Cadillac Seville.
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A few days ago I posted an illustration of a possible future Lincoln Versailles. Which of course will probably never happen.
Back in the 1970s, the Versailles was Lincoln’s answer to the Cadillac Seville. The new Small Cadillac took the American luxury car market by storm when it came out in 1975, as a competitor to luxury models mainly from BMW and Mercedes.
GM is currently fully dedicated to turning Cadillac into a full EV brand using the Ultium platform. The Cadillac Lyriq is now the brand’s best seller below the Escalade. And the smaller Optiq and larger Vistiq are coming out soon. Even the Escalade will be getting some serious competition from the new Escalade IQ EV.
Cadillac is also currently working on 2 new EV sedans. However, unlike the EV SUVs, these could be exclusive to the Chinese market.
Either way, the name Seville could be revived for the smaller sedan. I know it probably won’t be happening and these 2 new models will have a name ending in “IQ”. But really, why not…
The first-generation Seville was a hit. Even creating a whole new segment for GM and others, the compact luxury car. Bill Mitchell’s original design still looks good today and was quite a departure at the time, with its very angular notchback roofline. Something the Lincoln Versailles tried to copy a few years later. Over 215,000 of them were sold over its 5-year run. At over $12,000, the Seville was also Cadillac’s most expensive model.
The second generation came out in 1980 and was a complete departure from the original design. Something no one would ever have the guts to do these days. Bill Mitchell decided to come up with an almost 1930s retro design, with a very distinctive bustle-back rear styling. Something Chrysler copied later with the Continental Coupe and Lincoln with the 1981 Continental.
The second generation was also sharing its new FWD platform with the Cadillac Eldorado. (As well as the new Buick Riviera and Oldsmobile Toronado).
It ended up not being as popular as the first generation with just over 198,000 units sold over 6 years.