The 1976 - 1979 Cadillac Seville introduced a new kind of luxury cable car . Bigger had always been full in the American luxury railway car market in which Cadillac flourished . But when a raw breed of buyer began go interested in little imported make , GM ’s flagship steered a raw course . Here is our introduction to the 1976 - 1979 Cadillac Seville .
The year 1975 wo n’t likely go down in self-propelled history as " standard . " The Mideast sheiks had recently call on off their oil tap ; the U.S. economy entered rampant stagflation ; safety and smogginess rule loomed large daily , as did bumper standard ; Detroit saw sales drop , and now came the really serious encroachment of small imports .
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No new American cable car appeared in 1975 , except one . On April 22 , Cadillac liberate the " international - sized " Seville as a 1976 model . Today , most of us do n’t think of this Seville as being all that pregnant , but it was . Historically , the Seville started several revolutions .
It legitimized downsizing for both the American world and U.S. automakers , and thus lead to smaller , lighter gondola ( a course that enceinte sport utility vehicle seem to have reversed of later ) . For better or worse , the Seville also introduced the " sheer look , " a styling format that automobile companies around the man right away re-create . In plus , this gondola launched computer psychoanalysis as applied to anatomy andsuspensiondevelopment ; introduce electronicfuel injectionin the U.S. ; and it took the audacious step of at the same time becoming the smallest , nimblest , most fuel - efficient , and – significantly – the most expensive sedan in the Cadillac batting order .
Before the Seville , downsizing was a four - missive intelligence to most Detroiters . decorator and engineers hated the very idea . Marketers were n’t convinced that Americans would accept belittled , lightheaded cars ( as indeed they had not in the case of the 1953 and 1962 Dodges and Plymouths ) . And the money business leader point out that curtailment would be 1000000000000 – maybe more – yet might well reelect nothing .
CourageousFord , though , became the first major Detroit manufacturer to successfully downsize one of its railroad car lines with the1974 Mustang II , which was base on the Pinto subcompact car . As it turned out , Ford ’s timing could n’t have been better . The downsized Mustang arrived in October 1973 – just as the Mideast was shutting down America ’s gas pump . Within months , fuel prices double and Mustang sales agreement treble . Meanwhile , Detroit dreadnoughts circulate every filling station in the land , and dealers in Nipponese motorcar all of a sudden became millionaire .
Yet , U.S. auto manufacturers still viewed downsizing as a gamble . And sneer though they might at the Pinto in a Mustang suit , GM leaders know that Ford had done the right matter – a very plucky matter at that . GM did n’t like it , but Ford had derive up with a better theme not once but double , first with the original mid - Sixties Mustang and now with this new downsized good example .
On the next page , read about how GM stargaze up the downsized 1976 Seville .
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Origins of the 1976 Cadillac Seville
The rootage of the 1976 Cadillac Seville are in " downsize . " GM make up one’s mind to take the downsizing plunge with the Seville , given the 1974 Ford Mustang II ’s success . What better way to formalise downsize ? If Cadillac could introduce a small manikin and make it a success , then , logically , the public would equate " downsized " with " better . "
The mind has an ironical spin . Back in 1938 , when Cadillac introduced the first 60 - particular , that small sedan chair in the demarcation was also the class ’s most expensive . So for 1976 , GM would again introduce a downsized full - sized sedan , it would again stomach at the top of the line , and it would again be the most expensive fomite in Cadillac ’s salesroom .
These decisions were not made lightly and certainly not easily because , at the time , General Motors was going through some important staff office variety . GM president Edward N. Cole retired in 1974 , and his topographic point was take by another applied scientist , Elliot M. " Pete " Estes .
GM ’s chairman , Richard C. Gerstenberg , also retired in 1974 , to be replace by Thomas A. Murphy . Cole had been lukewarm on downsizing , Gerstenberg had smartly championed it , and Estes and Murphy also favored smaller cars .
