"The Cadillac: it's luxury; it's class; it's
elegant!"
[former Louisville Football Coach, Howard
Schnellenberger]
***
"Cadillac fins swooped higher and higher,
like a graph of the booming Fifties' economy."
***
The rust is falling from the doors,
Bumpers, fenders, trunk and floors.
Ice is forming in the hoses;
The smell of mold krinkles our noses.
What once was gas is now shellac -
Woe ...is the junkyard Cadillac.
Passed on by Jay Ann Edmunds, 2/1999
***
The red geranium: the Cadillac of flowers
[Phoenix newsreel, 2/1999]
***
Who are the madmen who built
cars so long they cannot be parked,
and are hard to turn at corners, vehicles with hideous tail fins,
full of gadgets and covered with chrome...
***
"The '59 Cadillac says more about America than a whole
trunkful of history books."
Quentin Wilson [submitted by Ruben Baeten,
Holland]
***
"....what the hell happened to this country...The truth
was, the new Cadillacs, all of them made of cheap plastic, looking unassuming, ungainly,
formless and lumpy like cold mashed potatoes. The America he [the Cadillac salesman]
was selling went to pot because he was selling cheap, plastic, planned-for-obsolescence
product made carelessly for the sole purpose of selling more of it."
***
The Cadillacs of the past were like the Americans of the past:
cocky, self-assured, naive, naturally bigoted and optimistic. Eisenhower Americans
with fins and classic bodies."
Andrei Codrescu, "Road Scholar"
(1993, pg. 21)
***
I like this car for two reasons: it's so beautifully large, and ...it's not
too small.
Oscar Wilbers, Dutch car critic
referring to a 1953 Cadillac
[supplied by Ruben Baeten, Netherlands]
***
"How Japanese cars became so popular in the US: In the
'70's we had a so called oil crisis which led to new laws such as "no gasoline
unless the vehicle is less than half full", and the 55 mph national maximum speed
limit. Under the constitution of the US, the individual states have such powers, but the
federal goverment threatened to pull funding for federal highways from any state not
complying. It took us almost 20 years to get rid of that darned speed limit.
We had some instances of long lines at gas stations and the
prices of gasoline changed from 50 cents per gallon to 125 cents per gallon in just a
short period of time. This led to fears of $5 per gallon prices [note by the compiler of the Database: in most of Europe it
is already more than $4 a gallon!] and an immediate demand
for fuel economy in cars. At that time the average american car achieved 10 miles per
gallon. The combination of high fuel economy, the favorable (for the Japanese) yen/dollar
exchange rate, and the quality problems that faced American car companies led to the
explosion in Japanese car sales.
In my opinion, the quality problems in American
cars were due to poor labor/management relations. The workers were paid high wages and
worked in poor conditions. This led to poor build quality and high prices. The Japanese
fully capitalized on this and built cars the Americans wanted and developed a reputation
of superior quality and dependability. The Japanese made a real effort to provide the
Americans with what they wanted.
...in the early to mid '80's, the American car manufacturer
management people and the labor union people realized that if they didn't change the way
they did business, then both would lose. This resulted in higher efficiency of labor
and better working conditions. By the late '80's, American cars were as dependable
as Japanese cars. Also, due to the yen/dollar exchange rate in the mid '80's, one
had to pay a premium for a Japanese car. This is still the case today [1997] But the Japanese ingrained
into the American mind that their cars were better, which keeps them selling well today.
Today, I think the dependability of all cars is superior to
the cars of the past. However, as a backyard mechanic, it's far more economical for
me to purchase an old car, like my '77 Seville, and keep it going. I get the driving
pleasure and turn heads as much as I would driving an STS ...and for $3000 instead of
$40,000. Personally, I have never driven anything other than an American car for any
length of time. I don't like the feel of the Japanese cars, and I don't like the high dash
and steering wheel in European cars I've tried.
I think Cadillac blew it in the '80's.
