The 1992 Seville Marks a U-Flip for Cadillac

From the Might 1991 subject of Automotive and Driver.

For at the very least twenty years, our higher­-heeled readers have mentioned to us, “In the event you may simply present me an American automobile that compares to a BMW or a Mercedes, I might purchase it.” Nicely, girls and gents, draw your invoice­folds; Cadillac’s new Seville is right here.

This latest Cadillac, the fourth incar­nation of the Seville, which dates to the 1976 mannequin 12 months, doesn’t look, really feel, trip, or deal with like several Cadillac we have ever pushed. Based mostly on our preview trip, this latest luxurious automobile from the nation’s luxury-car gross sales chief ranks as essentially the most satisfying automobile we have seen from an Ameri­can producer because the Lincoln Mark VII LSC.

We’ll try and comprise our enthusiasm sufficiently to let you know about this automobile, first seen on these pages in spy­-photo type in February of 1990 and seen stay for the primary time on the Detroit auto present this previous January. We knew then {that a} star had risen within the east (Cadillac’s Hamtramck meeting plant lies east of the GM constructing), however we didn’t know till our preview trip in February how brightly this star shone.

The overwhelming first impression of this automobile is its apparent American heritage. And for as soon as this heritage has been given an overlay of dignity and restraint, freed from whitewalls, freed from bogus wire wheels. Not solely does it seem like a Cadillac, it seems like a Cadillac designed for and by individuals of style. Quietly however firmly, the Seville says “refinement.” Any moneyed one who is not in Manuel Noriega’s telephone ebook or the music enterprise would take a look at dwelling on this automobile. And picture this: the automobile that you just see on these pages is the glitz mannequin, the one prototype we judged camera-ready. The automobile we drove was additionally a prototype, a white Seville Touring Sedan (STS) with black tape and scratches throughout it however geared up with a completely sorted powertrain. The STS model is the one constructed for critical drivers (younger wealthy individuals). The opposite, known as merely the Seville, is meant for the tra­ditional purchaser (outdated wealthy individuals).

Each Sevilles are as straightforward on the eyes because the lunch crowd at Spago and differ ex­ternally solely in a gentle software of decrease physique cladding on the perimeters, extra aero­dynamic entrance and rear bumper fascias, breakaway rear-view mirrors, a body-colored grille, and the absence of a stand-up hood decoration on the STS (the Cadillac wreath and defend strikes to the grille the place God meant it to be). That is actual progress. What number of instances have we seen the attraction of a good vehicle di­minished by a stablemate that regarded as if it got here from the Tammy Faye Bakker College of Design? Not right here. Not by an extended eyelash.

Richard Ruzzin, head of Cadillac’s ex­terior design studio and design chief for the Seville, says, “The design was an emotional course of. Everybody within the stu­dio needed to make an announcement and posi­tion Cadillac the place it belongs.” The place Cadillac belongs, within the thoughts of Ruzzin and each different Cadillac govt, is in fact on the prime of the luxury-car heap. We’ll agree that the Seville exterior suits proper in at that altitude. Better of all, although this automobile is certain to enchantment to im­port house owners who’re closet chauvinists, it doesn’t qualify for the following BMW clon­ing contest.

However what concerning the inside? What number of instances in latest many years have we preferred what we noticed, opened its door, and gagged on the sight of oddly formed in­struments, velour upholstery that re­minded us of brothel wallpaper, and swollen seats that regarded like escapees from the Worldwide Home of Sofas? We can not let you know how happy we’re to report that the STS inside ranks with the very best the world has to supply (which, simply to maintain you alert and confused, is the one that you just see right here; inside our proto­sort Seville was an STS attempting to get out). The STS inside feels nearly as good because it seems. You sit in huge leather-based bucket seats that enfold you with out inducing claus­trophobia and that regulate in limitless methods via buttons and levers positioned inside straightforward attain. Better of all, below seri­ous driving stress, you stay safe­ly in place, your driving place unmoved by lateral forces.

The stacked-box devices have gone away, changed by a gently curved sprint and analog devices spiced up with actual Zebrano wooden inserts. And what, you ask, would possibly Zebrano wooden be? Beats us, however it seems good and provides simply the best be aware of luxurious to the tasteful passenger compartment.

