I must agree with you Adam on the low quality of these Cadillacs but I don’t think that the assembly line speed was the culprit. I worked on the final assembly line at Pontiac Motors in 1977 through 1979 installing left front fenders and our line speed was 86 cars per hour. While I don’t consider these Gran Prixs, Bonnevilles/Catalinas, Lemans/CanAms to be wonderfully built quality cars, the problems they had were not related to the speed at which we built them, but the short coming with the engineering provided. The problem with the door pulls was they were ONLY attached to the door panel and not through screwed to the metal of the door. Simply poor engineering and not line speed.
Lincoln later did the same thing with door panels sadly. Decades after seeing Cadillacs make and regret their mistake with the unsecured pulls. To compound the error they also put storage compartments in the doors encouraging you to further strain the panel.
My dad used to roll down the window to pull the door shut. That skinny strap was a joke given how heavy that door was. But honestly, we felt like royalty floating down the street in that beautiful vehicle.
Now look at G.M.'s "solution" of "automatic seat belts" from the late 80s - early or mid 90s. The 1990 Chevrolet Caprice (Segan and Wagon) both had it, among others. In short, *the damn seat belt was anchored to the Door.* Isn't that a potential *human ejection system* in event of the door opening during a collision?
... Oh, and look up how there are 1970s cars with "Landau Roofs" (roofs with a fake convertible top.) These would trap moisture, and as I understand it, G.M. Cars with a Landau Top (at least around 1971 - 1976) wouldn't even get the roof painted before the landau top was fitted. This sort of top was nothing but paying extra for less *roof life,* which is difficult for me to imagine myself paying *extra* for in a car. I guess I could imagine it if I was a car dealer who was going to make a profit by selling it to a collector who would put it in a garage, but *wow.* Can you think of any much more normal car that has had roof rust, unless someone was careless enough to not take care of bare metal on the roof?
Got to believe the door strip problems were not limited to this year or brand. My 78 Olds Cutlass had to have its pull straps repaired and it was clear in the design that it was never meant to have a long life retention using a coarse lag-bolt style fastener.
My 1969 Riviera had the same problem. Unfortunately there was no other way to close the door conveniently. Head rests were actually head restraints, they weren’t meant to be comfortable.
I had at least 15 new and used GM cars of the 70s and 80s, including 4 Cutlasses one with about 100,000 miles in it.....and never had one of those door straps break. Same with power windows. 17 year old Buick right now with 185,000 miles and all of them function as they should. I don't know what people do to them.
I once owned a 1978 Monte Carlo with the same door pull strap problem, along with a lot of other problems that plagued that car! So I got rid of it the first chance I got.
GM's fall from grace and eventual bankruptcy in 2008 can be partly, directly traced to the beginnings right here. You're absolutely right Adam: there's no way a flagship marque of any brand of any product, whether it's a car or widgets, should ever have a factory authorized repair like this. I've always said Cadillac's "Standard of the World" motto was really applicable to their cars until 1967-70. That's when it all started going to crap. It had to be really infuriating for Cadillac owners at that time, when they were getting out of a 10 year old Cadillac that in '61 was built with the craftsmanship and materials of a first rate, premium, precision assembled luxury car worthy of the wreath and crest.
They lost their way when they decided to chase after BMW and Mercedes as well their stupid lettering for names. They did pretty much trounce both marques with their v-series, but forgot who they were. The only caddy remotely close to a true Cadillac is the Escalade.
@@Henry_Jones It’s a lot easier to build higher quality cars when you don’t sell as many as Cadillac did prior to the 90’s. Conversely Mercedes is narrowly avoiding the fate that struck Packard when they built the mid line clipper or was it the 120 by producing a car like the “entry level C-class. Now there cars are what some here describe 70’s American cars. I mean BMW has plastic laden engine parts, Mercedes is a far cry from the w cars they used to make(I’ve owned 5 a 76 300d, a 97 300e an 87 s600(top hat roof)a 92 500s all excellent vehicles…….but now most bimmers benzes and Audis are all unreliable money pits. Give a 79 Seville elegante over any of those any day. Also in the days of land yachts….it was easy to park as nearly every other car was huge. A compact 1975 Chevy nova would be considered a full size car today. The trend for land yachts continues to this day, only its pick up trucks and large SUV’s.
sweet 71! my first car at 16 was actually my dad's 72 Sedan Deville, White w/Blk top/int. and he got a new 76, same model/color. man i loved that beast! flip the intake lid over, and cruise all weekend 🤪 and it wasn't a big deal for me to drive. i was already just over 6ft tall, and my dad had taught me to drive these big Caddys when i was 12. he frequently went on business trips related to his Pepsi business, sometimes i'd tag along.. and so he had off n on health issues, and he wanted me to know how to drive in case of a medical emergency. but a lot of times he'd just let me drive anyway if we were taking I-35, etc. so lucky i was already tall for my age at the time. i loved driving those big Caddys, some good times! ☮
My friend who always drove GM cars used to make me cringe when he got in one of my vehicles and slammed the door - he must have thought they were all that hard to close.
Yes… an imposing and beautifully sculpted exterior design completely let down by the build quality and cheap interior that even a fully optioned Chevy Caprice could favorably compare with. This era began the long downward march of Cadillac’s reputation that it has never fully recovered.
This is totally wrong. Clearly, 1970s GM automobiles were the best cars in the world bar none. That goes for engineering, quality, handling and performance. They were heads above everything else in the world. Crappy little cars like the Mercedes W115/123 or Puyegot or whatever leftist hippies chose to buy at that time are unsafe, tinny toy cars compared to the pinnacles of quality GM made at that time. Even today, American automobiles are by far the best the world has to offer, but the deceived public goes on and buys Japanese microcars like Corollas and RAV 4s. Remember we used to fight these guys because they're still our enemies. Never buy anything from an enemy of the American people!
@@Lokomowal You crack me up sir. When Renault imported Le Car here and wondered why it didn't sell it should have been obvious. Who drives a car with a 3 lug nut wheel? Straight to le' crusher!
I drove a 1972 Coupe de Ville for a few years and hated the door straps a lot. They were thin and uncomfortable to use. The straps felt as if they were going to give out every time you used them. The car did have an overall flimsy feel especially in the driver’s controls and steering wheel. Previously, I was driving a 1970 Sedan de Ville and 1968 Coupe de Ville and they were both built like tanks and a pleasure to drive.
1965 Cadillac models represented the apex of marque. The Sedan de Ville I owned 1975-80 was impeccably designed and tastefully appointed in the finest grades of leather, fabric, metals, carpeting. I always felt like I should take off my shoes before getting into the car.
Never got to drive more than a couple Cadillacs, but my wonderful Dad owned a new Lincoln every 2-3 years through the 70’s. The first was a 71 Lincoln Coupe, plain light blue with dark blue vinyl roof with matching silk like cloth interior, with full power and climate control, arm rest in front and rear. This was also the best running, with a premium gas required 460/4brl dual exhaust setup. That on one night, in Sept 73, while I was home on leave from The USARMY, I was caught n radar by a Rhode Island State Trooper, in his big Fury I Interceptor, in none other that Lincoln, RI, at a staggering 129 mpg! I had just came up the on-ramp and just floored it and held it there till I seen the flashing lights, I let up and looked down and saw the speedometer drop below 110! I was like oh is Dad going to be pissed off! Long story short the Trooper was fresh out of The Army himself! Let me go with a written warning! The next Dad bought new in Dec 73, a beautiful triple dark green Coupe again, that ran fine, but the 460/4 had single Exhaust and didn’t run as well as the 71, only got to drive that one once, up to 110! But that was it. The next was the best looking, a dark president blue 75 Town Coupe’ that had a gorgeous padded white vinyl Landau roof that only covered half the roof, with four sided rounded corners rear side windows, with the Lincoln Crest in the center and gold leaf trim. With a dark blue leather interior, loaded with everything but moon roof, but a great sounding AM/FM 8 track Quadraphonic sound system I added a couple extra speakers to and amp, that really enhanced the sound. That car ran or I should say walked like a dog, smog killed 460/4 brl single exhaust dud. The next and last was a 78 Town Car Sedan, in triple baby blue with leather interior! That Dad kept like new for 18 years and 142,000 miles. I even got to use as a daily driver for a couple years. After Dad retired when the teamsters union put the family trucking company out of business, Dad strapped for cash fresh out of Court, needed a pickup truck for a small “Your Handyman”, business he set up. He needed some upfront money so my 5 siblings and I came up with the down payment and I signed a note with him to make the payments on a very nice and modest 1986 Dodge Ram D100 short bed 4x2, Slant Six Automatic, with a nice SE package, he got to use. So he lent me the Town Car he had paid off. We had them both registered to him.
Enjoyed your story on the various Lincolns. The 71 still had the high compression engine while the 73 was low compression for regular gasoline. You are right by 75 the ole 460 was a dog. I have a 76 Town Car and it does OK but certainly not the powerful car that they once were. On rolling hills it almost will not maintain a set highway speed.
@@jeffsmith846 yea the 71 was a fast beast. But the 69 Thunderbird he had before that, with a 429 ThunderJet 4 brl dual exhaust with posi was fast and kinda quick. The car he had before that I wish I had now. A 1964 Imperial Crown Coupe. In beautiful metallic turquoise with black roof and the smoothest black leather interior with translucent steering wheel.
@@kevinvoyer5053 You experienced some GREAT cars in your family! My parents had a 67 4DR T-Bird with the 428 and a 68 2 DR 429 T-Bird Coupe WITHOUT the landau top...yay! It was white and very sleek without that dumb landau...the landau worked on the suicide doors '67, which was Brittany Blue with a darker blue landau top. Both engines were great...the 428 was very smooth and almost silent. The 429 would pull your house off its foundations. Great highway cruisers. I miss those days. With 2 T-Birds at the same time in our stable , we felt, as my beloved dad used to say, like potentates!! All the best to you sir!
