CADILLAC ELDORADO (1978-date)

2-door 5-seater coupé.

Drastically shrunken personal Cadillac, 1100lbs lighter than before on 12.5ins shorter wheelbase, 20ins less length, and with much less flab. Still front-drive, now with irs, and a diesel engine option to meet CAFÉ regulations. Very formal styling, like latest Buicks, persisted to early eighties. Only 172bhp from petrol engine, 127bhp from diesel - both engines would lose 20bhp more for 1980! Fast luxury cars were disappearing in the USA. Sales of smaller cars jumped - by 50 per cent compared with Cadillac's last behemoth.