This Monterey Green Firemist (what a name!) Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham cost a whopping $6,899 in 1968, a full $1,114 more than a Sedan DeVille. One thing you got for your extra grand or so was a little more length. Per the sales catalog, “the Fleetwood Sixty Special and Brougham, with an impressive wheelbase of 133 inches and an overall length of nineteen feet, are truly majestic motorcars.” Yes, it was a time in America when size meant luxury, for the most part. Even with its lofty price tag, the Brougham sold 15,300 copies, including this 46,784-mile original being sold on eBay in Media, Pennsylvania. The seller is moving and “must sell,” and he’s attached a $12,000 (or best offer) asking price to this grand old Cadillac.
It was a good year to buy a Cadillac in 1968 for the engine, if for nothing else. It was the new 472-cubic-inch V8, which was rated at a heady 375 horsepower and a massive 525 lb.-ft. of torque. It transmitted all that power through a Turbo Hydra-Matic (Turbo 400) and a 2.94:1 axle ratio for relaxed cruising; as such, it must have been perilously easy to exceed the speed limit with your new Fleetwood. Luckily, this one appears to have “automatic cruise control.” The seller says that the Cadillac “runs like a 46K car should.” (For those who are already wondering: There is no discussion of whether or not the air conditioning works.)
The Brougham had an optional “cloth-and-leather” combination that appears to be holding up to the sands of time very well; indeed, the seller says that the interior is “mint.” All the power windows work, too, which saves a usually unforeseen expense when buying a new-to-you classic car. The Brougham had standard “carpeted folding footrests” in the back seat for an extra limousine-like touch. Nothing like showing up your neighbor in his lowly DeVille.
The seller doesn’t mention it, but I wonder if this is an original paint car; the fenders have faded in a way that doesn’t quite match the rest of the body, which is often a sign that General Motors was the last entity to hold the spray gun. GM bodies were usually painted in the body plant while the front clip was painted at the assembly plant; I’m sure they matched when new, but something in the mixture seems to age a little differently. The only obvious issue I see in the pictures is some bubbling on the passenger-side C-pillar, which is one of the hazards of the Brougham’s standard vinyl top.
Quite a few car people say that there’s nothing like an original, low-mileage collector car, and this one certainly seems to fall into that category. The seller says that the car is in “great condition” and has had new brakes within the last six months, so it should be ready to drive and enjoy, and at $12,000 (or maybe a little less), it’s not selling for that much more than the original purchase price. Not bad for a car that certainly showed that its owner had done OK back in 1968.
My parents had a blue 68 sedan de Ville and it was a fine automobile. These are quick from about 25mph and up and would firmly put you back in the seat when accelerating. We took it on vacation one year to the Smoky Mountains and my sister got car sick riding in the back. One thing to consider regarding the faded rear fenders is there weren’t too many garages they could completely fit inside! Hope it finds a good home.
You make a very good point Cooter. You reminded me of something. About the mid 80’s my older brother rented an apartment in an old 2 family house from about the turn of the centry. It had a sweet little garage that was I’m sure more than ample for its original intentions at the turn of the century. His landlord had a ’67 Burgundy Drop Top Deville. Burgundy interior black top. The rear quarters always hung out of the garage. He could never close the doors with the car in the garage lol.
Our family had one too. I recall the footrests and fold-down tables in the back seat. This was a time when people still aspired to a Cadillac. This car brings back memories of the incomplete interstate system. There were always stretches when we’d have to get off the 4-lane and wind our way through every small town before the interstate resumed.
Whether you’re buying by the inch or the pound there’s a whole lot to love here. Pull up and park right out front.
My Uncle had a ’66 painted this color.
And what a ride it was too! And while it didn’t have the 472 under the hood, it still had plenty of oomph to float you down the interstate in Grand style. These things were built to gobble up miles like no tomorrow. And if you got sleepy driving one of these, you’d better pull over to Howard Johnson’s or Holiday Inn. This car was, and is, too damned comfortable. And if I had the 12aK,
or maybe eleven five, this thing would
be coming home with me to Florida!
Then I could be a real doting uncle and hand my neice the keys, and tell her to have a good time at Universal
Studios or at Old Town for one of their cruises. I’d take night or two off just to do that. And when all that wasn’t going on, I’d be going out on a date with a nice young lady. After all,
when you own a Cadillac, there is no shortage of young ladies wanting to drive it!
…And dare I say that this car is fit for our Queen? Angel would look good driving this car with no Super Fly outfit required.
Yeah! But she doesn’t like green Cadillacs! 😅
I always liked the power vent windows, front and rear.