At Cadillac , unofficial downsize studies had started around 1970 under division general manager George R. Elges . But Elges left on the last sidereal day of 1972 , before anything come of them . Cadillac ’s next cosmopolitan managing director was Robert D. Lund , and it was during Lund ’s tenure that most of the work on the Seville was done . Lund , though , left to steer up Chevrolet in November 1974 , and was replaced by Edward C. Kennard . Kennard unveiled the Seville in 1975 and made it a success in the mart .
Another critical personnel change call for Robert J. Templin . In 1973 , Templin make over as Cadillac ’s chief engine driver from his predecessor , the ailing Carl Rasmussen . Templin would play a major office in Cadillac ’s downsize program .
On the next page , understand Bob Templin ’s memory board of the 1976 Cadillac Seville design cognitive operation .
The 1976 Cadillac Seville Through Bob Templin’s Eyes
Now countenance ’s consider the 1976 Cadillac Seville through Bob Templin ’s eyes . Templin , Cadillac ’s chief engineer on the Seville task , retired from GM in 1987 and go to Austin , Texas , where he founded an engine room consulting firm . In a telephone audience , Templin pointed out that all five GM car divisions , admit Cadillac , were already process on downsizing course of study when he contract over as principal railroad engineer . Cadillac , though , was the only division that had n’t already produced a smaller car .
Chevrolet , for instance , had three : the small Vega , stocky Nova , and mid - sized Chevelle . Pontiac finally offered its own versions of all three cars . Oldsmobile and Buick also shared the Nova ’s X - trunk and the Chevelle ’s A - organic structure .
" The prevailing wisdom at the upper levels of GM at that time , " explained Templin , " was that Cadillac deal ‘em by the ton and sell ‘em by the grand . big was better . The corporation believe that Cadillac should never get involved in a little car .
" But when George Elges was general manager of Cadillac in the other 1970s , he and his then - chief applied scientist , Carl Rasmussen , had done their own market study , and these point a strong pastime in a modest Cadillac , peculiarly among womanhood . woman find big cars inept to park and backbreaking to get into and out of at shopping promenade . Women really did n’t want all that size , but they did want the luxury and comfort and prestige of a Cadillac .
" These subject field were stored in the Indian file when I came into Cadillac , " Templin says . " Carl Rasmussen had exit on pallid farewell , and I took his place as chief engineer . Our contiguous objective was to try and see a way to do this smaller car . Of course , the divisions had some exemption inside GM in those days , but they also had to go to the corp for financial support . The potbelly essentially bankrolled the partition .
" Now , at that time , a fellow by the name of John Meyer was on GM ’s board of directors . Meyer was also the chairman of Mellon Bank in Pittsburgh . John Meyer ’s married woman had noticed at her Pittsburgh country golf-club that more and more members were showing up in Mercedes , and Mercedes were smaller than Cadillacs , but had just as much luxury and status . So John kept asking Ed Cole and Dick Gerstenberg why Cadillac did n’t look at a smaller railway car .
" This give us the chance to make a case to get the money to joyride this little gondola . Well , there just was n’t anything around that we could adjust – no physical structure shell … at least we did n’t think so at the time . So we went over to Germany and looked at the highest - priced Opel saloon , the Diplomat , and cogitate , well , peradventure we can restyle that and turn it into a smaller Cadillac .
" We found out , though , that Opel wreak to much tighter tolerances and smaller flanges than we did here in the States , so our manufacturing people at Fisher Body say , ' No die ; we ca n’t work with Opel pressings . They just would n’t fit out our production organisation . '
" So we feed up on Opel and were pretty discouraged . Then all of a sudden , Ed Cole , who had n’t been enthusiastic about a downsized Cadillac at all … basically he ’d let us go on adopt that the idea would die of its own weight … convey the idea that perchance we could expend one of GM ’s smaller body shell , one already in production . And he specifically pop the question the X - car , the Chevy Nova . "
On the next page , understand Bob Templin ’s retentivity of designing the 1976 Cadillac Seville with the ecstasy - car trunk .
The 1976 Cadillac Seville and the Chevrolet Nova
Now permit ’s reckon into the improbable genetic link between the 1976 Cadillac Seville and the Chevrolet Nova . Bob Templin and his team had go down on the Chevy Nova ’s X - body as a base for the new 1976 Cadillac Seville , but that was just the beginning of the purpose process .