The front-drive Seville powertrain consists of two models, each acquainted. The engine is Cadillac’s stout port-fuel­-injected 4.9-liter V-8, mounted trans­versely, which develops 200 horsepower at 4100 rpm and 275 pound-feet of torque at 3000 rpm. It has an aluminum block and cast-iron heads, and it makes use of premium unleaded gasoline. Preliminary EPA estimated gasoline economic system is 16 mpg metropolis, 26 mpg freeway. This V-8 is the ulti­mate refinement of Cadillac’s finest pushrod engine, and it is going to be changed by the long-awaited overhead-cam 4­-valve-per-cylinder Northstar V-8, proba­bly for the 1994 mannequin 12 months.

The transaxle is the Hydra-matic AT60-E, an computerized four-speed with a viscous torque-converter clutch that shifts on the behest of fastidiously tweaked digital wizardry. Beneath method, you should attempt very laborious certainly to catch this unit at work. The shifting and energy software are seamless, silent, and extremely satisfying. It is a major-league powertrain in all respects.

The Seville weighs roughly 3700 kilos and feels each ounce of it. This sense of heft, nonetheless, shouldn’t be misplaced in a full-size luxurious automobile and doesn’t appear to intervene in any method with the dealing with. The automobile is heavier than its predecessor, which had the identical powertrain, and is subsequently a tick slower. Cadillac estimates a 0-to-60-mph time of 9.0 seconds within the new automobile, versus 8.5 within the outdated one. The Seville shall be electronically ruled to a prime velocity of 112 mph, however the STS can attain 130, ac­cording to the preliminary specs sheet. Nevertheless, we discovered of 1 trial by the hands of a Cadillac engineer wherein it achieved 118 mph. Our full street check in a number of months will clear up this minor thriller.

The brand new Seville can also be longer than final 12 months’s mannequin—by nearly fourteen inches—and is wider by simply over three inches. Its total size of 204.3 inches makes it about the identical measurement because the origi­nal 1976 Seville. The wheelbase has been lengthened a full three inches, from 108 to 111 inches, and these inches have been used to take away the closed-in really feel­ing that characterised the earlier Seville’s rear seat. The platform is that of the earlier Seville, which is to say the GM E-body, however its suspension has been retuned to compensate for the added size and mass and the massive 225/60R-16 Goodyear GA radials.

“Clients informed us that it’s important {that a} world-class sedan have a consolation­ready again seat,” a Cadillac govt informed us, renewing our flagging religion in con­sumer analysis. The Seville rear seat, formed like two buckets, will maintain two giant individuals in good consolation and three individuals in enough consolation.

The driving expertise, in a phrase, is superb. Not solely does the STS ship the inside silence of a Lexus LS400, it additionally items the motive force with the strong, no-flex feeling of safety that Daimler-Benz taught us about. There is no sense of the obscure floppiness that has for therefore lengthy characterised American-built giant automobiles. The STS’s quiet, helped in no small half by the Goodyear Eagle GAs (Michelins are commonplace on the Seville), shouldn’t be interpreted as numbness. There’s iso­lation from the noise and harshness, however the driver retains a heat relationship with the street floor.

We drove the STS within the excessive nation of Arizona, the place the altitude sapped among the engine’s energy. The automobile’s dealing with was one thing else once more. In a vigorous exercise on some tight, twis­ty mountain roads, the STS not solely be­haved like a thoroughbred, however it did so with an absolute minimal of tire squeal. You might be aware of the automobile’s weight, naturally, however the neutrality of the sus­pension exercise retains this a aware­ness and never a priority.

Did we discover something that displeased us? Sure. To construct a automobile this wonderful and in­stall carpeting that has sufficient nylon in it to trigger a sparkle wouldn’t have been our method. And we predict that the wiper/flip indicator/cruise management stalk is clunkier than it want be. These, how­ever, are nitpicks of the tiniest, meanest order. The remainder of the automobile is so good that we really feel dangerous about bringing them up.

We should applaud Cadillac for what it has achieved: nothing wanting constructing a automobile that will take a look at dwelling in entrance of any grand lodge or embassy on this planet and which ought to reward the motive force and pas­senger with a world-class driving experi­ence on any freeway on the planet.

Bully!

Contributing Editor

William Jeanes is a former editor-in-chief and writer of Automotive and Driver. He and his spouse, Susan, a former artwork director at Automotive and Driver, at the moment are residing in Madison, Mississippi.