1980 Cadillac DeVille De'Elegance 6.0L

Summary:

You can't beat the comfort

Faults:

Transmission went out at 18600 miles.

Power Brake Booster stopped compressing air.

Driver side seat motor no longer works.

Air conditioning and heater no longer work.

Passenger side window motor is failing.

Rear window motors are blown.

General Comments:

The car sometimes struggles to get up.

However when the gas gets flowing it rides like a new pony.

I wouldn't trade it in for all the money in the world.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 1st August, 2004

1980 Cadillac DeVille 6.0

Summary:

An elegant fuel drinking beast

Faults:

My Grandma gave me the car in 2002, and it hadn't been started in 3 or 4 years. So it needed a thorough inspection. It sat in a garage since it was brand new, so the body while very dusty was beautiful.

At 60000 miles it needed new brake pads and shoes.

I just replaced the blower motor at 66500. It made a horrible whine, but still worked.

The A/C compressor is shot, but living in MI, I'm in no hurry to replace it.

A little plastic panel broke on the driver side between the wheel and fender.

General Comments:

This car in very beautiful, and still runs amazing. If you do a lot of freeway driving, this is the perfect car. It is extremely comfortable, and at 70+ mph this car will run all day. The gas mileage is terrible in the city though. If you are a speed freak this is not the car for you. My car is still turning heads when it is clean.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Don't Know

Review Date: 21st February, 2004

1st Aug 2004, 21:52

It seems everything that goes wrong with these cars are the same thing. It gave me a chuckle when I read this because it sounds like some of my car troubles.

20th Sep 2007, 13:36

I purchased my 1980 Cadillac in September, 1980. At this point it has over 550,000 miles and still runs good. The transmission has never been worked-on and still works good. Through the years I have had to replace the Alternator, Radiator, and rebuild the carburetor. The air conditioning has not worked for some time due to the compressor leakage.

I removed the heads at 350,000 miles and had the valves ground and reseated. The valves were still within specifications. I had to replace the timing chain and gear around 250,000 miles. The timing gear was made of phenolic and the teeth wore down to nothing. I have never done any other work on the engine other than replace the pan gaskets and the rocker arm gaskets. I recently had to replace the rocker arm cover because the plastic cover cracked. The only replacements were from junk yards and were brittle and unuseable. I found a metal cover and used that. The metal cover is short and the baffle used on the original cannot be used due to the lack of inside height of the new one.

The car is very comfortable when driving long distances. The best mileage I had on the freeway was approximately 16 miles per gallon. In town it is around 8 to 10 miles per gallon. I reupholstered the whole interior and it looks great. The dash was cracking and it was recovered. The vinyl top was replaced due to cracking. If you use saddle soap once you have replaced the vinyl top, it will last much longer. The power windows have a belt drive and I have had to replace the belts at least three times. This car is a classic and is very dependable.