[neturn]

I bought a second-hand 1999 STS Deville which had been imported into New Zealand from an Embassy in Japan.

Cadillac is not a common car here in New Zealand - there are very few of them and there is no dealership as such, although GM do have other cars here. So my car is listed as an "exotic"

Bearing in mind that I sold a Mercedes to buy a BMW which gave me nothing but trouble and then sold my BMW to buy the Cadillac, I was taking a risk. But I am delighted with it.

My only problem is getting information about it. I wrote to GM several times asking for assistance but I was totally ignored. Thank goodness for the internet and this forum.

The car is a real head-turner. It has a low mileage (around 18000 miles) and is in mint condition. I even managed to get the DIC changed from Japanese to English, although initially they changed it to US English, but now it is reading in English with metric information such as temperature etc.

It's a bit of a learning curve - the manual pretty much sucks. However the car is pretty complex and for me it has been a matter of trial and error. Even with the manual, setting the memory for the radio was a bit of an effort.

Interestingly, although my BMW was a 2 liter, this car is less expensive to run, even though it is more than twice the literage.

My only gripe is that so few dealers will send parts to New Zealand and so I am off to the US in one week to buy lots of little bits n bobs for the car, such a a small rubber grommet which is broken.

Apart from that, this car is superb and is easily the best I have owned.

Cars Owned: Mercedes SLK, BMW 280i, Lexus, Ford Fairlane Ghia (worst car I ever owned) Honda Legend, Honda Accord, Hond Prelude.

Best car I ever owned? THIS ONE!

Worst backup from manufacturer? Again, THIS ONE. But the Holden dealer (GM) here has been very helpful.