[ryannel2003]

One year ago I acquired a sterling 2000 Cadillac Seville STS after a exhausting 1 1/2 yr search. While I had found a few good candidates along the way, they were either too expensive or had too many miles; This one came at the perfect time. This car had a good service background: a 1 owner, doctors car that had been traded in on a CPO '08 STS. This car did need some attention though, as the HG's were gone and it needed a water crossover pipe. So along with those repairs it got a new motor mount, was completely resealed, and had some other tidbits done before purchase. I purchased this car on June 26th, 2008 with 54306 miles. While I've had some issues with my car, it doesn't take away from the overall Seville experience: a sleek, stylish, powerful, well controlled car that just never got the attention of praise it deserved.

The motor on my car was actually one of the high points of owning this car, as it never gave me an ounce of trouble besides the all too common Crankshaft Position Sensors and a slightly "off" idle that was traced to the camshafts. The latter doesn't bother me too bad, and it is non-existent with premium fuel. I've put 20k on the motor so far and I don't expect it to give me any issues since it was practically rebuilt before I bought the car.

The suspension on my car has also held up well. I had what I thought was a failing strut for quite awhile; when going over speed bumps the front end squeeked terribly. However, when I had my brakes done I described my problem to my tech and he suggested greasing the bushings. I haven't heard a sound from the car since. Thank god, I was already saving up for new struts. The handling has suffered a bit thanks my idiotic attempt to save money and putting on 225 Uniroyal tires that ride great, but offer little to no handling prowess. The car handled so much better with the 235 Michelin Symmtery's, and that's what I'll be putting on the car again. The typical G-body shimmy is about 80% contained on my car; it starts at 68mph and ends at about 76mph. I really need to get the car RFB again, but that will be in the future. It doesn't help that I have a broken front motor mount either. They hold up about as good as a stick of butter.

Cosmetically (interior/exterior) the car is great. It sure doesn't look like a 9 year old car (more like 4 or 5). The paint is still shiny and looks amazing after many coats of wax. I do have an area on the drivers door where the clearcoat is coming off just slightly, but until it gets worse it doesn't bother me one bit. I do have a really ugly passenger side headlight, that after many attempts of cleaning, still looks terrible. I've decided one day I'll purchase a brand new headlight and sell the one I have now. I have 4 dents in my roof that came from... well I don't know where they came from. I'm getting them fixed soon. My taillights started to take on condensation but after drilling holes it looks fine. Turns out I have two small hairline cracks in my lense, letting in water. One day I'll fix it, but for now I'm not too worried.

Inside, I have the typical warped dashpad. My best friend and I are tackling that project sometime next week in an attempt to save $400 on a brand new one that will just do the same thing after 2-3 years of having the hot NC sun hit it. The leather, while cracked, still has held up amazingly well. The drivers side has the most wear (obviously) but it doesn't look bad. Honestly, cracking leather doesn't bother me. As long as it isn't ripped I don't really care. The wood trim still looks great, though it has scratches around the shifter (it's common, so I don't worry about it). My latch on my center console broke off in my hand a few months ago, but it was already on the way out; the passenger side heated seat element is no longer operational. I'm not a passenger in my car, so I could really care less. Everything else inside my Seville is immaculate, and people cannot believe how I keep the car so damn clean. I'm so OCD about my interior I usually just don't have people ride in the car.

In a nutshell, I have enjoyed Cadillac's Seville STS very, very much. It's just a superb vehicle with a troublesome motor and shoddily built interior. It's unfortunate, because the rest of the car is great.

P.S., when I get home I'm going to add up all my costs I have built up in the past year. I calculated about $2500, but some of that was just my obsessiveness to have a perfect car.

Thanks for reading.