American car buyers are a fickle bunch. Body styles and trim levels that are red hot sellers one decade can become lot languishers the next. One group of automobiles that has almost completely vanished from our option list today is that of luxury coupes. While the Feds helped drive a stake in the heart of these majestic beasts, fuel costs and customer tastes had much to do with their sad departure from the scene. If you want to experience what these dinosaurs of the road were like, this 1973 Cadillac Coupe de Ville for sale on Craigslist in Arlington Heights, Illinois, is a good candidate for your funds. At a fair for the current Cadillac market price of $14,900, this maroon leviathan is in great shape and has just over 66,000 miles on the odometer. Are you ready to experience an era of luxury and excess that is a far cry from today’s bland SUV-dominated automotive landscape? Thanks to Tony Primo for finding this incredible example of American excellence.
In the interest of transparency, I’ll freely admit that I am a fan of this car. My grandparents had a fire engine red 1973 Coupe de Ville with a white leather interior. No, we weren’t a mob family, nor were they show folk. They were simply in the habit of purchasing Cadillacs from a customer’s wife when she traded up. That was the combo Mrs. Rogers wanted, and she always got exactly what she desired. The car was loaded with every gadget and gizmo on the option sheet and was always detailed and maintained to the highest standards. My grandparents kept it for a while, then purchased her 1977 Cadillac Sedan de Ville Brougham de’ Elegance when she traded again.
By that time, the 1973 model was showing its age. It ate alternators with such frequency that my grandfather carried a spare and the tools required to change one out on the side of the road. The white leather, despite frequent treatments with leather conditioner, was starting to crack and show wear. Cracks also developed in the steering wheel and the plastic trim ring glued to the front of the wheel. It seems that Cadillac used too stiff a plastic, and that plastic cracked when the metal ring in the wheel expanded and contracted. What finally did the car in was rust forming under the white vinyl top. This bad idea by GM and other carmakers of the time hid a lot of damage until it was too late for many cars. When they finally peeled back the vinyl and saw what the tinworm had been up to, my grandfather lost interest in the car and sent it on its way.
So, when I see a similar Cadillac pop up on Barn Finds, my mind goes back to that Cadillac of my youth. My grandparents owned many cars during their lifetimes. They always regarded that red Coupe de Ville as the best car they ever owned. Why? Who wouldn’t love riding around in a luxurious car with seemingly limitless power delivered in a turbine-like fashion, all while pampering you with a ride that felt like floating along on marshmallow fluff? It had room for six real adults who hadn’t heard anything yet about soy lattes and vegan cheeseburgers and could carry enough luggage to take those red meat chomping Americans from coast-to-coast. It even had a mechanism to electrically pull the trunk lid down once you latched it. Who needs such extravagances? Seventies Cadillac buyers, that is who.
Cadillacs like this are an experience that has no parallel in our modern world. Seeing one in good condition is kind of like going to Jurassic Park and gazing in wonder at one of the beasts that lorded over America in the days of yore. This example is one of the nicest I have seen in a while. What really stands out is the interior. The silky smooth cloth with its unique pattern was known to age poorly in sunlight and split down the length of the seat. Reupholstering is difficult, as chances are that this pattern is long out of production. You can see that this car shows barely any wear on the seating surfaces, and the steering wheel has a single crack at the bottom. All of the accessories you see are power-operated, and the seller alludes to everything functioning as it should. Even the famous GM air conditioning of the era works as advertised.
That is a tall feat for a Cadillac of this vintage. They are complicated cars, and General Motors liked to debut new accessories on Cadillacs first. That “riding the cutting edge” policy also resulted in some premature failures when such bedazzlements didn’t perform over the long haul. Internet forums dedicated to these cars are filled with exasperated owners looking to repair these devices or replace them with ever-dwindling supplies of vintage Cadillac parts. With just over 66,000 miles on the car, you shouldn’t have too much trouble if you decide to see what all the fuss is about. I would also check to see if the car has been repainted and if the vinyl top has been replaced. The Coupe de Ville badging on the rear of the top is missing. Maybe it fell off, or maybe this one got the work it needed before it rusted away.
