It was such a shame that they released the car with such a faulty engine design. It took them forever to sort it out, which naturally only made things worse.
Sts had a great engine problem was they choose to make it weak with the bolts and Cadillac took too way long to fix the head bolt problem and that could have saved future north stars but importantly Cadillacs success in their car buys and chose not to idk y
"It is rumored that V8 luxury sedans are endangered species and we heard the same rumors 20 years ago!". And 24 years later you still hear the same rumors!
Not only that but they went so far up market the average person can't even own them anymore these cars were all aspirational when I was growing up and everyone saved for maybe the Cadillac was able to be purchased at six or seven years old with faith that you could drive it and fix it yourself That will never be the case with one of the new s classes or seven series
@@thetechlibrarian Current cars you don't want to own, lease and walk away with w/o a huge hit in depreciation and repairs only a dealership can fix properly out of warranty.
I've owned 3 BMW's and 2 Cadillac's, and in this comparison those are the two best looking cars. I love that BMW look, but also love that Cadillac look. BMW here is pretty traditional looking, while the STS still looks fairly modern. Both had great interiors as well.
@D B Anecdotes are nice, but historically Northstar engines have suffered from more than their share of problems-including oil leaks, unreliable liquid-cooled alternators, and deteriorating head bolts that result in head gasket failures. And if you do have to work on one, be prepared for an over-engineered design and a need for special tools. It took until the mid 2000's before Cadillac finally sorted out all the issues.
@D B That's the problem-anyone who likes to keep their cars a long time or who buys one on the used market would find that the cost of a repair would very easily exceed a significant portion of the cars value. And many of these engines experienced problems prior to 100K miles. Your statement doesn't refute the fact that the Northstar engine-while an engineering marvel and ahead of its time-had design flaws that resulted in a high frequency of serious issues that have been well-documented.
@D B Lol you're a moron. Just because you happened to be lucky by not encouraging issues with that engine it doesn't take away from all the issues reported by the consumers. Step out of your bubble and you'll learn the Northstar Engines were amongst the most problematic engines in the history of consumer reports.
I live in Pittsburgh, PA, I had one back in 2008. I spotted 2 more around town. A year later mine was totalled when somebody ran a light. I never saw another one after that.
Nope. Haven't seen one that I can remember I used to have an Audi unicorn too. A 1984 4000s 5cyl manual back in 2001. I remember the starter went out and I want the 20 auto parts stores looking for one, and couldn't find one in stock. And That's in the motor City. Not a rural area.
The 740i was such a beautiful car with superb performance. The STS was one of my dream cars when I was a kid in the early and mid 90s. I loved its smooth design that had a combination of European luxury, European performance, American luxury, and American muscle.
You see them nationally. Hell I have one and there are a few others in the area where I live. The engine and transmission live forever while everything else on the car falls apart.
For what it's worth, the E32 740i is really not all that bad in terms of maintenance. The M60 V8 has proven itself to be BMW's most reliable V8, with no chain issues, oil consumption issues, or any other huge faults. Sure, there was that Nikasil/Alusil debacle in the 90's, but at this point any running M60 is likely to be fine. My 1994 740i has 214,000 miles on it and the engine has never been opened up. I just took it on a pretty hard mountain drive the other day, and it performed admirably.
@@mathewpatton1007 Can you elaborate? Most issues I see with them are due to lack of or improper maintenance. The same thing can be said about most luxury cars that cost a fortune when new but could be bought for peanuts after a few years.
@@joaquinfranco9012 true, the lexus wasn't at the level W124 in terms of quality and reliability Now V8 W124s (400E/E420 and 500E/E500) are worth more than an early 90s lexus
@@lilibethdoherty295 I get that, but Mercedes wasn't a bad manufacturer during 1954-1999 they made durable and some seriously reliable cars, especially those diesels on W123s, 300Es, 300Ds, and W460s. Now Mercedes, I get it, they have like over 100 computer modules and processors built in them, way to complex and they wear out/depreciate extremely quickly. Basically that's all German manufacturers now, I love old Toyotas, probably more than most cars, but you can't underestimate any old Mercs. Specifically the W123 is my favorite Benz.
