1985 Cadillac Eldorado Review - What "High Technology" Looked Like 40 Years Ago!
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- Опубликовано: 8 июн 2024
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The thoughts, feelings, and opinions expressed in this video are the sole thoughts of Zack and no one else. The thoughts expressed in this video do not reflect the owner, dealership, or organization that owns the vehicle featured. The purpose of this video is to provide entertainment with the hope that you will take what you see and formulate your own opinions. DO NOT make a financial decision based off of this video.
#Cadillac #CadillacEldorado
Timecodes:
0:00 - Intro
1:01 - Drivetrain
2:42 - Interior
4:17 - BFB Test
4:24 - Interior
4:58 - Back Seats
5:57 - Trunk / Cargo Space
6:46 - Exterior
7:31 - Final Thoughts
9:16 - Outro 
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I have an 85 Biarritz Convertible and the HT 4100 had to go. I LS swapped not because I wanted the extra power but because the original engine continuously gave me issues. Here in Central Arkansas my Eldorado is a head turner!
Back in the 1980's when this Eldo was new- the dealership sold sawdust wood pellets that was added to the radiator to specifically seal 4100 head gasket extension/contraction of heat issue
I had a 93 Deville 4.9 did the water pump and it kept overheating until i went to Gm and got those 6 tabs for the coolant. Crazy
Body-on-frame, longitudinal front-drive, independent suspension all around. This and the Seville were the culmination (and sadly the finale: the next Eldo was a transverse-engined unibody) of GM's philosophy of making a good car better incrementally. And, though the engine was kinda pathetic, I do consider this a good car.
Beautiful car, so much elegance and class. Gorgeous 😍
The Eldorado generation that came after this one is my favorite Cadillac of all time, looks wise; I still get weak in the knees in the rare instance I see one drive by these days. This Eldorado looks pretty great as well.
I never smashed my mouse to watch a video so fast. The 1979-85 generation Eldorado is one of my favorite cars ever built. My grandma drove a 1983 (also a base model like this one) and riding in that car is one of my earliest car memories. The car is very long gone, but I do have the hood ornament and other emblems off of it before it was scrapped.
In the 80's, these were all over Dallas. Caddies were the thing to have before the age of luxury trucks.
There was always a Suburban or a conversion suburban
I disagree...by this time Mercedes and BMW's were all over the road in Dallas and separated the haves from the have nots.
I remember visiting Dallas in the 80's, and yes LOTS of Cadillacs on the road in that part of the country in those days. As a kid I could not separate Texans from their Cadillacs. Out here in the Pacific Northwest, we saw these quite a bit, but the most popular family haulers were Suburbans and Wagoneers.
@@TVHouseHistorian I grew up in Dallas. By the 80's Cadillacs were very much on the downward spiral as many well heeled were buying Mercedes and BMW by that time
Grew up in Plano. And yes. I remember seeing Caddys all over the Dallas/Ft Worth area at that time. Mom and dad had an 83 Seville they bought brand new. It wound up being my high school transportation. I drove that thing into the GROUND... Seemed like every other household inside our little subdivision had a Cadillac. Guess it was a "thing" for people our parents' age at that time.
Stainless steel roof added in 85 to the Eldorado Biarritz model really set this car apart from others
"Electronic Tuning" is just GM speak for "You didn't pay for the cassette option, but we had to put something in this space."
Great color combo! I'd lose the wide whites if it were mine, but all-in-all this is one of the nicest Eldos I've ever seen from this era.
In 1993 I went from Hartford Connecticut to Daytona Beach.Florida for spring break in a 79 El Dorado, same generation.
What a wonderful cruiser that was on that long trip
Nice review, i drove a 1978 Eldorado(The BIG one) but have always loved these as well.
The 78 with it;s 425 V8 felt powerful, but it wasn't fast at all, you could feel all 5100 pounds....
Got 12 mpg
but you could pull what ever , an over lander with a camper trailer
It's worth noting you reviewed a rather low optioned car. Many of these would have had electronic digital dashboard speedometers, leather wrapped steering wheels with telescoping, and an AM/FM cassette tape stereo with 5 band equalizer.
One cool thing with these Cadillacs is with the trip computer and climate controls. If you push and hold certain buttons ( I don't remember which two) it will display OBD 1 codes and display a digital tach. But the tach will only go to around 1900 rpm.
I remember doing that on ours.
the HT 4100 is also called the Hook and Tow because of its reliability issues.
Too heavy on the white walls. The 4100 wasn't bad. If you don't over push you'll be ok. Got an 85 in driveway. Very fun to drive. The light steering is a trip!
Worth mentioning these cars had four wheel independant suspension and four-wheel disc brakes.
Front was sprung by torsion bars.
Actually a competent car, awesome looking and ahead of its time.
The HT4100, like the V864, were largely misunderstood engines.
