No, it’s not a Photoshop or an optical illusion. From 1961 through 1963, Cadillac really did build a limited number of four-door sedans with oddly shortened rear ends.
For the 1961 model year, the product planners at the Cadillac division of General Motors made an abrupt course correction, or maybe it was more of a temporary detour. Suddenly they decided that maybe Cadillacs were getting too long and difficult for drivers to handle, particularly in the big cities where maneuvering room and parking space were at a premium.
And so with relatively little fanfare, Cadillac introduced what it called the Short Deck model. This creature was built on the same 129.5-inch wheelbase chassis as the standard Cadillac, but with the rear quarter panels and deck lid shortened seven inches. This reduced the overall length from 222 inches to 215 inches, creating the oddly stunted proportions we can plainly see in the photo above.
How much the shorter deck actually helped in maneuvering and parking, we can’t say, but the difference in appearance is remarkable. And in a period where luxury cars were sold by the foot and by the pound, the shorty model seems like an odd development in the Cadillac product line.
For the sake of comparison, a standard-length ’61 Sedan de Ville is pictured just above. Quite a difference, hmm. While the Cadillac sales brochures for 1961 state that the Short Deck sedan was based on the SIxty Two Sedan, Cadillac experts say all the production cars were badged and equipped as Sedan de Villes, and they also carried the same $5498 list price. However, production of the ’61 Short Deck versions totalled only 3,756 vehicles, compared to the more than 31,000 standard-length cars that were sold that year. It’s plain to see that buyer demand for the stubby Cadillac was sorely lacking.
For 1962, the short-deck option was available on the SIxty Two series, where the body style was labeled a Town Sedan, and on the Sedan de Ville, where it was called a Park Avenue Sedan de Ville (above). For the final year of 1963 there was one short-bodied model, the Park Avenue de Ville (below). Thanks in part to the ’63 restyling and its straighter, cleaner lines, the shortened rear end isn’t as awkard or obvious as in the previous two model years. Still, sales amounted to only 1,575 vehicles and the short-deck Caddy was dropped at the end of the year. For the next decade or so, Cadillacs would only grow in overall length.
I’ve been called a liar about such a thing as a Park Avenue. Mine was a gold 63′. 4door HT with white leather interior. It needed upper A frame bushings when I bought it used in 71′ for $600.00. Other than regular maintenance it needed nothing except lots of fuel…
I never knew about the short deck Caddys from this era. I love this kind of information, as it allows me to tick off a Caddy lover I’ve known for a long time. He thinks he knows a lot about the marque, but he gets mad when he is shown something he hasn’t heard of before. When this happens, it makes my day.
I’m sure it takes a lot of time & effort to maintain this site. Many thanks for doing so.
I’ve got a Cadillac caribou on a Eldorado Biarritz platform, only one built on the Eldorado platform. Cadillac data base doesn’t have to many records and caribou motor company burned to the ground leaving no records
I remember hearing that this was done in reaction to the shorter Lincoln that debuted in ’61 which was such an about-face from earlier styling and the excessive length that the era’s cars suffered from.
I understood that the short deck models were built to fit in a standard Lakewood California tract home garage.
I’ve read something similar, except the short deck Cadillacs were for old money types who had garages built before car lengths increased in the late 1950s. But who knows? At that time GM could afford to experiment with such things.
I knew someone who bought a new (at the time) mid 1970s full-sized Pontiac, and then bought a new house. The inside of the two-car garage was literally about three inches longer than the car. He had to put a parking block to pull up against, to be sure that he didn’t hit the front wall but could still close the garage door. I’m not sure my 1965 Buick Electra would have fit in there.
I use the “touch method” to park my 1970 de Ville Convertible in my garage..
At least in Pittsburgh, seeing older built-in and free-standing garages with short, pent-roofed extensions was not uncommon. if a small garage was on the first level versus in the basement, many became family rooms.
My first car in 1967 was a short deck 1956 Cadillac,so they made them in the 50s also. I always thought it looked odd.
My grandfather’s last Cadillac was a ’56 62 series sedan with a “short deck”. His garage was built circa 1915 and that car barely fit inside. Actually, the wall facing the front bumper (fitted with a 2″ X 8″ plank to defend against the bumper tips) had been pushed several inches off its footing due to having been nudged by his Cadillacs over the years.