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Glovebox Minibar Gives Drinking And Driving A Whole New Meaning

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Back in the day, the luxurious 1957 Cadillac Eldorado Brougham was more commonly known as “the Frank Sinatra car” because Ol’ Blue Eyes owned two of the Hollywood royalty-inspired cars. Now, the common belief would be that Sinatra shelled out $13,000 a pop for the cars as a status symbol, but I have a good feeling that it was the contents of the glovebox that really motivated his decision.

The Eldorado Brougham was equipped with a number of awesomely random features, but arguably none were quite as awesome as the standard magnetized minibar in the glovebox. Sinatra lived his life as a functioning alcoholic, so I’m sure that when he opened the glovebox for the first time and found his reflection in the set of shiny tin tumblers, his only words were “I’ll take two.”

Along with the traveling minibar, the Eldorado Brougham came with other unique features that included a complete woman’s grooming compact and matching leather notebook, a cigarette case, a comb (total deal maker) and an atomizer filled with “Arpege Extrait de Lanvin” perfume that likely smelled even worse than the fragrances being pumped out of the Fiat 500’s perfume diffuser.

Out of all the Cadillac models on the market at the time, the 1957 Brougham was the most expensive. In fact, it was roughly twice the price of all the other Eldorado trims. The steep price led to low sales numbers, and throwing in the minibar and other various items was Cadillac’s feeble attempt to attract more buyers—because, you know, a whole bunch of random shit crammed into the glovebox is what the people want, and stuff.

It’s kind of unfortunate that today’s cars don’t come with a minibar or anything more than an owner’s manual in the glovebox. These days, the only random additions that come standard in cars are features that serve no practical purpose, such as the dash-mounted patch of shag carpet in the Nissan Cube. To be honest, I’d rather have the Brougham’s comb, or better yet, the perfume atomizer. The perfume may smell absolutely wretched, but unopened atomizer boxes are selling for upwards of $1,000 online.

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I’m just going to go ahead and assume that anyone who actually paid that price for a box of ancient perfume—restoration junkie or not—washed away their regrets with a shot of whiskey or six at the glovebox minibar soon after completing the purchase.

John is a full-time automotive blogger who digs cars, but also spends a disturbing amount of time watching and reading about movies. His first car was a maroon 1993 Buick Skylark which, after a solid seven-year run, was laid to rest in August of 2013. He currently writes for phantomcopy.com.

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3 Comments

3 Comments

  1. Belatrix Lastrange

    Jun 28, 2019 at 11:32 am

    Actually the glove box kit all complete has an equal value as thee restored car. When they present together the value of the car is double.

  2. kira nikolaev

    May 10, 2021 at 3:12 pm

    я узнал это на пиздоскладе!

  3. Pingback: Do People Still Use Limos? - Sun Coast Flowers

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Car WTFs

The Most Interesting Aspects of the Dodge Demon

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Many of us thought that the Dodge Challenger Hellcat was about as intimidating as a car could get. After all, people couldn’t hardly get them off the lot without crashing them when they first came out. Then Dodge upped the ante with the new Demon. But aside from the raw power, there are some other interesting aspects of the new Demon.

Check out the video below for a full rundown of just how unique this car is.

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Car WTFs

Mercedes Names May Be Getting More Confusing

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Think you finally have your Mercedes names mastered? Well, a new challenge appears to be coming, friend.

How to now identify Mercedes models by name

Some moves in the northwoods of Canada by the brand appear to signal a change in the naming conventions that will be used for Mercedes and AMG models. Candian trademarks have been filed for  A 40, CLA 40, SLC 40, SLC 50 and GLE 50 in addition to CLA 53, G73 and S73.

If this proves true in the states, it would signal an end to the rule of two digits for Mercedes, three-digits for AMG counterparts. The new world would be two digits, ending in a “0” for Mercedes, and two digits ending in a “3” for AMG. This supports rumors of  an AMG ‘73’ model with a hybrid powertrain.

While this change isn’t terribly difficult to comprehend, it certainly makes things interesting when comparing legacy and upcoming Mercedes models. There are a lot of numbers to keep straight, and a lot of explaining to do. And the letter and number combos leave something to be desired in terms of cachet.

Oh, it’s got cachet baby!

It makes one appreciate the simplicity of giving each vehicle an actual name, like the domestic manufacturers do. Sure, that’s how we ended up with the Chevy Nova, but what are you going to do? There are only so many names, surely one for an automobile would end up meaning “no go” in some language, right?…

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What’s with Toyota’s weird shifter pattern?

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"What's the Toyota's weird shifter pattern?" image of 2011 Toyota Camry shifter

I like my car. It’s a 2011 Toyota toaster, I mean Camry. If you made a list of everything a car has to do, the Camry would check all the boxes. It gets me from point A to point B with the consistency a learning golfer would envy. It’s a toaster. You put in the bread, choose your level of toastiness, push down the thingy and then wait for it to pop up. But there is one interesting thing about my car. The shifter. That’s it up there. That is definitely not conventional at all. So, what’s with Toyota’s weird shifter pattern? (more…)

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