CADILLAC’S COME AND GO AND COME AND GO

CADILLAC’S COME AND GO AND COME AND GO

I’m 75 years old and looking back, I’ve been a “Car Guy” all my life. My Dad was in the Used Car business when I was born, and our family had access to all kinds of cars. Being one of eight kids, my Mom always drove a station wagon. She had some nice Ford Woody’s in the mid-1950’s, but also drove Chrysler and GM models, even a couple VW 10 passenger vans. Cars never stayed around very long as they were always for sale.

My Dad liked bigger cars, especially Cadillacs. When he and Mom went on short trips, they always took a Cadillac if he had one on his lot. I still remember the beautiful 1959 silver blue Cadillac Coupe Deville he had, with huge fins and those outer space taillights. When Dad and Mom drove off in it, I thought they were leaving for Mars.

Having two older sisters meant teenage boys liked hanging around our place. They all drove cars – custom cars, hot rods, or maybe just a piece of junk purchased for $30. Yes, transportation for $30! One guy, Bob, had his own 1959 white over red Chevy convertible with spinner hubcaps. A very cool car. When he stopped over, he liked to talk cars too. Sometimes I would ride shotgun into town with him, hoping my friends might see me in the cool car.

Occasionally, I would see Bob around town. He built his own motorcycles with extended forks, chromed engines, and beautiful paint jobs he painted himself. A really talented guy. Bob had a shop at his dad’s business. One day after work I saw the garage door open at his shop, pulled in and found him welding a trailer hitch onto a beautiful Cadillac Eldorado convertible. He had just purchased the car. It had a stunning dark blue exterior, with red pin-stripping on the sides, hood, and trunk lid. The hood and trunk lid were each as big as a dining room table. The car was pure elegance.

On my way home to join my wife and son for dinner, I dreamed of having a car like that one day. Meanwhile, I was driving the 100,000-mile, 1965 Pontiac station-wagon my Dad had loaned us after a guy ran a light and totaled my ’69 Thunderbird. My wife drove a 1970 VW Beetle.

Years passed until one night I stopped to have a beer on the way home and ran into Bob in the bar. Of course, one beer turned to two as we caught up with each other. Day light was fading, and as I was walking out, Bob said “Want to buy my Eldorado? I’m selling it.” WOW! I needed a car but just not that car at that time. Soon to have two kids, it was nowhere in my budget for 20 more years. I said “thanks” but I can’t afford it. I said I would mention it to my Dad, which I did.

My “ex car dealer Dad” bought the car the next day. He paid for it and I could borrow it. What a deal! He loved being back in a big Cadillac cruising the roads in the summer. Mom kind of enjoyed it too. With only two teenaged kids at home, they had more time for cruising. It was just a “summer car” as they were starting to winter down South. After owning the Eldorado for 15 years, my Dad and Mom moved into a Condo and Dad said he was selling the big, still beautiful, blue Eldorado. He got it all ready to sell and the first person that looked at it bought it for his asking price. There WAS only one price with Dad.

The gentleman that bought it lived about 40 miles from us and he had seen the car a few times over the years. Once in a restaurant parking lot with the top down, he had looked the car over and was astounded that it had only 17,000 miles on it and was in such beautiful condition. That is why he bought it on the spot that day in the early 1990’s with under 19,000 original miles! And, I had it looking like new with a detailing job I did myself.

Well, after getting our four kids through college and making it to retirement age, my wife and I were leading a different lifestyle. Come and go as you pleased. She was waiting for grandchildren. I was waiting to buy and sell cars! And grandkids! That is having them, not selling them! I had bought and sold cars through my whole married life to make extra money. Now that I no longer worked full time, I applied for a Michigan Automotive Dealers Resale License, got Insured and set up my office in a building my son owned.

I acquired cars through word of mouth, book ads and the internet. Likewise, I sold most of them online. I spent many late nights searching the internet looking for vehicles. One night I was going through cars for sale and saw a blue Eldorado like my Dad’s listed for sale. They made that model from 1972 thru 1979 as I recall. It was just in passing as it was not something I wanted. I kept passing over the Eldorado ad week after week. Not what I wanted. I needed fast movers. Then one night as I passed the ad again, I decided to read it. Pictures looked similar, but it was a year newer than Dad’s. Asking $15,000, with under 20K miles, and in excellent condition.

It was 10:15PM but I decided to call the owner. A friendly guy answered and yes, the Eldorado was still for sale. You say it’s in excellent condition with very low original miles. “Yes.” No lookers? You’ve had it for sale for almost a month. “You can come and look at it for yourself. Its very clean and runs great. It was my father’s car and he passed. I inherited the car but really need a new tractor more than the car.” Well, it turned out I was having breakfast Thursday morning about 20 miles from him. We agreed to meet up that day.

What the Hell did I just do? I’m an honorable man, so, I showed up as planned. It was in beautiful shape. After some chit-chat about the car, and me going for a test drive, oh no, I was about to make an offer on the beast. Again, what was I doing? I left giving this man a $1000 deposit and returned Sunday to pick up the car. It had a different upper grill than my Dad’s car. Someone had put one of those Rolls Royce looking, after market, heavy chrome covers on top of the factory hood chrome. At least it didn’t have steer horns!!

My brother-in-law drove me out to pick the car up. We brought it home on a perfectly sunny, warm, May afternoon. It drove beautifully. With the top down that big car floated down the road. We pulled into my driveway and parked it out in our front circle. My wife took one look and said, “It’s as ugly as your Dad’s was.” Thank you…

Well, that night as my wife and sister-in-law were sitting at our kitchen counter talking, I went through the one-inch-thick folder the previous owner had given me. I read through all his paperwork and receipts for repair work done over the years. As I reached the last few papers in the folder, I found the original Bill of Sale for the car when it was new. I won’t print what I said that startled them both, but this car was originally sold to my old friend Bob!! That means it was my Dad’s car, too.

Now we have a story. For whatever reason, I had in my mind that Bob and my Dad’s car was a 1972 Cadillac. It was really a 1973. The 1973 that I now owned! My dream from long ago had come true after all!
After resolving the grill issue and detailing the car, everywhere I drove it people remarked how big it was, what great shape it was in, and the beautiful color combination it carried. I was proud of the car I didn’t even really want or need! It brought back fond memories, and it was fun to see look on people’s faces when they saw it cruising down the street. Whenever I shared the history of my Dad’s Eldorado, I discovered people love the story as much as they love the car.