1999 Devilles Good bad opinions on purchase

[Davidnhartford]

I am looking at a 99 Sedan Deville forsale.   67K.  Looks well kept.  

I've heard some scary stories about the 94-96s with the Northstars, but not much about the 97-99s.   Are these cars better?  Or should I run far and fast?

[Kevin M. Parkinson]

My 1999 Deville has 117,000+ miles on it and almost every mile has been trouble free.  In 2004 the fuel pressure regulator went bad.  In 2008 one of the metal heater hoses sprung a leak. 

It seems a difficult thing to judge a car based on other people's experiences with other cars.  Even with the "4100" I'm sure there were plenty that provided many miles of trouble free service.  I have not heard of any "scary stories" of the 97-99 Deville.

[TJ Hopland]

Was that still the older body style?   With the slight tail light fins?  If it was I liked the way those rode much better than the next gen.  I also think they felt larger inside.  The older ones had a flatter dash where as the new ones had a big bump out in the middle that for a tall person was as bad as having a center console.   I dont remember the exact vintages but there was one where it was rare to get working air ride and the 'correct' parts were NLA but there was a 'kit' that was still fairly expensive to convert them to some other design.  The only difference between the cadillac kit and buying aftermarket shocks was the cadillac kit included some sort of plug in to make the message on the dash quit.    Only other issue would be a real low miles car that was used for many short trips.   All engines dont like short trips and performance engines (which the northstar is) really dont like short trips and not do well when they dont at least occasionally get worked hard.  They dont need to be abused but some wide open throttle (foot to the floor) runs to get on the freeway fairly regularly do a lot to keep things clean and happy. A nice hour or so 'road trip' at highway speeds helps also.   The worst ones are the ones that were 'owned by a little old lady' that lived in a small town and only drove 20mph across town (3 miles) to church.  Those cars have the worst ring and oil consumption problems and were what that whole de carbon process was developed for.  Even that does not help some of them in the worst cases.

Some of the wheel designs were hard to clean and really suffered from brake dust.

The best thing about these cars is the have a real back seat with large enough doors that adults can easily get in and out.   

[Richard Sills - CLC #936]

I can only speak from my own experience.  I've had a 1996 deVille Concours (with the 300-hp. Northstar engine) for almost 11 years.  It only has 43,000 miles on it, used primarily for highway trips.  It is powerful, spacious, comfortable, and a pleasure to drive.  And it hasn't needed any repairs outside of normal maintenance.       

[Caddydave75 #18575]

Hello,

    I am currently driving a '99 Deville 50th anniversary edition.  This is a car I purchased from the original owner with 58k miles in April 2008.  The car now has 75k miles.  As far as I am concerned, the Northstar is good when it is good, and when it goes bad, hold on.  They are expensive to diagnose and fix problems. My last northstar was a 98 deville that blew up at 151k miles. A month later, my friends northstar in a '01 deville went at 155k mi. I would have not bought my 99 except for the fact that the car has been my grandfather's since new.   I guess these are respectable lifetimes for todays cars, but I was more partial to the 96 Fleetwood Brougham I had that would go 400k taken care of.  The long and the short of it is, If you are not putting many miles on a year, and take great care of your car, these are great cars.  If there are no service engine lights on, I would say you are fine.  In Todays market, this cars price is falling rapidly. Be sure not to overpay for this car.

Dave

[DavidnHartford]

Well I went over to look at it closer today.   It has 64K on it.  asking $5994.   The interior is that cream color.  The outside is a metallic denim blue.   The inside is perfect.   The outside is ok.  It has some scratches on the drivers door that don't look like they'd buff out unfortunately.    And oddly the left cornering lamp is all cracked and peeling on the inside.  Yet the passenger side looks good.  Wierd.    

I'm going to pass on it.  I don't think it would be a good daily driver.   It would be a better weekend car.

[Davidinhartford]

Here are a few pics.  I'd grab it if I was buying a second car, but I need something that will get me to work on unplowed streets.   

So I gave in and bought a Jeep Grand Cherokee yesterday.

[TJ Hopland]

How deep is the snow on your streets?

[Davidinhartford]

How deep is the snow on your streets?

LOL,  that depends on the storm!     

But seriously,  I live on the last street on the edge of town, so the city plow trucks hit my street last.  They clear the main roads first especially downtown.   I'm in the suburbs.   It is not unusual for us to see the first plow a day after a storm.   Plus I have a lot of hills to deal with too.    My last car got stuck in 8 inches of snow climbing a hill to get home.  And we've had a lot more than that!