"SMART CAR"

[Texas Jim]

Well yours is definitely bigger than mine

These are the pics I took of my car when I went to look at it before I bought it. I haven't taken any recent ones since cars don't look pretty here in the winter, lol.

I think I made out pretty well for 500$.

Do you want to double your money real quick?

I could make a quick trip to new York.

Lol, no. I'm sorry. I don't think I'll ever part with this car. I put about 300$ into it when I got it for front wheel bearings, and new coil springs (which I was aware it needed before I bought it). I got lucky. Its old owner abandoned it at the garage my brother Eddie works at because he didn't want to pay for the new bearings and coil springs. He signed the title over to Eddie's boss, gave him the keys, and went back to Texas. His boss sold me the car for 500$ with all the service records he had from the previous owner. He just wanted it off his lot. He was originally asking 1,500$ for it, but dropped it when Eddie told him I was his sister. So far it's been a great car (though it does still need some work) and after driving it, I don't think I would ever want anything but a Cadillac. To me this car is worth fixing no matter what goes wrong with it.

I was kinda, sorta joking...I figured that was going to be your answer.

You did well.

That is a very nice looking car.

[Bruce Nunnally]

I don't think I would ever want anything but a Cadillac. To me this car is worth fixing no matter what goes wrong with it.

This is a CaddyInfo Approved post

[CarlaValentine]

I was kinda, sorta joking...I figured that was going to be your answer.

I figured as much, lol. But it gave me a reason to talk about it, and well, I DO love to talk about my car....and my boyfriend gets sick of hearing it. Yeah.....still have yet to figure that one out.

[Cadillac Jim]

... I don't think I'll ever part with this car. ... So far it's been a great car (though it does still need some work) and after driving it, I don't think I would ever want anything but a Cadillac. To me this car is worth fixing no matter what goes wrong with it.

You are hooked, just like most of us here.

My wife and I decided that I would get a new Corvette in October, 1997. We went to the closest Chevrolet-Cadillac dealer on my motorcycle and walked in, asked to see an option sheet on a new Corvette, and smiled. After a few minutes of supercilious BS from a couple of guys who drove two "demonstrators" as their own cars, including putting me in the driver's seat and expecting me to be impressed with pressing the clutch pedal (no car keys or running engine!) and BS like "there really is no such thing as an option sheet..." and "We aren't ordering any more with the sports/rally suspension..." I got steamed and walked out to the motorcycle. My wife was waiting in the L.A. heat; having sensed the situation immediately she just went out to the bike and waited for me to storm out.

Three days later, the Cadillac shoved enough money across the table to trip my threshold and I got a 1997 ETC, the two-door coupe otherwise identical to the STS. I figured on driving it 12 years.

Well, here we are, 13 years later, and I wouldn't part with my ETC for anything. This car still gets my juices flowing. At nearly 145,000 miles, I'm looking at some expensive maintenance over the next several years as the bit ticket items wear out, but the cost per mile just keeps going down. I figure that if I pay $1,500 a year in repairs, that compares to a car payment of $125 a month, which wouldn't buy anything much bigger than a SmartCar -- but certainly not a new Cadillac. And, I get 23 mpg on the highway. For real. Consistently. Every time.

Carbon footprint??? I had that thrown at me by a guy last year; he didn't understand that about 1/3 of the total carbon footprint of a car is committed during manufacture, so keeping your car is good for the environment. Buying a car that will NO WAY be a good daily driver in 10 or more years is not a good investment for the environment. Buying a car that you will NO WAY be willing to get in and drive to work every morning after 10 years is not a good investment for the environment.

[CarlaValentine]

I hear you there. Mine's not even running right and I still get a little over 20mpg. When it WAS running right it was averaging about 23-25 mpg highway. Considering that's coming from a V-8 engine with nearly 300 hp and over 150,000 miles on it, I'd say that holds up pretty well against these newer "more efficient" cars that are averaging about 10 mpg more with half the horsepower and a much smaller engine. The early Northstar, in my opinion, is a VERY well engineered piece of machinery, especially for it's time. Sure it has it's flaws, but everything does. Luckily, a lot of the "big ticket" things on mine have already been taken care of...one of which being the starter. I'm real glad I wasn't the one to inherit THAT nightmare, lol. Mine's been on the road for 16 years and it's still kickin...and if I have my way it will see another 50 (or until the government bans gasoline engines altogether in some feeble attempt to save the planet).

[Texas Jim]

I hear you there. Mine's not even running right and I still get a little over 20mpg. When it WAS running right it was averaging about 23-25 mpg highway. Considering that's coming from a V-8 engine with nearly 300 hp and over 150,000 miles on it, I'd say that holds up pretty well against these newer "more efficient" cars that are averaging about 10 mpg more with half the horsepower and a much smaller engine. The early Northstar, in my opinion, is a VERY well engineered piece of machinery, especially for it's time. Sure it has it's flaws, but everything does. Luckily, a lot of the "big ticket" things on mine have already been taken care of...one of which being the starter. I'm real glad I wasn't the one to inherit THAT nightmare, lol. Mine's been on the road for 16 years and it's still kickin...and if I have my way it will see another 50 (or until the government bans gasoline engines altogether in some feeble attempt to save the planet).

