Cadillac de Ville series
automobile model
The Cadillac DeVille is a model name used by Cadillac over eight generations, originally to designate a trim level of the 1949 Cadillac Series 62 and later for a standalone model in the brand range. The last model marketed specifically as a DeVille was the 2005 full-size sedan, at the time, Cadillac's largest model.
For 2006, the DeVille nameplate was retired, when the model line was carried forward (with minor revisions) as the Cadillac DTS, (DeVille Touring Sedan) using a nomenclature adopted by the Cadillac STS (Seville Touring Sedan) and CTS (Catera Touring Sedan).
Early history
The name "DeVille" is derived from the French de la ville or de ville meaning "of the town". In French coach building parlance, a coupé de ville, from the French couper (to cut), i.e., shorten or reduce, was a short four-wheeled closed carriage with an inside seat for two and an outside seat for the driver, and this smaller vehicle was intended for use in the town or city (de ville). An (unshortened) limousine or (in the United States) town car has a division between the passenger and driver compartments and, if the driver's seat is outside, it may be called a sedanca de ville or town car.
The first Cadillac "Coupe de Ville" was shown during the 1949 Motorama. It was built on a Cadillac Sixty Special chassis and featured a dummy air-scoop, chrome trim around front wheel openings, and a one-piece windshield and rear glass. The interior was black and trimmed in gray leather, including the headliner, to match the roof color. It was equipped with a telephone in the glove compartment, a vanity case and a secretarial pad in the rear armrest, power windows and highly decorative chrome interior trim.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Cadillac de Ville series” is automobile model. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Cadillac, Ville and series, not as a finished interpretation.
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This entry incorporates text from “Cadillac de Ville series” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.