One thing I love about the site is our world-wide membership. I get to exchange emails with people all over the world and it fascinates me how different areas of the world have different stories when it comes to Cadillac.
One of our Members Karl just signed up and got one of the emails I send out to new club members that talked about Cadillac Pro cars. In case you didn’t know when someone signs up they get 3 newsletters over the course of a week, kind of like our greatest hit so to speak.
Well Karl actually took the time to send me an email which he allowed to be published out to everyone.
Hi Vinny
Reading your last newsletter about Professional Cadillac’s got me to thinking of the marque’s history in my own country. Thought I’d share a few thoughts with you.
In South Africa, Cadillac professional cars were well respected by the funeral trade, and ambulances were imported by a private ambulance service (most ambulances were government operated Chevy C10 and Ford F250’s) called DeVries, who used both Caddy and Mercedes Benz platforms.
Pre 1970’s, and especially pre”50’s Cadillac’s were the cars of first choice amongst the wealthy set and government cabinet ministers in South Africa. Oddly enough another American car of choice thru out Africa amongst the wealthy was Buick. Reason, until the 1930’s, Canadian built Buicks was favoured by the British Royal Family, so in the British Colonies……. Also both the Caddy and Buick were well suited to African conditions as they were built tough.
Until WW2 both marques were assembled in South Africa at the Port Elizabeth GM plant, from knock down kits.
Interestingly enough, considering South Africa’s contentious racial history, Cadillac’s were loved by both Black and White folk alike. Also was a car of choice amongst Black gangsters (totsies in South African speak) especially the “Americans”- a 1940’s fairly notorious Johannesburg gang who modelled themselves on all things American, and used to watch George Raft and James Cagney movies for gangster tips!! Their leader was killed in 1952 whilst trying to outrun the coppers in his “49 Caddy. Used to pride himself on the fact he could outrun the Police Studebakers, Fords and Chevys of the day. However he ran into a police intercept task force operating Jaguar mk7’s and those he certainly couldn’t outrun! After a long car chase and shootout he rolled the “49, and in the ensuing gun battle the cops did for him.
Cadillac, like most other US car manufacturers, stopped official supply thru GM dealer networks in the very late “60s due to Apartheid related sanctions. Since Mercedes Benz, Jaguar, BMW and later Audi were not interested in internal politics of its market bases, they gobbled up Cadillac’s market share. As a result any Caddy in this country that was built post 1969 was a private import, as is the case with my”79 Biarritz.
GM SA reintroduced the marque in the late 1990’s but it was never successful as the old cars were. Most South Africans disliked the styling and preferred the top end European cars which they are used to (esp. Merc, BMW and Audi which rule as unchallenged kings), which they think are better all-round cars. As a result, GM SA has once again as of 2012 pulled the plug on the brand.
(After Karl sent this to me I asked him if I could share and he sent in this information to share)
In the old days (pre 1970) American and British cars ruled supreme in this neck of the woods as I said before. Chevy and Ford (built locally but from Canadian origins for tax incentive purposes- Canada, like us, being part of the British Commonwealth) ruled supreme in the lower market end, and even today fetch large amounts of money on the collector scene. In the ’60’s and ’70’s Chrysler gave them a good beating with the Plymouth (badged locally as Chrysler) Valiant which held South Africa’s record as the best selling Six cylinder car for a very long time. Big Pontiacs was considered an executive vehicle after Buick’s local demise in the early “60s (esp. the Grand Prix, known locally by its Canadian nameplate “Grande Parisienne”).
Other interesting facts: Chrysler sold the 1969-“72 Dodge Monaco 500 here in full house trim as a Chrysler 383, which was also considered very upmarket , but sadly was priced to compete with Merc”s S Class and Jag’s XJ6, which it obviously could not achieve. Wait for it-Chrysler also sold rebadged Mitsubishi’s here as a Dodge Colt Sports Coupe from ’73-“76.(In the “70’s Chrysler and Mitsu had a working arrangement for certain market zones) The last American sedan sold in South Africa until the reappearance of Dodge, Chrysler, Jeep and Caddy in the late “90”s was the Rambler Hornet SST and Sportabout Estate car, running Chevy 4.1 Sixes. The last units were sold in “76. Ford F Series, Chevy C series and Dodge D100 pickups (known to everyone locally by the enduring Afrikaans term” Bakkie”- in SA you don’t own a pickup, it’s a Bakkie!!!!) soldiered until 1981. The local mainline Mercedes Benz manufacturing plant located in East London, which is one of the largest and oldest (since 1955) outside the parent plant in Germany was originally the Studebaker assembly (not manufacturing) plant. MB actually assembled the last local Stude’s before that unfortunate marque’s demise, from “59-“65, and the last ones had “bought in” Pontiac V8 engines and’ boxes. All wear MBSA assembly plates. Who would have thought! The “90”s buyout of Chrysler was not the first dally for MB with American manufacturers.
From 1969-80, Australian cars started to be sold here by the Big Three to compete with the Japanese and Europeans who were making huge inroads. They became equally well loved and built an equal reputation for reliability and no nonsense toughness as their American predecessors. Holdens were badged as Chevys, the Holden Commodore is still sold here as a Chevy Lumina SS (with a really bad assed 6 litre V8) and now is GMSA’s premier flagship since the plug was pulled on Caddy. All other new Chevrolets are Korean (Daewoo) designs and are “God awful” tin cans in my humble opinion. Also in the 1970’s and early ‘80”s, big Opels were badged as Chevrolet.
My apologies for boring the blazes out of you with useless info on the selected history of the South African auto industry.
Go well and kind regards
****
I love the way Karl ends it as if he was actually boring us lol. Lets give Karl a warm welcome and thank him for sending in this information.
Wow! Thanks Karl for some interesting insight into an auto market that most of us are woefully unaware of. Its interesting to learn of the ups and downs of our beloved marque around the world. I hope you also send some pictures.
Earle I knew you would like this little history lesson from another country from someone who also has a passion for Cadillac pro cars. I told Karl that anytime he wanted to share more our site is his open book.
Thank you Vinnie for giving us the chance to read that story. I have always known that Buick was favored by the Chinese Government but, I had no idea that the British Royals also liked Buick too. Buick is doing very well in China and I believe it is China’s number one selling American import. Cadillac though, is planning to open 4,000 new dealerships in China over the next 5 years as Cadillac sales are brisk.
Wow! What a fascinating article. Thanks, Vinny for posting it and Karl for being so insightful and sharing about our cars of which obviously, we don’t know the full story. I would love some pictures from South Africa of cars. Great work!