Here we see a trio of hip Cutlass buyers choosing their Middle Malaise Era rides of choice. The Cutlass Supreme offered "style, value and good gas mileage," while the Cutlass Calais boasted bucket seats, special suspension, and full instrumentation." Naturally, the Cutlass Supreme Brougham was the pinnacle, with "richness inside you'd expect in bigger, more expensive cars."

Just about every Motor City carmaker has produced a Brougham Edition of some sort over the years: Mercury, Plymouth, Oldsmobile, you name it. Why, even Nissan, with their Cedric Brougham VIP, hasn't been averse to jumping on the Brougham bandwagon. The emblem above is my current favorite junkyard emblem score: a 1990 Cadillac Brougham d'Elegance. In spite of- or, in fact, because of- the Cheeze-O-Meter™ pasting its needle in the red part of the dial every time it comes across one, we love Broughams! In fact, I'm edging ever closer to organizing the world's first-ever Brougham 500 Rally, in which entrants must drive a $500 Brougham between two Broughamic locations separated by 500 miles.

So, the question: What's your all-time favorite Brougham? Bonus points for the oldest, newest, and most obscure choices! Even more bonus points for the best start- and end-points for the Brougham 500 Rally.

The upcoming Concours d'Lemons features a class called Most Eleganté, open to "Vintage neoclassics, Shaft-worthy pimpmobiles, Excaliburs, Zimmers." Contemplating the Eleganté concept made me realize how cheezily cool is Detroit's heavy hand with heraldic crests, emblems featuring names of royal horse-drawn coaches, and the like- only in America, suckaz! With that in mind, I spotted this Mark Cross emblem on a 1988 Chrysler New Yorker Landau at my local self-serve junkyard, and I had to have it.

A landau was a "social carriage" meant to haul four rich folks in bouncy, horse-poop-scented comfort back in the 18th century, but Malaise Era marketers in the Motor City made the name their own. This emblem now adorns my desktop computer.

Respected fashion names can often be persuaded to put their names on Detroit's special-edition cars. Oleg Cassini, Bill Blass, Cartier, and many others have cashed in on this deal.

Buick went with the "knighthood" theme for much of the Malaise Era.

While we're talking class, how about this piece of commemorative wedding glassware that I found on the trash-strewn floor of the Mark Cross Edition Chrysler New Yorker Landau? Yes, Cassandra and Bernard had such true love at their wedding last year that they gave out shot glasses… which then ended up in a car destined to be ticketed, towed away, and junked. Eleganté!

In the postwar era, Cadillac was a dominant force in the world of luxury automobile, outpacing its previous rival, Packard, with styling innovations such as the famous tail fins, as well as myriad luxury options. Cadillac in the 1950s proudly proclaimed its "Standard of the World" slogan. In order to truly own that idea though, Cadillac needed to build something with unsurpassed luxury, besting even its peers from across the pond.

Originally shown as a concept at the 1955 L.A. Auto Show, the Cadillac Eldorado Brougham was put into production in 1957 and was at the time the pinnacle of luxury and innovation. It featured numerous options, some of which are still not available today. The engine was a 365 cubic-inch V8, breathing though twin four-barrel carburetors and running through a 4-speed automatic transmission. The body was long, low and extravagant, with a pillarless four-door design and the rear doors opening suicide style (and you know how much we love suicide doors). At the behest of GM styling guru Harley Earl, the car recived a slick stainless-steel roof and road-adjusting quad headlights for better illumination. The suspension was as advanced as anything GM had in it's arsenal at the time: a centrally controlled, self-leveling and auto-adjusting air suspension which provided an uncompromisingly smooth ride.

Where the Caddy really shimmered was in the amenities. Independent of each other, they seem underwhelming, but that all of the features lived in one car in 1957 is incredible. On the inside, drivers were greeted with power seats that included memory settings, remote-adjustable side mirrors and an auto-adjusting rear-view mirror, an all-transistor automatic-station-seeking radio with twin speakers, all-electric windows, a power locking system, and a power open AND close trunk lid. Now that's just the normal stuff. Here's where things get crazy. The designers also saw fit to throw in a stainless steel drinking set for the glove box, a cigarette dispenser, various vanity elements for the ladies, and a perfume dispenser filled with Arpege Extrait de Lanvin perfume. Say what?!

Of course, anything can be built when money is not option, and here's where the Eldorado Brougham took no prisoners. The base retail price in 1957 was $13,074, exceeding even the most pricey Rolls of the time. Toss that number into the Federal Reserve consumer price index calculator and that tally in 2008 dollars rings the bell at $100,311. Only the Cadillac XLR-V has ever commanded a sum so high, and that Caddy merely goes fast and has a lovely Eucalyptus wood interior. The Brougham was offered for only two years; total production of the princely luxo-yachts was 704 vehicles. After the initial run, production was farmed out to Pininfarina, where a redesign was executed, but the quality in craftsmanship just wasn't the same.

The '57 Eldorado Brougham was probably the finest post-war Cadillac produced to date. Peerless in its design and attention to detail, it was the pinnacle of what an American boulevardier could ever be. Smooth, technically savvy, staggeringly handsome and cranking out as much power as the average Eisenhower Era captain of industry would ever need. It's not difficult to imagine driving this car on a lazy, cross-country summer roadtrip, dusk creeping across the sky, the calm glow of an old dashboard and a crackly radio serving as background noise. Not all of the best driving is done at the limit of grip. [image credits to Eldorado Brougham]

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The Jalopnik Fantasy Garage:
1978 Aston Martin V8 Vantage | Honda 1300 Coupe 9 | 1931 Daimler Double Six 50 Corsica Drophead Coupe | Ferrari 288 GTO | Chevrolet Corvette ZR-1 | 1970 Buick GSX 455 | First Generation BMW M Coupe | Bugatti Veyron 16.4 | Ford GT | Citroen SM | Porsche 928 | Jensen FF | DeTomaso Vallelunga | Audi Quattro S1 | Buick GNX | Nissan Skyline R34 GT-R | Honorary Fantasy Garager: The LS1 Powered Rotus | Lamborghini LM002 | Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe | Ferrari 250 GTO | Bentley Speed Six | Talbot-Lago T150C SS Figoni et Falaschi Raindrop/Teardrop Coupe | Porsche 917 | Audi RS4 Avant | Lamborghini Miura | Mercedes-Benz 450SEL 6.9 | BMW E39 M5 | Jaguar E-type | Mercedes-Benz 300 SL | Dodge Charger/Challenger R/T | Toyota 2000GT | Facel Vega HK500 | Voisin C28 Aerosport | Bugatti Type 41 Royale | McLaren F1 | Maserati Bora | Continental MK II | Tucker 48 | Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato | BMW 507 | Porsche 959 | 1925 Rolls-Royce Phantom 1 Jonckheere Coupe | Land Rover Defender | Lotus Eleven

Brougham just plain means class! But where are the opera lights?


It's always fun when I find multiple DOTS cars on the same block; here we have the 1942 Pontiac Torpedo across the street and down the block. And maybe you Mopar experts can tell us why this car seems to have '77 Fury taillights. Bumper swap? Perhaps the Plymouth hubcaps came from the same donor car.


Alameda has a good climate for keeping rust at bay, but vinyl tops tend to fare badly in the harsh sunlight. This top is quite three-dimensional by now.



Hey, we've had quite a few 1978 DOTS cars, so let's have a poll to see which one is the readers' choice!

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