1990 Cadillac DeVille Coupe review from North America

Initially, the car had a pretty rough idle which I didn't notice until I paid for it. I decided to take it to Cadillac to get this taken care of and also to make sure that it was in good shape overall. I was concerned that this might be a very serious problem, like a bent valve, bad cam, or other serious wear-related issue. As it turns out, the car had recently had three fuel injectors replaced, and there was some thought that if the old injectors were bad that they may have damaged the computer. The computer was replaced and the rough idle was 75% corrected (expensive, but well worth it). I attribute the remaining 25% to the fact that the engine is transverse-mounted and that the car is getting into the high mileage range. I also understand that this particular engine is know for a slightly rough idle. The car cruises so wonderfully though that you wouldn't know at all.

Other than this, the only thing that has broken was the alternator. This is typical for an older car though and wasn't that expensive.

I own several cars, all performance cars, and I wanted something for the winter. I did want a Cadillac as I had never owned one before, but I had no idea just how great this car would be.

It looks very nice to begin with as it is well made and it has good paint, etc. The interior is quiet and comfortable, not boat-like at all. You feel very connected to the car, but without feeling every tar strip in the road like in the Camaro. Of course, the trade-off is less maneuverability at high speed. Performance type handling in these situations is not ideal, but this is not intended to be a performance car and in normal situations handling is more than adequate.

Otherwise performance is outstanding. I still mourn the passing of the full-sized rear wheel drive Cadillacs, particularly the Coupe De Ville, but this front wheel drive Caddy really moves out. I doubt that any Cadillac made since the early 1970s high-compression engines (Northstar excluded) has guts like the 1990-1993 cars. 1990 was when the 4.5L went up to 180 horsepower from 155 in 1988 and 1989. With 180 horsepower, this car will do 0-60 in the 9-second range, and the quarter mile in the 16-second range. Not bad for a big car.

The best part is that you can cruise all day at 75 and still get almost 23 mpg. Yes, this is true, I keep track of every tank and the mileage is incredible and seems to be going up. The worst mileage I have ever gotten with this car is 17 mpg, and my current average with a mix of city and highway driving is 20.