1980 SO Fleetwood Pepper Green - still around.

[BJM]

https://minneapolis.craigslist.org/ank/cto/d/cadillac-fleetwood-brougham/6705737225.html

I have had good communications with this seller but the last time I offered we were $500 apart.  Those wide white walls come off, per seller, and it has new tires.  I would think she would not want to keep paying storage, but so far she won't go below $4000. 

I just like the different colors.  There are some colors which do not appeal to me but look more harmonious than Pepper Green.  This is essentially a one owner car and appears to need some fillers addressed but surely could provide driving and collecting pleasure immediately.

It's interesting to me it has been for sale in my searches for 6 months and she won't budge on CL listed price of $5400.   

This is close to Minneapolis and there does not seem to be much interest in this era of Fleetwoods. 

[Eric DeVirgilis CLC# 8621]

Within the past year, this 1981 Fleetwood Brougham sold in the mid-teens, IIRC.

http://topclassiccarsforsale.com/cadillac/485783-1981-sterling-silver-cadillac-fleetwood-brougham-sedan-excellent.html

I don't know that there's so much a lack of interest in 1980 Fleetwood Broughams as there is a lack of interest in this particular 1980 Fleetwood Brougham. Rarity doesn't necessarily translate to desirability and the colors of this car are real detriment to its curb appeal, condition issues aside.

[BJM]

Watched several 78-89 Fleetwoods over the summer into fall, and found many to not be sold after 60 days, no matter the color, and a few either never sold or had reduced prices.  It takes a bit more of a collector to buy a 78-89 Fleetwood in my opinion, over a similar CdV or Eldorado. 

There are a lot of variables in those years, but most do not matter to a casual fan.  The HT4100, 5.0L V8, etc.  But the constant is the shape which was not arguably changed in those years. 

Yes Pepper Green is not everyone's cup of tea, but I saw blue, grey Fleetwoods go unsold at $4500 to $7500 and one 87,000 mile dark silver one go for $2200 after languishing for 4 months unsold. 

The reason I have not come up to her $4000 is because it's a four door car.  It's a Minnesota car, and despite what I am sure is generally good storage, there will be rust to the brake lines and suspension components.  I got burned on my 2000 Eldorado. 

[Eric DeVirgilis CLC# 8621]

It's not just colors, it's the condition.

Condition #3 (driver quality) Broughams are everywhere. Most a worth around a quarter, give or take. Top quality examples will have no trouble bringing multiple times that but they are much fewer and farther between. Parked a few spaces away from me at Hershey was an exceptional '87 Brougham d'Elegance in 3x blue + leather with mileage in the teens. Car sold for $13K. It was in a different league from the average late-80s Brougham you see on internet sales sites.

The trouble is that most private sellers have little frame of reference as to where their cars stand on the condition scale. That's the real reason so many remain unsold. 

[Dan LeBlanc]

https://minneapolis.craigslist.org/ank/cto/d/cadillac-fleetwood-brougham/6705737225.html

I have had good communications with this seller but the last time I offered we were $500 apart.  Those wide white walls come off, per seller, and it has new tires.  I would think she would not want to keep paying storage, but so far she won't go below $4000. 

I just like the different colors.  There are some colors which do not appeal to me but look more harmonious than Pepper Green.  This is essentially a one owner car and appears to need some fillers addressed but surely could provide driving and collecting pleasure immediately.

It's interesting to me it has been for sale in my searches for 6 months and she won't budge on CL listed price of $5400.   

This is close to Minneapolis and there does not seem to be much interest in this era of Fleetwoods.

Were you $500 apart before or after the new tires that the seller has purchased?   If you were $500 apart before the new tires knowing you had to buy tires, that's one thing. Now the seller has improved the condition of the car, is still offering at $4k, it would seem to me as if you're where you want to be on the car by taking the money not spent on tires and putting it into the purchase price and make the deal. Shuffle from one pocket to the other. Otherwise it's just hot air if you still expect the seller to come down to the pre improvement price with the improvement. Ĺ

[Cadillac Fleetwood]

For many years, Cadillac allowed its customers to special-order a car, specifying a paint color from a prior-year Cadillac.  This looks like 1974 Persian Lime Firemist.  Non-standard paint colors, and many non-standard interiors, were shown on the data plate as "00" or "000", respectively, and the changed specifications were contained on a piece of cardstock which was stapled to the metal data plate.  It would be interesting to see the data plate on this one.

