76k-Mile Estate Car: 1990 Cadillac Fleetwood Coupe
Few will disagree that Cadillac and its fellow brands at General Motors went a little too far in their downsizing schemes in the 1985-1986 timeframe. The Riviera, Sedan deVille, Toronado, Eldorado, and Seville lost some of their panache as a result, and it didn’t take General Motors long to determine that some of that panache came from sheer bulk. So they added some overhang and, perhaps surprisingly, it helped. These upper-class models became an example of “downsizing done right,” and I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that this ’90 Fleetwood looks like a Cadillac should. This low-mileage coupe is on Craigslist in the Miami area, and it might not be around for long. Thanks as always to T.J. for putting it on our radar.
It’s worth mentioning that the Fleetwood Coupe was a $32,000 car in 1990, before options. That was a lot of money (still is), and a lot of overstuffed luxury came standard. Just look at this blood-red leather couch: For good or for bad, cars just aren’t trimmed like this anymore. There’s loads of room, a flat tunnel due to the Fleetwood’s front-drive architecture, an “Astroroof” power sunroof, digital gauges. What a ride.
General Motors (and others) made some monumental mistakes in the ’70s and ’80s, but to their credit, they often got it right…eventually. The 4.1 clearly had and has a bad reputation, but by 1990, the enlarged 4.5-liter V8 was pretty good, or at least I don’t hear nearly as many bad things about it. With 180 horsepower and 240 lb.-ft. of torque, the Caddy wasn’t fast, but it was fast enough. The seller says that the Fleetwood runs and drives like it did in 1990, and the air conditioning even blows cold air, which is refreshing in more ways than one.
The trunk is Cadillac-sized and as clean as one would hope it would be. There’s no reason you couldn’t start driving this 34-year-old Cadillac right away as your nice-weather daily driver.
Cadillac made around 40,000 Fleetwoods in 1990, and nearly half of them were coupes, which I found surprising. With gleaming white paint, a red interior, and new Vogue tires, there’s nothing stopping you from buying this Cadillac and living your best life. It’s claimed to be senior-owned (from an estate), and the seller is asking $12,000. Compared to a new Cadillac with similar mileage, that’s a great deal. Let us know if you’ll be cruising in a Caddy this weekend.
Comments
This Caddy doesnt just look like it was senior owned, but senior loved as well. Even the trunk is clean. GM lost some customers during this time, like my Dad who swore by full size RWD Oldsmobiles and Cadillacs. He went to Mercury in 2000 and bought a Grand Marquis. But anyway, back to this Caddy. There arent many cherished clean examples like this one left. And if you’re in the market for a FWD Caddy from this era, I think you’d be hard pressed to find one cleaner. At least judging from the photos anyways.
Driveinstile .. did Dad go for a Marquis w the ” deSade ” pkg ? 💎
Oh no. Palm Beach Edition. Must have been a tough sell for the salesman. Mom looked at the regular Grand Marquis and said it looked like a suppository, Dad said the last Ford product he had was a 59 Edsel. Poor sales rep.
I’m with your Dad! 👍. I had an 89 Brougham deElegance and loved it. Next was a 93 Brougham, so many issues and inferior quality. Then I moved to Grand Marquis and TOWN CARS. My current low mileage Signature Limited is the last gasp of traditional American Luxury sedans. I never liked any of GMS downsized. Giving the FLEETWOOD name to a smaller FWD was an insult to the storied name! BTW the wide moldings were not standard.
The wide side molding is a mirror look add on. Sure makes this caddy pop. I’d love to own it.
🎶 🎸 🎙” Easing down the highway in a new Cadillac… I had a fine fox in front, I had three more in the back.
They sporting short dresses, wearing spike-heel shoes 👠
They smoking Lucky Strikes 🚬 and wearing nylons too ” 🎵
@Stan
🎶 “Come’on and ease on down, ease on down the road” 🎵
I had to look it up Angel. Lol.
I’m digging the Vogue “mayo and mustard” tires. These are comfortable cars and fairly quick as well. The coupes are hard to find, even when they were new.
Vogues always make a car look better, whoever said whitewall tires were outdated need a swift kick in his … I remember staring at my 88 Lincoln MKVII LSC and wondering why I couldn’t have whitewall tires on it
Sorry 😞 this is totally CADILLACKING! Far from The Standard of the WORLD! Another GM mistake.
