Continuing today’s Cadillac theme with something a little fresher, I had an unexpected call yesterday from Hemmings’ good friend Axel Catton, saying he was on his way to Bennington to pick up his new Cadillac. Axel, a former press officer for BMW (where he helped launch the Z1), Audi and Peugeot in Europe, has (as Mark McCourt says) an “inexplicable fondness for early ’90s Cad yachts.” This time, it was a 1991 Brougham d’Elegance, with the 5.0 V-8 and under 31,000 original miles. It had spent its entire life within a quarter-mile of Hemmings, never seeing snow and proving that with proper maintenance a rust-belt car could actually be better than one from California. After all, there was no harsh sun to crack the dash or fade the vinyl roof.
On a hunch, I bought out our neighbor John Kasper, whose J & J Auto Polishing has been a Bennington fixture for years. I was right–before John even got out of the shop he knew which car I meant, as he’d been detailing it 4-5 times a year, every year, since it was new.
The two promotional cassette tapes that came with the car in 1991. “The only way to travel is Cadillac style” is the first song on tape two. “This here very much indicated who they were aiming at,” said Axel: “OLD PEOPLE.” “The speedo has LARGE and EASY TO READ NUMBERS,” boats the tape.
Showing this was his second new Cadillac, the owner received this gold key and badge on the grille.
The Caddy will be replacing Axel’s Mercedes-Benz ML320 SUV, a small victory for collector cars everywhere. Regular readers may remember that he was rolling in a ’73 Sedan de Ville last year, so I look forward to seeing what his next cherry will be.