Speaking of fuel mileage and smaller cars...Last spring I had to go to a funeral in S. Carolina.

My brother-in-law and his wife also went...but at a different time than I did.

We drove from Charleston back to Texas together.

Darling Wife, myself, and all our junk we carry were in my Cadillac.

Brother-in-Law, his wife and their stuff in a little V6 Hyundai Sonata.

We filled up at the same station in Charleston and started back.

Every time we stopped for fuel, we compared how much fuel each car burned.

I did burn more fuel than he did...but "VERY LITTLE" more

If I remember correctly, the different fillups ranged from me using .2 gallons more (when driving around 75/80) to .7 gallons more when driving 65 to 70.

I think if we would have ran just a little faster, I would have actually got "BETTER" mileage then his car.

He didn't want to believe it...he has never believed me when I told him that my big ol' Cadillac would get almost as good fuel mileage as his smaller car.

I will gladly burn an average of a half gallon more fuel per tank to ride in my Cadillac vs riding in a little Hyundai.

So...all in all...it cost me about 3 or 4 bucks more to drive my Cadillac from Charleston to Texas than it would have cost in a much smaller, much more uncomfortable car.

I love Cadillacs.

[CorpseR]

New to the group and I don't know jack about cars. ( Thank god my GF Carla does). Does Smart = green? if so I hate green but it's my favorite color. Which happens to be the color of our Eldorado. and if you hippies don't like it, I got 4 pipes for you to smoke.

[CarlaValentine]

^ Don't mind this guy. He's mine...and I take full responsibility for him.

[CorpseR]

^ Don't mind this guy. He's mine...and I take full responsibility for him.

Try paying my insurance! And I'm the old fart behind the wheel!!

[Cadillac Jim]

Your car, from the picture, is the regular Eldorado, not the ETC, which has a 3.11 final drive ratio versus the 3.71 of the ETC. Those get better gas mileage than the ETC/STS. When you get it running smoothly with no OBD codes you should get at least 25 mpg on the highway. Your actual mileage depends on your foot, your speed, the weather, and how flat the terrain is. I've heard mileages as high as 28, average, on the road with an SLS. I think that you can expect 27 mpg on long trips using cruise control on most Interstates in mild weather, including stops for food, gas, and sleep.

The Northstar has a lot of things going for it for gas mileage: lockup torque converter, overdrive 4th gear, closed loop wideband oxygen-sensor driven digital fuel injection, tuned port fuel injection with high fuel pressure, very high energy spark with knock-sensor driven timing, MAP, MAF, and IAT sensors to keep mixture and timing at its most efficient point with continuously arying conditions, exhaust tuned to provide good throttle response and high efficiency at around 2000 RPM for highway cruise in 4th, etc. If all of this is working as designed, you should see over 25 mpg on the road with your car with no special effort.

[Cadillac Jim]

New to the group and I don't know jack about cars. ( Thank god my GF Carla does). Does Smart = green? if so I hate green but it's my favorite color. Which happens to be the color of our Eldorado. and if you hippies don't like it, I got 4 pipes for you to smoke.

I've found over the years that people who pick on your car are really just jealous of your car. In the case I gave, I offered to research and compare carbon footprints for his car and mine and asked for his make, model, and drivetrain, and he never told me. It is some kind of nondescript white late-model small sedan, probably a four-cylinder, that in the real world doesn't get the gas mileage of my 13-year-old ETC and isn't likely to be anybody's daily driver when its that old.

[WarrenJ]

We drove from Charleston back to Texas together.

Darling Wife, myself, and all our junk we carry were in my Cadillac.

Brother-in-Law, his wife and their stuff in a little V6 Hyundai Sonata.

We filled up at the same station in Charleston and started back.

Every time we stopped for fuel, we compared how much fuel each car burned.

I did burn more fuel than he did...but "VERY LITTLE" more

If I remember correctly, the different fillups ranged from me using .2 gallons more (when driving around 75/80) to .7 gallons more when driving 65 to 70.

I think if we would have ran just a little faster, I would have actually got "BETTER" mileage then his car.

He didn't want to believe it...he has never believed me when I told him that my big ol' Cadillac would get almost as good fuel mileage as his smaller car.

I will gladly burn an average of a half gallon more fuel per tank to ride in my Cadillac vs riding in a little Hyundai.

So...all in all...it cost me about 3 or 4 bucks more to drive my Cadillac from Charleston to Texas than it would have cost in a much smaller, much more uncomfortable car.

I love Cadillacs.

^ What Jim said!