Established in 1902, Cadillac is the fourth-oldest U.S. car brand, and history tells us Henry Ford was connected to what became Cadillac Motor Co.
Ford and his investors seem to have had a financial dispute, so he left company along with partners to form a new one. The remaining partners, William Murphy and Lemuel Bowen, hired an engineer, Henry Leland, to liquidate the company, but instead he persuaded the pair to form a new company and build cars. The company was named after Antoine Laumet de La Mothe, sieur de Cadillac, who founded Detroit in 1701.
The Cadillac company’s intention was to build a car based on precision engineering and stylish luxury finishes, and from the beginning its cars were consistently ranked among the finest in the United States. Cadillac was the first volume manufacturer of a fully enclosed car in 1906 and won the Dewar Trophy in 1908 for the most important advancement in interchangeable parts.
Other notable achievements involve the synchromesh manual transmission, the V6, V8 and V12 engines and the later V8 engine with overhead valves. Cadillac was well on its way to become “The Standard of the World.”
After World War II, Cadillac became the design leader with tail fins and wraparound windshields. After the war, Cadillac made front bumper guards that originally were to represent a pair of artillery shells, but as time passed and the war memories faded during the 1950s, these bumper guards became known as Dagmar bumpers because of perceived similarity to the appearance of the mononymously named buxom TV personality.
Through the years, people have continued recognizing Cadillac as the best. One might hear a neighbor say they bought a new refrigerator that is “the Cadillac of refrigerators” to impress that they bought the top of the line. With the popularity of imports, I think that expression is fading. Recently, I heard someone say they bought a new appliance that’s the Mercedes of washing machines.
This issue’s featured vehicle is a little newer than what I usually write about. It’s a 2011 four-door Cadillac DTS (DeVille Touring Sedan) owned since 2012 by Donald Petersen, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Peterson preferred the styling of the 2011 models and still believes the best styled Cadillac was built in 2011. That’s what he wanted.
This is Peterson’s third Cadillac, and he told his dealer friend what model and color he wanted. It took some time, but finally the dealer found this Cadillac that was then 1 year old, in an acceptable color and in excellent condition. It’s a big car, with a 115.6-inch wheelbase, Cadillac’s famous Northstar V8 and all the luxury features one would expect on a Cadillac like self-adjusting heated and air-conditioned seats and a GPS. The only feature this car doesn’t have that Peterson would like is a backup camera.
With a car as expensive as a Cadillac, one would think maintenance would be at a minimum. Petersen told me, though, that “Thinking it minor, about a year ago I had them check on something under the car. I was told I needed to replace almost everything underneath the car. The undercarriage, the springs, shocks, as well as new tires — period.”
Repairing the car took two weeks at a cost of $4,700, but I don’t think it’s fair to blame Cadillac. To many West and East Coasters, Iowa is just flyover country with lots of corn. Iowa has a lot of something else, though, and that’s snow and salt for the roads. Salt and steel are not very compatible, and apparently, the state of Iowa is very generous with salt on its roads.
Now Petersen’s car is perfect and rust-free and he has no plans to ever sell this best-ever-styled Cadillac. He’s also more careful to remove road salt from the car now.
Have an interesting vehicle? Email Dave at MOBopoly@yahoo.com. To read more of his columns or see more photos of this and other issues’ vehicles, visit mercurynews.com/author/david-krumboltz.