Cadillac: 1999 Concurs, combustion cycle, cadillac dealership


Question
I am considering buying a 1999 Cadillac Concurs with 14000 miles on it,which appears to be in close to mint condition. Someone told me that these cars burn a lot of oil which, of course, the Cadillac dealership denies. I would appreciate your opinion about this car including any particular mechanical problems which you are aware that the car may be prone to.
Thank you very much in advance for your assistance.

Answer
the car is practically new so there should not be any problems with the engine at all.  Any old engine after lots of mileage usually will burn some amount of oil, but that is nothing to be concerned about.  The Cadillac engines have always been very good, and the only ones I've ever see billow out smoke are usually 15 years old or more.  My Seville burns about 1.5 quarts every three months.  But the oil does not cause any noticable smoke.  My Seville has 169,000 miles, and it would be very unlikely that an engine that age would not burn oil.
The Concours you speak of with only 14,000 miles, is nothing to that engine.  New engines like that usually will last over 200,000 miles with out any major overhaul, unless something breaks which happens randomly to any engine, some engines get "dud" parts and they fail sooner than they should.  But duds are not very common at all.  Any relatively new engine will burn some oil, but it's a VERY small amount.  It is impossible for an engine to not burn oil.  Even on the newest engine a miniscule amount of oil remains on the cylinder walls and burns during the combustion cycle.  At the end of three months at an oil change this might result in the car having burned several milliliters if you want to get that technical.  

I don't know where this person got their information, maybe a friend of theirs had one of those DUD engines.  Also, remember a lot is the responsability of the owner.  No matter how new, if an owner ran it low on oil, it will damage the engine and can cause an engine to burn oil noticably out the tailpipe, even if the car is right out of the dealership.
I would not worry about that comment and go for it sounds like a excellent car with very acceptable mileage on it.