The Cadillac is the ultimate cugine car, and I am proud to say I now own one. There’s a long, complicated story behind how I got this sweet set of wheels which I will get into a little later, but first let me explain why many of us Italian-Americans have an affinity for this vehicle.

Of course not all Italian-Americans love Caddies, but just like any other characterizing factor amongst the East Coast goomba sub-culture, the passion for Cadillacs is another defining, shared trait. No matter what the year, make or model, it makes no difference.

There’s a lot of theory behind it, much of it goes back to the idea that this automobile (along with the Lincoln), was the choice for Mafiosos back in the day—obviously because these luxury cars were a sign of wealth for guys who certainly could afford it and liked to show off. But most goombas didn’t get drawn in by the mobbed-up life or want to emulate gangsters by getting the same car. They did, however, want to emulate the class and style and even if the regular Joes and Josephinas couldn’t afford this ride, it was carefully fit into the budget and they became that standard cugine car and like a good tan, the popularity has never faded.

Why? Because we like to sometimes be kings even if we aren’t rich. That’s done by prioritizing our expenses and living modestly in some areas to have our gold chains and Caddies and to be able to go out for a lobster dinner every now and then. This is just a philosophy that we have—you only live once and we like to treat our families when we can. I didn’t choose to get this car to fit into any of these stereotypes, but I do agree 100% with these philosophies and I do consider Cadillacs to be absolutely the best cars in the world for many reasons.

My wife is the one who really treated me with the Cadillac, which was my birthday gift for turning 31. (She prefers BMWs or Mercedes.) Our 2000 Deville (which I’ve named “Black Beauty”), is what some people may say is an “old person’s car,” but just because a lot of retired Italian men drive it, doesn’t change the fact that the younger generation has always driven them too. It also is a popular car among funeral directors and car services—which, by no coincidence are businesses owned and operated by a lot of Italians—young and old.

There’s other stigmas that go with the Caddie like it’s only for republicans but it’s also very popular among the black hip-hop community. And just like it’s short-sighted to say Italians who drive them are mobsters or mobster wannabes, all rappers or African-Americans are obviously not drug dealers or criminals! This car really has crossed all cultures over the years, from Jersey paisans to Texas cowboys to Hollywood stars.

Let me get back to the reasons why I think Cadillacs are the best. First and foremost, they are American made and I take a lot of pride in that. The only non-American cars I like are European made, I just don’t find anything appealing about all these carbon-copy Hondas or Toyotas. The Northstar Engine to me, is just a thing of beauty. How special is that! Yeah, premium gas costs more, the parts cost more and you’d want a qualified GM mechanic to work on it, but how is this stuff a bad thing? Just like you’d want the best doctor with the best equipment to work on you! The unbelievably smooth ride makes it well worth it and these vehicles last forever. Aside from a few very minor imperfections, my Deville looks and drives like a car much newer than its 13 years. I don’t care what any of my critics say, no automobile ages so well. And at the age of 31, I hope to always own a Caddie from now on.

This is not the first Cadillac I owned, I had an ’88 El Dorado when I was in my twenties which lasted for six months. Those were the best six months of driving I’ve ever had up until now! It ended up breaking down, and I never fixed it. See, I had a poor mentality when I was a young driver where I would just buy cheap cars, drive them until they broke down or I smashed them up and then get another one. I would say I owned probably 15 cars since I got my license…a yellow Chrysler New Yorker, a red Oldsmobile Cutlass, a black Ford Probe, a white Chevy Cavalier, a white Ford Explorer…I could go on and on.

In the past few months alone, me and my wife have had 3 cars…first getting a brown Ford Explorer, then a silver Chrysler Sebring and now the black Cadillac. And here’s where I’m going to give a few lessons in car shopping.

We got the Explorer from a wholesale lot whose name I will not reveal. These places get cars direct from auctions and sell to the public rather than to dealerships—cutting out the middle man—and they have very good deals. But a lot of the cars have a “story” which complicates matters. So we get this Explorer but the story is, there’s no title. We should have moved on right then and there but I guess had the following series of events not taken place, I may not have “Black Beauty” right now.

The salesman said it was perfectly fine to buy this Explorer without the title because it was “coming in any day,” and he gave us 30 day temp plates and we drove it home. He thought the title would arrive long before the temp plates expired but just as they were about to expire I called him and he said there was a problem. The title wasn’t coming! So we returned the Explorer and luckily got all our money back. The lesson here is: don’t ever buy a car unless you have the title!

We then decided to go a different route and buy a car from a private owner and we found a gorgeous Chrysler Sebring. But that had a “story” too. We had the title but since it was an out-of-state vehicle there was problems with that title which my wife found out about when she was at the DMV and they refused to register it. We called the seller and he said he’d get us all the necessary paperwork by that Monday but on that same day after my wife did a grocery run at Corrado’s, only a few hours later the car stopped running. Turns out, the engine seized. We called the seller immediately and he agreed to give us our money back the next day, which, thank God we got back.

My wife and I began car shopping once again, checking ads in the paper and driving around to lots. I will admit, my search at that point was pretty narrow and I had “Cadillac visions.”

We found a stunning white 2001 Deville at a dealership in Jersey City (whose name I will not reveal.) We went down there and were ready to make our purchase. One minor problem. The guy “lost” the car keys. We were told that they’d be found (or ordered) by the end of the day but that never happened. The next day came and there were still no keys. Hmmm…We went back there and the salesman offered to “put us in something else.” I made it clear we weren’t interested in any of his crappy Hyndais and that we wanted the Deville. When he offered no promises on when he’d get the keys I then knew that we’d been fooled with a bait and switch scheme and we moved on.

I’m not going to put down wholesalers or used car lots just because the two experiences we had didn’t go well. And obviously the Chrysler we got from a private seller was a lemon. We just happened to be victims of a few bad car salesmen. But our incredible bad luck finally turned as the car search continued, and I found a stunning black-on-black Deville on craigslist of all places. The price was right—it actually seemed too good to be true for how nice looking this car was. But did it run good? Was the engine going to seize? Was there a “story” with this car too? There was one catch. The owner lived up in Orange County New York, which was a good hour and twenty minutes away and he was only home after 6pm.

So we made the trek upstate to a large farm. Next to the tractor, there was the Caddie. And it was a gem. We knew right there that we found our family car. So we paid the man and he even gave us a 5 day grace period to return it if we had second thoughts or if the engine seized. Obviously we couldn’t drive it home at that moment since it was unregistered, so the next morning, my wife went down to the DMV and took care of it with no problems. That evening, we once again drove upstate, slapped on the new license plates and drove “Black Beauty” all the way home.

She’s still running beautifully!