While not quite a survivor, this 1968 Cadillac deVille listed here on eBay is in top condition given its age. Bidding has been frisky, with 41 bids advancing the price to $15,000. A $16,500 buy-it-now option was suspended today, making this a buyer-takes-it-home proposition. The car was purchased new in Binghamton, New York and is currently garaged in Syracuse. Cadillac first used the “deVille” name in 1949, when it denoted a Series 62 top-shelf trim level. Leather upholstery, a hard top body style, and plenty of brightwork – including chrome “ribs” in the headliner to evoke a convertible top – differentiated the deVille from the base model. No matter the trim, the Cadillac was a hulk of a vehicle, with a 126″ wheelbase and a curb weight of over 4000 lbs. By 1959, when the deVille became a stand-alone model, the car had grown by four inches and more than 800 lbs. Thanks to Harley Earl, it also looked like a rocketship. Fast forward to the 1960s, and the car had entered its third generation with nary a whisker more length or girth.
This engine is Cadillac’s new-for-the-year 472 cu. in. V8 good for 375 hp under the old SAE gross rating system. The transmission is a three-speed automatic, and front disc brakes were finally available. The whole point of these immense, majestic sedans was comfortable conveyance. You should expect to waft over the road at the cost of almost no “feel”. The seller points out that the engine bay has been kept detailed and that the odometer reads just 60,506 miles. The reading isn’t claimed as total mileage, but it could be. The underside photos don’t cover much of the acreage beneath this beast, but what’s there is very clean. The car is said to run very well.
Cadillac offered a stunning array of interior and exterior colors and fabrics throughout its history – the antithesis of today’s colorblind palette. Some twenty paint colors were available for 1968; inside, upholstery choices included brocade, leather, vinyl, and mix ‘n match styles. The glass here is original, though the seller points out a tiny crack in the lower corner of the windshield. The trunk is clean as a whistle. Drivers enjoyed power steering and power brakes, safety belts as standard equipment, and a horde of interior courtesy lamps.
This four-door example has been repainted once in its original Baroque Gold color, disqualifying it (in my mind) as a true survivor. Starting in ’67, the deVille was restyled with an aggressive forward lean to its front sheet metal and a hint of “fin” in the rear. The dual stacked headlamps continued from prior years. In 1968, the hood was lengthened in order to hide the windshield wipers. Today, these cars have appeal with collectors nostalgic for the days when automotive design was still largely up to the guys in the style department, instead of the myriad regulators dictating everything from waistline and headlamp height to fuel economy. What do you think of the price here – a bargain, or about right?
Wow. Thanks Michelle.
Did this land yacht live in salty 🧂 Syracuse its whole life ?
What a machine.
Let me get this straight: It started out as an auction with a BIN price of 16.5K (so, the reserve was 16.5K I guess), but as the bidding climbed upward, the seller then cancelled that BIN and basically turned this auction into a no reserve auction.
OK, I guess there’s nothing wrong with this, but it is kinda weird. Why not just have a “reserve” auction, and not have a BIN? I’d laugh if the bidding stopped at 15K.
I see this a lot, the disappearing BIN. The auction time-frame was growing shorter, the bid price wasn’t too far from the BIN, the seller becomes a mite more desperate, the spouse says get rid of it, whatever. For the high bidder, however, who perhaps thought he was ‘safe’ at $15k when the seller obviously wanted more, the game has changed and he is now committed. Hopefully he’s happy there, or this has the makings of a failed sale.
If I remember correctly, Ebay’s previous standard (some years back) was that the BIN disappeared as soon the auction received a bid that was not up to the BIN price. Not sure when that changed or what the actual details are without actually googling it.
That’s how I remember it too, CVPanther.
Once the bidding hits a certain number, the BIN disappears. And, the BIN is not a Reserve – it is usually a high water mark price that the seller puts there for someone who can’t wait and “has to have it”.
My first Caddy was a Fleetwood like this. 100 mph. across the Great Plains all day long in complete comfort. Without a thought about the price of gas or environmental concerns and ISSUES. Simple and carefree.
Boomers out !
A doctor that I met at the hospital were I worked in the early 1970s drove a light blue Caddi like this. One day he showed up in a new 1973 Buick Rivera. Said the back end looked like a teenage girl walking away. I went to the dealer and bought his old Cadillac. I loved it but it started to give me engine trouble and I found out that a salesman had taken it home one cold night and when he started it in the morning to warm up it slipped into high revs and did some real damage to the engine which the dealership fixed on the cheap and put it back on the lot. When I took it back they fixed it at a cost of $1500 and tried to charge me for the repairs. I wrote to GM and got the bill cut in half, but a lawyer would have cost more. I really enjoyed it and drove it for 2 years but was always worried about it and traded it in on a 1971 Fleetwood.
Lion, you were lucky that someone at the dealership admitted to doing that (high revving and shoddy repair work).
It sounds like something that would have become your word against theirs.
Your right, PRA. Maybe it was because it was the third car I bought there and they wanted me coming back. But I never went back there again anyway.
60K miles here is believable especially compared to the RS Camaro with ahem, 26K.