Yes it sure was. It was the fastest of any Cadillac that had come before. Only the Cadillac's from 1955-62 with the 365/390 equipped with Dual four's or tripower could compare. That was the last time Cadillac's were fast and powerful. This Northstar V8 was a star for sure in Cadillac's history line up.
Very mixed bag, as a Blue Oval guy, remember that cars are not designed in a vacuum. Taurus was released when Q45 was being designed, while Q45 was released after the '92 Crown Victoria had already been designed. EN114 (92 model) styling ended in 1988. MW claimed that Q45 copied Taurus. Who knows.
Here in the year 2019, the lexus is the only one of these youll still see on the road today. All the rest have died long ago. First being the caddy with that horrible northstar engine. Fast but complete junk!
I´ve seen more Cadys in Miami than those old Lexus (Camrys from the 90s you can see plenty of them). Sorry. Old Cubans have kept those Cadillacs alive. And I´ve seen more Mercury Grand Marquis from the 90s and early 2000s than Lexus from the same era. I myself drive one from 2002. Still gets the 200 kilometers per hour on the highway. A 2003 Toyota Camry dared to crash my right side. My old Mercury shows some dents. The Toyota was a total loss. True story.
My parents had the Caddy STS , I loved it, but for myself I dreamed of having the Infiniti Q45, so sporty and unique looking for a little less than the others here.
Should have compared the S class and Deville instead of the E and STS. Would have showed how superior Merc was too everyone else at this time and just how shitty Cadillac had become.
The pricing is in the same range, the mercedes of the 90s were the most expensive when compared to other eras. In the 90s mercedes tried to fill the gap between the jaguar, bmw, audi and rolls royce/Bentley. Now and before they compete with these normal luxury brands. The 90s S class (W140 chasis) cost like 135k for the lowest trim (v6 3.2L) compared to like 82k today for the lowest trim S class which is comparable to all the other flagship cars from the other luxury brands. They were on their big baller shit in the 90s, but it wasn't super profitable so you end up getting the slightly more reserved mercedes of today.
@@anthonynicholich9654 I said that too, but the 400SE was way more expensive and to my shock the base price of the 400E, 740i and A8 were nearly identical. The W124 was great car, but it was outclassed here. I too would have bought a 740i out of this group.
FWD kills the fun of driving, at least every FWD car I've ever had did. BUT with that said it really did perform well and in the slalom test it stayed super flat and had zero drama, very very impressive, in particular for the time period we're talking here. Also those Caddy's are very cheap to fix and keep running - I see them all the time where I live, but I honestly thought they were dramatically slower than what they are.
I used to own a Deville with the same drivetrain. HG's blew and it wasn't worth fixing money wise any more, but it was a nice car to drive in its day. One plus for the FWD that they totally ignore is that they are vastly better in the snow. IMO, that may have been a deciding factor for a lot of people who chose this car.
DanInVa I live in FL, never seen snow, so no deciding factor to me. In the rain maybe they perform a bit better, but I don't think it's FWD, I think it's that they're normally underpowered cars so you can't really do dumb things in them as easily.
The Cadillac Seville is my choice. All the other competitors never did anything for me and I have been in several of them and driven them. And I like Fwd much more than Rwd. I have seen to many accidents of Rwd cars losing control more than anything else. And just the fact that the Cadillac was Fwd wins me over. The Lincoln Continental for 1995 would also have been my choice with the Seville both having 32 valve V8's and being Fwd.
Remember when the numbers in the names actually meant something? Now they mean nothing. The Cadillac was a great car, shame that the early Northstars were problematic.
+kirbyswarp It's weird that it took GM over 10 years to finally get the Northstar engines right. They didn't fix the defective head gasket issues that they are known for until mid-2004, and by then the reputation of the Northstar itself was already in the toilet.
