When Cadillac Said The Age Of Convertibles Was Over, Later Built More, And Got Sued

Some might argue that Cadillacs of the 1970s were real Cadillacs. Huge, with equally big engines, these cars dominated the roads of the country as the go-to for well-to-do buyers. However, in April of 1976, Cadillac made an announcement that shocked its buyer base into clamoring for a vehicle they thought would be the last of its kind.

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1976 Cadillac Eldorado ConvertibleImage: Cadillac

While Cadillac had always offered an Eldorado coupe, a convertible model had also existed since the model’s debut in 1953. By the time the ninth-generation Eldorado rolled around in 1971, it had grown to be one of the largest cars on the market, measuring over 18 and a half feet long, over six and a half feet wide, and weighing nearly 5,000 pounds.

But by the mid-1970s, the convertible market had started to crater. Combined with looming federal safety regulations, buyers weren’t too keen on open air motoring anymore and automakers like Cadillac were starting to take notice. The luxury brand had gotten used to the post-war convertible sales boom that lasted into the early 1960s, where the brand was moving 20,000 convertibles a year. But by the early 1970’s those sales numbers had dropped to between 7,500 and 9,000 a year. Then came 1976.

Cadillac announced that it was getting out of the convertible game: 1976 would be the last year for the Eldorado Convertible. In a release in April of 1976, Cadillac general manager Edward C. Kennard said the sun was setting on convertibles (the brand was the only American automaker that had a convertible on the market in 1976). “Like the running board and rumble seat, the convertible is an item which history has passed by,” Kennard said in the release.

1976 Cadillac Eldorado Convertible Image: Cadillac

Cadillac wasn’t just going to end production and move on. It had to send the Eldorado off with a bang. So in a move that made it seem as if no other convertibles would ever be made again from anyone else anywhere, Cadillac’s bigwigs dubbed the Eldorado Convertible’s production end as the “Last of the Convertibles.” According to Cadillac, these last convertibles would be for loyalists and collectors. The final 200 Eldorado Convertibles that rolled off the production line would all be identical: white exterior paint with red and blue hood accent stripes, white convertible tops, white leather interiors with red piping, carpet, and dashboards. That dash also housed a special numbered plaque so buyers knew they had something special.

But something interesting happened. In proclaiming that the ‘76 Eldorado Convertible was the “Last of the Convertibles,” Cadillac ended up selling over 14,000 that year, its best sales year in a while. Even though only 200 of those were “special,” many buyers assumed that every last one would be special. Edward Kennard himself told the press that he was personally receiving hundreds of requests from customers asking for help in trying to find an Eldorado Convertible to buy. Buyers were clamoring for them. “I can say without a doubt in my mind, if we had enough top mechanisms to build 20,000 convertibles, we could have sold every one,” Kennard said. The buyers that did get a hold of the convertibles held on to them and locked them away, certain that the cars would go up in value. The final Eldorado Convertible that rolled off the line wore custom Michigan plates that read “LAST” and was stored away by Cadillac. The brand was certain that no one would ever enter the convertible market again.

But Cadillac was wrong. Somehow no one realized that in telling everyone that they were making the last convertibles, they were also creating demand; the 14,000 convertibles they sold should have told them that. Now people wanted them, but Cadillac had no convertible to sell. So buyers went elsewhere. Some took cars that weren’t convertibles to custom coach builders and had them turned into one, like the Hess & Eisenhardt’s Le Cabriolets of the late 1970s that started life as Cadillac Coupe de Villes.

By the early 1980s, convertibles had started to become a thing again and American automakers were jumping in. Chrysler had its convertible for the masses: the K Car LeBaron. The American Sunroof Company (ASC) was getting hired to do limited-run convertibles like the Oldsmobile Toronado and Buick Riviera, among others. And by 1984, Cadillac wanted back in, too. So a limited-run Eldorado Convertible was released based on the Biarritz coupe. While some buyers rejoiced, others were pissed.

The buyers that were mad were many of those who had bought the previous Eldorado Convertible on the assumption that they were going to be the last. People like Abraham P. Korotki, an attorney from Baltimore. Korotki, like many others, had gone out and plunked down good money for his loaded 1976 Eldorado Convertible. He claimed he paid $16,250 ($86,637 in today’s money) for the land yacht. But after Cadillac rolled out the ‘84 convertibles, Korotki said the value on his ‘76 tanked. So he did what any other American might do when faced with the loss of money, he sued. From a 1984 article in The Washington Post:

Joined by fellow Cadillac convertible owner Richard K. Adolph, a local chiropractor, Korotki demanded that GM compensate them and all other ‘76 Cadillac convertible owners, some 14,000 people across the country, for their alleged monetary losses.

In the lawsuit, filed in federal court here, the two men contend GM embarked on a fraudulent advertising campaign, deliberately misrepresenting the ‘76 convertible as the “last of the breed” and a “priceless collector’s item” and luring thousands of buyers with “cavalier campaign promises.”

Korotki said that he essentially paid a markup, with the $11,049 list price well under the $16,000-plus he paid. And even though he bought the car as a collector’s item, he admits he put 30,000 miles on it in the seven years leading up to the 1983 Eldorado Convertible. He said he eventually sold the convertible for just $10,000 though he claims the amount he lost on it was “difficult to calculate.”

Korotki and Adolph were seeking a bold outcome to the suit. They wanted a court-ordered ultimatum: either have GM cough up $50 million that would be split between Korotki, Adolph and the 14,000 other ‘76 Eldorado Convertible buyers, or order GM to stop making the new 1984 models. The suit was later dismissed, probably because buyers shouldn’t have assumed that their Eldorados would appreciate in value but also convertibles weren’t dead. American automakers had pulled out of the market, but there were still cars like the R107 Mercedes SL and the BMW 02 Series.

Still, while GM’s lawyers argued that the suit was vague and that there was no fraudulent intent behind the company reintroducing an Eldorado Convertible after the 1976 models, it probably shouldn’t have made it seem as if those ‘76 models were going to be the last of the last. That’s because, you know, who can see the future?