Good morning! Today we’re looking at two ultra-low-mileage cars that I’d be willing to bet are estate sales. They’re both in beautiful cosmetic condition, but need a little mechanical work before being put back into service.
I admit that yesterday was kind of a joke, but I really wanted to feature that Cushman. Of course it lost; unless you want it to promote your business, it’s basically worthless. There is exactly one place I can think of where it would be perfect: The Vintages, a resort in Oregon that consists of a bunch of permanently-parked vintage travel trailers you can rent out. If they don’t already have something like it, this little Cushman would be ideal for running around the grounds.
For everyone else, there’s the big, brawny Ford F-250. That truck, for that price, is actually a screaming deal – so good, in fact, that some folks from Opposite Lock spent the day trying to figure out a group buy deal. It’s a gas hog, but it could do just about anything you need a truck for, and for the price of two or three payments on a new truck. I don’t expect it will be available for long.
It’s not uncommon for an estate sale to include a car. No one in the family needs or wants it, and it wasn’t bequeathed to anyone in particular, so up for sale it goes. I can’t say for certain that that’s what’s happening with these two, but based on the mileage and condition of them, along with the types of cars they are, it wouldn’t surprise me. But as clean as they are, sitting around isn’t good for any car, so you’ll need to put in a little work to bring them up to snuff.
1984 Plymouth Reliant – $3,800
Engine/drivetrain: 2.2-liter overhead cam inline 4, three-speed automatic, FWD
Location: Glendale, AZ
Odometer reading: 17,000 miles
Operational status: Runs and drives, has been driven around the block regularly
If there were a hall of fame for boring cars, as ironic as that would be, the Plymouth Reliant and Dodge Aries twins would have pride of place. With styling that a five-year-old could duplicate, and a drivetrain that’s about as spicy as milk, these cars are nobody’s idea of fun. Sturdy, yes, and cleverly designed, and the engineering is a master class in doing more with less, but exciting they are not. But hey, not everybody wants excitement. Sometimes you just want to get to the grocery store and back.
This is the quintessential grandma-spec Reliant, a four-door sedan with a bench seat, a column-mounted gearshift for the Torqueflite automatic, and a manual tune radio that I’m pretty sure picks up both AM and FM stations. The standard issue 2.2-liter four was still equipped with a Holley two-barrel carburetor in 1984; fuel injection would arrive one year later with the styling refresh. This car has a scant 17,000 miles on its odometer, documented as original; the seller has paperwork going back to day one. It has been started and driven around the block regularly, but it still has a few cobwebs, and you should probably replace some belts and hoses before going too far. And check the date codes on those tires.
It’s in damn near museum quality condition inside; the seats hardly look like they’ve been sat in. Chrysler made a big deal when the K cars were introduced about them being true six-passenger cars, three in the front and three in the back, but I’ve spent quite a bit of time in various K and E cars over the years, and I can tell you that those six passengers had better be slender, or know each other really well. And in this case, they would be wise to double up on the deodorant; it has air conditioning, but the Freon has long since contributed to the hole in the ozone.
I’m guessing it has been an Arizona car all along, and kept in a garage; there’s no rust, nor is there much in the way of sun damage. The paint is still shiny, and the only fading I see is on the rub strip on the rear bumper. And it has all four original hubcaps.
1986 Cadillac Fleetwood d’Elegance – $3,999
Engine/drivetrain: 4.1-liter overhead valve V8, four-speed automatic, FWD
Location: Smithtown, NY
Odometer reading: 24,000 miles
Operational status: Runs, but won’t shift out of first gear
In the mid-80s, Cadillac’s full-size lineup switched to front-wheel-drive. But not all of it; because Cadillac did a huge business with limousine and hearse manufacturers, it couldn’t abandon the body-on-frame RWD design altogether. But while the car was all-new, the nameplate was recycled, and things got a little muddy. The new FWD car was the DeVille, or in fancier trims, the Fleetwood, while the old RWD car became the Fleetwood Brougham. The seller calls this a Brougham, but it is in fact a FWD Fleetwood, with the hoity-toity d’Elegance trim package.
