Hi all!

I'm a brand-new visitor to this thread, and I figure that you are probably the best ones to answer this question.

My partner and just took delivery of a beautifully-kept 1989 Brougham Cadillac and I know nothing about it besides what Carfax will tell me with the VIN.

It was a very generous gift from my partner's father. It is white, and it has a red leather interior. Everything seems to work properly, and it was just driven 260+ miles, and some kind of belt slipped (timing belt?) and was fixed. It has 90k miles and was never driven in winter.

I have absolutely no experience with what I could call Big American Cars, having driven Mazdas my whole life, and I can't help but feel like I need to get the big fuzzy coat and blast "Gin and Juice" while I go cruising down the sedate roads of Rochester, Minnesota :-)

So I'd like to find out as much as I can about this car. Specifically:

* Is it real wheel drive? Are RWD cars really that difficult to drive in the snow?
* Is it a gas guzzler? What kind of MPG can I expect from it?
* How safe it is? What kinds of airbags, anti-lock breaks, traction assistance, etc. does it have?

Basically we're trying to decide whether to A) keep the Cadillac as our primary car and sell our junky (but fuel efficient) Saturn, B) keep both the Saturn and Caddy and use the Caddy as a road-trip vehicle, or C) sell both cars and put the money towards a used minivan. We have a 14-month-old, and I'm concerned about what will happen with the car seat and the leather interior, as well as the safety and reliability and repair costs.

Thanks for your input, I appreciate it!

:welcome:

Welcome from another MN member...up here in the Twin Cities though! :welcome:

It is rear wheel drive, and it should be decent in the snow due mainly to the heavy weight. It does not offer any sort of airbags, ABS or traction control. The Broughams didn't get ABS until 1990 if I'm not mistaken, and airbags and traction control did not get installed until 1993. With these older Broughams, Cadillac wanted to keep costs as low as possible, which is why they never offered a lot of the complicated, expensive features that most of the other Cadillacs has as either standard fare or as an option, and when they introduced something new on these Broughams, it was usually after it was introduced on the other Cadillacs. Coming from a Mazda, it will be a "guzzler", but it's a full sized american luxury car of the old style...you gotta expect it, but then again, it's cheap to own and very reliable. In my opinion, that outweighs the MPG factor. It'll probably get 13-14 mpg in city, and 20-23 on the highway.

If I was you, I'd keep the Cadillac, just because it sounds like it's in great shape, and it's got low miles. Those old Broughams are some of my favorite Cadillacs of all time. Now whether you want to keep it as a second car for road trips, that's up to you...it's hard for me to give you any advice there not knowing how much you drive in town and where you go, etc etc. So have fun with it and love it for what it is!

^^ Yeah, what he said. My computer went kaput twice, so I typed a monster paragraph twice!! Argg.. I wont try again. So sorry if I seemed a bit brief before. Anyway, if all you've seen in a carfax, do you even know what she looks like? Go to eBay an search 1989 Brougham and you'll see one just like yours!

Greg

Hi Greg,

We just picked it up this afternoon so we were able to see it in person and get the VIN. Since we're not sure yet what we're doing with it we haven't taken it joyriding yet.

Thanks for your comments!

The Cadillac will be a great car. I'm not sure about a child seat though. The Brougham's pillowy seats may cause some issues, and I'm not sure about exactly how a child's seat secures in. It probably won't be an issue. I can testify that it will be decent in the snow. I personally prefer RWD to FWD in the snow because it allows me to control and correct more, of course, the ideal situation is to not have to correct in the first place. I also pulled a friend with a Toyota out of the mud with mine as well.

I say the car is great, but it's only great for some people. If you're not a Cadillac fan then you may not like it. Don't let us try and sway you. It's a big, comfy, luxury sedan, but if that's not what you need, by all means sell it. There's tons of collectors out there that will snap it right up for a good price.

Congrats on your new-to-you Brougham! Not much I can add, except to say that child seats should not be an issue as the outboard rear seat positions have 3-point belts, so they can accomodate child seats securely without problem. These cars are easy to care for as they are still relatively uncomplicated, although they are a bit underpowered for their weight. Expect 0-60 times in the 13 to 14 second range. Let us know what you decide to do with the car.

Craig

It's one of my fave RWD Cadillacs those . Yep, there are no airbags but as far as I know they should have ABS ,larger gas tank over pre '86 RWD models .Engine is an underpowered one considerin the size of the vehicle .

as far as safety in like in accident, they're great. I got rear ended one time and it pushed my bumped in maybe an inch at the most but the lady who rear ended mee front bumped was pushed in like 3 inches and her hood was pushed up. Her car had to be towed away but i drove mine away. The engines in them are excellent engines (besides mine but that because a junkie use to own it) and reliable but the gas really sucks. That I can't lie about. If i have to leave town I useally borrow my moms car or something cause she has a 4 cyclinder and is WAY better on gas. But it's really all up to you and your personal view. I am a cadillac fan and always wanted a big body brougham.

Thanks for everyone's opinions... this was exactly the kind of information and feedback I was hoping for. We're still not decided on whether or not we want to keep the car and we are exploring our options.

If anyone knows of someone in the MN/WI/IA area who would love to buy it, let's talk.

Hi everyone!

Well, we've taken a few out-of-town trips with the new Cadillac and I have to say I'm sold on it. It has a lot of fun features and it's way more comfortable to ride in than our Saturn. We're having fun showing it off to people (everyone is shocked... not the kind of car a progressive, ecologically-aware young couple would be expected to own). We had a problem with parking it the other night -- a city garbage truck couldn't empty a dumpster behind our house -- but once we moved parking spaces we were fine. We had a major snowfall here in Rochester last weekend and everything was glazed with about 1/2" of solid ice, but the Caddy rolled over it without a sweat. I have to admit I am impressed :-)

Now, two more questions for you:

-- I found this page (http://www.100megsfree4.com/cadillac/cad1980/cad89b.htm) that describes how the VIN breaks down and I noticed that it says that digits 6 and 7 ("69") represents the body style (4 door sedan). My VIN's 6th and 7th digits are "51". Anyone know why?
-- How do you set the dashboard clock? I have tried every button combination I can think of.

Thanks!

Hi everyone!

.....We're having fun showing it off to people (everyone is shocked... not the kind of car a progressive, ecologically-aware young couple would be expected to own)....

Tell your environmentalist friends you plan to use it as a hobby car, maintain it well, and keep it from a landfill or careless owner's hands. That's my standard line when I get grief about my 68 sedan.

Congrats on the car. Have fun with it.

You get grief about your '68? That's astonishing, and sad.