[Heybuck]

A very good friend of mine will be coming to the US in July. He wishes to buy big car to drive around the US and Canada then eventually bring it back to Australia.

Right now he is looking at a 1983 Cadillac Coupe Deville. This car is one owner, 58k, ice cold A/C and reported to be capable of driving anywhere.

So his criteria is:

Must be Pre-1985 BIG car.
MUST have working A/C (and must continue to work - not just down your driveway!!)
MUST be a reliable driver. Not something that needs tyres, brakes etc before they commence their holiday. So ideally, we are looking for a car which is and has been, in regular daily use.
MUST have a great body & trim. NO junkers please.

Does not have to be a Pontiac. Any GM line of car will be considered.

Money will be paid up front but the car has to be stored till July.

Let me know, thanks,

Ian

[Lightfoot]

Where in USA is your friend going to arrive? This may help us do some routine searches.

The '83 Cadillac you speek of is something advertised in U.S.? Sounds like a good candidate. I believe those might have been Oldsmobile 307 powered. That's a good reliable engine. Not a powerhouse, but very dependable as long as the computer controlled carb is in good working order.

[Heybuck]

He will be landing in LA but is prepared to go anywhere if he can find the right car.

His plan is to pick up the car and start driving. They will be attending a Cadillac festival (not sure where that is??), but the festival will be worked into their driving holiday.

Ultimately they will drive it to Long Beach CA to ship it back here. Another possibility is they will leave it at a Portland OR address and another freind of ours may use it late in the year. I might even get involved in it myself.

Collectively, we are thinking that if we can buy a decent car which will take us anywhere reliably, the costs of purchasing it are going to be much less than if cars are hired. You Americans have some crazy charges in car rental. Your drop-off fees are off the planet. So owning and leaving the car over there is starting to make sense.

The Cadillac in question has the HT4100 engine. That simple fact is almost certainly going to work in our favour as we know this engine is very poorly rated by most buyers. Yet we (our group of freinds) have had some experiance with these engines and we know that they are quite OK IF they have been correctly maintained. All indications are leading to say this one has been looked after very well.