37,440 original miles, lifetime Nevada car, two owners, great colors

1976 Cadillac Seville Description

When you think Cadillac, you think immense, chrome-laden land yachts from the glory days of motoring, and you’d be totally right. But in the early 1970s, when Cadillac was still building 5000-pound land yachts, fuel prices skyrocketed and suddenly 9 MPG wasn’t so popular anymore. Cadillac executives watched with horror as Mercedes-Benz steadily gained ground as the go-to luxury car maker and—get this—they did it WITH A SMALLER CAR! Never famous for their introspection, GM executives finally saw the writing on the wall and ordered the development of a mid-sized Cadillac, the Seville. Using parts-bin engineering, Cadillac actually came up with what was arguably their best car of the 1970s, a car with handsome styling, a sumptuous interior that was still quite spacious, and good V8 power with state-of-the-art fuel injection that proved to be almost bulletproof in the real world. It’s probably time for the Seville to get credit for changing the way things got done at Cadillac, and for collectors to realize that these are fantastic cars to own and drive.

Which brings us to this handsome Commodore Blue 1976 Cadillac Seville. It hails from the warm, dry deserts of Nevada and shows just 38,032 original miles, making it one of the best of its kind we've seen. Better yet, it was just treated to an expensive new paint job in the original color, undertaken not because of damage but because the hot Nevada sun knocked the shine off the original enamel. The result is a crisp, shiny, bright Seville that looks like it should cost a lot more than it does. Obviously it has all its original sheetmetal and no patches or panel replacements were required during the repaint. Fit and finish are excellent thanks to an owner who was a stickler for details and held the guys doing the work to a very high standard—this Seville definitely doesn’t feel like an inexpensive Cadillac when you close the doors. The chiseled styling has aged better than almost anything else Cadillac was doing and while a lot of guys mistakenly say that it’s just a rebadged Nova, that’s completely false and if you park the two side-by-side, you’ll see that the Seville is quite a bit larger than a Nova. On this car, there’s also a jaunty red pinstripe that looks fantastic and the padded roof remains in great shape, even though it spent 40 years in the desert sun. The chrome bumpers, stainless trim, and other details are likewise quite nice, with only light fading on the Cadillac crest logos on the hood and trunk showing the car’s age. Everything else is really, really nice.

The light blue leather interior is the exact right choice with the Commodore Blue bodywork. Not too bright but not dark enough to be a sweat box in the summer, it has a dignified, elegant look that suits the Seville just fine. Befitting its low mileage status, the hides are in excellent condition with only minor wear on the driver's seat that amounts to a frayed edge down low at the front of the lower cushion. The passenger's seat looks almost unused and I bet not many people have been in back. Those are original carpets and they're thick and plush, not the standard stuff you got on lesser cars, and the car comes with a set of thick matching carpeted floor mats that aren't shown in photos. Perhaps most remarkably, the dash pad hasn't been cooked by the hot Nevada sun and the lovely wood inserts around the perimeter of the steering wheel are fully intact, not crumbling and broken like on almost every other 70s Cadillac you've ever seen. In fact, all the faux wood is bright and clear, the gauges are crisp, and anything you can touch feels almost like new. Control actions are crisp, not sloppy, things like the power antenna and cruise control are fully operational, the seats and windows power up and down with ease, and the factory AM/FM/8-track stereo sounds pretty darned good for being 40 years old. The automatic climate control is operational, and the system has been recently reconditioned with a new compressor and modern R134a refrigerant so it will be easy to service in the future. Driving the car, the isolation and lack of squeaks and rattles is rather impressive, another indication of this being a genuine low-mileage car. The trunk is upholstered in that same plush blue carpet, including a cover for the spare tire, and even the original rubber mat is still in place and in excellent condition. Note that even the trunk lid is upholstered! We're extremely pleased with this car's level of preservation.

All 1976 Sevilles received an Oldsmobile 350 cubic inch V8 with electronic fuel injection. Making 180 horsepower, which nearly matched the 190 made by the 500 cubic inch V8 used in the bigger cars, performance is far more energetic than you'd expect. Thanks to the sophisticated and reliable fuel injection system, it lights off quickly and settles into an easy idle almost immediately. In fact, the fuel injection works so well that the Seville was able to pass California emissions tests without a catalytic converter (although all 1976 Sevilles came with one). The engine seems to have no bad habits, no issues, and pulls the sedan around with genuine enthusiasm, making the car feel far more agile than its bigger siblings. The engine bay is nicely preserved, with a familiar gold air cleaner lid that signifies fuel injection lives underneath. Wiring, hoses, and other soft parts are in excellent shape and there are no notable deviations from stock. Service parts for these cars are readily available and the fuel injection system has many fans in the Cadillac world, so any future repairs should not be difficult nor expensive.

The only transmission available was a TH375 3-speed automatic, which was a slightly downsized version of the bulletproof TH400. It shifts nicely and the torque converter is exactly right, making the engine feel directly connected to your right foot. Out back, the Seville received towering 2.56 gears, and as a result it routinely turns in 20+ MPG fuel economy on the open road—pretty impressive for a big luxury car in 1976. It also just loafs along in near silence at high speeds, which comes from a lot of sound deadening materials in the body, body seals that are in excellent condition, and special attention to the way the suspension and exhaust were mounted. No, this is not just some re-badged Nova, this was a car with so much special tooling and expensive unique components that Cadillac brass worried about ever getting their investment back. Steering is light, as you'd expect, and brakes are surprisingly powerful, as they had 1000 fewer pounds to haul down from speed than on the bigger cars. Handsome chrome wire wheel covers are in good shape with only one or two small dings around the perimeter, and those 205/75/15 whitewall radials have only a few hundred miles on them.

Someone invested a lot of money into getting this Seville into top mechanical and cosmetic condition. There are a lot of these for sale, we know that, but we've never seen one that combined fantastic colors with full functionality and great preservation quite like this one. These are on the verge of becoming smart collectables and they're wonderful for CLC and AACA events because they offer modern comfort and convenience combined with handsome styling and vintage cachet. If you want a great starter collectable or you have a hole in your Cadillac collection, this Seville deserves a closer look. Call today!