" Of naturally , the Nova was not a in particular good automobile . It was , you know , a very canonical , low - price , functional auto ; hardly the stuff Cadillacs were made of .
" But we enounce , ' Okay , if that ’s the best we can do , we ’ll take a aspect at it , ' and we put together some guide prototypes … put the Eldorado ’s front - movement transaxle in them and borrowed the Olds 350 V-8 locomotive engine , and tot all the thing we cogitate a Cadillac ought to have , including GM ’s first electronic fuel - injection organisation .
" Then we last to GM ’s applied science policy group , which fundamentally had to approve such thing . About that sentence , Ed Cole call me and said , ' We ’ll debase the Nova scale 3.3 column inch to give you more room in the back nates . ' The knee room is terrible in that particular soundbox cuticle .
" So we say okay , and we went to the engineering insurance group to get the money . Now keep in mind that we ’d proposed the young car as a front - wheel - drive , fuel - injected V-8 sedan chair . Well , it came back approved as a rearward - driving force , fuel - injected V-8 saloon . Why rear drive ? Because GM did n’t have the plant capability to build enough front - drive transaxles for the Seville ’s projected sales . Those were confine to the Toronado and Eldorado .
" The rearward - drive requirement sort of disappointed us , " Templin proceed , " but nevertheless we were able to design around that . And then the existent job began , because the Nova body was nothing special . We had a challenge . We had to make a Cadillac out of a Chevrolet , make this new auto glossy , and smooth , and advanced – something that would really generate some appreciation . It had to be a reliable Cadillac .
" So I appoint a mate who became a major force in my establishment , a fellow by the name of Robert Burton . Bob Burton had contacts throughout the corporation and could get thing done . We also had complete cooperation within Cadillac , because everybody was sold on the idea that this new car was die to be a winner .
" Well , Bob Burton did an absolutely providential job . We get into some young technology techniques call Fast Fourier Analysis to get the trembling out . The Nova had a front subframe … not a near affair from a haphazardness , quiver , and harshness standpoint . Burton did some improbable development employment using Fast Fourier Analysis and got the chassis quieted down . We had a 14 - month deadline , but in less than a year we ended up with a really slick automobile . "
Continue to the next Sir Frederick Handley Page to study more about how the squad used Fast Fourier Analysis to hunky-dory - tune the Cadillac Seville .
Fine-Tuning the 1976 Cadillac Seville
Next came the body of work finely - tuning the 1976 Cadillac Seville . The 1976 Seville ’s design process relied on Fast Fourier Analysis . degraded Fourier Analysis is now used routinely in develop new cars , but in the early Seventies , Cadillac was virtually alone in pursue it .
The technology is base on the work of French mathematician and physicist Baron Jean Baptiste Joseph Fourier ( 1768 - 1830 ) . Fourier worked out a agency to psychoanalyze harmonics and complex wave bod . He made it possible to measure the fundamental and harmonic contentedness of vibrations . Fast Fourier Analysis utilise detector and computing machine to chamfer down automotive chassis vibration so that railroad engineer can weaken them out before they get to the driver and passengers .
By localise up to 100 little accelerometers all over the X - car subframe , reprieve and undercarriage , measure the vibration and then running these figures through a computer , Templin ’s engineers could pinpoint precisely where vibration were coming from . Once they ’d settle the source , they could speedily apply fixes .
On the next varlet , interpret about the Cadillac Seville ’s 14 - month development process .
The 1976 Cadillac Seville Design Process
The Cadillac Seville design cognitive process – at 14 months in all – was cruelly and outstandingly scant . In those days , most new - car gestations admit 24 to 36 month . But incoming GM president Pete Estes insisted on having the downsized Cadillac ready to sell in no more than 14 month .