No, the HT4100 was the worst engine Cadillac ever made. No redeeming qualities like the V8-6-4 and Northstar. They actually made it into a good engine with the 4.9L version.
@@maineiacman Agreed! HT 4100 is a joke for a heavy car, not enough power. GM let "Caddy Nation" down from '81 on. The '79 and '80 Eldo had a 350 Olds engine.
The 4.1 was indeed short on HP, even for its time. But it was smooth and torquey, which is all anybody really wanted from a Caddy. But the reliability issues were no joke; I had an '86 Fleetwood and it was always breaking down.
that HT engine blows head gaskets left and right
I'd love to see someone LS swap one of these old 70s and 80s boats and see what they can do with 400+ bhp. But unfortunately it seems like no one is doing this, cause I can't find a single video of such a vehicle. Damn shame.
I like originality. Reliability was good if we’ll maintained. We towed a boat with our 1985.
1986 Fleetwood came equipped with a 5.0 liter 307 cu.in. Oldsmobile V8. NOT the 4100 engine.
@@k.c.marshall921 I owned one. You're wrong.
Vinyl Roof, Whitewall Tires, Robin-Blue Cadillac Eldorodo...that was str8 pimpin'! 😆😅🤣
My step-dad had a 81 Seville then an 82 Fleetwood Brougham. The Brougham had similar styling to the Eldorado (esp. front profile and interior) but was a longer four-door with a larger trunk. I believe the Broughm was the only was to get RWD in that generation. Re: beverages: back then though, you bought those cheap beverage holders that would hook and hang from the door window gap. They weren't really for carrying while driving though, more like use at drive-ins or when parked.
Maaan this brings back memories, my grandma had an 84 Eldorado and my dad had an 85 Eldorado Biarritz the same color as this one!! 😊
In another 25 years, this will become the epitome of a classic icon.
By 1985 much of the kinks were worked out. If you took it easy on them and kept up with maint, oil/coolant changes (dont forget the GM coolant tabs!) they could be more reliable than it's reputation would say.
These engines WERE quite smooth and quiet, and pretty good on gas actually.
The Lincoln mark vi was a way better car and way more reliable
@@warrenwinslow4266 yes but usual ugly dumpy Ford styling that ages on the showroom floor.
A 45 year old GM, like a '78 Caprice, still looks good today. GM tends to out-style everyone, they had the cash, at the time.
'80 Lincolns and Marks had haunting electrical gremlin issues.
Now this is one hell of a 20th birthday present
Great review, Zack! One thing about the HT4100....I thought HT stood for "hook and tow".
The wide whitewalls are wrong. In 1985, there would have been a 1.5" stripe.
Wish Caddy or someone else made cars like this today. Soft, comfortable, powerful enough and durable. Dunno if we'll ever see cars like this again.
I wish the big boaty American style of luxury would come back. The closest thing we still have is the Escalade and Navigator. I don't why it was decided that luxury has to mean sporty suspension and hard seats with tight leather. I want a seat that I sink a couple inches into and can cruise for hours on the highway not feeling a thing.
@@bwofficial1776 My point exactly! Escalades and Navigators and Silverados all prove that the American love affair with big cars has not disappeared. I’ve always said if Cadillac would again build a traditional big highway beast but with modern engine, electronics and other technology, it would sell like hotcakes.
My mom had a 1982 Eldorado and like all Caddy's, it was very floaty. Knowing it had less horsepower than my Corolla is...a surprise.
This Generation of Cadillac was the beginning of the end for Cadillac.
The Northstar engines were such an improvement over these old HT engines in pretty much every regard, minus the really late HT 4.9's those things are pretty solid and sound really good
Considering the Northstar's reputation for blowing the heads, that's impressive.
@@bwofficial1776 Ikr, these old HT engines blew head gaskets more frequently than an early Northstar I'd wager, made like a third of the power, and got worse economy. It's impressive really
Northstars??? Until around 2003 their head bolts were too small resulting in head warpage and oil leaks and overheating at about the same rate as the HT4100. Sure they were bigger, faster, more powerful, but they weren't much more reliable until a lot later. There's Cadillacs from the late 90s in junkyards with less than 100k on the clock because the proper fix is about $7,000 and thus totals the car.
@@joe6096 soooo they were bigger, faster, more powerful, more efficient, and had the same level of reliability. Sounds like a massive improvement to me
The 4.9 was a nice engine in the Seville and El Dorado.
Nice example of these cars. Thank you. Have you driven a Fleetwood Brougham yet?
I love this body style but if I wanted one, I would get either the same year Buick Riv or Olds Toronado with the the bullet proof 307.
I miss those old pimpin cars, good video Zachary 👍
Had a 77 Gran Prix that had a similar body style but the cost of gas was unbelievable.
