1980 Cadillac Seville Walkaround

A for-sale 1980 Cadillac Seville
According to Wikipedia (here), the Seville appeared in model years 1976-2004 in the form of five design generations.  This post deals with the second (1980-1985) generation.  I last wrote about it here.

The design is interesting in part because it is perhaps the last production design under the influence of General Motors Design Vice President Bill Mitchell, who retired in 1977. Given lead-times of three or four (or even more) years from concept to car dealer floor, it's likely much of the '80 Seville's appearance was in place when Mitchell departed GM, as production began in 1979.

According to Michael Lamm and David Holls in their classic book "A Century of Automotive Style" (page 186):

"Bill Mitchell's last noteworthy production car was the 1980 Cadillac Seville, the embodyment of what Mitchell referred to as the 'London Look.'  This car received mixed reviews at its launch and still [in 1996] provides a controversial cap to Mitchell's GM career.  Some feel that he, like [his predecessor Harley] Earl, was losing it towards the end; that instead of being overly fond of Rubenesque forms as Earl had been, Mitchell was overly fond of razor edges and the Scott Fitzgerald classics.  The 1980 Seville had all the Rolls-Royce elements: the long hood, classic standup grille, raked C-pillar and squared-off bustle."

I too had mixed feelings about the 1980 Seville design when it was new and the cars were not uncommon on the streets of Seattle and Olympia, Washington, where I hung out in the the early 1980s.  Some 45 years later on, I think it might be worthwhile to consider the design again.

Note that Sevilles were shorter and presumably sportier and possibly more maneuverable than standard-size Cadillacs.  For example, the 1980's wheelbase was 114.0 inches (2,896 mm), compared to Cadillac DeVille's 121.5 inches (3086 mm).

Images below are of a car listed for sale.

Gallery

If forced to characterize the Seville's design in one word, that word would be "crisp."

The car looks best in profile.  Big, rounded wheel openings are offset by the sharp window framing.  The basic profile is not statically rectangular, instead curving slightly to the front while stepping downwards towards the rear.  The two-tone paint divider shows this clearly (aside from the trunk step).  The beltline subtly begins to fall off abaft of the B-pillar, something like 1930s cars such as the 1935 SS (Jaguar) Airline Coupe. 

The Seville's rear end was the controversial aspect of the design.

The raised trunk lid  is mostly a single, simple form with only the Cadillac crest and the word "Seville" as decoration.

Tail light assemblies, reflectors, the bumper, they all have rectangular character.  Note the subtle centerline crease on the trunk lid.  A far cry from today's overly-decorated styling fashion.

Here is where the design fails.  The roofline razor edge, the paint divider , and the trunk razor edge all essentially converge to a point.  Nothing basically wrong with that, as it's a logical consequence of the contributing elements. What went wrong, I think, is that the rear facet of the passenger compartment's razor edge sculpting, though narrow, is still wide enough to visually shrink the width of the trunk.  This is hard to explain from these images alone, but in reality, the Seville's rear end appears too narrow, too cramped when viewed on streets, roads and parking lots.  Not quite right.  Worse, I'm not sure this problem was fixable.  For example, one aesthetic solution would have been to narrow the trunk while making the facet noted above wider.  But that would have reduced the trunk's capacity, something that could have negatively affected sales.

Seen from this angle, the problems mentioned in the previous caption begin to fade away.

An unusual 1980 feature is how the windshield framing is blended into hood and fenderline.  The near-absence of a chrome window frame enhances this.  A subtle hint of the 1930s. 

The front end is architectural, very rectangular.  Nothing intrinsically wrong.

Interestingly, consistently, dashboard instrumentation and other features are also rectangular.