4 Cadillac Seville

With the ’ 73 fuel crisis a distant memory, in 1977 GM’S UK importer, Lendrum & Hartman, clearly felt that the Rolls-royce Shadow II should not automatically run away with the ‘World’s Best Car’ title. The latest Cadillac Seville offered more tech and arguably greater rolling refinement, but at less than two-thirds of the cost. With svelte, Europeaninspired styling, the Seville was the same width as the Shadow and, despite a leaf-sprung live axle, it handled with esprit and offered auto-dipping lights, central locking, climate control and six-way electric seats as standard. There were even economy lights to help optimise the 12-15mpg consumption.

As a statement of intent the Seville was as close as GM had ever got to cracking the UK market, but its emissions-strangled 5735cc V8 couldn’t hold a candle to the similarly priced Daimler Double-six’s V12 power (180bhp vs 285bhp) or performance (0-60mph in 12.3 secs vs 7.5 for the Daimler). Anorak fact Cadillac quoted a maximum speed of 105mph, yet the speedo only read up to 85mph