+SuchANiceGirl22 But the head gasket issue was also a problem on other GM engines and was mainly a coolant related problem. I have three different Northstar Cadillac's and they never had a problem. They were all great but the problems started happening around the time Dexcool antifreeze was introduced in 1996. The Northstar V8 are some excellent built engines and there was a reason why it was in production for 20 years and put into several GM luxury cars.
It's just what you are used to when you were growing up and learned all the different cars. My dad said same thing in the 80's about all cars looking alike...
That Audi V8 wood trim is outstanding. I guess not many people were buying Audi at that time due to the unintended acceleration issues from the late 80s. It would be another three years until the 1996 Audi A4 came around and won over the Audi car buyers again.
@@RustyVigero2005 you're an idiot. You're the same moron that would say a Fiero was dangerous because it catches on fire. You simpletons who just repeat rumors over and over again as if they're true, you're just boring people.
106FT is exceptional even today with much better tire compounds. If you had the ability to modern UHP summer tires on that car, I bet it'd be right around 90ft, putting it on par with the best performance cars on earth.
I overlooked it I had a good almost 3 year one with my Grandmother’s 1995 Cadillac SLS but once needed water pump my aunt wouldn’t pay for maintenance anymore
I still think it is a memorable decade, since the cars were great in basically every other aspect, and even with the head stud issue that didn't usually appear until well over 100k miles, and could be sorted out permanently using a head stud kit for a couple hundred bucks.
@@RichardJohnson-dj1pd the only ones on this list I don’t see (Saskatoon Saskatchewan) are the Audi and the Infinity (although a old rich neighbour in the cul-de-sac has a Q45, only one I see in the city) it just depends on where you live, whether people beat their vehicles to shit or not
OMG are you Toyota fanbois annoying. That Lexus was boring back then, and its even more boring now. But I guess to people who look forward their entire lives to one day owning a Camry, well someone like that wouldn't have any sort of taste.
Not true. There is an A8. All the other cars have their equivalents too, but Infiniti no longer has a Q45 equivalent. The Q70 comes close but it's technically a midsize.
The horrible finish of the passenger airbag on the BMW. The Nissan Maxima-like interior of the Q45. The new for 1986 E-Class interior. And yes...that Audi...
@@hellkitty1014 BMW had 10x worse finish on the rarer examples of German-spec E32 750s with the optional passenger airbag from about 1990 till mid-1992, when they finally added the passenger airbag as standard equipment in most markets. The finish on this unit (built late 1992) was really cleaned up compared to those earlier examples. I think that the E31 8er, was the first BMW to get the finish right from the first year (of pass airbag), as even the first E34s with them built in 1993, suffered a little too like E32. The E38 7er, was probably the first BMW designed with a passenger airbag in mind and not as an afterthought. The E32 dash was an old design language, which didn't lend well to fitment of safety restraints and dated back to drawings from 1981-82. Unlike MB, that lost the glovebox until the W140, BMW managed to do both in tandem (airbag+glbox) and rushed it in on special order 1990-92 E32s experimentally.
@@hellkitty1014 As for the others, MB was running behind schedule due to the W140 and R129 SL. Until those reached a significant stage in the mid-80s, no other model programs were started. MB barely began working on a 190 successor in October 1986, 4 full years after intro and then took 6 1/2 years to release it in June 1993 (USA Nov 93). They no longer leave such huge gaps anymore between release and doing a replacement. The W210 E-Class began development in 1988 and ran very late as well, so they never knew when they'd be finished and refused to spend money updating the existing model's interiors. The W124 interior looked good enough, compared to an '86 model with older seat patterns. I wonder when MW conducted this test in 1993 though? Infiniti updated the Q45 in early 1993 and called it a 1994, so not sure why they didn't test that instead. Tom Cruise drove a '94 Q45 in a summer 1993 movie, which was filmed in 1992 and into Feb '93. If he had access to that, why wouldn't MW test that '94 model instead? A lot of the choices made here for test vehicles, seemed very suspect.
this is the difference of the exhaust, not the engine. All V8 have the same firing order, carbureted v8 sounds differnet from injected, but injected v8 are all the same (except for crossplane cranked).
