1992 Cadillac DeVille from North America - Comments

Lets see where should I start. Complete tune up, catalytic converter, idle control sensor, and ball joints in the back. Considering what I have read, I bought the car during the winter time so I don't even know if the air conditioner works. Also the trunk release broke and the automatic release of the emergency brake broke.

The car honestly has five good things about it. Five tires and it runs. I have a 1987 Lincoln that I restored with 317,000 miles on it that will run circles around my Cadillac. to anyone who thinks that I am comparing, I have the right to... I own both brands. As far as reliability and cost of maintaining either of the two, my Lincoln has been much cheaper to maintain. I honestly thought they were well engineered cars until I bought one. They honestly need to do something about there front end. Those mushy struts are not covering it. This has been a Cadillac trait for years and I have driver Buick's more solid that Caddys. Last, but definitely not least, the front wheel drive layout on a big American luxury car is not cutting it for me. I don't like the fact that I have to take half the engine off to get to a water pump and pay 4000 to do a tranny when I only pay a 1000 for my Lincoln.

Didn't you realize the Caddy was fwd before you bought it?

And why would anyone "restore" an '87 Lincoln?

To the previous comment, because a Lincoln is worth restoring.

To the previous comment:

To you, maybe, but no one else with any brains would spend the money it takes to "restore" an '87 Lincoln.

(Unless by restore, you mean: new seat covers and a Maaco paint job?)

I have owned 13 Cadillacs and four Lincoln Towncars. Lincoln is far superior to Cadillac in ride and interior. My 2004 Cadillac interior did not look like a luxury vehicle. For less money you get a lot more features and a lot better ride with Lincoln. I put 2000 miles on my new Caddy and couldn't live with the road vibration, just traded for a Mercury Grand Marquis (because I couldnt find a used Town Car at the time}. The Mercury puts the Caddy to shame. My Cadillac was in the shop four times the first month of ownership, have never had a Lincoln in the shop for anything other than routine service.

I am 37 yrs old and I have owned 5 cadillac's. The first was a 1981 fleetwood. This was a very dependable car. When I sold it it had over 300,000 miles on it and is still being drove by the kid that bought it from me. The second and the third were both 1983 eldorado's. I loved these cars, but they were very difficult to work on. The fourth was a 1986 fleetwood de elegance. I thought this was the nicest of all the previous. Trying to sell it was near impossible. It was underpowered for as big of a motor as it had. The 5th is my current cadillac which is by far the best other than the security system. It is a 1992 sedan deville. It is by far my favorite, but I have only had it for 6 months. If the security system messes up it will have a mind of its own. I will let you know later how much it costed me to fix the security system it went into the shop today.

I just found it interesting that the poster of this review had only driven the car for 1000 miles before making all of these comments. Are you sure you didn't have a biased opinion already?

I have a 92 De-Ville that I have owned since 97. I bought the car with 30K miles and it now has 150+. Overall the car has been dependable and economic to drive with relatively few problems. The car still drives straight, rides nice, and looks good. I do take care of the car: garaged, steady preventative maintenance, and kept clean. I agree with the comment on soft front struts. I replaced mine at about 50K miles and have been happy with the after-market replacement. My biggest complaint is the cheap water pump assembly. 1st problem at 90K miles and I have changed 3 since then.

Cars are cars. They are made by flawed man and no matter how classy or expensive, will have problems of one sort or another. They are machines after all. Every vehicle model has common reliablility and build quality flaws. I have owned cheap cars (2 Plymouths) that had fewer problems than what some people seem to be experiencing with these Cadillacs and I've owned more expensive cars (Mercedes) that were completely overrated heaps of gorgeous junk. From the common complaints about this era of Deville, it actually sounds like a better than average American luxury car. Far better than the luxury Chrysler models and Lincolns. Lincolns have crap transmissions... typical Ford product. The air-ride suspension is notorious for premature failure and very costly to fix, and they have had serious problems with spontaneous fires and explosions in rear impacts, a la Ford Pinto. If I had to choose between a luxury sedan from the Big Three, I'd probably go with Cadillac. Unless you want to spend major bucks, I wouldn't even consider one of the Asian luxury imports. Much costlier to buy used and insanely expensive to maintain and repair. Just not worth the money in my opinion.

I've owned a 92 deville for a year. Love it a lot, but had to change water pump and now a tranny.