“Fleetwood” was a nod to custom body-builder Fleetwood Metal Body Company. Cadillac’s parent, General Motors, had acquired Fleetwood in 1925 and placed its name on the top Cadillac models, a description that perfectly fit the 1959 Fleetwood 75.
The 1959 Cadillac Tailfins Become Legendary
Fins had been a growing trend throughout the American auto industry during the second half of the 1950s, with Chrysler and GM cars seemingly always ready to add height, glitter or both. Few enthusiasts or collectors are neutral on fins today and most have strong – and often extreme – opinions, but nearly all agree that a 1959 Cadillac is among the great icons of the finned era.
Cadillac didn’t have the highest fins or the most outrageous fins, but in 1959, it did have a completely new body and whether as a convertible or a hardtop, it wore the fins well. The roundness of the early and mid-1950s was gone, as was the curiously angular quality of the 1957 and ’58 models. In their place was a look much in tune with the early space age. Taillights resembled pairs of rockets mounted on the fins while huge backup lights were contained in pods suggesting jet engines at the ends of the rear bumper.
A false grille above the bumper connected the pods and mirrored the front end, which by comparison was fairly sedate. Its dual headlights were almost duplicated in dual parking lights at the bumper’s ends and there was no shortage of chrome, but it was the fins that dominated.
The Fins Seem Smaller on the Long-Wheelbase Fleetwood 75
A big part of the reason that the 1959 Cadillac fins were so dramatic was that closed cars other than the long-wheelbase Fleetwoods were hardtops. Whether a Sedan de Ville, Coupe de Ville, Series Sixty Special Fleetwood or Eldorado, every one lacked a B pillar and – as if it were a convertible – thus presented an uninterrupted sweep of sideglass above a beltline that directed the eye straight to the fin.
The Fleetwood 75, though, was another matter. Available as a nine-passenger sedan and a limousine with a glass-partitioned chauffeur’s compartment, the two were difficult to distinguish at a glance and both were typically referred to as limousines. Their extra length – 19.75 inches of wheelbase and 19.8 inches overall – precluded confusion with the lesser models, but if that didn’t set them apart, their unique greenhouses did so.
In addition to having the pillars that the other Cadillacs lacked, the Fleetwood 75s used much larger rearmost side windows and thicker, less graceful roofs that increased the height of the doors’ openings. The limousines looked every bit as large as they were, something that made the fins less of a focal point.
In Cadillac Limousine Tradition, the 1959 Fleetwood 75 Limousine Would be Chauffeur-Driven
True custom bodies such as those built by Fleetwood Metal Body Company had become extremely rare by 1959, but the Cadillac Fleetwood 75 treated its passengers as well as its ancestors had treated them. A Cadillac brochure explained that “passenger compartments are impeccably tailored in gray or fawn wool broadcloth or in gray or fawn wool broadcloth and Bedford cord.”
It even sounded luxurious, as did such features and options as the limousine’s leather-trimmed chauffeur’s compartment with its divider window and the air suspension, cruise control, air conditioning and Autronic Eye, a system to dim headlights automatically as required.
The Fleetwood 75 was clearly the spiritual descendant of the Classic era’s high-end Cadillacs and like them, it was obviously a close relative of its contemporary standard models; most of its options were available on less-expensive Cadillacs and it shared their styling cues. Beyond the fins and the rear bumper’s basic design, it also used the same front end and that enabled the other models to bask in its reflected glory.
Only an Eldorado Brougham Cost More Than a Fleetwood 75
At $9500 to $9700, the Fleetwood 75 was priced $3500 to $4600 above most other 1959 Cadillacs, although the handbuilt Eldorado Brougham four-door hardtop was most expensive of all at just over $13,000. Cadillac sold only 99 of the Broughams, but it delivered 1400 examples of the Fleetwood 75 sedan and limousine,
Cadillac called its 1959 line “an entirely new realm of motoring majesty” and the Fleetwood 75 “the new standard of the world in achievement.” It was far ahead of its American competitors overall and with the Fleetwood 75’s recognition factor and exclusivity, those claims probably were not far from the truth. Regardless of that, a Cadillac had long symbolized success and in 1959, a Fleetwood 75 was proof to all that its passengers had arrived.
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