Question about Cadillacs in Japan.

[GM lover]

http://www.tradecarview.com/photo/de...9&sid=220&pn=4


These pictures of a 1998 Cadillac Seville show that it has a fabric interior but in the United States Cadillac did offer the Seville with a fabric interior why is that?

[MCGARRETT]

I Japan it's not unusual for high end cars to have cloth interiors, many Japanesee "executive cars" have cloth interiors, I guess that they have a thing for that, Germans used to do it too, I have seen lots of 80's and early 90's Sclasses and 7's with cloth interiors too.


I think that Cadillac officially stopped offering cloth in cars like the Seville and Eldorado sometime in the late 1990's, though I think that it might have been available in the base DeVille through 2001-2002. I remember seeing a 1997 or so Eldorado with cloth, I had to do a double take because it was that rare. The base Catera did offer a cloth interior on base models.

[GM lover]

Thank you for answering MCGARRETT

[Sal Collaziano]

In my honest opinion, the crushed velour used in older luxury cars is much nicer than most of the leather available in luxury cars today...

[MCGARRETT]

No problemo...


Sometime in the past 30 years or so, leather became the more "luxurious" choice for automotive interiors. Leather in the past was usually reserved for sporty or open(convertible) cars, with the closed cars having wool or broadcloth. Limousines usually had leather upholstered divers compartments and cloth rear seating areas, Cadillac being a tradition minded company, still did this until they discontinued a factory limousine in 1987, the Formal Sedan version of the Fleetwood 75 usually had no divider and an all cloth interior, the Fleetwood 75 Limousine did have a divider and a leather drivers compartment with a cloth passenger area.

Back in the day it was rare for a low end car to have leather, most base cars had cheap printed cloth or vynil, even until the 1980's. To me it still seems strange today that you can get cars like Aveos and Cobalts with leather seats, even until the 1980's leather was only available on a few cars like Corvettes, Rivieras, Toronados, Eldorados (and all Cadillacs), Grand Prix's etc.

The velour era I think reached it's peak in about 1974, when Cadillac offered the Talisman package for the Fleetwood Brougham, it was all full on double throwdown crushed Medici velour orgy, I think even the headliner is velour. It consisted of 4 velour seats divided by 2 huge consoles(also covered in velour),the consoles had illuminated writing tablets and storage, it was totally obscene, especially in the middle of the gas crisis, here was 5200lb 19.5 ft long car that could only carry 4 passengers, the Talisman option was only a couple of hundred dollars less than the base price of a 1974 Ford Pinto, I am soooo looking for one.

[Sal Collaziano]

Originally Posted by MCGARRETT

No problemo...


Sometime in the past 30 years or so, leather became the more "luxurious" choice for automotive interiors. Leather in the past was usually reserved for sporty or open(convertible) cars, with the closed cars having wool or broadcloth. Limousines usually had leather upholstered divers compartments and cloth rear seating areas, Cadillac being a tradition minded company, still did this until they discontinued a factory limousine in 1987, the Formal Sedan version of the Fleetwood 75 usually had no divider and an all cloth interior, the Fleetwood 75 Limousine did have a divider and a leather drivers compartment with a cloth passenger area.

Back in the day it was rare for a low end car to have leather, most base cars had cheap printed cloth or vynil, even until the 1980's. To me it still seems strange today that you can get cars like Aveos and Cobalts with leather seats, even until the 1980's leather was only available on a few cars like Corvettes, Rivieras, Toronados, Eldorados (and all Cadillacs), Grand Prix's etc.

The velour era I think reached it's peak in about 1974, when Cadillac offered the Talisman package for the Fleetwood Brougham, it was all full on double throwdown crushed Medici velour orgy, I think even the headliner is velour. It consisted of 4 velour seats divided by 2 huge consoles(also covered in velour),the consoles had illuminated writing tablets and storage, it was totally obscene, especially in the middle of the gas crisis, here was 5200lb 19.5 ft long car that could only carry 4 passengers, the Talisman option was only a couple of hundred dollars less than the base price of a 1974 Ford Pinto, I am soooo looking for one.

You want a Talisman too, huh? Or are you just kidding? I'm looking for one.. I'd love to give my Escalade the Talisman crushed velour treatment..

[Sal Collaziano]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Cadil...em130194812471

[t-rex]

As far as I'm concerned, the sun rises and sets on Alcantara.

Beats that tough-as-naugahyde leather in my BMW...

[MCGARRETT]

Yeah I've seen that one, no sunroof though, and the 1975-1976 ones only have a console in the front, I would not sneeze at a 1975-1976 one though, this guy wants a mint for the car, they often change hands in the 10-12K area for really nice ones, 25k is way tooo much, at least as far as I'm concerned, he wont get that for this car.


I am kind of maxed out on storage already with my Trans Am, Estate Wagon, Eldorado and K5-Blazer, the last thing I should be looking for is another 5000lb white elephant, its a sickness!

[Sal Collaziano]

Originally Posted by MCGARRETT

Yeah I've seen that one, no sunroof though, and the 1975-1976 ones only have a console in the front, I would not sneeze at a 1975-1976 one though, this guy wants a mint for the car, they often change hands in the 10-12K area for really nice ones, 25k is way tooo much, at least as far as I'm concerned, he wont get that for this car.


I am kind of maxed out on storage already with my Trans Am, Estate Wagon, Eldorado and K5-Blazer, the last thing I should be looking for is another 5000lb white elephant, its a sickness!

I hear ya. Imagine how comfortable you'd be in any seat in the Fleetwood, though. :p It's one of those cars that your passengers won't have any trouble riding in.

[Smaart Aas Saabr]

I think you can still buy a new Benz S 600 in Germany with MB-Tex (read "fancy Mercedes vinyl that never wears out") seats

[Whistler]

The Japanese are not big fans of leather seats... even in luxury cars.

[F14CRAZY]

I guess I've got a suede fetish

[kgm777]

First, the cloth in the photo of the Seville is very UNCadillac and very Nissan. It looks like it was reupholstered aftermarket.

The Cadillacs of the 70s had the best fabrics combined with leather accents as in this 1970 Fleetwood Brougham:

[a_v_s]

It's not just cadillac... Take Lexus for example... The ES comes with fabric seats as a base in Japan... But Lexus does not import any models with fabric seats into the US, as IIRC, the dealer said all models sold in the US have leather.

Likewise BMW makes a 4 cylinder 5 series, but they don't import that into the US, etc, etc.