Hi
I hate Cadillac.
The reason for this is a story going back to 2006, where I purchased a Cadillac STS 1999 with around 71000 Miles. The car was exported from the US to Europe in 2003, where it was driven in a Central European country with reasonably bad roads in all kinds of weather (sunshine, rain, snow, ice).
The problems started literally the first day I got the car. I noticed the Temp gauge was heavily tending towards "HOT" all the time (despite being September), which I attributed to some minor glitch, certainly fixable...A few days later I realized the coolant level was trying to imitate Mono Lake in CA (the lake`s water is rapidly disappearing due to high water consumption in LA). Never mind, I topped off the coolant reservoir and purged the air out, so the little engine could breath better. The result was impressive; the coolant level dropped rapidly - and with it, my spirit dropped at the same rate, whilst I whispered two words (head gasket). Well, actually head gaskets - plural - as the fine Northstar engine, as this fine American engineered machine is called. Well, to make it short; we did the gaskets (took us about a week), time serted the bolts etc etc, and I hoped the engine now would be "first class". Well, it was, but only for about a year. Coincidally, several other issues popped up; windshield (front) started to leak while driving through a car wash (and dripping onto some carefully prepared papers I needed this afternoon). OK no big deal, I thought. Even a luxury car can leak (and have its engine issues). I managed to fix the windscreen leak, then whilst waiting at the drive through at McDonald`s, I noticed a slight movement of the temperature needle. I was prepared for the worst, but nothing else happened that day. But the next, as we drove the car for some 500 miles to the mountains, in order to enjoy a few days of snow and ski. I appreciated the fine invention of the Cadillac (lowering part of the rear bench) allowing for non-problematic transport of snow gear (especially skis). Well into the mountains, I noticed the outside temperature dropping, whilst snowflakes appearing on the (repaired) windscreen, which led us to the idea to increase the temperature inside the car. Obviously, it didn`t work, instead a long streak of vapour appeared roughly in the middle of the windscreen, clearly emitting from somewhere under the dash. Luckily, this streak of steam did not hinder our success to arrive at the ski resort, where I warily parked the car, in the hope it will disappear and not annoy us during our 500 miles drive back home a few days later. I actually hoped someone at GM built in a self-repairing "something", which would fix this slight glitch. Needless to say, it didn`t. We drove back home, the car was cold inside - but luckily we did not lack warm winter clothes, which somehow made our fine journey in a fine Cadillac quite enjoyable. Needless to add that the seat heating system ceased to operate, so it actually looked like some ghosts were trying to get in touch with us, saying something like "Guys it is winter time outta there". We even tried to listen to a few CDs we brought with us, but all attempts to load them into the fine BOSE CD changer were futile, as the machine simply refused to read the CDs, leaving us with the jolly radio itself, which, however, was quite unintelligible due to massively ****e speakers. Anyhow, we made it home, in our luxury car, where I parked it, noticing a clacking sound coming from the right rear mirror whilst backing up (the mirror showed some issues, apparently). Never mind, who needs a self-adjusting rear mirror anyways? A few days later I regained my spirit and, in preparation of doing some groceries, tried to start the car. No luck. The battery was dead. Well, I thought "this happens to ALL cars sooner or later", and went to purchase a new battery. What can I say? The car started like a champ - only for the CHECK STABILITY SYSTEM message to pop up. No worries, did I think. However, the car behaved strangely, its driving characteristics indicated there is a morality tale behind this message, making me slightly worried to say the least. The car had to see a dealer. The result was a dealer not knowing where to look for the problem, as apparently "everything is fine". Well, the message disappeared - but occasionaly came back on, annoying at least, but sometimes also providing a hearty flush of adrenaline.