Well, let's say that GM continued to have door hinge issues even well into the 1990's especially on the "C" series truck line. With the late-80's models, we had to drill out and replace the entire hinges. Then the aftermarket came out with replacement hinge pin and bushing kits. Because of all the re-inforcements, for safety, in the doors, it made them very heavy. It's a wonder that any hinge could support the weight. I've changed bushings many times on GM trucks and multiple times on the same GM trucks. For re-inforcing the door pull straps, I'm not sure if I've ever seen screws drilled through the trim bezels, and I worked at a Cadillac dealer and saw this vintage of cadillacs. Most of the time, before the pull straps were re-inforced at the factory, the end trim pieces would come off to access the retaining screws underneath them, and we would drill screws into the doors, then put the trim pieces back on. Many other non-GM makes also had problems with the door handles. Most car manufacturers build qualities we down starting in the late-60's, especially Chrysler. Because of inflation and the increasing costs, they had to cut corners. Engines increased in size to compensate for the power robbing emission controls and lower compression ratios. Then fuel mileage became a concern and the first response was to put taller differential gear ratios in.
My 1973 Grand Am had the newer, longer and even heavier intermediate doors with the newly required side-impact beams (think '72 Skylark vs '73 Regal.) I remember replacing the door hinges about 130,000 miles, but I sure don't remember it being easy...
I absolutely love these Cadillacs and find them so much more appealing than I do the cars from Lincoln or Chrysler from the same era. I “repaired” the door pull strap on my neighbor’s 1968 Coupe DeVille by replacing the broken strap with an aftermarket part from the chain store. My grandfather repaired the door pull strap on his 1967 Electra with screws and friction tape. Years later he bought a ‘72 Coupe DeVille, I had a ‘73 and my aunt a ‘71 amazingly all door straps survived unaltered.
I had a 1970 Coupe de Ville where the strap leather had come loose from the piece of spring steel that was the actual pull strap.. I wound up doing a repair by getting a length of 1/4 inch rope and carefully doing a tight wrap around the leather sheath, working slowly from rear to front and tucking the end under the last loop. It worked well and had a great texture, and it was a half inch wider than the original pull that lacked the rope.
The materials and engineering may not be the best. But the GM design (overall, how things looked inside, door panels, dashboard, seats, etc.) looked so sophisticated compared to some competitive cars (which may have had more soft touch materials and nicer trim). I remember riding in my college classmate's 1972 Sedan de Ville and thinking what a nice luxurious car it was.
The materials and fit and finish may not be the best, but I’d put the engineering up reasonably high. The engines and transmissions are bulletproof, along with the drivetrain, and there is a silky smoothness to their operation. The HVAC system, particularly the AC, is great. The controls are mostly well-designed, durable, and high-quality. The power windows are fast and reliable; you could almost lose a finger with how they zip. Even the power trunk pull down is beefy and far better than the 80s/90s version. Overall, it’s a shame the build quality suffered from quick production as the looks and style are top-notch.
GM engineering was often superior to Ford and Chrysler throughout the 70’s and early 80’s. But overall quality was terrible and won Ford the market until the 90’s when GM would take it back mostly due to Jack Asser utterly ruining the Ford Taurus and botching the Explorer PR, two of the best selling vehicles in the country at the time. Funny enough, some of the worst Ford and GM products were ones they co-developed together, particularly transmissions. However, the GM versions were often more reliable and had a higher torque rating, indicative of superior material choices.
An elderly neighbor of ours had as her last car a 1971 Sedan DeVille with that faux brushed aluminum trim. Her favorite car was a 1955 Series 62 sedan. She replaced that with a 1965 Sedan DeVille. And she never did stop griping about the cheapness of the '65, compared with the '55! Don't remember her commenting on the '71.
@@ofp8574 To be honest, I can't really remember the specifics. "Queen Mary" was always griping about something or other. The one consistent complaint was the lack of a steel instrument panel. She would never have gotten rid of the '55 if a truck hadn't sideswiped her and taken out the whole driver's side of the car.
Excellent video! Very informative, even for a ' cadillac car guy' like me! I will say though, that these years were some of the smoothest, most comfortable Cadillacs ever made. Silky- smooth silent-surg engines and wonderful rides
My Dad bought a '71 Coupe new. It had the smaller vents on the trunk so I guess it was a later one. I know my Dad put some pieces of foam into the round holes on the inside of the trunk lid. I guess this had something to do with the flow-thru ventilation system. The car had woodgrain, not that silver stuff and he had the car for years but luckily never had a problem with door sag or the pull straps.It really was a stunning car. The color was Clove with a black vinyl roof and black leather interior.
They are awesome, durable well built cars, don't believe this wingnut's cheesy video here. I've owned over a dozen Caillacs from the '70s including four deVilles and Fleetwoods over the decades and can say I never had major mechanical issues and were a dream to drive
@@everyhome9936 Thank you. I can only speak from experience. It was a great car as far as I'm concerned. My Dad was a mechanic and took great care of it.
You mentioned something about the 1972 headlights having the turn signal put between the headlamps. And I just realized that that's where they must have had the idea for the 1977 Pontiac Grand Prix's headlights. (Which is why I love the '77 over the '76 Grand Prix because it just looks so much better. IMO. (And of course the nicer hood emblem with the extra halo ring.))
I owned a 1979 Pontiac Grand Prix with very similar door pull straps. It was basically an every-6-month repair to re-anchor the pull strap to the door. 😅
I knew a guy who inherited a 1972 Buick Electra and it had bad door sag. It was so bad that you literally had to lift the door to close it. It wasn't as easy of a fix as you would think either. I had an uncle that had some money and he was big on Cadillacs. Until they downsized them. Then he bought a Lincoln and he said it was a much better car than the Cadillac. If he had known that then he would have bought Lincolns from the start.
I really missed the '65-'70's proud, chisel tip fenders when these came out. The V under the crest returned in '72 after 2 years away. The center hood chrome strip, too. The Calais had textured black plastic across the dash, but still had the fake wood around the wheel. The wood usually fell out in pieces after a few years.
GM must have improved the quality the following year. I had a 1973 Cadillac with the same body style and interior. I never had a problem with the door straps or having any door sag. The doors closed quite easily. I had it for 13 years and it was 30 years old when I sold it. Note: the door straps were wider.
Yes, the door pulls were significantly different for 1973, with permanent arcs pressed into them and those weird mediterranean things hiding the connection to the door. They took a couple of inches from the shoulder room measurement, but they seemed more robust.
I have a 1973 Eldorado. I was driving it today and it is a smoooth riding car. The build quality of the Cadillacs did drop off some in the '70's, but I'm sure GM didn't think they would still be on the road fifty years on.
A friend of mine's father got a 1973 Coupe de Ville and I clearly remember those door pulls breaking off within just a few weeks after the car was bought!
The strike in the fall of 1970 threw a wrench into GM line up for 1971 with delays in production and delivery, and it delayed the 1972 intermediate cars introduction until the 1973 model year.. One of our neighbors bought a 1970 Chevy wagon instead of the new 71 clamshell, because the delays caused by the strike,, I've always liked the 71 full sized GM cars as it was before the plastic front neds and emission controls. My parents bought a 71 Olds 98 LS, it was fully loaded, but the flow thru vents on the trunklid leaked and the trunk was damp, they fixed the problem. The door pulls weren't all that great, ours needed to be fixed more often than not. It was also the only hardtop sedan my parent's owned. Our previous 98's were town sedans, and the 1977 onwards were also sedans.
I’m altogether too familiar with flimsy 70’s GM door pull straps. My ‘78 Monte Carlo had them and they also pulled out. I couldn’t believe how weakly they were attached. I then assumed from their construction that they were decorative since the Monte had cutouts in the armrests where you could pull the doors closed. I always had to point out to new passengers not to use the strap, lest it come off in their hand.
I think the car looks a lot better with a full-length hood, though a trapped hood, with a squishy plastic nose cone, would probably be less vulnerable to damage in a minor collision. I wonder it the problem with the pull-straps could be blamed on their unusual length, which would tend to increase the tension on the strap itself. It would probably be possible to turn that to an advantage, if the straps hooked into the door structure, with the screws just there to keep them from unhooking, but if the screw was the only thing holding the strap, the tension probably just served to widen the hole and help the screw work its way loose.
I had a ‘76 and a ‘77 Cutlass with the same door pull problem. I was constantly tightening them as they would loosen up every week or so. Those cars had pop off covers over the screws that held them on. I’m surprised that the Cadillac’s didn’t and that the recall fix was to drill through the outer trim. My favorite Cadillac was the 1969 Coupe deVille. Starting in 1970, for a couple of years, Cadillac eliminated the V under the hood and trunk crest. I never understood why they did that. It just didn’t look right.
I've seen some of these with the exposed screw heads (often done less artfully than the exaple picutred) Perhaps because it was so sloppy I figured it was a shade tree fix vs. dealer. I also have a love/hate thing with those high back seats. The love is b/c they're not common (if you got the divided control (60/40) there went the high back) They hate is b/c they make what should be a huge, open interior feel incredibly closed and somewhat claustrophic - sit in the back and try to converse with the front seat occupents. Then again, perfect for isolating the kid, you just can't swat them effectively.
I had a 1974 Coupe DeVille as my first car. (admittedly it was in rather mediocre shape when I got it) I fixed the door pull strap probably half a dozen times, eventually coming up with more or less the same 'solution' GM did. Except for the drivetrain, the build quality left a lot to be desired.
My favorite "strange feature" of the '71-'76 Cadillacs was their retention of the "strut-rod" caster adjustment that had been a feature of GM cars during the 1960s and had been dropped from their non-Cadillac B and C body cars for 1971. My theory is that Cadillac kept the strut-rods to make it easier for limousines, ambulances and hearses to accommodate either bias-ply or radial tires, or even to switch between the two with the change of season. I know that heavier vehicles were last in line for the switch to radial tires, so it's likely that a lot of ambulances were still using bias-ply tires during these years.
Many GM models had very weak pull straps in the 70's , remember well replacing the sheet metal screws with much larger machine screws and was lucky it could be hidden by the cap that flipped open. The 71-73 Caddilac dash was horrendous with very cheap plastics an 83 Camaro could laugh at, IMO all GM divisions were equally as horrible but the 71-73 full size Buicks which seemed somewhat solid and tasteful. I owned a 73 DeVille and the ride alone was unmatched by any other car Ive owed before or since, just a perfect cloud.
I remember those stupid door pulls. I was 17, parking cars. Every Caddy I got in they'd be broken in year or 2 old cars. It wasn't the door sagging, they were just poorly made.
