Production and sales figures for 1925: 35,500.  Lawrence Fisher becomes the general manager at Cadillac and can start immediately. Packard was now the most popular premium car brand. Fisher immediately consulted with Alfred Sloan, GM's general manager. Sloan was in the process of ranking all make and model ranges by price and prestige. This allowed buyers to grow slowly and step up each time, of course by buying a GM product. Only a few steps in the ladder were missing. Including one between Chevrolet and Oldsmobile. The Olds was 50% more expensive than the Chevy. However, a 'Six' was in development at Chevy and Oakland would be joined by Pontiac in 1926. However, there was an even wider gap between the most expensive $1,925 Buick and the cheapest $3,195 Cadillac. For those who were ready to go a step further than a Buick, this was quite a  Big step. Financing often ran for up to 18 months and the monthly installments on a Cadillac were simply too much money for many. People often made the switch to a Packard. Packard had a smaller model  still with the Pacakrd quality, aimed at buyers who drive themselves and who don't feel like the big difficult cars of yesteryear. Sloan wanted to stop this. He saw the success of Pontiac and suggested a sister brand for Cadillac. that brand  would be marketed by Cadillac and would be marketed just above Buick. Since Cadillac had a French namesake, the choice was not difficult, the new brand was LaSalle.

1926. Cadillac's promotional materials consistently listed the model designation next to the "Cadillac" name. Before 1925, virtually every advertisement, catalog, manual, etc., had the designation "V-63". Suddenly, in August 1925, any mention of a model was omitted from the promotional material. The public had to think of "Cadillac" and not of a "model". Over the next few years, "The New Cadillac" would be presented regularly. However, practical parts and service considerations still required a model designation system. The "New Cadillac" for 1926/1927 was known to insiders as Series 314, based on engine displacement. A national service network for customers was also set up at that time.  

1927: Fisher wanted the new LaSalle to have more modern and fresher models than Cadillac. As one of the seven brothers of the Fisher Body factories, he was obviously involved in design. He also knew that Don Lee, the Cadillac dealer in California, ran a fantastic body shop. While there he met a talented young man named Harley Earl. Fisher was very impressed with his work and method. He hired him as a consultant for the design of the LaSalle. It had to be a one-time deal. He would go back to after a few weeks  LA. Earl, however, would stay until his retirement 32 years later. Earl went on to lead the new Art & Color division at GM. This British spelling of Color was chosen because it seemed more chic. Car designs were not made at that time and Harley was the first to start with them, and he was also the first to come up with the idea of annual renewals. "Fifty body shapes and types, five hundred color and trim combinations" was Cadillac's slogan for their new program to create a  individualize the car. There were continuous changes, everything was tried. Many models were sold but not catalogued. The catalog was just a starting point, the customer could choose almost any combination and buy a unique car without the cost of a custom one. The authenticity of existing cars can be an issue because of the many variations. For the final analysis, if it has a vertical starter motor, it is  most likely a 314. A new V8 block was designed for the LaSalle. This engine turned out to be simpler, cheaper to produce and superior in every way. He  was equipped with valve covers with cooling fins, among other things. Obviously just a design truck. The engine performed so well that a more displacement version was quickly developed for the 1928 Cadillac models. Launched on March 5, the LaSalle was $100 more expensive than the comparable Packard at $2,685 for the four-door. Sloan had hoped it would be several hundred dollars cheaper than the Packard, but in the end he and Fisher didn't want to throw away traditional Cadillac values just to advertise a lower price. With 75 hp the car could reach 113 km/h. The roadsters even more so.

​

The Cadillac top had a lot of confidence in the new car. On June 20, 1927, a standard car without a windshield, running boards,   fenders, mufflers and lights and equipped with high compression heads and a faster camshaft to  the GM Milford Proving Grounds. William Rader and Gus Bell drove the car over the 3.78 mile test track opened a few years earlier, in 1924. The press was also invited to increase the pressure. There was an area set up for the officials and two backup teams and there was a trained pit crew. It took 9 pit stops during the record attempt. The quick stops were for oil, water and fuel refills and lasted less than 30 seconds. Longer stops for changing the tires also took only 1 minute and 18.8 seconds. They had started at 6:30 am and were forced to stop at 4:30 pm because an oil pipe broke and there was no more oil pressure. It is not known whether the oil pan has actually been removed, as it was often a reason to stop when in reality the engine had run out of steam.  The car was kicked off with an average speed of 153 km/h over a distance of 1,523 km. That was just 3 km/h less than that year's Indy 500 winning speed! Whether the distance of 1,523 km (951.87 miles) was also the distance to be covered is not known. Rader indicated that the attempt  could easily have made it to 1,000 miles, or even 1,500 if I had to.

Gus Bell died at the age of 33 at the Milford Proving Grounds during a high speed test with a 1930 V16 roadster. The first and second tests yielded a top of 98 and 100 mph. On the third ride, it went wrong at 112 mph. Gus died at the scene and his passenger Glenn McCallum (23) on his way to the hospital.

