Cadillac DeVille
The term Cadillac DeVille has referred to different things at different times in the car’s history. The original car to bear the name was the 1949 Cadillac Coupe DeVille, a luxury trim level option belonging to the Series 62 Coupe. For most of its history, though, it was a sedan associated more with everyday elegance than with the kind of luxury you flaunt on the society page of the newspaper. Technically, the DeVille never really ceased to exist; its name just went into hiding. Since 2006, the car formerly known as the Cadillac DeVille has been known as the DTS, which stands for “DeVille Touring Sedan.”
Origin of the Name Cadillac DeVille
The name DeVille refers to a “town car,” although none of the DeVille models on the market have been town cars in the original sense of the term. In the 1920s, when consumer automobiles were still quite new, a town car was designed as something of a horseless luxury carriage. Just as in a horse-drawn carriage, the driver sits outside and guides the horses while the passengers ride in a covered compartment, the original town cars of the 1920s had a roofless front seat for a chauffeur and a covered backseat for the passengers.
While not a town car, the 1949 Cadillac Coupe DeVille was certainly a luxury item, impressing audiences when it debuted at the 1949 Motorama. It was one of the early pillarless hardtop coupes. Some of its features, such as a rear glass and a one-piece windshield, do not sound so luxurious now, but in 1949, they were really something special. It also had a telephone in the glove compartment, which remained a feature of only the most luxurious cars until cell phones became prevalent around the turn of the millennium. Despite the fact that the car was a big success, it took another ten years before a car called the DeVille was produced for the mainstream market.
The First Generation of the Cadillac DeVille
1959 saw the first generation of the Cadillac DeVille. It was available as a two-door Coupe DeVille, like the one displayed in 1949, as well as a four-door Sedan DeVille, which had the classic tailfins associated with the Cadillacs of the late 1950s. It had many features that today’s buyers take for granted, such as automatic transmission, back-up lamps, power steering, and a rearview mirror, but to have these features come standard on a car in 1959 was a luxury.
Later History of the Cadillac DeVille
The Cadillac DeVille went through eight generations before the name Deville went out of currency. DTS, standing for DeVille Touring Sedan, was available as a high end trim option beginning in the 1985 model year. 2005 was the last model year when the name DeVille was actually used. Since 2006, every Cadillac DeVille has been a DTS. It can be said that the DTS is the heir to the DeVille. The main difference between the Cadillac DTS and the original DeVille is that the DTS is available as a four-door sedan only, with no two-door coupe option.