I wonder if a Cadillac Dealer would service a Cadillac this old just for kicks. Probably not.
Nice Cadillac. I’m tempted to fly back and drive it home but what would I do with it when I got it home? My current life leaves no room for something this big. I couldn’t give it a proper home. I’d have to sell it right away.
Pretty car! I wish I had the $12,000 and a place to preserve it! SOMEbody will, no doubt. I always loved Cadillacs of this era, and this is an especially fine one!
Ok, guys, remember ………
Birthday in 24 days.
And some guy JUST said that you don’t like green!
@Chuck
At least you’re paying attention. LOL
I really don’t like the color green, but sometimes you just gotta make exceptions.
Back in 1980 I had a ’68 Cadillac Coupe de Ville in the same green only with a white vinyl top.
Fleetwoods look best in black, in my opinion, but I’ll take one in any color, especially if it’s a gift. (Insert smiley face here)
My ’75 Fleetwood was a cranberry red and my Eldorado was a baby blue. Not fond of blue either but the most popular colors of the late 60s & the 70s were green, blue & brown.
I did have a ’70 Riviera that was this shade of green. I striped that green vinyl top off, stripped the green paint and primed it. Fortunately it had a black interior.
And what’s missing in your life that anyone of us could provide???
@Bill Kabatski
Oh, goodness, if I thought were serious I’d say rent or own a big enough place in the country to support about 30 cars and 10 dogs and enough money to buy those cars and feed those dogs.
I don’t think I ask for much.
Especially since I’m not a Gen Z who expects everything being given to her and give nothing back. If you’re going to treat me this nice I am definitely going to do everything I can to make your life nicer.
But this is all a fantasy as no one is going to give me anything. I’ve always worked for what I got.
Besides the color, model and this is not a convertible car . The movie 48 Hours came to mind for some reason. I believe that car in the movie was older and of course, a blue convertible. I enjoyed watching that boat going down the road. Thinking this car could be driven like that too. But I have a 1 car garage and this Cadillac won’t fit. I know I got off track. Sorry.
The movie 48 Hours used a 1964 Cadillac. Probably a de Ville, and not a Series 62
I happen to like green things, I grew up with green. Stoves, toilets, even moms oven mitts were green, but on this Caddy it looks a bit out of place. I remember as a kid, a “472”, wow, only to be topped by a FIVE HUNDRED later, Cadillac wanted to be the biggest and best, and it was. It wasn’t such a big deal, just that’s what it took to move this thing. I also remember the “cruise” control, now called “speed control”, was such an outlandish feature, we thought. Naturally, my old man never liked or used it, like a/c, he didn’t trust it. It was a monumental invention, look ma, no feet,,,and revolutionized long distance travel. Today, a pile of circuits, but then, you see it was clumsy, mechanical gizmo that ran off the speedometer cable and vacuum. Wonderful cars,,,for 1968, but today, it’s so out of place, it’s a BIG car. Still, I don’t think anyone was disappointed with their ’68 Caddy. What a car.
Beautiful beast of a car, but not a fan of the color. Is the interior blue? If so, it doesn’t seem like a great option for the exterior color.
It’s black; I think the pattern plays tricks. :)
Avocado green, harvest gold, burnt orange and brown were colors of kitchens and house interiors of the late 60s to mid 70s. They were pretty much the dominant colors of cars, also.
My ’70 Riviera was this color green as was my ’68 Coupe de Ville. My aunt and uncle had a new ’68 Sedan de Ville in Teal and a avocado green kitchen in their new house. Some greens are palatable, bur British racing green and forest green are two I can’t tolerate. That 1958 “extended trunk” Cadillac BF just had was green and I said I didn’t like it because it was green. It was a dark green. Definitely a no.
When I picked out a ’63 Fleetwood to be my first project car, my dad (whose idea the whole thing was), had me take it to get it safety inspected to see what we would need to repair right away. (He was too cheap to pay for a second inspection, so we were under a time limit.) It literally failed every single item on the list. LOL But, all eight power windows worked, and continued to work for the entire time I had the car. I learned a lot about working on cars that summer, as you can imagine.
