According to the seller of this 1974 Cadillac Eldorado here on eBay, his grandfather passed the car down to him and it’s sat gathering dust in a Texas warehouse ever since. What a shame – this is the perfect Texas car, and ripe for attaching some cow horns to the front end! Surprisingly, the interior looks very clean for a car that’s been idled for a decade, so hopefully this reflects a dry storage environment. I don’t know what I’d do if a relative left a classic like this to me – I have no real space for it, nor do I aspire to own an old Cadillac, but putting the top down at least once and cruising with a couple of buddies would be on the list of things this old Caddy was useful for (including keeping the area fuel stations in business). The seller has listed the car with a $3,000 starting bid, and for that money, I’d keep it around just to have a classic American boat to use on fair-weather days. Have any of our readers ever been left an old car by a relative? What did you end up doing with it?
A lot of people who inherit cars don’t see them as we do. I see them as family. I too actually inherited and old caddy. My great uncle bought a brand new 58 Coupe deVille. Was a career, high-ranking Navy man and used it to commute from Lakewood NJ to Norfolk VA. The car was willed to my father who garaged it and didn’t use it much until later in his life. He got into the car show scene because of my younger muscle car influence. He passed suddenly in 1988 when I was only 21 and without a will, I took over the responsibilities of the old caddy. It sat for ten years, because of my travels but was still started at least twice a year. When I finally settled, I brought her back to life going through all the mechanicals. I bring her out quite a bit now and is a turn key driver. She is 100% original with 130K miles. I’m still a old Chevy guy but am keeping the old gal in the family and hopefully my son will too one day. To me, not keeping an old car in the family that meant so much to a relative would be like selling my dog. Just can’t do it.
Bryan
Bryan,
The 58 Coupe deVille, to me, is one of the most beautiful of all Cadies ever. Thanks for the memory
What, no bullhorns on the front? Beautiful car, but sitting a long time. Going to take some tinkering. Brakes, rubber, fuel system, but rest assured, they’ll never make ’em like this again.
I suspect the interior was replaced before it ever went to storage. I don’t recall cloth seats in any Caddy convertibles. Or any with that particular sew pattern. I worked at a Cadillac dealer for 10+ years, and saw pretty much every interior ever offered on the `70’s Cadillac’s, both then and prior to that.
Only in the mid `80’s did a local dealer convert some base cloth Eldo’s into convertibles, and poorly at that. His plan was to offer ones that were well below the $35K sticker price that the factory Biarritz Eldo convertibles cost. But Cadillac began denying warranty claims on them and he had to stop.
J.R. Ewing should have driven this, instead of a Merc!
Great looking car, but I’d look closely at the undercarriage. Seems to me like these cars have been sitting in a partially flooded storage situation judging by the water level marks on the wheels?
I sure would like to see this car without the boxes and dirt all over it.
Good notice Jim. The floor appears wet as well.
could be a great highway cruiser or any kind of cruiser for that matter.
Being in the family, I would keep it in the family…would make a fun ride. Seems to be a good buy but requires inspection obviously to be sure. I never got left any cars but there were some I wish I had.
I appreiciate the fact that this site is here. However, I find the comments about service stations or any reference to fuel consumption to be a bit “snarky”. Economy was never the point with these American road heros. But, thank goodness that there are people who do not love these cars or they would never be available to people whom love the freedom that these huge symbols of what an American car meant, to people like me!