Ok I have a dilemma i've been dealing with for the past week and I was wondering what opinions you all might have.
Last week a lady traded in her 2000 Seville SLS for a '05 CTS. I got to work on Saturday and saw the car; looked pretty nice. Sterling Silver w/ Shale interior. Car was a basic model except for moonroof and chrome wheels (first Seville i've come across with no memory seats or power steering wheel). Anyway, I looked around the car and it seemed pretty clean. Rear bumper needed to be repainted but otherwise the body was clean. Interior was average; lady smoked in it and the carpet was dirty, but otherwise no major problems. I ask the guys what the asking price was, and they said $8495 but they would sell it to me for $5k. Not a bad deal at all, and they proceeded to tell me the engine had been replaced with a used unit (papers showed previous engine had water in the cylinder heads or something). Used engine has about 35k-40k miles on it.
I go ask my parents about it and they were skeptical at first. However, they both drive it and think its a good deal. We had a mechanic check it out and he said it was a clean car and everything looked good. After that, they said I could get the car. Damn, I was super excited. However, that quickly changed. Driving down the road, I notice the temp gauge slowly moving up. Not a whole lot (in between halfway and quarter line). At first I thought it was overheating, but I was overreacting to that. From what I've read, that is perfectly normal (plus, it was almost 96 degrees outside and I had the A/C blasting). Another thing that bothered me was how low the car sat in the back. I checked the codes and it was throwing RSS C0662, which is Level Control Exhaust Valve Circuit Low. Whatever that means, it looks like an expensive repair. The car also had failed emissions test, but the lady replaced the O2 sensors and it passed once again. After those two issues, I take the car back and tell the dealer "no thanks". They were noticeably upset because we were going later on in the day to sign the papers.
So, what should I do? I think $5600 OTD is a damn good deal. Car has 98k original miles, and everybody in my family was skeptical about me getting the car. They all say "too many miles; car will have endless problems, etc". I then thought: get the car for that price, and gradually fix all the problems that it has. Here is the list of the issues:
Left rear door doesn't open from inside car
Parking brake doesn't release when shifting into drive
RSS code
repaint bumper
Couple of broken plastic trim pieces inside
Car needs a good cleaning
I'm torn: get the car and fix issues, or keeping looking? Thanks!
To me it sounds like your parents are paying for it anyway, so why not?
I don't personally know any 18 year olds driving a Cadillac that's 2000+.
Go for it dude, those problems sound simple, other than the ride one.
That will take a little diagnosing, but it sounds to be a deal to me.
I'd do it.
It doesn't sound like the lady took great care of it, it may have not been abused, but it doesn't seem like she was too up to date with the maintence, typical women BS.
I would run a vin# search @ ur local caddy dealer, they can tell you exactly what type of dealership & warrenty work was done.
As far as the running hot goes, thats normal for a North*.
Also 98k miles you are going to be due for struts, if they werent replaces earlier.
They dropped there asking price rather quickly, so that could be a red flag.
Make them repair some of the issues that are wrong with the car, not having a door open is a prolbem, unless the child safety switch is on, than the doors wont open from the inside. Explore what kuind of warrenty they are offering, than explore purchasing ur own extended warrenty from, an independent company on ur own, not though the place you are uying the car from.
3 years x amount of miles, it's soooo worth the extra $12 to $1500 bucks, believe me in the long run you will put that times 3 into this car if you plan on owning it 3 or 4 years.
Last edited by Tommy Deville; 06-07-08 at 12:52 AM.
ALL STOP !!!! It is not normal for a Seville Northstar to run at anything other than 12:00 on the gauge except in stop & go heavy traffic or for maybe a 1/8" rise for 30 seconds after coming down from a 75 mph road trip. One cooling fan should run in slow when any ventilation setting calls for A/C, so the gauge stays at 12, period. Otherwise one or two fans never come on unless coolant is at 223 or higher, high speed at 234. If you were driving down the road and the gauge was moving past 12 o'clock, not good.
New used engine ? What about the transmission. If the rear level control compressor is shot (and it probably is) you're looking at $400 +. Maybe rear struts along with that for another several hundred.
Emissions failure......not good. O2 sensor(s) may be the tip of the iceberg.
An extended warranty is generally your money into their drain. Take the $1750, put it in a little money market and insure yourself.
Too many red flags here. Walk. (and you work for a dealer.....you'll see the car in action.)
.....or as one post says, you could be totally irresponsible and let your parents lose their money instead of yours.
BTW............Just for grins I ran a Kelley Blue Book on the car and trade (fair condition) is $3775. Retail, excellent condition (assumes perfect car), $8735.
That means the dealer will clean it up and fence it for around a $4,500-$5,000 profit, retail. You buy it, he gets around $2,000 and you have to fix everything.
After sleeping on it and thinking about it again, I'm going to agree with Sub and not get the car. There are just way to many red flags with this one, and dumping all kinds of money into it is just not worth it. That is what kept me from getting it originally, but I've been so annoyed by the whole situation that I thought maybe I should just get it and then be done with it.
The search continues on. Thanks for all the responses!
if you were confident in doing the work yourself
and you have the means
id go for it
if your going to pay to get it repaired then id walk
that said its and SLS so Monroe passives would be just fine and i think you can get the whole set of 4 for about 500 bucks
park brake could be as simple as a small pin hole vacuum leak
rear shocks may be low b/c of a shot air line (my ETC has gone through 2 of them)
broken plastic and bumper is cosmetic and has nothing to do with the reliability of the car
broken door handle here in PA is an automatic failure of inspection (idk how that works where your from)
Is the EB release on 2000+ Sevilles vacuum controlled or is it that electric solenoid in the mechanism that has a yellow override tab just in front of the solenoid? (Owner's manual)
Not to mention there's probably enough carbon in the intake to start your own diamond mine.
