The sales brochure for the 1983 Cadillac lineup called the Eldorado Biarritz a “dream machine,” with a “brushed stainless steel roof cap,” wire wheel covers, opera lamps, and just about everything you’d need to show off to your upper-crust friends. But with the HT4100 V8, was the Eldorado Biarritz really a dream machine? Either way, this beautiful 1983 model is currently for sale on Bring a Trailer in Moonachie, New Jersey.
This isn’t the first time the Eldorado has shown up on Bring a Trailer; it sold two years ago for $14,250, which means that it wasn’t exactly a good investment; the 1983 sticker price was $23,000. On top of that, the current owner has had a staggering amount of work done over the course of the past two years; the receipts show a total investment in parts and labor that is closer to $10,000 than $0. Because of this, if you’re looking for a 4100 Eldorado, this might be the best choice out there.
Of course, finding someone who isn’t afraid of (or is ignorant of) the HT4100’s faults is the hard part. It’s really a shame that Cadillac didn’t use the Oldsmobile 307 like its front-drive kin from Oldsmobile and Buick, because the Eldorado is truly a nice-looking car in the Brougham idiom. But the 4100 is what it has, and in 1983, it produced 135 horsepower and 200 lb-ft of torque, all channeled through a four-speed automatic.
I suggest looking through the receipts for the work done, as it was a thorough refurbishing. Just to summarize, it’s had all new brakes, new engine gaskets, a new timing set, new front hub bearings, and the transmission (a THM325-4L) was removed for resealing (including the front pump seal). The cooling system was flushed, new tires installed, the climate control head unit replaced…the list is enormous. The air conditioning was also recently recharged (although that indicates that maybe there’s a leak somewhere, maybe I missed it in the receipts).
The interior is the height of 1980s American luxury, although many luxury car buyers were beginning to prefer a more Teutonic experience. The blood red interior features “tufted pillow-style seating” in “rich Sierra Grain leather” and plenty of “wood” accents; almost every convenience item was standard, as were four-wheel disc brakes and “Electronic Level Control.” As a guy who prefers his collector cars to be a little older, there seems like so much to go wrong, but if you grew up wanting an eighties Eldorado, it’s perfect.
The rear seat, like the front, looks almost new. Is it gaudy? Yep. But this is the kind of interior that sold Cadillacs for years, and if they could have only kept up their historic reliability, they would have sold even more of these things.
And they already sold a ton of them: 67,416 to be exact. Even the very attractive, popular, and ostensibly more reliable Buick Riviera didn’t touch those numbers, proving that the Cadillac name still held a lot of weight in 1983. No, this car won’t be for everyone, and I doubt that the seller will make their money back on this no reserve auction considering how much they spent on repairs, but if you look at the 1983 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz and see a “dream machine,” this may be the one for you.
With all the faults of the not so great 4100, these cars are (were) still fantastic. I started selling Cadillac’s in 1988, so I saw plenty of these used coming through the doors. If the owner was well versed with the 4100, they would do the proper maintenance and they would run a lot of miles with little fuss. But pass on those things and you could easily have a mess. Anyhow, I will speak about the good sides of the 4100. For that time, if you drove them lightly, the MPG’s were not bad. I’ve spoken with customers who would get upper 20’s and in some (rare) cases lower 30’s. Again, being at a Cadillac dealer, I was able to pick up a couple of these over the years and I always had good luck with them. One was a 1985 Seville in gray with the gray leather seats (like this Eldo has, but gray). I got the car with around 90,000 miles and didn’t do a thing to it. Shortly after buying it, I got married and we took that Seville across country and through the mountains to the west coast and back. Not a lick of trouble, although we did run out of gas (my fault!!). On that trip, we were getting 27/28 mpg on the flats of Iowa and Nebraska and 23/24 in other places with an average of about 25 mpg. Not bad.
A few years later I found a mint 1984 Eldo Biarritz in what I feel is the most desirable colors. It was triple white with the red accents on the interior and it had 1,800 miles on the odo when I purchased it in 2004. At that time, it may have been the lowest miles 1984 Eldo on the planet. Not sure on that. But that was a trailer queen and I didn’t have a trailer. Nor was I about to go buy one. So we drove it very little and I ended up selling it to a collector from Los Vegas about 2 years later with only 2,300 miles on it. But no matter the Eldo or Seville, those were 100% the most comfortable cars I’ve ever owned. Seats that were best of class. Totally flat floor for stretch out comfort. Super quiet and not bad on gas. Oh, to have cars like those again but with modern engines or EV.
I had a friend in Houston who bought a new 1979 Eldorado, bright red w/red interior & no vinyl top. It was beautiful and extremely comfortable. At no reserve someone is going to get a sweet deal on this black 1983 model.
I love all red interiors.
Alfred: That sounds like it was a stunning car. Being a 1979, that would have had the gas 350 V8 or I think they were offering the 5.7L V8 diesel by then. But chances are it had the gas 350. That would be a fantastic car even yet today.
Yes, in 1979 Cadillac did offer the Oldsmobile Diesel in the Eldirado.
They were comfortable indeed, and quiet. With the Diesel they were slow and smoky. My Dad’s did not, however, have the reliability ills the many others suffered from; he installed a water separator the week he got it. For the approx. 75,000 miles out family had it, there were NO engine problems, if you don’t count how the fuel filters had to be replaced every 15,000 miles or the engine would run rough and slow (factory spec was every 50,000).
The only GM products where this color combination is still available are the six Corvette models (“Level 3” models, 3LT or 3LZ). All red interior, from headliner to the carpet, except for the black steering wheel.
Corvette is the new Cadillac. Priced like a Cadillac too.
Even when these cars were new I questioned why such a famous and respected brand would sully their reputation by selling a troublesome gutless wonder like the HT4100. They would have done better with the Oldsmobile 307, which was reliable, and made decent torque. They were just as good on fuel, too. Now, imagine if GM had put a proper fuel injection system on the 307. But nooooo, GM had to stab its customers yet again.
Cadillac never recovered from building junk like the 4100
This will probably end up quite a bargain for the buyer; it seems likely the seller is taking a bath unless they’re majorly fudging the amount spent on repairs (maybe not even then if it doesn’t get much beyond the $10k-ish it currently sits at). The real selling point is that interior – it’s like a 70s executive board room on wheels.
I have no direct experience with these cars, and I don’t imagine they’re great to drive, nor cheap and easy to maintain. They also lack the presence and panache of even 70s Caddies (or is it Caddys?). That said, my most comparable experiences would suggest it’s quite comfortable and gets around with minimal fuss if it’s well sorted. The exterior does have a strong whiff of generic 80s GM, but even that has some retro appeal, and it’s the nicest version of that at least. Sure, it’s not everyone’s cup of tea – even in this incredible condition – but it’s a car that deserves to be kept up and showed off. If the work done is sound, I doubt the buyer can go wrong.
I like the giallo blood splatter hue of the leather (Cadillac officially called this Dark Carmine), especially with the black paint, but not so much the tufted-button pillow-style seats, which were specific to the Biarritz — I’d rather have an Eldorado Touring Coupe, although there’s no getting around the fact that the HT4100 makes this kind of a slug in a straight line.
Certainly would have been a Cadillac dealer’s dream machine, to sell one like this new!
This car was one of the coffin nails in Cadillac’s reputation, along with the Cimarron and the V-4-6-8 engine. The bodies were built by costly, malfunctioning robots, and had to be re-worked by hand.
The 4100 engine was a Turkey, too.
The German luxury makes, followed by the Japanese in the 90’s, wound up eating Cadillac’s lunch.