Did You Know Cadillac Never Actually Sold A Pink Car To The Public

Is there an American car more mythologized than the pink Cadillac? From Aretha Franklin’s Freeway of Love to Bruce Springsteen’s Pink Cadillac to the film of the same name starring Clint Eastwood, the pink Cadillac is like a rolling metaphor for the American Dream in the middle of the 20th Century. It’s a living testament to suburban bliss, the open highway, and the post-war economic boom. Now ask yourself, have you ever actually seen one in real life?

The truth is, Cadillac doesn’t sell pink cars. You can’t find a pink Cadillac Escalade on showroom lots, and the dealer wouldn’t paint a white one pink for you. Cadillac briefly offered a pinkish Rose Hue color in 1956. However, if we’re talking about pink Cadillacs, these cars have always been a pop-culture creation, frequently appearing in movies like True Romance, Fletch Lives, and Mannequin, but are rarely seen in real life. So, if Cadillac didn’t put this idea of a pink Eldorado or DeVille out there, who did?

Sugar Ray Robinson Might Have Invented The Pink Cadillac

One might assume that Elvis invented the pink Cadillac. The King of Rock and Roll certainly helped to cement the car in the public consciousness, and he continued to drive pink Caddies throughout his entire career. However, he technically wasn’t the first.

Elvis’ first Cadillac was a 1954 Fleetwood Series 60, which he painted pink and used as a touring vehicle for his band, the Blue Moon Boys. This car was lost in a fire in 1955, and he replaced it with an identical vehicle, except this one was initially blue with a black roof. The rock star hired a neighbor to repaint it in Elvis Rose, his custom pink color, leaving the roof untouched.

Elvis May Have Been Inspired By Sugar Ray

Elvis’ Caddies would date the first pink custom example to the mid-1950s, but the boxing legend Sugar Ray Robinson’s pink Caddie was from about five years prior. As the story goes, Sugar Ray was clothes-shopping in New York when he found a necktie that was the exact same color as a pink flamingo. As a major sports star, you don’t match your clothes to your car; you match your car to your clothes.

Sugar Ray went shopping for a pink Cadillac, but in the early 1950s, Ford Motor Co. was the only automaker to offer pink as a standard color. So, he bought a light-colored Caddie and drove it to a body shop, then showed the shop the tie and asked the company to match the shade.

This flamingo-pink Cadillac would become something of a landmark in Harlem, where it was frequently parked outside the boxer’s nightclub, Sugar Ray’s. The car even appeared in a spread in Time magazine. There was a good chance that this was where Elvis saw it, inspiring the line “You may go to college, you may go to school, you may have a pink Cadillac, but don’t you be nobody’s fool” in the song Baby, Let’s Play House.

Mary Kay Cosmetics Made The Pink Cadillac A Reward

A custom-colored luxury car is a symbol of success in and of itself. Flashing a paint job that can be identified at a glance as non-standard may be the ultimate flex when it comes to cosmetic upgrades. The bespoke shade announces to the world that not only can you afford the finer things in life, you can have them custom-tailored to your specific tastes. For Mary Kay cosmetics sellers, the pink Caddie is a visual representation of a person’s success.

The brand’s founder, Mary Kay Ash, bought a Cadillac in 1967 and had the dealer paint it Mountain Laurel pink to match her lipstick and eyeliner. The vehicle inspired her to incorporate the special vehicle as a part of her sales program. In 1969, she awarded her top five sellers a 1970 Cadillac Coupe DeVille painted pink. The tradition continues to this day, with more than 25,000 pink Caddies registered to Mary Kay sellers over the years.

Mary Kay Pink Pearl Tricoat is technically a factory color. Mary Kay gets these cars in pink and with exclusive badges directly from General Motors. It’s part of a special relationship between the brands, and the shade is not available to the general public.

Mary Kay Sellers Don’t Actually Own These Cars

The Mary Kay website claims 3,600 “Career Cars” are in circulation at the moment, with the most recent Cadillac of choice being the XT5, and an all-electric pink Optiq is debuting for the new season. If Cadillacs aren’t your thing, Mary Kay sellers can also go for a Chevrolet Trax or an Equinox, or accept a cash reward. As to why anyone would choose a Trax over an XT5, well, the Chevy does get a few extra miles to the gallon over the Cadillac, so we suppose it’s the more sensible choice.

As cool as that pink Cadillac may be, the cash payout might be the wisest choice. Mary Kay salespeople aren’t actually gifted a bought-and-paid-for Cadillac. Just 1.5% of Mary Kay sellers make the rank of Independent Sales Director, and only 10% of Independent Sales Directors earn the use of the iconic pink Cadillac.

Why Not Just Paint A Cadillac Pink Yourself?

Elvis’ neighbor has been out of the car-painting game for as long as most of us have been alive, but that doesn’t mean you have to put on your cardigan and go knocking on doors selling blush and eye shadow to get yourself a pink Caddie.

Let’s see what it would cost to have your own. We begin by examining the used market. No disrespect to the Escalade, but if you ask us, the vehicle must be a sedan with a V8. We’re looking at an entry-level 2005 DeVille. The table below shows the model’s value, according to Kelley Blue Book.

KBB typically assumes around 15,000 miles per year, so a 2005 DeVille would be looking at well over 250,000 miles at these prices. Expect to spend a bit more on an example with under 100,000 miles, or consider buying something on its last legs, because the car only needs to look cool, right?

​​​​It’s hard to say exactly what a paint job could cost you. According to AAA, the job could range from a mere $300 to $20,000, depending on the quality of the work.

Here’s what AAA says people should expect based on what they spend:

• $300 – $1,000: This gets you a single coat, and you can forget about painting the non-visible parts, such as inside the door frames or under the hood.
• $1,000 – $4,500: At this price point, you can expect mid-grade paint, multiple coats, and better prep work.
• $5,000 – $20,000: If money is no object, you can sand the car down to bare metal, apply multiple coats of premium paint with a high-end finish, and maybe even add custom designs and pin-striping.

Based on these numbers, expect to pay at least $2,657 to get our own pink Cadillac. Keep in mind, this figure is the bare minimum cost for a one-coat DeVille with 300,000 miles on the odometer. If you want something that can at least make the drive home before the engine falls out onto the street, and if we want a paint job that doesn’t flake off after a single afternoon, budgeting at least $10,000 for this project buys us a fresher car and better paint.

Sources: Mary Kay Cosmetics, Color Studies, Kelley Blue Book, AAA, GM Authority.