With under 60,000 miles on the clock a 1977 Cadillac Seville is a tempting buy for any petrol head. And this is the car that Elvis drove on the day he died. The King’s last Cadillac chariot is up for auction this month.
Presley was snapped driving out of Graceland in the vehicle, one of many he owned, and it comes to sale after being bought from Graceland at auction in 2014.
On that historic day it sold for $65,000.
It goes into sale on November 25 with no estimate, but sellers Bonhams Cars will surely be confident of vrooming past that figure.
It’s believed that Elvis may have owned over 200 Cadillacs in his short life. Many were given away.
This was the last that he bought for himself and is in the colour scheme he wanted, with the CB radio he used to tell Graceland’s staff when to expect him home.
After his death the car was gifted by Presley’s father to his fiance, Ginger Alden. She sold it into Jimmy Velvet’s Elvis Presley Museum. His son passed it on in 1994, getting over $100,000 at a Las Vegas – where else! – auction sale.
Elvis with Ginger Alden, who was given the car after his death.
The buyer, Greg Page, is an Australian musician and one of the world’s biggest Elvis collectors.
It was sold in the Graceland auction in 2014 and has spent much of the time since in the UK, loaned to Lord Montagu’s National Motor Museum at Beaulieu.
A display model, the car could do with some love and care to bring it back to the glittering condition in which the King would have driven it.
Bonhams description says: “The interior is following the same script as its exterior counterpart, at least inasmuch as it’s rather tired-looking but by no means beyond redemption.”
The car’s full marque is, a 1977 Cadillac Seville with custom bodywork by Fisher with a 5.7-litre V8 engine.
Presley came from poverty and lived the American dream to its full, consumerist extent. He spent enormous amounts of money on cars, clothes, gadgets, guns and more for himself and his family, companions, and employees.
So, while he remains a rock ‘n’ roll legend, and extremely collectible, the sheer volume of material from his life means some prices are lower than you might expect.
Among the Presley cars to be publicly sold are a 1961 Cadillac Coupe De Ville that was sold for £21,000 in 2006; a 1967 Cadillac Coupe De Ville 2 Door Coupe made $88,000 in 2014, and a 1963 Rolls-Royce Phantom V Touring Limousine realised just short of $400,000 in 2014.
This sale will be an interesting test of the King’s legacy and the value of his vehicles, many of which are still in private ownership and open for future sales.
