I remember in the 70s there were some interesting options that were available. I distinctly remember being able to order extra **** carpeting on a Cadillac, I remember the Cadillac option where you could order a color keyed interior pillow with a lap robe. I also remember the safe saver tire that came flat on a rim that you would have to inflate.

When was the last car that had adjustable vanity mirror brightness lamps? Or does any car today come with that?

Some people just don't know how good it was back then with options. There was a time where your Cadillac could be ordered with your choice of tire brand. It delayed production of you build, but you got to choose from different tires.

 

To be honest, Jill, that's one of the few things I don't remember about the cars of the past. I certainly remember sun-visor vanity mirrors (many vehicles still have them today).........but, then, I very rarely ever needed to use a vanity-mirror for any reason, and a light for one even less. The only reason I look at them now is during auto-reviews, to see what kind of materials they are made of and/or how nice they feel.

Some cars in the Rolls/Bentley or Maybach class may still have adjustable-lighting for vanity mirrors, but I don't remember seeing that feature in any of the upmarket vehicles I've reviewed. Those cars that have the lighting usually have it either on or off....depending on the position of the sun-visor itself.

On the tire-ordering issue, I don't remember a tire-brand option on any American-market Cadillac, either.....but, then, again, I wasn't into the new-car market myself until well into the 1970s, as I was young and couldn't afford a new car until well into my 20s. It could (?) have been a Cadillac policy that I was just not aware of. I suspect that a lot of buyers, given the choice, ordered Michelins....they had an excellent reputation even back then.

 

I recall my parents having cars with vanity mirrors you could adjust the brightness of...perhaps his Cutlass or his 87 Chrysler Fifth Avenue. I remember the little slider under the lamp that adjusted the brightness....

 

With the technology-level available back then, I'm surprised they would have had room to stick a rheostat or potentiometer (variable-resistor) in that small space inside the sun-visor. A device like that would probably have been needed in the wiring to vary the current to the light-bulb.

 

Maybe it was his Lincoln Continental which would have been a 1990, I can't remember

 

I definitely had adjustable vanity lamp brightness in a Lexus, I just dont remember if it was in the RX330 or IS300

 

Now that would surprise me, certainly no Lexus I've ever had has had adjustable brightness vanity lights.

 

Thanks for the comments.

There was a lot of cool stuff by Cadillac in the 1970s. Load leveling suspension was standard on Fleetwood models. Auto climate control and read audio controls were available. Not sure if anyone remembers Cadillac Guide-o-matic, what this did was dim the high beams when on-coming traffic was approaching.

Another cool option for Cadillac was leather trim vs maximum leather. You could pay extra for all surfaces of the seats to be leather whereas the base leather was just the seat area in leather while everything else was vinyl. Lastly, it was also possible to order your Cadillac with leather in the front and cloth seats in the rear.

Finally, in the early 70s, all Cadillac engines were tested before being installed in the engine bay of a car. The engine would go through a 15 minutes test at 1700 rpm to verify performance.

Some pretty cool stuff, I did not recall all of this via my memory (Some of it I do remember and some I don't) We had some life-long friends over on the weekend and we were talking about cars back in the day. We then dug out some old brochures and ordering guides in the boxes we had in the garage that we collected over the last 40 years.

 

Cadillac actually had automatic headlamps as early as the 50s, and auto dimming high beams as early as the 60s...

 

I myself was curious why not ever car had AC "back in the day," and so I pulled a 1969 Buick window sticker off google. In 2017 dollars, AC would be $2,500--understandable why some would opt to not get it. It's as if AC in 1969, was like navigation packages are today....I thought back then that delay wipers were one of the coolest options a car could have....

 

believe they called it Twilight Sentinel....how about those cars that had the things in the fenders that had tiny optical lights that the driver saw? No clue what they were for, but seem to remember something like that...

 

I believe those might turn signal indicators. Like a heads up type of idea.

 

Yep, they called it that into the 90s, that's what it was called on my dads 95 STS.

His 90 Lincoln Continental had auto high beams too, they were a disaster lol

 

Is this a thing of beauty or what?? I'd gladly time warp back 21 years lol (power trunk pulldown? Even my LS430 doesn't have that! but it is soft close....)

http://www.mcsmk8.com/96-BRHM-BLK/96-BRHM.html

 

Beautiful car. The trunk was not complete pull down. Just before you closed it, the trunk would slowly close.