I’ve often wondered if Cadillac could have broken out the new Seville as its own luxury brand, much like Acura, Lexus, and Infiniti did for Honda, Toyota, and Nissan. It was such a new idea for American car companies, but that idea may have been ahead of its time. This 1976 Cadillac Seville is located in Lynnwood, Washington, and it’s listed for sale here on eBay, where bidding is currently up to $3k. Thanks go to Curvette for the tip!
At the time, GM was more worried about European (German, in particular) luxury cars than Japanese cars creeping into American garages and taking away sales of what were big, lumbering, somewhat ill-handling luxury cars. The smaller, tighter Seville was touted as “The American Answer” on some brochures, and they were quite a departure from the norm.
By 1986, when Honda introduced the Acura brand (It was 1989 when both Lexus and Infiniti were introduced), the vehicle market was a totally different animal. European and Japanese carmakers had already gotten a solid hold of the American car market, and things would only get more dire as time went on. Introduced in 1975 for the 1976 model year, the first-generation of the Seville (as its own model) would be offered until 1979. Here’s a brochure showing the 1976 Seville.
The interior looks nice, and I believe these are the standard vinyl seats rather than the optional leather seats look good. One of you will know by looking at them. They look nice, both front and rear, and the trunk is more luxurious than on most cars of this era, or even now. The back seat looks great, and I’m wondering if this car has been painted or touched up in spots? The rear door post is painted, and I think that should be bare metal. Again, one of you would know for sure.
The clean engine compartment houses an Oldsmobile-sourced (remember that era? “An Oldsmobile engine in a Cadillac?! The horror!”) 350-cu.in. OHV fuel-injected V8, which had 180 horsepower and 275 lb-ft of torque when new. It rolls through a THM-400 automatic to the rear wheels, and the seller says the car has been sitting for a while, so they recommend going through the usual routine to make it a reliable driver. Also, the heater core needs to be replaced, and a replacement comes with the car. Hagerty is at $9,000 for a #3 good-condition car, how much would you pay for this Seville?
Nice find, and a nice write-up!
Odd, but the older I get, the better these look. And with a FI 350, probably will scoot OK. Toss in some sway bars and handling pieces from GM parts bin, and for a not-insulting $ negotiation downwards, might bring smiles to the gallon…
Boy Scotty from super clean Dodge Diesel pickups to a very swanky Seville!! I really like your brochure links, this is one beautiful Seville. Not sure about touchups etc. But if its original then its impressive. The original space saver spare has never even been used. ( Just as well wouldnt want to mess up that luxurious trunk). Great write up Scotty, I enjoyed it.
A few years ago someone swapped an Olds 455 in one of these. Wouldn’t mind cruising that
Absolutely!
A timeless ✨️ elegant beauty.
GM certainly thought so, they were still trying to sell this shape 15 years later. What was embarrassingly dated in 1990 is a retro piece now, though so yes, it’s elegant but in a way that screams late ’70s.
Disagree, but each to their own. This is a timeless design, looks crisp, tight, and elegant now as it did in the 70’s. This is the best looking Caddy ever. I bought one of these new and put over 250K on it with no big repair issues. I certainly would do it again, as the wife put most of the miles on it.
Nice write up. I had a 77′ great car, but, get rid of the fuel injectors and the computer unless you enjoy the smell of gas steaming on your manifold…. Ask me how I know.
I owned a rust colored 1976 Seville and sold it in 1980, unfortunately.
Nice write-up of a beautiful car, Scotty. One clarification, though. An all-vinyl interior was never offered on the Seville. Cloth was standard, and this one has the optional leather.
Dang it, you’re 100% right, Mike! My apologies for missing that; it’s literally spelled out on page 7 of the brochure link in the article. Thanks for the clarification!
Vinyl interior was not offered.
The Seville debuted a full year before the controversial GM engine swapping “scandal”, and Oldsmobile was one of GM’s “premium” brands, so nobody was terribly bothered by the Seville’s powerplant at the time. The desire to position the Seville as a more sophisticated, European-type of luxury car almost certainly drove the decision to go with fuel injection, and that didn’t exist in any of GM’s divisions at the time, so the choice of which engine to develop the system for came down to packaging.
The selection of the Olds 350 instead of Cadillac’s own 368 was likely due to a concern over whether or not the 368 was either too physically large for the engine compartment or too heavy (it was, after all, a smaller displacement version of what had been 500 cubic inches just a few years earlier) and/or the cost of having to develop new, low volume parts to mount a big block Caddy in the X-body subframe that underpinned the Seville, whereas the parts to mount an Oldsmobile V8 in that subframe already existed in the Omega parts bin.
It was explained to me they rolled out the 76 Seville knowing it had problems with the computer monitoring the idle and injectors, but they had to get the car onto dealership floors….
PS Brought my Seville to Caddy dealership in the early 80s, manager waved me off and told me they don’t work on these cars anymore. When I complained, he’s the one who told me to get rid of the injectors, and computer, and I’ll never have a problem with that motor again…
I forgot to add a Photoshop two-door version I made a few years ago.
I spy some cream paint along the bottom edges of the vinyl top molding, so I have to believe that at least a partial repaint was likely done at some point. Still, a beautiful car. I had one in dark brown with the same tan interior and loved the car. The sun visors appear to be the same as what was in my car too so I believe them to be original.
I had a ’77 white on white, bought used in1990 and it looked brand new. Drove beautifully.
I had a blue 1976 with white top. On day one I went to show my brother.
His wife went crazy over it. I got a ride home and found a dark silver 1978 with black top. Had it stripped and painted light silver with a white vinyl top. Next came a burgundy 1979 with matching top and interior.
HAPPY ME :-)
No, a separate division was not even considered. The car was such a huge hit for Cadillac that people forget that this was a huge gamble. GM was deeply seeped in the “Small car = Small profits” philosophy, and many in the division were very worried.
That is why it was built on a modified Nova platform, to keep development costs low, even though it wound up costing a lot of money to dampen the vibrations of an economy car chassis to create a Cadillac ride.
A gorgeous car and an unexpected home run, landing when American buyers, especially women, were tired of ever-larger sedans and everyone was looking for better fuel economy.
SOLD for $5,100.
20 bids.