Cadillac Seville (1998 - 2004) 4.6 V8 STS 4d Auto Owner Review

After being wooed and to a certain extent tormented by the perpetual presence of a V8 Luxury barge outside of my house, belonging to my uncle I knew that one day another one would appear outside of my house, except this one would be mine. After an an unexpected but fun tenure with a Rover 114 which I barely fit inside of, I knew this time had come. My uncle’s poison of choice was always a Lexus, having a soft spot for the fine and very British offerings of Rover and Jaguar they were naturally my first port of call. I came away disappointed. The 75 V8= Too expensive. XJ8=Too many rough ones. S-Type V8=Too ugly. Exasperated, I broadened my horizons and quickly came across a tempting proposition. The proposition was a blue 1998 Cadillac Seville STS 4.6 V8. It was nearby, looked fantastic on the pictures, affordable and with a low mileage looked to be the answer I didn’t quite expect. American cars have always been niche in this country, and this is reflected by the fact that GM could only shift about a half dozen of these transanslatic barges in right hand drive form in this country between 1998 and 2002. Deciding that I was right, and everybody else buying a full size luxury car in 1998 was wrong, I went ahead with my purchase (despite my researching the car, but more on that later) and on the cold January morning I brought felt an interesting mix of excitement and general fear. Still, it could not of presented itself better outside of my house. Styling is subjective and some may find the Caddy slabby and unattractive, I personally found its styling relatively well proportioned, quite handsome and dare I say even slightly subtle. The fact that it bears a passing resemblance to a MK2 Rover 800 probably helps draw me to this slab of American “magnificence”. The image it presented was interesting as well being as vulgar, tasteless and brash a car you could hope to find. Fantastic. The first few days go well, becoming accustomed to its “driving dynamics” and acquainting myself with its various quirks. Day 3 comes around and “SERVICE SUSPENSION ION SYS” ominously appears appears on my instrument binnacle. Needless to say, visions of pound notes changing hands suddenly flashed before my eyes in a sudden heart stopping second. In a moment of misplaced optimism, I shut the car off and restarted it hoping, however much in vein that the sentence of doom had disappeared from my LCD. It hadn’t. So I went for broke, and drove the car anyway much to my surprise it drove in largely the same way it had before. This messaged appeared frequently during my ownership and I had to learn to ignore the electronic nanny state impending doom centre residing on my dashboard. Did I consider fixing it you ask? Nope. Suspension components for this car are rare, hideously complex and require deep pockets. Three days in and the problems had already started. About a week in, and the car thought me an easy victim for yet more mechanical misery. It was a cold January evening, an I felt rather cold so I thought I’d turn up the heater on my fine blue car. I was surprised and disappointed when I found the heater was already on its highest temperature. Realising there was a problem, I repeated my earlier trick of restarting the car. This fix still didn’t work. So did I drive around the rest of winter in the freezing cold Caddy? Pretty much. After a mishap with the coolant expansion tank, resulting in foul smelling murky coolant being deposited all over the pavement outside of my house the heater did come back... intermittently. Finally there was the car wash incident, deciding that this pile of ready made grief required a wash I travelled to my local automatic car wash, because I’m too lazy to pick up a bucket and wash it myself. Drove in, allowed the brushes to destroy the high quality atom thin paint work which was unlovingly thrown on the car some 20 years ago and pondered what it might look like clean. I went to start it, all’s well so far engaged drive and tried to accelerate forward. Nothing happened. Looked down at the dials, 0 revs and all the warning lights on. The car hadn’t started, so I assumed I was an idiot and hadn’t allowed the car to start before I took my hand of the key. Put it back into park and tried to start it, the starter turned but nothing happened. Put it into Neutral, and more of the same. It wasn’t until I opened and closed the driver’s door that it decided to fire into life, like nothing had happened. Between that point and the point I sold it, it didn’t do it again. A curious fault. On the way home from the car wash, yet another fault appeared. The ABS and TC lights illuminated. This was the last straw, and the car got sold soon after since ABS components are rare and expensive (like much of everything else on the car). This list does not include the minor issues such as the semi broken parking brake release, the intermittent stereo and the culture that had started growing in the boot as a result of a broken seal. I’ve spoken at length about this car, without saying a word on how it drove. The first point of contention is the engine. It’s both the car’s Achilles heal and its strongest point. It’s the 4.6 Northstar V8, GM’s answer to the German and Japanese V8s that were taking over at the time and as a result their most sophisticated engine to date with an aluminium block, overhead cams and four valves per cylinder. On paper it could deliver, with 300bhp, obscene levels of torque and 6.4 second 0-60 time it should of felt at least somewhat lively. If provoked sufficiently, the car would perform liked it’s figures would suggest. The engine is also silky smooth and produces a very pleasing almost orchestral V8 roar when pushed and silence when not. However the fun was spoiled by the 4 speed automatic gearbox. For a start, it really needed a 5 speed because third and fourth were just too tall to allow the car to feel even remotely lively. Pair that with the laziest and most dim witted kick downs imaginable, and the car very quickly shows its roots as an American freeway cruiser than British B road bruiser. At least, the kick down is silky smooth and the gear changes almost imperceptible. The engine is also infamous for head gasket issues (remember I said I research the car, well I found out about this engines fondness for chewing up headgaskets and yes I still bought it). The grip was simply awful, showing the car even a bit of throttle would send the front wheels into an expensive, rubber burning frenzy. Yes, I said front wheels for this is one of the very few FWD V8s you’ll find. This hardly helped the already ponderous handling and the light, imprecise and vague steering. The car felt wooly to drive and definitely felt its size and weight on a twisty British B road. It’s ride is best described as unusual. Despite being athe firmest spring car Cadillac offered and the European spec cars being allegedly firmer still., the ride was stupidly soft and boat like. One could feel the bumps in it, but the marshmallows acting as suspension allowed jolting pieces of transgressing tarmac to feel like ripples on the sea. Despite GM’s best efforts, it still feels very American and given our road conditions (narrow and bendy) this is hardly ideal. Finally there’s the interior. At first my hopes were lifted when I felt the soft touch plastics, the soft leather and the discreet wood. The more I interacted with the interior, the less I was convinced. The buttons and knobs have a light plasticky feel to them with no pleasing tactility at all. The glovebox lid had similarly light and cheap feeling to it. The leather which whilst soft, feels man made and synthetic. The seatbelt on the seat design is also uncomfortably tight, at least the attractive Lexus style dials are a welcome distraction. The seats did at least offer moderate support and comfort. The worst thing about the interior was the lack of space, even with the seat fully back I had little leg room for my well over 6ft frame. Headroom was adequate but not exceptional and I’m glad my car didn’t have a sunroof or else I’d of really struggled for room. Rear legroom was also adequate but rear bedroom was dire. I’ll conclude by saying this. As far as comfortable cruisers go, this car is reasonably competent. On a twisty B road it is completely outclassed by everything else in its class. Reliability is shocking and parts are expensive, expect to spend plenty of money if you wish to keep a car like this going. Whilst my ownership experience was interesting, it was also one of the most testing car ownership experiences I’ve had. For this reason, I can’t possibly recommend a Cadillac Seville to you or anybody else for that matter.