Hi everone,
I've just spent an hour reading all the unbelievebly usefull info in this forum! You all give Cadillac owners some real piece of mind. I'm currently driving a '96 Fleetwood Brougham and love it. It has the LT1 with 250k miles on it. It has been running tickety-boo since I purchased it two years ago. I'm now in a position to pick up a '95 sts with 180k, for $4000.00 cad. I was just wondering what to look out for when I view/test drive the car. I have a lot of faith in the Northstar engine, but it is my understanding repairs can be very labour intensive and costly. Does the high mileage make this car a potential money pit? Living in Toronto means a lot of cold starts and salted roads, how is that on the aluminum? Any feedback would be appreciated.
You guys rock!

See if you can take to a caddy dealer and have them go over it. A couple of $100 could save some head aches. Check on extended warrenty.But for 4 grand you will not able to get any close to a STS.

I agree...

In addition to that, YOU MUST HAVE SERVICE RECORDS..... With such high miles, there is lots of room for people to neglect maintenance, which is key!!!

Goto our GENERAL NON MODEL SPECIFIC forum for information on what to look for...

To ask for service records is like finding the warrenty card for your toaster.
Probably only 1 in 100,000 would record sevice in a booklet.
Most cars are only keep for 3 to 4 year per driver.
A new caddy a person will probably have it serviced by the dealer. Once the warrenty id up or lease is over and the car goes to the auction who knows what part of the contry it will end up in.
Alot of 4x4's in this area head to the states because of the difference in the dollar.
So asking for service records for a 10 ten year old car withover 100,000 miles, most likely be impossble.
In 18 years of driving my wife and I have had over 18 cars, and never recorded service records.

The biggest worry would be the head gaskets/cooling system. As soon as posssible change the coolant and add the pellets and it should be OK.
Take a nice long drive in it before you buy it if possible. $5-10 in gas should let you know if there are any problems. If you are willing to add some gas the owner shouldn't object.

The thing is, if it was dealer serviced they will have all that stuff on comptuers, they type in the VIN and it gives you the records.... I would agree that its true, most people dont keep the records, but this is a good way to have a glimpse as to what happened.. CHances are its been into the dealer more than once for whatever reason....