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Before I get accused of being a "Blowhard" over Fritz's Caddy, I guess I should tell you the OTHER side of the story. It was, & IS a very flashy, impressive car. It also was/is a MONUMENTAL pile of Junk. The whole car, even from Day One, has always felt all "Loosy-Goosy", like every nut, bolt & screw in it oughta be given a few more turns w/a screwdriver or wrench, & REALLY tightened up. Its a '73, its built to those infamous, "Hell, Bob, that's close enuf for Government work" quality control standards. NOTHING really fits right on it. Its about the "Top Dawg" car in GM's Top of the line division", & the quality of the fabrics, leathers & so on-Well, even the Soviets would have likely put better materials in their cars. Being a '73, it was caught up in the era where the Government had decided that our cars were killing us quickly by all the pollution they put out, so we had ever-tightening emissions standards-That few mechanics in the field understood, knew how to work on, or even cared. A LOT of the early pollution junk got removed or disconnected because the cars drove & performed terribly, you could trash all that stuff, & they'd come close to performing like they did a few years earlier. The Cad has a 472 cubic inch displacement V-8 , I think that;s right at 8 liters for our Metric Friends, even with its astounding size-233" long, 4999 lbs, it should be able to run away & hide from nearly everything else on the road. Well, uhh, no. It feels no more powerful than yr average Riding Lawnmower. Also, most of the emissions crapola worked at cross purposes to Fuel Economy, so this mighty beast can only manage about 6 MPG in town, & a rousing 9-10 on the highway... A few other gripes-Generous Motors started experimenting w/water based paint about then, it has NEVER been sable to take a good wash & wax job. GM also decided that the vinyl tops that were standard on these beasts didn't need to be painted underneath the vinyl, so by '78 or so, you could almost poke yr thumb thru the top, especially around the rear window, which held water quite well... I'd send the car to Telecolor, but I'd think it would likely lead to a Declaration of War between America & Romania... Those guys have suffered ENUF, w/ Chowchesku & his ugly-ass wife, & having to live next to Albania.... (Grin)
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Benevolent Despot
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