This was shortly after the 1981-1990 Roger Smith era, when General Motors was clearly entering the decline from its former dominance of the American automobile market.
Competition in the American luxury car field was no longer solely from domestic rivals, but increasingly from foreign brands such as Mercedes and Lexus. Mercedes especially had a performance air, something lacking for Cadillac, whose reputation was that of a posh highway cruiser or county club parking lot denizen.
Such too was the case of the new, 1994 DeVille iteration.
Unless noted, images below are of cars listed for sale or are factory-sourced.
Gallery
1994 Cadillac DeVille Concours, publicity image.
Compared to current cars and SUVs, the '94 DeVille is nearly clutter-free.
The trunk lid is raised noticeably above the passenger greenhouse beltline, and the C-pillar is wide. Otherwise, the design is a continuation of 1970s-1980s crisp, "three-box" design fashion, featuring plenty of window glass.
Now for a brief, partial walkaround. Grille design is simple, featuring Cadillac's signature 1941-plus eggcrate grille bar theme.
Well, the DeVille's shape was not quite as "crisp" as typical 70s-80 three-box designs. That touch of rounding, even on the window outlines, is a small gesture to the mid-1980s' new god of aerodynamics.
Cadillac's slender, vertical taillight assembly theme began in 1961 and continues today. I think that theme is rather weak, not strongly proclaiming Cadillac! despite being around for more than 60 years.
Here is the DeVille's domestic competition, the 1990 Lincoln Town Car, Mecum auction photo.
A former domestic competitor was the Chrysler Imperial that ended prodiction after the 1993 model year.
Unless noted, images below are of cars listed for sale or are factory-sourced.
This is long after GM abandoned A, B, and C bodies. But by then there were Cadillacs that were really Chevy truck based, and several smaller sizes of GM cars and maybe SUVs of various sizes and brands.
ReplyDeleteOf these I like the Oldsmobile 98s the best - to me a car most reminiscent of my recently departed 40+ years old '62 Lincoln. A decade later I thought maybe used ones would be relatively cheap because of being so unfashionable - also with of all things skirted rear wheels, but they really weren't and I ended up with a used Trans Sport instead.
The Cadillac is still a pretty nice design though, but maybe had some disaster prone Northstar V8 or something.
The just ended "Imperial" had some nice work on the front end and elsewhere but was really of course a super stretched K based Plymouth Acclaim, no real competition for the half a foot wider actual luxobarges. Shades of the Packardbakers.
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