For most of the second half of the 20th Century, the DeVille Series dominated Cadillac production. It was hard to miss either a Coupe DeVille or Sedan DeVille driving down the road, stealing sales thunder from the Lincoln Continental and Chrysler Imperial. This fourth-generation Sedan DeVille is from 1972 and is said to have less than 8,000 miles on it. The car was purchased off the estate of a little old lady who “only drove it to church” and then it went into shed storage for at least 15 years after that.
With the cars’ redesign of 1971, the full-size Cadillacs would set a record for interior space (width) that General Motors wouldn’t break for another 25 years. The cars were still powered by a 472 cubic inch V8 that produced 345 horsepower (down from 375 due to a reduction of the compression ratio to run on cleaner fuels). 1972 Caddies were little changed, and it took a detailed eye to find them, such as the removal of vent slats in the trunk that hadn’t worked well for ventilation anyway.
Cadillac built nearly 268,000 luxury automobiles in 1972 of which 195,000 carried DeVille badging. And, of those, just under 100,000 copies were the Sedan DeVille, aka 4-door hardtop. As the story goes, this Cadillac’s original owner put 8,000 miles on it between 1972 and sometime before 2009. After that, the seller’s father acquired the vehicle and put it into storage. Its lack of use can be validated in part by the fact that it’s wearing its original tires, although they’re flat now.
We’re told that the Caddy hasn’t been started in ages and no attempt has been made to do so for fear of damaging the engine. It wears a thick layer of dust and grime, and the exterior may be seeing some surface rust. On the other hand, the interior looks to be impeccable and hardly used. The seller believes this is an original vehicle – and it may be hard to find one with less mileage. Located in a shed in Columbus, Ohio, this vintage land yacht is available here on craigslist for $15,000 OBO. Thanks for the bigger-than-life tip, T.J.!
The days of selling a dirt covered, non-running car with an undocumented mileage claim and expecting to get a premium are over. The market is softening for a wide range of cars, especially ones like this, they will now take effort to sell, as they always should have. There are too many similar cars in turn key condition with a significantly lower asking price for this to stand out, it’s hard to see this one selling quickly.
Steve R
And I just flew out of Columbus yesterday after a 3-week stay. Steve’s take on the big price seems right.
With “only 8k miles ” you couldn’t drag the car out of the shed and clean it up nicely, for that asking price? Hmmmm.
The engine bay alone speaks of an honest “8K miles” to me. The paint hasn’t even started to flake off the valve covers yet! And the interior? Unless critters got to it somewhere I can’t see, it’s otherwise spotless. Yes, the market is soft for these full-sizers. However, with a thorough detailing this is one to draw interest @ car shows, given the low miles. I’m a Cadillac guy & would love to have it if I could.
The Ford blue paint on the valve covers tells me it had most if not all the much darker Cadillac engine blue flaked off and was touched up by the only dark blue paint he could find, FORD BLUE! Look at the alternator bracket, you can see where he stopped spraying it. The ORIGINAL tires on this car were the 2 stripe (like vogues) L78-15 bias ply tires not radials, these look like radials with only 1 stripe to me so something isn’t jiving here to me. I’ve owned 68 different Cadillacs and 66 of them were De Ville’s with 7 of them sporting the original tires that were dry rotted so bad the air seeped through the sidewalls and wouldn’t hold air back in the mid 90’s. It’s beautiful inside but if the paint is weathered enough to start a patina you can bet the tires were shot way before 2009 and the repaint on the engine says the seller’s using the interior condition to make a few false claims here and throws up a big red flag on this car to me! $15k? Let the buyer beware, that’s top dollar on a Coupe De Ville in this condition leaving no meat unless you plan on keeping it for a very long time!
I’d say $5K would be a good price, this still would need a bunch of work to get running.
Engine bay and crawling underneath would reveal actual miles. I get the tires are flat, but put some effort in if u want 15k. With minimal effort u could quickly wash and slap new tires on it and present a real nice Caddy. Just my opinion.
