Bold Reputation
Cadillac didn’t build its renowned image on the “Standard of the World” tagline. Instead, that bold phrase was earned through decades of superb engineering and elegant styling—qualities that continued to set Cadillac cars apart from what remained of the true domestic competition in the luxury market at the dawn of the Sixties. Cadillac’s reputation was unwavering and uncompromising, and the company was supremely confident. It should have been after 60 years of business.
The 1962 Eldorado Biarritz convertible depicted here is tangible proof of Cadillac’s prowess at that time. It’s currently under the care of Hershey, Pennsylvania’s Hank Hallowell, and is one of 1,450 built during the model year. Hank recently described it as, “The most beautiful Cadillac ever produced in the modern era.”
That’s another bold statement, since the ’62 Eldorado followed some of Cadillac’s most iconic models and was produced after the division had already enjoyed a period of unbridled success. But 1962 was a record-setting year for Cadillac sales, with 160,840 cars sold, surpassing the previous benchmark of 155,577