-Charles Fares

[V63]

Charles, I echo your thought...Persian lime.

Seems more probable unless 1981 pepper green was offered during 1980 production among new ‘spring colors’ as done years prior. Mandarine Orange for example was a new spring color for 1974, and offered for 1975 model year.

It is hard to tell from images...but it sure ‘appears’ closer and as vivid as Persian line.

[BJM]

There was a discussion on the color before, when I posted a few months ago and it was a consensus it was likely Pepper Green.   Not my thoughts, as I turned to the experts here to pontificate.

As to the comment re: tires.  The ad content has always been the same, tires are new before and now.  I would come up off $3500 but not to $4000.   

[Eric DeVirgilis CLC# 8621]

For a color to be ordered out of the blue bearing such similarity to one that happened to offered the following year would seem a major coincidence.

Need to see the data plate to be sure.

[BJM]

Agree. The only way to verify is to go see the car, photograph it.  A person could probably get the seller to take a photo of the data plate and forward it but in my experience sellers usually don't want to do that much to sell their car. 

[V63]

It would seem difficult for someone to specify a color not even released yet 😳.

The window to ‘special order’ a non production color was closed long before the following years color pallet was released.

[BJM]

It would seem difficult for someone to specify a color not even released yet 😳.

The window to ‘special order’ a non production color was closed long before the following years color pallet was released.

My previously owned 68 Eldorado was SO painted "Wisteria" in 1968 even though it was not released until 1969.  It can be debated what the color actually was, since it may not match true Wisteria that we saw in 1969 BUT to the untrained eye, my car looked like Wisteria. 

I can probably locate the photo of my data plate. The staples were there. The car was too much work for me in too small of a garage so it was sold. 

Nonetheless it is an example - perhaps - of a color that was going to be available being put on a car as an SO.  I'll reach out to the seller of the "Pepper Green" car and see if she has a photo of the color code, SO, or whatever might help us to ascertain the color BUT -

Like my old Eldorado, if it is truly SO, we will never know it's paint mix code origin.  I just call it Pepper Green because in the original thread, some posters were saying it looked more Pepper Green versus Persian Lime.  I have seen Persian Lime on a 73 Eldorado - only in photos - and this 1980 car appears a bit different than Persian Lime.


If I felt I had room for "3" Cadillacs I would buy this one. I truly like it.  But that means one of my Reattas has to go. 

[BJM]

The other possibility though remote is that the car was purchased in one standard color and quickly repainted to the owner's favorite color.  Unlikely but possible.

[Eric DeVirgilis CLC# 8621]

It would seem difficult for someone to specify a color not even released yet 😳.

I couldn't agree more.

My thinking is that the color was possibly a mid/late year offering of Pepper in 1980 just before being becoming a regular standard color the following year.

[BJM]

I couldn't agree more.

My thinking is that the color was possibly a mid/late year offering of Pepper in 1980 just before being becoming a regular standard color the following year.

Would anyone have this information?  Need to see the data on the car. If it indicates Pepper Green, and is a 1980, then it would have the 1981 paint code. 

[Eric DeVirgilis CLC# 8621]

Would anyone have this information?  Need to see the data on the car. If it indicates Pepper Green, and is a 1980, then it would have the 1981 paint code.

Good question. While production changes in hardware items would certainly be documented in the MPL, I'm not certain what records for paints that may have been added or eliminated over the course of production.

Really curious what the data tag has to say. 

[BJM]

I sent a long text to her, explaining why I wanted to see a photo of the data plate (and re-upped my purchase offer).  Not sure if she will respond.   More later. 

[D.Smith]

I can't see Pepper Green being a Spring Special color for 1980.

Spring added colors were usually popular colors to stimulate sales late in the model year.
I don't see Pepper Green as being a big draw to boost sales. 

My thought is the color is not pepper green, but a repaint that someone did to mimic Persian lime.    Or possibly an S.O. color done for someone who wanted to replicate their Persian lime 74.     Being done in 1980 it would be base coat with clear coat, thus look a little different that how the 74s lacquer looked when new.

[V63]

I don’t think base clear was available in 80. I want to say it was introduced with the transverse FWD cars? We had a new 1987 brougham and it was straight lacquer.

[BJM]

She responded that her aunt special ordered that color but that the car is now in storage and she can not get to the VIN plate easily.