Welcome to Little Car in the Big City, where I highlight fascinating cars I found walking around a town that is known for being bigger than everything else, but where every car is fighting to stand out: New York, New York.
This Eldorado Coupe De Ville (thanks Ruben!), made by a company called "Cadillac," was the ultimate in prestige and panache from the ultimate in American carmakers, for a time. It was conspicuous consumption for an era of conspicuous consumption, when chrome was still big and so were the rear fins.
This Cadillac, sadly, has seen that era gone by. The fifth generation model, of which this one was an example, debuted in the early 1960s, coinciding neatly with the Kennedy administration.
America was on its way to accomplishing big things, and for that, people needed big cars. To give you an idea of the size of this thing, the 1961-1964 Cadillac Eldorado topped out at 223 inches, or around 18 1/2 feet. That's actually slightly longer than a modern Cadillac Escalade ESV, and somehow the Eldorado managed to only have two doors and a folding roof.
The folding roof bit actually appears to be coming off this Eldorado, but somehow the interior seems to be in relatively good shape. And when you want nothing but the sun in your hair and some old-school cool, aren't the lack of a roof but a nice interior the only things that really matter? I think the dab of decay that covers this Caddy ads a certain touch that makes it that much cooler, actually. It means this car has been places and seen things, in a way that only a 50 year-old car can.
And how did I know this was an Eldorado, you ask? Well, you didn't ask but I want to answer it anyways. It says so right in the back – right there, in all the dust. Why can't they make all nameplates like that nowadays?