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Can you afford a Cadillac?!

8K views 23 replies 21 participants last post by  Black Beauty DTS 
#1 ·
Now I'm sure people have made a comment, asked you that question or mentioned that they can't afford a Cadillac to you at least once before.
specially if you are a younger fella.
Now can I afford a Cadillac ? Yes, I had 3 in my life and still own 2 of them,
Do I make 6 figures? No. not even close.

so what's all the fuss about ?

Now obviously I didn't buy them new, and the only reason is I moved to the United states about 3 years ago, My credit history is only 3 years old and if i have a longer/better history I'd buy them new, nothing wrong with pre-owned, but new always better.

after moving here, I got my first Cadillac, 03 Deville for only $3400 (private seller) it was a great deal, car needed some work (air injector and valve), $280 parts and about 2 hours of work and a 10mm socket fell down somewhere in between the firewall and the engine and never to be found again :p

at this time I didn't have a job yet, I have a B.S. in Information systems and after few months of not getting any job in my field I applied at walmart TLE (tire and lube express), and started to work there, < survival job
after 6 months, I needed another car, with my bad back I needed something with better ground clearance so no more snow shoveling, so I went to couple GM dealerships around me, due to my non existing credit history i was declined from GM and ended getting my SRX from Toyota dealership through TFS with 9.3% APR
now I started to get even more comments about owning 2 Cadillacs!
I managed to get myself back to school to get my masters in Information Systems since i couldn't get anything with my bachelor, and through my School (DePaul University) I got a job in my field, small part time job, but it's perfect for me since it give me time to study too,
few weeks ago I got my 3rd Cadillac: 09 STS N* V8 AWD,

now almost everyone I know think I'm crazy, and ask me what's wrong with you and why you don't buy other cars? only American and Cadillacs ? why don't you buy something import and save money.........
now please tell me WHY ?

how it's different buying a Cadillac from buying a Camry/Avalon for the same price ? really think about it like this, in the past couple few years of owning 2 Cadillacs at a time how much I spent on repairs ? beside the oil changes; the Deville about $600 and put on it over 30,000 miles before trading it in, the SRX over 30,000 miles too and about $900-1000 so far,
payment will be the same if you buy a $25,000 no matter what the car brand is!

what do you guys think ?
 
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#3 ·
Alright since i guess i fall under this young fella thing i'll add my take. I love Cadillac my Father had two when i was growing up and my Grandmother had them. When i turned 18-19 all i could think of is owning a Seville like my Father had. So with that said i saved up my funds for a down payment and went to my local dealer to look at a 2002 Seville SLS with 94K miles. Looked at it and it was in poor condition so they had a 2003 sitting next to it and i took that around the lot. Went in looking to get a loan and they turned me down because of my credit being i have none that did not work out. So my Grandmother was expecting a Cadillac in the driveway and her grandson to have one. She told me and my Father go back and get the one you truly want and we go back test drove it again and a 08 DTS triple black. Thinking to myself the price of the DTS being $24K and the 03 SLS being $7000 i went for the less one being the SLS. Gave her my down payment and she got me the car. Well i went in thinking it was going to be like any other car and i got a shock of a life time! Me having low wage jobs and not having a job really hurt having a car like that. So i tried my best to keep it clean working and drive it as less as possible. So the ending of the story is if you are a kid don't buy one of these cars!!!! I can not stress that enough!!! I have the Cadillac bug but its a strain that i have i guess and i love my Eldo and Seville. Eldo has a blown headgasket and i have not that much money to replace it so... Yea i'm done i think i went on enough and this will be my longest post i ever made.
 
#4 ·
I bought my first Cadillac, a Sterling Silver 2000 Seville STS, when I turned 18. When you first get a car like you've always wanted it's easy to overlook the potential looming repair costs that will start to accumulate as the car racks up the miles and in age. Within the first year of owning that car I easily spent $1500-$2000 to have things repaired on it. That, coupled with my OCD of having the "perfect" old car made it nearly impossible to upkeep. In 2010 alone I spent $2500 on new tires, broken motor mount, leaking radiator, 2 blown Bose speakers, brake pads and rotors, new A/C line, leaking taillights, etc. I will say that from the period of 97k miles right up until 1116k when it was wrecked it cost me less than $500 to maintain it. At one point I calculated I had spent nearly $5k on repairs... that didn't include any oil changes, tire rotations, brakes, etc. (basic stuff).