My late father's '71 Calais coupe snapped those door pulls somewhat regularly without unnecessary force. They were still available from Cadillac at the time (1977).
Additionally, the pull straps on our '71 Calais were made of a spring steel, and they snapped at the pre-drilled mounting holes. Pretty "Cheese-Wiz" way to do things, but I otherwise remember the Calais coupe fondly.
I had a 1971 “Puff top” Cadillac Ambulance as a kid in high school. It had roll down windows. (LOL) That car was the birth of my love for Cadillacs. JC : )
These cars were so absolutely hideous.. it’s amazing people even bought them and the company survived. They’ve only modernized over the years by copying foreign makes, as they’ve always been far ahead of these hopelessly pathetic rust buckets.
I feel privileged to have grown up in an era when almost every car looked cool and had features to brag about. And that they were available in a wide range of colors inside and out.
@@653j521 as a child of the 2000s, I have no love for 2000s or 2010s cars. It was all just… awful… I guess I do kinda like 90s cars more than I used to though so maybe the theory is somewhat true…
A lot of cars had similar issues with pull handles for closing heavy doors, one of the handles on my 73 imperial broke eventually. The way the arm rests on the doors are made you can’t get a grip on them to close the door and you need to rely on the straps/ handles, which is kinda iffy if they are attached to a inner door panel
My best friend had a '72 Coupe de Ville- it was a gorgeous car. I tried closing the driver's door one time and the entire door panel came off of the door. Cadillac quality was not at its peak in the early 70's.
Have to agree. Lincoln, Cadillac, and Chrysler built incredibly beautiful cars in the 1970s, but they were garbage otherwise. Yet people kept buying them. As a friend used to say about such buyers, their taste was only in their mouths.
I recall my aunt’s 1972 Fleetwood Brougham. At least two door pulls came loose on one end before she traded it in on a new 1977 Cadillac . And I remember when she got the new 1977 Cadillac, she tugged on one of the door pulls and said “These look much stronger!”
I had to smile when I saw this one. Know ALL about it. Personally had to deal with "no handles" regularly way back when. So long that I forgot exactly what they looked like until I seen the video. Too funny. 😂
My 1970 A body GM and the door hinges are still perfect. GM's hinges were the worst from the late 70's to the late 80's. People that drove them learned to lift the door when shutting them.
My brother had a '73 Fleetwood Brougham and yes, his door strap broke. Being a body man he was able to fix it like new, without just drilling a screw into it like the dealers!
I feel like these "egregious" shortcomings are an indicator that GM and Cadillac had lost their way. I believe that when quality suffers, leadership needs to slow down the production line, but Cadillac apparently did exactly the opposite. If you are short on product, you can raise prices. I think these decisions are usually based in greed. And often underestimating your customer. As a result the reputation was permanently tarnished. This happened 50 years ago, and only in the last 15 years or so have they regained that respect earned in the 50s and 60s.
While Cadillac is currently doing some amazing things with the Alpha chassis and the V-Blackwing series, I really wish they'd have stuck to what made them great in the 50s and 60s: supremely large, luxurious, exquisite boulevard cruisers. They didn't need to out-BMW BMW. So they shoved a Corvette chassis into a sedan that was never a real premium luxury sedan. Big deal. The last attempt at Cadillac being a REAL Cadillac was the 2014-2020 CT6. In all honesty, that should have been Cadillac's ENTRY level car, with them only getting bigger, more luxurious, and softer and more comfortable as you go up the chain.
Friend in high school had a $1500 1972 Sedan De Ville. Still my favorite Cadillac of all time. Just a bullet proof drivetrain no matter how much it was beat on. Suspension could take a curb or a parking block without bending. And you never notice sagging hinges when that 472 is to the floor. The best low compression beast of the early 70s.
Hello Adam, I think that you are spot on about the build quality (or lack there of on the early seventies Cadillacs!!! My aunt bought a 72 Coupe de Ville new & had many issues with it!!! It was truly a polished turd!!! 💩
Hi! I watch your videos as they are basically harking to a time when I was a bit younger. It is a great pleaser to see these beautiful cars of the 60’s and 70’s. However I notice you have an interest in the mid lines of GM and ford. I happen to consider Cadillacs to be the best GM had to offer. It seems from your videos that you don’t really care for Cadillacs. I’ve owned all three Cadillacs ,Lincolns and imperials and the cadys always felt much better and made more of an impression on me, nothing like looking over the hood of a 72 eldorado and seeing that wreath and crest. That being said, do you think you can do a video on the 1973 to 77 Monte Carlo? I consider them to be one of the most beautiful cars of the 70’s. As far as Cadillacs go…………hey to each his own!
I agree with you that the Monte Carlo of that era (for me especially the '75 my neighbor still has!) was one of the most attractive car bodies. Plus, I knew a Chevy better than Caddys and Lincolns because I wasn't surrounded by doctors and others who seemed to prefer to spend way more $ than necessary for a car. I sort of wish I had the opportunity to ride in full size Chryslers, or Caddys, or Lincolns, but I did admire some of them, including the early '70s vintage De Ville.
I owned a 71 Coupe DeVille in black with black vinyl top and blue cloth interior. It was my second Cadi and I loved it. Never had any issues with the door pull straps or any other issues.
As a former owner of a 72 Cadillac Fleetwood (triple black), I can confirm that everything Adam said is 100 percent correct about this car. They are beautiful cars, but the interior and the fit and finish is simply not there. And for it to be a four door, those doors were HEAVY! And you HAD to slam them. On the other hand, my 75 Lincoln Continental Town Coupe is a much better execution on an American luxury automobile, in my opinion. In that car, I can just touch the door, and it would close softly and completely. And to me, the Lincoln is just a more comfortable car of the era. Also, the 71 and 72 Cadillac are indeed VERY imposing. They demand attention when you drive up in one. I have scared so people when I drove that car. Everybody either thought I was a banker, an undertaker (had a few funeral directors try to buy the car off of me), a gangster, or a hitman. 🤣 Lastly, to be as large as it was, that car could move. Push the gas pedal down, and that 472 would do all the talking. Not a "fast" car, but eat up with torque.
I don't know if you noticed, but the door panels on the 2 door 1971 Cadillac is VERY similar to the door panels on the 1971-72 Riviera! In particular, the parallelogram aluminum trim with the door pull strap. I have pictures that show the amazing similarity, but can't post them here. My 1972 door trim panel had faux wood grain. I overlayed it with a very nice machine turned wrap with the chamfered boarders being a silver pin strip, which allowed the machine turned panel to blend into the chrome boarder of the panel. The door panels and rear quarter panels now match the machine turning on the instrument panel. Huge improvement in the interior appearance. I also custom designed and fabricated a rear sear center panel that curves up onto the package tray, with machine turned wrap like the door panels and a tri-shield Buick emblem. More eye candy and looks factory original.
I worked a" foreign car " assembly line for 25 years . The egregious quick fixes and quality issues continue to this day. They're main concern is profits and production numbers. Purposely engineering in dealer ship service issues.
@@Henry_Jones I remember a lot of Datsuns from the early 80s with abominable fit and finish. The interiors were bad enough, with the 810 having 8 or 10 plastic sections to the dashboard, each of which was a bit cockeyed. But the exterior trim, which I was told had been added after the cars were taken off the ship, looked as if it had been installed by a crew of drunken 8-year-olds. I think they were reliable cars, but you'd never know it from the way they looked.
GM used that door pull on dozens of models through the 70s-80s, I sold hundreds of when I worked in a dealer parts dept. The worst quality GM interior I saw was the 2004 Malibu I bought, like it was made by Fisher-Price not Fisher Body. I sold it for a Lexus, never going back to GM.
So typical of 70's GM build quality (or lack of). I can only imagine a proud, successful businessman's series of reactions. Oversized doors start sagging, then squealing, then resist closing. So driver yanks progressively harder on straps until it comes off in his angry fist. 😠
An uncle of mine who was a GM guy owned a 71 coupe, traded it in a year for a 72 Continental, the first with the Town Car package. He said the Caddy had all sorts of problems. He usually traded every 2 or 3 years but kept driving the Conti for 7, only to have my Aunt want to keep it. She drove it for another 8 years. He finally tried another Caddy with with 79 downsized Eldorado one of the better Caddys in my opinion, when it had the 350 engine.
Exposed screws are a good thing they make machines easier to work on. However, I completely understand how upsetting a cadillac owner would be to see screws drilled into their car because GM didn't design it correctly in the first place!
I've owned a number of those Cadillacs over the years, My 1st car was a 73 Sedan Deville, 2nd was a 74 Lincoln Continental, I've owned a 70 Eldorado, 78 Fleetwood, 87,88,91 Broughams and soon a 92 D'elegance... a slew of Eldorado's 93 - 99 , a 07 DTS.... and a bunch of 80s 70s Cadillacs... GM made some mistakes over the years, but they're generally decent cars
1971 Cadillacs, a "Flexible Flyer" in my opinion. The front end and hood you could see flex when hitting a medium bump in the road. Cadillac added additional bracing under the hood staring in 1973. The very early built 1971 model GM full sized cars had the vents in the trunk, and that was changed midyear to no vents in the trunk. A much less "sturdy" or solidly rigid Cadillac compared to it's predecessor, the 1965 to 1970 Cadillac.
We changed so many GM 70's, 80's door bushings that we stocked them and we were a tire & auto repair shop. When a 1960's, 70's Ford/Merc/Linc came in they never needed door bushings. The doors closed like bank vault doors.
I nominate the speedo introduced by Toyota about fifteen years ago. It was circular and right in the middle of the dash. I used to call it the cyclops. The idea I guess was that LHD and RHD cars could be fitted with the same speedo. Trouble was, it wasn’t directly in front of the driver so you had to crane over rather than flicking your eyes down and quickly up again to check your sped. I thought it was dangerous but the sales bloke said it was great. Then Toyota dropped it. Dumb idea, probably to save money.
I worked in an Atlanta Pontiac, Cadillac and Rv dealership 71-73 and it was my job to fix those door straps on new car warranty work. It was as bad as you say, the screws holding the straps were constantly getting loose. I used dum-dum to keep them in place and I didn't have any come back, even though it was a Mickey Mouse solution.
