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Time Capsule Cadillac: 1979 Cadillac Seville

1979-cadillac-seville

This l’il beauty is in Star, North Carolina, right in-between Raleigh and Charlotte. It’s a 1979 Cadillac Seville and it’s listed on eBay with 91 bid increments and a current price of $4,600, but the reserve isn’t met.

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This “Dark Aqua Poly” colored Seville is in all-original and fantastic condition! The only thing that didn’t come on the car when new is the battery and four new tires, which now have 300 miles on them. The whole car only has 67,000 miles on it. This is the sort of car that restoration shops might use to see how they really should look from the factory. This car is gorgeous, in my opinion, and is in almost perfect condition. Although, is it just me or does the paint on the front clip look a little darker than the adjacent paint? The trunk looks great but I’m not sure what’s happening with the gasket on the bottom left? Maybe it just pulled away or something. GM made a little over 53,000 Cadillac Sevilles in 1979, about 3,000 fewer than the high point of 1978 but almost 15,000 more than the 1980 Seville!

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This is the last year for the first-generation Seville, which was introduced in May of 1975 and was produced until 1979. In 1980, the Seville, which wasn’t catching on with its intended market – young, affluent buyers who were interested in imports – went to a front-wheel-drive platform from the Eldorado/Riviera/Toronado and it also had the very contentious bustle-back design. I personally like that style, but I like unusual cars.  This car is originally from Boise, Idaho and was purchased from the original owner and is totally rust-free, according to the current owner, the seller.

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This color, wow! Could you even imagine if a car company offered a color like this today on either the exterior or interior, let alone both?! I love it, an actual color instead of a tone (black, white, silver, gray). The 1979 Seville was offered with a Gucci package by an aftermarket firm in Miami, and came in only white, black, or medium-brown, for a mere $23,000 ($76,500 in 2016 dollars)! Cadillac also offered an Elegante package from 1978 to 1988 which added two-tone paint among other tweaks. As you probably guessed, the interior on this car is almost like new; from the steering wheel to the headliner to the door panels, and of course both the front seats and rear seats look like they were just made. The AC even blows cold which is amazing after forty years. There are no engine photos, which is weird because there are so many photos of everything else, but this one has the Oldsmobile Rocket 5.7L, 350 fuel-injected V8 with 175 hp like all Sevilles of this era had, unless they used the Olds 350 V8 diesel. This car looks like a winner if you’re of the era and mindset that likes them as much as I do. What do you think this one will ultimately sell for? Have you ever owned this generation of Seville, or any Seville?

Comments

  1. Avatar 68custom

    Love this body style, very classy. Thumb’s up on this one!

    Like 0
    • Avatar Alan (Michigan)

      Agree. The overall shape, and the roof-line make for a very formal appearance. And of course, this was the “midsize” car for Cadillac.

      Like 0
  2. Avatar Fred W.

    Just read a magazine article on this car a few minutes ago and found it was based on the “X” (Nova) platform of the time, stretched just 3 inches for rear seat room. Exact same suspension plus anti roll bars. Humble beginnings for a very nice car.

    Like 0
    • Avatar Featherston

      “Exact same suspension plus anti roll bars.” Not really. Per the excellent Ate Up With Motor article on the Seville:
      – – –
      To distinguish it from the Nova, the Seville’s platform received a new K-body chassis designation. Mechanically, the K-body was superficially similar to the X-body despite a 3.3-inch (84mm) floorpan stretch, but the Cadillac differed considerably in detail. Aside from a standard limited-slip differential and automatic level control, the K-body benefited from engineer Robert Burton’s concerted assault on the X-body’s intrinsic NVH problems, which were mitigated in various ways, including increasing the number of front subframe bushings from four to six; adding Teflon liners between the semi-elliptical rear springs; allowing more fore-aft suspension compliance; using small hydraulic dampers to brace the driveshaft tunnel, the front fenders, and the transmission tail shaft; and locking the body bolts with epoxy resin rather than conventional washers. Templin admitted all this was far from elegant, but it worked.
      – – –

      Like 0
  3. Avatar RoneBee

    nice car, great colors, needs real wire wheels and voques (15 inch)

    Like 1
  4. Avatar Ed P

    Compared to the huge barges Cadillac was making at the time, this was a breath of fresh air. It was time for a small luxury car and this was it. Nice looking example of the Seville.

