Anybody ever seen Cadillac Park Lane

[z06bigbird]

Anybody ever seen a 61 or 62 Cadillac Park Avenue?

In 1984, an oilman from west Texas brought his to Riata Cadillac in San Antonio for routine service. He passed away, and car sat at dealership for months until family picked it up.

I did not even know that model existed. It was white with red leather interior. Big visible difference was huge bucket seats instead of bench.

It had 20k miles on it, and not a scratch.

I wanted to buy it, but family wanted it.

Ed

[z06bigbird]

Tag and title should have been Park Avenue

[Jed95fwb]

The Cadillac Park Avenue was made from 1961-63. It was a 4-door hardtop with a shorter rear deck. Cadillac thought that people who lived in the city would want a smaller Cadillac for parking. The Park Avenue was outsold by the hardtop Sedan DeVille by a wide margin. I guess the buyers wanted the longest car they could afford in the early 60's. I have seen them with buckets in the front, as well as a bench. They are nicely proportioned cars and I prefer them to the standard DeVille.

[Fleet]

I saw a white '63 about 15 years ago. It was for sale and in good condition.

[Red_October_7000]

Anyone have pictures?
I love the way these little sub-models floated around from one car to the next. Park Avenue is best remembered as a Buick, first a trim level of the Electra, then as a car in itself. I've seen Caprice Broughams as well, and a few other little unexpected designations none of which spring to mind. MoPar is the biggest when it comes to name recycling, though.

[z06bigbird]

Originally Posted by Jed95fwb

The Cadillac Park Avenue was made from 1961-63. It was a 4-door hardtop with a shorter rear deck. Cadillac thought that people who lived in the city would want a smaller Cadillac for parking. The Park Avenue was outsold by the hardtop Sedan DeVille by a wide margin. I guess the buyers wanted the longest car they could afford in the early 60's. I have seen them with buckets in the front, as well as a bench. They are nicely proportioned cars and I prefer them to the standard DeVille.

Congratulations. You are probably the first person who knew what I have been mumbling about for 20 years. Even many long time Caddy dealers and salespeople did not know about this car.

Interesting about the trunk. I did not notice that, but I was looking more at the front end. I wanted that car so bad because it appeared to be abandoned at the dealer. No such luck. Guy's family towed it back home. I think I mentioned in my thread that he drove it from West Texas to San Antonio for service. Then he died while in San Antonio. Car sat at dealer's for months. White, with red interior. Looked like new. 19,000 miles as I recall, maybe 10,000 miles. This was around 1980??

Oh, well, I can't have everything I want.

Ed

[Pete Benson]

Originally Posted by z06bigbird

Congratulations. You are probably the first person who knew what I have been mumbling about for 20 years. Even many long time Caddy dealers and salespeople did not know about this car.

Interesting about the trunk. I did not notice that, but I was looking more at the front end. I wanted that car so bad because it appeared to be abandoned at the dealer. No such luck. Guy's family towed it back home. I think I mentioned in my thread that he drove it from West Texas to San Antonio for service. Then he died while in San Antonio. Car sat at dealer's for months. White, with red interior. Looked like new. 19,000 miles as I recall, maybe 10,000 miles. This was around 1980??

Oh, well, I can't have everything I want.

Ed

Just for the record, in '61 the car was a Series 62 six-window model (no deVille version), and was called the Short-Deck Sixty Two Sedan. In '62 the car was referred to as the Town Sedan, but was a four-window model. The deVille version was called the Park Avenue Sedan deVille. In '63 there was a deVille version only, and it was once again called the Park Avenue Sedan deVille.

[I~LUV~Caddys8792]

I remember hearing about those a long time ago and thinking it was funny how it was a Cadillac Park Avenue.


I found a site devoted to the '63 Park Avenue.
http://www.freemanfive.com/

[Old Fleetwood]

Surfing the net a while ago I tripped over this photo of a CADILLAC PARK AVENUE show car of the 1950s.

1954_Cadillac_Park_Avenue.jpg

[Junkman]

The bucket seats were a high priced option on Cadillac starting in 1962. They were only available with leather trim. I remember them well, since my dad had a 1962 Coupe DeVille with that option. I remember that it also came with the floor mounted radio station selector, and they didn't tell him about that option. Occasionally he would hit it and the radio station would change. He took it in for service and told them that there was something wrong with the radio. At that time, even the service department didn't know about it until they asked one of the salesmen, who explained how it worked. For the most part, back then, Cadillac didn't offer too many options, since most of the cars were already delivered loaded. The strangest thing that I had ever seen was a 1960 Cadillac in Florida that had air conditioning, but no heater, and crank windows. I should have bought that car, but in 1970, it held no interest, since there were still lots of them around.