In this original 1979 GM video, we get a great glimpse under the sheet metal of a noteworthy and well-regarded Cadillac, the 1976-1979 Seville.
A month ago at Mac’s Motor City Garage, we featured the 1982-1988 Cimarron, a GM attempt at a small Cadillac that missed the mark, it’s fair to say. Now here’s another small Cadillac that was a solid hit with luxury car buyers by all accounts: the 1976-1979 Seville.
While the Seville, like the Cimarron, was based on a low-cost GM corporate platform, here the Cadillac engineers worked overtime to improve and refine the basic Chevy Nova (aka X-Body) package, adding reinforcements, isolators, and dampers in critical areas. By the time they were done, the Seville shared little with the Nova (mainly the roof stamping, trunk floor, and parallel-leaf rear suspension) and Cadillac’s version of the X-Body received its own GM platform designation, K-Body. The re-engineering exercise was successful, as both the enthusiast press and traditional big-Cadillac buyers roundly approved the Seville’s ride and handling, specially its smooth highway manners.
The finely chiseled styling—one of the best efforts of the Bill Mitchell era at GM, many will say—also made a positive impression. Meanwhile, the extensive list of standard features, including GM’s world-class Climate Control system, told buyers that here was a real Cadillac, albeit one that was nearly a half-ton lighter than the familiar Sedan DeVille.
The Seville was a solid hit in the showrooms, but not quite as GM product planners hoped. While it failed to engage the younger buyers then flocking to BMW and Mercedes, the traditional Cadillac audience, loaded with senior citizens, loved the convenient size and easy maneuvering. For more of the Seville story, check out this original GM video. Interesting stuff; please enjoy.
A great car that started with the F body Camaro / Firebird, then X body Nova and it’s brothers. Given the Climate that Oldsmobile went through ( calling a Chevy 350 a Olds ROCKET engine and going to court over it), it seems incredible that the Seville did not go through the same scrutiny Oldsmobile did in the same time period. After all the Olds 350 was used in the Seville. It’s ironic for me that I have a 76 Olds Omega Brougham with a Chevy engine, and the Cadillac Seville which is base on my car has a Oldsmobile engine!
Still, they are both great cars! My Olds today performs like the day I picked it up new ( after a 12 week special ordering wait), and still in it’s original paint.
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They are of a similar size to the Statesman by Holden which had most of the optional fruit in this add including the wire flywheels! Yet the Statesman was coil spring on all 4 corners with the superior ride. We only got 5 litre Holden motors but in reality ‘normal’ performance was very similar.
To me the best part of this vid was the blonde driver who is very appealing!
Sure looks better than the version that had the chopped off sloping trunk lid!
The guy fishing reminds me of my Father in law, he owned Caddys for several years, and would often go fishing in them. After his last Sedan De Ville was such a lemon, he switched to Toyota Camry’s, he’s on his second one now, both have been much better cars than any of his Caddys were. At least they haven’t left him stranded in a parking lot because of the electronics screwing up and not letting the car run!