The 1992 Seville Marks a U-Turn for Cadillac

From the May 1991 issue of Car and Driver.

For at least twenty years, our better readers have been saying to us, “If you can show me an American car comparable to a BMW or a Mercedes, I’ll buy it.” Well, ladies and gentlemen, draw your letter-paper; Cadillac’s new Seville is here.

This latest Cadillac, the fourth incarnation of the Seville, which debuted in the 1976 model year, doesn’t look, feel, ride or handle like any Cadillac we’ve driven. Based on our preview drive, the latest luxury car from the nation’s luxury car sales leader ranks as the most satisfying car we’ve seen from the American manufacturer since the Lincoln Mark VII LSC.

We’ll try to contain our excitement enough to tell you about this car, first seen on these pages in spy photo form in February 1990 and seen in person for the first time at the Detroit auto show last January. We later knew that a star had risen in the east (the Hamtramck Cadillac assembly plant is east of the GM building), but we didn’t know until our preview in February how bright this star was shining.

The first impressive impression about this car is its clear American heritage. And at once this heritage has been given a layer of dignity and restraint, free from white walls, free from false wire wheels. It doesn’t just look like a Cadillac, it looks like a Cadillac designed for and by people with taste. Quietly but firmly, Seville said “improvement.” Any moneyed person not in Manuel Noriega’s phone book or the music business will see a home in this car. And imagine this: the car you see on this page is a glitz model, the only prototype we consider camera-ready. The car we drove was also a prototype, a white Seville Touring Sedan (STS) with black tape and scratches all over but with a fully sorted powertrain. The STS version is the one built for serious drivers (young rich people). The other, called simply Seville, is aimed at traditional buyers (the old rich).

Both Sevilles are as easy on the eyes as the lunch crowd at Spago and differ externally only in a light sweep of the underbody cladding on the sides, more aerodynamic front and rear bumper fascias, split rearview mirrors, a body-colored grille, and the absence of vertical hood ornamentation on the STS (the Cadillac wreath and shield moved to the grille where God intended it). This is real progress. How many times have we seen a good car pull down by a stablemate that looks as if it came from the Tammy Faye Bakker School of Design? Not here. Not with long eyelashes.

Richard Ruzzin, head of the exterior design studio and head of Cadillac design for Seville, said, “The design was an emotional process. Everyone in the studio wanted to make a statement and put Cadillac where it belongs.” Where Cadillac is, in the minds of Ruzzin and every other Cadillac executive, is certainly at the top of the luxury car heap. We would agree that the exterior of the Seville lives up to that stature. Best of all, while this car is sure to appeal to closet chauvinist import owners, it doesn’t qualify for the next BMW cloning competition.

But what about the interior? How many times in recent decades have we liked what we saw, opened the door, and gagged at oddly shaped instruments, velor upholstery that reminded us of brothel wallpaper, and puffy seats that looked like people escaped from the International Sofa House? We can’t tell you how happy we are to report that the STS interior ranks among the best the world has to offer (which, just to keep you on your toes and confused, is what you see here; inside our prototype Seville is the STS that tried to exit). The STS interior feels as good as it looks. You sit in large leather bucket seats that envelop you without inducing claustrophobia and adjust in endless ways using buttons and levers placed within easy reach. Most importantly, under serious driving stress, you stay securely in place, your driving position is not moved by lateral forces.

Gone are the stacked box instruments, replaced by soft curved dashes and analog instruments peppered with real Zebrano wood inserts. And what, you ask, might Zebrano wood be? Beats us, but it looks good and adds just the right note of luxury to the attractive passenger compartment.

The powerplant of the front-wheel drive Seville consists of two units, both common. The engine is Cadillac’s stout, transversely mounted port fuel-injected 4.9-liter V-8, which produces 200 horsepower at 4100 rpm and 275 pound-feet of torque at 3000 rpm. It has an aluminum block and cast iron head, and it uses premium unleaded fuel. Preliminary EPA fuel economy estimates are 16 mpg city, 26 mpg highway. This V-8 is the ultimate refinement of Cadillac’s best push engine, and it will be replaced by the long-awaited four-valve-per-cylinder overhead-cam Northstar V-8, probably for the 1994 model year.

The transaxle is a Hydra-matic AT60-E, a four-speed automatic with a viscous torque-converter clutch that shifts at the whim of carefully modified electronic magic. Running, you must try hard to catch this unit at work. Shift and power applications are smooth, quiet and very satisfying. This is a major league powerhouse in every respect.

The Seville weighs about 3700 pounds and feels every ounce of it. This great feeling, however, is not lacking in a full-size luxury car and does not seem to interfere in any way with the handling. The car is heavier than its predecessor, which has the same powertrain, and therefore the seconds are slower. Cadillac estimates a 0 to 60 mph time of 9.0 seconds in the new car, compared to 8.5 in the old car. The Seville will be electronically governed at a top speed of 112 mph, but the STS could reach 130, according to preliminary spec sheets. However, we do know of one attempt at the hands of a Cadillac engineer where it reached 118 mph. Our full road test in a few months will solve this little mystery.

The new Seville is also longer than last year’s model—almost fourteen inches—and just over three inches wider. Its overall length of 204.3 inches makes it about the same size as the original 1976 Seville. The wheelbase has been extended a full three inches, from 108 to 111 inches, and these inches have been used to eliminate the closed-in feeling that characterized the previous Seville’s rear seats. The platform is Seville’s previous platform, the GM E-body, but the suspension has been retuned to compensate for the added length and mass and large 225/60R-16 Goodyear GA spokes.

“Customers tell us it’s important that a world-class sedan has a comfortable back seat,” a Cadillac executive told us, renewing our waning faith in consumer research. The rear seats of the Seville, shaped like two buckets, will accommodate two large people in perfect comfort and three people in adequate comfort.

The driving experience is, in a word, excellent. The STS not only provides the interior silence of the Lexus LS400, it also rewards the driver with the feeling of solid and inflexible security that Daimler-Benz taught us. There is no trace of the vagueness that has long characterized American-made big cars. The silence of the STS, helped in no small part by the Goodyear Eagle GA (Michelins are standard on the Seville), should not be interpreted as numbness. There is isolation from noise and harshness, but the driver maintains friendly contact with the road surface.

We drove the STS in the Arizona high country, where the altitude saps some of the engine’s power. The handling of the car is another. In a spirited workout on some tight and twisty mountain roads, the STS not only behaved like a thoroughbred, but it did so with minimal tire squeal. You’re aware of the car’s weight, naturally, but the neutrality of the suspension’s activity ensures this is an awareness and not a concern.

Did we find something that didn’t please us? yes. To build a car this fine and install a carpet that has enough nylon in it to cause a shine would not be our way. And we think the wipers/turn indicators/cruise control stalks are a little more clunky than they need to be. However, that is the smallest and most humble option. The rest of the car is so good that we feel bad for taking it.

We must applaud Cadillac for what it has done: nothing less than building a car that looks right at home in front of any hotel or embassy in the world and that should reward the driver and passengers with a world-class driving experience on any highway on this planet.

bully!

Contributing editor

William Jeanes is a former editor-in-chief and publisher Car and Driver. He and his wife, Susan, former art director at Car and Drivernow lives in Madison, Mississippi.