98 DeVilles, how are they to own/operate?

[dhspring]

My mother is going to sell me her 98 Deville with 93,000 miles, the dealer won't give her squat ($4500) for a trade-in so I'm going to buy it for my son in college. What is the general consensus among owners on how this car will be to own, regarding, maintenance? High or low? Workability? Can I work on it myself easily? I understand the underneath is shielded with a plastic cover. Can I change my own oil in the driveway? I understand the Northstar V-8 is a great engine. Comments please!!

Thanks very much.

[creeker]

Look at website carsurvey.org. it only shows one 1998 , but theres lots more with the northstar in other years. there's nothing mysterious about the north star, their easy enough to work on.

[caddydaddy]

Originally Posted by dhspring

My mother is going to sell me her 98 Deville with 93,000 miles, the dealer won't give her squat ($4500) for a trade-in so I'm going to buy it for my son in college. What is the general consensus among owners on how this car will be to own, regarding, maintenance? High or low? Workability? Can I work on it myself easily? I understand the underneath is shielded with a plastic cover. Can I change my own oil in the driveway? I understand the Northstar V-8 is a great engine. Comments please!!

Thanks very much.

A Cadillac will be higher maintenance than a econo-box car, just because it has more to go wrong! With a tune-up if it hasn't had one, and a coolant flush, the engine should be good to go for quite some time! The Northstars can go for 300k miles or more if taken care of.
The engine can be hard to work on, depending on what you need to do! The oil change is no different than any other car, it's easy to do. Just remember it takes 7.5 quarts of oil with the filter change.
The electronic suspension system can be very expensive to fix. But a lot of owners convert it to passive. I did that with my 1994 Deville. I have just regular shocks and struts on it, and it drives fine.
So basically, if you're a decent mechanic you can do most work on the car yourself, and save money from having to take it to a dealer! If you do plan to work on the car a lot yourself, I'd recommend getting the factory service manual. It will be one of the best tools you can buy! The Haynes or Chiltons ones aren't very good except for basic stuff.

[dhspring]

Thanks for the info. No doubt swapping my son's 94 Cutlass out for a 98 Deville is a good way to go, it will only cost me about $2500 and I gain 4 years and about 20k miles, the 94 Cutlasses are pretty low maintenance cars, and fairly decent but you'll never find them on a classic car list, they do have some problems from time to time.

[MagicRat]

Originally Posted by creeker

Look at website carsurvey.org. it only shows one 1998 , but theres lots more with the northstar in other years. there's nothing mysterious about the north star, their easy enough to work on.

That is an excellent site.
I considered buying one of these cars a while back and researched them a bit. Although there are few reviwes for a '98, the design was made for many years from the mid'90's to the early '00's, so reviews from other years should be considered to be somewhat relevant.

The only particular concern many reviews mentioned was an unrepairable, mild vibration problem that some cars had at highway speed, similar to having unbalanced front wheels. Some of the reviews showed owners were not able to get the problem repaired, dispite getting new tires, wheels, alignments etc.

IMO since the car is from a relative, and its history is known, it should be a very good buy, especially if its been well-maintained and is in good shape.