@@phil955i lol what? all of them are FLAT. (Also BMW M60 crank is in my garage at this moment, i can assure you it is 180 degree. I have have Mercedes in my hands as well). get your knowledge before u comment.
@@RivieraByBuick Oh dear. The vast majority of production V8s are cross plane. Do you even know the difference between flat plane & cross plane V8s? You are clueless bless you 😂
+Nutz4Gunz45 The Lexus is smart money but the BMW or Merc are so much more car than the Lexus and lets face it if you can buy one of these new, it wont be your only car.
Gentlemen please...with today's low resale you can own them ALL for pennies on the dollar. I'm guessing you could buy them all for what, maybe $20,000?
+Theo Verstraete They were until 2004 when GM finally fixed the defects that they were known for. Northstar Cadillac's would still outrun most of their competition though, at least until the early-2000's when they started to become outclassed.
I never meet anyone that complained of their northstar cadillac. I've had quite the opposite in two other cadillac's that were totally unreliable and terrible.
No the garbage engines were from before during the 70s and 80s primarily. The Northstar V8 by Cadillac was excellent and exactly what Cadillac needed to do.
I still love the simple luxury looks of these old 90's Cadillacs. the new cars are pretty cool sure, but they're just not the same as the older luxury... wood grain interior! soft comfy seats, big interior volume! It would do caddy good to get something like that back.
They did make one, the CT6. Big car, looked amazing, had great technology, it was truly what a new Cadillac should be, and they killed it, instead giving us an ugly Chevy in the CT5. Also you had the XTS, which is a direct descendant of the STS, it was pretty big and pretty plus, and FWD, but the CT6 was truly a next-gen luxury car, and they killed it...
bmw's m60 isn't unreliable... probably one of the best v8's of its time for it. PCV valves caused oil consumption, and nikasil is an issue on pre 1994, but other than that its absolutely bulletproof. we have several cars with 250k+ miles with clear oil and no issues. Smooth as new and just as much power :)
@Justinian Yi there no way in my opinion that the M119 in the w124 made such low HP.. they had so much power it was unbelievable. Electronically speed limited at 155 mph too.
Only a dullard would say that, and that's what you get with Toyota fanbois, afterall you're the people who make it a life goal to one day own a Camry, as if that's not embarrassing.
@@rodmunch69 oh man you’re funny. I’m not a Toyota fan boy in the least and I actually personally own a 94 Cadillac Deville(Non-Northstar.) Also I wouldn’t own a Camry
@@dave11686 If you think that Lexus is a good looking car, it means you're on meth, which is why you only had $300 to spend on a car, which is why you got that ragged out Deville. That's coming from a two time CTS owner, just, you know, they were new, not ragged out drug dealer cars.
@@rodmunch69 I’d hardly say my car is “ragged out” also my wife has a CT200H which has been a fantastic vehicle for her. What do you drive, by the way?
Watching this video just reminds me on how Honda/Acura kept telling the world that Acura will be in this league very soon. Well, it's 20+ years later: Lexus made it out of Japan as a highly respected automaker due to its reliability, RWD platforms, V8, and quality (Infiniti you get the thumbs up as well). Oh, Acura, you said you would change the world of luxury. It's been over 20 years and you're not even close to being in the luxury world (Lincoln has now surpassed you... of all things, Hyundai is running rings around you). Acura will continue to fail because it will remain FWD, never adopt a twin turbo V6 for it's automobiles (much less a V8), probably offer turbo inline-4 on all of its cars, add heavy electric hybrid technology, never make beautiful sporty sedans again (Legend, Vigor, & 3rd generation TL), never let go of ugly front ends (let go of the beak, Acura), be Honda's bitch, and not be able to stay up with the times. I think it's time Acura to shut it's door and just sell the MDX and RDX at Honda dealers. It's hard for a Honda fanboy to wake up to reality. Really hard (please don't bring up F-1).
