The Eldorado sport convertible featured extras such as wide chrome body belt moldings and twin round taillights halfway up the fenders. įor 1955, the Eldorado's body gained its own rear end styling with somewhat higher, more slender, and distinctly pointed tailfins, a styling change that portended extreme exaggerations to come. Sales nearly quadrupled at a much more modest US$5,738 base price (equivalent to $62,528 in 2022 dollars ), with a total of 2,150 Eldorados sold. Also included in the production Eldorado convertible were monogram plates on the doors, wire wheels, and custom interior trimmings with the Cadillac crest embossed on the seat bolsters. These panels were made of extruded aluminum, and also appeared on a one of a kind Eldorado coupé built for the Reynolds Aluminum Corporation. Now sharing its basic body shell with standard Cadillacs, it was distinguished mainly by trim pieces, including golden identifying crests centered directly behind the air-slot fender breaks, and wide fluted beauty panels to decorate the lower rear sides. In 1954 the Eldorado lost its unique sheetmetal in an effort by GM to lower its price in order to increase sales. Only 532 were produced, comprising just 0.5% of Cadillac's 1953 sales. The 220.8 inches (5,610 mm) long, 80.1 inches (2,030 mm) wide vehicle came with such standard features as windshield washers, a signal seeking radio, power windows, and a heater. A hard tonneau cover, flush with the rear deck, hid the convertible top when stored.Īlthough technically a subseries of the Cadillac Series 62 based on the regular Series 62 convertible and sharing its engine, it was nearly twice as expensive at US$7,750 ($84,768 in 2022 dollars ) as the all-new Packard Caribbean convertible. The car carried no special badging other than a gold-colored "Eldorado" nameplate in the center of the dash. AC was an option at US$620 ($6,781 in 2022 dollars ), as were wire wheels for US$325 ($3,555 in 2022 dollars ). Convertible tops were available in either black or white Orlon. Available in four unique colors Aztec Red, Alpine White, Azure Blue and Artisan Ochre. The expansive frontal glass and distinctive dip in the sheet metal at the bottom of the side windows (featured on one or both of GM's other 1953 specialty convertibles) were especially beloved by General Motors' styling chief Harley Earl and subsequently widely copied by other marques. Along with borrowing bumper bullets from the 1951 GM Le Sabre show car, it featured a full assortment of deluxe accessories and introduced the wraparound windshield and a cut-down beltline to Cadillac standard production. A special-bodied, low-production convertible (532 units in total), it was the production version of the 1952 El Dorado "Golden Anniversary" concept car. The Cadillac Series 62 Eldorado joined the Oldsmobile 98 Fiesta, and Buick Roadmaster Skylark as top-of-the-line, limited-production specialty convertibles introduced in 1953 by General Motors to promote its design leadership. 'Biarritz' returned as an up level trim package for the Eldorado for 1976 until 1991. Beginning in 1965, the Eldorado became the ' Fleetwood Eldorado'. The "Seville" name was dropped when the hardtop was initially discontinued (1961), but the Biarritz name continued through 1964. Ĭhosen in an internal competition for a 1952 concept vehicle celebrating Cadillac's golden anniversary, the name Eldorado was subsequently adopted for a limited-edition convertible for model year 1953.Ĭadillac began using the nameplates "Eldorado Seville", after the city in southern Spain, and "Eldorado Biarritz" after the luxury seaside resort in southern France, to distinguish between the hardtop and convertible models (respectively) while both were offered, from 1956 through 1960 inclusively. The nameplate Eldorado is a contraction of two Spanish words that translate as "the gilded (i.e., golden) one" - and also refers to El Dorado, the mythical Colombian "Lost City of Gold" that fascinated Spanish explorers. The Eldorado carried the Fleetwood designation from 1965 through 1972, and was a modern revival of the pre-war Cadillac V-12 and Cadillac V-16 roadsters and convertibles. Starting in 1967 the Eldorado retained its premium position in the Cadillac price structure, but was manufactured in high volumes on a unique, two-door personal luxury car platform. The Eldorado was never less than second in price after the Cadillac Series 75 limousine until 1966. The original 1953 Eldorado convertible and the Eldorado Brougham models of 1957–1960 had distinct bodyshells and were the most expensive models that Cadillac offered those years. The Eldorado was at or near the top of the Cadillac line. The Cadillac Eldorado is a luxury car manufactured and marketed by Cadillac from 1952 until 2002 over twelve generations.
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