Faults:

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.

General Comments:

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.

Faults:

When I bought the car, the original engine ran very rich due to a defective electronic fuel injection unit. This engine model was also notoriously unreliable due to its variable displacement feature. GM called this the V8-6-4 engine. It was cheaper to replace the engine with another, more conventional unit. I installed an Oldsmobile 455, with a carburetor, an easy bolt in swap with much more power.

I also had to replace the front suspension ball joints and drag link.

General Comments:

The car is very comfortable and has superior handling to Lincoln and Chrysler products from the early 1980's.

Parts and service is inexpensive and easy to find.

The power door locks and factory alarm system have never worked properly. All other electrics seem to be reliable.

The rear springs for the car are too soft, even when new. The rear of the car sags, unless the factory air shocks are inflated. However, even they are inadequate with a full load of passengers and luggage. I installed rear springs from a GM full size station wagon to give it a better load carrying capacity.