Atte's Brougham d'Elegance, summer 1998
The Brougham d'Elegance (I call it just Brougham d'Elegance) has very fascinating history. The first owner was a local big newspaper and printing company. At first they were going to order a Mercedes Benz, but since they are pretty common cars and maybe the most common taxi car in Finland, the local Cadillac sales representative succeeded to convince them to order the Brougham d'Elegance: "Don't buy the Mercedes. If you do and when you are driving in the country side, people will try to stop you and ask you to drive them to town". Unlike Mercedes, the Cadillac will always make the difference in Finland; they are very rare here. The car was ordered with almost all factory options plus some dealer installed options like a mobile phone system with two handsets (one set fot the driver and one for the rear seat passengers). The Brougham d'Elegance was used to transport VIP's, including corporate presidents, diplomats, army generals (generals only, colonels and lower rank officers were guided to use more common Saabs and Volvos) and it was often lent by the city of Lahti too for official use. They took very good care of the car; it was always washed and cleaned after use and stored in garage. Only one dedicated driver and the chief of the transportation department were allowed to drive it.I'm the second owner and when I bought the car in 1997, the mileage was about 76000 km (47000 miles). The car is still in very good condition, especially the interior is like new. My only concern is some scrathes in the very nice shiny black lacquer paint. Of couse, everythng works in this car.
At the present time, the car is used in summer time only, which means that there is some time till the next driving season starts:
Photo gallery Story about the history of the car - sorry, only in finnish 1988 Cadillac sales brochure Options
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