1984 Cadillac Fleetwood Limousine

Last of the Rear Wheel Drives​ David: 303.947.0444

This Cadillac limousine was owned by the owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs. He was a self-made man, and of Greek heritage. He prided himself as being an everyman but lived like a Greek God. One of the things that he did was drive himself to work every day. However, when it was time to go drinking, this is the car that he took and his house boy/butler drove the car. So, this was his party car. He has an interest in not only hockey, but he also owned racing horses and as I found tout sheet in the trunk and I investigated his history. The 84 Cadillac limousines were the last of the rear wheel drive Cadillac Limousines built at the Cadillac factory. In 85, they switched over to the ugly front wheel drive model which never lent itself to the limo treatment. The later rear wheel drive limousines were not produced by Cadillac. So this makes this probably the last of the real Cadillac limousines.

Unique to the Limousine, they carried over the fiasco of the V8/6/4 engine that they had only used for one year in 1981 and then discontinued the motor and had repaired the problem by replacing the V8/6/4 in cars they had installed it in. The real issue with the V8/6/4 wasn’t its variable displacement technology, (used on almost every V8 car today) but that the electronics weren’t quick enough to keep up with the cylinder changes. As this was a large 368 cubic inch engine, it was very torquey and larger than the other engines in the Cadillac line at the time. They disabled the variable displacement feature and ran then strictly on 8 cylinders. With fuel injection and modern style engine controls, the engine is very reliable and pulls well, even under the load of a limousine.

This engine has such a horrible reputation, I don’t want it to scare off any potential buyers. The engine is actually a de-stroked 425 with different heads on it. Parts for this engine are still available through standard parts houses. Of special note, this car has 31,640 KILOMETERS on it which equates to 19,660 MILES.

Unique to this car is a huge host of options as obviously the owner ordered the car. The front compartment has virtually every available factory option, and to cap things off, it has the ultra-rare factory alarm system and the gas door security system. The gas door security system (pictured) is especially curious. I consisted of an in-trunk locking mechanism, which would secure the license plate mount in the rear which also served as the gas door. I was selling cars at t his time and we sold a lot of locking gas caps and anti siphon devices, as usual Cadillac dreamed up the most opulent way to secure your precious gasoline. In today’s world, again, this is incredibly funny as gas prices in 1984 were about $1.21 a gallon and even though I was in the car business back then, I don’t remember having mine or any customer’s gasoline stolen. As stated before, this vehicle has an incredible host of options not normally found on limousines to include, Twilight Sentinel, auto dimming, cruise control, tilt/telly steering wheel. The limo exclusive AM/FM front/rear control radio (when the radio is turned on it takes the control away from the driver and gives to the rear seat passenger), front and rear digital auto temp, remote control left and right mirrors, power trunk release and pull down, and the super rare security system (factory) plus the gas door lock.

When I purchased the vehicle, it had the remnants of a original car phone system in it which I then removed. The old car phone system was like a ship-to-shore system. Remember this was before cellular phones. You would pick up the phone, contact an operator, who would then connect you through the radio telephone that was in your hand. The units were huge and usually took up half of the trunk space. All that has been removed, there’s no evidence left of it, except for a small antenna on the rear window.

After purchasing this car, I saw to a number of maintenance issues, like valve cover gaskets, the paint peeling off the air cleaner, general touch up around the engine bay, and the hood insulator pad was completely shredded during a careless car wash so I had a new one made up out of a sandwich of vinyl and fiberglass. Anyone who has read any of my other auctions knows that I am an A/C freak. SO this car received the same treatment as my other cars, which is a complete flushing of the original R12 only oil, addition of R12/R134 capable oil with dye, a replacement of the A/C compressor, the addition of cooling fans on the condenser to make the R134 properly condense in stop and go driving situations and finally charging the system with the dynamic charge method. So now it blow cold, cold, cold on easily available and cheap R134. All fluids and filters including engine oil, transmission fluid, brake fluid, power steering and rear axle have all been changed out and or flushed and only premium lubricants added. Something that I failed to mention in many of my other auctions is that even with my super low mileage cars, I will break the sheet metal loose and realign all the gaps, making them better than stock. This car also received that additional attention.

As with all NGDCARS offerings and unlike most collector vehicles, this car is completely drivable. Many collector cars are just shiny, pretty things, this one is beautiful and is fully capable of being driven and enjoyed.

David: 303.947.0444

If you click on any of the photos below, you will be taken to a gallery of all the photos I have of this car.