ErwinSchrodinger64 I completely agree. Back in 2004 when Acura introduced its new TL to the market everyone thought it was just the beginning of Acura entering the top spot in the mid size sports luxury. I mean the TL was just on another level in terms of design alone. Now 14 years later, Acura is not even competing with Infiniti Q50. Acura has just become a "sportier" Honda, nothing more.
@@AL-SH That TL was introduced in 2003, not 2004. 2004 was when the transverse RL was with SH-AWD transverse was introduced. MYs are like names, they're not actual dates. Honda had "allegedly" rejected a V8, longitudinal RWD layout back in 2001 in favor of a transverse, V6 w/standard AWD layout. I can believe maybe that decision happened in 1999, but by 2001 and 2002 it seems too late in development to be undecided on a car due in late 2004. My source worked for Honda 20 years ago, so maybe his memory of timeline was rusty. They finished styling the '05 RL by early 2002.
Loved both the infiniti and ls400. The q45 had a fantastic engine which sounded amazing when pushed and a great chassis too. Ls 400 was super refined but less of a driver's car.
My first car I purchased was a 97 Cadillac STS with 74k miles in 2016. It now has 115k and still drives like a dream. Keep the oil in good shape and full, do coolant checks and let it rip. I have not been disappointed by it at all. These 90s cads are truly badass
These are some great cars. I grew up with a 1995 Seville SLS. Now we have a few other Seville's (84, 94, 96, 00) Absolutely correct, do the proper maintenance and you will be fine. The 1994 Seville now has 320k and my 1993 Allante has 198k. They are great!
my 1996 northstar deville still running today 220k with miles and still beats mustangs like it did in high school 05. 275hp 300lb tq fwd v8 for the 90s car was unheard of.
@@taylorc2542 yes. I remember they had a superb line up with the z32 300zx tt, 240sx, maxima, sentra ser, pathfinder and hard body trucks . All these were class leaders and unlike today's Nissans offered superb reliability and longevity. Sad how they were almost bankrupt by 99.
I had that similar motor M119 on the 210 chassis with the 5 speed auto and that bad boy had power for days 60-120 was really its sweet spot. Those 400E W124 are rare af and now fetch decent money. Also can’t deny the LS400 greatness though many are trashed beyond recognition sadly hard to sort after as well. I just wish Toyota would give there classic cars a better parts support like how MB treats there older cars.
STS Cadillacs were no joke back then, as the CTS, and ATS are no joke today! Lexus are good cars, but they only had three cars back then ES300, ES250, and LS400, and performance wise...ehh! The Northstar motor was a decent power plant as my good friend raced an STS in his 91 Mustang GT, and the STS held its ground against the GT! I still see quite a few of the old STS models on the road in 2016. Great car then. Maintain it and it will run for a long time!
Sorry to say that, dear Old-School MotorWeek Guys, but the Benz 400E is actually one class lower than all the other cars... probably not price-wise, but size-wise etc...
Thought that Cadillac would ask more about the price but at that time, mostly they were in the selling range of 30k to 40k, brand new. I expected that the LS400 would be the best.. but the Q45, was better I think compared to the Lexus.
Sal Amander Town Car wasnt in the tested price range. I had one and it was a nice car even if it would have had its ass handed to it by any of these cars performance wise. 1993 hell i think towncar still had the 302
the only issue with this test would be the fact that they used the 400E, while it should've been the 420 SE considering they used the cars of the S-class' range of competitors...
Dummy, they compared the cars based on cost, did you miss that? Maybe Mercedes shouldn't have marked up their cars so much and it have been in the test.