Several weeks passed, with the lack of heating being diagnosed as a clogged-up heat exchanger "which you better replace", as per dealer. I attempted, but failed. Too much work and too big hands let me have this work done for a "few dollars". Actually, they weren`t so few. Anyhow, the car was heating nicely now, but the blower motor, as a consequence (?) was so loud, one couldn`t understand a word inside the fine, luxury Cadillac, when it was blowing at its highest pace. Well, that is only a major glitch - the car already had something around 80000 miles (!), so a few little issues here and there....I drove to work, listening to my iPod through a cassette adapter, when the cassette was disgorged from the fine BOSE apparatus, leaving me without music - but I still had courage, I simply listened to the blower motor, which had its magic on that trip, shall I say.
A few days later, the unspeakable occured; the CHECK OIL LEVEL light came on, leaving me speechless. My - almost new- Cadillac`s CHECK OIL LEVEL light came on? This must be a mistake I thought, but it wasn`t. The dipstick was dry, almost making me faint. After regaining control over myself, I recalled there still is "plenty of oil in da engine", even the stick is dry. Funny system. What was that engine called? Northstar? Well, it wasn`t a problem after all, so I happily continued on my trip, only to learn the temperature gauge was...running to HIGH! Now I was worried. A check of the coolant level confirmed my strong suspicion, and again I murmured two words "head gaskets". Well, no problemo, we did the gaskets again (plus all the other stuff you can do with a head and the valves, once you have them out, including a new starter, as there were issues with that I forgot to mention before. One week later, and the car was running like a champ. Powerful as ever "ah, this Northstar" did I say to myself, and accelerated the big fine Cadillac. Arriving at my beloved McDonalds drive-through, I lowered the window and ordered some fine American food. I failed to close the window afterwards, however, making the journey home quite uncomfortable - and considerably spoiling my imagination of some nice food. The power window was screwed up, so two choices were available; either forget about the damn window, drive it open (it was summer, anyhow), or fix it (which I did). The choice to fix the window was quite expensive, but allowing me to use the car beyond warm summer days, which, considering the value of the luxury cadillac, was quite comforting. only a few days later, after driving around without the need to visit a dealer or fixing things myself, I stopped the car after arriving home, and noticed something really was f!cked up with the front suspension, as the fine, American car, whilst turing the steering wheel, was rocking up and down. What an interesting failure, for a change! I really enjoyed crawling underneath the car, exploring the (really well engineered and strong) front suspension, unable to find the issue. My last hope was the dealer, who found the problem and fixed it, with a hefty pricetag attached to it. Fine. I purchased the Cadillac for about 6000USD initially, now the car was worth 10000USD - just by adding what I have invested into it so far. Well, I was, somewhere deep inside, quite sure no fool would buy such a piece of trash, even with so many parts exchanged. However, after spending six months in the army during the first half of 2010, my girlfriend was driving the car often, only to complain about "that weird smell" and the mold in the trunk. Mold in the trunk?? God no. I came back from my overseas deployment, opened the trunk of the Cadillac, and found some real issues; everything was wet. My investigation led me deeper into the trunk, close to the reserve. To my surprise (or not), the reserve wheel was intact - no bubbles came out of it. Bubbles? Right!! Because that damn thing was immersed in water. Well, I spent half a day cleaning the mess (and taking everything outta the trunk, including the carpets), leading me to believe someone forgot to close the trunk during one night or so. But all accusation vectored towards my girlfriend were futile; so I seeked help at www.cadillacforum.com, a fine site dedicated to Cadillac. And I found an answer; actually, I found a solution for my problem as well; "one person has to climb into the trunk, closing it, and a second person needs to hose down the car in order to check where the leak is" (www.cadillacforum.com). At this point, I have to pause and let the inclined reader know, that I did not initiate any such maintenance action. Instead, I calmly climbed into the car (removing all personal belongings), and driving it, all in first gear at 6000RPM to the nearest junk yard. I watched the junk dealer wrecking the car with big tools (and making sure noone will ever have the questionable pleasure to drive said car again). Finally, after the job was done, the scrap dealer drove me home - I kept one souvenir of the Cadillac; the rear bench, which will stay in my garage and remind me of those times I had the pleasure to drive a fine Cadillac with the Northstar engine.

