One of the handful of walking routes in my neighborhood meanders through the local GMC-Buick-Cadillac dealership, which allows me to peruse the latest General Motors offerings. These days, it’s hard to find a Cadillac Escalade for under 100,000 dollars, and let’s face it, the Escalade is the direct descendant of luxury cars such as the Sedan DeVille. Cadillac’s sport sedan offerings, on the other hand, stem from a branch that emulates Audis and BMWs, not the plush cruisers from Clark Street. So, how does this 1990 DeVille stack up? The sticker price back in 1990 was $30,701, equivalent to $74,804 today (according to the CPI Inflation Calculator). Depreciation has taken its toll, so the seller is asking $11,900 for this low-mileage original. That’s a fraction of a new Escalade, so is this a reasonable alternative? It certainly won’t have the same street cred, but thank you to Tony Primo for putting us on its trail; it’s on craigslist near Portland, Oregon.
Without even looking at the car itself, I find myself fixated on the storage facility; the car appears to be nervously awaiting its backstage cue. Five seconds…four…three. From what I can gather about the car’s history (the ad seems to rely heavily on text-to-speech), the seller is the second owner and has continued its careful upkeep. The odometer reads 12,609 miles, and the car even rides on its original tires (those will certainly have to be turned into blacktop immediately, unless you plan to attend car shows with your new-to-you DeVille). The interior looks nearly factory fresh, aside from the inevitable aging of the leather seats; 35 years is 35 years, after all.
Under the hood is Cadillac’s 4.5 liter V8, which got a half-point compression bump from 9:1 to 9.5:1 for 1990, in addition to a new sequential port fuel injection system. It all added up to a 25-horsepower increase to 180, and most accounts claim that Cadillac had finally ironed most of the bugs out of their star-crossed aluminum V8 by the time that the ’90s arrived. Based on the cleanliness of the engine compartment, the 12,609-mile claim seems plausible.
The trunk doesn’t seem to tell any tall tales either, and I love the mat with the Cadillac crest. It was included with DeVille Option Package B, according to the window sticker.
In some ways, we have come a long way since 1990; for example, anti-lock brakes (a Deville option that this one has) cost $925. Today, they’re standard equipment, in addition to traction control and stability control, all nice features unless you want to cut some donuts in a deserted wintertime parking lot. Aside from a little damage to the driver’s side door, this is one of the nicer ’90s Cadillacs you’ll find for sale. Is it a good alternative to a new six-figure Escalade? Honestly, an Escalade buyer isn’t cross-shopping 35-year-old DeVilles; however, if you are nineties-nostalgic and are searching for a proper luxury car, this one has a lot of potential.
Those digits on the odometer line up the way they should, which says to me that the mileage is genuine. Unless the gas tank is made of material other than metal, it and the fuel lines, brake lines and cooling system all need to be flushed and then tested. New tires too and after that you’ve got a worthy daily driver that will last a good many years.
The couple Cadillacs I was lucky enough to pilot, were like driving in a comfortable cocoon. 😎
From the absolutely horrid grammar in the listing I’d be doing a lot of due diligence on this one. Didn’t even get the dealers name anywhere close to the correct spelling. It should be spelled “Kuni” not Cooney. I live in the area. Definitely a nice looking old buggy that you don’t see very often anymore but it may be one of those “too good to be true” deals. Not dissing the car or the person listing it but I’d be checking it closely if one is interested in it.
I got a chuckle out of “Sirius byers only.”
Maybe the seller is launching an automotive buy/sell channel on Sirius XM !!
I personally liked when they said, “This car Has been an organ all of life”. I personally preffer when a car has been a piano… But thats just me…. Now if it were a Harpsichord………..
Bob_in_TN
Just goes to show you that you don’t need class or an education anymore to own a Cadillac.
If your not a Boomer or a Millinial you were never taught to read, write or spell English .
SMH
@Bob_in_TN
Just goes to show you no longer need class or an education to own a Cadillac now-a-days.
If your not a Boomer or a Millinial you no longer get taught reading, writing or spelling in English.
SMH
Good looking car, but not my cup of tea. Of course, for the price, it is cheaper than many used Honda Accords. Question is, what will be more reliable? If you are mechanically handy, could be a good buy if you don’t care about the price of gas which I imagine is going to sky rocket up and away in the near future due to tariffs.
This Caddy is CLEAN!!! inside and out. Looks like it was well taken care of, or at least very well stored. Like Stan said, very comfortable ride. If the mileage is for real ( which it sure looks like it is) this would make a nice weekend driver once you get new rubber on it.
Driveinstile, love that red interior too. Especially w the white paint. As you mention, throw on some good tires and hit the highway to the coast ⛱️ 🌴 🌞
I agree. White with red and white with blue looks great together. It, its a Cadillac, and I would insist on whitewalls. No other way.