+travisp11 No it doesn't. +ScottaHemi the Town Car of the time was a floating body-on-frame dinosaur with weak truck engines and interior parts shared with Mercury/Ford. It was barely more than a Crown Victoria in an off-the-rack suit from Macy's with a soggy air suspension. It may have been called a luxury car, but only by way of Ford's insistence, haha. By comparison, the Q45 was a rebadged, short-wheelbase "feature-lite" version of the Nissan President. I was surprised to see that it had four-wheel steering - as I had mentioned, the q45 had a lot of features stripped for the American market to cut costs, but I guess in 1993 the American divisions of Japanese automakers hadn't reached the level of sheer cost-cutting that American ones had/have. I don't mean to pick on you or the Town Car; it's cool that you like it. It's just that it had a vastly different effort from Ford in terms of engineering and customer base that gave it zero objective competitive edge against the lineup in this video.
@@ScottaHemi440 a Continental would have been the Lincoln model...but the DOHC 4.6 V8 Conti didn't show up until 1995. The 93 would have been the awful Taurus-based abortion.
he caddy is GM and has horrid electrical system. The one i see on the road the most to date would have to be the Lexus. Also the Lexus paint is never messed up. I loved the STS back then.. As a kid a guy down the street had a STS just like that and i used to love the way the center brake light was the entire trunk lid. Thought that was so cool as a kid.. (My mom had a 95 town car cartier.
@@E34Benzin The 400 E here has always seemed to be the redheaded stepchild to the 500E of the W124 range. It was hardly differentiated from the 300 E in USA and most people never could tell from a distance. MB claimed that they launched it in Germany in 1992 (USA October 1991) and was primarily first priority for USA against LS 400 and rumored E34 V8 (which came indeed). This video being a US comparison, only W140 400 SEL mattered in terms of the S-Class and 400 SE SWB was a non factor for the 1993 model year. Only the 300SD and 300 SE were available in SWB. MW93 didn't want to test the expensive 400SEL for good reason, as it would likely be like comparing a Flying Spur to an S560 today. This happened very often back then with W140, being omitted.
Don't know how well that car sold in the US - in Germany it had only marginal success. It was clearly one of their middle class models on steroids with a modiefied front design ad lost out against the BMW 7series and S-class it was priced to compete with.
+Martin Guenther I don't believe it sold well at all in North America. Audi's resurgence in the marketplace didn't start until the A4 came out in 1996. In the 1980's, there was a scare in the marketplace of "unintended acceleration" and it ruined Audi's reputation.
I really don't agree. I still much prefer their older models but new Lexus still feels like old Lexus with what they're trying to achieve, which is actual luxury; not perceived luxury. Reliability is part of the luxury experience and Lexus still come out at the top despite their modernization.
God are you Toyota fanboys amazing. No, you do not see these cars on the road all over the place today. I'll see probably 30 STS's for ever Lexus I see, and that Lexus will have 20" wheels on it with neon lights. It's a garbage car driven by garbage people.
That E-class always looked badly dated, even when they were new. Ugh. Compared to the sweeping interior lines of the Audi and Cadillac, it looks like a dinosaur. The LS400 interior looked great.
My gf crashed her '03 Corolla so I bought her a 1993 LS400 with 123k miles; the LS ride is very smooth and quiet and it looks very classy and presentable.
Why did they chose the 400E? The Benz that compete in this class is the S class and more precisely it would be either the 420SE or the 500SE. Any of these would have trashed any of the others. The S class W140 is one of the best ever made!
+rolling troll The 740 was a great car, the 750 was a hunk of shit though. They should have stuck with the excellent V8 instead of messing with that V12
That Northstar V8 had real potential. It's a real shame that GM skimped on quality and put shitty head bolts\head gaskets on them. Later models pumped out 300 horsepower.
Yep I had a mint 95 a few years back had to junk it after the head gasket blew. Such a shame because it was pretty reliable engine if they didn't skimp on the cheap threads on the bolts.
For me it me it is obvious. they compared the upper level cars from lexus, BMW, Cadillac, Audi and Infiniti, but they only tested the middel class Mercedes. W140 would have made it way above the competitors on this test
Go to 0:53 ..... He clearly says that all of the V8s represented cost between 40k to 60k. No doubt more expensive cars would have been "way above the competitors on this test".