​

Earl's design made it the most beautiful car of that year. The LaSalle was introduced when Ford's Model T disappeared from the market. Although unrelated, the two events marked  the end of an era and the beginning of a new one  era. By this time, the public had clearly had enough of the dull, simple utensil that was the 'Tin Lizzie' and they were looking for cars that were not only more sophisticated but also more stylish. Ford's statement that "the public could get any color they wanted, as long as it's black" made sense at a time when black Japanese asphalt-based paint  the only paint available was that dried fast enough  to keep up with the pace of mass production, but those days were over. The advent of DuPont Chemical Company's quick-drying, polychromatic Duco lacquers from 1924 paved the way for a full palette of vibrant colors, and LaSalle was one of the first to take full advantage of them.  In 1929 the synchro-mesh transmission and safety glass were introduced. A radio is available for the first time in 1930, most cars are already equipped with the wiring for it and the antenna is incorporated in the roof. The updated LaSalle models were doing so well that they started to eat market share from Cadillac. After the stock market crash, however, LaSalle's sales fell by 1/3.

Next to the V8 comes the magnificent V16

The V16 (series 452 and 452-A) is one of the most sought-after Cadillacs today, mainly because of its shape, style and obvious quality. The typical Sixteen drove 8 miles on a 15 cent gallon and used a quart of oil every 150 miles, say 1 liter for 150 miles. His cruising speed was 70 mph and the top was around 90 mph. Brutal performance was not his thing. The Sixteen was intended to bring Cadillac to the level of Pierce Arrow, Packard and Peerless. That works. But despite their refined performance and majestic proportions, multi-cylinder Cadillacs were anachronisms in the Depression-ravaged market in which they also didn't sell in large numbers. The peak was 1930-31 with exactly 3,250 Sixteens and 5,725 Twelves.

Only about 1 in 5 was open or a convertible. Two-thirds were five or seven seater sedans or Imperials. The rest were Coupes or Town Cars. More than 50 body styles were offered, but the list consists of only a few basic body styles with different variations.

Extra effort and money was put into a nicely organized and well-arranged engine compartment. Wiring was hidden and covers on the engine and dashboard were used to hide pipes and controls. Spark plug wires exited the rear of the dual-shield distributor cap and disappeared under the hood in the V. The narrow (45-degree) V allowed for the mounting of manifolds and dual carburetors on the outside. Fuel supply came through twin vacuum tanks served by a vacuum pump. By May 1930, the chrome vacuum tanks were replaced by painted versions. The dual exhaust system ended in fan-shaped trim. The previous use of a different head thickness for different compression ratios was replaced by the use of a single head with gaskets of different thicknesses.  

Description        

Bore and Stroke       

Displacement        

compression ratio    

Power horsepower       

Load horsepower       

Main bearings        

valve train        

carburetor        

​

A V16 4 door Imperial costs $7,300, a Town Brougham $9,700. You had a Roadster for $5,350. An optional radio costs $200, a stove between $41 and $55. You bought a very nice house for that during the Depression. They sold and produced 3,251 units of the V16 in 1930. Although approximately one percent of the V16 chassis was sold to domestic and foreign coachbuilders, all body styles advertised by Cadillac as "Catalogue Customs" of Fleetwood. The customer could order limited variations in the "Catalogue Customs" or order a completely custom creation. Remarkably, Fleetwood was able to supply four to five hundred bodies per month while the Pennsylvania plant was being phased out and production was set up at a new Detroit site. From  By the fall of 1930, dealers were required to provide the factory with weekly and monthly reports from the owners of each V16 delivered.

​

In 1931, twice as many V8s are sold as V12s. In 1931 the V8 cost Imperial 4 by $3,095. This model was introduced in October 1930. The roadster was used as a pace car for the Indy 500. They sold and produced 5,733 units of the V12. In 1932, 2,700 units of the V8 and 300 of the V16 models were sold and produced. The V16 engine remained basically the same as in 1930-31. As with the V12, the carburettors were replaced with Detroit Lubricators and the oil filters were replaced with Cuno's. In contrast to the well-arranged engine compartment of the earlier V16s, the spark plug wires now simply came out at the top of the distributor cap. A more efficient and reliable design, but a real compromise in appearance.

The LaSalle had meanwhile become a brother of Cadillac. The same chassis and engines were used. Given the $500 price difference, you'd expect the LaSalle to sell well especially given the Depression, but nothing could be further from the truth. Cadillac sold 2 for every LaSalle.

​

In 1932, during the Great Depression, Cadillac suffered from low sales. In 1928, General Motors produced 1,709,763 vehicles in the United States, of which 41,172 were Cadillacs. By 1933, GM's production was limited to a dismal 779,029 vehicles, a drop of more than 54%. But that year, Cadillac sold only 6,736 cars, down as much as 84%. General Motors showed a profit every year of the Great Depression, but it was only through relentless cost cutting. Buick, Pontiac and Oldsmobile were merged into one division, partly to save administrative overhead.

In 1933 Cadillac introduced vacuum assist on the braking system of all models except the V16. This was only completed a few years later.