1976 Cadillac Eldorado Convertible.  500CID -14K miles.  I am particularly proud of this stunning color combination 1976 Cadillac Eldorado Convertible.  This Firethorn Firemist Red Eldorado has had only one owner and has covered a very brief 14,882 miles since new.  We have the original owner's title and the complete history is a known entity; this is no mystery ship.  This car was purchased in Birmingham, Alabama and lived there its whole life until coming to my home in sunny, dry, Santa Fe, NM to go into my collection.  This is a southern, rust free car that was cherished by its one previous owner and only sold on the owner's death bed.  This lucky Eldorado also still boasts its original paint in stunning condition as you can see in the photos.  The interior has no cracks, no tears, no fading, and to top it all off the floor mats are brand new since the original owner was smart enough to place GM red mats over the factory ones.

The 1976 Eldorado Convertible is really an American Icon and many people knew that back in 1976 when this large car was discontinued in its convertible form.  There were MANY of these cars saved and with a phone call tomorrow and the right amount of money, both you and I can have a brand new one of these with the window sticker on it and no miles.  It is one of the solid collector cars you still obtain new without having to search the world for years.  Now the bad part on the 76 was that these cars did not survive time as well as the amount of cars saved as new. Only a few really did.  I am the FIRST guy to preach low miles and low #s on the odometer, but you have take into consideration proper storage of these cars over their lives.  People buying a "conceptual" car with "0" miles sometimes overlook the really good ones with a few miles on them that many times are in better shape than the 0 mile specimens.  The thing about the 76 is that many people outside the car hobby bought these cars new and put them away not knowing the damage they did to them due to sheer ignorance of storing and collecting an automobile.  This car is fortunately NOT one of them, thus the main reason you see it in the collection.  Although I know of a handful of conceptually better 76 cars in nice collections showing 0 miles, I know of 100+ worse cars with 0 miles too that suffered storage damage, humidity, heat and worse. 

Back in 1976 it was kind of a publicized craze to buy and save one of these last big convertibles.   It was America's Bicentennial year and also the last year that a convertible was supposed to be made again.. EVER.  The convertibles' discontinuance was fueled by the hyper conservative political figure Ralph Nader, who set out to save us all from cars that were deemed unsafe... like the convertible.   Off that sidetrack, what I am getting at is this car is a #1 condition car right up there with the best 0 mile examples even though its a 14K mile car.  Its more on line with a 2K mile car and has survived time ORIGINALLY and unscathed vs many that have not.  Yes, 100% original paint is boasted on this car.  This car has the hard parade boot too!

These Eldorado's drive so nice since Cadillac perfected the power steering to be light but finally accurate.  The brakes are four wheel disc brakes that take the worry out of the occasional drive on a clear Sunday in a small town, and the ride and handling is better than 95% of the population realizes.  Trunk and spare are perfect and original as well as the jack, wood chuck, and crow bar.  The car has never been driven in the rain and the underneath is as good as a 2000 mile Cadillac, and I have seen more than a few being a Cadillac Grand National Judge.  I feel so lucky to have found this car and I believe this one along with my '82 Fleetwood need to go to the next Cadillac Grand National and take home another round of 1st place trophies again.