Loading
  • Pinterest
  • Youtube
  • Facebook
  • Vimeo
Welcome to Cars of Dreams Museum
  • Home
  • About
  • Current Collection
  • Past Collection 1
    • Past Collection 2
  • Events
  • Contact
  • Menu Menu

1953 Cadillac Eldorado Convertible

Cadillac Eldorado
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Parent company General Motors
Production 1953–2002
Full-size personal luxury car

The Eldorado model was part of the Cadillac line from 1953 to 2002. The Cadillac Eldorado was the longest running American personal luxury car as it was the only one sold after the 1999 model year.

The name was proposed for a special show car built in 1952 to mark Cadillac’s Golden Anniversary; it was the result of in-house competition won by Mary-Ann Marini (née Zukosky ), a secretary in the company’s merchandising department. Another source, Palm Springs Life magazine, attributes the name to a resort destination in California’s Coachella Valley that was a favorite of General Motors executives. However, the Eldorado Country Club in Indian Wells, California was not founded until 1957 – five years after Cadillac’s naming competition. In any case, the name was adopted by the company for a new, limited-edition convertible that was added to the line in 1953.

The name Eldorado was derived from the Spanish words “el dorado”, “the gilded one” or “the golden one”; the name was given originally to the legendary chief or “cacique” of a South American Indian tribe. Legend has it that his followers would sprinkle his body with gold dust on ceremonial occasions and he would wash it off again by diving into a lake. The name more frequently refers to a legendary city of fabulous riches, somewhere in South America, that inspired many European expeditions, including one to the Orinoco by England’s Sir Walter Raleigh.

1953-54
First generation
Production 1953-1954
Assembly Detroit, Michigan, United States
Body style(s) 2-door convertible
Layout FR layout
Engine(s) 331 ci 210 hp (160 kW) V8
Wheelbase 126 in (3,200 mm)
Length 220.8 in (5,610 mm) (1953)
223.4 in (5,670 mm) (1954)

The 1953 Eldorado was a special-bodied, low-production convertible (532 units in total). It was the production version of the 1952 El Dorado “Golden Anniversary” concept car, and borrowed bumper bullets (or dagmars) from the 1951 GM Le Sabre show car. Available in four unique colors (Aztec Red, Alpine White, Azure Blue and Artisan Ochre — the latter is a yellow hue, although it was shown erroneously as black in the color folder issued on this rare model). Convertible tops were available in either black or white Orlon. There was no special badging on the car, other than the “Eldorado” nameplate, in “gold”, in the center of the dash. A hard tonneau cover, flush with the rear deck, hid the top in the open car version. Although it was based on the regular Series 62 convertible and shared its engine, it was nearly twice as expensive at US$7,750. This car was 221 inches (5,600 mm) long and 79 inches (2,000 mm) wide.

This first Eldorado had a wraparound windshield and a cut-down beltline, the latter signifying a dip in the sheetmetal at the bottom of the side windows. These two touches were especially beloved by General Motors Styling Chief Harley Earl and subsequently were widely copied by other marques. In fact, throughout 1950s, Eldorado was General Motors’ styling leader, and since GM led the industry, where the Eldorado went, everyone else would tend to follow.

© 2014 CarsofDreams.com
  • Pinterest
  • Youtube
  • Facebook
  • Vimeo
  • Home
  • About
  • Current Collection
  • Past Collection 1
  • Past Collection 2
  • Events
  • Contact
  • Sitemap
Scroll to top

This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies.

OKLearn more

Cookie and Privacy Settings



How we use cookies

We may request cookies to be set on your device. We use cookies to let us know when you visit our websites, how you interact with us, to enrich your user experience, and to customize your relationship with our website.

Click on the different category headings to find out more. You can also change some of your preferences. Note that blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience on our websites and the services we are able to offer.

Essential Website Cookies

These cookies are strictly necessary to provide you with services available through our website and to use some of its features.

Because these cookies are strictly necessary to deliver the website, refusing them will have impact how our site functions. You always can block or delete cookies by changing your browser settings and force blocking all cookies on this website. But this will always prompt you to accept/refuse cookies when revisiting our site.

We fully respect if you want to refuse cookies but to avoid asking you again and again kindly allow us to store a cookie for that. You are free to opt out any time or opt in for other cookies to get a better experience. If you refuse cookies we will remove all set cookies in our domain.

We provide you with a list of stored cookies on your computer in our domain so you can check what we stored. Due to security reasons we are not able to show or modify cookies from other domains. You can check these in your browser security settings.

Google Analytics Cookies

These cookies collect information that is used either in aggregate form to help us understand how our website is being used or how effective our marketing campaigns are, or to help us customize our website and application for you in order to enhance your experience.

If you do not want that we track your visit to our site you can disable tracking in your browser here:

Other external services

We also use different external services like Google Webfonts, Google Maps, and external Video providers. Since these providers may collect personal data like your IP address we allow you to block them here. Please be aware that this might heavily reduce the functionality and appearance of our site. Changes will take effect once you reload the page.

Google Webfont Settings:

Google Map Settings:

Google reCaptcha Settings:

Vimeo and Youtube video embeds:

Other cookies

The following cookies are also needed - You can choose if you want to allow them:

Privacy Policy

You can read about our cookies and privacy settings in detail on our Privacy Policy Page.

Privacy Policy
Accept settingsHide notification only