Sunday, April 28, 2013


83 Cadillac Seville-original post date 4/5/2013
Just look at this 1983 Cadillac Seville sedan I spotted in a McDonalds parking lot while I was stopping by for an iced coffee. I spoke briefly with the owner of the car, an elderly gentleman who said he worked very hard to keep his Cadillac in good condition... and it shows. If one could time travel back to 30 years ago in this very car in the shape it's in, one could park it on a showroom floor and nobody would be able to tell it wasn't straight from the factory new without looking at the odometer. It's just that immaculate.
Back in '83, you could get these Cadillacs with a diesel engine. This one, however, has a 4.1L V8 coupled with a 4 speed automatic transmission that's good for 135HP and 200 lb ft of torque. You'd probably get high teens for city driving mpg and mid 20's for highway with that set up.
This style of Seville is the 2nd generation of its model line, and is sometimes referred to as a "slant-back" due to its sloping rear end. The color of this Cadillac is what caught my eye first as I was driving by, and ultimately what made me decide that I needed to stop for a coffee and grab a picture of the car while I was at it. This color is called Cameo Ivory, and is kind of a powder yellow. The first time I ever took notice of this particular hue was when my family was house shopping for our move to Ankeny, IA and the realtor took us around to look at homes in a DeVille of the same color.
The Seville is named for a Spanish province. I think it's nice to see a Cadillac that has an actual name like Seville, Eldorado, and DeVille, instead of STS, CTS, and DTS. I don't like that car makers who went through the hassle of licensing actual names for their products have ditched them in favor of more technical sounding letter or letter and number combinations. That's like insisting that suddenly, everybody should refer to you by your initials instead of your actual name... In my case, it would still be VAL, but for most people, it just changes to something that's annoying to get used to.
Glad I was lucky enough to get a look at this car. Its owner really did take good care of it.


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