[ last update: 10.07.2014 ]

The (new) Cadillac Database^©

Photo Pages
Cadillac

1955

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Unless otherwise specified all photos and illustrations are from Yann Saunders'
collection of Cadillac photos, advertisements and product catalogs,
reproduced courtesy of the Cadillac Motor Car Division and the Cadillac-LaSalle Club

The complement of merchandising literature for 1955 is overwhelming; apart from the regular, all-model, fold-out brochure and the luxurious prestige color catalog in its orange-tan presentation envelope, there are three superb, full-color "mailer" items entitles "A Trip to the Motorama", "Just Imagine it's yours" and "It's a Wonderful Year"; all these are a must for any serious collector of 1955 Cadillac memorabilia, as are also the small color card and 4-page folder on the "Eldorado Brougham" prototype shown at various venues around the country in 1955.  

Again, as in 1954, there were four basic series, presented in this order in the main catalog:  Sixty Special, Sixty-Two, Eldorado and Seventy-Five. That is also the order in which I have presented the illustrations below. The artist's drawings from the prestige color catalog, below, are mixed in with color photographs published in the dealer "mailers" that year; you will see that the artists continued to use a certain degree of license in order  to lower, widen and stretch these otherwise massive cars. 

Basic body shapes were basically unchanged from 1954, with the exception of the new Eldorado model that took on entirely re-designed rear fins.  The egg-crate grille spacings increased and became more rectangular.  The front bumper "bullet" impact guards were now shaped like large "shell" tips.   In the 1955 models the parking lights were repositioned in rectangular receptacles below the headlights. 

The simplest way to recognize a 1955 Cadillac is to look at the rear;  above the rear bumper are six vertical louvers.  Of course the widely-spaced egg-crate grille and the huge "Dagmars" (impact guards) also are a dead giveaway, although these were used again in 1956.

 

Distinguishing Features

 

Additional information on the 1955 models and the related sales literature may be found  in The (New) Cadillac Database© sections entitled "Descriptions and Specifications of Cadillac Cars 1951 - 1955",  "Cadillac and La Salle Sales Literature 1955 - 1959" and "Dream cars of 1954-1955".  Further recommended reading includes:

(a)   "Automobile Heritage's Illustrated Guide to 1950 Through 1959 Cadillac" by Roy Schneider, © 1978,  published by Automobile Heritage Publishing Co., Post Office Box 7, Temple City, CA 91780 [ISBN #0-917104-02-1] and

(b)  "Standard Catalog of Cadillac, 1903-2000" edited by James T. Lenzke, © 2000, published by Krause Publications, Inc., 700 E. State Street, Iola, WI 54990 [ISBN #0-87341-925-1, Library of Congress #91-61301].

 

The Series Sixty Special

The Sixty-Two Series

The Eldorado

The Seventy-Five Series
sedan and limousine

Mechanical and Styling Details

Survivors       

 

(Left) The new 1955 models at a public showing in Colorado (Broadmoor Hotel); (Right) image excerpted from 1955 sales training slide film

Return to The (New) Cadillac Database© Index Page
or go back to the Cadillac photo index page to pick another year

© 1996, Yann Saunders and the Cadillac-LaSalle Club, Inc.
[ Background image:  1955 Cadillac front clip ]