Late '90's Cadillacs. What do I look out for?

Getting older with a sensitive back sucks.  I've recently starting looking at cars with really nice, plush interiors.

Back in 1998, I worked at Enterprise Rent-A-Car over the summer and two weeks specifically at the Cadillac dealership renting '98 Deville's.  

Looking at them now online, you can get them for $2,000-$4,000 in various conditions.  Someone is selling a 150,000 mile '97 SLS for their 85 year old Grandmother, so that one is worth a look.  What do I need to look out for?  Supposedly no rust on this one, interior looks amazing and it's $3,000.  4.6L Northstar V8.  Head gasket problems?  What else?

Rarely, but something to note, they sometimes get a hairline crack internally at the base of the water jacket and leak coolant into the crankcase.  Milkshake ensues with little warning.  4T80E is not known for its long life, and R&R labor is intense.  I learned to do it without completely removing the ABS pump and brake lines, but it involves a complete subframe drop.  Easiest way is to disconnect everything, (and good lord, I mean everything) under the hood, crack the subframe bolts loose, lower the whole thing down on a pallet or some concrete blocks, pull the bolts and lift the car.  The other downside there is that you have a car without front suspension, so you can't just push it to the side and work on something else.

All I have seen and read will scare me away from a Northstar car.

A Buick Lesabre may be a more reliable option? Still plenty plush...

In reply to Bibs :

Funny, I too was going to recommend Buick LeSabre.  The Buick was low tech with the great 3800 engine where as the Cadillacs were trying to be high tech and experimental with the Northstar.  

The Max Buick of the time was The Park Avenue.  Just a little more lush.  However, I would avoid the optional SuperCharger 3800 engine and stay with the simplicity of the plain 3800

Note:  the LeSabre was notorious for rear shock top rust-thru.  I personally owned one so rusty that the rear shocks couldn't be replaced.  I decided it was not wise to disrupt the overall area.  So, when shopping, pull back the carpeted walls of the trunk to get a clear view of the shock mounting points.  

Further more, I can not say LeSabre without mentioning the Toyota Avalon also.  Jokingly, the Avalon is the finest fwd Lesabre even built.  The target market for the Avalon was the "traditional" American buyer.  In some years of the Avalon they even offered a bench seat ala American car.  

Northstars are not nearly as bad as the internet makes them out to be. My grandpa (Deville, DTS, then maybe a Lucerne - can't remember if that had the v8 or v6) and uncle (1 or 2 Seville/STS, 1 or 2 Deville/DTS) put over 1,000,000 miles on 4 or 6 of them between 1998 and 2010. Probably 900k of those miles were on my uncle's 2 or 3. Today, I'd be more worried about it being a 20+ year old car with deferred maintenance than anything. 

To me, the biggest issue with them is who was buying them after the first or second owners, and the fact that there are objectively better cars that do everything as well as the Caddies or better. Personally I'd go with a Panther car, Avalon, Camry XLE, or Lexus ES before the Cadillac... But the Caddie is cooler and looks better than all of them with the possible subjective exception of the pre-'98 Town Cars.

EDIT: Grandpa went from the Caddies and Buick to a Toyota Avalon that stayed in the family for 10 years until it was totaled, and replaced with another Avalon. Grandpa hated the fact that his last car was a Toyota, which he saw as lame and boring, but it was easily the best car he ever owned.

The internet view of Northstar engines is a bit skewed because they are four times worse than anyone thinks.  This coming from from a guy currently currently wearing a uniform with cadillac emblems on it sitting in the break room of a cadillac service department.   Like it was said above, get something with the 3800 in it, those things are tanks and will run forever without using more oil than gas.

In reply to RonnieFnD :

Well, my opinion on the Northstar isn't from the internet, it's from running 13 auto repair shops and the frequency with which I saw them in the shop.  I'm sure they're not apocalyptic, but when you see a disproportionate number of them it kinda makes your spidey sense tingle.

If it weren't for Northstar/4T80, VAG, and Dodge pickups, we wouldn't have been nearly as successful at our business.