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Eldorado Gold: Mint 1983 Cadillac

Landing right in the middle of the Eighth Generation of Cadillac’s Eldorado offerings (those from 1975 – 1985), this 1983 seems to be a shining, glimmering, and great example of a very low mileage survivor. At $12,900 – you’re only paying 78 cents a mile for its original 16,500 miles according to the seller.

Thanks to reader Rocco B, who found it here on craigslist, it seems to be in perfect shape, inside and out – and ready for the comfortable V8 couch ride that Eldorado’s are famous for. Although the seller has filtered the pictures for brochure beauty – you can still see this example is in great shape. With only 16,500 miles in 34 years, you would have to guess that most of them have been pampered.

Like its famous forefathers in the Eldorado clan, it’s decked out with every bell and whistle that could be thrown at it. Buttoned leather thickly padded front and rear seats, simulated woodgrain dash, electronic climate control, and the Cadillac crown on everything from hood to rear mats. Badging on the sides, and on the air filter cover, proudly display its HT4100 fuel injection feature. Introduced in ’82, the HT4100 (High Technology, 4100cc) was the standard engine for the longitudinal front-wheel-drive Eldorado and Seville offerings from Caddy, but did have reliability issues that made them drop it just a few years later.

Still, if you’re looking for an immaculate, buy and drive collectable, this beauty might be a great way to start a Cadillac collection. Reasonably priced for so few miles, it can claim its place with the likes of the Porsche 944, the Mercedes 380SL, and Toyota’s Celica Supra, as great examples from 1983!

Comments

  1. Avatar jaymes

    gorgeous example, great price

    Like 1
    • Avatar Art

      Like Miguel said, worst engine ever produced by Cadillac, period. I dont care if these Eldos, even 84,85s had a thousand miles, i wouldnt touch it and believe me I know.

      Like 0
  2. Avatar Wagon master

    Immaculate! There’s a bigggg difference between a 75 and an 83 ….

    Like 1
  3. Avatar Dovi65

    WOW!!! She’s beautiful. She will definitely turn heads at the local car shows

    Like 0
  4. Avatar David Zornig

    Eight generation was 1979-1985.

    Like 1
  5. Avatar Miguel

    I stay away from 1982 – 1985 Eldorado’s, and other Cadillacs.

    I never understood why GM put the worst engine in the most expensive cars.

    Now the 1979 with the big V8 was a great car.

    Like 1
  6. Avatar edh

    $12,900?

    No way! Never! Grandpa should have drove it more and/or sold it long ago.

    Like 0
  7. Avatar nessy

    Golly that’s a nice Caddy but it needs the wire wheels. How could anyone order a car like this with the base hubcaps? There is no tape player either, otherwise, it looks loaded including the digital dash option. If it were only a Biarritz….

    Like 0
    • Avatar Tommy D

      I was thinking how nice to see one without wire’s! Hubcaps that is…

      Like 0
  8. Avatar Joe Haska

    WOW! A beautiful car! I don’t understand the naysayers when you show a car like this, and they have all these negative comments! WHY? This is a one and only and it is should not be compared to all the cars that didn’t survive. Apples and oranges, if anything compare it to other low mileage examples of cars that passed the test of time. All I know, I am a sucker for this type of find no matter what the marque or minute details, its all about the preservation, and condition of the car.

    Like 0
  9. Avatar Bob

    Miguel is absolutely right, one of the worse engines ever produced by GM. Good thing it has low miles because most of them developed a low end knock when the mileage hit the mid twenties. Beautiful car otherwise.

    Like 0
    • Avatar Miguel

      I was thinking overheating, but the end result is the same.

      Like 0
    • Avatar Tommy D

      That topic has been argued for years by the HT4100 groups…with the majority saying they’ve had no problems. Probably the bad ones are long gone, and the survivors beat the odds.
      My ’85 runs like a top, but by ’85 they were pretty reliable.

