My mother was unimpressed with her first ride in a Cadillac. It was a 1977 Seville, and the car belonged to her friend and co-worker. More accurately, it was the woman’s husband’s “baby.” He’d always wanted a Cadillac, and he was one of many that were smitten by the first-gen Seville’s svelte styling.
But my mother was not impressed. Mainly, because she rode as a rear seat passenger when her friend’s husband drove them to work. She said she was surprised by the lack of room, and that the ride quality didn’t seem that special.
The 1975-1979 Cadillac Seville was special, though, historically speaking. It was probably the most successful attempt by an American brand to market a “smaller” model at a premium price. Ford and GM – and who knows, maybe even Chrysler – are pinning hopes on this strategy for upcoming smaller cars, such as the Ford Fiesta and Chevrolet Cruze.
They look at the MINI’s success, and, to some extent, VW’s product strategy, as examples. Premium dollars for premium smaller cars, so the idea goes.
Some say this is new ground for the U.S. automakers. But Americans have shown themselves willing to pay more for “less” when “less is more.” More or less.
Cadillac Gets Small
First, recalibrate your idea of the word “smaller” to 1970s thinking. The 1975 Cadillac Seville inherited its name from the Eldorado Seville coupe models of the 1950s. The mechanical package was based on the GM X-body, which also yielded the 1975 Chevy Nova and its Buick, Pontiac and Oldsmobile clones.
But the Seville was no mere grille-and-badge job. It’s body and interior were unique, and it used an exclusive engine: the Olds 350 with electronic fuel injection. The Seville rode on a longer wheelbase than the other X-bodies (114 in. vs. 111 in.) And Cadillac engineers went through the platform thoroughly to refine it. That took a lot of work, as the Nova was a buzzy thing.
Remember, the Nova and its clones of the 1970s were considered compacts, so the Seville, if not exactly small, was at least “smallish” by the day’s standards. It was over two feet shorter and a half-ton lighter than the leviathan Sedan DeVille. But the Seville, at $12,500, cost 40 percent more than the huge DeVille! Even the Eldorado convertible was about $2,000 less. (An optioned-up V8 Nova LN was about half the Seville’s price.)
And so, for 1975, Cadillac’s smallest, lightest car — and possibly, it’s least costly to build — was essentially its flagship model. (The Fleetwood 75, a low-volume factory limousine, was two grand over the Seville, but fewer than 1,700 were made that year.)
Seville was an instant and big hit – especially on the West Coast, if you can believe it. Even the European press praised it. The first-gen Seville’s peak year was 1978, with just under 60,000 sold. By then, the base price was nearly $15,000, same as the Eldorado.
Seville brought a lot of attention to itself and the brand. It was the domestic industry’s first legitimate attempt to compete with European luxury sedans, but still in a very American way. The second gen Seville abandoned the “small” theme and brought in the love-it-or-hate-it “bustleback” styling on the newly downsized Eldo’s front-drive platform. More people hated it than loved it, though, and sales suffered.
Out of respect for how far Cadillac has come in the past few years (Escalade aside), I won’t even mention the second time the Division tried to create a “premium” small car out of a cheap, buzzy Chevy.