My parents bought me a new 1985 Eldorado convertible for my 16 th birthday I loved it I didn’t drive it much and I knew that in 1986 they would change the body style so I put the car away in a heated garage the car has only 8 thousand miles on it
Love this car
What a cool car. I used to have a 2005 Ford Five Hundred (had it for 5 years), I always said 2 things about it; it rode like a Cadillac & it seemed like something a retired gangster would drive! I SO miss that car.
Good point. This El Dorado seems like just the car one of the older characters from The Sopranos would ride around New Jersey in especially if it is black. A mafia gangster car.
It was pretty good except for the weak 4100 engine. It is a definite magic carpet drive though.
That's a clean beautiful ELdog.
Cool cars but I would consider the Buick and Oldsmobile over the Cadillac because of the engine. The Cadillac had the unreliable 4.1 HT V8 engine compared to the more reliable Oldsmobile 5.0 V8 engines .
Beautiful
That looks like a regal put a sky blue suit on for the ball
This was my first car and I loved it
The precursor to my 4.9 in the Deville I had
This was the "last" good looking Eldo before next generation came out. That one you couldn't tell it from and Oldsmobile aside from $10k difference!😏 Didn't know 85' had those engine issues! Narrator was talking about 85's "underpowered" V8 engine. Caddys were not speed demons back then. Had "adequate" horsepower. Was designed & built to get you where you wanted in style & comfort...
Yeah but you have to keep in mind, many of the customers going to these "slow" Cadillacs were coming from pretty darn quick ones built in the late 60s and early 70s. The Caddy 425, 472, and 500 pre-emission were all torque monsters and tire shredders. Grandpa might not have driven fast in his '70 Eldorado, but that's not because he couldn't. Then he goes to trade it in for an '83 Eldorado, and when he DOES want to go fast, he can't.
Big difference in customer satisfaction there.
@@joe6096 Yes you're correct.👍 I owned a 1970 Cad Cpe Deville. Crimsom red paint job with gold metal flakes in it. Black vinyl top & black leather interior. I think it had a 472 cu. V8. Rode like silk and had giddy yap when I floored the accelerator💭.60's Eldos were nice but from 71'- 78' are by far the toughest ones ever on the road. Been hearing rumors Caddy might revive the Eldo. If in fact they do just 3 words for them...do it right! Recall Ford tried to revive 2 seater T-Bird in mid 90's? It was a flop.👎 The car was visually great looking but didn't seat tall people good and engine was very underpowered. Ford had good intentions on it but poorly executed them. Had reliability issues & didn't sell well as anticipated. Got shelved in few short years. Now Caddu is coming out with super luxury electric car, can't recall name. It's supposed to take on Bentley & Rolls Royce. Est.cost about $300+K... Uh okay now we've been down this road before with Cadillac. Remember the Allante, XLR... They've done this before tried to take on ultra, ultra luxury cars and always got mixed results at best. Don't know if a car buyer in that very exclusive car market would throw down that much on a Caddy. Guess we'll eventually see. But bottom line is Caddy needs to go back to it's roots. Stop trying to imitate German & Japanese competition so much. I'm old school as you likely can tell.😉
The HT in 4100 stands for hook ‘n tow lol.
Nice 😀
It failed the big cup test because it doesn't have the cupholder change holder tape thing on the middle hump. They eventually went to the flip out the armrest cupholders in the late 80s early 90s!
Lil tid bit of knowledge hold the off and warmer button on the climate control and it had self diagnostics and would show any engine codes stored in the computer. They could also be ordered with a stainless roof and optional CB Radio my father and I have owned around 10 Eldorados of that era
You have to honk the horn in old Cadillacs. Normal cars have a two-note horn, old Cadillacs had three or four-note horns that sounded like a train horn. They were loud and let you know someone important was coming.
It's a shame boaty American luxury went away. Luxury shouldn't mean only hard seats and stiff suspension. Sometimes you want a car you can sink a couple of inches into the seats and cruise for hours on the highway without feeling a thing through the suspension. On the other hand, put this up against a Mercedes-Benz or BMW of the same time and you'll see the vast difference in design. A Cadillac was to impress others with chrome and gadgets, a Mercedes-Benz or BMW was for the driver's enjoyment and build quality.
With all these newer cars trying to be more sleek, I'm surprised that they don't hide the gas cap like they did in this car
Plastic wood is more convincing than most.
6:29 as an european I can not understand how the americans did accept such a long time that the spare tire takes so much space in the trunk. Was there really no better place to store it?
I had s 85 Eldorado just like this one, well in tan. It was 600$ off CL in 2017. It became too expensive to fix for the older lady who had it. When running it would rain power steering fluid out the pump. Once i straightened it out(pump, hood struts wheel bearings, shocks,tune up.), It just never felt, or rode quite right. Looked great though
Did you know, these engine blocks would weep antifreeze? GM told you to use some type of special pellets in the radiator. I went through 3 brake master cylinders, in 2 weeks. All from different brands, suppliers. Same for wheel hubs, one was crap right out of the box.
