I don’t know about you, but I just don’t associate the color red with a Cadillac. Especially with the fourth-generation 1971 – 1976 Caddy’s – the last of the giant land yachts. After a little research, I found the name of this bright, bold shade of red. No, it’s not Lipstick Red or Flame Red, it’s called Dynasty Red. A fitting, upper-crust sounding name for Cadillac’s choice of red exterior paint. Further detective work found that only five percent of 1973 Cadillacs left the factory in Dynasty Red. It wasn’t surprising that the three most popular color choices for ’73 Cadillac owners were Harvest Yellow, Burnt Sienna, and Renaissance Gold. I remember seeing a lot of Caddy’s in those colors. Well, if you like well-preserved time capsules with low mileage, then this red-on-red, well, more like a red-on-red with a white vinyl top 1973 Cadillac Coupe DeVille is for you. Another shout out to our pal, Curvette, for spotting this Big Red Machine and sending it to Barn Finds.
The seller doesn’t share the car’s history (or what it’s been up to since the year I graduated high school) or why it’s in this kind of great condition. “This is an original example in excellent condition” is all the seller says, so I’m assuming it’s an original survivor. The panels are straight, there’s no rust, and I’m not seeing any accident damage. It’s definitely seen the inside of a garage for its entire life. The Dynasty Red paint is shiny, the bumper fillers as well as the the white vinyl top appear to be in good shape, and all of the chrome (including the mandated, big, energy-absorbing front bumper), shiny stuff, trim, badging, and glass look fine.
If you love the color red, then you’re going to flip out over this Caddy’s interior. It’s in terrific shape and its red, lounge-chair-like leather seats are well preserved. These comfort-mobiles are usually loaded and this one has AC, power windows, power seats, power door locks, a working electric clock, and its original working AM/FM Radio with an 8-track tape player that’s been upgraded to connect to a mobile phone. The seller shares that “everything works as it should.”
It seems that sellers not showing photos of their car’s engine and engine bay in their ads is increasing. And I just don’t get it. There should be a 472-cubic-inch V8 that produced 220 horsepower under that outrageously long red hood. It only has 42,000 original miles on it (no mention of documentation) and it’s mated to a Turbo Hydra-matic automatic transmission. The seller claims that the Big Red Caddy runs and drives perfect and that he has driven down and back from Oregon to California several times. This Dynasty Red ’73 Coupe DeVille is located in the Portland, Oregon area and is for sale here on craigslist for $23,000. Model year 1973 was a monumental year for Cadillac. It produced its five-millionth Cadillac, the division sold a record number of luxury cars, and it was the first year that Coupe DeVille’s outsold the four-door Sedan DeVille. With 112,849 Coupe DeVille’s produced, this isn’t a rare car by any means, but the like-new condition of this time-capsule certainly is rare. It’s the nicest ’73 Coupe DeVille we’ve ever featured for sale here on Barn Finds.
I like the pillarless hartops best on the ’71 to ’76 models. Its funny how rare red was on a Cadillac back then. We had a janitor when I was in High School in the 80’s that had a red ’76’ with a white top. He drove it very sparingly, once in a while he’d bring it to work and I’d see it. But mostly it was hos “Church car” on Sundays only. This one is very nice. Definitely been pampered since day one.
So well preserved. Amazing!
Now that’s a Coupe DeVille 😎
Somebody better check on Angel Whatsis, if a red Coupe de Ville of this vintage doesn’t get her going,,,,in the meantime, “Where’s the fire, Chief?” I never remember many red cars. Red interiors, but never a red car. Yellow was for taxis, black and white for cops, and red for fire dept. No exceptions. A red car was the target of ridicule. Just think, if I had this car, my old man would be mighty proud with me saying, “Look you bunch of old farts, Howard A is driving a Cadillac”,,( cough, wheeze) Wonderful cars, Earl Scheib still in business?
Howard, Earl Scheib made me chuckle.
Back in the ’92, I bought a reliable ’78 Delta 88 for a driver so I didn’t have to drive my newly purchased ’84 Cutlass Brougham to work.
Over time, I swapped out the left front fender for a rust free one, and my real prize was coming across a ’79 Buick LeSabre at a salvage yard from California and grabbing all 4 doors which also happened to have power windows and locks. $150!
Well, with all the swapping out, this car ended up having 7 colors. So I took it to Earl Scheib for a paint job to at least get one color.
Well, I went to check on the car only to find out they’d gone out of business at that location, with my car locked inside! But my car looked done (it was) but with a white roof over the original blue vinyl, which I ended up liking.
There was a St. Paul location so I went over there and the owner got my car out and gave me a nice discount. Jeez!
Surprisingly, red on red (with the white roof) actually works on this big Cadillac.
Now that’s a lotta Red!
BIG RED! Nice Caddy!
This car would look perfect in my garage next to my red on red 73 454 corvette convertible. Two of GM’s biggest car engines built just before the first gas crisis. This caddy is perfect in red because they built so few of them.
Curvette: Does your Corvette have a white top? In that case, you would have perfect GM bookends.
It’s supposed to be white but it has a black one now.
Beautiful, too bad has restricted 220hp engine, this thing really stands out. I love it, people would be attracted to this at shows.
Gorgeous car, very well preserved and hardly used. Seller should’ve posted under hood shots to add credibility to the mileage claim. He wants a lot of money for that car, I doubt if he will get it. Eldorados aren’t even getting that much yet. To my knowledge, anyway.
I remember seeing a red 73 Cadillac instead of red interior it was white leather with white top. I thought it was beautiful. I was 14 at the time. Those cars were big next to a VW bug 😂. Too bad this was not closer to me. Would love to see this in person. Good with the next owner. 🐻🇺🇸
He’ll get asking price for this easy, the color combo and full leather alone will sell this car. There’s enough iron within the bumpers of this mobile to build a Civic! This thing screams “hey everyone, look at me! My name is Steely Stan and I have arrived!”
I LOVE the color red. Just not fire engine red. A muted red, darker, cranberry or sliding into a burgundy.
Red Cadillacs IMO are awful. I agree with Ron. But this one, this one pulls it off. I think that it because the car is so well maintained (or restored). That vinyl roof is awfully white.
I had an opportunity to by a green ’73 Coupe de Ville with FE around 2000. I didn’t take it cause it had been in a flood. You can’t get that smell out of a car without changing the entire interior.
I also read somewhere back in the 1970s that red cars get into the most accidents. Whoda thought?
Not only the mildew smell, but the bigger concern is the electrical and the drivetrain inner workings.
Have to be careful shopping. These flood cars get shipped around the country.
toward the end of dad’s life he wanted a coupe de ville. when we went to the dealer he picked out a bright red one with a white top…a common color choice for my family. Being a caddy, we talked him out of it and into a more stately all silver blue one.
My late mother in law drove only Cadillacs and traded them in every 3 years since the early 60’s and they were either red with a white interior and vinyl roof or white with a red interior, a few Eldorado”s but almost always a 2 door until she passed in 1998.
I am curious about this one. What does it mean that the eight track player was updated to work with a mobile phone?
Maybe they put a jack input connection on the front. A couple of outfits do that.
A “jack”, input to do what?
To Cadillac Kid, a possible Bluetooth connection. Or to plug your cell in and listen to a music app (xm) through your car speakers.