It was during this era that my Dad actually said he was considering buying a Mercedes. He was tired of driving cheap American junk, and ready to pay extra for the quality. Of course, a lot of people looking for quality bought those newly-imported Hondas, Toyotas, and Nissans.
The doors are very similar to earlier models. On the 70 Eldo the decorative plates slide off easily. The steel of the door has welded mounting brackets which accept screws to fasten the door pulls on. Its pretty much bullet proof. If the screws workeout you could redrill to larger diameter screws and reinstall the decor plates and no one would be the wiser.
Just the act of using cheap self tapping screws at all, especially on the higher end stuff speaks volumes about the lack of concern for the customer. GM "greedy motors" (short term profit over reputation). Arrogant to no end, thinking people would keep buying American no matter what. Just in case anyone is wondering, THIS is why the Japanese imports took over. A basic 1972 Datsun 1200, the cheapest car Nissan sold in the US, had far better build quality, actual threaded weldnuts in the doors for stuff like this. Imagine how fast Nissan and Toyota would've taken over if the metal wasnt so thin and rust prone!
@@twoeightythreez I had a 1970 Toyota Corolla. It was a complete piece of crap from top to bottom. Much lower quality than a VW bug. Jap crap. Most cars are put together with plastic tabs. They only hold in the factory. If you go to remove a part 9 times out of ten they will break off. Screws are by far more reliable but usually show. A lot of parts are just snap in, nothing other than friction holding them on. Some are only glued on. The Datsuns were all rust buckets. They had recalls for rust on the trucks.
@@twoeightythreez Back in the early 1970s I don't recall seeing many Datsuns or Toyotas on the road in the eastern U.S. They became more common after the '73 Energy Crisis. At first I think car buyers were put off by both the source (Japan) and then realizing their really thin body sheet metal rusted so easily, at least in the parts of the U.S. where it rains and snows. In the '70s and '80s it seemed everything new and supposedly cool started in California - and then the rest of the country was (often) punished by hopping on the fad wagon.
The driver's door pull strap on my dad's '79 Cutlass Supreme Brougham also came off. The screw stripped out of the hole. A larger wood screw sufficed and I could still fit the cap back on. The interiors on my parents' Fords always held up better. The GM's looked initially more luxurious, but always deteriorated more rapidly in our experience, no matter how you babied them.
I had a 1971 Fleetwood Sixty Special Brougham which I drove daily for 7 years up until the pandemic and none of the issues you describe. In fact a 2016 lexus lx suv hit me while taking a left hand turn as I was cruising at 35mph and his bumber came off while my paint just got scratched. The 472 is excellent engine but you its a totally different beast with lead additive and pure non ethanol gasoline. I had a 1973 3 way Hearse body by Miller and same thing no issues you describe BUT the door panels were made by the coach builder. Having own a 1991 5.9L 350 based Brougham and Eureka Hearse I would agree there is something they got more down with panel fit and finish over time.
In '82, our little plastic extrusion company made door straps for GM for a number of years. I don't know which vehicles they went on, probably Chevrolet. A nylon webbing material was run through a cross-head die where plastic was extruded over it. They were impressed with a grain, cooled, cut to length, and two holes were punched in each one. They had great tensile strength owing to the nylon webbing, but we had nothing to do with the installation. Just a little history.
I'm with you, Adam. The '71-'76 Cadillacs, all of them, had simply awful, cheap, and cheaply made door panels and instrument panels. A low point of Cadillac interior design and quality. At least the upholstery in these cars was a lot higher quality.
As you said, poor assembly quality and sometimes cheap material quality, but great and elaborate design! I remember my 1973 Oldmobile 98 hardtop, bought used in 1982. It had the same door straps, but to be honest, never had a problem with those, even considering it was nine years old already and it was a "two, gigantic and heavy, door".
My dad had a 65, 70, 72, 76 Sedan Deville ... even he knew that they got progressively worse. A linear descent in components and body metal. The strap fix was just Dealer Ghetto Preparation for the hoopties. I remember dad buying a new driver strap and removing the panel himself to fix it correctly.
You would think that GM would have addressed the root cause of the door strap failure by upgrading the door hinges and/or bushings. The solution of drilling a couple of holes and inserting what I assume are self tapping screws into the sheet metal door panel looks cheesy and likely not a very robust solution.
The 65-68 Lincoln Continental were far worse. Not only door pulls fail, the entire door handle box would break and the power window switches in the door box were very prone to short out. I know, I have had several.....
We had a '72 Brougham. Yep...the difference in quality between it and our '68 was noticeable by a 7 year-old me. Our dealer removed the trip escutcheon plates and drilled through the end plate that the trim plate snapped into. The only thing was...the screw heads were so oversized, the trim plates no longer napped over the end pull strap retainers! I think he dealer may have tossed the plates!
I'm often curious about just how galling manufacturing defects make it into final production. Then I remember. I've worked for many muckety-mucks over the years. You know, the soulless egotists who live to ascend in status within a corporate culture, even to the extent that sheer trash gets their sign-off, since it means they added another notch in the climb up. This is exactly why I've always loved Japanese automobiles. Their culture is stuffed with warnings against shaming the group, rather than excusing malfeasance for the benefit of key individuals. It absolutely comes out, clearly, in their automotive manufacturing. And in oodles of other products, for that matter.
@jasonrackawack9369 Yes, you're right. This dedication to quality that I mentioned isn't perfect. And, also, it's changed in recent decades. The Japanese are beginning to figure out our way of doing things. Don't build it *too* good. If you do, they won't have to come into the factory repair shop at the dealership. But still, largely, the cherishing of an honorable action is very Japanese, and it isn't very American. I have been a loyal fan of Toyota for at least twenty five years because of this. And that carmaker's statistical history of quality is the reason why.
Hey buddy doing the video - what's your name? Anyway, interesting. Yes - I have a 66k mile 1972 Cadillac. I am in Australia and bought the car in 2015 from a house in Gettysburg PA while I was driving past on my way to lunch one day. It wasn't for sale. I saw the car in the driveway with grass growing around it, then when knocked on their front door. Anyway, the rest is history - and after some mechanical work it is a fantastic car. Yes 100% agree on the pull strap. They don't actually pull out of the door (That would have to be from someone that has no idea) but the strap is actually thin spring steel. Where the bolt holes are drilled in each end, that's where they fracture and break. I have just broken one on the drivers door...I will replace it. Another not too - you DON'T ever have to pull hard on these straps - the heavy moving momentum of the door helps close it every time....just get the door moving, and the weight does most of the rest. Nice story - thank you. Fletch.
I had a black 72 sedan de ville. Had a wonderful 472 ci big block. As big as it was, it really hustled! Simple GM big block with a Quadra-jet, hella good!
$7000 for a new Cadillac. And, they give you bumper stickers, on the dash, and drywall screws, on the pull straps. Leave it to college graduates. To come up with these ideas. 🙄
So, woodgrain stickers in an early 70s Cadillac 'luxury' car - yet Rover in England, in their 'not luxury' cars, was using real woodgrain right up until 2005! Says a lot about Cadillac 'luxury' and quality right there.
And the Cadillac owner closed his saggy door with the exposed screw pullstrap, fired it up, drove to the dealer across the street and traded it in for a west German made Mercedes Benz.
After 50 years of not actually driving one of them, I finally realize why these two generations have the high-reach gear selector... When they adopted the "driver's cockpit" style dash in 1968, the radio moved in right behind the usual spot the lever occupies in Drive.
You should do an episode on all the different types of high quality hubcaps that were made in the 70s as a little boy my parents just couldn't understand why their son liked his hubcaps better than toys. I thought I might have been partially black. But I wasn't. On a road trip if I saw a hubcap on the side of the road I'd make them stop the car so I can go and get it and add it to my collection it drove my father crazy for a long trips.
Cadillac once boasted of being" The Standard of Excellence " , and at one time, they were. The build quality of Cadillac from the early 50s to the late 60s was outstanding. Sadly as Cadillac sales volume increased, their overall quality decreased.. Lincoln surpassed Cadillac in build quality, and quality of materials in the very early 70s. Even the Imperial was better. Unfortunately the worst was yet to come at Cadillac.
I must agree with you Adam on the low quality of these Cadillacs but I don’t think that the assembly line speed was the culprit. I worked on the final assembly line at Pontiac Motors in 1977 through 1979 installing left front fenders and our line speed was 86 cars per hour. While I don’t consider these Gran Prixs, Bonnevilles/Catalinas, Lemans/CanAms to be wonderfully built quality cars, the problems they had were not related to the speed at which we built them, but the short coming
with the engineering provided.
The problem with the door pulls was they were ONLY attached to the door panel and not through screwed to the metal of the door.
Simply poor engineering and not line speed.
Thats what Ive always said about the cheap poor quality of gm small cars (n and j cars). The guys on the line can only build with what theyre given.
Lincoln later did the same thing with door panels sadly. Decades after seeing Cadillacs make and regret their mistake with the unsecured pulls. To compound the error they also put storage compartments in the doors encouraging you to further strain the panel.
I remember going on a field trip in elementary school to the cadillac plant and watching these get built
My dad used to roll down the window to pull the door shut. That skinny strap was a joke given how heavy that door was. But honestly, we felt like royalty floating down the street in that beautiful vehicle.
I always thought the sheet metal repair on these door pull straps was certainly the work of the owner...I am shocked that this was GM's "solution"!
The pull strap was a hack to begin with.
Now look at G.M.'s "solution" of "automatic seat belts" from the late 80s - early or mid 90s. The 1990 Chevrolet Caprice (Segan and Wagon) both had it, among others. In short, *the damn seat belt was anchored to the Door.* Isn't that a potential *human ejection system* in event of the door opening during a collision?
... Oh, and look up how there are 1970s cars with "Landau Roofs" (roofs with a fake convertible top.) These would trap moisture, and as I understand it, G.M. Cars with a Landau Top (at least around 1971 - 1976) wouldn't even get the roof painted before the landau top was fitted. This sort of top was nothing but paying extra for less *roof life,* which is difficult for me to imagine myself paying *extra* for in a car. I guess I could imagine it if I was a car dealer who was going to make a profit by selling it to a collector who would put it in a garage, but *wow.*
Can you think of any much more normal car that has had roof rust, unless someone was careless enough to not take care of bare metal on the roof?
