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Cadillac’s De Ville Touring Sedan Took Kinship to Modern Heights
The De Ville name had a great run with Cadillac, starting as an upscale derivative of the 1949 Series 62 Coupe. But it was also a sporty enhancement for the era, and it’s fair to consider the original Coupe de Ville as the 1949 equivalent of a Rolls Royce Spectre, or more realistically as the precursor to the custom-bodied, limited production 1953 Eldorado convertible. The sales brochure suggested the new Coupe de Ville and its pillarless hardtop design was a “distinguished sport coupe for a discriminating clientele.”
Hindsight may be rose-colored, but few cars in 1949 had a lightweight, revolutionary, and powerful pushrod V-8 with a robust 160 horsepower. Or an automatic transmission. Or possessed a level of craftsmanship befitting a member of royalty. But this was Cadillac’s Coupe de Ville, and it became a name that cast a long shadow. A 62-year long shadow, specifically.
As the Cadillac brand matured into its Mid-Century Modernist era, the De Ville nameplate morphed into multiple body styles of mid-tier status (below a Fleetwood, above a Calais). Then it became a front-wheel drive moonshot after the Malaise Era, before it died an ignominious death as a shorthanded letter on the Cadillac DTS sedan. While Cadillac never officially admitted the DTS had its roots in the 1986 De Ville Touring Sedan, the “Touring” grade Cadillac Seville (STS), and Eldorado (ETC) of the 1980s predated the abbreviated names that Cadillac adopted in the following decade.
But the De Ville Touring Sedan was more than a future-forward naming convention, as it blended the best of Americana with the cosmetic and dynamic markers of European luxury vehicles. It started with gray cladding worthy of a W126 Mercedes-Benz S-class. The charcoal theme not only deleted the heavy chrome trimming present on a regular De Ville, but it also included a chin spoiler with integral fog lights. This was Euro Detroit engineering at its zenith, putting vehicles like the Pontiac 6000 STE (Special Touring Edition) to shame.
Then there was the De Ville Touring Coupe, which lifted everything from the Touring Sedan and added removable louvers inside its unique quarter windows. While this may seem unintelligible to outsiders looking in, remember that swiping would-be Mercedes customers was the key. So making your own tribute to the fins of the C107 Mercedes-Benz coupe must have been a logical idea at the time.
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But there were changes under the skin, and the 1986 De Ville Touring Sedan/Coupe benefitted from the same engine block upgrades that made the trouble-prone HT4100 series V-8 engines a little less worrisome. For its $2,880 asking price over a regular De Ville, the Touring option added quicker steering, 15″ alloy wheels with Goodyear Eagle GT blackwalls, stiffer springs and dampers, and a thicker rear swaybar (18 vs 12mm) to firm up the ride and reduce Cadillac’s penchant for understeer.
As you see in the Motorweek video above, the De Ville Touring Sedan remained composed in handling maneuvers, leaving them with an overall positive feel for the brand’s future prospects. Cadillac had pulled a rabbit out of a hat, and it was the same headdress used by Chevy (F-41), Oldsmobile (FE3), Pontiac (WS6), and Buick (T-Type) at the same time.
While the 1986 De Ville Touring Sedan applied analog enhancements to the American land yacht, electronic advancements ruled the day by 1988, thanks to the new Lincoln Continental and its heady list of standard gizmos. Unlike the De Ville’s optional touring package, the Essex Continental was both personalities in a single package. There were beefy 15″ Firestone black walls, a rear strut brace, big sway bars, and a dual-mode air suspension that went from plush to stiff in milliseconds. The suspension was paired with a diverse range of speed-sensitive steering efforts available from its computer-controlled cabin. Checkmate, perhaps?
The Continental’s initial sales success and its astonishing Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde persona likely made its cross-town rival regret its decision to cancel the De Ville Touring Sedan in 1988. So Cadillac reversed course, bringing it back in 1991.
Now the Touring Sedan was bigger and bolder thanks to the more assertive front and rear fascias of the De Ville series, plus a robust 200 horsepower from Cadillac’s now-respected HT4900 engine. Even better, the same technology we saw in the Essex Continental was bested by Cadillac’s three-position suspension dampening, low-speed traction control, and 16″ alloy wheels with Eagle GA tires.
Interior upgrades included the Cadillac Allanté’s steering wheel, aggressive split bench seating, and genuine walnut inserts on the dashboard and door panels. While the Coupe De Ville was still in production, Cadillac decided to keep it from becoming a threat to the similar Eldorado Touring Coupe. (Apparently the Seville Touring Sedan was deemed untouchable in all these machinations.)
“Careful engineering can improve the breed,” is how Motorweek summed up the reincarnated De Ville Touring Sedan, and I couldn’t agree more. While I own an Essex Continental and have driven several HT4900 Cadillacs in the past, I can only imagine merging the two vehicles into this impressive grand tourer. Odds are this forgotten feat of engineering from Cadillac behaves with the finesse of my Continental, but with a rowdy soundtrack and acceleration times (7.5 seconds to 60 mph) the Taurus-based Lincoln could only dream of.
But a quick road test from Motorweek and a detailed historical overview from yours truly completely misses the point. Lincoln and Cadillac were trying to beat the established German marques at their own game with derivative, front-wheel drive platforms intended to appeal to modernists and traditionalists alike. They were both admirable efforts with obvious flaws, and behind their collective backs a newcomer arrived from Japan stole their thunder.
I shudder to think what American engineers thought about the 1990 Lexus LS400, because it was a feat of engineering that was only $1545 more than the De Ville Touring Sedan’s $33,455 sticker price. While Lexus did both the American and German luxury shtick with precision, their service after the sale bowled over more and more intenders.
The seismic shift in the luxury car market created by the LS400 could be mentioned in the same sentence as that of the waves made by the 1949 Cadillac Coupe de Ville. The Lexus was clearly influenced by Mercedes-Benz, while the ’49 Cadillac in question wasn’t radically different from its stablemates. But both possessed hearts of gold, and changed our automotive landscape for decades to come. And it was all for the better.
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