The Cadillacs and Lincolns that came after this look today like cheap Toyotas. There’s no reason to own a new Cadillac or Lincoln.
Just ghastly looking. Yikes.
A beautiful car! Very tempting as I have a 1989 de ville and it’s an awesome car that gets comments every time I drive. Mine is white with white leather interior My mother bought it brand new.
I STILL can not wrap my head around a Fleetwood COUPE! Front wheel drive and shrinkage was bad enough but a Fleetwood is top of the line! BIG, roomy, elegant. This is NOT a land yacht. It’s a dingy.
It’s a pretty car, especially in white with a white padded top, but really not deserving of the Fleetwood moniker.
Even the last of the rear wheel drive Fleetwoods had a coupe and that was strange also, but at least they were still land yachts.
GMs decision to shrink the Cadillac starting in 1985 while making them FWD was a huge mistake IMO. Actually, they started shrinking them in ’77 but ’85 they basically cut their cars in half! Huge mistake.
Well, Well, Well, Angel 😇. Once again we agree. See my previous posts! As CoFounders of The GREAT AMERICAN LAND YACHT SOCIETY, we are qualified to declare this as a diggy, not enough to provide a real LIFEBOAT for Cadillacs fall from The Standard of the WORLD. Ah, as time slips The Hour Glass ⌛, I wonder if the FLEET 😉 WOOD possibility have saved Cadillac from its Fall to CADILLACKING! ⚓ Anchors away! LOL and 💋. Give my best to Uncle Vito! But I STILL won’t kiss his 💩 or anyone else’s! 😁 🤣 Now traveling under my alternate name. RICK DEMERIAKIS! 🏰 😎
Rick,
Are we going Greek now? Why not one of those long “opoulous” names that can’t be pronounced?
I’m sure by now you know there is no “Uncle Vito.” Of my grandparents 13 children, only the last two are left and they are in their late 80s.
I’m 71 so I figure I have around 20 more years if they are any indication, barring getting runover by a bus. 🤣
General Motors has had bad management for decades now. One reason why they discontinued Saab,
Saturn, Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Hummer and anything overseas.
Whoever is approving these designs and badge engineering is probably working in the accounting department.
Never thought I’d say it, but Ford cars are seemingly better than GM. Poor Chrysler barely exists anymore.
Such a sad state of automotive affairs.
😲 ! God forbid that 🎵 Angel 🎶got run over 🎵 by a reindeer! So you better watch 🎶cuz Santa Clause 🎅 is comin 😉! 🎵. Since we’ve been bad,, maybe we’ll only get coal or 💩 in our stockings. That would definitely be another SAAB story! For more insanity, check out a CD I AM SANTA CLAUSE. 😅 And you think I’M twisted? 🤣. Guess that might make you a TWISTED SISTA! You KNOW we’ll always be bossom buddies 💖.
Shameful…just shameful. You’d think
those dumbasses at GM wouldn’t have tried to do an FWD Cadillac after
the Cimarron flopped. They should’ve
stuck with the large RWD sedans that
they had had success with all along.
Nothing says cheap any better than these wannabe Caddy’s! Give me a big, rear drive Caddy anytime! And if
Congress were smart, (…And we know they’re not).they could’ve passed legislation to ban the sale,
distribution, and manufacture of front drive vehicles pursuant to the public
interest. If they would’ve passed such a ban, you wouldn’t have repair
shops charging consumers as much as $4K just to change a set of plugs
as is the case here in Florida as auto
repair shops have been investigated
under the RICO statutes for many years now. It happened to two elderly
sisters I knew that had a car like this
one. The repair shop across the street from the Taco Bell I worked at
ripped them off to the tune of $4,500
by telling them the mechanics would have to remove the engine, the radiator, and trans axle just to change the spark plugs! If I’d have had the
specialty tools to do it, I would’ve done it for them and not have charged them for it as they were just
nice kind old ladies that didn’t need to
get ripped off. One of their nieces
called 8 on your side out of Tampa, and thank God they got their money back. Not long afterwards the shop
was raided by the FBI and FDLE and the employees were charged with at
at least 5K counts of racketeering and
sentenced accordingly. And now that
Story Time is over, I’m gonna go to my
workshop and get the ’56 Fleetwood
framed in and ready for paint. Maybe
guys at BF might wanna do an installment article about how I make
my auto prints. That way, you folks in the BF universe could see how I make
them and what goes into them. If you
see how I do it, you might want one.
