Need advice on a 1976 Eldorado (found another)

[Sean Duffy]

Well I found another at the same place I posted about here. http://www.cadillaclasalleclub.org/forum/index.php/topic,102797.msg118424.html#msg118424

It's supposed to have 14K miles. Asking price is $20K. (was $22.5K) I talked a salesman and sent me a number of pics. I posted one, you can see the rest here. http://s116.photobucket.com/albums/o38/mechatech/cadillac%202/?start=all




I was told the car was one owner. An elderly man who passed away leaving the car to the son who sold it here. The paint is not original but the interior and top are. The paint was either touched up or redone at a dealership because the owner, in advanced years, was starting to bump into things. The salesman believes the mileage is true based on the condition or the brake pedal, steering wheel, seat and overall condition. Three out of four of the fender filler panels have been replaced.

From the pics I see orangepeel in the paint. The front floor mat looks fairly worn and I can't really say anything about the brake pedal or engine compartment. The only big fly in the ointment is the aftermarket CD/radio (original radio is gone) and the CD changer in the trunk. That bothers me because someone had to remove panels to run wires and maybe put in new speakers and cut into the factory harness in the dash.

As in the old post link above I can not travel to see this car in person.

Any thoughts? A good deal or potential headache?


Edit - remove extra pix

[Otto Skorzeny]

How many old geezers would put a CD radio in the dash and a CD changer in the trunk?  How big of a CD collection do you think gramps had? Maybe he was married to the little old lady from Pasadena.

Any service records to corroborate the mileage claim?

I don't think the floor mat would show that much wear in just 14,000 miles. 114,000 miles maybe?

I have floor mats in my car that I put 50,000 miles on with less wear than that one.

I'd keep looking for one from an individual owner, not a dealer.

$20K is about $5K or more too high in my opinion. A member of this forum recently sold a much nicer '76 convertible for $17K.

[Sean Duffy]

Yes, I figured this was too good to be true. Private sales are simply too risky and troublesome for me. I live on the far east coast of Canada. It is simply not feasible for me to see any car in person. Then there is the matter of dealing with shipping companies. If I lived near the boarder I could have it shipped to a northern state and then hop across myself and bring it across but I can not do that, I'm simply too far away.

[Otto Skorzeny]

If you can find a decent one, maybe you could find someone in the club who lives nearby to look at it for you.

[Bryan Thompson]

Good morning,
I would be curious about what looks like paint overspray on the headlight dimmer, in the same area I don't think the factory carpet would look like it does around the dimmer switch.

Just my 2 cents.
Bryan

[Sean Duffy]

I'm convinced. This car has been poked at too much for my liking. The real sour note (no pun intended) is that aftermarket radio. And the floor mat is worn an awful lot for just 14K.

[R Schroeder]

I just turned 15,000 on my 78 Caddy, and the carpets and matts are like new yet.
I believe its the second time around for that car.

[Davidinhartford]

Yeah something seems wrong there.   Its too rough around the edges for 14K, but doesn't look like 114K either.     The aftermarket radio is a shame.    For the amount of work it takes to cut it into the dash they coulda just have mounted it in the glovebox to hide it.

[Sean Duffy]

It was a one owner car. Based on what I was told I figure the first owner was in his mid 50's or even 60 when he got it and took very good care of it until he became too old to drive. The son inherited the car and most likely was the who put in the radio. The salesman said it was paint retouched but he told me that one interested party said it looked as if the entire car was redone. Too many question marks.

I like the lighter cleaner styling of the 75 -76. I feel the 71 -74 look heavy in the rear, thanks I believe to the fender skirts. 73 -74 look nose heavy with that bumper. However I would like to know what the feelings are about the different years. I have read that 74 onwards are anemic with complicated emissions controls. Fuel injection is rare but fussy. Any other thoughts, problems, issues?

[Otto Skorzeny]

My personal preference is for the fender skirted models. I just like the looks better.  They also have the advantage of not having a catalytic converter and as you mentioned more power.  The horsepower declined steadily from 365 hp in 1971 to 195hp  in 1978.

[Sean Duffy]

 I have a 72 Lincoln, I know Ford dropped compression 2 points from 10.5 to 8.5 (about 50 hp here) then and also went to net power ratings (another 75 hp on paper here). When did GM do this?

[Otto Skorzeny]

I don't know when GM changed its method of rating horsepower but I just use those numbers as a guide for comparison purposes. Those are just the ratings listed in my reference manuals. Actually I should have written them as 365 bhp to  195 bhp.

Brake horsepower is the power output of the engine at a defined rpm without any accessories, exhaust system or transmission attached. Regardless of how much power actually went to the wheels, you can see that the earlier cars will offer much better performance. After all, the cars themselves didn't change appreciably in that time.

Technology improved over the years to get more usable horsepower to the wheels but it didn't improve that much.

[TJ Hopland]

GM's compression drop was 71 across the board.

I dont really feel any difference in the performance between my 73 and 75.   They are both fine for normal driving.  Just make sure everything is working properly.  If you get one with a stuck EFE valve, non working timing advance, and non working kickdown its going to be a dog.  Even the 77-78 was not that bad, still plenty of torque.

I like the skirts and vertical tail lights.  Also the larger speedometer.

[The Tassie Devil(le)]

My preference is for the '72.

Fender skirts, fake side vents, smoother body line, especially past the rear seat, Cadillac style dash, one year after sorting out the bugs from the first model change, antennae in windscreen, pleasing Bumper Bars, round headlights, minimal pollution controls, '70 style High Compression Heads, (which work well when I change the pistons to earlier ones), and the 8.2 Litre badges on the front fenders so one can see the eyes of the people parked next to you at the lights as they read the badge, then realise that they don't have a chance at beating you across the intersection.

Bruce. 

PS.   There is more to like, but I am still smiling about the badge.

[DinoBob]

"Lighter and cleaner" styling being a relative term here. :-)

[Jim Skelly, CLC #15958]

GM rated engines with gross horspower and net horsepower in '71, then net horsepower from '72 onward.  The '71 Eldorado was rated 365 gross horsepower and 235 net horsepower.

The '71 was the last one to use a metal grille.  The '72 was the first to have 50-50 seats as an option.  Plastic filler panels were used starting in '73.  We all know what a hassle they are to replace.  The '73-'78 have real bumpers, though the '71-'72 bumpers look more attractive.  The '75-'78 look cleaner in my opinion without the skirts, but the engines are dogs compared to the earlier ones.  The newer cars have nicer interiors.  Earlier models tend to have better power window motors.  All are fairly easy to work on.  Buy what you like best.