Why ? allot to Cadillac ’s principal trunk interior designer , Stanley R. Wilen , " I hear Pete Estes in the lunchroom one day ; Pete said , ' I ’ve been grant 14 calendar month by the Cadillac dealers to deliver a machine that ’ll be minuscule and that ’ll have nice fuel economy . Otherwise , we ’re buy the farm to have problem keeping our Cadillac dealers from taking on franchise for BMW and Mercedes . And if the dealer do that , we ’d be giving the importers a free distribution organization inside our most prestigious partition . We just ca n’t countenance that pass off . ' So that ’s where the 14 - calendar month deadline come from . " Actually , the Seville political platform have official corporate favorable reception on December 21 , 1973 , and assembled cars left the plant on April 22 , 1975 , so the total growing period took precisely 16 months and 18 days . Even so , the car was done in near - disc clock time .
Wilen vividly recalls the Seville ’s birth pains . " We were wait for a [ styling ] theme , and we could n’t happen one . [ GM designing vice United States President ] Bill Mitchell was pretty testy . He was getting quick to leave for Europe , and we still did n’t have a theme for this new , smaller Cadillac .
" ' Goddamit , do n’t you guys get it on what to do ? ' postulate Mitchell . So I said to him , ' Bill , I do n’t eff how to apprize my guy cable . I do n’t know what you ’re attend for . I need a clew . ' There was no aesthetic history for this gondola ; nothing to base it on .
" And he said , ' If I ca n’t smell the garlic out there in the hall when I get back , I ’ll know you do n’t have it . ' So I said , ' Bill , you just told me something ! '
" I went up and made a tape drawing that same dawn , " Wilen recall . " It had sort of an Italian flavor , and I called the motorcar La Scala . And when Bill make out back , he like my tape . Bill call Ed Cole over , and Cole also thought it was good .
" So that became the theme car . They started modeling the La Scala downstairs in one of the Advanced room , and they put it into Advanced because we were so loaded with other production projects up in our studio apartment .
" That ’s when it went on the X - car physical structure . But going to the X - body put the rear wheels in the ill-timed place , and the windshield did n’t have enough rake . Understand that the La Scala was only a theme . The poor guys downstairs had to hear to capture the essence of that tape drawing without having a consistence that was really appropriate for it . "
On the next page , learn how the Cadillac excogitation squad turned La Scala into a working 1976 Seville .
Building the 1976 Cadillac Seville
build the 1976 Cadillac Seville , the caller ’s target cable car was now the 1973 Mercedes 280SEL . One preliminary styling marriage proposal prove to make a Seville out of the German Opel Diplomat , per Templin ’s wish . This employment was done in Cadillac ’s Advanced Studio , downstairs in the GM Design Staff complex . Cadillac Advanced was under the direction of Wayne A. Kady , Lord of the 1971 Eldorado .
The Opel thought did n’t last long , so Kady ’s staff next attempted to transmute the disco biscuit - railcar into Cadillac ’s new baby . Part way through that study , Kady got transferred to head up up the Buick production studio apartment , at which point Stanley F. Parker hire over Cadillac Advanced , and started doing a longer Seville on the other side of Kady ’s Nova - like clay good example . This version had longer doors and more rearward - seat branch room .
Ed Cole call into question the price of load the X - body , especially since an insert would have to be welded into the Nova floorpan , and the door would have to be unique . " Well , Ed , " enounce Mitchell ’s managing director of excogitation , Irv Rybicki , " it will carry the Cadillac name . " Cole promptly okayed Parker ’s longer data formatting .
Meanwhile , before Kady forget , his Seville musical theme cable car had been a semi - firm - back sedan . This sedan became a substantial competitor for production and eventually made it into fiberglass . The other serious candidate was Stan Parker ’s rendition of Wilen ’s La Scala .
Parker recalls that when Mitchell returned from one of his head trip to England , " … we had the [ Seville ] in clay , and Bill came rushing in and aver , ' Goddamit , Parker , make that backlight damn near vertical . Make it seem like a Rolls - Royce ! ' I tell to myself , ' Well , perchance the guy wire ’s gone bananas , ' but we tried it , and it worked . "
In July 1973 , Gordon Horsburgh , Cadillac ’s marketing manager , check a research clinic in Anaheim , California . He trucked out the two full - sized fibreglass models of proposed Sevilles – Kady ’s semi - fastback and Parker ’s notch - back – and put them on display to sample the reaction of a specially select consultation . Half the participants were owners of European luxury machine , notably Mercedes , and the other half drive American luxury cars . Also on display were a novel Mercedes and a BMW . Horsburgh withdraw that , " The notchback Seville fiberglass model intelligibly won . " That intend " go " for Stan Parker ’s proposal , the interpretation that would see product .
