Did the “Northstar” have headgasket issues?-Kevin
Our car is here! All it needed was to have the gas tank drained and the battery charged. The mercedes mechanic offered to buy it. That’s a good sign.
Great. Now you can try it out and decide. Like Benzman said, get on an MB web site, they’ll have lots of pointers and advice if you choose to sell, along with a good idea of a price to ask.
And while you’re trying to decide, register it and drive it. Enjoy the car and do a little testing of your own. My neighbor inherited a lat 1980s 560SL recently when his MIL gave up driving. It is in Fabulous condition, and he drives it to work every day.
Oh heck yeah, and they are expensive to fix. Darn near everything about them is expensive. You don’t have to take my word for it. Call a Caddy dealer and ask how much an installed starter and/or a set of head gaskets costs for a northstar.
My late fairly well-off uncle summed it up by saying Cadillacs are designed to part rich old men from their money. Apparently they got a lot of his. After three years of Caddy ownership he bought his first Benz. Not that it was cheap to maintain, but he kept it for 12 years.
I think it also had problems with bad castings (porous?). Co-worker had a major replacement, luckily under warranty.