Junkyard Find: 1999 Cadillac Eldorado ETC

Murilee Martin
by Murilee Martin

Cadillac built the tenth and final generation of the Eldorado for the 1992 through 2002 model years, and one of the trim levels had a maddeningly irritating acronym that could have come only from a large organization with many, many 14-hour airless meetings under soporifically humming fluorescent conference-room lights: ETC!

Yeah, luxury, performance, et cetera. Cadillac buyers edged away, embarrassed for GM, when they spotted these badges in the showroom.

ETC stood for “Eldorado Touring Coupe,” but nobody cared. 1999 was the first model year for the Escalade, and rappers did a fine job of lowering the average age of Cadillac buyers while erasing memories of the ETC.

The Northstar V8 was the sophisticated DOHC unit that German-car-envying Cadillac salesmen had been wishing for since the 1970s.

“As captivating now as ever. Drive the dream.”

“America’s favorite V8 luxury coupe … is now America’s only V8 luxury coupe.”

[Images: © 2016 Murilee Martin/The Truth About Cars]





Murilee Martin
Murilee Martin

Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.

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  • Corollaman Corollaman on Jun 25, 2016

    Man, that thing is in much better shape than mine,it does not seem to belong in there

  • Speedlaw Speedlaw on Jun 29, 2016

    etc is what you say when the rest of the story is meaningless, boring, or clearly known to the audience. It isn't what I'd write on the back of a supposed status symbol luxury ride. What were they thinking...

  • Jeff “So, the majority of our products are either ICE vehicles or intended to utilize those multi-energy platforms that we have. This is a great opportunity for us, compared to our peers, having the multi-energy platforms for all of our products in development and having the agility to move between them,” she said. From what is stated about the next generation Charger it will be released as a 2 door EV and then as a 4 door with the Hurricane turbo straight 6. I assume both the 2 door and 4 door is on the same platform.
  • Brendan Duddy soon we'll see lawyers advertising big payout$ after getting injured by a 'rogue' vehicle
  • Zerofoo @VoGhost - The earth is in a 12,000 year long warming cycle. Before that most of North America was covered by a glacier 2 miles thick in some places. Where did that glacier go? Industrial CO2 emissions didn't cause the melt. Climate change frauds have done a masterful job correlating .04% of our atmosphere with a 12,000 year warming trend and then blaming human industrial activity for something that long predates those human activities. Human caused climate change is a lie.
  • Probert They already have hybrids, but these won't ever be them as they are built on the modular E-GMP skateboard.
  • Justin You guys still looking for that sportbak? I just saw one on the Facebook marketplace in Arizona
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