CADILLAC LUSTRE?
Our Rating: 6.9 / 10
BY ANDY ENRIGHT
As you ascend the pricing scale, there comes a point when a car’s ability becomes largely taken for granted and what the car says about you becomes more important. This is a problem that has haunted the Cadillac Seville STS. The American giant has put so many toes in the water of the shark-infested European luxury car market that you’d expect it to nursing some rather nasty wounds. In 1998 however, Cadillac came back in a bigger way than ever before with the Seville. There’s no doubt it’s a good car, but then so is a Nissan QX or a Toyota Camry and would you really want to be seen stepping out of one of these at the golf club? Image talks and a used Cadillac Seville may well prove what many suspected – talk is cheap.
History
The Cadillac Seville name was first used in 1956, although the modern Seville’s history began in 1973 as a response to the first oil crisis. It was a full metre shorter than the Fleetwood luxury model, and ran an ‘economical’ 5.7-litre V8 instead of the Fleetwood’s 8.2-litre guzzler. The fifth-generation Cadillac Seville hit the UK showrooms in April 1998 and was greeted by whistling wind and passing tumbleweed. Launched at the same time as the Chevrolet Corvette, Camaro and Blazer models, it was part of General Motors’ programme to establish an American beachhead through twelve selected Vauxhall dealers. Sales were modest to say the least, with 127 finding new owners in the entire 1999 calendar year.
Initially it was proposed that the SLS (Seville Luxury Sedan) and STS (Seville Touring Sedan) would be introduced, but the less well-appointed SLS model was quietly dropped. The Seville STS was designed with a European market in mind, being 200mm shorter than its predecessor, and boasting the impressive 4.6-litre Northstar V8 engine, generating 300bhp which was transmitted through its front wheels. This made the Seville the world’s most powerful front-wheel drive car.
The 2000 model year STS benefited from some tuning of the Northstar’s engine note, changes to the cylinder head to make the car run more efficiently and also the development of ‘continuously variable road-sensing suspension.’ ‘Active steering effort compensation’ was also included, both systems aiming to reduce the chances of preoccupied American drivers spinning the Seville whilst simultaneously negotiating a 90-degree left and a supersized Philly Cheesesteak sandwich.
2001 model year cars benefited from improved steering feel, xenon headlamps, rain sensing wipers, electrically folding mirrors and the inclusion of a spectacularly powerful Bose stereo system. Official UK imports finished in early 2002.
Opinion
The interior of the Seville has come a long way from American luxury saloons most of us remember. There aren’t any column shifters, rawhide seats or Routemaster-steering wheels. No, you won’t feel like Boss Hogg or an extra from Shaft. There’s still some pretty dubious fake wood, but on the whole, it looks remarkably like a Lexus or a big Nissan/Hyundai. Can it really steal sales from the established players?
The StabiliTrak drive dynamics system, tweaked since the Seville first arrived here, might just help. This is an active handling system intended, with traction control, to harness the 305bhp of the 4.6-litre Northstar V8 - the only engine on offer and now fitted with redesigned cylinder heads developed mainly to meet ever-tougher emissions regulations in both the USA and Europe. For the money you'd expect driver aids like this. BMW and Mercedes already offer stability systems that in extreme situations throttle the car back whilst simultaneously applying the brakes, hopefully helping the driver regain control when things get tricky.
As you'd expect from a car pitched in size and price against Jaguar's XJ8 Sovereign 4.0, BMW's 540i and Mercedes' E430, the Cadillac comes impressively equipped. The Bose 4.0 stereo system is billed as the world's most advanced - and sounds it. There's also dual-zone climate control, leather upholstery, heated seats front and rear (!) plus an electrically adjustable steering wheel. The adaptive seating system inflates and deflates a series of ten air cushions to give a precisely tailored seat fit.
Some of the detailing is quite interesting too. Like steering wheel controls not only for the stereo but also for the air conditioning (why has no one thought of that before?) Of more dubious value is the digital compass built into the rear view mirror. Twin front and side airbags also come as part of the deal, as does the latest Bosch ABS system and a 4-speed automatic gearbox (there's no manual option).
Cost
The Seville STS hasn’t been the catastrophic money pit that had been predicted by industry doom-mongerers. Not quite. No, it hasn’t performed as strongly in the used arena as an equivalent Mercedes, BMW or Audi, but its residual values have surprised many who predicted two-year-old Sevilles to be beer-money barges. Whilst buying a new Seville STS can’t be described as financial suicide, it’s probably fair to describe it as malicious self-wounding with a blunt implement. A 1998 R-registered Seville STS is worth around £6,700, or a fraction of its new value of £39,750. A 1999 S-registered model is worth a little more – about £7,400 being a fair price. With newer models you’re looking at around £8,500 for a 2000 V-plate with 2001 51-reg examples currently changing hands at about £10,700. Many Seville owners discovered the harsh realities of life with a new Caddy – that the car’s value plummeted by 25% as soon as they drove it off the forecourt. Despite its excellent safety record, insurance for the STS is a punishing Group 19.
Problems?
The Seville is an astonishingly reliable car. With service intervals every 100,000-mile, the General Motors dealer network have no significant faults to report. When checking over a Seville look for damage to trim or minor body imperfections. In this sector of the market, such damage knocks used values hard. Your best bet will be to bag a low mileage used car from one of the approved dealers.
Parts
(approx based on a 2000 Seville STS) Whilst it would be easy to assume that for such a low volume model spares prices would be punitively expensive, that’s not really the case. If you were figuring that the General Motors parts would be Vauxhall-cheap, then you’d be labouring under a similar misapprehension. Prices are on a par with class rivals. A radiator will cost around £515, an alternator just over £400 and a starter motor around £150. Front brake pads are approximately £75 a pair whilst a front headlamp costs in the region of £260.
Road
What the StabiliTrak stability control system has done to the Seville is to refine the concept, both by making its activation smoother and enabling the driver to power more easily out of dangerous manoeuvres. In its latest incarnation it has more heart-stopping scenarios programmed in to its electronic brain and reacts in more innovative ways to a driver’s mistakes. Easy to say, harder to prove. A violent last minute lane-switch on soaking tarmac at 55mph pitches the car into a lurid sideways slide so easy to correct that you feel like Mario Andretti. Only when you do the same test with the system deactivated do you realise how small a chance you would have of avoiding an accident in an ordinary car.
StabiliTrak is an integral part of the STS Seville specification. The STS tag stands for 'Seville Touring Sedan’; a title intended to indicate the car's handling aspirations as a BMW 5 Series competitor. Many European buyers are going to take issue with that because, on a short run at least, the big Caddy feels anything but a BMW.
Clearly, the Detroit engineers have listened carefully to early European criticism. The steering, noted for being too light, now has what the boffins call "active steering effort compensation" to