Cadillac offered two special models with similar names, the ESC (Eldorado Sport Coupe) and the ETC (Eldorado Touring Coupe), as seen here. This 2002 Cadillac Eldorado ETC is from the last year this legendary model was made, and I’m always a fan of first-year or last-year cars. The seller has it posted here on craigslist in Mountain Top, Pennsylvania, and they’re asking $5,500. Here is the original listing, and thanks to Zen for the tip!
I don’t know about you, but $5,500 for a top model like this Eldorado seems like a deal to me in 2025 dollars. You can’t get much for five grand anymore, and here is a beautiful, loaded Eldorado Touring Coupe for that price. We don’t get to see the underside, and one caveat is that the seller is selling this car for his father’s estate, and they say that it appears to have had work on the quarter panels.
It’s impossible to tell from the photos, so maybe $5,500 isn’t such a good deal unless it’s been fixed perfectly, or hasn’t had bodywork. In a very rare event, the seller of a vehicle on craigslist has included the VIN (I know!) so you can look up the vehicle history if you’re a serious tire-kicker. I think this would be a fun car to own if it checks out; it sure looks good to me.
Cadillac made the last (twelfth) generation of the Eldorado from 1992 to 2002, and as with most models, they had most, if not all, of the bugs worked out by the final year (Fiero, I’m looking at you). Silver paint over a perfect-looking black leather interior isn’t as eye-catching as a nice color could have been, but sometimes you just want to slip under the radar. Speaking of slipping, I’ll just slip this four-door Eldorado sedan here.
The engine is GM’s famous Northstar 4.6-liter DOHC V8 with 300 horsepower and just under 300 lb-ft of torque. Power is sent through a Turbo-Hydramatic 4T80-E four-speed automatic to the front wheels, and although this car weighs almost two tons, it should spin the front wheels nicely if that’s on your agenda. The seller says it runs great, has a new battery and AC service, and if the bodywork isn’t a deal-killer, this could be a nice one. Any thoughts on this Eldorado?
Ad says flood damage and salvage title.
Dalton, they must have added that. If you click on the “original listing” link, it doesn’t say that. That’s another reason I like doing those.
I very much like the 4 door version you created. The only change I would make is to shorten the front door. Otherwise, quite handsome.
You’re 100% right, TJDasen2, thanks much! I changed it; hopefully the new version looks more realistic.
Looks like an owner loyalty medallion on the grille. It should have a Roman numeral indicating the number of Cadillacs the original owner purchased. The highest number I recall seeing was “XXX” on a 1990s Seville.
If ever, there was a generic Cadillac, this is it! Wide GM allowed this vehicle to go into production is beyond me. It has very little style. The front end is boring as is the back. The roofline is not natural. The interior is blah. Incredibly, this was the best that GM styling had for the Cadillac Eldorado. El Dorado was the band city of Gold. This Cadillac was not that. It is a long ways from the Eldorados of lore. It’s not even a fitting end.
Price is now at $4500 and at that I’d take a chance on it if it was close enough for me to fetch since it has such low mileage. Some of these had severe water leaks in the truck areas as well as the back seat area.
A lady on Palm Beach had one of these with about 4K miles and it was 2 or 3 years old. She went to the airport to pick up a friend and the truck would not open. It was full of water and was rusted really bad. She had never tried to open the trunk before.
As for the black interior IMHO that is a big step up from the light colored interiors most Cadillacs were ordered in in recent years.
The “problematic” Northstar engine had been fixed by 2002, so that should not deter you. IF it was a victim of a flood, water over the door sills, a look under the carpet would be in order. Being a unibody, with cavities normally just filled with air, if filled with water, and not promptly drained, that is, drilled holes and let the water out, and then in a dry climate, the body underneath could just be toast. I bought a Chrysler mini van, top of the line, all the options, used, flood victim, really cheap, was great but rusted, and rusted, and rusted from the door sill level, including the floors, until it was unsafe. Above the floors, and mechanically, it was still very sound, and other than the rocker panels, it still looked very good.
The “problematic” Northstar engine had been fixed by 2002, so that should not deter you. IF it was a victim of a flood, water over the door sills, a look under the carpet would be in order. Being a unibody, with cavities normally just filled with air, if filled with water, and not promptly drained, that is, drilled holes and let the water out, and then in a dry climate, the body underneath could just be toast. I bought a Chrysler mini van, top of the line, all the options, used, flood victim, really cheap, was great but rusted, and rusted, and rusted from the door sill level, including the floors, until it was unsafe. Above the floors, and mechanically, it was still very sound, and other than the rocker panels, it still looked very good.
It would be interesting to see a picture of the instrument cluster with the engine running. I wonder how many idiot lights won’t go out. I wonder if it was flooded with fresh water or salt water.
I guess I am one of the lucky owners. I’ve never had any water leaks from having my car washed or sitting outside in the rain all day while I was at work. It’s a fine-looking machine. If I had a real need, I’d consider it. They do provide a great ride & MPG is pretty good when you consider the weight you’re pushing down the road.
Back around the time this Eldorado was new, my oldest friend Tony (a guy I’ve known since we were both in the 5th grade together in 1960) would often meet in a diner in Jersey City, NJ after getting off our second shift, computer operator jobs. And at some point in that diner we meet a guy named Roy (who was a homicide detective with the Jersey City Police Department) who had just purchased a brand new Eldorado ETC. Well during various conversations, Tony mentioned that he wanted to visit the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland and I mentioned that I wanted to visit the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn and also ”revisit’ the AIr Force Museum at Wright Patterson AFB in Dayton, Ohio. So one thing lead to another and we found ourselves in Roy’s Eldorado a few weeks later which was used for our little “ROAD TRIP”. Roy was generous enough to allow both Tony and I to take turns driving the Eldorado, and he even went so far as to tell use to “DRIVE THE CAR” don’t “BABY IT”. So on a deserted stretch of the Pennsylvania Turnpike, around 3:00 AM, I got that Eldorado up to about 130 MPH, still the fastest I’ve ever driven any vehicle. But the thing that amazed me was that,that Eldorado felt like it was on rails. Later on as we were heading back to New Jersey Roy was driving when an OHIO STATE TROOPER pulled us over after clocking Roy at 140 MPH on the Ohio Turnpike in broad daylight and it took Roy (who flashed his Jersey City Detective’s Badge) some effort to avoid getting a ticket. Anyway, ironically about a week later, my wife and I visited Walt Disney World, and as a birthday present, she paid for me to take a ride in one of the NASCAR, StOCK CARS that used to exist at the NASCAR TRACK that used to be a part of Walt Disney World. So I climbed in through the window into a replica of one of the Dale Earnhardt Mr. Goodwrench Monte Carlos and took the ride with the redneck driver, who told me that we had obtained a speed of about 145 MPH on the backstretch as he asked if I was impressed. To which I replied something like ‘Well no, actually” as I told him a little about the “ROAD TRIP”. By the way as a little side note, Roy had a ‘PERSONALISED” or “VANITY” New Jersey Licence Plate for his Eldorado that that read ETC EXC. So if you combined the licence plate along with the emblem on the trunk lid, that Eldorado read ETC ETC ETC.