Cadillac Eldorado Brougham 1968

Bill Mitchell first melded Ferrari and Rolls-Royce styling into the 1963 Buick Riviera. Next came the front-drive 1966 Oldsmobile Toronado. Then the 1967 Cadillac Fleetwood Eldorado reached for the apex of General Motors style, luxury, and performance.

Like the Toronado, the Eldorado was a front-drive, "personal" two-door luxury hardtop. It shared its basic bodyshell with the Toronado and the rear-drive '66-on Riviera. The Caddy was gorgeous, with creased, deep-draw body panels and a presence that suggested bold, regal sportiness, the kind of car made for an architect, brain surgeon, or NFL coach. Cadillac later reused its concave trunklid panel design on the 1999 Evoq concept car.

So we come to bringatrailer.com's listing of a showroom-clean 1967 Cadillac Eldorado on eBay, with a $10,250 starting bid and $10,500 buy-it-now. The seller from Oregon writes that it has 93,248 miles on its original 429-cubic-inch V-8, and is in excellent shape. There's overspray from its Flamenco Red repaint, some minor aging of its white leather upholstery, and no power antenna mast. It came with most Cadillac options.

Referring to John Gunnell's "Standard Catalog of American Cars," I estimate the $6277 base price was optioned up to $8080. That's just 30-percent appreciation over 45 years. But bargain hunters probably can do even better.

"I would imagine you could find one for well under $10,000," says Bret Scott, of Pleasant Ridge, Michigan. He counts the Baroque Gold 1968 Cadillac Fleetwood Eldorado pictured here among his six collectibles.

Scott paid just $2600 for his in 2004 and drove it from Boulder, Colorado, to Palo Alto, California, where he lived at the time. The car has a couple of blemishes in the seat, but otherwise is without issues.

Face-lift changes to the '68 Eldorado are subtle, but easy to pick out. The front turn signals/parking lights were moved from the lower front bumper to the outer edges of the grille, next to the hideaway headlamps. The hood cutlines are different because the 1968 has hideaway windshield wipers, which first appeared on '67 Pontiacs. There are round rear side-marker lamps embossed with the Cadillac wreath, and the 340-horsepower, 429-cubic-inch V-8 was upgraded to a 350-hp, 472 V-8.

Launch difficulties got the '67 Eldo off to a slow start, with just 17,930 produced. By '68, that jumped to 24,528, which remained a steady amount through the 500-cubic-inch '70 model.

Scott lists two issues with his Eldorado. In 1968, there was a fire at General Motors in a building where documents were stored, so he hasn't been able to get a build sheet, a problem for any GM from that year. "All the parts catalogs are goofy," he says, and he invariably gets the wrong part from Cadillac. Other parts vendors are more reliable; and in either case, parts for his car have been easy to find and relatively inexpensive.

An all-new, baroque-styled Eldorado launched for 1971, with a convertible model added to replace the discontinued DeVille ragtop. In 1976, the last year Cadillac offered a convertible version, sales of the two body styles totaled 49,184, with the downsized '79 Eldorado at 67,436. The first-generation Eldorado is as rare as it is elegant. Why isn't it worth more?

"That generation of car wasn't the smoothest of Cadillacs," Scott explains. Cadillac described it as a "sport styled" car, and apparently infused a bit of that in the chassis. What's more, it's not a classic cruiser, because there was no first-generation convertible, and the rear seat isn't capacious, as in a DeVille or Fleetwood Brougham. At 221 inches long on a 120-inch wheelbase, the 1967-'68 Eldorado is no compact, and a second door handle on the rear of each door armrest makes it easy to get out of the back seat.

Second-generation Eldorado coupes go for about the same money, while "excellent" convertibles tickle the $20,000 range, until you get to the '76 Eldo ragtop, billed at the time as the last American convertible, ever, and worth up to $37,750 today. The "Black Book" value on Bret Scott's car strikes him as high.