    Like 0
  5. Avatar Woodie Man

    I had a business associate who owned one in the mid eighties. Whenever I rode in it I felt like I should be balding with a combover, have a cigar stuffed in my mouth and own a chain of dry cleaning stores……

    Like 0
    • Avatar AMCSTEVE

      And your name is Mel

      Like 0
  6. Avatar Ronebee

    I wish I had a chain of dry cleaning stores

    Like 0
    • Avatar Jeffro

      Wish I had a gold chain. Ex took that in divorce too!

      Like 1
    • HoA Howard A Member

      Talk to George Jefferson.

      Like 0
  7. Avatar Jeff K.

    We had a neighbor who had 1 of these growing up. She was totally hot and I had a big crush on this lady!! Anyway, I always enjoyed riding in her car. The ride was so Cadillac smoothe!!! LOL Great looking car and great memories!!

    Like 0
  8. Avatar Mark P

    I always thought these were a rebadged Chevy Caprice, not so I guess according to an article I recently read. Actually nice cars either way. To use sort of a dumb word to describe them, they look robust.

    Like 0
    • Avatar AMCSTEVE

      Yes me too. Very close, the same but different

      Like 0
    • Avatar Ronebee

      Rebodied Chevy Nova actually

      Like 0
  9. Avatar Vegas Vic

    Classic luxury, regardless of stretched nova platform, these Cadillacs are very comfy. My first boss sported one, rolling us around the countryside checking on his oil wells. Fun times!
    Buy this beast, drive it, turn heads from the Prius and VW crowd. And the trunk? Loads O room!

    Like 0
  10. Avatar Bingo

    My parents bought one of these new. It was white with red interior. My dad would remove the wire hubcaps every fall and polish each and every spoke by hand and then reinstall them in the spring, driving with some cheap hubcaps all winter long (Minnesota). He hated the bustle-back design of the new version, therefore so did I as a preteen who idolized is father. Guess who now removes the “summer” wheels and tires every fall now on their MKX? Like father like son.

    If I ever find a white/red one for sale, it will become mine.

    Like 0
    • Avatar ANDREW CREMONA

      Nice story. AC from UK.

      Like 0
  11. Avatar jaymes

    lrc

    Like 0
  12. Avatar Vegas Vic

    Great story , Bingo!
    Your Dad rocks.💢

    Like 0
  13. Avatar RoughDiamond

    I have always loved this particular styling on the Cadillacs. Classy!

    Like 0
  14. Avatar roselandpete

    Nice but I went with an 84 bustle back.

    Like 0
  15. Avatar Todd Zuercher

    I always liked this body style too and this one is a beauty.

    The closest I ever got to one was pulling rear disc calipers at the junkyards for rear disc conversions.

    Like 0
  16. Avatar Ray Smith

    I remember my old boss (auto wholesaler and enthusiast) had one of these for a while. It was silver and a former diesel. When he picked it up the diesel had been replaced with a built 427. It had headers but ran a very muffled dual exhaust system with stock looking tips. You could hear a tinny sounding ring from the headers but not much else. With the diesel badges still in place a non car guy might mistake the header ring as just another noisy diesel. I tell you what though, nail that thing and look out. It was the ultimate sleeper, especially considering stock horsepower levels of cars back in the late 70s. As a teenager back then I couldn’t afford anything like that but it would sure be a hoot nowadays to have it.

