Introduced in 1949, the Coupe de Ville soon became one of Cadillac’s most popular models. and it remained in the lineup through 1993. 

1908 Thomas 4-20 Coupé de Ville

The coupé de ville is older than the auto industry. In French, de ville means “of the town,” and in the 19th century a coupé de ville was a small horse-drawn carriage for city use where the driver sat out front in the open while the passengers rode in a small enclosed compartment. When the style was adapted to motorized vehicles it had a similar sense, though in the automotive world, terms borrowed from the coach trade soon become almost infinitely elastic. Really, a coupe de ville or sedanca de ville could be most anything. When Cadillac adopted the name for its latest body style in 1949, both the driver and passengers rode inside, but at least it was a coupe.

1949 Coupe de Ville prototype 

The first Cadillac to bear the Coupe de Ville label was a one-off show car displayed in January of 1949 at the General Motors Transportation Unlimited show at the Waldorf Astoria in New York. Based on the big Sixty Special chassis and body with a distinctive pillarless hardtop roof and greenhouse, it was a sensation of the show. The single prototype was later given to GM president Charles E. Wilson, then passed on to his secretary, and it still exists today.

1949 Coupe de Ville 

The production Coupe de Ville that arrived in showrooms a few months later was a rather different car, based on the smaller Series 62 platform and with a different pillarless hardtop roof scheme. With around the same price as a convertible, sales were slow at first but then doubled every year, and soon the Coupe de Ville was one of Cadillac’s most popular models.

1964 Coupe de Ville 

In 1956, Cadillac’s first four-door hardtop launched with the name Sedan de Ville, and in 1964, the first De Ville Convertible  (naming order reversed) was introduced, where it would remain in the lineup through 1970.  However, the coupes are our main focus here. When Cadillac adopted the GM corporate collonade roof in 1974, the Coupe de Ville was no longer a pillarless hardtop, technically—depending on your definition. There was a thick B-pillar, but no fixed frame around the door glass. Frameless sealing, as it’s known, provides room for a heftier pillar and roof structure.

1983 Coupe de Ville

When Cadillac downsized and reengineered for 1977, the Coupe de Ville became a straightfoward two-door post coupe with a conventional B-pillar and door frame. The hardtop distinction to the de Ville name was gone for good. For this, the fifth generation of the de Ville series, at first the Coupe outsold the Sedan by a fair margin, but by the end of the product cycle in 1984, the Sedan was the volume leader.

For 1985, the de Villes received their most dramatic makeover yet, shrunk down to a 110.8-in wheelbase on a transverse front-wheel drive platform. Coupe sales continued to shrink, too, as four-doors dominated de Ville sales and two-door buyers were directed to the Eldorado. The Coupe de Ville and Sedan de Ville distinctions were pushed into the background and now the message focused on simply de Ville. In the final year of 1993, only 4,711 Coupes were sold, and when the de Ville was redesigned for 1994, there was no two-door, only a four-door. The de Ville name, however, lived on at Cadillac until 2005. Then it became the DTS, which ostensibly stood for de Ville Touring Sedan.

1993 and 1949 Coupe de Villes