Why am I not making a call to Arlington Heights, Illinois? It comes down to storage. I currently have one car too many and enough work to do on those three to keep me busy for the rest of my days. Still, this car appeals to me not just for nostalgia but for its very pleasing color combination. The only thing I would add is a bumper sticker that would read “Friends of OPEC.” If you have the room, the cash, and the gas company credit card to feed this opulent dinosaur, I encourage you to call on this one. If you don’t like it, you can drop it off at my house. I’ll somehow find a way to keep it out of the elements.
Do you feel the same way I do about these cars? Have you ever experienced a seventies luxury car? Please share your thoughts and reminiscences in the comments.
This Coupe de Ville definitely wasn’t hiding at the bottom of a cracker jack 🍿 box… 🎶 🎵
Opulent dinosaur is a tremendous descriptor of this beautiful beast. I would love to walk down the aisle with this pterodactyl.
Just beautiful and not a bad seat in the house. Roll the windows down, turn the radio up and let the wind blow through our hair 🎶
Beautiful, elegant, opulent. Wish it a deservedly good home. Move over Escalade!
Definitely a big beautiful car,if it was a four door I would be like a hobo on a hot dog already driving it home.
What a beautiful car! Too bad there are no pictures of the engine compartment or inside of the trunk. Looks very well cared for.
Love it. You can bet it rides very good. I have one to work on now. Sure wish I could afford this one though. Whoever buys it. I hope they take care of it.
Jeff:
When I was a freshman in college, the local Cadillac dealership had a red 1973 CdV with white leather in the showroom. I would drive by frequently to look at it and then suddenly it was gone. Beautiful car.
Fine luxury car at its best, just the way it is. As a 2-door the doors are so long you’d have to be careful where to park, they would swing out too far. Big car like this would be better as a 4-door.
The Cadillacs of this era, actually all GM cars, were plagued with major quality issues as well as glaring fit and finish problems. 1973 was a particularly bad year, especially when you added the 1973 government mandated 5 MPH front bumper requirements which made the previous two years’ (1971 and 1972) Cadillacs look so much better from a style perspective. They were free from that huge wedge shaped front bumper and the huge rubber “battering rams”. When you add in the huge gaps that were present all the way around most of these cars, they were quality gremlins. I believe the 1973 model year also ushered in the new emission mandates, and these cars were significantly detuned in order to stay in compliance. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a sucker for these huge cars, particularly the newly redesigned 1971s, and the 1972s, but they were all notorious for truly bad quality issues and slapped together as cheaply as possible as they prepared for the upcoming malaise period the next decade.
Once upon a time I had a 67 Coupe DeVille that was a restoration project that for various reasons never quite got finished, A couple of years later I saw a 73 Coupe on a used car lot and had to have it. I was very disappointed compared to the 67. The 67 drove nicer and looked better.
Great write up, … the thumbnail caught my eye. I was lucky enough to drive one exactly like this (same color). A friend in High school needed to get downtown to pick up a drumset, but did not have a valid driver’s licence.
His father ( a judge), asked me two questions, then tossed the keys to me.
What I remember about these cars is the immense size, but did not take long to get comfortable with it. The suspension is fantastic and parking downtown was not too bad. And of course, we had no problem fitting the 7 piece drumset into the large trunk. Felt driving like a King !
It would’ve been nicer if this Caddy had the beige leather interior. I had a 71 Sedan DeVille back in 1983 Brown/Beige. I bought it when I was seventeen years old for $200 It was rusted at both quarter panels, bald tires, no radio, the heat didn’t work and the driver’s side skirt clips were missing. However the beige interior was immaculate, no carpet rips, no cracked front or rear door armrests,all power windows worked (even during those freezing New York City winter seasons during that decade) and all side door and dash cigarette lighters worked GM/Cadillac was notoriously famous for experimenting with weird distasteful upholstery in the 70’s. Anyone remember Cadillac’s checkered stamp upholstery of the 70’s?
Tried to call, no answer. Left message.
Waiting for TCK to chime in on owning these opulent seventies cars. As for me, Pops had a 1972 Coupe de Ville, I had a 1974 Coupe de Ville, a 1975 Fleetwood Talisman, a 1975 Eldorado convertible and a 1976 Coupe de Ville.
Looking forward to adding a 1973 Sedan de Ville or Fleetwood to the mix.
