Seems like they are practically giving these cars away! I currently have a '97 STS (wife's) and a '95 ETC which I use as a work truck. I had an '85 Eldorado which was a fine car too. All but the wife's car were pretty inexpensive. My ETC was $2000 when I got it but after 2.5 years of work use, it has needed quite a bit of love (read $$$ and work). I am actually getting pretty good at fixing these overly complicated cars! I am a carpenter and just about everyone I work with uses a pickup truck that really won't haul much in the way of tools securely while I can haul a ton of tools absolutely securely while listening to the Bose. Not mine but similar. .
My friend had an early 90's Caddy like that in the early 2000's....needing quite a bit of love is an understatement But if you know how to and are willing to work on the cars you can practically get them for free when the current owner gets a repair bill for the cost of the car from a dealer and they don't want to be bothered with it anymore.
The Northstar's with head issues are the worst, followed closely by all the others with electrical gremlins.
The problem with Northstars is when they overheat they can be ruined very quickly. No overheat, no problem. I keep an eye on the engine temp and basically run the piss out of it. The more I learn about this engine, the more impressed I am. 300hp and 305ft lbs from a 4.6L and gets 26mpg on the highway. Not fun to work on but with some research, it's doable.
I started researching online as I was thinking of buying a first gen SRX as our family back up car. Holy crap, there are a ton of issues with those things. :huh
Cadillac = some really different engineering. It seems overly complicated to me but the ones I have had were damn good cars and I have been able to figure out whatever goes wrong and repair it pretty cheap. They seem to be as reliable as anything else out there as long as you don't let the problems stack up. No diagnostic equipment needed, it's built in. A friend has an antique. I think it's like a 1930 or so business coupe. Ceramic coated exhaust system, dual mode suspension etc. All stock. I personally stood a nickel on edge on the engine while it was running and i didn't fall over. It makes no sound while running at any rpm. I'm really glad that used Cadillacs don't have a big following. It's nice to have someone else take the big hit on a $45000 car and they really are a pleasure to drive. I figure, if I have to travel in a car it may as well be a Cadi.
Yup. I carry all the tools I need for concrete work, framing, sheeting of all kinds including drywall. Tools for finish work including laminates, molding, some tile stuff, painting, patching etc, . Tools for door hardware installation and repair plus all my welding tools, 2 fire extinguishers and a well stocked first aid kit. Not to mention all the food and water I need for a day. All this crap is secured with a push of a button - not only locked up pretty good but with a security system as well. Of course, this makes my ETC a one seater. (it is crammed full)
Understood, toolbox on big wheels with multiple access points. And like you said a nice ride to boot.
A customer of mine drops a huge pile of cash for a new Caddy performance sedan a few years back, (I don't know what the model # is, to be honest I just couldn't give a shit). Anyway, the car is a total piece of shit, ends up at the dealer dozens of times, generates over $8K in warranty work, and eats tires until the day he trades it in. He then gets the exact same POS as a 2013 version. This one was $40K and his trade. I think he might be retarded? Another friend buys a "program car" , a three year old, mid-sized suv with 20K miles on it. His wife spends weeks at a time driving the Caddy dealer's loaner as they attempt to repair the seeming endless engine issues. The car had major problems at least 6-8 times in the short time he owned it. He then dumps the car back to the dealer with less than 100 miles left on the warranty. The dealer confides that his car is one of the worst they have seen in years. I would say that your description of a "ton of issues" might be a bit too kind. More like total shit that I wouldn't waste a dime on. I don't think that this applies to the OP's ride, it's a lot older and bigger than the turdmobiles I am speaking of. I started my career in commercial and heavy construction almost thirty years ago. Back then it was pretty common for tradesmen to have big old boats for work vehicles. I know of a few who did service work out of the giant station wagons of the day.
The older ones are much simpler and have even more room. Years ago I flew to Florida and bout an '88 or so Fleetwood Brougham. A mint 7-8 year old example cost about $2500. You could fit 6 bodies in the trunk.
Just bought a new 2013 CTS 3.6 Premium. Black/black Had prior a BMW530 and a 07' SRX Without a doubt this Cadillac takes the crown. The fit, finish and components are all top notch. And the 3.6 liter begs to be driven fast. I love it.
Yea I really like it. It is bad assed for sure. Too bad I bought it for my wife. Lol Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I tend to think that the '77-96 B- and D-body cars are some of GM's best work. Here's mine: When I bought this '95 Fleetwood Brougham, I sold a car a decade newer worth more than twice what this one was, yet this has easily been the most satisfying car I've ever owned. I bought it with 193k on it, and it's got 252k on it now. Nearly the last of RWD Cadillacs (for a number of years at least), it's powered by a 5.7L LT1 that still doesn't use oil. I put a Class III/IV receiver hitch on it just before 200k, and the 4L60E is still holding up well. I wired in a 7-pin conenctor, but I haven't done trailer brakes yet, so I'm only towing up to 3000lbs (as shown above). I intentionally bought a car that was the last model year before OBDII. It runs well, never hesitates to start (even in the -30°F weather we've had recently), and I don't have to chase codes for secondary O2 sensors or other nonsense. Commuting to work, I get 18-19 mpg with this 4500lb car. My best tank was on a trip, at 23 mpg. Towing lighter loads (around 1500lbs), I can still get 16mpg, or more importantly, better than my friend's early 2000's Tahoe gets empty. This past fall, I bought a '93 Fleetwood Brougham as a parts car (to replace the ugly wheels in the photo above, for starters, and there was some damaged trim on the other side of the car). That '93 had 315k miles on the clock when I bought it, and it ran absolutely great! TBI 350 in that one, with a non-electric 4L60. Certainly electronics were making a big difference in how refined cars felt from one model year to the next in those days. I drove the parts car to work for a while, and other than needing shocks and some sloppy suspension parts replaced, it still was in good shape. It was tempting to just keep driving it to try to get it to 350k miles, but it has 80hp less(!) than my '95, and I didn't want to upkeep consumables on two 250k+ mile cars anyway. My wife's car isn't a Cadillac, but close. It's the second (final) gen. Olds Aurora. We ended up with one that has the 3.5L V6, which is based of the 4.0L Aurora V8, which itself is a de-bored Northstar with a cheaper intake manifold and injection system atop. The V6 makes do with a cast iron block (which presumably holds heads on better). We got ours used nearly ten years ago for less than $5k, with 130k miles on it. It was absolutely trouble-free until 180k miles. I chased a bunch of issues with it last winter, and with over 215k on it now, it's starting to throw codes again. My wife works 65 miles away from our house, so the miles have racked up quickly the past few years. I'm not sure what she's getting in the cold with winter tires on right now, but in the summer she gets upper 20's for MPG out of it--not bad for a 3800lb+ car. She's ready for something different now, but last summer our local GM dealer took in a low-mileage (which isn't worth much to me) 4.0L second-gen Aurora on trade. It was an awful light blue color with an even more awful light blue leather interior, and they wanted too much for it ($6k). Still, we thought very seriously about trying buy it. It wasn't on the dealer lot very long at all however, and I still see it driving around town. Somebody bought a very good car, even if they did pay the asking price. What unfortunate colors, though.
Cadillac crushes Europe <iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/PrZBucMylmU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