      Like 0
  10. Avatar Steve

    ugh. Such a nice looking car with such a bad engine. My mom had a Sedan de Ville with the 4.1. She traded an 83 Olds 88 for it, which had just had the 307 rebuilt. It only needed the carb rebuilt (dieseling when shut off) but she got the “new” (to her) car fever. My dad had the 4.1 rebuilt, only to have the trans go out when I was driving it. He parked it and sold it to a co worker with a sdv with…drum roll pleeeeaaaase…a bad 4.1.
    My fix was to conver it to rwd with a 500 caddy v8, TH400 and a 9″ Ford. Cooler heads prevailed…

    Like 0
  11. Avatar Mark

    Junk engine ugly hubcaps, needs spoke rims, that motor and the 4-6-8 were Junk. Looks nice as little no as you do not drive it like this guy.

    Like 0
    • Avatar Miguel

      Actually the 4-6-8 was a good engine. The changing system was junk, but most of them were bypassed within the first year after production.

      The big V8 gave great power and ran well.

      Like 0
  12. Avatar 86 Vette Convertible

    If it drives as good as it looks, someone is going to get a real creampuff here.

    Like 0
  13. Avatar Oldcarsarecool

    Ah yes, the famous HT4100 “Hit & Miss” engine, (i.e. getting a good one was a hit or miss game of chance). If you got a “good” one, it was actually good. Unfortunately, few of them were. But my ’84 Coupe de Ville was a very reliable car. It made a lot of threatening noises, but never let me down . . .

    Like 0
  14. Avatar Paul

    I agree, Very nice car, however, when you look at the speedo on the ad, it says 15,863 miles not 16,500, hmmmmmm

    Like 0
    • Avatar lawyer George

      Paul: Seller may have padded the mileage as he assumes it will be driven some before it is sold and he does not wish to listen to some anal retentive loud mouth buyer beat seller’s ears off grousing that it has 16,020 miles +/- on it at delivery, rather than the 15,853 miles advertised and threatening to sue if buyer won’t discount the asking/agreed to sale price.

      Although there seem to be a plethora of those who are, not everyone is Charlatan/scum bag/thief.

      Like 1
      • Avatar Paul

        Super, thanks for the lesson…

        Like 0
    • Avatar Will

      15,863 photo was taken two years ago.

      Like 0
  15. Avatar Joey Eyes

    I owned a black 1983 Eldorado. It had this exact same interior. One of my favorite cars ever. I bought the car in 1985 for $10,500 which shows you that this car really is a steal.

    Like 0
  16. Avatar RayZ

    Not A Caddy guy, but this ones a head turner

    Like 0
  17. Avatar Scott

    The HT 4100 was a piece of junk. My dad had one in a Caddy that he bought brand new. Went to check the oil one day and it was way over full so he brought it back to the Caddy dealer. Figuring they had overfilled it at the last oil change. What did the dealer do? Drained the oil and sent him on his way. Couple of days later same thing. That’s when they noticed oil in the coolant. Then they hit him for a water pump, lol. They kept screwing him over till they decided to tell him he needed a motor. Too bad he didn’t tell me what was going on or the service writer would have swallowed that water pump. Between the fiasco with the 8-6-4 motors and the 4100 motors Cadillac lost quite a bit of their customer base.