The engine is Cadillac’s HT4100 V8, a carryover from the old RWD car, mounted transversely and driving the front wheels through a Turbo Hydramatic 440-T4 transmission. The engine is fine in this one, but the transmission needs help: it won’t shift out of first gear. This is not an electronically-controlled transmission, so whatever is causing it to not shift is a mechanical problem. My money is on the throttle valve cable, which controls shift points; if it broke or came disconnected, it could keep the transmission from upshifting. But obviously you won’t be able to drive it home like this, unless you live in the same neighborhood as the seller.
The interior of these 80s FWD Cadillacs is a very nice place to be, with cushy seats, an easy-to-read digital dash, and plenty of room. As you would expect from the low mileage, it looks practically new inside. It’s hard to tell from the photos, but I don’t think it has a stereo installed; it looks like there’s just a hole where it should be. But the lack of one of those old Delco stereos is no great loss. You’d want something better anyway.
It’s clean and well-kept outside, with no rust. Someone has replaced the rectangular sealed-beam headlights with those awful retrofit LED lights, and then completely mis-aimed one of them. On behalf of every driver who might be going the opposite direction at night, please, please get that re-aimed right away.
Super-low-mileage cars like these can be a good deal, as long as you realize that they’re going to need at least as much work as a well-used example. Sitting around is bad for cars, and so is driving only a couple miles at a time. Honestly, the best thing you could do to either of these cars, after fixing their issues, is change all the fluids, replace the tires, and then take them on a road trip. Add a few hundred miles to the odometers at highway speeds, and I bet they’d both run a lot better when you got back. So which one will it be – the plain-vanilla Reliant, or the stuck-in-first-gear Caddy?
If the transmission is an “easy” and relatively inexpensive fix, I’d pick the Caddy, but if the seller isn’t willing to get it fully operable, I think that car is going to sit there slowly decaying for a long time. The headlight situation is an easy fix.
I had a company car that was the Dodge station wagon version of the Reliant. I don’t remember what year it was and couldn’t tell you for sure whether if it was carbureted or FI, but it drove fine. And the interior looks very familiar. Never had more than four people in the car–usually just me and one passenger over there at the other end of the bench.
And the question is relatively moot as the Caddy is 2,900+ miles/45 hours away and the Reliant is “only” 1,400 miles/22 hours. I’m not going to fly to drive back that far for either on the real world.
I can’t believe I voted for the Reliant, it’s the Atari 2600 in car from. But, that makes a 4.1 and bad transmission something along the lines of a Coleco Adam. At least the Atari works.
I wanted to play along and vote for the Plymouth, but at a comparable price, the Cadillac is the better investment for time and money. At closer to half the cost, I might’ve gone for the Plymouth, but I’m not actually the right buyer that car needs.
I realize how much older I’m getting as the first thing I look for is seat comfort. The Caddy wins on that alone. If it breaks down, it’ll still be a pleasant place for a nap
I like that body style of Cadillac. My Grandma had a ’93 Sedan DeVille that was surprisingly roomy and comfortable. I was upset when she traded it in at 7-years old with 44k miles without giving me the chance to buy it from her.
But that example screams problem child to me. The awful lights and the bad transmission make me think somebody’s teenager inherited for just long enough to screw it up (neutral drops, anybody?), and now they’re ditching it.
I can’t believe I’m picking a K-car, but the world is a crazy place.
In general I’d take the Caddy, but for this specific matchup and their description of condition, give me the Special K.
Condition, condition, condition.
I know that the Cadillac HT4100 is a gutless heap of shit. On top of that, it looks like the owner installed LED headlights, but didn’t bother to get them aimed right. And I’m noticing how the hood chrome doesn’t like up right on the driver’s side (though it might have been built like that as GM’s quality at that time was atrocious).
And with the Cadillac’s transmission not shifting right, it just seals the deal for my vote to go to the mint and all original Reliant automobile… it’s a perfect radwood or C&C car.
Every year, the town of Boring, OR has a parade to celebrate the League of Extraordinary Communities with its sister-cities Bland, NSW and Dull, Scotland.
