1976 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham d’Elegance: The Pride of ’76

This was it. The last roundup. Picture it: 1976. All manner of fine large cars were available, from Chevrolets and Plymouths to Lincoln Continentals and Chrysler New Yorkers. And Cadillacs.

It was a great year for Cadillacs. And it was all glorious sedans, coupes, and, of course, the Eldorado convertible. All cars! No trucks—thank goodness. Trucks? Trucks weren’t luxury, at least not then. Long, low, and wide was the style, not short and stumpy like 90 percent of cars today.

And colors! Oh, the colors. And fabrics. It wasn’t just black and tan leather, or some cheap-looking, mouse-fur fabric, which seems to be your only choice on many new cars. Want white leather with navy carpet in your Eldorado? No problem. Firethorn Red with matching vinyl Landau top on your Coupe de Ville? You betcha.

Or perhaps Dunbarton Green with a dark green padded vinyl roof with matching dark green cloth, as seen on our featured car. The Fleetwood Brougham was the top “owner driven” Cadillac. And while the standard Fleetwood Brougham was an extremely plush car, there were two available upgrades to make it even more sumptuous.

The first was the Fleetwood Talisman, which I devoted a column to a few years back. In short, it added a front center console with seats trimmed in Medici velour in a rampantly decadent tufted style. Outside, a padded Elk Grain vinyl roof and turbine wheel discs were added.

The original ’74 Talisman had been even more over the top, with both front and rear center consoles, making it the only four-passenger Cadillac available that year. But starting in 1975, the three-place rear bench seat replaced the rear, cocooned-console setup.

The second trim package was the Brougham d’Elegance. Like the Talisman, it had the exterior turbine wheel covers and padded roof, but the seats were different. This time they had a floating pillow style—Cadillac called it “Cadillac Contoured Pillowed Seats.”

As my 1976 Cadillac brochure explained, “The Brougham d’Elegance seats are trimmed in handsome Mansion Knit, available in Light Gray, Black, Dark Blue, Dark Blue-Green and Light Buckskin. Other luxury touches include Mansion-trimmed seat back storage pockets, deep pile carpeting, turbine-vaned wheel discs, opera lamps, 50/50 Dual Comfort front seats, padded Elk Grain vinyl roof and brushed chrome door moldings.”

These were, and are, imposing cars. The Fleetwood Brougham rode a 133-inch wheelbase (Calais and de Villes had a 3-inch shorter span) an overall length of 233.7 inches and a curb weight of 5213 pounds. Like all other Cadillacs except for the new “international-size” Seville, under the hood was a 500-cubic-inch V-8, breathing through a 4V “Quadrajet” carburetor—although fuel injection was an optional (and temperamental) extra.

In 1976, Cadillac set another record for sales (the previous record came in ’73), with 309,139 built for the model year. Of course, the all-new Seville played a part, but it was still an impressive number for a luxury make. All the hoopla about the “last convertible,” the 1976 Eldorado, probably also contributed to the bump.

As the showroom brochure extolled: “With its individually longer wheelbase (three inches longer than Sedan de Ville) … with its stately beauty that is both spirited and dignified … with its roominess and refinements for 1976, this is indeed one of the world’s great sedans. The ride: superb. Luxury abounds.”

The 1976 Fleetwood Brougham had a $10,935 base price (about $58,750 today) and was, of course, very well-equipped, even with zero options. The d’Elegance package added $885 ($4755) to the tally. A total of 24,500 were built for the year, but I was unable to determine how many were d’Elegances.

Standard features included Automatic Climate Control, Soft Ray tinted glass, an automatic parking brake release, quartz digital clock, a color-keyed litter container (mounted up front in the passenger footwell), cigar lighters, a visor vanity mirror, and the robust Turbo Hydra-Matic automatic transmission.

Fleetwood Broughams also had as standard equipment a signal-seeking AM/FM stereo with power antenna, automatic level control, and 60/40 Dual Comfort front seats—although that last item was replaced with the 50/50 Dual Comfort front seats on d’Elegances.

What’s cool about social media is that sometimes I connect with the owners of cars I’ve photographed (and ogled over). That was the case with this Brougham d’Elegance. Shortly after the show, I posted some of the pictures on the Cadillac and ’70s American luxury car groups I’m in, and I discovered that Jeffrey Montgomery was the owner of this magnificent vessel.

As Jeff relayed: “Back in 2013, I purchased the car sight unseen from eBay Arizona. When the car arrived in New Jersey it was not as described, but with hard work it turned out to be a diamond in the rough. The car is an all-original 40,000-mile car. I detailed the engine compartment in 2019. I plan to keep it all original.”

I’d say he’s a lucky man to own such a fine Cadillac. I’ve always loved these Fleetwood Broughams. I had a blue Pocket Cars toy version as a kid, and I guess we bonded (ha ha). I still have it too. It’s a little rough, but it survived to the present day.

As I’ve mentioned in other columns about cars at this show and the BCA show in neighboring Lisle the same day, my friend Jayson Coombes joined me at the shows, and he knew if he lost track of me, all he had to do was go to the green Brougham d’Elegance and I’d likely be there, snapping even more pictures!

In fact, another friend of mine, Andrew Bobis, was at the show, and at one point he took a picture from the CLC courtesy room on the top floor. As luck would have it, he actually caught me swarming the car—yet again! I was easy to spot, as I was sporting a coral golf shirt that day.

Starting in 1977, all Cadillacs (save the Eldorado) would be downsized, the first such time that had happened at Cadillac. The new cars were pretty nice too, but despite improved room and roadholding, they somehow didn’t have quite the presence of the ’76 and earlier Cadillacs. American luxury would never be the same.

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