By that point , however , all physical structure - intent work had to be finished in four short calendar month , a apparently unimaginable task . Donald W. Logerquist , who had been Kady ’s assistant on Cadillac ’s ripe stave , remembers the Seville program was so rush that Parker ’s studio work in two overlapping , 12 - hr shifts , one directed by Parker and the other by Logerquist .
" Stan ’s people would come in at 8 A.M. and stay until 8 P.M. Our shift would pop out at 6 P.M. We ’d act together with Stan ’s guys for a duet of time of day , and then continue on our own until six in the morning . " The pace was so grind that a figure of designers and modelers opted out . That ’s why Wilen called them " the misfortunate guys below . "
Finally , Parker ’s the great unwashed had the Seville in a near - finished State Department , and it went back upstairs into Wilen ’s studio for last expiration . Notes Wilen : " We had the first 10 moment of the game and then the two - instant recitation at the destruction . I only did the kickoff and the final practice . Parker and Kady did everything in between … the whole affair , actually . The Seville had to be one of the sturdy assignments I know about . "
uphold to the next page to learn about styling on the 1976 Cadillac Seville .
1976 Cadillac Seville Styling
The 1976 Cadillac Seville styling pioneer what came to be called the " sheer look , " which turned out to be extremely influential both within General Motors and throughout the manufacture . The terminus hinted at right-down stockings on a cleaning lady ’s legs : a smoothly filled , neatly packaged surface . It also took meaning from the sheer face of a drop , as escort in the car ’s steep drop over fenders , grille and ceiling .
The Seville was project to appeal to younger but materialistic luxury - car buyers , so ornamental brightwork was confine to wheelcovers , rocker molding and bumper strips . other cars were even deal only with medium grayish paint and gray leather upholstery . Like Mercedes and BMW , the unexampled little Cadillac wore very little " jewellery " inside or out .
A padded vinyl group roof was standard , however – and had to be . This was because Fisher Body take the forward portion of the ex - car cap stamping and simply welded on the Seville ’s unequalled sail panels and vertical backlight . There was no easy way to hide the Weld except to incubate them , so that ’s what Fisher did .
Overall , the 1976 Seville looked nothing like the cheap Nova . Its styling won a number of award before long after the cable car ’s debut . Among them were Fortune magazine ’s designation as one of the 25 comfortably - designed products in the U.S. and the Parsons School ’s plunder as one of the 10 most beautiful automobile excogitation of the previous half - C .
The squarish , unlittered sheer look appeared next on GM ’s downsized 1977 full - size cars , among them the Chevrolet Caprice and Impala , as well as Cadillac ’s own DeVilles . It also work up at Ford on everything from the Fairmont to the Continental , and at Chrysler in the 1979 New Yorker / Dodge St. Regis , which were unembarrassed copies of the Seville .
The Seville stop up 27 inch shorter than a 1975 Sedan de Ville , eight inches narrower , and nearly 1,000 pounds light . Even at that , it still librate 4,341 Ezra Pound . Some of that weight come in from wakeless deadening and all-encompassing rustproofing . The cowl , both rearward quarter , the wheelhouses , and all doorway outers used Zincrometal - blade coated with atomic number 30 on the interior . Inner and outer rocker - gore surfaces were full galvanized , as were most rear - end sheetmetal stampings , and hot wax was sprayed into all hidden body cavity .
On the next page , find details about the 1976 Cadillac Seville ’s features and specification .
1976 Cadillac Seville Specifications and Features
The 1976 Cadillac Seville specifications and feature included interesting innovation . One was body bolts that used micro - encapsulated epoxy resin . When these bolts were stiffen at the factory , the little capsules bulge out , the epoxy resin oozed out , and then hardened in place . Lock washers were n’t needed . GM soon began using micro - capsulize dead body bolts on other automobile lines .
