luxurious it really is! I imagine in 1990, this was one of the nicest machines on the road.
The job of moving all that luxury around is handled by a carbureted 5.7 liter V8 with just 185 horsepower. This one’s engine bay still looks new, but I have to wonder if it was properly maintained and serviced over the years. The seller claims everything works as it should and that the A/C is still putting out cold air, so that’s a good sign!
I can actually understand the appeal of cars like this. They are starting to get up there in age, many states classify anything 25 years or older a classic, but finding nice low mileage examples is quite rare. Remember, just a few years ago teenagers were inheriting the family’s old ’90s car to drive to school, so many have been driven into the ground. I see this car only going up in value as it gets older, but what do you do with it given that the value is tied to the mileage?
It would be a weekend cruiser for me. Nice find!
After seeing the seats, I want to double the mileage on a nice long road trip. That thing looks so comfy.
I can’t believe in 1991 it had a carburetor though. I thought everything had gone to FI by then.
Jay – I thought the same thing, so I looked it up. It’s using throttle body injection – just like the old “digital fuel injection” models of the late 70’s.
Kurt I was just going to say that myself because most of the later model Broughams had fuel injection. Although I can’t remember when they stopped using the carb and decided to go to TBI
That’s the hard thing to see, that today’s undesirable can be tomorrow’s classic. It’s especially true with Caddy’s, Lincolns and other big cars, which have a long history of becoming collectible. In the 70’s you couldn’t give away a 50’s Caddy. Somewhere around 50 years old it hits. Moral of the story is, fill a temperature controlled warehouse with low mileage luxury or performance cars bought for bargain prices, then sit back and you or your kids can reap the rewards later.
The dilemma is whether the buyer would be willing to put significant miles on this car. If ‘Yes’ this would make a wonderful quirky limo.
Always loved the looks of these cars. In my opinion, one of the last true Cadillacs. Massive, ultra luxurious, RWD and didn’t handle worth a damn but could cradle you in luxury and comfort for hours on end. Luxury cars today are too focused on being sporty and flying around corners. Luxury is for cruising, not racing!
I couldn’t agree more!!!!!!!!!!!
What a great find! Did you notice the phone? That would have been a pretty special option back then in the days of the “brick” phone.
Nice car but….Premium gas price is still low right now. Interest in large cars and big engines goes up. When gas goes back up to the $4 or $5/gallon level, it costs a fortune to take a ride around the block or even to car shows. Interest in these large cars dives along with prices. This has been happening for decades, since Jimmy Carter was President. Sadly, the large 70s, 80s and 90s Cadillacs, Buicks, Oldsmobiles and all but Blue Chip Muscle Cars are hard to give away when gas prices are high.
This is not a high compression engine…..it should be fine on regular gas. It is really a pickup engine. Few people here are that concerned about fuel economy in our pet cars, most of us own many cars, the chances are slim this will be a daily commuter. When I managed a Camarillo Cal. Goodyear we had many retired customers with these cruisers. They were generally good cars if you can get used to the coil front suspension float.
Joe these ran on 87 without an issue afaik. Didn’t matter if you had the 5.0 or the 5.7
How about the original purchase price! 35k! I’d buy it I had a place to keep it!
I love this. My grandparents had one and I can promise you the seats are truly comfy.
However in 1991 I hated it. Including the pillow-top mattress seats. I was graduated from college in 1991, and I wanted sport seats and sport suspension, preferably on a sports car. I did not want to slide around on a sofa while the Caddy plowed through corners like a listing galleon.
Now I am 47 and I hate the firm suspension and sport seats in my car. I want so badly to sit in those big comfy seats again.
This example is especially cool because it has the rare lower accent molding delete option. Most of them had large silver moldings below the waistline like the one in the picture I am going to try to attach (not my family’s car, just a pic I found on the internet.)
I worked as a salesperson at a Caddy dealer in the early to mid ’90’s part-time while attending college. Sold quite a few of the DeVilles, but hardly any Fleetwoods save for the 75+ age group. When Cadillac started making changes to go after the BMW/Acura/Lexus market with the Northstar equipped SLS and STS was an interesting time to be in the car business from a marketing perspective. I probably learned more about marketing to a demographic from that job than sitting in a college classroom.
Lucious luxry, classic styling, decent power plant, great car!!
There is a guy who collects these, and he has a decent website, i just can’t remember his name >:-(
His logic is that muscle cars were basically a cheap midsize car with a massive engine and limited options in order to reduce weight, and they now sell for crazy prices and aren’t very drivable. While cars like this can be bought for a song and enjoyed everyday and they are comfortable and loaded too.
Main thing he said was the 5.0 cars had weak underpinnings while the 5.7 cars got a much more robust chassis, trans, brakes, rear end, etc. and they are pretty unbreakable. This is exactly the kind of car he was talking about….although I don’t know if he’d want to pay collector market rate for one.
This one’s a great color. Just needs some real wire wheels and long road trip…..
And the d’Elegance package is apparently especially worthy too….he also claims Cadillac’s velour seating is much higher quality than its leather.
BOOM! Found it. Matt Garrett.
Lot of good reading here about GM cars, he writes well.
http://www.mcsmk8.com
and check out this sleeper:
http://www.mcsmk8.com/80CAD-500/MAVICA.HTM
These were some of the nicest cars on the road, back then. “Classic” styling which made the air get out of the way (rather than smoothly flowing over it, as the “potato” cars sheet metal contours does). The engines were Chevrolet TBI, so no issues with those! There was a “Livery’ Option” package for the limo trade (I found this buried in the GM parts book!), which had GM 3/4 ton (7200 lb GVW) chassis parts and the 9.5″ ring gear rear axle. Not sure if it had 6-lug wheels, though.
IF one of these cars slides around a corner, it’s because of the tires and inflation pressure thereof. Reason is that the suspension has the same guts/design as the Caprice police cars (not the springs, though). Large sway bars, front and rear, but “normal” tires. AND many with rear disc brakes.
Somewhere toward the end of the model run, the ride height was raised from what it had been. When we did a plant tour of Arlington, TX plant, we noticed LOTS of the Fleetwoods had window stickers destined for Saudi Arabia. Yet all of these style of Cadillacs had the higher ride height. That change might have coincided with the move to the 5.7L V-8, which might explain the comment about the 5.7L cars being better. These cars, when equipped correctly, according to a trailer magazine road test, were pretty decent travel trailer tow vehicles.
Aahhh, “We didn’t know what we had ’til it’s gone!”
Very nice.
This message is forJoe way back there. True , most got crappy gas milage but I currently drive a 95 Eldorado. On the back county roads with the cruise set at 70,,I get 29.5 mpg with the Northstar. So it does burn premo. but with those numbers , I don’t care
Gorgeous car!
He calls it a “Fleetwood”….it’s a D-body Brougham. Fleetwoods were FWD by that time.
185 is pretty weak for such a big motor, but at least it’s not a 4.1 or a V8-6-4, or a 350 Diesel for that matter. Other than that, it is a pretty nice car.