I have never owned a Cadillac. And I will never own one. (But that is partly because my buying days are essentially over.) However, I have always respected this brand. These days, when I see a Cadillac like this one, I think “This is what a Cadillac is supposed to look like and this one, I like a lot.
Decades ago had a 73 coupe de ville driving on LA freeway when truck in front dropped a restaurant oven, cars left and right no choice except hit it. Pieces went across all lanes, cars locking up brakes. One inch scratch on bumper of my land yacht.
Big bold American luxury ingenuity is what made American cars American. This is an example of why Cadillacs have always set the standard for luxury. Beautiful 73 Coupe DeVille. Got to love it.
This one is a beauty. Although like someone else said, I wonder where the sail panel emblems are. I would like to see pics of the underside & engine compartment. I think it’s fairly priced though.
Nice ride if you have a fresh credit card for gas.
I learned to drive with my dad’s 1955 Cadillac camper with duals and his 1964 Sedan de Ville. I had a 1964 Coupe de Ville convertible and 1964 Sedan de Ville, 1971 Coupe de Ville lowrider, 1984 Seville, 1994 Sedan de Ville and currently have a 1970 and 1998 Eldorado! The 55-year-old one starts right up and the 1998 has the Northstar, har har!
I owned a ’73 Sedan deVille for a few months. It was green with a darker green vinyl roof and a green brocade interior like this one. It was only three years old with under thirty thousand miles, but it was plagued with quality issues. I often had to drive my ’63 Fleetwood to work instead of the ’73 for one reason or another. When it was working, it was a fine car to drive, but I couldn’t deal with something being wrong all the time, so I traded it in on a special edition ’72 Eldorado, which also had something wrong with it most of the time. It’s interesting that you wrote about how new features were often debuted on the Cadillacs. My Eldo had a sunroof that only worked properly for a couple of weeks after I bought it. Those were sad years for someone like me, who loved Cadillacs more than any other car. I ended up owning five of them over the years, and the ’63 was by far the best one.
Michael, every time I see one of these sad sunroof stories it reminds me of the time I got behind a ’79-’85 Eldorado at the car wash. He was already on the track when I noticed him yanking on the roof. I realized his sunroof didn’t close all the way so he was trying to close it. Lol! I’m not sure if he succeeded in closing it, but if not, he got a bonus interior shampoo too!
That told me to never own a car with a sunroof, but the kicker is we’ve owned both a Rendezvous & Equinox LTZ with it but we never open it, too much noise.
That story made me laugh. My first convertible was a ’68 VW. There was an automatic car wash that pulled the car through in the town where I went to college. We’re talking 1974 or ’75. If you filled up your car at their gas pumps, you got a free wash. For some reason, I thought it was worth it. I had to roll up newspapers in the windows to keep the worst of the water from spraying inside the car. One time, I didn’t get one of the windows all the way up because I forgot to put the newspapers in until the car wash had already started. I got drenched. And to make matters worse, there was a little old lady waiting at the end of it for some reason. Just sitting there. I couldn’t stop the VW. I was mashing on the brakes like crazy, but didn’t stop, of course. I plowed into the back of her car. At that point, she simply drove off. Fortunately, ’68 was the first year VW put more substantial bumpers on their cars, and there was no damage.
Hi Angel! Since TCK isn’t here yet, I’ll
chime in. It seemed to me that every
GM division suffered from quality control problems as the ’70s wore on.
Dad bought my Mom a brand new ’73
Chevy Caprice 4-door hardtop in the fall of ’72. Nice looking car, but it spent more time at Johnny Martin
Chevrolet than it did in our garage. This thing was the car from hell that
suffered from a whole host of mechanical and electrical maladies not including the fact it wouldn’t start
when the temps got to 40 degrees or below. It got so bad that I left the keys to whatever car I had with my Mom could get to work while her new
Chevy sat in the shop waiting to be
repaired. You might see her driving my ’50 Packard limo or rumble up to the
guard shack in my 289 powered ’53 Ford 2-door sedan. Other than the panties in my Packard, it turns out that my folks liked the cars I built better than the new Caprice they bought. And yes, sorry to say that even Cadillac wasn’t exempt from the
poor quality that plagued GM throughout the ’70s. Face it folks, the
Big 3 rested on their laurels to the point they became complacent and lazy. And as we all know now, build quality suffered to the point that we
Americans eventually wound up running to makes like Toyota, Datsun,
and VW in droves as these cars were
better built and more reliable. As for this car, Angel honey, I can just see you tooling around in this rig, taking you and your BF to all those high end
places that ladies like to go. As for me, it’s a really nice ride that I wish I could afford.
