5,000-lb. Drop-Top: 1974 Cadillac Eldorado

The Eldorado was Cadillac’s personal luxury car for decades. Its redesign in 1971 made it the longest and heaviest ever, and it would retain its girth through 1978, even though other GM cars had already been rightsized for better fuel economy (aka downsized). Convertibles were on their way out and, by 1976, only the Cadillac Eldorado drop-top remained in the GM arsenal. The seller has a 1974 edition, which seems nice enough, but the details and photos could be better. Located in Dallas, Texas, this behemoth ragtop is available here on eBay, where the current unmet reserve bid is $3,458.

Cadillac treated the Eldorado to a facelift in 1974, which included bigger rear bumpers similar to the proportions the ones in the front received the year before. The cars were propelled by GM’s largest passenger vehicle engine, a 500 cubic inch V8, which no doubt gulped gasoline faster than you could blink. Sales of the convertible were on the decline and amounted to 7,600 copies in ’74. Cadillac’s Eldorado drop-top was the last man standing in 1976, and fanfare boosted sales to 14,000 copies before the curtain fell.

No history of this car is provided beyond its 82,000 miles. We assume it runs well, but the description sounds more like dealer-speak than a private seller, as is advertised. These cars were as fancy as you could get in 1974, though the detuning process in Detroit in that era had taken most of the bite out of the big 500 CI V8.

At first glance, the paint appears to be chocolate brown, but if you lighten the photos a bit, it has a blackberry kind of hue to it. There are no signs of rust or body damage, though we’re only given exterior glances of about half of the vehicle. The black leather interior looks quite inviting and without flaws. We assume the pop-up top is black and in sound shape, but we don’t get to see it either. If you like fancy land yachts, they don’t come any larger than life than these ninth-generation Eldorados.