Well it's an absolutely GM thing to do. GM isn't afraid to be cheap af.
Ain't that just crazy !
Got to believe the door strip problems were not limited to this year or brand.
My 78 Olds Cutlass had to have its pull straps repaired and it was clear in the design that it was never meant to have a long life retention using a coarse lag-bolt style fastener.
My 1969 Buick Riviera was the same way, but the torque of that 430 CID engine was awesome!
My 1969 Riviera had the same problem. Unfortunately there was no other way to close the door conveniently. Head rests were actually head restraints, they weren’t meant to be comfortable.
Never had ANY Ford have these issues!
I had at least 15 new and used GM cars of the 70s and 80s, including 4 Cutlasses one with about 100,000 miles in it.....and never had one of those door straps break. Same with power windows. 17 year old Buick right now with 185,000 miles and all of them function as they should. I don't know what people do to them.
I once owned a 1978 Monte Carlo with the same door pull strap problem, along with a lot of other problems that plagued that car! So I got rid of it the first chance I got.
GM's fall from grace and eventual bankruptcy in 2008 can be partly, directly traced to the beginnings right here. You're absolutely right Adam: there's no way a flagship marque of any brand of any product, whether it's a car or widgets, should ever have a factory authorized repair like this.
I've always said Cadillac's "Standard of the World" motto was really applicable to their cars until 1967-70. That's when it all started going to crap.
It had to be really infuriating for Cadillac owners at that time, when they were getting out of a 10 year old Cadillac that in '61 was built with the craftsmanship and materials of a first rate, premium, precision assembled luxury car worthy of the wreath and crest.
Documenting the downfall of Cadillac could take years...
It did take years....
They lost their way when they decided to chase after BMW and Mercedes as well their stupid lettering for names. They did pretty much trounce both marques with their v-series, but forgot who they were. The only caddy remotely close to a true Cadillac is the Escalade.
Giant pain in the ass car to park and manuver with poor build quality and cheap materials. Its easy to see why people paid double for a Mercedes.
@@Henry_Jones It’s a lot easier to build higher quality cars when you don’t sell as many as Cadillac did prior to the 90’s. Conversely Mercedes is narrowly avoiding the fate that struck Packard when they built the mid line clipper or was it the 120 by producing a car like the “entry level C-class. Now there cars are what some here describe 70’s American cars. I mean BMW has plastic laden engine parts, Mercedes is a far cry from the w cars they used to make(I’ve owned 5 a 76 300d, a 97 300e an 87 s600(top hat roof)a 92 500s all excellent vehicles…….but now most bimmers benzes and Audis are all unreliable money pits. Give a 79 Seville elegante over any of those any day. Also in the days of land yachts….it was easy to park as nearly every other car was huge. A compact 1975 Chevy nova would be considered a full size car today. The trend for land yachts continues to this day, only its pick up trucks and large SUV’s.
@@Cadillac61 Another thing killed them is when tried to become a high performance car instead sticking to what they were known for luxury automobiles
sweet 71! my first car at 16 was actually my dad's 72 Sedan Deville, White w/Blk top/int. and he got a new 76, same model/color. man i loved that beast! flip the intake lid over, and cruise all weekend 🤪 and it wasn't a big deal for me to drive. i was already just over 6ft tall, and my dad had taught me to drive these big Caddys when i was 12. he frequently went on business trips related to his Pepsi business, sometimes i'd tag along.. and so he had off n on health issues, and he wanted me to know how to drive in case of a medical emergency. but a lot of times he'd just let me drive anyway if we were taking I-35, etc. so lucky i was already tall for my age at the time. i loved driving those big Caddys, some good times! ☮
My friend who always drove GM cars used to make me cringe when he got in one of my vehicles and slammed the door - he must have thought they were all that hard to close.
I still hate it when people slam my car doors shut! I also hate it when people click the "lock" button repeatedly on their key fobs.
Yes… an imposing and beautifully sculpted exterior design completely let down by the build quality and cheap interior that even a fully optioned Chevy Caprice could favorably compare with. This era began the long downward march of Cadillac’s reputation that it has never fully recovered.
Profit first, arrogance second.
This is totally wrong. Clearly, 1970s GM automobiles were the best cars in the world bar none. That goes for engineering, quality, handling and performance. They were heads above everything else in the world. Crappy little cars like the Mercedes W115/123 or Puyegot or whatever leftist hippies chose to buy at that time are unsafe, tinny toy cars compared to the pinnacles of quality GM made at that time.
Even today, American automobiles are by far the best the world has to offer, but the deceived public goes on and buys Japanese microcars like Corollas and RAV 4s. Remember we used to fight these guys because they're still our enemies. Never buy anything from an enemy of the American people!
@@Lokomowal I give you an A+ for satire.
@notfiveo does he agrees that the quality was really bad?
@@Lokomowal You crack me up sir. When Renault imported Le Car here and wondered why it didn't sell it should have been obvious. Who drives a car with a 3 lug nut wheel? Straight to le' crusher!
I drove a 1972 Coupe de Ville for a few years and hated the door straps a lot. They were thin and uncomfortable to use. The straps felt as if they were going to give out every time you used them. The car did have an overall flimsy feel especially in the driver’s controls and steering wheel. Previously, I was driving a 1970 Sedan de Ville and 1968 Coupe de Ville and they were both built like tanks and a pleasure to drive.
1965 Cadillac models represented the apex of marque. The Sedan de Ville I owned 1975-80 was impeccably designed and tastefully appointed in the finest grades of leather, fabric, metals, carpeting. I always felt like I should take off my shoes before getting into the car.
Never got to drive more than a couple Cadillacs, but my wonderful Dad owned a new Lincoln every 2-3 years through the 70’s. The first was a 71 Lincoln Coupe, plain light blue with dark blue vinyl roof with matching silk like cloth interior, with full power and climate control, arm rest in front and rear. This was also the best running, with a premium gas required 460/4brl dual exhaust setup. That on one night, in Sept 73, while I was home on leave from The USARMY, I was caught n radar by a Rhode Island State Trooper, in his big Fury I Interceptor, in none other that Lincoln, RI, at a staggering 129 mpg! I had just came up the on-ramp and just floored it and held it there till I seen the flashing lights, I let up and looked down and saw the speedometer drop below 110! I was like oh is Dad going to be pissed off! Long story short the Trooper was fresh out of The Army himself! Let me go with a written warning! The next Dad bought new in Dec 73, a beautiful triple dark green Coupe again, that ran fine, but the 460/4 had single Exhaust and didn’t run as well as the 71, only got to drive that one once, up to 110! But that was it. The next was the best looking, a dark president blue 75 Town Coupe’ that had a gorgeous padded white vinyl Landau roof that only covered half the roof, with four sided rounded corners rear side windows, with the Lincoln Crest in the center and gold leaf trim. With a dark blue leather interior, loaded with everything but moon roof, but a great sounding AM/FM 8 track Quadraphonic sound system I added a couple extra speakers to and amp, that really enhanced the sound. That car ran or I should say walked like a dog, smog killed 460/4 brl single exhaust dud. The next and last was a 78 Town Car Sedan, in triple baby blue with leather interior! That Dad kept like new for 18 years and 142,000 miles. I even got to use as a daily driver for a couple years. After Dad retired when the teamsters union put the family trucking company out of business, Dad strapped for cash fresh out of Court, needed a pickup truck for a small “Your Handyman”, business he set up. He needed some upfront money so my 5 siblings and I came up with the down payment and I signed a note with him to make the payments on a very nice and modest 1986 Dodge Ram D100 short bed 4x2, Slant Six Automatic, with a nice SE package, he got to use. So he lent me the Town Car he had paid off. We had them both registered to him.
Enjoyed your story on the various Lincolns. The 71 still had the high compression engine while the 73 was low compression for regular gasoline. You are right by 75 the ole 460 was a dog. I have a 76 Town Car and it does OK but certainly not the powerful car that they once were. On rolling hills it almost will not maintain a set highway speed.
@@jeffsmith846 yea the 71 was a fast beast. But the 69 Thunderbird he had before that, with a 429 ThunderJet 4 brl dual exhaust with posi was fast and kinda quick. The car he had before that I wish I had now. A 1964 Imperial Crown Coupe. In beautiful metallic turquoise with black roof and the smoothest black leather interior with translucent steering wheel.
@@kevinvoyer5053 You experienced some GREAT cars in your family! My parents had a 67 4DR T-Bird with the 428 and a 68 2 DR 429 T-Bird Coupe WITHOUT the landau top...yay! It was white and very sleek without that dumb landau...the landau worked on the suicide doors '67, which was Brittany Blue with a darker blue landau top. Both engines were great...the 428 was very smooth and almost silent. The 429 would pull your house off its foundations. Great highway cruisers. I miss those days. With 2 T-Birds at the same time in our stable , we felt, as my beloved dad used to say, like potentates!! All the best to you sir!
Well, let's say that GM continued to have door hinge issues even well into the 1990's especially on the "C" series truck line. With the late-80's models, we had to drill out and replace the entire hinges. Then the aftermarket came out with replacement hinge pin and bushing kits. Because of all the re-inforcements, for safety, in the doors, it made them very heavy. It's a wonder that any hinge could support the weight. I've changed bushings many times on GM trucks and multiple times on the same GM trucks.
For re-inforcing the door pull straps, I'm not sure if I've ever seen screws drilled through the trim bezels, and I worked at a Cadillac dealer and saw this vintage of cadillacs. Most of the time, before the pull straps were re-inforced at the factory, the end trim pieces would come off to access the retaining screws underneath them, and we would drill screws into the doors, then put the trim pieces back on. Many other non-GM makes also had problems with the door handles.
Most car manufacturers build qualities we down starting in the late-60's, especially Chrysler. Because of inflation and the increasing costs, they had to cut corners. Engines increased in size to compensate for the power robbing emission controls and lower compression ratios. Then fuel mileage became a concern and the first response was to put taller differential gear ratios in.
Door hinge pins and bushings are regular maintenance for old GM cars. Most people just don't do it. Even though it's cheap and easy to do
My 1973 Grand Am had the newer, longer and even heavier intermediate doors with the newly required side-impact beams (think '72 Skylark vs '73 Regal.) I remember replacing the door hinges about 130,000 miles, but I sure don't remember it being easy...
