eBay Watch: 1994 Cadillac SLS (Ferrari Sold Separately)

by Gunnar Heinrich ::: img eBay Motors ::: 1994 Cadillac SLS for sale

BELIEVE it or not, there was a time after 1965 when Cadillac made really great cars. That time included this 1994 Cadillac SLS.

Turning the corner of the late 80s, Cadillac seemed to have just gotten round to reading that late 70s memo. You know the one that said customers wanted smaller cars and  mentioned some garbage about VW eating GM’s lunch and that the oil cartels had Americans by the pump.

GM’s response? The first K-Body Cadillacs of the late 80s: shortened, 190″ long sedans designed with fuel efficiency in mind and that featured the same lavish attention to detail and demanding pedigree you’d expect from your local Chinese all-you-can-eat buffet on “Senior Day”.

Awful cars.

GM got that message and re-approached the K-Body from the ground up for the 90s.

Cadillac engineers stretched the wheelbase from 108″ to 111″, introduced the mighty Northstar V8, fitted a semi-independent rear suspension and upped the ante on fit, finish, and material quality (not as good as the Europeans or Japanese at the time, but much better) while designers penned a crisp-edged design that stood as classically American as the charcoal suit.

Cadillac reintroduced the Seville Luxury Sedan (SLS) and the Seville Touring Sedan (STS) both to critical acclaim. That was 1992.

By the time this car rolled off the assembly line in 1994, GM boosted the Seville’s LD8 Northstar 4.9 Liter V8′s power rating to 270 horsepower and 300 lb-ft of torque. All that power channeling through the front wheels seemed right back in the days when big front wheel drive cars were the American way.

Nonetheless, history has largely forgotten the early-mid 90s Sevilles and banished them – wrongly – with the rest of GM’s cost cutting past. The STS, SLS, DeVille, and Fleetwood of this period were the brief, shining exceptions to the General’s long, ignominious slide.

This particular SLS has just 48K miles on the clock and appears fresh.  Great as they were, that’s rare form for a 90s vintage Cadillac today.

[eBay: 1994 Cadillac SLS]