1970 Cadillac Coupe de Ville: Sensational Sauterne Sunroof

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In 1970, Cadillac first offered a power sunroof on selected models. Up until that time, sunroofs on American cars had been rather limited in availability. After a small Cadillac run in the thirties, the option was limited to aftermarket converters. One of them, the firm eventually known as ASC (American Sunroof Corporation) provided Ford with a sunroof in 1960; it didn’t prove popular enough to continue, and the sunroof returned to post-sale conversion status until 1967, when the Cougar got one. In 1969, both Lincoln and Cadillac had small runs of factory sunroof options, with installation performed by ASC on a separate line, but in 1970 Cadillac went all-in on a power sunroof for several models.

Dave Smith
Dave Smith
Dave Smith

1970 was a great year for Cadillac. 238,745 Cadillacs were built for the model year, setting a division record. Why not? They were attractive, comfortable, powerful. And the Cadillac name still had plenty of cachet.

Dave Smith

The Coupe de Ville had a good year in particular, with 76,043 of the $5,884 luxocruisers built. But what’s a Cadillac without options? I’m sure many of them went out the door for seven grand and up.

Dave Smith

For those who selected the sunroof, a switch was installed to the left of the steering column, just above the climate control panel. The automatic climate control was another pricey option, at $516, but it was a popular option. Other options included cruise control ($95), a rear window defogger ($26-37, depending on the model), Twilight Sentinel ($37) and leather upholstery ($156-184, again depending on the model). Cadillac advised its dealers to pair the six-way power seat with sunroofs, noting a slight decrease in available headroom that could be rectified by lowering the seat.

Dave Smith

The featured car is painted in Sauterne metallic, paint code #64. I’ve seen many 1970 Cadillacs, in person and online, and had never seen this color before. With the matching vinyl roof and leather interior, it’s pretty sharp. There was a veritable cornucopia of color choices on 1970 Cadillacs. San Mateo Red. Byzantine Gold. Phantom Gray. Nottingham Green Firemist. Cinnamon Firemist. Chateau Mauve Firemist. It was truly a different time!

Dave Smith

I’ve always loved the styling of the 1970 Cadillacs. While technically it was just a mild refreshing of the 1969 model, I think those minor revisions made it look even better. The bigger, veed taillights (although the lower lens was just a reflector, not a lamp), the new grille, the wheel covers, etc. Just pleasing lines and details, in your Brougham-obsessed author’s opinion.

GM

The sunroof was a $626 option, a considerable sum when the least expensive Cadillac was the Calais two-door hardtop, at $5,637. Although you couldn’t get a Calais with the sunroof, as the Calais could not be equipped with a factory vinyl top and the vinyl top was a mandatory additional option.

GM

Availability was limited to the Fleetwood Eldorado, De Ville series (as long as they had the required vinyl roof), and Fleetwood Brougham. Although not strictly required for the sunroof option, the Six-Way power seat was recommended by Cadillac.

Dave Smith

And each 1970 Cadillac was powered by the mighty, torque-tastic 472 CID V8, with 375 hp at 4400 rpm. Eldorados got even more oomph with a 500 CID V8 with 400 hp. They might have been big, plush luxury cars, but they could giddy up with the best of them!

Dave Smith

Note: Special thanks to Dave Smith for providing the pictures. Some time back, I ran across two of the photos in this article on a Facebook post. As it turns out, Dave saved the online auction pics from back in 2015, prettied them up via Photoshop, and emailed them to me. Thank you, sir!

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Comments

    I love this beautiful Cadillac I’ve seen it before or photos of it anyway, I was just curious to know as I’ve never seen any other car other than this one with the factory sunroof does anyone know how many sunrooms were actually ordered on 1970 cadillacs? Are there any statistics that tell how many actually were manufactured with the Sun or the option from asc? How many survivors there are left with this option in existence? 1970 is my favorite year of the 70s Cadillac models, we had a 1970 hard top sedan DeVille when I was in high school, it was 8 years old at the time it was Corinthian blue with a white vinyl top, with a light blue leather interior, it was very cool it had which I didn’t know was called at the time seats and it had most options rear defrost are defogger, power door locks, climate control, electric trunk and pull down, Twilight sentinel, tilton telescopes steering wheel, Cruise control, AM/FM signal seeking stereo radio very well optioned but as I said didn’t know or think too much about these options as I thought all Cadillacs have these features turned out later after it was sold although I want to keep it for my first car as I learned to drive to in 1978 and I took it to high school with me lol, my mother would not let me keep it because she said it was going to be too expensive to put gas in and the maintenance on it so being a 16 year old that didn’t know a thing listen to my mother in the car went I think it was sold for $800 I wish I could have that car today I’m sure it doesn’t even exist anymore was probably wrecked years later or garbage at the scrap yard or something thanks for any information on this vehicle I appreciate it very much.

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