I absolutely love these Cadillacs and find them so much more appealing than I do the cars from Lincoln or Chrysler from the same era. I “repaired” the door pull strap on my neighbor’s 1968 Coupe DeVille by replacing the broken strap with an aftermarket part from the chain store. My grandfather repaired the door pull strap on his 1967 Electra with screws and friction tape. Years later he bought a ‘72 Coupe DeVille, I had a ‘73 and my aunt a ‘71 amazingly all door straps survived unaltered.
I had a 1970 Coupe de Ville where the strap leather had come loose from the piece of spring steel that was the actual pull strap.. I wound up doing a repair by getting a length of 1/4 inch rope and carefully doing a tight wrap around the leather sheath, working slowly from rear to front and tucking the end under the last loop. It worked well and had a great texture, and it was a half inch wider than the original pull that lacked the rope.
The materials and engineering may not be the best. But the GM design (overall, how things looked inside, door panels, dashboard, seats, etc.) looked so sophisticated compared to some competitive cars (which may have had more soft touch materials and nicer trim). I remember riding in my college classmate's 1972 Sedan de Ville and thinking what a nice luxurious car it was.
The materials and fit and finish may not be the best, but I’d put the engineering up reasonably high. The engines and transmissions are bulletproof, along with the drivetrain, and there is a silky smoothness to their operation. The HVAC system, particularly the AC, is great. The controls are mostly well-designed, durable, and high-quality. The power windows are fast and reliable; you could almost lose a finger with how they zip. Even the power trunk pull down is beefy and far better than the 80s/90s version. Overall, it’s a shame the build quality suffered from quick production as the looks and style are top-notch.
GM engineering was often superior to Ford and Chrysler throughout the 70’s and early 80’s. But overall quality was terrible and won Ford the market until the 90’s when GM would take it back mostly due to Jack Asser utterly ruining the Ford Taurus and botching the Explorer PR, two of the best selling vehicles in the country at the time.
Funny enough, some of the worst Ford and GM products were ones they co-developed together, particularly transmissions. However, the GM versions were often more reliable and had a higher torque rating, indicative of superior material choices.
An elderly neighbor of ours had as her last car a 1971 Sedan DeVille with that faux brushed aluminum trim. Her favorite car was a 1955 Series 62 sedan. She replaced that with a 1965 Sedan DeVille. And she never did stop griping about the cheapness of the '65, compared with the '55! Don't remember her commenting on the '71.
It would be interesting to hear the specific complaints, I always find it interesting what people said about these cars when they were new.
@@ofp8574 To be honest, I can't really remember the specifics. "Queen Mary" was always griping about something or other. The one consistent complaint was the lack of a steel instrument panel. She would never have gotten rid of the '55 if a truck hadn't sideswiped her and taken out the whole driver's side of the car.
Excellent video! Very informative, even for a ' cadillac car guy' like me!
I will say though, that these years were some of the smoothest, most comfortable Cadillacs ever made. Silky- smooth silent-surg engines and wonderful rides
My Dad bought a '71 Coupe new. It had the smaller vents on the trunk so I guess it was a later one. I know my Dad put some pieces of foam into the round holes on the inside of the trunk lid. I guess this had something to do with the flow-thru ventilation system. The car had woodgrain, not that silver stuff and he had the car for years but luckily never had a problem with door sag or the pull straps.It really was a stunning car. The color was Clove with a black vinyl roof and black leather interior.
I believe the fake wood came with the leather seats.
They are awesome, durable well built cars, don't believe this wingnut's cheesy video here. I've owned over a dozen Caillacs from the '70s including four deVilles and Fleetwoods over the decades and can say I never had major mechanical issues and were a dream to drive
@@everyhome9936 Thank you. I can only speak from experience. It was a great car as far as I'm concerned. My Dad was a mechanic and took great care of it.
@@ralphl7643 I think it was random. There were cloth seats with the wood grain contact paper, and leather seats with the faux metal contact paper.
You mentioned something about the 1972 headlights having the turn signal put between the headlamps. And I just realized that that's where they must have had the idea for the 1977 Pontiac Grand Prix's headlights. (Which is why I love the '77 over the '76 Grand Prix because it just looks so much better. IMO. (And of course the nicer hood emblem with the extra halo ring.))
I owned a 1979 Pontiac Grand Prix with very similar door pull straps. It was basically an every-6-month repair to re-anchor the pull strap to the door. 😅
I just ended up using some nylon braided string and it worked great !😊
I knew a guy who inherited a 1972 Buick Electra and it had bad door sag. It was so bad that you literally had to lift the door to close it. It wasn't as easy of a fix as you would think either. I had an uncle that had some money and he was big on Cadillacs. Until they downsized them. Then he bought a Lincoln and he said it was a much better car than the Cadillac. If he had known that then he would have bought Lincolns from the start.
I really missed the '65-'70's proud, chisel tip fenders when these came out. The V under the crest returned in '72 after 2 years away. The center hood chrome strip, too. The Calais had textured black plastic across the dash, but still had the fake wood around the wheel. The wood usually fell out in pieces after a few years.
I had a 1970 sedan de Ville. Bought new and drove for many years. One of the best cars I have ever owned. Never experienced in quality issues!
The 1969-70 Cadillacs were made of much better quality than the 1971-76's.
GM must have improved the quality the following year. I had a 1973 Cadillac with the same body style and interior. I never had a problem with the door straps or having any door sag. The doors closed quite easily. I had it for 13 years and it was 30 years old when I sold it. Note: the door straps were wider.
Yes, the door pulls were significantly different for 1973, with permanent arcs pressed into them and those weird mediterranean things hiding the connection to the door. They took a couple of inches from the shoulder room measurement, but they seemed more robust.
I have a 1973 Eldorado. I was driving it today and it is a smoooth riding car. The build quality of the Cadillacs did drop off some in the '70's, but I'm sure GM didn't think they would still be on the road fifty years on.
A friend of mine's father got a 1973 Coupe de Ville and I clearly remember those door pulls breaking off within just a few weeks after the car was bought!
The strike in the fall of 1970 threw a wrench into GM line up for 1971 with delays in production and delivery, and it delayed the 1972 intermediate cars introduction until the 1973 model year.. One of our neighbors bought a 1970 Chevy wagon instead of the new 71 clamshell, because the delays caused by the strike,, I've always liked the 71 full sized GM cars as it was before the plastic front neds and emission controls. My parents bought a 71 Olds 98 LS, it was fully loaded, but the flow thru vents on the trunklid leaked and the trunk was damp, they fixed the problem. The door pulls weren't all that great, ours needed to be fixed more often than not. It was also the only hardtop sedan my parent's owned. Our previous 98's were town sedans, and the 1977 onwards were also sedans.
I’m altogether too familiar with flimsy 70’s GM door pull straps. My ‘78 Monte Carlo had them and they also pulled out. I couldn’t believe how weakly they were attached. I then assumed from their construction that they were decorative since the Monte had cutouts in the armrests where you could pull the doors closed. I always had to point out to new passengers not to use the strap, lest it come off in their hand.
‘79 Caprice was the same way. The cutouts in the armrests closed the door, the straps were decorative.
I think the car looks a lot better with a full-length hood, though a trapped hood, with a squishy plastic nose cone, would probably be less vulnerable to damage in a minor collision. I wonder it the problem with the pull-straps could be blamed on their unusual length, which would tend to increase the tension on the strap itself. It would probably be possible to turn that to an advantage, if the straps hooked into the door structure, with the screws just there to keep them from unhooking, but if the screw was the only thing holding the strap, the tension probably just served to widen the hole and help the screw work its way loose.
I had a ‘76 and a ‘77 Cutlass with the same door pull problem. I was constantly tightening them as they would loosen up every week or so. Those cars had pop off covers over the screws that held them on. I’m surprised that the Cadillac’s didn’t and that the recall fix was to drill through the outer trim. My favorite Cadillac was the 1969 Coupe deVille. Starting in 1970, for a couple of years, Cadillac eliminated the V under the hood and trunk crest. I never understood why they did that. It just didn’t look right.
I've seen some of these with the exposed screw heads (often done less artfully than the exaple picutred) Perhaps because it was so sloppy I figured it was a shade tree fix vs. dealer. I also have a love/hate thing with those high back seats. The love is b/c they're not common (if you got the divided control (60/40) there went the high back) They hate is b/c they make what should be a huge, open interior feel incredibly closed and somewhat claustrophic - sit in the back and try to converse with the front seat occupents. Then again, perfect for isolating the kid, you just can't swat them effectively.
The '69-70's seats were even higher. My grandmother's '70 was all black. She had to get a '72 so she could reverse safely.
I had a 1974 Coupe DeVille as my first car. (admittedly it was in rather mediocre shape when I got it) I fixed the door pull strap probably half a dozen times, eventually coming up with more or less the same 'solution' GM did. Except for the drivetrain, the build quality left a lot to be desired.
My favorite "strange feature" of the '71-'76 Cadillacs was their retention of the "strut-rod" caster adjustment that had been a feature of GM cars during the 1960s and had been dropped from their non-Cadillac B and C body cars for 1971. My theory is that Cadillac kept the strut-rods to make it easier for limousines, ambulances and hearses to accommodate either bias-ply or radial tires, or even to switch between the two with the change of season. I know that heavier vehicles were last in line for the switch to radial tires, so it's likely that a lot of ambulances were still using bias-ply tires during these years.
Many GM models had very weak pull straps in the 70's , remember well replacing the sheet metal screws with much larger machine screws and was lucky it could be hidden by the cap that flipped open. The 71-73 Caddilac dash was horrendous with very cheap plastics an 83 Camaro could laugh at, IMO all GM divisions were equally as horrible but the 71-73 full size Buicks which seemed somewhat solid and tasteful. I owned a 73 DeVille and the ride alone was unmatched by any other car Ive owed before or since, just a perfect cloud.
My god how I envy you. You must have a giant warehouse where you store all these wonderful cars!!
I remember those stupid door pulls. I was 17, parking cars. Every Caddy I got in they'd be broken in year or 2 old cars. It wasn't the door sagging, they were just poorly made.
Yeah, the door sag issue continues to this day.
My late father's '71 Calais coupe snapped those door pulls somewhat regularly without unnecessary force. They were still available from Cadillac at the time (1977).
