Like many car people, I’ll sometimes watch Jay Leno’s Garage on YouTube, and I remember hearing him say (and I’m paraphrasing) that he likes to restore a car to a 10 and drive it down to a 2. While I’m not sure that this 1967 Coupe DeVille on eBay in Natchez, Mississippi, was ever a 10, the seller says that it’s a “very good older restoration.” That means that it’s currently in the sweet spot for old drivers: it still looks good enough for local meets but not so good that you’re preoccupied because a bug on the hood might be slowly eating into the paint. With its elegant Regent Maroon paint, black vinyl top, and handsome new-for-1967 styling, I doubt the new owner will let their Cadillac deteriorate into a 2, but it will be fun trying. The current bid stands at $4,938, but it has not met the reserve.

While 1967 ushered in crisp new styling for the Cadillac line, it was the final year for the 429-cubic-inch V8, which produced 340 horsepower and 480 lb.-ft. of torque through a Rochester QuadraJet and a 10.5:1 compression ratio. Air-conditioned cars such as this one had a standard 3.21:1 rear axle ratio for a little more urge off the line when the air was on full blast down in Boca Raton. The seller says that the air conditioning blows cold, but it needs a charge once a year, so some maintenance is in order. The engine compartment as a whole could use a good cleaning, if not a thorough detailing. The master cylinder looks crusty enough that I’d be having a look at the entire braking system; luckily, Cadillacs had been using dual-circuit brakes since 1962, and they were mandated by the government for 1967.

The interior looks as plush as a Cadillac should. The DeVille had standard power windows and “horizontal only” power seat adjustment.

There are a few rough edges on the DeVille; the trim around the vinyl top is discolored (although I don’t spot much of the tell-tale bubbling that tells buyers to look elsewhere, maybe a little down near the trim?). There is also some light bubbling in the rear filler panel seams that isn’t troubling for anyone accustomed to driver-grade collector cars, and it’s a reminder that southern cars tend to rust from the top down. Indeed, the seller says that there is “no undercarriage rust.” The trunk could use some cleaning and detailing if you want to take a step or two in the direction of a 10.

I sometimes wonder why car collectors buy anything but Cadillacs (oh wait, it’s 224 inches long!). Many of them are affordable and they were (at least in the 1960s) built to a level of quality almost unheard of among other makes in the industry, which means that they are often still holding up well. If the odometer reading of 89,182 is accurate, there’s no reason that this DeVille couldn’t last you a lifetime, and you can have a lot of fun trying to wear it out.