Customer Reviews

Cadillac: A Century of Excellence

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I love Cadillacs, but this book does not do them justice. The people who put this book together can't even identify them. Several photos are mis-named, for example, most of the time the captions for 1958 Cadillacs read that they are 1957 cadillacs (Come on guys) and other captions are very generic becuase I assume they couldnt identify the years. Oh, and get this one... They have a section with star's cars, and they talk about how Elvis gave out caddys left and right, but the photo shown is of Elvis leaning against a Chrysler Imperial, even the Imperial name is spelled out and the editors didnt catch this? Don't tell me they dont know a Caddy from a Mopar. Also several of the photos show beauty shots of hood ornaments and a bunch are shiney, but pitted. Couldnt they have found a rechromed sample? This book is put together very poorly. It is a real waste.

This book is one of the few to celebrate the first 100 years of Cadillac. Text is ok, pictures are lavish and big-sized. There are a number of flaws in the pictures like misspelling the modelyear (or not even mentioning it) and Elvis leaning against an Imperial. On the other hand the format on the book is good, the pictures are great (although a lot of them have been published before) and for a real Cadillac enthousiast like me it was still worthwhile ordering it. But a little more care for the detail would have been appreciated.

This is a great coffee table book because the cover and photographs inside are clear and beautiful. I was almost afraid to mishandle the book in fear of damaging the images. I do agree that the book ended somewhat abruptly since little was said of the 70's, 80's and 90's decades but 100 years is a lot of ground to cover.
Overall, I enjoyed the book. It was well thought out with excellent history details. But like all good books, I hated to see it end.

The Good: Beautiful large color pictures, from Automobile Quarterly and other sources. Buy the book and cut the pictures out and frame them, because:

The Bad: Full of inaccuracies. I hadnt even got to the table of contents when I noticed a 58 sedan mis-labeled as a 57. And it gets worse from there, a 73 ambulance is identified as a "mid-1960s" model, etc.

The Ugly: The author lets his personal views about the gas crisis of the 70s shape his narrative, instead of just stating the facts, which are a fascinating story in their own right and do not need embellishment. I'm speculating the author hasn't spent much time in America and doesn't really understand Cadillac's target market in the U.S.. Sure people wanted better economy but didn't want to give up the other attributes of a Cadillac, like interior room, performance, and prestige. That's why the Cimarron, Diesel, V8-6-4, Catera, etc. were failures in the marketplace while the regular DeVille coupes and sedans continued to sell well.

In addition, the book is short on techincal detail for such a large and expensive effort. Looking for facts about your favorite model? Chances are you won't find them here. The definitive Cadillac book in my opinion is 80 years of cadillac by Walter McCall, now out of print.

This book is a must-have if you are a Cadillac enthusiast and you like books that are chock full of large, beautiful color photographs of classic Cadillacs. I can't say enough how great these images are--the best I've seen, and I have many Cadillac books.

This book is also an unbelievable value .... It is a large and substantial hardcover book that is very nicely put together.

As a history, the book is also very good with a few caveats:

First, keep in mind that most of the pages are filled with pictures (did I mention the pictures?), so there isn't a great deal of text compared to some other books such as Thomas Bonsall's superb (but out-of-print) "Cadillac: The American Standard", but more than some others.

Secondly, considering that this is a new book and that one of the most interesting periods in Cadillac's history is the recent past and plans for the near future, this book ends too abruptly, historically speaking. Once we get into the 70's, the rest of the story happens too fast and we are left with vague and brief references to Cadillac's recent success in pulling itself out of its doldrums. (Rob Wagner, if you're reading this, I beg you or any other author of auto enthusiast books to write in detail about the last 30 years of Cadillac's history. It makes for an exciting story fitting of your writing talent.)

Finally--although I love the fact that this book isn't another "Cadillac can do no wrong" type which ignores their many missteps, even those that took place during the "glory days"--I personally disagree with Rob's fairly harsh criticism of late 1950's styling. This does not count against the book at all, IMO--I just wanted to mention it.

Overall, an outstanding achievement and an absolute must-have. Add some recent history and a bit more detail, and I would give it the ultimate compliment of being as good as Bonsall's book.

Dan Madoni...