CadillacDeVille1977Overview/cadillac/deville/1977/base/

1977 Cadillac DeVille

Factory specifications, fluid capacities, torque values, EPA fuel economy and the federal safety record for the 1977 DeVille.

The 1977 Cadillac DeVille, a full-size luxury sedan, recorded only a single owner complaint and two recalls during its service life, with the top issue reported in the service brakes hydraulic system. In the broader context of the DeVille’s complaint history from 1990 to 2005—which peaked at 306 complaints in 1997 and bottomed at 94 in 1990—the 1977 model’s minimal trouble count places it among the most reliable early examples of the nameplate.

Model year200520042003200220012000199919981977

Performance & power Independent road tests

0–60 mph, quarter-mile, horsepower and torque from independent road tests.

Independent road tests for the DeVille of this era, listed by trim and engine — this page spans more than one engine, so no single horsepower figure is shown.

10.6–11.6 sec0–60 mph (tested)quickest 10.60 sec — 1978 Coupe
YearTrim / engine0–60¼ mileHPDrivetrain
1978Coupe 7.0L V810.60 sec18.20 sec195 hpRWD
1981d'Elegance Sedan 6.0L V811.60 sec18.40 sec145 hpRWD

Reliability & federal safety record

Owner-reported issues, recalls, investigations and service bulletins on record with NHTSA — an unfiltered look at what owners actually experience.

The 1977 Cadillac DeVille carries a minimal federal footprint for its target year: one complaint in Service Brakes, Hydraulic, and zero crash or fire complaints. The supplied year-by-year record instead spans 1990 through 2005, a period in which complaints rose from 94 to a peak of 306 in 1997 before declining to 104 by 2005, while technical service bulletins expanded from 5 to 548 and recalls fluctuated between zero and five annually. Because 1977 falls well outside this later-era dataset, it cannot be plotted against the surrounding years in the arc, though its single complaint stands in stark contrast to the triple-digit annual volumes recorded throughout the 1990s and 2000s. The data does not specify why complaints and TSBs mounted across those later years, but the absence of 1977 from that rising activity indicates it attracted far less federal scrutiny. Based strictly on these figures, 1977 appears favorable from a complaint-volume standpoint and is a comparatively benign year to buy, provided the vehicle’s physical condition is verified independently.

2
Open recalls
NHTSA campaigns
0
Service bulletins
Manufacturer communications
0
ODI investigations
Office of Defects Investigation
1
Owner complaints
0 involved a crash · 0 a fire
Owner complaints by model year NHTSA · this generation & adjacent

Owner complaints filed with NHTSA, by component

All 1 complaints on record, top 1 components.

Service Brakes, Hydraulic1

Source: NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation complaint database.

Recalls NHTSA · verified

Showing 2 of 2 campaigns on record for this vehicle.

78V189000Unknown Or OtherReported 30/08/1978

IF PAPER OR OTHER COMBUSTIBLE MATERIALS ARE PLACED IN THE INSTRUMENT PANEL ASHTRAY RECEPTACLE, THEY COULD BECOME IGNITED AND FLAMES FROM THE FIRE MAY REACH THE INTERIOR OF THE INSTRUMENT PANEL. Remedy: OWNER WILL BE SENT A METAL HEAT SHIELD TO BE INSTALLED ABOVE THE INSTRUMENT PANEL, EITHER BY THE OWNER OR BY THE DEALER.

79V111000Vehicle Speed Control:Accelerator PedalReported 04/05/1979

THE INVOLVED VEHICLES WERE BUILT WITH AN ACCELERATOR PEDAL HAVING AN EXTENSION, OR RUBBER FLAP, AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PEDAL. THIS PEDAL FLAP COULD BE INADVERTENTLY DISPLACED BY A FLOOR COVERING AND WEDGED UNDER THE… Remedy: THE DEALER WILL REMOVE THE RUBBER FLAP FROM THE ACCELERATOR.

Common OBD-II trouble codes

The most common OBD-II codes for this vehicle's emissions system. These are standardized SAE J2012 definitions, not vehicle-specific fault reports.

P0420
Catalyst system efficiency below threshold — Bank 1
P0300
Random / multiple cylinder misfire detected
P0171
System too lean — Bank 1
P0455
Evaporative emission system leak detected — large leak
P0128
Coolant thermostat below regulating temperature
P0442
Evaporative emission system leak detected — small leak

VIN tools

Decode factory build data for a specific vehicle by VIN.

VIN
Decode a VIN to confirm the transmission and build data for a specific DeVille. OEM
Build data
Plant, GVWR class, engine and body data for any 17-character VIN.
Recalls
Check open recall campaigns against a specific vehicle by VIN.

Reference guides

Cross-vehicle references for the kinds of data on this page.

Frequently asked

Does the 1977 DeVille have open recalls?

NHTSA lists 2 recall campaign(s) for this model year. Check your specific vehicle by VIN.