Never EVER in my life will I purchase a Cadillac again. This car is a masterpiece of bad engineering (engine), poor assembly quality and poor parts quality, combined with bad driving characteristics. Honestly, who would use frontwheel drive only on a 300hp powered car, it is absolutely useless.

I wish you all a pleasant and joyful week, with or without Cadillac.

Ex-Cadillac Driver

 

you bought a 7 year old car without testing w/o reading or considering our warnings relating to all aluminum engine cars? probably never having fluids replaced and in failure mode. see our FAQ section.

then you drove it for another 5 years in a 'wet / damp' environment with pre-existing issues and outright pre-existing abuse?

car buyers, DO YOUR HOMEWORK when buying a USED car!! It is a BUYER BEWARE transaction regardless of how and where you buy the used car !!!

now that i said all that, it sure would be nice to see the photos of the car being 'wrecked' for its indiscretions.



.

 

Stomper

First, I am impressed you read my frustrated post, thanks and sorry if it somehow annoyed you

You are right; I did purchase the car - from a friend who drove it a few years. I have to say, that when hearing or thinking about Cadillac a few years ago, before I purchased the car, I only saw bright and shiny metal, made in America, running for hundreds of thousands miles without breaking down. Something like a VW Beetle or Mercedes, Audi, etc. I didnt expect the brand being so trashy, to say the least. Water in the car? Head gasket problems? And all this with a seven year old car. Simply incredible. One would expect something like this from a cheap Korean car, or a British auto - but a luxury Cadillac, which is supposed to compete with mentioned European brands?? Currently I own four cars, excluding the STS. Two German built, and two British, one being a Jag E 1963. The German cars, even they are built by the cheesiest German car maker, are way better than the Cadillac, except engine performance, off course. One car is 1989 built and the other 1997, both run in a wet and damp climate since being on the market, none has or ever had, issues with water in the trunk, not mentioning the 300000 km one of them has, and all this with a junky 2.0 engine.
All I want to say is, if you buy a normal car, be it six seven or nine years old, it shouldnt have issues, like the Cadillac, otherwise there are some real engineering problems at the root. And if these issues spill over from the luxury car to other models of a brand, then any car maker will sooner or later remain sitting on a pile of new cars and exit the market.

Cheers

 

"Worst Car on Earth"?
Have you driven a Yugo lately?

So, you bought what you perceived to be a big ol' pos, and then had it junked. Then, you had the brilliant idea of going on a forum that supports that brand vehicle, and trash ALL of that brand's vehicles? Wow....tell us how you really feel.
I've owned Mercedes vehicles in the past, and was never all that impressed with the brand, overall. Sure, mine had some minor annoyances here and there, and it always cost me a bundle to repair them. I've never gotten on the Mercedes forum(of which I am still a member) and trashed them. I happen to realize that ALL manufacturers have duds every now and then...it's just the way it is. I've own quite a few turds in my day...a couple of them were Cads. Doesn't mean they're ALL turds.
However, with enough research, you can usually weed out most of the problem children before purchase. Sounds to me like your buddy got the best of you, and you want to blame someone else for buying a car with known issues, and abuse.
Thanks for sharing your story.

 

i guess i know why i have few friends .. its probably too difficult to find real friends that wont screw you for the money?

do you think for a second that such a 'friend' did not know anything about those issues on that one car?

May i offer you some crystal pure water from the Moselle or better yet, the Spittelwasser ?

ok .. all barbs aside, please check the car next time, friend or not friend ...

now, put me behind he wheel of a Porsche Carrera, and I'll forget about most Cadillacs .. well .. not the CTS-V ...




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My apologies. I didn't intend to create the impression of hating the Cadillac brand, just the Cadillac STS 1999 model I owned. It would be sinister to infer ALL Cadillacs are turds with having driven only one. Anyways, this whole STS thing wa incredibly frustrating to say the least.

 

Consistency of build quality is a known issue with some models of these cars. But I didn't get a lemon. With any car, things will go best when you stay on top of your car's issues. Watch your oil, your coolant. Know your gages, the sounds it makes, the way it behaves. When it starts to behave differently, you find out why. Lacking such a common-sense approach, small manageable problems become big aggravating problems. But that's the way it goes with any car.