I’ve read all of these comments about build quality. I bought a ’72 Caprice coupe, triple black with 25,000 miles on it in ’74. Had the 402 in it and I have to say I didn’t have any issues with the car other than normal maintenance year around in Mn.
The only thing was after I sold it to my land lord and on a trip back from Wis. to the Twin Cities the timing chain failed at 75 mph. Ouch!
Hey Kenneth!
I think quality control was rampant at all makes in the 70s & 80s. I purchased a brand new 1984 Chevrolet Camaro Berlinetta, that, like your parents Caprice, was in the shop more than my driveway. And to think I sold my 1974 Mercury Marquis for the down payment.
Hi Jon!
I’ve had many convertibles over my lifetime, but until my recent Hyundai SUV I’ve never had a car with a sunroof. I’ve always wanted one. Finally got one. I’ve had this car for 7 years and I love the sunroof. Especially in Vegas. Put the a/c on, open the sunroof (at night) and cruise the strip. So far so good. Never had a problem with either the slide or the pop up function. I’m guessing the trick to sunroof is keeping the tracks and drains clean
Hello Angel! I think the problem with these old sunroofs was the cable system would bind up or some such issue. Probably have that figured out by now with a different system.
Speaking of cables, GM had issues with the rear window cables on 2000-2005 Buick LeSabres and Pontiac Bonnevilles failing. The cables would get twisted or fray. That’s why you saw a lot of these cars with duct tape holding up the glass. I know, I replaced the window system on 2 if these.
You were lucky Jon. The car you bought was built in the batches from
Tuesday to Thursday. Almost all of the troubled cars were built on either a Monday or a Friday. It turned out that assembling cars was so boring that workers couldn’t wait to get off,
clean up, and then hit the bars and get so effed up that the whole lot would be so hung over on Monday to
even give a damn about the job in front of them. A lot of folks in my
hometown would ask the salesman if
they knew what day of the week the car was built. And if he couldn’t tell
them, they’d go to another dealership
or worse yet, visit a Datsun or a Toyota dealer where they knew they could get a reliable vehicle. And if they did the latter, they risked being expelled from the union and being fired from their jobs. For good or for bad, all union employees were required to drive American cars only
when coming to work. We found out
About this rule when Dad and I bought and customized a ’75 Chevy
LUV pickup for her 39th birthday. Upon seeing the truck, the union steward gave Mom a written warning
NOT to drive her new truck to work!
Stupid effin’ rule! Okay fine! I gave
Mom the keys to my ’57 Pontiac Star
Chief 4-door hardtop with just under
39K miles on it and it was a real beauty too. It was deep maroon with
a cream top and side spears. It was a
special order car that got the Bonneville
V-8 engine with 3 deuces for good
measure. I got it from an elderly friend of mine that bought it new for
his wife who drove it til she passed in
’72 and Jonesy wanted it gone. Gotta
tell ya that car couldn’t have come at a better time. Mom brought that warning home on Friday and I didn’t
have anything to put her in for work
on Monday. You guessed it, the Caprice was in the shop again. So we all went over to see Jonesy about the car. After I knew Mom and Dad liked the car, I wrote Jonesy a check for 750 bucks, and down the road we went. Point is, there wasn’t another
decent American built after ’72. And that’s this old man’s opinion, and I’m
stickin’ to it.
And making sure that your electrical
system is up to snuff too. The sun roof in our K5 stopped working in early ’24 and we didn’t know why until
right before Christmas when the battery croaked at Advanced Auto and the damned thing wouldn’t start.
$265 and 30 minutes later, (oh my achin’ wallet!) all was right with the world. Seems that the battery had treed causing a current drain we didn’t know about. Here in Florida though, a repair shop will dock you
$150-$300 for diagnostic work–snd
that’s even before those SOBs install
a new one. And folks wonder why auto repair is classified as a racket by
the FDLE. Now that I’ve got the Buick done, I’m at a loss for something to do. Any suggestions? Time for bed
anyhow. Night Angel! 💋