1981 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham d'Elegance from North America - Comments

Heater core failed. Very easy to repair as the heater core housing is located in the engine compartment, not under the dashboard.

Constant Oil Leaks from valve covers. There is an after-market cork gasket for the covers, but the valve covers are not designed for it. This summer I am going to repair it as detailed in the GM Maintenance manual using Form-a-gasket.

Head Liner has come apart due to deterioration of foam backing. I am having great difficulties matching the fabric colour, so I believe that I am going to replace it with a close match this summer.

Failure of Variable Displacement solenoids. Unplugging the solenoids has reverted the engine to a permanent V8.

Failure of opera lamps on roof sails. They have had to stay inoperative as this seemed to be a crossover year. They made the lamps electro-luminescent, but they used the old style bulb housings. Cannot find new replacements.

The car is extremely comfortable to drive. The generous use of leather throughout the interior makes the car quite luxurious.

Fully loaded with every toy imaginable, even by today's standards. All the toys still work although the auto dimming headlamps have difficulty detecting modern directional headlamps.

The car is very well designed and easy to drive. Cadillac has (or had) a very straight forward approach to it's cars, and that is that there is the inside and the outside - and never the twain shall meet. Once you are in the car it is very quiet and the passengers aren't bothered by bumps or road noise. Unfortunately, the driver isn't bothered by much steering feedback either. It has a definite tendency to roll and dip because of the soft suspension, but I like it. Parallel parking is an art with the small limousine window in the aft and huge sail panels.

Due to the high price of gasoline, I don't think that we shall see it's kind pass this way again.

Shame they don't make it like that any more. Too bad those cars were way slow.

The acceleration is a little annoying (I tried passing a couple of times, but it was too scary), but it makes up for it when you have people hanging out of their cars admiring it on the highway (true story).

Well, I've just realised a lifetime dream and imported a 1978 Fleetwood Limousine from Las Vegas into New Zealand at great cost. I had to fight with people from all over the world for eighteen months before I was successful in a purchase. We love your old Caddies! It's all original in tidy condition with 95000 on the clock. Buying sight unseen was scary (3 photos), but this Caddy has not disappointed even at almost 30 years old.

I had to fit a new battery and make minor repairs to door panel controls on the driver's door. She starts and runs fine and then drives down the road like the queen she is. I cannot fault this car in any way. I take it to the supermarket and use two parks (just for fun), parallel park in our small town main street (have to use the mirrors and shop windows to assist), and then drive away again with an audience as people here are just gob-smacked by such an immense vehicle.

I've had the car in four major car displays and it draws more attention than top dollar classics and modifieds. It was pimped a bit when new so that helps with the 'wow' factor.

The 425 engine has ample power and just glides up to 60mph, you are there before you realise that you've accelerated, will climb our steep hill roads effortlessly in top gear, negotiating very tight twisty turns with just a little extra care. Economy appears to be about 10 mpg imperial, which would be maybe 12 of yours.

Anyway, it's sad in a way as we're experiencing the end of the behemoth era and no smaller car can get anywhere near the sheer enjoyment of cars this size.

BUT, to the frustration of the greenies, there are plenty of us out here NOT prepared to let these great cars perish.

Smilingly, Bruce Joslen.

Actually, Imperial gallons work the reverse way.

If you're geting 10 miles per imperial gallon you're getting something like 8.5 miles per US gallon.

I found this out when I first started reading CAR magazine and couldn't figure out why a car in England was getting incredible mileage vs. the same car in the US.