My mothers car was totaled due to an accident. She is looking at used cars in order to replace it. She has found an 01 deville she likes with about 100k on it with a V-8 engine for a little over 5 grand (sounds fair enough). I am too far away to help her check it out. I am not familiar with that car anyway so i'd be of little help. If someone could give me a heads up as to if these are good cars i'd sleep much better tonight. Please give me your thoughts on that make and model. I'm 300 miles away so it'* not like I can drop by and work on it if something happened.... Also what kind of life expectancy could a person expect out of that car?

Thanks guys, I really appreciate it!!

Rick

if you want something she is not going to have to work on you should get a 3800 boneville/lesabre/park ave etc. those arent the best for reliability without some attention. i just found my inlaws a 2000 lesabre custom with like 60000 for less than 2000. seems like they are around quite a bit. but any car that old is going to need some work, people dont get rid of cars for no reason

An '01 is not going to be a maintenance free car.

Does that 01 Deville have the Northstar with common problems?

It'll have the 4.6L Northstar either the LD8 or L37 (L37 has 25 more HP). Both motors are almost the same with slight differences (primarily tuning)

To help a little further on clarifying the engine, the DTS has the L37, any other trim has LD8

Do the Northstars still have issues with carbon-choking? I know the early generations of Northstars were infamous with getting carbon buildup, even with regular 80-mph jaunts down the highway.

But I concur with the recommendation a 3800-powered car like the Bonneville, Grand Prix, Century, LeSabre, Intrigue. Used Intrigues around here are running between $1200 and $2000, a few higher prices for really mint cars, but since Olds is defunct, their resale value tanked.

The 3800 Series II has plenty of get-up-and-go for daily driving, and reasonable fuel economy (you can get 30mpg or better on the highway, which is great for a V6). The motors are durable, and the electronic transmissions (when driving patterns are reprogrammed with moderate-gentle driving) gives butter-smooth shifts (usually have to watch the tach to know when they shift).

If she was into Imports, I'd say steer her towards a Camry or Accord. But, that goes against most of my GM DNA. For new-ish-GM models, you really can't go wrong with a 3800 car.

that was the other thing i forgot, the efficiency of the 3800, my inlaws lesabre gets 32 mpg 80% 55-65mph expressway and 20% stop and go. my bonnie only gets 28 but if you knew how my wife drives that would be impressive too

Thanks for the time and input guys. My96 park avenue keeps chugging right along, she has looked at a couple buicks so far, then asked me about this one and I wasn't sure what to tell her.

Thanks again
Rick