Introduced in 1967, the front-wheel drive Cadillac Eldorado grew and grew until it could grow no more, reaching its limit in 1978.

In the 1970s, the Motor City was producing distinctly American cars, and none was more American than the Cadillac Eldorado. Here was a two-door coupe (though it had a rear seat, it generally carried one or two people) that was nearly 19 feet long and weighed more than 5,000 pounds. Car makers and car buyers in Europe and elsewhere around the world could only scratch their heads and wonder what that was all about. And by 1978, a growing number of American consumers were scratching their heads, too.

First produced in 1953 as a luxury sport convertible, the Eldorado line added a two-door hardtop in 1956 and continued to grow a little in size each year. In 1967 came the first front-wheel drive Eldorado, sharing  General Motors’ UPP (Unitized Power Package, see our feature here) with the Oldsmobile Toronado. On this same basic package, the redesigned ninth-generation introduced in 1971 featured a hulking 500 cubic-inch V8, a 126.3-in wheelbase, and a broad-hipped exterior designed to make the Eldorado look even larger and more imposing than it was. And while the advertised curb weight for 1978 was 4,906 lbs, in practice the ’71-’78 Eldorado usually tipped the scale at more than 5,000 lbs.

Eldorado (left) and Eldorado Custom Biarritz interiors 

As a personal-luxury coupe in the topmost rung of the category, the 1978 Eldorado offered every possible comfort feature, either standard or as optional equipment. (Its only real peer was Ford’s Continental Mark V.) For buyers who required even more pampering, Cadillac offered Biarritz packages with a sunroof, special paint and exterior trim, and pillow-top seating, adding $1,865 to $2,466 to the $12,401 list price. One year earlier, the 500 CID V8 had been debored and destroked to 425 CID and 195 hp in a passing nod to corporate fuel economy standards. Nevertheless, the Eldorado’s combined city/highway EPA rating for ’78 was an unimpressive 12 miles per gallon.

Though sales were holding up reasonably well (more than 46,000 in ’78) the Eldorado was clearly a step or two behind social and industry trends. In the late ’70s, General Motors was downsizing its entire vehicle fleet, so for 1979 the Cadillac front-driver received the treatment as well, and here, understandably, the procedure was especially effective. The 1979 Eldorado lost 1,100 lbs and 20 inches in overall length—but gained a 29 percent increase in sales, and you can read about it here.