Additionally, the pull straps on our '71 Calais were made of a spring steel, and they snapped at the pre-drilled mounting holes. Pretty "Cheese-Wiz" way to do things, but I otherwise remember the Calais coupe fondly.
I applaud you for keeping ORIGINAL CONTENT on your channel, rather than loading re-runs of prior videos like "some" channels do.
I had a 1971 “Puff top” Cadillac Ambulance as a kid in high school. It had roll down windows. (LOL) That car was the birth of my love for Cadillacs.
JC : )
Daddy loved his Caddy!
He would pull the doors closed by reaching out and using the outside door handle.
These cars were so absolutely hideous.. it’s amazing people even bought them and the company survived. They’ve only modernized over the years by copying foreign makes, as they’ve always been far ahead of these hopelessly pathetic rust buckets.
I feel privileged to have grown up in an era when almost every car looked cool and had features to brag about. And that they were available in a wide range of colors inside and out.
Almost everyone loves best what they loved first.
@@653j521 as a child of the 2000s, I have no love for 2000s or 2010s cars. It was all just… awful…
I guess I do kinda like 90s cars more than I used to though so maybe the theory is somewhat true…
When was that?
A lot of cars had similar issues with pull handles for closing heavy doors, one of the handles on my 73 imperial broke eventually. The way the arm rests on the doors are made you can’t get a grip on them to close the door and you need to rely on the straps/ handles, which is kinda iffy if they are attached to a inner door panel
My best friend had a '72 Coupe de Ville- it was a gorgeous car. I tried closing the driver's door one time and the entire door panel came off of the door. Cadillac quality was not at its peak in the early 70's.
Adam, you’re doing great things and we appreciate YOU
Have to agree. Lincoln, Cadillac, and Chrysler built incredibly beautiful cars in the 1970s, but they were garbage otherwise. Yet people kept buying them. As a friend used to say about such buyers, their taste was only in their mouths.
I’ve also read that many people bought them out of habit, as much as anything else.
I recall my aunt’s 1972 Fleetwood Brougham. At least two door pulls came loose on one end before she traded it in on a new 1977 Cadillac .
And I remember when she got the new 1977 Cadillac, she tugged on one of the door pulls and said “These look much stronger!”
I had to smile when I saw this one. Know ALL about it. Personally had to deal with "no handles" regularly way back when. So long that I forgot exactly what they looked like until I seen the video. Too funny. 😂
My 1970 A body GM and the door hinges are still perfect. GM's hinges were the worst from the late 70's to the late 80's. People that drove them learned to lift the door when shutting them.
My brother had a '73 Fleetwood Brougham and yes, his door strap broke. Being a body man he was able to fix it like new, without just drilling a screw into it like the dealers!
I feel like these "egregious" shortcomings are an indicator that GM and Cadillac had lost their way. I believe that when quality suffers, leadership needs to slow down the production line, but Cadillac apparently did exactly the opposite. If you are short on product, you can raise prices. I think these decisions are usually based in greed. And often underestimating your customer. As a result the reputation was permanently tarnished. This happened 50 years ago, and only in the last 15 years or so have they regained that respect earned in the 50s and 60s.
It was a major drop in quality. The 65-70 models were when GM was at their peak
While Cadillac is currently doing some amazing things with the Alpha chassis and the V-Blackwing series, I really wish they'd have stuck to what made them great in the 50s and 60s: supremely large, luxurious, exquisite boulevard cruisers. They didn't need to out-BMW BMW. So they shoved a Corvette chassis into a sedan that was never a real premium luxury sedan. Big deal.
The last attempt at Cadillac being a REAL Cadillac was the 2014-2020 CT6. In all honesty, that should have been Cadillac's ENTRY level car, with them only getting bigger, more luxurious, and softer and more comfortable as you go up the chain.
Friend in high school had a $1500 1972 Sedan De Ville. Still my favorite Cadillac of all time. Just a bullet proof drivetrain no matter how much it was beat on. Suspension could take a curb or a parking block without bending. And you never notice sagging hinges when that 472 is to the floor. The best low compression beast of the early 70s.
The 1970s were an interesting decade for luxury cars, and I just cannot disengage from it.
Hello Adam, I think that you are spot on about the build quality (or lack there of on the early seventies Cadillacs!!! My aunt bought a 72 Coupe de Ville new & had many issues with it!!! It was truly a polished turd!!! 💩
Hi! I watch your videos as they are basically harking to a time when I was a bit younger. It is a great pleaser to see these beautiful cars of the 60’s and 70’s. However I notice you have an interest in the mid lines of GM and ford. I happen to consider Cadillacs to be the best GM had to offer. It seems from your videos that you don’t really care for Cadillacs. I’ve owned all three Cadillacs ,Lincolns and imperials and the cadys always felt much better and made more of an impression on me, nothing like looking over the hood of a 72 eldorado and seeing that wreath and crest. That being said, do you think you can do a video on the 1973 to 77 Monte Carlo? I consider them to be one of the most beautiful cars of the 70’s. As far as Cadillacs go…………hey to each his own!
I agree with you that the Monte Carlo of that era (for me especially the '75 my neighbor still has!) was one of the most attractive car bodies. Plus, I knew a Chevy better than Caddys and Lincolns because I wasn't surrounded by doctors and others who seemed to prefer to spend way more $ than necessary for a car. I sort of wish I had the opportunity to ride in full size Chryslers, or Caddys, or Lincolns, but I did admire some of them, including the early '70s vintage De Ville.
I owned a 71 Coupe DeVille in black with black vinyl top and blue cloth interior. It was my second Cadi and I loved it. Never had any issues with the door pull straps or any other issues.
As a former owner of a 72 Cadillac Fleetwood (triple black), I can confirm that everything Adam said is 100 percent correct about this car. They are beautiful cars, but the interior and the fit and finish is simply not there. And for it to be a four door, those doors were HEAVY! And you HAD to slam them. On the other hand, my 75 Lincoln Continental Town Coupe is a much better execution on an American luxury automobile, in my opinion. In that car, I can just touch the door, and it would close softly and completely. And to me, the Lincoln is just a more comfortable car of the era.
Also, the 71 and 72 Cadillac are indeed VERY imposing. They demand attention when you drive up in one. I have scared so people when I drove that car. Everybody either thought I was a banker, an undertaker (had a few funeral directors try to buy the car off of me), a gangster, or a hitman. 🤣
Lastly, to be as large as it was, that car could move. Push the gas pedal down, and that 472 would do all the talking. Not a "fast" car, but eat up with torque.
I don't know if you noticed, but the door panels on the 2 door 1971 Cadillac is VERY similar to the door panels on the 1971-72 Riviera! In particular, the parallelogram aluminum trim with the door pull strap. I have pictures that show the amazing similarity, but can't post them here. My 1972 door trim panel had faux wood grain. I overlayed it with a very nice machine turned wrap with the chamfered boarders being a silver pin strip, which allowed the machine turned panel to blend into the chrome boarder of the panel. The door panels and rear quarter panels now match the machine turning on the instrument panel. Huge improvement in the interior appearance.
I also custom designed and fabricated a rear sear center panel that curves up onto the package tray, with machine turned wrap like the door panels and a tri-shield Buick emblem. More eye candy and looks factory original.
I worked a" foreign car " assembly line for 25 years . The egregious quick fixes and quality issues continue to this day. They're main concern is profits and production numbers. Purposely engineering in dealer ship service issues.
Nissan!
@@Henry_Jones bmw
@@Bongofurry ha! I was thinking german first but I didnt think the plants had been here that long so I bet nissan lol
@@Henry_Jones place is massive, stamping plant just started up.
@@Henry_Jones I remember a lot of Datsuns from the early 80s with abominable fit and finish. The interiors were bad enough, with the 810 having 8 or 10 plastic sections to the dashboard, each of which was a bit cockeyed. But the exterior trim, which I was told had been added after the cars were taken off the ship, looked as if it had been installed by a crew of drunken 8-year-olds. I think they were reliable cars, but you'd never know it from the way they looked.
GM used that door pull on dozens of models through the 70s-80s, I sold hundreds of when I worked in a dealer parts dept. The worst quality GM interior I saw was the 2004 Malibu I bought, like it was made by Fisher-Price not Fisher Body. I sold it for a Lexus, never going back to GM.
I have a buddy that retired from Fisher Body, I'm going to have to use that line on him, he deserves it 😂
So typical of 70's GM build quality (or lack of). I can only imagine a proud, successful businessman's series of reactions. Oversized doors start sagging, then squealing, then resist closing. So driver yanks progressively harder on straps until it comes off in his angry fist. 😠
An uncle of mine who was a GM guy owned a 71 coupe, traded it in a year for a 72 Continental, the first with the Town Car package. He said the Caddy had all sorts of problems. He usually traded every 2 or 3 years but kept driving the Conti for 7, only to have my Aunt want to keep it. She drove it for another 8 years. He finally tried another Caddy with with 79 downsized Eldorado one of the better Caddys in my opinion, when it had the 350 engine.
Exposed screws are a good thing they make machines easier to work on. However, I completely understand how upsetting a cadillac owner would be to see screws drilled into their car because GM didn't design it correctly in the first place!
I was born in 72. As a kid, I remember many door pull straps hanging, one side broke. Cheap straps, and bank vault like doors...
I've owned a number of those Cadillacs over the years, My 1st car was a 73 Sedan Deville, 2nd was a 74 Lincoln Continental, I've owned a 70 Eldorado, 78 Fleetwood, 87,88,91 Broughams and soon a 92 D'elegance... a slew of Eldorado's 93 - 99 , a 07 DTS.... and a bunch of 80s 70s Cadillacs... GM made some mistakes over the years, but they're generally decent cars
Somehow this makes me feel better about the piece of crap that I drive -thank you.
1971 Cadillacs, a "Flexible Flyer" in my opinion. The front end and hood you could see flex when hitting a medium bump in the road. Cadillac added additional bracing under the hood staring in 1973.
The very early built 1971 model GM full sized cars had the vents in the trunk, and that was changed midyear to no vents in the trunk.
A much less "sturdy" or solidly rigid Cadillac compared to it's predecessor, the 1965 to 1970 Cadillac.