    Like 0
  17. Avatar ronebee

    far out

    Like 0
  18. Avatar Car Guy

    Always liked these, even with the factory wire hubcaps! A timeless design with great proportions…

    Like 0
  19. Avatar Tom Driscoll

    I used to cut grass as a kid for a GM exec named Robert Lund, this car was his baby, and he told me a story once about how he fought to run a front wheel drive platform on this car but the bean counters wouldn’t have it. In retrospect, it would have been well ahead of it’s time! I also happened to be working at his house one day when Dr. Bose came over to install a bose stereo system in his living room…the rest of that story is GM history. I did own an emerald green ’78 Seville back in the day…great car with the digital dash and full info computer…I thought that was a common option back then, but I haven’t seen one recently on ebay at all. Mine was a Canadian car which had a very cool split tail light: top half amber for blinkers, bottom half red…have never seen that again either…

    Like 0
  20. Avatar Steve Adams

    I owned a ’78 ‘Elegante in the black/silver paint scheme. Cadillac in the late 70’s and early 80’s was peppered with stunning body designs despite downsizing under the EPA demands. I loved the trip computer and digital dash in the Seville! My ’78 performed flawlessly until I traded it for an ’81 Biarritz. Not a bit of trouble with the larger 8-6-4 engine. Better ride than the Seville and much more room inside. Good to know these cars are still around and in fine form.

    Like 0
  21. Avatar Junkfixer

    Sadly, many of these burned to the ground, as the fuel injection system used on it’s Olds 350 was sorely lacking in integrity. Despite this I remember these cars were very popular with their owners and many kept them for an extended period of years – well, at least the ones without the Tokyo-by-night dash option. There just wasn’t an equivalent car to trade it in for, and I saw many with a quarter million miles on the clock. This car and the DeVille successfully outran the malaise era for some time, but it caught Cadillac with a vengeance the following year, first with the awful V8-6-4 and HT4100, then the dawning of the downsized FWD luxobarge.

    Like 0
    • Avatar PCL

      I’ve heard the same thing about the VW Squareback my father used to drive; even his was leaking like a sieve when he finally brought it in to complain about the mileage. If he had let it go any longer, it (and he) might have seen a similar end. The Bendix EFI in the Seville was a GM implementation of he Bosch D-Jetronic EFI in the Squareback, both of which were descended from the Bendix Electrojector EFI Chrysler and AMC tried to market in the late 1950s.

      Like 1
  22. Avatar charlie Member

    Seville was to Nova as Mustang was to Falcon. A solid base, and a much dressed up body, suspension, interior, and trim. A great looking car for its era.

    Like 0
  23. Avatar Mr. TKD

    My grandfather owned a 1972 sedan DeVille that has the exact same color scheme. It’s a shame today’s common vehicles can’t be had with such bodacious color options. This would be my weekend ride.

    Like 0
  24. HoA Howard A Member

    Pretty unanimous here, one sharp car for the end of the decade. Things were hummin’ in the late ’70’s, and there were many small business success stories, before everything moved overseas, and if you had a successful business, this is what you drove. Cadillac always signified, “you made it”. All mechanical quirks aside, it didn’t get any better than this, for an American car, that is. One of my favorite colors too. Very nice car.

    Like 0
  25. Avatar Craig

    Love em!
    We had a 77 model. In that color i believe!

    Like 0
  26. Avatar Gstegall

    My uncle had a new ’76 when I was a kid. Silver on silver with a car phone. Very impressive!

    Like 0
  27. Avatar Georges Jeangros

    Good Morning. I have a 1978 Cadillac Seville 5.7efi. somebody can say where I can Buy OEM trunk seal for my car. Thank you so much for your respons. Best Reguards from France

    Like 0
    • Avatar Paul Bedford

      Georges I live in France too. I’m afraid the trunk seals are impossible to find. You need to just try and match it with seals from the big US suppliers.

      Where are you in France? I’m in 79110.

      Like 0

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