I had a harder time getting parts for this, then any of my eastern block cars.. Made no sense. To be fair it did run well. The trunk auto latch, and ride height control valve simply don't exist to buy.
I realized what Cadillacs modo from these years was " Cadillac the essence of luxury, with none of the quality behind it"
The blocks "weeped" because they were horribly cast. The casting process GM used resulted in less than solid block, that was a known issue, and GM shipped and built them anyways. The coolant would seep through the block from the water jackets into the cylinder walls. You can imagine all the fun that happens after that.
Those coolant pellets were GM's answer to "fix" the weeping because in theory they dissolve and chemically bond to the metal, sealing the pours. Whether they really helped or not is debatable.
Now that's a car worth reviewing.
My oldest brother owned 2 of these back in the day
4100HT...failed for mine
Pimpin!!!
0:32, those white walls would apply in the 60's and 70's, but not the 80's. Only 10-12% of Eldorado's made from '79-'85 had hardtops. Vinyl tops are just one more thing to repair, never liked 'em.
I GOT ONE THAT IS THE SAME KIND OF CAR AS THE CADILLAC ELDORADO AND BUICK RIVIERA. ITS AN 1981 OLDSMOBILE TORONADO WAS INHERITED FROM MY UNCLE MOMS OLDER BROTHER......SHE IS A RIDE...... WITH TAN PILLOWTOP LEATHER SEATS AND A BROWN DASHBOARD THE COLOR IS PASTEL BEIGE WITH A TAN VYNYL LANDAU TOP SHE HAS AN OLDSMOBILE GEN 1 307 V8 ENGINE 4 BARREL CARBURATION AND A. THREE SPEED TURBO HYDRAMATIC 350 TRANSMISSION AND WITH FRONT WHEEL DRIVE....SHE IS A PLEASURE TO DRIVE.
Had a 79 get stolen and a 84 i got duped out of.
So much squares.
Big fan of the 80s car reviews. I think 85 marked the turning point of the eldorado, and not in a good way. Once the 86 came and GM downsized that, along with cars like the Seville, DeVille, toronado riviera, (98, and Electra/Park avenue, which had already happened as of 85) , just to name a few, they lost a great deal of presence, and I don’t think they ever recovered.
The end of an era for GM.
Just reminds me of Ronald Reagan with a big toothy smile and a cowboy hat. A proud time in our history that we may never see again, as we've all seemingly been brainwashed to hug trees and wear face-diapers.
If I buy a luxury car, I don't want stiff suspension and hard seats. I don't care how tight it can corner. Luxury should mean sinking a couple inches into soft leather and cruising on the highway for hours without feeling a thing through the suspension.
Lazy it is . I had one back in the 90s and even for a cruiser. It was always as seemed like the car was sluggish
now your talking that a real car. horsepower was measured differently in 1980s actually 400 hp.
Great car, terrible engine. The Olds Toronado and the Buick Riviera on the same chassis had the much better Olds 307
owner didnt want to let you drive it?
How tf does a V8 have 130 HP
Emission regulations, if that's new to you. They didn't have the tech to make power with low emissions unlike today. Plus the US market had got used to big engines, mostly V8's so the result was unnaturally lazy V8's & some 6 cyls.
Murica
Because GM sucked at adapting to change.
Back in the 70's and 80's it took larger displacement engines to make decent HP figures with several exceptions. Ford's 5.8 liter 351 made all of 132 HP as used in the Lincoln Versailles in the mid to later 70's. Chrysler could only manage 120 horses from a 1980 New Yorker with a 5.2 liter 318 or 130 from the 5.9 liter 360. So looking at many of the emission choked 70's and 80's V8's this much smaller 4.1 liter engine wasn't all that bad by 1982-85 standards. Note that Ford/Lincoln were only getting 140 HP from a much larger 5.0 liter 302 V8 these same years.
@@piuthemagicman Still bad even with emissions
Not necessarily a beautiful car but boy is it striking compared to the modern age
Nice car, awful tires, period correct would look much nicer.
Big feature,
A big trunk for bodies...
The mobsters favorite car.
My friend had an 85 when I was in High School. It felt like you were sitting in a cocoon of fake wood and cheap luxury. I know this is a Cadillac but it felt chinzty and cheap. Like they just added more and more stuff to make up for the lack of quality. I also love how at 204 inches, this was considered small. America's crazy.
Owners are like 90 years old.
Eighties cars are trash.
Yeah they really are.
My father has many Caddy’s and had this one in brown/tan/gold emblems etc. As far as I can remember it was a fine machine. We even used it to deliver a few catering jobs in the 90’s!!