After a glorious end in the '70's with sensibly downsized cars for fuel economy, they went
too far in the early eighties with the HT4100. It's lack of power and dependability
turned people off Cadillac. And they really blew it with the V 8-6-4 in '81.
If they had just spent the time required to get it right, it probably would have
revolutionized engines. And as for that Seville they built in the eighties! I
don't get it, they had the best looking car in the world from 76-79, it should have been
built for six more years instead of it's successor. Then in the late '80's they
built cars that looked as exciting as a Chevrolet.
But at least they finally got their act
together in the '90's. It's too bad they dropped the Brougham though. I liked the
excess."
[from Erik Calvino, an enthusiast and subscriber
to the Cadillac Mailing List (CML)]
***
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A coalition of consumer watchdog groups
held an awards ceremony Thursday where the winners would rather lose. Statuettes, each
holding aloft a single fresh lemon, were awarded for trying to sell products through "misleading,
unfair and irresponsible" advertising campaigns.
Nine of them were presented. Among the unlucky
recipients were such companies as Sprint, Cadillac and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.
The Harlan Page Hubbard Lemon Awards are named, according to
the coalition, for a 19th century ad man who touted Lydia Pinkham's Vegetable Compound as
a virtual cure-all for everything from cancer to flatulence, headaches, sleeplessness and
low sex drive.
The Hubbard spirit is still alive and well. The Cadillac
Motor Car Division won a lemon for an "irresponsible TV ad showing its new
Catera illegally crossing a double yellow line to pass other cars," thus showing
a disregard for safety, the coalition said.
[Press cutting]
[STUDIO CITY, Hollywood]: A 24-year-old singer and dancer
seeking fame in Hollywood was killed Wednesday in a hit-and-run crash when he was impaled
on the tail-fin of a 1964 Cadillac...
[Press cutting]
Cadillac: something that is = the most luxurious or highest
quality of its kind
[Webster's Dictionary]
Slogans from old Cadillac
Advertisements
You Can Kill a Horse but not a Cadillac
Every Cadillac is a Dewar Trophy (1911)
Quiet elegance and quality that radiates refinement,
good breeding and good taste (1930)
Cadillac Shows the World
...how truly magnificent a motor car can be! (1937)
It's a "Who's Who" of the Highway! (1952)
More Eloquent Than Words! (1952)
Those who want the finest want
- the Standard of the World! (1953)
Cadillac car is one of the soundest investments
in the automotive world! (1953)
It Gives a Man a New Outlook... Cadillac (1957)
Finest Expression of Motordom's Highest Ideal! (1957)
Magnificent Beyond All Expectations! - Cadillac (1957)
It Outsteps It's Own Great Traditions! (1958)
In a realm all its own ... Cadillac (1959)
A New Realm of Motoring Majesty! - The 1959 Cadillac
Cadillac ... a new measure of automotive supremacy (1959)
Cadillac ... the new measurement of greatness (1959)
Cadillac ... universal symbol of excellence (1959)
Cadillac ...World's Best Synonym for Quality! (1959)
Unique acclaim - even for a Cadillac (1960)
The new Cadillac is so practical to own and so economical to operate
that it is acknowledged motordom's wisest investment (1961)
A new Cadillac is one of the few material
possessions
for which there is no completely acceptable substitute (1961)
Go West Young Man ... in a 1966 Cadillac!
Quips and funnies from around the
Globe
88 NISSAN Pathfinder, new clutch, brks, exh, cadillac1 converter,
300,000 kms $6500 obo. North Vancouver Tel: 604-984-8154
Classified ad submitted by Shayne
Cadillac Mailing List
Layne Hall, the oldest known driver, holding his driving
licence which lists his date of birth as 15 Mar 1880. He drove a 1962 Cadillac until
his death in 1990."
Guiness Book of Records
Even Webster's has a definition for
it
Something that is the most luxurious or highest
quality of its kind...
_____________________________________________________
1 Did the vendor perhaps mean to write
"catalytic"?