And let’s not forget Copper either. We had a Magic Chef double oven and a fridge painted that color in our kitchen about that point in time. Copper was quite a unique color back then and that’s what you bought if you wanted to different. And as for the Caddy’s my folks owned, a Pink and White Series 62, a Pea Green convertible with a Connie kit and real wire rims. Both of these were ’55s. These were followed by a Butter Yellow ’59 Coupe DeVille, a white ’62 series 62 2-foor HT, and the metallic
Turquoise ’66 Calais 4-door hardtop I would buy from my parents in 1970. My uncle bought a Nutmeg Brown ’71 Fleetwood sedan as well, and my aunt drove a Sedan DeVille painted the same way. So yeah, we owned a rather colorful selection of Cadillacs. And yes Angel, yesterday was weird Wednesday on TCM. They ran a bunch of corny old sci fi movies like Them with James arness, The Hypnotic Eye, Spider Baby with Lon Chaney Jr, The Green Slime and a few more that I didn’t get to see as I dialed in midway through the marathon. And as you might guess, I didn’t get much done around the shop yesterday. And as I watched them, I thought of you and
Rick W. and how you guys dig these old sci fi flicks as much as I do. And the only time I’ve ever seen a ’58 Cadillac long deck sedan was in the film The Giant Gila Monster, and that one had a Connie kit on the rear. Well folks, gotta get moving and get some stuff done. Bye all, see you later Angel💋. Hope you get that ragtop you want too.
It’s funny that you should mention Copper, since my ’78 Coupe deVille was that color. And now, I have a copper-colored 2015 Nissan Murano. The name is “Pacific Sunset,” which is not what I would consider a proper name, but it’s a pretty color, anyway.
@Michael Lloyd Gregory
In the Brady Bunch kitchen it was Burnt Orange
I did a quick patrol into the internet classified’s jungle and was somewhat surprised to see that there is quite an abundance of low mileage prime condition 1968 Cadillac Fleetwood Broughams available for sale all over the country in a wide variety of colors except for green, My guess is that these cars are just too big and thirsty to go driving around in, so they are reserved for formal occasions which are likely short distances. Not rare at all except for green ones.
I remember being excited when my ’63 Fleetwood got 10 mpg. And that was when gas was fairly cheap. I can’t imagine driving something like that today, but I bet a lot of those giant trucks and SUVs are like that.
It’s a mixed bag regarding modern trucks and SUVs. Electronic drivetrain management has rewarded drivers with enhanced performance and fuel economy. I’m one those guys who drives a half ton crew cab pickup for comfort with a side of utility. I simply don’t care to fold all six and a half feet of me into a small car like I did in my 20s 30s and 40s. My current truck shows an average fuel economy of 20 mpg and is easily capable of 25 or better on the open road. I will admit that I drive more for economy but not opposed to keeping up with traffic.
Dunno about the big house and garage Angel, for me, just a modest home and a large garage would do me just fine. Something like an old friend of mine named Bob McAttey.
His place was laid out so that his garage was set up behind his house to obscure it from prying eyes. And what he had in that garage would make the most ardent car lover drool all over themselves. When I was there 50 years ago, he had a 1914 Dodge touring car, a 1960 Chrysler 300F with a 413 super wedge with dual 4bbl carbs and ram induction, a 1966 Chrysler 300L with a 440 4-speed, and not one, but two 1966 Dodge Chargers. Both equipped with
the 426 NASCAR hemis under the hood. Both cars were identical except for the gear ratios out back. One had 2.80 rear gears for good launches out of the hole. And the other had 4.56 gears for launches off the line. He would street race some hotshot kid with a Nova or Chevelle
and blow their doors off. And nine times out of ten, he won. The black
300F was raced by Craig Ziegler at Bonneville in 1960. The car had a French Pontamasoon 4-dpeed gear box. It was said that the car set a record in the street stock class at 130(+ MPH. Bob bought the car from
Mr. Ziegler after he’d raced it at the salt flats that year. And he had owned it since that time and kept it
completely stock. It was also featured in a spread that appeared in
the now defunct Car Classics Magazine that was published bi monthly in ’75 when I saw his collection. After seeing what he had
in that garage, it was hard for me to
concentrate on playing a package show at one of our local campgrounds later on that evening.
They paired me up with a big jazz band that night and that was an interesting show to be sure. Thankfully, the guitar player played by
ear and could follow me with that brass band falling in behind. As I said, the only distractions I had was
seeing Bob’s cars and all those young ladies running around the grandstands and the stage areas clad in bikinis that left very little to a young
man’s imagination. And other than having a large collection of cars, my
biggest fantasy is to record another album before I get too old to do it. The last one I did was Mixed Bag in 2011. I wrote half the songs on that album and sold quite a few of them.
But not enough to chart. And if I did,
I’d love to have Angel there so I’d have a young lady to sing to. So that’s my
bucket list and I’m sticking to it. Night 😇 Angel 💋. Night all!
