Last year, I bought a 1983 Caddy, and I loved it. Unfortunately, that model year had one of the worst engines ever made, the infamous HT4100. Many of them are okay – but some of them are not, like mine. After a couple months of ownership, we figured out that it couldn’t handle the heat of stop-and-go Las Vegas Strip traffic in the summer. I looked into replacing the engine with a stronger one, but it’d easily exceed $20K, which isn’t sensible.
I sold that car, but I had a Caddy-shaped hole in my heart. A very big hole.
I did a lot of research to find the best big Cadillac sedan. (Convertibles are another story, and I have my eyes on those too, but that’s gonna have to wait for a house with more garage space.) I decided on the 1990-1992 Brougham. Those were the last years for the really big Caddies, and at the end of their production, they had niceties like fuel injection, reliable engines, digital dashboards, and anti-lock brakes. (No airbags, though!) Ideally, I wanted a d’Elegance model like this with thick padded leather seats and a sunroof.
This 1992 Brougham popped up on BaT, and it was close to what I wanted. It was the final production year, powered by one of the best (although certainly not most powerful) engines, a bulletproof reliable 5.0L (305) engine which can stand up to stop & go traffic in the summer in Las Vegas. It has a nice bold 1990s color, Maple Red:
The odometer says 44K miles, and given the shape of the car, I believe it. It’s had paint & body work done, but it was really well-done and looks amazing. Usually cars from this model year have tacky thick plastic cladding going along the bottom of the car doors, like this:
But the seller had that cladding removed because it was in bad shape, then filled in the holes and fixed the paint. I love that, because it makes this 1992 one look like the earlier, simpler, cleaner models.
Inside, there’s a nice bold Dark Maple Red leather interior, although not the thick, padded d’Elegance seats that I really wanted:
The auction price was so low that I went for it. I started bidding at $12,250, and it ended up at $13,751. With shipping, taxes, and registration, I’m in for about $15,000. That’s a fantastic deal for so much comfort, road presence, and history. It even came with a $750 Pioneer stereo that has Apple CarPlay! Fantastic. I don’t have to change a single thing.
This will be a car we can use year-round for going out to dinner with friends, running errands, and road trips to LA and Flagstaff.
So this brings the collection to:
- 1964 Porsche 356 SC – fun car for cold days because it’s a hardtop
- 1956 Porsche Speedster Replica – fun car for spring & fall days (but not rain or serious sun or winter, because I can’t fit in it with the top up)
- 1992 Cadillac Brougham – fun car for year-round, including heat & rain
- 2024 Land Rover Defender 130 Outbound – long road trips
Knock on wood, I think that’s the end of the car purchases for 2024. We’re eyeing moving to a bigger house in 2025, but in Vegas, it’s really hard to find nice houses that have garage space for 5+ cars.