Oldsmobile supplied the Seville ’s 350 - cubic - column inch ohv V-8 , but Cadillac added an intake manifold of its own innovation , plus Bendix electronic fuel injection . The latter employed sensors for locomotive and ambient - air temperature , throttle view , fomite speed , and manifold air insistence , plus a computer ( or ECU , for " electronic control unit " ) that rest underneath the passenger ’s seat . Two fuel pumps , one inside the 21 - gallon gas armored combat vehicle and the other mount to the form , along with a pressure regulator and issue logical argument , fed the locomotive engine fuel rails . Each of the eight injector shot atomized gasoline into the manifold just ahead of an intake valve .
This Bendix organisation was a hurrying / density type rather than the more modern aggregated - airflow design , which requires more estimator memory . The Seville ’s ECU had to calculate only one thing : injector band width ( length ) versus multiplex pressure . The number of injections per unit of meter was tie straight to engine speed . The Seville V-8 delivered 180 HP at 4,400 revolutions per minute , 10 more than the Olds version with four - cask carburetor .
Although the Seville arrived with a catalytic converter , fuel metering was so accurate that the engine could pass 1976 California smog standard without one . But the primary benefit of electronic fuel injection was better drivability . Cars of the early Seventies typically suffered from hard head start , hesitation , and dieseling . The Bendix scheme lick those ills , although a few early CPUs give out in the field . The failures prompted Bendix and GM to add pleonastic and " limp - home " circuits .
The Seville ’s only uncommitted transmission was the three - pep pill Turbo Hydra - Matic 375 , a small version of the THM 400 . Brakes consisted of 11 - inch discs up front and all-encompassing 11 - inch drumfish aft . The live rearward axle came straight off from the Nova , but used a relatively eminent 2.56:1 differential ratio , which helped fuel economy . Mileage estimate tramp from 17 to 21 mpg , which for a 1976 Cadillac was phenomenal . Full - sized hound were still turn in individual - digit fuel figures .
Seville road test put the railcar ’s 0 - 60 - mph acceleration at around 13 minute . Top speed ranged from 112 to 118 miles per hour . These bit equal those of the Mercedes 450SE . powder magazine editor program agreed that the Seville had better manipulation than most U.S. cars , but still was n’t up to its European competitors . The variable - ratio steering was admirably fast but lacked precision . Other than that , the car was quiet , the drive felt good , and the entire computer software seemed amazingly well put together . Assembly exact place at Cadillac ’s Clark Avenue West plant in Detroit at the pace of 14.5 cars an hour .
One thing the Seville did n’t lack was standard equipment , though a few journalist wondered whether Cadillac had not replace gadgetry for substance . Where were the four - bike disc brakes , they ask . And this was Detroit ’s idea of an " outside " summercater / luxury sedan ’s instrument cluster ? The gore turn back a speedometer , a fuel gauge … and that was it ! Where were the tach and gauges for oil pressure , volts , and temperature ? Why must America ’s most expensive car have idiot lights ?
On the next page , translate about the Cadillac Seville ’s sale successes .
1976 Cadillac Seville Production
Now we consider the 1976 Cadillac Seville output detail .
For starter , there were some upraise eyebrow about the Cadillac Seville ’s base price of $ 12,479 . That seemed very extortionate when Cadillac ’s full - sizing 1975 Calais started at $ 8,184 , the Eldorado coupe be $ 9,935 , and the Eldo convertible $ 10,354 . Says Bob Templin : " There were still some masses in the marketing section who maintained that minor ’s got to be cheaper . They felt the Seville had to hail in under the DeVille if it ’s going to sell .
" Well , by the time we put in all the applied science effort , even though we got the Nova torso shell , but after we reskinned it and spent all that money on the exterior dick and stuff , the number were adding up . It was not decease to be an inexpensive elevator car . We say , ' Okay , get ’s throw the book at this cable car , put on every dainty we can think of … let ’s doll it up and make an absolute wily matter out of it , and price it above the DeVille . ' So that ’s where we ended up . "
" We bring in the Seville on the West Coast , " Templin continues , " and I go to a couple of principal introductions . These were by invitation only . The dealer had invited all their patriotic customers . One bargainer in Burlingame [ just south of San Francisco ] actually had a spring with running champagne . It was a real event .
