History of the 1958 Eldorado Seville

Cadillac´s two "standard" Eldorado models got new front-end styling in 1958. The rear body was pretty much 1957 carryover, however, except for the addition of 10 vertical chrome trim pieces on the lower rear body between the door and rear wheel openings. These chrome louvers were reminiscent of those used on Sixty Speciald from 1942 through 1956. There was a new, narrow "V" emblem on the lower left corner of the rounded rear deck lid, and the Eldorado name was spelled in small block letters beside it. Only 815 Eldorado Biarritz Style 6267-S Convertibles were built this year. The $7.410 price tag was the same for both the convertible and the Seville two-door hardtop.
The Seville Two-Door Hardtop and companion Eldorado Biarritz Convertible both got Cadillac´s revised front-end styling. The new grille was much wider and consisted of a series of fine, jewellike metallic suds instead of the usual chrome crosshatching or "eggcrate" motif. The rubber-tipped front bumper-guards were much smaller and were farther apart at the outer edges of the grille. The big, chrome "Dagmars" had all but disappeared. The 1957 and 1958 Eldorados had no hood ornaments, but chrome blades capped each front fender. Eldorado sales dropped sharply this year. Only 855 Seville Style 6237-D hardtops were sold. The Seville had a $ 7,410 price tag.

My Seville

My argyle blue Seville is of a rare breed because only 855 were ever made. Mine was built on Nov. 4th 1957 and originally shipped to Switzerland. It was built for export and so its a little bit different than most other 1958 Eldorados. For example there are additional direction lights under the dual headlights. The complete lighting system is different and the car has kilometers per hour on the speedometer instead the m.p.h. - and the odometer counts kilometers too. The compression ratio was reduced to 8.6:1 and the rear axle ratio is 3,07:1 which differs from the domestic U.S. models. There also came a french owners manual with the car which was used for Canadian exports too.
The Seville was built with no additional options like the air suspension or the aircondition. Color code of the car is 94 (Argyle Blue - a color exclusive for the Eldorado line ) with white top.
In Switzerland the car was sold by G.M. in Zurich to a wealthy bank director with the name Misteli Joseph - born 1895... So he was 63 when he purchased it in 1958. In 1971 the Eldo was sold to Mr. Otto Waelchli who owned it until 2000. He said that it had 73k Kilometers on the odometer when he bought it. Now it has 105.000 kilometers on the clock. He didn't drive the car very often as he also owns a 1954 Cadillac Series 75 that he still uses as the family car...He never drove it in rain or winter so its still in very good condition and has no rust at all.

How I found her

When my friends and I visited the Cadillac Meeting in Zurzach/Switzerland in 1999 I saw the Eldo for the first time and fell in love with it. At this time I was still financially exhausted from the restoration of my 67 Convertible. So I could not think about any purchase of another Cadillac. Out of curiosity I asked the owner of the Seville if his car would be for sale and he said "yes make an offer"! He gave me his card to call him. In the following months I could never forget the Eldo and was sure that I want to own one some day. In spring 2000 I was offered another 58 Seville, which I really wanted badly but which was sold short before I could get my hands on it. So I called the owner of the swiss Eldo to negotiate a price for his car. We could not agree on a price and we had several phone conversations going on for months. He then offered me to visit him and check out the car. I took my mechanic Rudi and my friend Georg with me on the trip to Switzerland. Rudi inspected the car for about an hour, made a test drive and then we altogether negotiated a price. We told him what we would pay for the car and it was much less than he expected. He said that he would need some time to think about it. 6 weeks later I called him again, and he said "OK" So in August 2000 my friends Georg and Rudi picked up the car from him on the way to the Cadillac Meeting in Zurzach. So exactly one year after I first saw it at the meeting the Seville was mine.
I really want to thank Rudi for all the help and especially Georg who helped me to finance the car! Without you guys I would not own the Eldorado now. A big thank you goes to my friend Richard who let me store the car in his garage for one year for free before I had the chance to build my own garage for my Cadillacs.