We changed so many GM 70's, 80's door bushings that we stocked them and we were a tire & auto repair shop. When a 1960's, 70's Ford/Merc/Linc came in they never needed door bushings. The doors closed like bank vault doors.
I nominate the speedo introduced by Toyota about fifteen years ago. It was circular and right in the middle of the dash. I used to call it the cyclops. The idea I guess was that LHD and RHD cars could be fitted with the same speedo. Trouble was, it wasn’t directly in front of the driver so you had to crane over rather than flicking your eyes down and quickly up again to check your sped. I thought it was dangerous but the sales bloke said it was great. Then Toyota dropped it. Dumb idea, probably to save money.
I worked in an Atlanta Pontiac, Cadillac and Rv dealership 71-73 and it was my job to fix those door straps on new car warranty work. It was as bad as you say, the screws holding the straps were constantly getting loose. I used dum-dum to keep them in place and I didn't have any come back, even though it was a Mickey Mouse solution.
I had almost the identical door pull straps on my 77 and 79 Town Cars, and they were never a problem. I got my 77 in 96 and my 79 in 06.
Ford’s doors were balanced and the metal that the straps screwed into behind the door panels was of harder strength
No excuse for this GM. The beginning of the end.
It was during this era that my Dad actually said he was considering buying a Mercedes. He was tired of driving cheap American junk, and ready to pay extra for the quality. Of course, a lot of people looking for quality bought those newly-imported Hondas, Toyotas, and Nissans.
Drooled over this car in books and magazines when I was a boy in the UK. Still do! Shame about the build quality issues though😮
The doors are very similar to earlier models. On the 70 Eldo the decorative plates slide off easily. The steel of the door has welded mounting brackets which accept screws to fasten the door pulls on. Its pretty much bullet proof. If the screws workeout you could redrill to larger diameter screws and reinstall the decor plates and no one would be the wiser.
Just the act of using cheap self tapping screws at all, especially on the higher end stuff speaks volumes about the lack of concern for the customer. GM "greedy motors" (short term profit over reputation). Arrogant to no end, thinking people would keep buying American no matter what.
Just in case anyone is wondering, THIS is why the Japanese imports took over.
A basic 1972 Datsun 1200, the cheapest car Nissan sold in the US, had far better build quality, actual threaded weldnuts in the doors for stuff like this.
Imagine how fast Nissan and Toyota would've taken over if the metal wasnt so thin and rust prone!
@@twoeightythreez I had a 1970 Toyota Corolla. It was a complete piece of crap from top to bottom. Much lower quality than a VW bug. Jap crap. Most cars are put together with plastic tabs. They only hold in the factory. If you go to remove a part 9 times out of ten they will break off. Screws are by far more reliable but usually show. A lot of parts are just snap in, nothing other than friction holding them on. Some are only glued on. The Datsuns were all rust buckets. They had recalls for rust on the trucks.
@@twoeightythreezyou are exactly right!
@@twoeightythreez Back in the early 1970s I don't recall seeing many Datsuns or Toyotas on the road in the eastern U.S. They became more common after the '73 Energy Crisis. At first I think car buyers were put off by both the source (Japan) and then realizing their really thin body sheet metal rusted so easily, at least in the parts of the U.S. where it rains and snows. In the '70s and '80s it seemed everything new and supposedly cool started in California - and then the rest of the country was (often) punished by hopping on the fad wagon.
The driver's door pull strap on my dad's '79 Cutlass Supreme Brougham also came off. The screw stripped out of the hole. A larger wood screw sufficed and I could still fit the cap back on. The interiors on my parents' Fords always held up better. The GM's looked initially more luxurious, but always deteriorated more rapidly in our experience, no matter how you babied them.
I had a 1971 Fleetwood Sixty Special Brougham which I drove daily for 7 years up until the pandemic and none of the issues you describe. In fact a 2016 lexus lx suv hit me while taking a left hand turn as I was cruising at 35mph and his bumber came off while my paint just got scratched. The 472 is excellent engine but you its a totally different beast with lead additive and pure non ethanol gasoline. I had a 1973 3 way Hearse body by Miller and same thing no issues you describe BUT the door panels were made by the coach builder. Having own a 1991 5.9L 350 based Brougham and Eureka Hearse I would agree there is something they got more down with panel fit and finish over time.
In '82, our little plastic extrusion company made door straps for GM for a number of years. I don't know which vehicles they went on, probably Chevrolet. A nylon webbing material was run through a cross-head die where plastic was extruded over it. They were impressed with a grain, cooled, cut to length, and two holes were punched in each one. They had great tensile strength owing to the nylon webbing, but we had nothing to do with the installation. Just a little history.
I had a 1978 Buick Lesabre 2 dr and it had door pull Issues, I fixed it the same way the dealers did with self tapping screws...
I remember these downright "stupid" door pulls as a kid. Even then, I thought, "How cheap!"
I'm with you, Adam. The '71-'76 Cadillacs, all of them, had simply awful, cheap, and cheaply made door panels and instrument panels. A low point of Cadillac interior design and quality. At least the upholstery in these cars was a lot higher quality.
As you said, poor assembly quality and sometimes cheap material quality, but great and elaborate design!
I remember my 1973 Oldmobile 98 hardtop, bought used in 1982. It had the same door straps, but to be honest, never had a problem with those, even considering it was nine years old already and it was a "two, gigantic and heavy, door".
Those 98's had a classy, limousine-style clock and magazine pockets in the center of the rear seat backs!"
@@PeterMcDonald-sl9rt True, the entire dashboard was one huge piece of design!
My dad had a 65, 70, 72, 76 Sedan Deville ... even he knew that they got progressively worse. A linear descent in components and body metal.
The strap fix was just Dealer Ghetto Preparation for the hoopties. I remember dad buying a new driver strap and removing the panel himself to fix it correctly.
You would think that GM would have addressed the root cause of the door strap failure by upgrading the door hinges and/or bushings. The solution of drilling a couple of holes and inserting what I assume are self tapping screws into the sheet metal door panel looks cheesy and likely not a very robust solution.
The 65-68 Lincoln Continental were far worse. Not only door pulls fail, the entire door handle box would break and the power window switches in the door box were very prone to short out. I know, I have had several.....
I had a 73 Buick and was surprised to discover that parts of the door we're assembled with WOOD SCREWS from the factory. Different times.
We had a '72 Brougham. Yep...the difference in quality between it and our '68 was noticeable by a 7 year-old me. Our dealer removed the trip escutcheon plates and drilled through the end plate that the trim plate snapped into. The only thing was...the screw heads were so oversized, the trim plates no longer napped over the end pull strap retainers! I think he dealer may have tossed the plates!
I'm often curious about just how galling manufacturing defects make it into final production.
Then I remember.
I've worked for many muckety-mucks over the years. You know, the soulless egotists who live to ascend in status within a corporate culture, even to the extent that sheer trash gets their sign-off, since it means they added another notch in the climb up.
This is exactly why I've always loved Japanese automobiles. Their culture is stuffed with warnings against shaming the group, rather than excusing malfeasance for the benefit of key individuals.
It absolutely comes out, clearly, in their automotive manufacturing. And in oodles of other products, for that matter.
I agree with that except the Nissan CVT transmission.....those were terrible.
@jasonrackawack9369 Yes, you're right. This dedication to quality that I mentioned isn't perfect. And, also, it's changed in recent decades. The Japanese are beginning to figure out our way of doing things.
Don't build it *too* good. If you do, they won't have to come into the factory repair shop at the dealership.
But still, largely, the cherishing of an honorable action is very Japanese, and it isn't very American.
I have been a loyal fan of Toyota for at least twenty five years because of this. And that carmaker's statistical history of quality is the reason why.
Hey buddy doing the video - what's your name? Anyway, interesting. Yes - I have a 66k mile 1972 Cadillac. I am in Australia and bought the car in 2015 from a house in Gettysburg PA while I was driving past on my way to lunch one day. It wasn't for sale. I saw the car in the driveway with grass growing around it, then when knocked on their front door. Anyway, the rest is history - and after some mechanical work it is a fantastic car.
Yes 100% agree on the pull strap. They don't actually pull out of the door (That would have to be from someone that has no idea) but the strap is actually thin spring steel. Where the bolt holes are drilled in each end, that's where they fracture and break. I have just broken one on the drivers door...I will replace it. Another not too - you DON'T ever have to pull hard on these straps - the heavy moving momentum of the door helps close it every time....just get the door moving, and the weight does most of the rest. Nice story - thank you. Fletch.
I had a black 72 sedan de ville. Had a wonderful 472 ci big block. As big as it was, it really hustled! Simple GM big block with a Quadra-jet, hella good!
I heard Caddy lost about 10% of their customer base in these years. Chrysler and Lincoln were glad to take them.
$7000 for a new Cadillac. And, they give you bumper stickers, on the dash, and drywall screws, on the pull straps. Leave it to college graduates. To come up with these ideas. 🙄
So, woodgrain stickers in an early 70s Cadillac 'luxury' car - yet Rover in England, in their 'not luxury' cars, was using real woodgrain right up until 2005!
Says a lot about Cadillac 'luxury' and quality right there.
And the Cadillac owner closed his saggy door with the exposed screw pullstrap, fired it up, drove to the dealer across the street and traded it in for a west German made Mercedes Benz.
I own a rebuilt 2005 Cadillac Deville, I have over 7 thousand dollars worth of repairs I am stupid! But it’s the smooth ride I ever been in !
After 50 years of not actually driving one of them, I finally realize why these two generations have the high-reach gear selector... When they adopted the "driver's cockpit" style dash in 1968, the radio moved in right behind the usual spot the lever occupies in Drive.
You should do an episode on all the different types of high quality hubcaps that were made in the 70s as a little boy my parents just couldn't understand why their son liked his hubcaps better than toys. I thought I might have been partially black. But I wasn't. On a road trip if I saw a hubcap on the side of the road I'd make them stop the car so I can go and get it and add it to my collection it drove my father crazy for a long trips.
Cadillac once boasted of being" The Standard of Excellence " , and at one time, they were. The build quality of Cadillac from the early 50s to the late 60s was outstanding. Sadly as Cadillac sales volume increased, their overall quality decreased.. Lincoln surpassed Cadillac in build quality, and quality of materials in the very early 70s. Even the Imperial was better. Unfortunately the worst was yet to come at Cadillac.