That Reliant should be the lead car.
The Reliant is in better condition, so it gets my vote. Bad transmissions SUCK
Also, I wish Chrysler had gone poof instead of AMC. When Chrysler bought them, they should’ve stopped making the K-shit and just replaced them with the Renaults.
That was AMC’s plan starting in the late ’70s, and why they wound up getting bought out by Chrysler. The Regie owned most of AMC by then (and that’s why AM General exists, because AMC had military vehicle contracts and foreign ownership was an issue).
Would you rather Captain the NCC Reliant or the Enterprise (Cadillac)?
K car all the way, those early FWD Cadillacs were awful. Car and Driver rolled a tire off an 85 Sedan de Ville while skid pad testing and the HT4100 V8 is legendarily bad.
The Reliant is just boring, but basically reliable and competent by early 80s econobox standards.
The desirable grandma car is the final H body cars from 2000-2005 with the 3800 V6, like a LeSabre or Bonneville. These were very durable, had decent power and handling and good equipment for the time. While our 2003 Buick is a high mileage example it outlived the first two owners and repairs since 2017 have been wear items
Both of these cars will take some time to straighten out, but only one of them is a Cadillac afterwards. I voted Fleetwood.
I really wanted to vote for the K, but the lack of AC outweighed what I suspect is not a catastrophic transmission problem on the Cadillac. Plus, that d’Elegance interior is a much nicer place to spend time. We’ll undo the grandson’s mistakes, replace the plastic tabs that left the one headlight mis-aimed, and float in comfort to the nearest early-bird special.
Edited to fix typo.
I want neither.
Ew.
K Car 4 Lyfe!
I’m going with the Caddy, but only barely. If I remember correctly, the transmission has both a throttle valve and a shift modulator, so one of those going bad/being disconnected could be the issue. It could also be a bad transmission, but probably not from that 4.1L V8 being too much for it to handle since those engines barely made any power. Then again, as I type this I wonder if I didn’t make a mistake…
A wedding planner could fix up the Caddy and use it to ferry around the parents for a $1,000 upcharge for the weekend. A 40 year old Caddy says something at times like that that a modern Lexus SUV will never match, and some people lose all perspective about what they’re really paying for.
I can’t believe that Mark finally found a K-Car that could win a shitbox showdown. It took a museum quality 17k mile runner against grandma’s grandson’s mistake of a Caddy, but he finally did it.
“grandma’s grandson’s mistake” Yep! I think that’s the exact fate of that Caddy. He installed those stupid headlights, broke all the tabs, and neutral dropped that tranny to death.
I’d low-ball that Caddy and tow it home. A friend of my brother’s had the Aires version in the mid-90s and it was such a hunk of junk. Low mile grandma car that was falling apart and wallowed more than a goth kid. I’ll take on the project car again.
I’m no FWD aficionado, but I’ve never noticed a V engine in which the rear cylinder bank was completely ahead of the front axle. Usually the rear bank is nestled nice and tight up against the firewall. At least spark plug replacement should be reasonably easy.
I clicked on the article thinking this would be a no-brainer win for the Caddy, but there are too many red flags (trans problems, awful headlights, missing radio) that points to a period of ownership by a dunderhead who ruined it and is now trying to move it along.
K cars are objectively awful, but that Reliant is so perfectly preserved, it is hard not to be charmed. I’d drive it to Yocco’s.
Exactly the same boat here. I clicked on this thinking it would be insta-vote for the caddy, but nope.
Caddy looks like Grandma’s 16 year old grandturd inherited it, did cool kid mods before he realized Haley in English class will NEVER boink him in a ride like this.
Or go to prom with him.
Also guessing the stereo replacement stopped when he lost the motivation to finish.
Now driving a crapped out KIA.
YMMV
The stereo replacement migrated over to the Kia. Too bad he couldn’t take the terrible LED headlights too.
And he neutral dropped the trans into oblivion.
A Cimarron would have been a better competitor to the K car in this fight.
Look at the giant windows on that Cadillac!!! so awesome!