At least $10-12k overpriced for to many unknown things looks like the seller spends to much time watching the Barret Jackson reruns
What luxury used to be. This car told the neighbors that you had arrived. Funny thing is that there was an unwritten rule in our little town that business owners didn’t drive a Cadillac or Lincoln. You didn’t want to place yourself above the rest of the community. The local dealer sure sold a lot of big Oldsmobiles to those same people.
That was the reason my sister “had” to drive a new ’68 Toronado instead of a Cadillac. Her husband told her that she couldn’t have a nicer car than the guy’s wife who owned the corporation he worked for. The first thing she did after they divorced was to buy a new Coupe deVille.
No disrespect but it sounds like she made someone a good ex-wife.
Dad had a 1972 Coupe de Ville in an aqua blue, white vinyl top blue brocade interior. He’d never let me drive it. One day he took his other to work and left the Caddy in the driveway. I had a job interview (he insisted I get a job) but had no way to get there. So I stole (borrowed) the Caddy. I was so extremely nervous I’d put a scratch on it or worse. The interview went fine. Got the job. Returned the Caddy to the same parking space as before. As far as I know he never knew. He never said anything.
Oh and he let me use the Chevy Vega to get back and forth to work.
Oh, he knew. Sometimes Dad’s are cool that way.
Angel , Did the interviewer(s) see that you’d arrived in a Caddy , and if so , do you think that had any bearing on your acceptance ?
When I was a meter reader for the local electric utility in 1990, an old man had a 72 Sedan Deville in his garage. He was the original owner, it had 42,000 original miles and apart from the paint being a little faded, the rest of the car looked it. The vinyl top, chrome, and interior was perfect. It didn’t have tilt wheel or cruise control, just a power bench seat and power windows. It was gold with a black top and black brocade interior. He wanted $10,000 for it. In 1990. Needless to say I didn’t buy it. Eventually I saw him parking a new Dodge Dynasty in the Caddy’s garage. I wonder what he ever got for the car.
This one above needs a cleaning, and at least try and turn the engine by hand to see if it’s free or not. As stated by many above, at that price, the seller is gonna have to make an effort. No one believes anyone anymore, because, especially with used cars, BUYER BEWARE.
Probably $1,000 in trade if he was lucky…..and for a Dynasty too, what a downgrade.
When a seller says he “believes it to be original” thats just an opinion with no facts to back it up… his father probably got that car for a song. Too many questions to even consider anything close to the asking price. So they bought it at an estate and left it there? or did they just haul it out and stick it in that box? Doesn’t take long to get that layer of dust on the outside. It also has paint issues just like my parents ’72 Coupe DeVille had on the trunk lid. Hers was outside all the time and it started rusting and the paint started flaking off because the primer was bad from the factory. Cadillac would not admit fault but the painter that fixed it knew it.
Thats 212 miles per year while operational. CHECK. Original battery replaced with a heavily corroded Autocraft AGM battery with an incorrect positive cable to the starter (Has bolt type clamp-incorrect). CHECK. Accesorry wire from that connection has a yellow butt splice in line. UNCHECK. Somebody had to do more than “start it once a week”. Otherwise a pretty base model (AM-FM stereo, no tape) no rear defogger, and a basic upholstery job. Expect a raw start up with anything turning to leak from sitting; hard seals, water pump etc. A bit high on the $$$
The seller should contact You Tuber, WD Detailing. If it’s interesting enough they’ll detail it for free on their channel. No personal connection. Wife and I are just addicted to watching them bring barn finds back to beauty.
I wanted to impress my summer love back in 79. picked up a dark blue/blk int. on the cheap! she was a cheat! went back to my Kawi 900. don’t recall what I did with the Caddy? heard she’s twice divorced.still cheating? I was 20 back then. dumb kid I was.