Sunday, August 5, 2012

Memories

1968 Cadillac Coupe de Ville
Saw this photo on another blog this morning, and was swept away in a wave of nostalgia. We never owned a '68. We had a '67 purchased definitely used from a dealer on Highway 99 in unincorporated Snohomish County, Washington. The car had moss growing in the back window. We didn't care -- everything on that side of the Cascades had moss growing on it or in it if it sat still for more than 15 minutes. The key things were the price (cheap enough that we could pay cash for it) and the fact it ran. Our Dodge station wagon was going through oil so fast we were starting to consider buying the stuff in 55-gallon drums. Buying a new used car seemed like a cheaper option than hauling home endless cases of generic motor oil from Fred Meyer.

I loved that Caddy. It was huge, probably got mileage that would make a person blanch today, but I didn't care. It was the ultimate road car. The thing was such a tank I used to joke about keeping a Honda in the trunk as a spare, but it still felt like it was just floating down the highway. It was probably the most comfortable riding car we've ever owned. We managed to hang on to that car through three moves (Panorama City, Tucson, and Reno), but had to make a choice between it and the S.O.'s Barracuda for the move back east -- and the Barracuda won.

5 comments:

  1. I don't think there was much difference between a 67 and 68.

    Only owned one Caddy myself, a cherry 56, but I couldn't fix that son of a bitch as fast as it broke down.

    Had a few old Old's 98's, same league as the Caddy's, real comfy cars.

    And not bad on gas on the open road, about 20 MPG.

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  2. I wonder what that dude would think if he discovered I put a picture of his car on the internut and you copped a copy of it.

    Oh hell, I don't give a shit. :-)

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  3. The main difference between a lot of 67/68 models is that 68 was the year the manufactures added side lights on the corners.

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  4. No, the main difference was that the '67 had an orphan engine, the only year they had that engine. '66 was different and so was the '68. Discovered that when buying new lifters for it and they cost twice as much because the engine was only made the one year.

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  5. '56 Buick was my first car. Those old Caddys ('50s and '60s) were awesome and I envied people who owned them. Great memories you have.

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