Cadillac Eldorado (3rd Generation)

A different Eldorado Brougham was sold for 1959 and 1960. These cars were not quite so extravagantly styled but were very unusual pieces in themselves. Priced at $13,075, they cost $1 more, each, than their older siblings.

The design was 100% Cadillac but the company contracted out the assembly to Pininfarina of Italy, with whom the division has had a long-running relationship, and these Eldorados were essentially hand-built in Italy. Discreet, narrow taillights - were integrated into modest tailfins, and a squared-off rear roof line allowed the Brougham to contrast sharply to the "rocketship" taillights, flamboyant fins, and rounded roof lines of the standard 1959 Cadillacs.

However, the Brougham's styling cues would prove to indicate where Cadillac styling would head in the early-mid 1960s. Build quality was not nearly to the standard of the Detroit hand-built 1957–1958 models, and the 1959–1960 Broughams did not sell as well as their forebears. However, collector interest and values remain high.

The last Eldorado Seville was built in 1960. After that, the Eldorado convertible became essentially a more luxuriously trimmed version of the Cadillac Series 62 convertible (using trim pieces reserved only for the Fleetwood Sixty Special).

An Eldorado convertible would remain in the Cadillac line through 1966, but its differences from the rest of the line were generally modest. In 1964, probably the most distinctive year during this period, the main visual cue indicating an Eldorado was simply the lack of fender skirts.