At $45,000, Is This Ultra-Rare 1984 Bitter SC A Sweet Deal?

As best I can tell, today's Nice Price or No Dice Bitter is the only one for sale in all of North America. That makes it a unique proposition, but will its price leave us all suffering Bitter disappointment?

Cadillac's current lineup includes a dizzying array of SUVs, a few sport sedans, and a smattering of full-electric vehicles with names that all seem to end in "Q." It's probably the strongest collection the company has offered in years, but it's all the "new" Cadillac. That's the post-Ozempic, hair-plugs-coming-in, out-on-the-town looking for a hookup Cadillac. 

In contrast, the 1991 Cadillac Brougham sedan we looked at on Thursday represented the proudly sober, celibate Sunday-brunch kind of Cadillac the company foisted on the car-buying public from the mid-1970s to the cusp of the new millennium. That honkin'-big box of nostalgia didn't ring many bells, and based on the comments, the car's $23,500 price tag was a laughably high ask to turn back the clock. Ultimately, that resulted in an overwhelming 86% 'No Dice' Loss for the big Brougham.

Take a moment and go outside. Look at your driveway or parking pad. Now look at all your neighbors' spaces. Do you see a car badged "Bitter" anywhere? I would say it's highly unlikely, as the eponymous limited-production German automaker produced fewer than 900 vehicles across two models and a decade-and-a-half production run.

A little history: Erich Bitter dabbled in racing and automotive design, working with Italian specialty car builder Intermeccanica in the 1960s and then partnering with Adam Opel in the early 1970s to build a series of grand touring cars based on that company's top sedans. The first was the Diplomat-based CD (Coupé Diplomat), a handsome large hatchback with styling initially penned by Opel designers and refined for production by Frua. 

After the Diplomat's discontinuation, Bitter launched the SC, based on Opel's Diplomat replacement, the Senator. And yes, SC stands for Senator Coupé. While also offered in convertible and four-door sedan editions, the two-door coupe—which eerily echoes the lines of Ferrari's 365 GT4 2+2—made up the vast majority of the 488 SCs built between 1981 and 1989.

The seller of this 1984 Bitter SC claims to have owned the car for four years and to have recently imported it from Europe. Interestingly, some photos in the ad show the car in what appears to be an import or export lot, surrounded by a mix of American and European cars and trucks. Another photo shows a totally different car's interior with a P51 Mustang seen through the windshield. Weird!

Craigslist

The photos that reportedly are of the actual car's interior show it in excellent condition, with buttery-soft leather upholstery and an Alcantara headliner. The dashboard is pure Opel Senator, but it's also wrapped in cowhide and fitted with burlwood trim. This is nominally a four-seater, and the rear-seat space is roomy enough not to feel like a penalty box for anyone riding back there.

The exterior is also very presentable, with the silver paint showing no issues in the pics. Early versions of these cars were built by an Italian coachbuilder, Turin-based OCRA, which used recycled metal in the bodywork, causing those cars to rust within months. By the time this car was built, however, production had moved to Maggiore, addressing that issue in the process.

Another issue the earlier SCs faced was insufficient power from the 3.0-liter Opel inline six, the only engine available in the model. Bitter fixed that by modifying the engines, giving them a longer stroke that bumped displacement to 3.9 liters and raising output to 207 horsepower and 260 pound-feet of torque. Despite that change, the rest of the engine is pure Opel Senator stuff, meaning that parts, while not Pep Boys close, shouldn't be too difficult to source.

Like most SCs, this car backs up that engine with a GM three-speed Turbo-Hydramatic automatic driving the independently sprung rear end. Disc brakes are fitted all around, behind handsome five-spoke factory alloys. According to the seller, this is a "smooth driving classic which gets a lot of attention." The seller further claims it has a clean title, although it wears no plates and still has the short, wide European plate brackets on both the front bumper and rear panel. The odometer reading is listed as 45,000, but the ad doesn't specify whether that's in kilometers or miles.

The ad does specify that the car is available for viewing in Montclair, New Jersey. Yes, that sounds like the car has died and people are being asked to pay their respects, but it lends credence to the ad being real, not a scam, even though some of the pictures in it are more than a little hinkey.

With that in mind, let's now turn our attention to this Bitter's $45,000 asking price. That's another indicator this is a real car, since it's too high to suggest an attempt to ensnare unsuspecting bargain seekers. But is it a fair price for this exceptionally rare and interesting car?

What's your take on this SC and that $45,000 price tag? Will that ensure a quick sale? Or is that price a bitter pill to swallow?

You decide!

North Jersey, Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.

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