So hurry! Christmas is coming and I
might get swamped.
Would love to see your auto prints! As to govt regulations, be careful what you wish for! 🤞like the song 🎵 Chain of Fools 🎵 😉
Hi Ken,
Unfortunately, one of the reasons GM went
FWD with practically everything was because consumer tastes were changing. Even if they got their engines to be more effectant the public wanted smaller cars. New generation had no idea the joy of driving your land yacht sofa around.
And soon after or around the same time SUVs made their demands. Large SUVs and small cars. As we are currently witnessing, SUVs are getting smaller and called “crossovers”, a cross between a small car and a SUV, hence a small SUV.
What are we in for when the SUV craze is finally over? I haven’t been to an international auto show in years so I don’t know what the predictors are.
Moving back to Baltimore I’ll be able to take my Godson to the NY auto show in the Spring like I used to.
Take pictures of your work and post them.
Just got done putting the first coat of
“paint” on the ’56 Fleetwood after framing it in. After I sketch out the car, I trace over the sketch with a black marker to make sure that I don’t
go outside the lines when I shade it all in. Got the chrome trim almost done and the tires are on it. WSW of
course. After getting the car done, I’ll
dress it all out by finding a really cool
old Florida mansion to park it in front of. That won’t be hard to do as there
are many of them here in Melbourne
or Palm Bay. I see ’em all the time when we’re out dashing. Angel, here’s
my email address: captaingizmo54@
gmail.com or my phone number:
(863) 662-8072. If I can get my Messenger going, I can show you how I put them together. Well, that’s
about it from sunny Florida. Time to
hit the sack and be ready for work in
the morning. Night Angel 😇,💋
Night all! BTW, I’ve seen some of these cars around town that have been donked or made into pimpminiles and my God do they look
horrible! What a thing to think of before going to bed!
Although it is FWD l did like the Cadillac coupe deville especially the Fleetwood coup. They just looked good to me. This is a clean one too. Beautiful color combination. If you’d like to have one this might be your car. The 1990 is Cadillac Fleetwood coup is special.
Already emailed BF but no results yet.
Still working on the ’56 Fleetwood and
I wish you all would see it. When done, it’ll look like one of those color
magazine ads from Cadillac that everyone liked so much. The car itself is nearly finished and I began to sketch out the mansion late last night, and getting ready to make the
Cadillac emblem that was always above the featured car in those ads.
And the caption will read “When you’ve finally arrived” Angel, I think
you’re gonna get a kick out of this when you see it. And I hope that when you do, you’ll understand that it
may not be perfect, but it was made
by a nearly blind craftsman who loves
old cars and his art as well.
@Ken
I’m sure it will be lovely. You now have my email and number either email or text me a pic when it’s finished.
And you have mine as well. Granted,
I’m not Van & Fitz, but I think I can hold my own when it comes to doing
auto art. BTW, you’ll find the prequel
to my Packard limo story where the
yellow ’62 Caddy is. I’d tried to post it
several times with no luck. Went to it
last night, and there it was. I was wondering if I’d ever be able to tell you that story after you asked me about in the ’56 Packard post not that
long ago. I’m really surprised that it posted there, but it did and I’m thankful. Since it’s still very early there in Vegas, I’ll try the phone and
email thing when we get done dashing later today. If not, you can call or text me after 1PM EST and I’ll
respond to you ASAP. That way, my phone will know it’s you and do whatever it does to retain your info so
that we can talk, text, or email any time we want. What can I say, my phone is nearly 6 years old and was picked out for me by my late nephew
who had it all set up so that I could
see it well enough to use it. It’s been
nearly 3 years since he passed so I
carry this old phone in remembrance
of him. He was a good kid and we all
miss him a lot. Well honey, gotta finish getting ready for work. We take my niece to work and then we dash.
Sleep well dear 💋 and we’ll talk soon.