I don’t think its worth $12k possibly $5k if you really want this ride pile put it in small bills in a paper bag and offer it in cash when you are standing there looking at the car especially if his wife is listening and sees the bag of cash.
Despite being downsized again and FWD these are lovely to drive. When I was at PG an engineer was driving a sixty special. Man, I drove it once for a reason I don’t recall. Sure was a nice car.
i fixed a lot of oil leaks on these as they were oil leakers when they get some time on them. i don’t see the 11k price but somebody else might
My car of choice is Cadillac, has been since the sixties. I’ve lost count of the GM show boats I’ve owned. This museum piece is just that. Too bad about the damage to the drivers door, that only reflects the care taken of this car over the years. It is pristine and collectable to only a minute few. They were built to last forever which only makes they’re rarity and price in the range of just a plain old nice classic. It’s mileage is it’s selling point, but the car itself is just a very nice starting point for a true Caddy collector. Being one myself I don’t expect a return on my investments, I just won’t drive anything less. Most other cars are just that-less.
Portland, Oregon, kills this one for me, sadly. My ’88 Grand Marquis is getting tired now, with its 388,000 miles, and I could use a replacement at this point. I am not fond of leather seats, though — much prefer velour. And an air-bag staring me in the face from the centre of a steering-wheel, prepared to break my jaw and fracture my ribs, is a bit scary. There are quite a few of these Cadillacs around here, locally — a poor man’s luxury sedan — mostly with high miles and some rust, and around $4,000 or less if you want one and are willing to accept heavy cigarette-smoke. But we don’t see NICE ones such as this. It seems that about 90% of local adults SMOKE heavily, sadly — and it is almost impossible to find a local used car that isn’t pungent with cigarette-smoke-residue, ash-trays corroded inside and filled to the brim, and everything inside of the car tanned and browned with tobacco-smoke tars. Any smoke-free used car is a rare bird, around here, sadly.
@Harrison Reed
Harrison I’m sure at one point in one of your previous posts you mentioned where you are but being old myself I forget. Where are you that all the cars are heavily smoke laden?
To Angel Cadillac Queen Diva: Gloversville, New York, which is a blue collar defunct mill-town in the southern Adirondacks, between Albany and Utica. We used to manufacture nearly all of the gloves sold in the U.S. (and distributed into many other places, as well); hence the name. The leather-mills were mostly in adjacent Johnstown, then we made the gloves, purses, belts, and other items, here. Incomes are low, the mills are long-gone (because the entire industry went to Asia), and many poor locals are left with smoking, hard-drinking, and country music. But virtually every car you drive behind has a driver blowing cigarette smoke out the window. Lots of rusty pickup trucks, here, and many of the locals seem to die-off between ages 65 and 70. Houses are inexpensive, though a vague sense of general mental-depression hangs over the place. If you think of the 1972 Arlo Guthrie hit, “The City Of New Orleans”, and imagine instead that it describes a small city and not a passenger train, you will have it about right. We had a population of about 30,000 in 1900, but it is about 13,000 now. Young folks who grow up here get out when they reach adulthood, if they can, leaving parents behind. Many residents in their late thirties and beyond have few or no teeth, and diabetes is rampant. But if you drop your wallet here, chances are that you will find it, cash, driver’s licence, and credit-cards all still in it, in your mailbox about three days later.
@Harrison
Arlo Guthrie. Now there’s a name i haven’t heard in many decades.
“You can have 🎶 anything you want at Alice’s restaurant, exceptin’ Alice” 🎵
Hi Angel,
I think the long version of this song is about 20 min.
I liked his City of New Orleans, too, but Willie Nelson owns it now with his version imo.
West Stockbridge is not all that far from here, Alice’s Restaurant was a real place that lasted for years, and Arlo Guthrie used to frequent that sleepy little town long after his extended song about it. The song, I believe, is 18 minutes and some seconds, if memory serves. When I was on the radio, I had to know — but that was early in 1967. But Jon Rukavina, I do not agree with you on “The City Of New Orleans”: Arlo Guthrie evoked the entire feel of it, and Willie Nelson’s cover version, I cheerfully could have lived without. In 1946, I bought the Elton Britt Victor 78, “Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain”, which I loved (I particularly liked Elton Britt anyway, though his weapy 1942-’43 massive hit, “There’s A Star-Spangled Banner Waving Somewhere” more-or-less type-cast him — e g., “Will The Angels Let Me Play”). Willie Nelson, 29 years later, did a note-for-note cover of “Blue Eyes,Crying In The Rain”, and made it his. I still love my Elton Britt recording — and 1975 was LONG after my prime years for popular music — but I find myself loving the Willie Nelson Version (even though Willie Nelson is not quite my cup of tea).
you can get a nice lexus ls400 for less money which is a better car even with 10x the mileage. pretty sure i see these on marketplace for 3-4k for nice clean ones.