Malaise Cadillacs are extremely commonplace in junkyards; they sold in large numbers and were pretty well-made (by the standards of the time), so they've lasted a bit longer than their cheaper Detroit counterparts… but they're just not worth enough nowadays to be worth saving when an expensive problem crops up. That's why it's getting hard to find nice examples like this '77. We've seen a couple of Malaise Era Eldorados in this series (e.g., this '76 and this '78), plus a '79 Fleetwood limo, but this is our first late-70s Coupe de Ville.


That's right, you're looking at green leather seats in this baby! Nothing but the best for a Cadillac driver! The list price for one of these 180-horsepower creampuffs was $9,654, or about half the cost of a '77 Mercedes-Benz 280SE.

I found this car after our Czech friend BobAsh started shopping for a '60 Cadillac to ship across the water and found this one on Craigslist. Sure enough, it lives just a few blocks from my house, so I went over to check it out. It wasn't quite what BobAsh was looking for, but it's a solid rust-free car that isn't too many thousands of bucks from show condition; anyone who wants to make an offer should contact the owner here.


I've always preferred the '60 to the Cadillacs of the late 50s; you still get the big motorcyclist-eviscerating fins, but not as much gingerbread. New, this car sold for $4,892, about the same as a new Jaguar XK-150S and well over twice the cost of the '60 Chevy Biscayne two-door. Not that any car buyer who insisted on a Cadillac two-door would settle for a Chevy or some sort of foreign car, mind you!

1970 was the pinnacle for the big Cadillac V8s, with the 500 engine rated at 400 horsepower and a staggering 550 foot-pounds of torque. 550 ft-lbs is getting into 18-wheeler territory!


This '70, which lives just around the corner from one of the smallest DOTS cars, doesn't seem to move much. Maybe it's someone's personal Hell Project... or maybe it runs only on human blood (which is almost as expensive as 92 octane these days).


All I can say is: this thing had better have Cherry Bombs! OK, now let's have our poll!

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Although Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas was set in 1971, it's possible that the Great White Whale Cadillac rented by Raoul Duke and his 300 Pound Samoan Attorney was in fact a '69 just like this one. I should have checked the power windows to see if they jumped like frogs in a dynamite pond. I could tell that the tires were too soft just by looking at them- the fronts are supposed to be tight as snare drums.


All the Iggy Pop ads in the world can't make up for the fact that GM no longer gives that special Cadillac aura to its Cadillac-branded vehicles these days; sure, old men bought them in 1969, but they were hardassed, cigar-chewing old men with style. Note the Alameda Naval Air Station sticker on the front bumper; this car is likely owned by a retired officer who stayed in Alameda for retirement after his days on the Enterprise or Coral Sea were over.


The 472-inch V8 under that big ol' hood is actually capable of getting this monster moving quite well. As always, we recommmend Cherry Bombs!