" The railcar took off in California like gangbusters . If a customer came into a dealership for regular Cadillac overhaul , they ’d let him drive a Seville home as a lender . After his wife drove the Seville , she would n’t give it up . The car was an infrangible revolution for a flock of citizenry . The thing was just so satisfying on the West Coast and , of course , it became a financial success very quickly . Any doubts anybody had about paying for the Seville ’s tools or about the car not deliver the goods in the marketplace [ were erased once ] the auto accept off and was very , very successful . "
That ’s certainly straight . agree toAutomotive News’sannual industriousness recap , Seville calendar - year yield came to 36,826 in 1975 ; 39,275 in 1976 ; 49,190 for 1977 ; 59,794 in 1978 ; and 48,295 for 1979 ( during which yield shifted to a front - wheel - drive second - generation model ) . California remained the Seville ’s main market place , systematically capturing 35 per centum of full sales . Demand was also secure in Florida and along the upper eastern seaboard . It tended to be decrepit , according to Gordon Horsburgh , in middle America , where large cars still rein .
preserve to the next pageboy to register about the 1977 Cadillac Seville and its response around the world .
The 1977 Cadillac Seville Around the World
What was the impact of the 1977 Cadillac Seville around the earth ? The Seville nameplate was not exactly a novelty when it was apply to Cadillac ’s new rival to the luxury imports . The partition had antecedently used the name from 1956 through 1960 on the two - door hardtop in the Eldorado line . But neither was it an automatic choice for the fresh car .
Two other names seriously reckon were St. Tropez and LaSalle . But F. T. " Ted " Hopkins , Cadillac worldwide sales director , and Gordon Horsburgh , the sectionalisation ’s director of merchandising , dissuade those who favored LaSalle by pointing out that the original LaSalle automobile had fail in the marketplace , whereas the Seville had not .
Besides , LaSalle was the name of a then - prominent Gallic communist , and the terminal figure la salle ( " the way " ) was also used for " toilet " in French . St. Tropez fell out , and Seville pull ahead out .
A little - known sidebar to this achiever account began in 1977 , when the Shah of Iran suggested that Sevilles be built in his land . grant to Templin , " The Shah want a more price - good luxury car for his generals , and we hear that he had 1,000 generals in his USA . Complete cars were render CKD [ completely knocked down ] in wooden crateful and reassembled in Iran . The assembly cognitive operation was owned by a supporter of the Shah . We do n’t sleep with how many got build or paid for , because the Shah was deposed soon afterward , and the operation close . The CKD kit had a special locomotive , however , with no emission or fuel - thriftiness constraints to fill which throw it a much higher top f number . "
Cadillac ’s " international " car was also sell fully built in England and continental Europe , though with just 2,000 units specify for exportation during the first production year . The UK Mary Leontyne Price was £ 10,000 ( then adequate to around $ 20,000 ) fully equip , include right - hand ride . But the car still impressed the normally nationalist British . Autocareven dare a comparsion mental test between the Seville and the vaunted Rolls - Royce Silver Shadow , judging the Cadillac " more modern in line and styling " and " a immensely different animal from the medium good deal - grow American car . " A bit after , Britain’sCarmagazine praise " very good steering " that " have you use every inch of a narrow route with precision . There is so little physical structure roll that passenger are scarcely aware of it , and the all - disc pasture brake system is beyond critique . "
Rear discs were substitute for drums on the 1977 Seville , which also put on a radiator grille compose of ok erect legal profession or else of the 1976 model ’s Cadillac - traditional eggcrate format . Also raw were two extra - cost wheel covers , one with a turbine - vane look , the other simulating conducting wire wheels . in the end , a painted metal roof became usable as a no - cost alternative to the cushiony top , Fisher having by now retrieve the money to tool a weld - free roof . gentle wind conditioning and automatic level control remained stock . A force trunk - lid pulldown and top executive - sliding crank AstroRoof remained among the few factory options . fundament price rise to $ 13,359 .
