Driving my 19ft-long 1967 Cadillac in drizzly Britain was a Hollywood fantasy

My first car was a Cadillac, and my brief ownership experience seems today more like a Hollywood fantasy than a serene cruise through Britain’s drizzle in 1989. A 1967 Deville convertible, it did 10mpg because of its gigantic, 7.2-litre V8 engine and at almost 19ft long and 6.6ft wide it was truly a bollard-scraper. On a memorable holiday driving from London to Barcelona it never missed a beat. And because of its tank-like construction, all its ageing gadgets – folding roof and electric windows included – still worked a treat. It made the A66 feel like Route 66 - even if the running costs meant I had trouble paying the rent! When, occasionally, a flat battery meant it wouldn’t burble into life, a chortling AA man would appear and almost destroy his own van by jump-starting it.

Elvis Presley wasn’t so patient. When his 1968 Eldorado – one of several Cadillacs owned by ‘The King’ – refused to fire up, he whipped out his gun and blew a hole in its gleaming gold paintwork. Yet, however iconic the brand, Cadillac has tried and failed to crack the UK car market for an extraordinary 120 years. Now it’s about to try again. Cadillac began readying its opulent Lyriq electric model for this country last year. General Motors Europe boss Pere Brugal stated: “It is one of the [markets] that we're focusing on right now.”

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And this week General Motors – Cadillac’s US parent company – announced its official UK distributor as General Motors Speciality Vehicles, in partnership with London prestige car company Clive Sutton. It’s likely to offer the Lyriq, Vistiq and Optiq electric SUVs, alongside the petrol-powered Escalade limousine, a vehicle Mr Sutton has been selling discreetly for many years in small numbers. Prices are also unknown, although could start at around £70,000.

Finally, it seems, owning a Cadillac is going to make sense for the UK’s luxury vehicle drivers. But forget the gas-guzzling leviathans of the past, perpetuating the American dream - like Danny DeVito’s 1987 Tin Men and Patrick Dempsey’s Coupe De Ville in 1990. The new models coming our way are all-electric, packed with fancy tech, and no bigger than typical SUVs.

Cadillac was founded in 1902 in Detroit, Michigan, USA by Henry M Leland, an entrepreneur and inventor of the mechanical hair-clipper. He named the brand after Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, French founder of Detroit city.

The high-quality cars came to Britain in 1903 and soon won the prestigious Dewar Trophy for technical achievements; once for their electric starter motors and again for the way all components were fully interchangeable between cars, demonstrating their exacting manufacture.

In 1915 Cadillac introduced the world’s first mass-produced V8 engine, and in 1930 it became the first – and still only – make to offer super-luxury cars with 8, 12- and 16-cylinder engines. Every prosperous American individual, from the titans of Wall Street to the mobsters of Chicago, wanted a Cadillac.

By the end of the 1950s, its biggest models were well over 20ft long and sported gigantic tail fins, inspired by US Air Force fighter jets - serving no practical purpose other than to impress your neighbours.

The 1959 Deville in bright pink convertible form became an icon of pop culture, later inspiring the title of Clint Eastwood’s movie, Pink Cadillac, while also appearing in countless song lyrics and pop videos.

From the 1930s to the 1980s, tiny numbers of Cadillacs were sold in Britain, through the single Mayfair showroom of agent Lendrum & Hartman. With massive tariffs and unfeasibly expensive running costs, they were only for the attention-craving super-rich, such as actress Diana Dors and JCB digger tycoon Joe Bamford.

By 1970 engine sizes had reached preposterous proportions, with the biggest a locomotive-like 8.2-litre, although the end of cheap petrol in the US caused by the 1970s fuel crisis forced Cadillac into a rethink.

Its 1975 Seville was supposed to be a more ‘European-style’ compact saloon, although still as large as Britain’s Jaguar XJ6. It was the first American car to run sweetly on unleaded petrol. A crude conversion to right-hand drive was attempted but, once again, the Seville sold in penny numbers in Britain.

With simmering frustration at its inability to exploit the booming UK luxury car market, Cadillac made another determined attempt in 1997 with an all-new Seville – designed from the start to have both left and right-hand drive, and featuring a 300bhp V8 engine driving the front wheels.

It was simultaneously unveiled at the London and Tokyo motor shows, and then offered for sale through a dozen Vauxhall dealers and was three times as thrifty on fuel as my tatty old Deville. But the venture was a slam-dunking failure. With very few sold, after just three years Cadillac gave up on British sales.

Its next comeback was in 2006, with hopes to conquer Europe with a car actually built here: the BLS. It was, in effect, a redesigned Saab 9-3, and while its size better suited the British roadscape, ironically it became the first Cadillac car never to be sold in North America.

Again, it failed to ignite sales, and in three years fewer than 8,000 examples found owners. Little better luck befell the larger Cadillac CTS which, in high-performance CTS-V form, was praised by the usually sceptical Autocar magazine as ‘maybe the best American saloon ever made’.

UK drivers and carbuyers proved stubbornly resistant to the allure of the Cadillac name (unlike rap stars, whose lyrics namecheck the Cadillac Escalade more than any other single car). Its cars have been hard to shift, just as Robin Williams found in his role in the 1990 film comedy Cadillac Man.

Many people, therefore, may find the list of motoring innovations pioneered by Cadillac surprising. Dozens of things we take for granted today first appeared in a Cadillac. This includes the world‘s first fully-synchromesh gearbox in 1929, air conditioning in 1941, power steering in 1954, and headlights automatically activated at dusk in 1964. It was only the second car brand in the world to offer a fully automatic gearbox, in 1938.

One feature that remained unique to Cadillac was the fitting, in 1957, of a bottle of Arpege perfume in the dashboard of the Eldorado Brougham limited edition model! Whether the Cadillac will finally exude the sweet smell of success this time round, however, is hotly debated.

Autocar news editor Will Rimell says: “The firm will enter the UK market as an unknown to many buyers – and maybe that's a good thing. This could be as good a time as any for Caddy to try its luck in the UK.” Richard Truett, senior reporter at US car industry ’bible’ Automotive News remains sceptical, saying: “Because of past infractions, Cadillac carries a lot of baggage in Europe.”

Personally, I just long for the return of huge fins, gleaming chrome, six sumptuous seats and a convertible top, although I’d happily trade sloshing in 24 gallons – that’s 109 litres – of petrol each refuel stop for a wallet-friendly electric motor to keep enjoying the Cadillac lifestyle.

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