I have to abstain from voting, I love them all.

Cadillac was never the same after they stopped offering fender skirts.

As a senior in high school I rolled in a 71 Fleetwood with a 472 torque monster...big iron rocks!

ENOS!
IF THEY DON'T VOTE FOR MY WHITE CADDY...

I'm voting for the '57, the CTS of the list.

I'm with Boss Hogg, too!

This is probably the toughest DOTS poll yet-- it's an easy case to vote for any pre-Malaise Caddy, really. I picked the red '60 Sixty Two. Those are beautiful cars, and the red one says, "I can buy and sell your ass AND run over your dog without noticing."

You can't beat the proportions of the 1960 coupes. Nothing says "class" like a tiny greenhouse perched atop a 20 foot boat....with tailfins!

I love the lines of the 69s. I voted for the convertible as that would be the one I would most wish to have.

The '37: The stying, colors, even the ground clearance speak so much about the time from which it came. The rest just seem like slight variations on a theme.

I gotta go with the '78 because it's just the poster child of malaise. C'mon, it has T-tops!

If Heather Graham can't have a nap in the trunk, it's not a proper Cadillac.

I still love the CTS, but it could use two or three more feet of overhang. On that note, my favorite is the beige 1960. It's just ostentatious enough to intimidate the proles without screaming it to the world.

I went with the '57. I've been told often that my grandmother owned one back in the day. The wife of a prominent surgeon in town and a doctor herself, and typical of the era, her Caddy was pink.

@JRX:
I rolled a sky-blue '79 Sedan Deville with the fuel injected 425. 190hp!

When I was a kid we lived in a corner house here in suburban Los Angeles. This was back in the early '70s and I was outside in the side-yard, the one that faced the residential street that intersected a busy boulevard.

I don't remember exactly what I was doing at the time- probably just standing around slack-jawed as was my want back then, but I do remember, all of a sudden hearing a roar of engines from up the boulevard. Turning my attention that way, I saw a pink - I'm guessing about 1965 - Caddy convertible round the corner, top-down with a woman driver, beehive hairdo, flowing scarf, behind the wheel. She was driving fast and had an angry, determined expression on her face. As she floored it and raced down the street, all I could do was stand there, eyes wide, and choke on her dust.

Not half a minute after she passed, another car roared around the corner, losing a hubcap in the process which rolled nearly to my feet. It was a black Caddy convertible, Same year, again with the top retracted, this time driven in anger by a man, whose expression of wanton lust and fury haunts me to this day. He charged off after the pink Caddy at full tilt, all four barrels open and blowing by me in a flash.

Well, this was all to much for a 10 or 11 year old (and not a particularly sharp one) to process at one time. I kept alternating my vision between the rapidly receding tail lamps and the massive wheel cover, now sitting motionless in the street. Only a heartbeat or two later a city police cruiser rounded the same corner and pulled to a stop in front of me. The cop had obviously noticed me standing there, eyes like a kid on a velvet painting and mouth collecting flies. He didn't say a word, and I pointed down the street and said "They went that way," the obviousness of my statement- where else could they have gone- was lost on me. The cop, assessing that I had not been physically injured by the passing melee, nodded and headed off in hot pursuit.

I know neither the instigation or nor the resolution of this event, only this portion, which I have related here today. This was my Cadillac-moment, and I remember it to this day, almost as though it only happened last week.

That 60 hardtop has amazing proportions. I love it, and I love the color. No contest.

Plus, 1960 was the high-water mark for US automakers. After that, their market share began its slow, steady death spiral to what it is today.

@graverobber- Same great taste, new low price!: I nominate thee, Graverobber, for COTD. I can actually see the Cadillacs in your story. Great!

I went with the '69, its a 4-door, the newest, and not from an iconic design year, therefore its the least collectible of the bunch and its survival intact for all these years is the most miraculous.

@graverobber- Same great taste, new low price!: Damn you Mr. Grave guy for opening all four barrels and blowing me right out of COTD contention!

@graverobber- Same great taste, new low price!: Back to back COTD

The sound of those Rochester secondaries opening up, sucking air and gas, they way the front end rises up at the same time and that big Caddy takes off.....one of the best memories a kid can have of going to the grocery store with grandma.....

@Maymar:

Bingo! It's low-key, which is difficult to pull off in a 19+ foot land yacht.

@LTDScott, Porcubimmer pilot: The only problem with the '78 is that the fiberglass spacers between the body and the chrome fins are still intact. On a real DOTS Caddy they would be at least partially rotted away.

@graverobber- Same great taste, new low price!: Fantastic story.

Tough choice, except for the 70's front drive Eldo's. 160 Hp from a 500? Tragic. I've had a '56 Sedan DeVille and a '71 Fleetwood 75 Limo, and they were great barges that hauled ass (in a straight line). They were both mechanical nightmares in the slightly decayed condition in which I bought them (paid $350.00 for the '56 in 1980). Slow electric windows, tranny problems, tires that peeled like snakes under the huge weight, etc. Loved them both. Voted for the '69 convertible because I've yet to suffer through the hell of ancient hydraulic top mechanisms. Putting headers, duals, and an Edelbrock manifold and carb on the mighty 472 would be worth the misery of all the ills I know this car suffers.

1937 -- the fact that it's still putting down luxurious American style, 71 years strong, represents the true beauty and power of the Cadillac image.

69 Calais, or 70 Coup de Ville. As always, my vote goes to 'car most likely to have transported body parts'. Which is why the 71 Plymouth Satellite will NEVER be beaten...

The 57 got my vote, especially since it has those wide whitewalls which were likely stock in 1957. I don't think the thin white walls became OEM until the 1960's.

I wonder how many people who bought new Caddys in the 1960s are still alive. I bet none.

I voted for the '57, but the '69 is a great find. That color, though, that's not the stuff of wide-lapeled gents. This is a widow's car. Her name is Fern. She may even still drive with white gloves. She thought that heliotrope color was quite exciting when her husband bought it for her shortly before he died. Always take care of the deVille, he told her, and it would take care of her. She only takes it out when she sees that there is a sale on bridge mix.

I, too, went with the '57. What a drastic metamorphosis was just on the cusp in that model... To compare it to what was to come in '59 and '60 (tail-fin wise) is incomprehensible and out-of-the-blue.

57. They have the best front ends in the biz--as you young'uns may not know, the 57 chevy was called the "baby caddy" and you can see the family resemblance. Plus the tail lights on the 57 are an amazing design. If I could have any Caddy, I would go for a 57.

I had to vote for the '69 only cause it was my first car. My Grandpa had several cars under restoration when i turned 16...and he thought it would be a great idea to give me the mechanically overhaulled '69 SDV. It was an awesome car it ran super smooth, had some rust, the the A/C didnt work, but the best (worst prob) was the seats were rotten. So as i would drive around the seat foam would fly around and occationally put an eye out.