It’s only fitting that this super-clean 1985 Cadillac Eldorado is photographed in a nice garage in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. Based on its amazing condition, it’s obviously spent a lot of the last 39 years in a garage far away from the elements. Heck, you could set the Wayback Machine to 1985 and plop this Eldorado in the middle of a Cadillac Dealer showroom. It looks like it’s nearly showroom new. It’s an excellent example of the last model year for the very downsized – and very popular – tenth-generation Eldorado that was produced for the 1979 through 1985 model years. It was a risky move by Cadillac, shrinking the Eldorado’s overall length by 20 inches and shedding over 1,100 pounds, for buyers who liked their luxury cars large and comfy. But, those that could afford Cadillac’s flagship model really liked what they saw and 454,405 units were sold, making the tenth-generation Eldorados the most popular to date.
The seller says he/she is selling their father’s highly-original Eldorado with only 47,000 miles on the clock. The father is the second owner and the seller claims it has always been garaged and has never seen inclement weather. Viewing the photographs, the Eldorado appears to be in excellent condition. The red metallic paint is shiny as is the chrome, and the white vinyl roof appears to be in very good condition. You can see why “buyers with means” made a beeline to their local Cadillac Dealer. The styling is elegant and classy with its long hood, short deck, formal roofline, shiny vertical grille, and taillights reminiscent of the groundbreaking 1967 Eldorado. Though smaller, it definitely looked like a high-dollar American luxury car.
And who doesn’t love a luxurious color-coordinated interior like this? And in this condition? Comfy pillow-like white leather seats with fine stitching that includes the Cadillac wreath, thick red carpet, simulated burl walnut accent trim, and all the creature comforts you could want back in 1985. And since the floor is flat with front-wheel drive, there’s added legroom (even more, in fact, than the larger ’71-’78 Eldorados).
These Eldorados came loaded with lots of standard features and the seller says all of the power-assisted stuff (steering, brakes, windows, locks, antenna, etc.) works fine as does the AC with the Automatic Climate Control. Under the hood is fuel-injected 135-horsepower HT-4100 V8 engine that’s mated to a 4-speed automatic transmission. It’s no secret that the HT-4100 had reliability issues when it was introduced in 1982, but from what I’ve read, many of those issues had been addressed by 1985. The drivetrain has about 47,000 original miles. The last two model years of the tenth-generation Eldorado, 1984 and 1985, were the best selling with 154,207 units sold. Here’s one of the 76,401 Eldorado coupes that rolled out of the factory and it’s an impressive survivor. It’s one of the cleanest, like-new examples we’ve offered here on Barnfinds and it’s for sale here on eBay. As of this writing, the highest bid sits at $9,200 which hasn’t met the seller’s reserve. The auction is scheduled to end Sunday night at 11:33 pm. Happy bidding!
In general, the ’79-’85 Eldorado is a very elegant car, but this one needs to lose the chrome grille cap and fake convertible top to hit that mark.
nice looker but a 4100 forget it any year, Slug, had one in a coupe and sedan DeVille when I was young, my cars looked great but that engine could not get out of its way, not bad and very comfortable on highway. 307 olds better, did they ever put in like a 190 hp 350?
Other than the pimped grill and top, this is a sharp-looking car. Was the 4100 one of the 8-6-4 engines that GM produced at that time? Those were troublesome to say the least.
The V8 6 4 was in 1981 only. It was 368 cubic inches. And was basically a debored and I think destroked 472/425 V8. The 368 was available in 1980 without the troublesome Cylinder deactivation system and was a good motor ( Cadillac should’ve just stuck with it in my humble opinion) the 4100 was a totally different animal. ( Hey, Gerbils are animals too right??? Lol)
The 79-85 Cadillac Biarritz is one of the most elegant styled Cadillacs ever produced by the marque and yes with the carriage roof and grill. I feel this car would’ve reached legendary status with rear wheel drive commanding serious money. That’s just how I feel and always will.
4100 was the size of a V6 the 8-6-4 was a bigger engine
Cast iron heads on an aluminum block – what could possibly go wrong?
I love this car, but 16K with an HT4100 is a crazy price. But who knows, someone may just pay it.
The 4100s were not a bad engine by 1984. Not the best in the power department, but adequate for these cars. They were very smooth and quiet. The one thing that was imperative to do on them was proper maintenance. The manual was very clear that oil changes were required every 2500 miles and I believe coolant changes were required annually. It was also called out that a special aluminum sealer needed to be added with every coolant change. Many owners didn’t do these things and suffered short engine life because of it.
In this engine, i wonder how long you could go with today’s oils & oil filters, & especially with today’s Prestone Platinum 15 year coolant!
I used to buy these back in the 90’s. I’d drive and enjoy them while I cleaned them up and resolved any issues they had ( usually non working options) and they were easy to sell.