2003 cadillac northstar,120,000 mi =iffy buy?

[twintubdexter]

Madame Zolta says...

<span style="font-size: 14pt; color: #0000ff;">...I see thread growing and growing like "old car vs new car" one. I think a good question to ask is "how much am I going to be driving this used car I'm contemplating buying?" I tend to look at things through my old-man eyeballs. I don't drive a lot. My 1998 Cadillac Eldorado has 24,000 miles on it. Being a realist, I know I will be dead before it ever sees 34,000. My daily driver, a 2001 F150 has 64,000. The Buick comes out into the sunlight about 6 times a year to a local show or a spin around the block. I forget that young people (anyone younger than me) often drive a lot and enjoy it. They also depend on their cars for work, errands and other important stuff.</span>

 

<span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">I'm sure that guy in the Youtube video is knowledgeable. There's another good video (that I won't waste my time posting) that shows a guy comparing engines long with a Cadillac Northstar.  The car, the engine and the guy in the video all look like they were ready for the scrap heap long ago. He places the camera under the car to show "oil" pouring out as the engine tries it's best to run. It's actually green antifreeze.</span>

 

<span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">You never know with any car what may happen. My next-door neighbor recently bought a TOL 2015 Lexus sedan with less than 10,000 mles...lots of room especially in the back seat and automatic everything. The car caught on fire in his driveway and stunk to high-heaven. The HOA thoughtfully made him tow it away.</span>

 

<span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">I'm not sure why I'm adding this since it has nothing to do with the thread. My 2 lady friends who live a few houses away showed me their very pricey new Tesla 4 weeks ago. I was impressed that the car could open the garage door, back itself out into the drive way, close the door and then wait for the "driver" (who needs that?) They wanted to take me out on I-10 (where 80 is the average speed in the slow lane) and demonstrate how the car passes vehicles automatically at the touch of a button. Being a nervous old guy I respectfully declined. Somehow older ladies driving a car that has a dashboard consisting mainly of a very large screen and little else doesn't seem kosher. I didn't see anything that even looked like PRNDL.</span>

 

<span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">My 2 lady friends were moved from the Eisenhower Medical Trauma Center on Friday for an indefinite stay at a recovery facility. Apparently the accident on a local street near me was very bad. The Tesla was hit by 2 other vehicles traveling pretty fast and is now a total loss. They are still trying to determine who is at fault but it doesn't look good for my friends, 2 retired Canadian Air Force nurses. They insist the car was performing some self-maneuvering. Who knows? </span>

 

<span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">I have a feeling that if pressed to tell the truth, Madame Zolta would say "save money, take bus".</span>

 

 

[panthera]

Madame Zolta,

I hope your friends recover soon!

It's awfully hard to separate fact from fiction when it comes to cars.

Example:

I recently picked up a '98 Buick Century for $750. The pleasant young man selling it flat out said: Antifreeze disappears in it!

No Mayo inside the oil filler cap, no computer diagnostics indicating a bad head gasket or anything else, just disappears! He was genuinely baffled. Buick dealers here had told him it would cost nearly $2K to fix.

 

So, yeah, I buy him (and, boy is this car a 'him', call him Jamie), run down to the local Walmart (GM actually caries the same product, but good luck getting a dealer to admit to it), put two cans in and et voilá, the magic disappearing act is gone for good (yes, pedantic ones, for good. Lots of documented cases of it being gone and staying gone for over 50K miles).

 

Unfortunately, though - the gasket problem GM had with the Northstars is a real thing. It was compounded by the headbolt problem (gosh, now, why does that ring a bell...Oldsmobile Diesel prestressed anyone?) and the intentional throw-away design of the engine (still waiting for that rebuild kit number, dahlinks....).

 

So, yeah - if you find a Cadillac with a Northstar you like and you either don't mind blowing $5K on it at some point or trashing it or  the owner has proof they had it fixed...go for it!

 

 

[cfz2882]

Hehe,sounds like buying a northstar Cadi is about equivalent to buying a Land Rover Discovery II 4.6 v8 except the Rover is decently easy to work on and parts avalible-I'm about to do HGs on my '03 Disco at 116,000...Pour in HG repair concoctions can work good-fixed a '97 F150 4.6(keep away from ALL 4.6 v8s ?...LOL)The Ford was a bad case-blowing steam out exhaust,shorting plugs,Poured the stuff in the radiator,then drove the hell out of the truck for ~45 min.and fixed! been good for 3yrs now BTW, the ford had 118,000 at time of incident.I kept the empty bottle of the stuff that worked so well-silver bottle IIRC.