For $8,495, Dust Off Your Top Hat And Put On The Biarritz.

Cadillac touted the 1976 Eldorado as its last convertible product ever, causing speculators to rabidly snap them up. Today's Nice Price or Crack Pipe 1984 Eldo ragtop may have been Caddy's way of saying just kidding, but should its price be taken seriously?

Wow, almost a full 75% of you would have bonded with yesterday's '91 Aston Virage, giving that tweedy Brit a Nice Price win. If you're also a fan of James Bond movies, then you might remember the scene in the 1973 thriller Live and Let Die where Roger Moore, as bond, is in a taxi cab in New York, being pursued by Yaphet Kotto's assorted henchmen – and for some reason every freaking car on the road was either a Chevy Caprice or a Cadillac Eldorado.

The size and flamboyance of those seventies Cadillacs seemed to match that era's Bond films for spectacle and lack of profundity, however by the eighties, the spy series got darker, while offerings of the American luxury icon got progressively smaller. If the seventies Eldorado was Marsha Brady, and the ultimate nineties edition was equatable to tongue thruster Cindy, then the I <3 the eighties Eldo is middle child Jan Brady.

The first major down-sizing of the Eldorado, riding on GM's front-drive E-body platform shared with Oldsmobile's Toronado, took place for the '79 model year. While smaller, it still managed to maintain the gravitas of the earlier cars, although at introduction it lacked the ability to drop its top. The Biarritz edition did offer a snazzy brushed stainless roof panel that provided a signature look, but did little to let you feel the wind's caress.

This 1984 Eldorado Biarritz replaces the silver streak of a roof with a canvas one that drops. Factory approved and constructed by Ann Boleyn obsessed ACS, the '84-'85 Eldo convertible production totaled but about 3,000 cars, and the upscale Biarritz is even more rare. This one comes with the full-Biarritz interior which, in bordello red, looks like a Branson Missouri wet dream. The interior, aside from the color and gaudy Biarritz-specific tufted seats, looks pretty nice. This was the first year for the digital dash, and in front of that is a two spoke steering wheel, the thin outer ring of which should provide the tactile involvement of a pudding cup. The gear change is on the column, and that works a 4-speed OD gearbox – also new this model year.

The engine displacement is not stated, but the claim is made that $3,800 has recently been spent under the hood. Ominously that V8 is probably the cursed 4.1-litre aluminum block/cast iron head engine, which could explain the need to pour money on it. That engine was almost as reviled as the earlier 8-6-4-tow, and only managed to produce 135 horsepower when it was working right.

Aside from the potential debacle residing under that enormous hood there doesn't seem to be much about this Biarritz to send up any red flags.The seller makes no mention of the mileage, but the overall appearance indicates that even if they are substantial, they probably were kindly added. Instead of that bit of information, the seller chooses – in Tyler Durden fashion -to instead include a couple of pictures of what looks like an Olds Delta 88. Weird.

If even the seller can't tell his own Eldorado from an Oldsmobile, then perhaps this generation of Caddy convertible is too anonymous to be considered a long term investment. Should anyone want to roll the dice regardless, the seller of this Eldo is presently requiring $8,495 to take it off his hands. that's a mere fraction of what yesterday's only slightly more contemporary Aston's seller demanded, and that car lacked both a roof that opened and an interior that would make Mustang Ranch employees feel right at home.

What's your take on that price? Is $8,495 a price that would make this a topless Caddy that even Tiger Woods could be seen with? Or, does that make this a Biarritz that's just bizarre?

You decide!

San Francisco Craigslist or go here if the ad disappears.

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