Typically, the Brougham name put a luxury ring on the American cars that have worn it throughout the years, from the modest Plymouth Valiant (a true icon of American luxury, right?) to the Lincolns and Cadillacs. The moniker endured as an adagio of opulence throughout the 20th century, having emerged as a simple horse-drawn carriage made to order for a British Lord Henry Peter Brougham back in the 1830s.
The name stuck to cars when coachbuilders began assembling bodies for the horseless carriages of the late 19th century and early 1900s, eventually parting ways with what it originally stood for. As fate would have it, America—the very first British colony to cut all ties with the Empire—carried the name forward until the 1990s.
And what car brand was better suited to do so than Cadillac, the quintessential luxury car of America—and once the motoring standard of the world? The Cadillac Brougham was the final bow to a name—and an entire paradigm of carmaking. In 1987, the General Motors division separated the Fleetwood Brougham line into two distinct series: the Brougham and the Fleetwood.
The former was the luxury car – big V8 up front, rear-wheel drive, imposing size, and classic American looks. In other words – a dinosaur, going extinct at a brisk pace. In 1987, the first year of production for the separate Brougham model, 65,500 were assembled, but it went downhill very fast.
Six years later, the roll call counted only 13,700 units – nearly one-fifth of the initial number. No wonder Cadillac axed it – and with that decision, an entire philosophy of car building went away.
The general image of the American car is a barge with four wheels, a monstrous motor spinning the rear tires, and enough steel to build a fortress, all wrapped in a body-on-frame (mis)conception. That’s what the Cadillac Brougham was, and there’s one example lined up on the death row in Little John’s Wrecking Yard in Fort Worth, Texas.
The odometer reads nothing at all, being a digital cluster, but the YouTuber who discovered it – Benny Sanchez from the Classic Ride Society – says the car has 119,000 miles on it (191,500 km). In the 90s, the paradigm of the big V8 was fading out of fashion, so this example features a 307-cubic-inch eight-banger (sourced from Oldsmobile).
Five liters wasn’t big at all – especially by Cadillac standards (remember the 500 big-inch / 8.2-liter torque titan two decades prior) – but the 90s were the era when the last side effects of Malaise were still vaguely visible. 140 horses and 255 lb-ft was the four-barrel-carbureted peak of performance for a luxury automobile (142 PS, 346 Nm).
The four-speed automatic with overdrive linked to the 2.73 rear axle made this boat the perfect long-trip rig. By all accounts, this once-status symbol of ‘I Made It In Life’ was a Florida car, which is surprising, given its overall solid condition.
Usually, the salty air of the peninsula eats through the body of a car faster than a hoard of raccoons can clear a trash bin. Back then – just like now – Cadillac owners tended to have money, and they spent it on garages and other luxury appointments, like frequent waxing. Hence, this classic-to-be is in pretty good shape, even for a 34-year-young automobile.
In 1990, the Cadillac Brougham recorded a production run of 33,700 units—the writing was already on the wall by then. Its old-fashioned styling and dated technology pushed it into the history books. Safety-wise, the 1990 Brougham was closer to the eponym Lord than to its day—it didn’t have any airbags, and the front seatbelts came out of the doors.
Having lost the battle with technological progress more than three decades ago, the only chink in this example’s shiny armor is the rear left fender. Flames had a go at it, but the damage appears superficial. Besides that, the car seems more than salvageable, but is it classic enough to be worth anything to anyone anymore? Or is that crusher lurking nearby going to feast on its leather interior?