By Shant Jaltorossian
When I arrived at home, I most certainly did not expect to see this, let alone on the Fourth of July. If this isn’t Americana, I don’t know what is.
This, my friends, is a 1960 Cadillac Sedan de Ville. It’s not in the greatest shape, but I assume it got here under its own power. With a little bit of work, this has the potential to be something really special, I think.
It’s not often that one runs across a Cadillac of this vintage, even in Southern California, so this took me by surprise. Now that I think about it, I can’t remember the last time I saw a rear-wheel-drive de Ville of any sort. It’s parked near my house (you can see my car peeking over the bush), so I should really figure out who’s it is.
Antti Kautonen 
Joel Strickland 
Kamil Kaluski
Friends had a black 1960 Caddy a few years ago, not in pristine shape but drivable, somewhat like this one.
While they were at a gas station, a little kid came up to them and said, in awe, "Do you know Batman?"
Good to see on the road. In that condition it would scare other drives in town!
I don't know what you mean. A fancy matte paint finish like that is a £2000 option with Mercedes….
Dare I say it… I like the '60 Caddy's style better than the '59.
I know, heresy, right? No, hear me out. The lines work so much better without the '59's towering fin – the smaller fin of the '60 complements rather than works against. The chrome is there, but in a surprisingly understated way, at least in the profile. It's like the designers originally did the '60, and Harley Earl stopped by and said "no, MOAR fin".
Also surprised to see that this one hasn't been exported to Sweden or Germany. They have a real thing for older four door sedans, and the "USA-oldtimer" car culture is over-the-top.
I agree. The '60 is more tasteful, and the lower fins plus eliminating the two-tier design of the '59 grille makes the car look lower and sleeker.
It's looking a little low but that may or may not be intentional; the explanation could just be old springs. I had a '63 Cadillac like that once.
This looks like a good driver that should be restored. Don't let the rear doors fool you; all 1959-60 Cadillacs are highly collectible and definitely worth at least some restoration. Even as is this can be an upper four figure car, especially if it has a presentable interior and is mechanically functional.
I love it and I would drive it all the time for the two and a half seasons of classic car friendly weather we get here. A caddy in that shape could probably fetch somewhere between $8500 and 10000 here.
True that, eh? Classic car prices around this corner of the country are batshit insane. And the cars that are being sold are not even overly desirable to the average classic-car enthusiast – take for instance Kijiji Fredericton's offer of a '77 Pontiac LeMans for no less than $5000…. an '87 Cutlass "collector car" for $12k… an '87 Mustang 5.0 GT for $6500… a '90 RX7 vert for $6K, and $27 grand for a '70 Charger hacked into a General Lee clone.
Apparently some sellers think it's still 1996 and we're always at Barret Jackson.
People seem to have a hard time understanding that just because it's old it doesn't mean it's collectible or desirable. Maybe I should start hoarding 4dr malaise era full-size 4drs. They seem to be the only thing where prices are not incredibly stupid and they're becoming more rare as they're worth more dead than alive. No one wants to use them for dd's anymore either with that 9mpg hwy mileage thing.
Except that around here, you can't find them – they all got demo-derbied ten years ago.
The fullsize RWD cars rusted out and got shuttled off to farmers' fields and junkyards…. then the derby guys got them, and the junkyards got 'em all back.
Totally agree, especially on the fox mustang prices. On kijiji I have seen some fox verts as high as 16.500. There was a early eighties gt350 listed in the twenties iirc. The plain truth is that any car that has been here its whole life is suspect to me unless the car lived it whole life in a climate controlled environment.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpE3q5kaf1o