A rookie question

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David Smith

Well, I don't consider myself a rookie, but I am admittedly not an expert in all areas in pro-car knowledge. So I thought I'd pass on a question that was put to me by another friend.

Were any front drive Hearses built on the Deville chassis from 1994 through 1996?

I did a quick search through my photo archives and couldn't find any. Even an internet search didn't reveal any. A few later one, 98s and 99s, but nothing earlier with the skirted rear wheels. Just lots and lots of the rear drive ones.

So I pass this question onto the real experts. Did any coachbuilders make any on the 94-96 Deville body? Or have they all suffered a blown headgasket and been crushed by now?
 
not 100 percent sure, but.....

Hi David,

While I am extremely far from all knowing in the pro car world, I can say with some certainty that the Fleetwood Brougham rear wheel drive chassis were the only Cadillacs used during that period and when Cadillac quit making the Fleetwood, coach builders switched over to the larger version of the Deville FWD in 97.

It was really a shame that Cadillac decided to go that route, in my opinion the 93-96 Fleetwood was the last true Cadillac.
 
Rick Franklin said:
there have been funeral coaches built on the 88-92 Deville platform.
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Rick, actually it was 85-92 Deville & Fleetwood that the FWD coaches were built on.

David, Their size was a big issue, they were much smaller than the RWD counterpart built on the Fleetwood Broughm, I assure you there are still many out there, I own a 1985 Superior FWD with very close to 200,000 miles and still going strong, the only replacements so far is a water pump, radiator, and basic tune up parts. I have personally put well over 100,000 miles on it.

Alll Cadillacs starting 1997 were front wheel drive.
 
John Royark JR said:
Rick, actually it was 85-92 Deville & Fleetwood that the FWD coaches were built on.

David, Their size was a big issue, they were much smaller than the RWD counterpart built on the Fleetwood Broughm, I assure you there are still many out there, I own a 1985 Superior FWD with very close to 200,000 miles and still going strong, the only replacements so far is a water pump, radiator, and basic tune up parts. I have personally put well over 100,000 miles on it.

Alll Cadillacs starting 1997 were front wheel drive.
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correct. The Northland Chapter of the PSC has an excellent photo archive on their website you can view to see many examples of these FWD coaches. fyi
 
I own a 1987 Eureka Cadillac Concours Landau FWD Commercial Glass with only 40,000 Km ( appox) 22,000 miles) on her....she runs GREAT ...the only problem I have had was my Drivers door window fell out ( didn't break thank god ! )
 
we may be mixing up the apple and oranges here the caddies were so mixed up in those years. the Brougham was the preferred chassis and the fleet wood was rear wheel drive with the 350 engine on the CC in the full size car. at least in the limos. then they did make a few on the FWD chassis. but it was not as common. they also made them on the 85 to 88 down sized fwd chassis that were front wheel drive. I would say it's safe to say someone built a Hearse on every caddy chassis offered during those years when they had so many different sizes and chassis. the had Sedan Devilles, Devilles, fleetwood and fleetwood Broughams during these years.
 
Matt wrote:
in my opinion the 93-96 Fleetwood was the last true Cadillac.


SAME WITH THE IMPALA S/S !!!!!
'96 was a fantastic car.

GM lost a lot of dignity by getting rid of these full sized cars.

Really a shame the SUV came on strong.

Darren
 
John ED Renstrom said:
we may be mixing up the apple and oranges here the caddies were so mixed up in those years. the Brougham was the preferred chassis and the fleet wood was rear wheel drive with the 350 engine on the CC in the full size car. at least in the limos. then they did make a few on the FWD chassis. but it was not as common. they also made them on the 85 to 88 down sized fwd chassis that were front wheel drive. I would say it's safe to say someone built a Hearse on every caddy chassis offered during those years when they had so many different sizes and chassis. the had Sedan Devilles, Devilles, fleetwood and fleetwood Broughams during these years.
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ED, the fleetwood was also offered on FWD, Christies dad had a 85 S&S FWD that was a fleetwood. Fleetwood Broughm was RWD.
 
I think you guys missed the year I was asking for.

1994, 1995 and 1996 Deville based hearses. Not the big rear drive cars.

I know plenty were made on the 1985 - 1993 Devilles, but how about the 94 -96 Devilles?

Were the only ones made rear drive in those three years? I've seen plenty of photos of 1993 and older front drive ones, as well as newer 97 and up ones.
 
David Smith said:
I think you guys missed the year I was asking for.

1994, 1995 and 1996 Deville based hearses. Not the big rear drive cars.

I know plenty were made on the 1985 - 1993 Devilles, but how about the 94 -96 Devilles?

Were the only ones made rear drive in those three years? I've seen plenty of photos of 1993 and older front drive ones, as well as newer 97 and up ones.
Click to expand...

Yes, those years the Deville were FWD but the hearses were only offered on the Fleetwood chassis which was rear wheel drive. So yes all 94-96 hearses were rear wheel drive.
 
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Darren Bedford said:
Matt wrote:
in my opinion the 93-96 Fleetwood was the last true Cadillac.


SAME WITH THE IMPALA S/S !!!!!
'96 was a fantastic car.

GM lost a lot of dignity by getting rid of these full sized cars.

Really a shame the SUV came on strong.

Darren
Click to expand...

Right on Darren! I couldn't agree with you more!
 
David Smith said:
I think you guys missed the year I was asking for.

1994, 1995 and 1996 Deville based hearses. Not the big rear drive cars.

I know plenty were made on the 1985 - 1993 Devilles, but how about the 94 -96 Devilles?

Were the only ones made rear drive in those three years? I've seen plenty of photos of 1993 and older front drive ones, as well as newer 97 and up ones.
Click to expand...

Hi David, I answered your question in the first reply on the thread. They only used the Fleetwood for those years and didn't use the FWD until 97.
 
And our 1992 FWD

So here is an example of one of the fwd's for you.
 

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Really!

Well I did look over those coachs as well because Todd said they were soon to retire. Both were very good condition last I looked at them. I was at JW on a mission and that was to find a coach that was the right size for Dawn. The 1992 Cadillac Elite is one of the only vehicles that she has ever really fought to keep. Several times I have asked if the novelty has worn off and still no loss of interest. I get the same answer that she likes how comfortable it rides and the interior suits her well. One more of those spools for the curtain rods and one more rod, we will on the road to getting curtains made and installed back into the coach. Just have to find the remaining parts we need and I can hear it now, she is going to say she liked it better without the curtains.
 
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