    Like 0
  18. Avatar lawyer George

    No argument–This is a beautiful, pristine Eldo with color that does not gag a maggot. For that reason I would not have to choke too hard at the price as it would be a “steal” compared to the $70K +/- cost of a new one figuring the low mileage would last to the end of this high mileage model (me) if it did not have the 4.1. While this one may well be a good one in the 4,1 Hit & miss lottery mentioned by the O…C…A…C owner of the nice 84 Coupe he provided, I would not buy this car because I would be filled with apprehension at every turn of the tires that an unknown, unseen light on the dash would suddenly flash on “That’s it. You’re done–it’s all over now, baby blue” accompanied by a loud ringing noise.[ with apologies to Bob Dylan, ] and I could not stand that kind of stress. An auto-columnist in the first year of the Ford Taurus that the manufacturer should cut trying to deny it was ugly and merely include in each user’s guide packet/ book a letter of apology. The 4.1 should have come worth a lifetime transferable warranty and a free trip to the Bermuda Triangle to every owner whose 4.1 engine blew. I had a used 1981 Fleetwood with the 4-6-8 and I liked it because it would give 23 mph hiway and 18 city once you accepted the fact that you could never use cruise control and could drive with your right shoe off. If driver has sensitive feet and could manipulate the gas pedal with finesse he could keep it from shifting mindlessly between 4 6 and 8 and hold it at4 cylinders it got great mileage for the era. If you could not wean yourself from cruise control the engine would shift from 4 to either 6 or 8 maddeningly with every almost imperceptible change in grade or wind speed–which would drive to owner crazy. That caused a fair number of owners to disconnect the apparatus locking it in 8 cylinder mode and reducing the mileage to 15 or so. I find cruise control today to be as useless as an ashtray would be in my car. Where there is only 15 feet between each car on most busy hiways, using cruise would require constant breaking and resume button use rivaling the irritations of the 4-6-8!

    Like 0
  19. Avatar John Hondo

    The Buick Rivieras and Olds Toronados,(I owned one of each from the same era) were basically the same car and better IMHO

    Like 1
  20. Avatar John C Cargill

    They got the bug out of the ht4100, But never got enough power to match the Buick and Olds e bodies.

    Like 0
    • Avatar Miguel

      The bug, you mean the aluminum block?

      Like 0
  21. Avatar Michael

    The 4100 V-8 had problems with the camshafts going bad. Like some have said, one of the worst engine Cadillac ever produced in the most expensive GM vehicle.

    Like 0
  22. Avatar David Miraglia

    prefer this generation of Eldos to all the latter designs

    Like 0
  23. Avatar CBass

    My dad had an 81 Eldorado Biaritz with the 8-6-4 7.0 liter. He drove that thing for what seems like an eternity with never a problem. He did bypass the 864 within the first 6 months of owning it.

    Like 1
  24. Avatar Rustytech Member

    The HT4100 had a tendency toward several major issues. A friend of mine bought one new in 1984. That car spent more time at the dealer than it did in his garage. Within the warranty period it had been in several times for overheating. The dealer finally agreed to replace the heads. After taking the engine apart they found the camshaft and bearings were worn. It was under 30k when they put a factory reman in it. That lasted to just under 50k and then the dreaded eng knock, it was promptly traded, but not for another Cadillac. Another friend bought an 85, and was still driving it 10 years and 90k later with no problems. Guess ya gotta be a gambler! Gorgeous car though.

    Like 0
  25. Avatar W9BAG

    I’ve heard that the 4.1 liter was an aluminum engine, prone to many maladies, but it was a shoe in into a Pontiac Fiero. Beautiful car, absolutely beautiful, but I wouldn’t trust it on a long distance cruise.

    Like 0
  26. Avatar Dan

    My cousins had a 1984 they bought for thier 25th anniversary. They did have the engine replace by dealer, because it burned oil. They still drove it until 1991, when the wife passed away. My mom wanted to buy it, but he gave it to his daughter. I found a 1988 cope de Ville in 1995 with 27,000 miles, that mom bought. A woman I worked with inherited it, and thought it was too big. I think the 1988 was a better car, it had no major mechanic problems. My parents drove it until 100,00O and a nieghbor bouget it an drove it 60,000 more.

    Like 0
    • Avatar nessy

      Well sure the 88 was a better car Dan. It had the much improved 4.5 V8. 87 was the end for that 4.1 bomb of an engine. The 88 was much lighter and with the added horsepower, moved along pretty good. Totally different cars. Whatever engine Cadillacs have, I like all Cadillac cars.

      Like 0
  27. Avatar Paul

    Super, thanks for the lesson…

    Like 0

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