Continue to the next page to interpret about Cadillac ’s changes to the 1978 Seville .
The 1978 Cadillac Seville
A more luxurious 1978 Cadillac Seville , the Elegante , go far after its debut the old April at the New York auto show . The output Elegante came with a non - cushioned cap , chromed Dayton wire wheels , full - distance brushed - chrome beltline moldings , and a choice of two colour schemes : Sable Black over Platinum , or Western Saddle Firemist metallic over Ruidoso Brown .
Inside were penetrate leather seating area trim in vinyl , a leather - wrap steering wheel , and a center cabinet with a fold armrest , a writing tablet , and place for a phone or cassette tapes . The criterion Seville got the chrome wire as a Modern choice , and sail - panel opera house lamp became available , as on larger Cadillacs . External changes on the standard Seville were determine to rear accent rouge stripes and engraved taillight emblems , share with the Elegante .
Another 1978 add-on was the Seville ’s optional Delco trip electronic computer . This augur innovative trip computers and could be called upon to provide information on instant fuel mileage , overall fuel mileage , fuel range , and count on clock time of reaching .
But perhaps the most startling 1978 news was the midyear summation of an optional diesel V-8 . This , too , was a 350 build by Oldsmobile to Cadillac stipulation , but delivered only 120 HP versus 170 for that yr ’s gas V-8 . It made considerably more torsion , however , and returned far better mileage : 21 mpg metropolis and 30 main road by EPA estimates .
That extra penny-pinching did n’t come for free , however , the diesel bring $ 2,286 to the $ 14,161 base - model price . In retrospect , the diesel option seemed another timely move in 1978 , considering the energy crisis that was about to let out the following year . The engine was before long offered in other Cadillacs , but almost from twenty-four hours one , the Olds diesel motor was provoke by all manner of troubles that frustrated customers and tarnished Cadillac ’s reputation .
Lincoln , meanwhile , had followed the Seville ’s lead by introducing the 1977 Versailles , essentially a Ford Granada sedan with plush home and full - house equipment . But this Lincoln was no threat to Seville , which outsell the Versailles in 1977 by three to one , and in 1978 by about seven to one .
On the next page , read about the first - contemporaries Seville ’s final model year .
The 1979 Cadillac Seville
There were nigh no changes for the 1979 Cadillac Seville , though splashiness swelled the pedestal price to $ 16,224 . Cadillac ’s emphasis that year was on its first downsized Eldorado , hence the lack of attention to Seville . The Elegante was still around , though as a $ 2,755 option package .
The 1976 - 1979 Seville endeavor to be highly profitable , consort to Gordon Horsburgh . It was also extremely influential , not just in terms of styling but also in making it well-fixed for GM to downsize its other large - gondola lines with no release of sales . Indeed , to the delight of all concerned , Cadillac ’s new 1977 DeVilles and Fleetwoods were even more popular than their orotund harbinger .
Before the Seville , downsize was a topic of tremendous contention . More was riding on this gamble than just the Seville , but its swift , well-defined achiever help make the case for smaller cars throughout GM and , in fact , throughout the U.S. automobile industry .
The first - generation Seville continued in yield for more than four year . By 1979 , the yard - car platform , as it was called , was starting to reckon dated , so Bill Mitchell added two room access and a distinctive bustleback rear remnant to the trim new E - body Eldorado coupe and turn it into his last noteworthy production cable car , the 1980 Seville .
Interestingly , this second - generation model had originated in Wayne Kady ’s advanced studio at the same metre as the original 1976 Seville . It had what Mitchell called the " London facial expression , " which mainly refer to a slope trunklid and deeply draw " knife - edge " ascorbic acid - pillar in the manner of sure Hooper - bodied Rolls - Royces . The 1980 Seville received assorted brushup at its launch and still provides a controversial cap to Mitchell ’s GM career . Even so , the 1981 Imperial and the 1982 Lincoln Continental copied the bustle - back , and the second - contemporaries design live six years before Cadillac returned to a more 1976 - like theme with a smaller unexampled Seville for 1986 . That season , though , the sheer expression took a definite hitting as Ford introduced the next styling trendsetter , the first Taurus .
