2000 Cadillac Seville-April 9, 2006 to December 23, 2006.
My parents 25th anniversary is on Dec 25. My dad was thinking about setting up a vacation for the two of them. But then we started thinking about what to mom could use all the time. New minivan.
Our 1996 Town & Country works great, but has seen better days. Me and my dad use it as our repair truck to maintain the few apartment buildings he has. Its not pleasing to the eyes to say the least.
So we had to decide which one to give up. He said my Eldo, I said hell no! We then said the Seville. I thought about it. It wouldn't be that bad I thought.
After looking around on the internet, we decided on a Honda Odyssey. It was either the Odyssey or the Toyota Sienna. And the Toyota place was not being "friendly" with pricing. The Honda dealership was pretty good, gave us $6K for the Seville. We wanted more (who wouldn't), but after thinking about it, I think we did okay. We bought it for $6,700 in April. Since then we've spent about $500 in fixings and maintenence (trans fluid change, oil changes, brake pads, etc...) (excluding gasoline), so say $7,200 total. The car is developing a tranny problem (jerks from a standstill), burns a quart of oil every week (about 100-200 miles), and isn't great on gas (14 mpg). I am scared s**tless about a head gasket problem with the car (dunno why), it has a battery/charging problem (car dies at idle under heavy electrical load...car must be jumped to start, not related to cps/ckp).
I will miss the car no doubt. Flooring the car wasn't as good as the Eldo, but it moved. But I was able to steal the homelink transmitter out of it for my Eldo (which happens to work!!). I do have some parts laying around for it, hopefully I can sell them. I was estimating, just to get it in a nice
cosmetic condition, it would be close to $500. Add the repairs, an easy $1,000. Almost break even, and at least we owned a Seville...the "four door racecar" for our house. I still love that old commercial...
Well, in our driveway is a 2007 Honda Odyssey EX-L. Very well-equpped. Its the level below "Touring" and has rear-seat "entertainment". Its not a dvd system, its an "entertainment" system. :P But its cool, it has rca inputs for video games or anything else. 2 wireless headphones, remote, seperate audio for the rear and front (dvd in back, radio for driver). Lots of other features: 4 power windows (2 front doors, and in both slding doors...I love that!!), power sliding doors, fold flat seats, removable middle seats, heated front seats, 6 cd changer, 3 zone climate control, trac control & stability control (I need to "properly" test those...
).
I wish it did have a power tailgate, adjustale pedals, memory seats, 115 volt power, parking sensors. We could have gotten navi, but we actually don't drive to unknow places. Plus my dad's phone, and my phone has navi, and I am upgrading my portable one soon. Rear camera would have been nice too.
It has a 3.5L V6 with a 4 speed trans. I think in this day and age, 5 speeds should be a minimum, but oh well. My dad took it out for a test drive, and halfway through I took over. For a minivan it moves well, but its not rocket. I am used to my Eldo, is what my dad said, and I am. At WOT it was "respectable" to say the least. Though it was surprisingly smooth shifting at WOT.
Financing options sucked (
7-9% interest with good credit score-740 or above!!, WTF?!), and leasing was bad too, because according to our math, the $6K for the Seville never showed up...
So I moved some money around in the bank and we paid cash (well personal check) for it. Every month we will put $600-700 towards it. This way too we can put any level on insurance on it. I told my dad for the first few years I want comp & collision on it, after that we can drop it. He seemed happy with the whole deal.
We did buy *gasp* an extended warranty. From the factory, it has a 3 year/36K mile bumper-to-bumer and a 5 year/60K mile powertrain. For $1,223, we extended the bumper-to-bumper to 6 year/80K mile, no additional powertrain. We have 3 years to cancel it, but only could add it at the time of sale. I grilled the warranty guy good about terms and policy...all the answers pleased me very much (lemon policy, loaner cars, locations, etc...). I will be looking over the complete terms this week to make sure it is worth it.
With the extended warranty, it came out to about $33,500 including tax, all fees, etc... The Seville was $6,000 off, so the check was about $26,000 plus a charge of $1,223 for the warranty.
My dad hopes, like our last van, this lasts a solid 9-10 years. I think it can, it seems to be built pretty well. Anyone know any trouble spots with this engine or trans, and the Odyssey in general? I know this is a Caddy board, but I refuse to join a Honda board and be bombarded with ricers! Any thoughts on the car, engine & trans, and warranty? Input is welcome from all.
RIP Seville, welcome Odyssey.
Edit: Holy crap that was way longer than I thought it would be...sorry!
