Will Trade for NEW Golf Cart: 1996 Cadillac DeVille Concours Edition

Redundancy is a funny thing in the car industry. As a carmaker you may have one product doing well, so you decide hey, why don’t we make all of them look and feel like this one? The D-Body Fleetwood was Cadillac’s last big RWD traditional body-on-frame sedan, made from the bones of the aerotastic 1991 Chevy Caprice. That smooth low drag shape translated so well to Big Caddy language, the product planners couldn’t resist spreading that feeling around and so the front-drive Deville was next to get the smooth treatment.  Find this 1996 Cadillac DeVille Concours Edition for sale in Tucson, AZ for $9,000 via craigslist. Tip from Rock On!

We’ll get to the car details in a second, but first the human side. The seller writes a very thorough and engaging account of his elderly parents, their changing lives, and how the damn state is forcing them to sell all of their worldly possessions to qualify for assistance. Dad is in a care home and mom’s in a retirement community. Here’s an excerpt:

Seriously, Mom’s 81 and it is just too big for her to putz around in. She’d probably take out half of Walmart just trying to get to the fuel station. A golf cart is what she needs, but this retirement community is full of them (you’ll see when you come take a look at it) and they are very expensive out here. That’s what old retired people do, they putz around the neighborhood in their golf carts and gripe about the weeds growing through the rocks in other people’s yards. While in their younger years, they longed for these beautiful Caddys, the Caddy now sits and mourns for days gone by. It seriously wants to be driven. It NEEEEDs to be driven.

For some reason this is all starting to feel like an episode of Better Call Saul, but I really feel for this family as the seller is coming to terms on craigslist of all places with the sad realities of aging and the twilight years of life for his parents. 

The DeVille itself is spectacular however; even though this looks exactly like a 7/8th scale Fleetwood, the 300hp, 4.6L, 32-valve L37 Northstar V8 turned sideways under the hood betrays its FWD architecture. This thing has more power than any LT1 and will burn the front tires with ease, but as the seller says: This car was never a daily driver, only used for special occasions. It is show quality with all original items.

Only 45k miles are claimed to be on the clock, not surprising how perfect it looks, resplendent in dark Polo Green paint and sumptuous Cappuccino leather interior. I’ve never driven one of these big K-body cars but imagine it is probably an exceedingly quiet and comfortable means to churning gasoline into velvety torquebutter. Condition really is key here, and $9k seems reasonable when you consider what recent used cars are out there for that money…

See a better-kept land yacht? email us here: tips@dailyturismo.com

CFlo is getting deep into the fullsize GM history books these days, and learning more than he ever wanted to know.