1957-58 Cadillac Eldorado Brougham
The stunning 1957-58 Cadillac Eldorado Brougham is arguably the most lavish car that automaker has ever built. It was by far the highest-priced American auto and was produced in limited numbers to show that Caddy was the luxury car king.
Still gorgeous, the Eldorado Brougham sedan--actually a four-door hardtop with no center roof posts--carried the stratospheric price of $13,074. A regular Cadillac sedan cost $4,781, and a Chevrolet sedan could be had for $2,048.
Only wealthy folks and movie stars thus could afford an Eldorado Brougham. But the car gave Cadillac great publicity and enhanced its reputation for advanced engineering--besides drawing prospective buyers of regular Cadillacs to showrooms. It also gave future Cadillacs with the Eldorado name a reputation for unique styling and engineering advances.
The 1958 Eldorado Brougham, which cost the same as its predecessor, can be told from the 1957 model by its different non-Sabre Spoke elaborate wheel covers. Both had premium wide-oval high-performance tires with narrow-band whitewalls.
This "Eldo" possessed more upscale features than any luxury auto. It carried every conceivable gadget and cost as much as a new suburban tract home. Fat, rich Cadillac reportedly lost $10,000 on each Eldorado Brougham made, but never really expected it to be profitable.
Only 400 Eldorado Broughams were made in 1957 and just 304 were built in 1958. That compared with a total of 1,769 rival, limited-production 1956-57 Continental Mark II models from Ford Motor Co., which was General Motors Corp.'s chief competitor. (Cadillac farmed out Eldorado Brougham production to Italy's Pininfarina in 1959 and 1960, but those Broughams looked nearly the same as regular Cadillacs and only 300 were built.)
The 1957-58 Eldorado Brougham was GM's direct answer to the beautifully crafted Continental Mark II two-door hardtop. The flawlessly styled Continental was built by a new, special Ford Motor division and was the most costly U.S. car at $9,695-$9,966--until the Eldorado Brougham arrived.
This 1957-58 Eldorado Brougham arrived with a big splash. It was far more flashy than the Continental Mark II, but was beautifully styled and trimmer and more compact than regular Cadillacs. It was derived from GM's flamboyant 1954 Park Avenue and 1955 Eldorado Brougham town cars, featured at GM's nationally held Motorama auto shows.
More Americans identified with the Eldorado Brougham than with the understated Continental Mark II because the 1950s was the most extravagant auto decade this country has seen.
The Eldorado Brougham really stood out with its brushed stainless steel roof, unique center-opening doors that locked automatically when the car was put in gear, four headlights (which still were illegal in some states), massive stainless steel "skirts" covering lower rear fenders, exquisite taillights in beautifully shaped fins and a much lower height, allowed by Cadillac's more rigid new tubular X-type frame.
The opulent interior was over-the-top. There were air conditioning and all the usual power options, including a six-way power driver's seat with a "favorite position" memory that moved automatically to facilitate entry and exit. There also were electric door locks and front/rear compartment heating systems with under-seat blowers.
A dashboard control raised and lowered the trunk lid electrically. Also, there were an automatic headlight dimmer and polarized sun visors that became darker when tilted.
Remember that this was 1957, when just power windows were a big deal for many cars.
The glove compartment contained a fold-out shelf with mirror, matched set of magnetized silver tumblers (which cost thousands if you can even find them now), cigarette case, tissue dispenser, lady's compact, unique lipstick and Arpege cologne in a special atomizer.
There were front/rear center armrests, and the rear one had a storage bin with note pad, pencil, mirror and a perfume atomizer stocked with Arpege, Extrait de Lanvin.
You could choose from 15 special exterior colors, besides 45 standard and two special-order trim and color choices. High-pile Karakul or lambskin carpeting were offered.
As if all that weren't enough, the Eldorado Brougham was the world's first production car to have an air suspension system for a smoother ride and superior handling. The system used four rubber air spring domes that replaced conventional springs at each wheel. The air chambers were fed by a motor and regulated by levelers to maintain constant body height, regardless of load condition.
The Eldorado Brougham's hefty V-8 started automatically with the ignition on and the transmission lever in Park or Neutral. It was fast for a luxury car that weighed a whopping 5,315 pounds.
The 1957 model had a silky smooth 365-cubic-inch V-8 with two four-barrel carburetors that generated 325 horsepower. The same hefty V-8 in the 1958 model got three two-barrel carburetors for 335 horsepower. Power was fed through a four-speed Hydra-Matic automatic transmission.
No wonder the 1957-58 Eldorado Brougham is the most desirable post-World War II collectible Cadillac. It's valued in early 2009 at $68,500 if in good condition and at $142,000 if in excellent shape by the Cars of Particular Interest guide, which doesn't say if that's with or without the silver tumblers.
