Today I have a Zipcar.

And I'm glad it's way smaller than this vehicle. Oh, the two dogs are always there at Bright Auto Upholstery, keeping company with the sidewalk. Gotta love 'em!

I have to tell you that the other day when I was out walking at lunch, and I came across this one, I literally stopped in my tracks. A Cadillac mixed with an El Camino? That's what it made me think. So that night I contacted my buddy Ratty Caddy, in my humble opinion Kind of the Custom Caddy, and asked him if such a thing existed off the assembly line. He got right back with me and said to Google flower car. Huh? Flower car? Oh, I see, as in that which transports funeral flowers. Naturally, I had to look some more on the Internet because I saw the insignia on the vehicle, Cadillac Caribou.

I found a bit, here and there. On a message board: Caribou Motor Company (USA) Cadillac custom Caribou pick-up on DeVille chassis, SSA 1992, p.30. CLC member, Tim Pawl, who is also curator of the CLC's Museum and Research Center, owns a 1974 Caribou, several years ago he contacted company that produced them; their records were supposedly lost in a flood. The person he talked to remembered that about 90-94 were produced in 1974, and perhaps as many as 275-300 total over the period from 1972-1976. Tim says also that another version of the Caribou was produced circa 1980-84. Over the past few years, Tim recalls that a dozen or so of the 1972-1976 versions have shown up on eBay and elsewhere. There was an article about the cars in Motor Trend Magazine circa May or September, 1975. These are very rare cars; their cost, when new, was supposedly $ 20,000 over the base $11,000 Coupe DeVille price or approx. $30,000. Typical ones today [2003-2004] have been going for $12,000 to $20,000.

And here's a link to Flickr image and comments about Caribou Motor Company conversions. The info here is fantastic--turns out Evel Knievel owned  a red one similar to this one and Glen Campbell and Bob Newhart owned ones converted into station wagons!



Now I'm off to get ready to enjoy my Zipcar. Here it is, on the road the other day with someone else at the wheel. It's the Mazda 3 known as McMinnville!