I always like a first-year vehicle, especially when it’s a luxury car and especially when it has red leather. The early Sevilles were fairly groundbreaking for General Motors and their customers who were wanting to get into something smaller but still wanted a posh ride. This 1976 Cadillac Seville can be found posted here on craigslist in Rio Rancho, New Mexico and they’re asking $7,600 or best offer. Here’s the original listing.
Being made for the 1976 through 1979 model years, the first-generation Seville was and still is a great-looking car, in my opinion and I know that I’m not alone in thinking that. The next-gen cars with the bustleback rear end is polarizing, to say the least. I owned one of those recently as a lot of you know and I absolutely loved it and never should have sold it. I have yet to own a first-gen Seville but I will eventually. I just hope that it has red leather.
In mid-1975 when the Seville arrived in showrooms – and I’m not talking about the early Eldorado Seville from the mid-1950s – most of GM’s cars were gargantuan in size and I mean a foot or two longer than this seventeen-foot-long Seville. People were used to big cars in those days. What am I saying, almost everyone drives a huge, hulking SUV now or a monster four-door pickup. This one appears to have a few issues with the rear bumper filler material which can be fixed and hopefully the white paint could be matched fairly easily.
The exterior of this car looks perfect to me in the photos other than the rear bumper filler material, but the real magic happens inside. The wavy dash is a little worrisome but otherwise, it’s hard to go wrong with a luxury car filled with sumptuous red leather. These cars still had a lot of room inside, even in the back seat, and I think Cadillac buyers liked a smaller, more-European feel to these cars compared to the big Devilles and Eldorados. The Seville was still a rear-wheel-drive car in this era so handling was more of what they were used to. The next-gen bustleback Sevilles were front-drive.
A couple of hours spent cleaning and detailing this engine compartment would have been time well spent, it would have really looked nice. It’s an Oldsmobile 350 cubic-inch V8 with 180 horsepower as the only two engines that Cadillac had available at the time were 472 and 500 V8s and neither of them would have worked, at least at the time. The seller says that it runs but needs a $32 fuel pump which always begs the question, why not put it in and have it working perfectly? Hagerty is at $8,000 for a #3 good condition Seville, what is this one worth?
I think these are one of GM’s best looking cars of the malaise era. Even today they are handsome and easy on the eye. White wouldn’t be my first pick but a big thumbs up to the red leather. The seller suggesting this needs a fuel pump means this car isn’t running correctly. What isn’t mentioned is this is Cadillacs first car with electronic fuel injection so there could be other problems lurking. Price is very fair and someone will get a nice Caddy. One thing for sure is you will get more smiles and thumbs up when you arrive in this car over a modern Darth Vader looking SUV caddy.
These were good looking cars, more so when you consider the next generation that was missing half its rear end. I’d like to find one of these in good condition locally.
That wavy dash may be a dash cover. Some don’t go completely flat.
It is a dash cover…kinda like a stiff piece of carpet.
Yes, you can see the cover on both levels of the dash.
Timeless design. Body by Fisher ?
I had a silver/grey 2-tone one in the early 80s. These had a Cadillac-only Bendix electronic fuel injection system on top of the Olds 350 engine. Compared to carburetors, these systems are complicated, and can be frustrating to work on. Many owners (including me) reported intermittent drivability problems. I only owned it about 4 months.There were few techs that truly understood the system, and many were eventually converted to carbs.
Every once in a while, mine would start bucking, and backfiring. A swift hit to the injection control module would restore performance. For a while, replacement modules were unobtainable, but suppliers like Rock Auto usually have some in stock. If you are considering a 70s Cadillac with fuel injection, make sure you have the ability (or know a specialist) to work on it. Some parts and modules are unavailable or expensive . Modules for some Eldos can cost $3-$,4000.
I’ve owned my 1977 Seville since 1983. I had a time when the car gave me some problems with stalling. It turned out to be the fuel pump circuit in the computer. There is a way to bypass that that circuit in the computer which I have had done to my car. It’s a bulletproof engine and I love driving it to this day. I would not hesitate to buy one if I didn’t already own one.
This is one of my bucket list cars. Leather interior is a must – after all, it’s a Cadillac!
I agree with you leather is a must, I have found several nice looking ones that are in great shape but they were cloth ugh. Had a 79 Black and gray with red interior back in the mid 80’s looking for that dream one now
The color combination screams AZ retiree, which i suspect summarizes the original owner. As these had a unique fuel injection system, the fuel system would concern me, as this has been sitting a very long time I’d guess. Like it otherwise.
126 thousand miles, 46 years old, unique fuel injection…
Owner will not install a $32 fuel pump.
