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1970 Cadillac De Ville Convertible: Sumptuous Success
As you know from many, many prior columns, I am a big fan of Detroit luxury from yesteryear, especially Lincolns and Cadillacs. Ask me on 10 different days and I will give you 10 different answers as to what year is my favorite Cadillac. 1960, 1962, 1971, 1976… but sooner or later, I will always gravitate back to the 1970 models.
Likely the biggest reason for this is because the first Cadillac I ever rode in was a cinnamon-colored 1970 Fleetwood Brougham. It was 1985 or 1986, and I was in first grade. We were going on a field trip to Illinois’ Rock Island Arsenal, and as Immanuel Lutheran School was a small place, several mothers volunteered their services—and vehicles.
My mom frequently volunteered her Volvo station wagon, so I usually rode with her, but on this day, one of the moms had her Cadillac, a slightly frayed but still majestic Fleetwood Brougham, with a white padded top and white leather interior. Well, I HAD to ride in that car!
It was big. That was for sure. And it cemented my love for the 1970 Cadillac right then and there. Several years later, our science teacher, Mr. Spilker, let me remove car ads from his vintage cache of 1960s and 1970s National Geographic magazines, and I remember one of them was for a red 1970 De Ville convertible. I quite likely still have that ad in a file folder somewhere!
What I didn’t know until many years later was that 1970 was the final chance for affluent buyers to grace their driveways with a brand new De Ville convertible. Come 1971 only Sedan de Ville and Coupe de Ville models were available, with the convertible model being moved to the front-wheel-drive, personal luxury Eldorado.
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And that final 1970 De Ville convertible was a beauty. While only minor cosmetic changes were made from the totally redesigned 1969 Cadillacs, those minor changes appealed to me.
The grille was a new, more simplified “eggcrate” style, the wheel covers went from a somewhat concave design to a more convex shape, and there were revised taillamps and interior trim. I mostly preferred those new, albeit minor, changes over the 1969 model—though those models were very pretty, too.
The 1970 De Ville convertible had a base price of $6068 and tipped the scales at 4660 pounds. The model run totaled 15,172. And while the convertible is usually the least-produced model in any given lineup, in 1970, it was more than double the production of the pillared Sedan de Ville, which saw 7230 built, at $6118 a pop.
The most popular ’70 De Ville was the pillarless Hardtop Sedan de Ville, with 83,274 built. It was priced the same as the non-hardtop Sedan de Ville—$6118. The Coupe de Ville was only slightly less popular, with 76,043 made at $5884 each.
But the best part of ordering a brand new luxury car in 1970 was the options. And many were on offer, including Automatic Climate Control ($516), Firemist paint ($205), cruise control ($95), a tilt/telescope steering wheel ($95), Twilight Sentinel ($37) and power door locks ($68).
No matter what options you selected, however, any 1970 was an imposing and elegant conveyance. And powerful! All 1970 Cadillacs (except for the Fleetwood Eldorado luxury coupe, which boasted a 500-cubic-inch V-8 engine with 400 horsepower), from the base Calais coupe to Fleetwood Seventy-Five limousine, had a 472-cubic-inch V-8 with 375 horsepower, backed up to the bulletproof Turbo-Hydramatic automatic transmission.
And so many colors! Today’s flawless example, spotted by my Cadillac friend from Oklahoma City, Jim Jordan, is in gorgeous San Mateo Red with white leather and red dash and carpet. I did not make the Pennsylvania Cadillac & LaSalle Club event, as I prefer to avoid flying and it was too far to drive, but both Jim and Ryan Lockhart were kind enough to send many photos of the many beautiful Cadillacs on display.
I appreciate their taking the time to indulge me, and likely more cars from this event will be written up in future columns as a result of their generosity. But for now, let’s all take a step back and bask in the lovely lines of the final Cadillac De Ville convertible! Truly Cadillac Style.
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The only thing I didn’t love about the 1970 Eldorado was the deletion of the hidden headlights. That was one of the best features. But love the 500ci engine. So trade offs to be made. The shape is iconic.
That is almost a memory of my own. Trade the red colour for a jade green and you have my memory. I was only around years old and I had a friend from school who’s parents had split up. I was too young to understand all of the details but I recall that Teddy had an large abandoned door factory on the property as his dad had moved his business. The front of the factory was the old office which housed Ted’s massive train set. If that wasn’t cool enough his mom got the ’70 Caddy convert in the divorce. His mom was a looker and so was the dark green Caddy. It was 1972 and I’m sure the housewives of Port Coquitlam BC talked much about the lady. Never the less she was a nice lady and often drove the field trips and the like. It was always cool to ride with Teddy’s mom in her land Yacht.