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The El Dorado was a car meant to inspire images of wealth and status. In fact borrowing the name from the legendary and never found city of "El Dorado" that Quesada tried in vain to claim for his mother country did just that.

1953 was the first year of the convertible Eldorado which soon came to symbolize the pinnacle of American luxury cars. The price in 1953 was so high, just under 600 units were sold, and you could have bought two Corvettes for it! But it did come with every conceivable option of it's day, so there was little room left to complain about the price when you sat in it.

But it is the 1959 Eldorado that is a universally recognized automobile. With the biggest tailfins ever produced, and a length that rivaled most yachts, this was a highway cruiser of epic proportions. But I prefer the '64 with its tailfins trimmed and the curves straightened up a bit, this car seems to go on forever, with a hood that weighs more than a grown man, and the gasoline appetite of any two cars. It was a convertible that you could easily fit six people in, and stuff up to eight friendly people and still be able to operate the thing.

1967 saw the disappearance of the convertible option and the demise of a truly distinctive floorplan as the Eldorado was essentially a front wheel drive highly-optioned Toronado from Oldsmobile. It was however, a pretty cool, if not mean looking coupe, especially with the hidden headlights.

1971 saw a larger body and a return tot eh convertible. In fact in 1976, Cadillac announced the "end" of the convertible option, a sales technique that served it well, until of course, the convertible was brought back in 1984.

During the early eighties we saw a diesel and an ill-fated V8-6-4 concept that hindered the image of the Eldorado, but things would change and the car would continue on down until the present day.

The nineties saw a resurgence in performance to match the luxury with the inclusion of the Northstar V8, an engine that delivered close to three hundred horsepower, and is in fact used to this day, with slightly more performance.

The Eldorado has had a long and winding road from its high priced beginnings in the post-war era, to the sixties where the car grew to new heights in size and engine displacement, through the tough fuel crunched seventies, the eighties which all Eldorado fans would like to forget, the nineties where things turned around, to the end of the marque in 2002.

The question on everybody's mind is whether or not the Eldorado will remain in the grave, or will it be revived as the convertible was before it?

Learn more about this author, M.L. Brooke.
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