I believe this beautiful color is Almond Gold Firemist, and it’s perfect for the Standard of the World, or the gold standard, or anything in between. Having grown up with vinyl tops on our vehicles, it’s nice to see how crisp these 80s cars look without a vinyl lid. The seller has this 1986 Cadillac Sedan DeVille posted here on craigslist in Monroe, Wisconsin, and they’re asking $5,200. Here is the original listing, and thanks to Barney for the tip!
I really like this era of GM cars, especially the luxury models. I know most of the Barn Finds family of readers prefer the older, much-bigger Cadillacs, and I like those as well. But garage-wise, these smaller Sedan DeVilles fit much more easily into our garage than the 1970s or earlier cars do. This DeVille is over two feet shorter than the previous generation cars were, and three feet shorter than the generation before that. Yet, the interior space is still enough that you aren’t wondering what Cadillac was thinking.
The sixth-generation DeVille series was made from 1985 through 1993, and they were available as a Sedan DeVille, as seen here, and also a Coupe DeVille. Conversion companies made convertibles, and we saw one way back in 1942, or whenever it was. I guess it was 2017, but it seems like much longer ago than that. We don’t get to see inside the trunk or underneath, and the only exterior flaws I see are that the driver’s door is a shade darker and the bumper filler material appears a different shade.
The interior looks like new, both front and rear. The leather seats look outstanding, and the two-tone dash also looks new. I’m guessing the steering wheel cover is there for comfort rather than to hide any flaws. Hagerty is at $5,600 for a #3 good-condition car, just as a reference.
The engine is GM’s infamous HT-4100, a 4.1-liter OHV V8 with 130 horsepower and 200 lb-ft of torque. It’s backed by a four-speed Turbo-Hydramatic sending power to the, gasp, front wheels. They say it’s an excellent running and driving car with working (I’m assuming cold) AC. Any thoughts on the smaller DeVille series?
I like that black trim piece treatment on the rear window. Neat look. 👍
That is neat Stan. I never noticed that before. You can see on the rear window where the vinyl top would have been. Its nice to see a steel roof. Less places for rust to hide.
Those were all originally painted body color at the factory.
So they must have been replaced at some time.
I know opinions are all over the place on these even more so ” downsized” Cadillacs. They were actually packaged pretty well. You could fit 4 average Non Scotty sized adults ( sorry Scotty, but you are one seriously Tall Drink of Water buddy lol) in reasonable comfort. THIS is actually the car the HT4100 V8 was designed for all along. And in something smaller and lighter like this, it did ok moving it down the road. This looks like a great find. If you want one of these Devilles in your garage ( with room to spare ad Scotty mentioned) this just might be the one for you. I enjoyed your write up Scotty thank you.
Hard to believe this is a Cadillac.Cadillacs used to be
intimidating & impressive.
Driftwood Beige I recall.
I ordered these with black interiors and added black cloth carraige tops.
The contrast made the beige look like gold.
My ex bought one of these used in the late 90’s, was rust free and ran very well. It had that awful carriage top and she wanted it gone. It was a one piece slab of fiberglass that was riveted to the roof. I had to solder the holes and and touch up the paint but the car looked SO much better! She sold it for $1k more than she paid for it!
If i remember well the HT4100 was to be designed for that body style as Caddy would have hoped the V8-6-4 would have been the tech marvel it was supposed to be. Well we all know how history turned out. At least most of the bugs were worked out as time passed. Always loved that body style and looks better with the 4 eye headlights v/s the composites of 87 up. If ever i would find one i’d figure out to swap in the touring suspension from the DeVille Touring Sedan
As per the fillers appearing in a different shade i remember an article or comment. ( was it here ? ) that in the early 80’s all of the big three had the same issues when came time to paint plastic or rubberized fillers that the paint pigment every once i a while had problems to match from metal to plastic. Although in this present case i’d say normal wear from all the u.v. ray’s. Do correct me on this one please if it applies
Maybe at some point we’ll just accept that gm filler panels are not exactly body color. Old jeans are not the same dark blue. Some things can’t look the same forever, and some probably never did.
That’s a great point, Cbrew – thanks for saying that out loud. I should have thought of that, and it makes sense that not every surface and material fades at the same rate, or the paint will always look the same on different surfaces like that. Great point! I’ll try not to mention that again; it’s pretty dumb for me to do that, now that you say that.
It’s interesting to see the filler piece around the rear window here on a DeVille without a vinyl top. Most of them just had the larger rear window out to the black bead seen on this car, and if you did see the filler used like this it was on a steel-top Fleetwood.
I wouldn’t have given 52 hundred dollars for this car 25yrs ago. One of the ugliest Cadillacs ever..