If you can afford to upkeep a Cadillac I wouldn't hesitate to recommend one. However if you are working at minimum wage jobs and can't do some DIY I do not recommend it at all. My first car was a 2000 Toyota Camry and the car has had a 1/4th of the amount of work my STS had and it's only had basic work. The most major thing to replace was the timing belt. I would recommend that car to anybody. It's not a Cadillac but it's a hell of a lot cheaper.
 
#5 · (Edited)
Let's face it folks the greatest redistribution of wealth in the United States takes place when the new automobiles, that we buy, quickly depreciate in value. This rapid depreciation makes cars that would be well out of the range of affordability (whether the $30,000. average new car cost or over $50,000 average luxury car cost) to Americans making even the average family of four income of $52,000. a year. This economic phenomenon represents the largest redistribution of wealth in world. It is voluntary, no one is dictating the purchase of new cars or nearly new cars, whose purchase take money from the rich and give to the poor.

Are Cadillacs, or cars in general affordable? They are to virtually every segment of American society, including newly arrived immigrants who in most countries in the world would not be able to drive much less own a car ((due to the high cost of obtaining a driver's license (well over $10,000 in Japan for example) and high taxes on automobiles and other car expenses)). Our system of credit and the ease with which one can borrow also makes car ownership possible to those whose income and assets wouldn't otherwise qualify them for credit. Many choose to ignore laws requiring auto insurance, willing to inflict personal and financial loss on others because they themselves have nothing to lose.

Given all these factors a Cadillac is yours to want and yours to get, most of the real expense of owning any car and particularly a "luxury" car have already been aid by others.

On the other hand, relative to less expensive cars to buy new, Cadillacs do have a higher, potential, cost of ownership which some see as reasonable either because of naivete or because understand the higher cost and choose to afford it. The higher relative used car value of cars like Honda, Toyota, etc. is the result of the perceived, and actual, higher cost of gas consumption and repair cost of the many more things that can go wrong with a Cadillac or other "luxury" car.

Welcome to this wonderful world, my young friend, I hope you will become a "new" Cadillac buyer very soon ....... many of us will look forward to buying your "used" Cadillac when you tire of it!
 
#6 ·
I guess I can afford a cadillac. I've had my 86 brougham since I was 19. I did not set out to buy a caddy, just a RWD GM yacht to drive to school. I paid 1500 for it, spend 400 to get it on the road (needed a new exhaust pipe section and valve cover gaskets, plus carb work). Over the next year, I put brakes, tires, and more engine work in it (so maybe 1k in work). I also did the radiator and hoses, alternator, and headlights myself- had a radiator, alt, and headlights lying around. It then got wrecked and I spent almost 5k (with installation) on a used strong running 350, brand new transmission, new dual stainless exhaust system and headers, and some odds and ends (which add up quick).
Now it's time for new suspension (shocks and rear springs because they're original) and new P.S. pump (has an ever so slight drip), which I will be doing myself.
If I had not been able to do some of the work myself, the car would have cost me over 1k more (not including my custom interior).

Overall, engine swap aside (I guess I could have had my 307 rebuilt, but it was gutless and got bad mileage), the car was fairly cheap to maintain.
 
#11 ·
I could afford a cadillac how ever if you where to have asked me before i fell in love with one i would have said no i can't
i still don't know where the over 30k i put into my seville sls came from
i keep thinking back and wondering what the hell where did all the money come from because here i am with a lexus now not putting any money into it and struggling to save a 100 a month in the bank just to save up money
than i think wait that extra 400 a month is going into the lexus to pay it off early so i guess i can afford a cadillac

i acutlay have been throwing around the idea of a new one i have been hunting down a Eldorado coach builders edition convertible for a few months now every time i think i found one i liked it turned out to be bad
i am not buying any car that needs even 1 dollar of work before purchasing it
 
#12 ·
Thanks for sharing a story. I don't think a Cadillac is so much more special than any other mass-production car in regards to costs. A car is a money pit regardless.
 
