What should I pay for......

[serryjw]

a 1982 Cadillac Cimarron....70,000 miles has been garaged for 15 years!

[pk_du]

1. www.kbb.com

will give you a pretty good answer after some online Q&A

[serryjw]

4. Thanks

It doesn't go back far enough but an '84 is about $950.

[Bruce McAuley]

2. That's a gussied up Cavalier, not one of Cadillac's best cars.

I personally would pay maybe $1500 for such a car, you gotta buy new tires right off, and it's hard to say how all the systems will react to being driven again after sitting so long.
You might get lucky, and everything work OK for quite a while, but plan on new belts and changing the fluids at a minimum.
Good luck.
Bruce

[Barad Simith]

3. Forgive me if I'm pointing out something obvious...

...but don't buy it unless you're sure the fluids were drained that whole time.

My grandmother's low-mileage car sat for a few years before I bought it, and within months I had to replace the transmission.

When fluids remain in a transmission or engine while it's not being driven, they eat away at the seals.

A rebuilt transmission for my grandmother's car was $1,500 (not including labor). That seemed so high that I called the dealership and asked for the price of a new one. Before installation, a new transmission for would have cost $3,000. (I had a mechanic rebuild the old one for around $750.)

[serryjw]

5. The car started up.....

immediately after 15 years? Is this good or bad?

[Barad Simith]

6. Depends on...

...whether it started because the owner had recently refilled the fluids and reconnected the battery, or if it was sitting there the whole time full of motor oil, transmission fluid, steering fluid, etc.

Find out before you decide. If it turns out that car's fluids were not drained, my advice is to not touch it at any price.

I'm no auto mechanic, but I'll bet you could just call random mechanics out of the phone book, and ask them the same thing, and they'd tell you it's worthless if the fluids weren't drained.