There is more to the story, better bring a trailer…
Well, that’s because I’m sure it’s not just a $32 fuel pump lol! It’s probably a lot more involved than just that. Leaving a vehicle sitting with fuel in the fuel system for a long period of time can cause a lot of havoc, particularly here where we’re dealing with a unique old school fuel injection system.
People think that if they just put Sta-Bil in the gas tank everything’s gonna be hunky dory. But you need to run the car to circulate it, which many fail to consider. And Sta-Bil will only preserve fuel for about 24 months anyway. If you’re going to store a car longer than that, you need to completely drain the fuel system.
As to this one, my guess is you might as well just go ahead and buy an Edelbrock intake and a new carburetor. It’s gonna be very hard to fix this, would be my guess.
That’s the hardest 26K miles I’ve ever seen.
Sellers of cars like this must think that most buyers are idiots.
The odometer on these vehicles does not go up to the 100,000 mile digit. Most sellers try to take advantage of that and represent the vehicle as being less than 100,000 miles. Those vehicles are very rare!
It’s hard to believe these were based on the Chevy Nova.
It shares a little DNA with the Nova and that’s it. It’s a much more involved designed vehicle and should not be compared to Nova.
BTW What’s with all the blank comments? Is it me or BF?
Steve, I don’t see any Blank comments.
The dash is hidden and the steering wheel is covered.
New Mexico sun has done it’s damage on them.
Bad fuel pump means you can not drive it onto your trailer and find the Real problems.!.!.!
I bought one of these in 1975, Silver with matching leather interior. Wife hated it it because paper grocery bags wouldn’t stand up n the shallow trunk. Highway mileage was good at 20 plus but 12 was best you could do around town even with the fuel injection. About every 6 months the fuel injection had to be adjusted for either racing at idle or engine dying at stop lights, a real problem with this car which made me want to not have fuel injection. Ride and creature comforts on this car were truly Cadillac. I did have a paint problem in that the front fenders and hood didn’t seem to exactly match the rest of the car. When I contacted Cadillac they said that those items were painted at another facility from the assembly plant and agreed to have the car repainted at no cost to me. I would like to find another one of these from a later run than the first year of production but of this first gen body style once they hopefully got the first year “bugs” out of it.
I used to work on these at a Cadillac dealer back in the day. The fuel injection was new and most techs didn’t know how they worked (and didn’t want to learn). As far as the alleged fuel pump problem, they had two of them. A low pressure one inside the tank (have to pull the tank to replace), and a high pressure one mounted to the frame (easy to replace). About $100 each. If the gas got stale they’re probably both bad.
I still remember the first time I saw one. It was at a stoplight on Lake Street in Minneapolis. The beautiful emerald green paint was set off by flickering rear tail lights, when the driver stepped on the brake pedal. I thought that feature was so cool!
Dale, “flickering taillights”? I don’t remember that being a feature. Probably had an electrical problem 😃
Does anyone besides me think this a weird exterior color combo?
Back in the day I had a year old 77 Seville white over white with a maroon cloth interior and still miss that car. Just a perfect sized car that rode and drove great. Wish I still had it.
That’s why I’ve never sold mine. I’ve owned mine 39 years now.
I had a ’79. I only got to drive it about half the time, it was in the shop that much. The first thing was the front end needed all new ball joints and inner upper and lower bushings, but that was just the start The biggest stumbling block was keeping the exhaust manifolds tight. It took us, my mechanic and I, two years before we found out that the cap screws that held them on were a special GM part number that had over sized threads and were good for one tightening only. By that time I was tired of the cars very heavy ends and short wheelbase. I sold it to a scrapper on one of these California Buy Back deals. The scrapper asked me if he could sell it, saying that some young family could get some good use out of it. I told him that it was a very difficult and expensive car to keep running. So short of a crate 350 and such I wouldn’t recommend it.
My first Seville was a Silver 1978, second one was a white over blue 1976 and third was a Burgundy 1979.
Believe me, the later ones were BEST…
As usual, production numbers and improvements mean a Lot.
An early Seville in either Red or Yellow with a matching interior is still on my bucket list. I owned five Caddys, ranging from a ’63 Fleetwood to a ’78 Coupe d’Elegance. One Eldorado in the middle. I always thought this design was an instant classic. It still looks great. I heard a lot of sad tales about the fuel system, though, and that kept me away from them when I had the chance. I know it’s weird, but I am still comforted seeing the trash receptacle on the passenger side. I always thought that was such a nice Cadillac touch.
The ECM is laying on the floor board under the dash, I’d say there’s probably more going on than just a fuel pump. Nice looking Caddy, though.
Seems to Me Cadillac used high quality leather back in the day. My Step Fathers 83 Deville went 12 years 230k with the leather still looking beautiful. No cracks or tears, just some normal leather wear in. The car kept going after that, just not with us.