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#13 ·
The credit companies have blurred the line between "want" and "afford".

NEVER buy anything on credit because you WANT it - as soon as you go into debt you begin to pay for the credit card's CEO's pina coladas in Belize.
 
#16 · (Edited)
I'll add on and say NEVER buy anything on credit that depreciates at a faster rate than you can afford (as is the case for just about every person that buys a car on credit). You should never owe more on something than it's worth (2007, anyone?) - you should be able to afford your car in cash, even if you choose not to use that method of payment with some short term low/no interest offers. If that's not possible, you can't afford the car and you are shopping out of your price range.
 
#15 ·
^^^ In 1960 (the year of the Craig's ads above) the average household income for a family of 4 was $5400. This amount corresponds to the approximate price of a Cadillac 62 in 1960. Today the average family income for the same family (but with both husband and wife working) is around $54,000 and this is the approximate price of a Cadillac XTS (which reflects the same model level as the model 62 in 1960).

The average family, in 1960, could not afford to buy a Cadillac, even if they were willing to make great sacrifices in other aspects of their life style. This is because income tax rates were much higher on middle class incomes at that time and there was no leasing and finance companies demand a substantial down payment on new car loans. So a Cadillac's purchase did bring a certain degree of prestige to the owner of a Cadillac. The man on the street assumed the Cadillac owner had a certain socio-economic status, and he was mostly justified.

This is not the case today, while the $52,000 price of a "full sized Cadillac would still be a stretch for middle class family today .... other models of Cadillacs can be had for far less, and the buyer today would be helped with greater discretionary income (because of lower income tax rates) but also because leasing and much easier credit qualification and lower interest rates all combine to make Cadillac ownership available to a broader segment of American society.

The question now becomes, do those who can really afford a senior Cadillac really want one. Does a Cadillac bestow the quality, style and prestige that make a car attractive to those in the top 5% of family incomes. In talking with my son about a discussion he had with other partners in his law firm (all 1%'s), it seems initially the purchase of Cadillac wasn't even mentioned or considered. When someone brought up Cadillac as a possibility the others scoffed at the idea as Cadillacs were considered "old people's cars." All this would be confirmed by driving around upper middle and upper income neighborhoods to see what was in the driveway. Around where I live there would be not a Cadillac in sight.

So back to the question "can you afford a Cadillac." The answer I would think would be if you have an income at all you can find a Cadillac that you can afford. The question really is "does it make sense?"
 
#19 ·
I probably could. I've owned 4 in the past four decades but always bought used.
I like the new coupe but really want a monster engine for my next one.
However......the prototype Eldorado we witnessed a couple of weeks ago really spun my crank. THAT CAR I would go to the well for.
Currently my old 99 ETC treats me well so I'll wait it out (God willing) and see what comes to the plate.
 
#22 ·
Let's face it, even today, our cheap and easy to obtain credit makes most middle class "luxuries" affordable to almost anyone with "a recent pay stub." It has reduced the so-called prestige of consumer goods ownership almost to the point of being a joke.

This all came to a head with economic disaster of 2007-2008 with the collapse of the banking industry and the subsequent collapse of the real estate market and stock market. Granting unrestricted credit to almost anyone who passed a mirror test led to people thinking they could actually "afford" a luxury level, or even to be a homeowner, when in fact they barely qualified to be renters.

As this scenario applies to today, too many folks still feel they are "entitled" to far more in the way of material goods than their economic circumstances can substantiate. The fact that our overall economy depends on ever greater consumer spending for growth means we are likely to return to easier credit, while other economic circumstances indicate that the financial situation of middle class America will not improve in the near future.
 
#23 ·
With a down payment and small loan, I owe less than the car is worth. I did research before buying it for common problems, costs of repairs and costs of replacement parts. Yes there are some Wtf parts in there, CHMSL anyone? But for the most part it's really not any more expensive to maintain than your average 10 year old car. Being a quasi auto mechanic helps here a lot too.

For the price range I'm in, it came down to do I want to finance a 5-7 year old average appliance, or a 10 year old car with "prestige" and low miles. I am thus far pleased and confident with my choice.

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