My first Cadillac I bought when I was 16 was a 1965. It did not have cruise control. Later I bought several other Cadillacs mainly for parts and added cruise control, headlamp dimmer, trunk release, power door locks,and floor mounter button to change radio channels to my 65 from some of them.
I remember I made a manual cruise control. I cut a 2 x 4 and wedged it between the gas pedal and the power seat. When I wanted to go faster, I would push the seat button forward to make the car will go faster. It was cool, not safe, but cool.
That’s a great story. My Fleetwood had literally every option on it, but some of the Buicks I owned later on didn’t, so they got theirs courtesy of every Buick in the salvage yard.
Your cruise control sounds extremely dangerous, but I’d have ridden with you, anyway.
I’m glad you would have been my passenger.
That was my first Cadillac at age 16 and I had it 14 years.
When I was around 8 I started going to the salvage yard on Saturdays with my grandfather. He had several Cadillacs and made plenty of money but still, we would go and pump out the gas tanks and run it through a filter. for his cars but he only used it in his 61 Plymouth Belevedere and 66 Rambler as well as mowers. I always came home with one pocket full of fuses and the other full of of light bulbs.
I just hit 67(OMG) when did that happen? Anyways, I still have most of them now.
The good ol’ dayz BEFORE tons of stupid regulations. Before emptying the gas tanks and removing them, before emptying the radiator, before removing the oil.
I really hate “public safety”
amen!!!
LOL My dad survived the great depression, and you’d better believe he never let go of any car that had enough gas in it to get anywhere. We would siphon gas out at the used car dealership before actually trading in a car. He would get upset with me for filling the tiny tank on my VW Beetle because what if I had to trade cars or was in an accident and wasted gas? I never thought about siphoning it out at the salvage yard. He might have enjoyed that. One of my close friends had a ’58 Sedan DeVille. He’s the one who got me started at the salvage yards. We would sit in the backseats of old Caddys and drink sodas.
Yep! Only the Cadillacs! I sat in many pretending to drive them. One thing I did which I feel very bad about now but did not know better then, was in addition to taking bulbs and fuses, I took keys! I figured they had a bad accident and did not care about them. Many had other keys on the rings too.
I never thought about needing them for the locks. I had(and still have) over 100.
All organized according to GM, Ford,Chrysler and weird foreign cars that did not count as real cars to me.
I have bought several Cadillacs with the trunk or door key missing and I found ones that worked.
Hi Angel! Talk about wacky rules and regulations, Illinois has become the second state in the nation to tax drivers based on the number of miles they drive over time. Their rate is $.30 for every mile driven. WTF!!! All I can say is there goes our country
and our hobby as well. Whoever thought this one up should have their head examined. Just one more thing to hinder the working folks like us from doing our jobs and remaining independent. Boy, I wish I still had my Internet talk show! I’d be going after nut jobs like this any chance I got. Thinking about
going back on the air on the Blogtalk Radio Network very soon.
Angel, you’re very opinionated, how about putting that trait to good use. I could use a good co host who speaks their mind,
and from what you’ve told me, you’re it. The show will be called
“What’s Your Beef?” and will air 5 days a week, 3 hours a day.
Basically, what we’ll do is take a story from a news service, discuss it, and the open the phone lines and let folks give their
opinions on that story. Mom and I had a show called “We’ve Got Your Answer” that ran from 2008 to 2012 on Walk With Christ Gospel Radio until our content made the sponsors squeamish. And if all goes well. I hope to be on the air in November. And maybe some of you guys can be contributors if you want to. And as for this car, I want it. Green or no green.
Ever watch the show “Family Guy?”
I liked Peter’s segment on the nightly news…..
“You Know What Grinds My Gears?”
Mix that with Peter’s “Side Boob Show” and I think you have a winner. Hahahahahahaha!
No honey, I can’t say that I have. Would like to maybe watch it with you someday. I’m still thinking about getting back on the air sometime soon but it’s gonna take a bit longer than I first thought as Blogtalk Radio Network has closed for good five months ago. But thankfully, there are other companies like Citrus3 that offer broadcast plans for $99 a month for me to run an internet radio station. I’d do a mix of talk radio
and music to bring in listeners from all around the world. All I need is a good computer or laptop, a good external microphone, and the know how to run all that stuff. Who knows, I might even do a show on barn finds for an hour a week. Still would love to have you as my co host though. That way, you can serve up all the opinions you want and no one can fault you for it. Well honey, I think I’m gonna watch an old movie on internetarchive.org and hit the sack. They have a lot of those corny old sci fi movies up there along with anything else you might wanna watch too. Saw Rio Bravo with John Wayne this afternoon and it was great. Goodnight
Angel💋. Night all.