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fav002, it was the pics of your car that made me get my CTS in black with the two-tone interior, and I love the looks of it. Very cool for you to try to hook members of the board up with a discount. Mad rup!
AWD would be awesome. Now if I could only get the CTS-V in AWD, I could maybe make it my next car. ATM, thoug, it's looking like a Suby WRX STi in my future...
I always give other CTS drivers a wave, and have yet to get one back. Dunno why. Although there was a white VTXi on the road the other day, and we were checking each other out...
i wonder how they will do that?
Pay $1200 for the auto and get the new engine?
I think this has something to do with the fact that the manual needs to be reworked a little to work with the new engine.
Can't figure out how the 05 will price everything out. Maybe this is the way that Cadillac will gradually increase the base price of a CTS ......hmmmmm
the 3.2L engine. The auto trans will be optional
with the 3.2L. The 3.6L is only offered with
the auto trans in '04. In '05, the 3.6L will
be the base engine. A 6 speed manual trans will
be available in '05 but not sure if it will be
standard or an option like the Corvette.
I'll be in the market for a new car in 18 months
and the CTS will be a serious consideration.
Would like to see magnetic ride control and
heads up display available for '05. Making the
CD player capable of playing MP3s would be a
plus.
thebug...
1. I believe that most people dont look at their gauges enough to notice a problem before it turns into an event ( your suppose to be watching the road ) .A flashing red light will be caught by peripheral vision long before a gauge -you usually see or sense over heating evidence then look down at the gauge .2 The gauge isn't a true indicator that your engine has reached proper operating temp. That is determined by the OIL reaching proper operating temp . which happens well after the coolant has reached it's thermostat controlled temp .An oil temp gauge would be better and maybe coolant temp available in the DIC. That said ,a temp gauge looks cool so why not !!! PS I just read a review on the NEW 153K Aston Martin Vantage and it raved about the analog clock on the instrument panel
What's really useful if you want to know what your engine is doing is an OIL temperature gauge.
The 'powers that be' in detroit have this strange on and off' thing about driver information. Years ago they replaced some of the gauges, usually oil and ammeter with idiot lights. The public howled, so they put them back in some cars and made them an extra cost option in others. Now they seem to be going back to fancy pictogram idiot lights. When I learned to drive no one had tachometers except race cars, then the hot rods adopted tachometers which where reasonable for someone trying to get the most out of a small engine with a three, or maybe four speed transmission. Then Detroit discovered tachometers. What purpose does a tachometer serve with an automatic transmission, especially a computer controlled automatic transmission.
One of the best arrangements I have ever seen was on a Chrysler in which they had a complete set of gauges and one large red idiot light which lighted when any gauge went out of the safe zone. The light was big enough to get your attention an alert you to check the gauges to see what needed attention.
Please pardon my rant, but it is good to get it off my chest, thank you.
There I've said it! Enough...........
My Dad had a '57 Ford that we used to cross the desert on our first vacation to California. He adjusted his speed to the variations of the temp gauge. It worked. While others were pulled to the side of the road, to cool their engines, we just kept moving along. I learned a lot about cars and driving from my Dad, even though he was a Ford fan (just kidding, I like Fords too).
As for tach's, I like them. I tend to shift my automatic tranny's a lot. I use the engine for braking when there's a police car behind and I've been exceeding the limit. Sudden brake lights tell the Law that you've been speeding. The tach helps judge when to down shift the tranny or when not too. Occasionally, when I see that the rpm's are too high, I know I've left the tranny in the wrong gear (I do that once in a while).
I would like to see the "Outside Temperature" on the rear-view mirror. That way I could use the Driver Information Center (DIC) for other functions.
Rich
If you really need to know, I'd be happy to hook you up with a discount on some Autometer gauges you can add to your car.
The problem Detroit (and the other automakers) have encountered is that when you put in a real gauge, 2/3 of buyers run back to their dealer crying "Why's this thing moving around so much?"
And if there's one thing automakers (particularly their dealers) aren't interested in doing, it's trying to educate their customers. Forty years of failure to educate drivers about tire pressures and we now get a tire-pressure-indicator mandate from the government.
Its been my view all along that all the whining
about no temp gauge is much ado about nothing.
Almost 4-weeks now since we've had ours and, oddly enough, we've only seen 2 others on the road in all that time. I believe that they're selling hot and fast...but apparently not around here...haha.
Also re: mannytranny's reply to my post: You are absolutely right, but don't forget that not only in addition to the cost of the auto tranny, you can sure bet that particular model will cost more because it has the new and improved and significantly more powerful engine--which will likely make the auto tranny sales that much larger by default.
My buddy, Leon "The Motorman" Kaplan, has always said on his radio show that the most inexpensive thing you can do to protect your investment is to change the oil & filter every 3000 miles. He does not see the need for synthetics or additives, in a new car. Synthetics are good if you drive hard, in hot conditions and DON'T change your oil very often. If you change it often (3000 is often) then why spend the extra money on synthetics?
Insofar as filter availability, I haven't looked locally here in L.A. because I let the dealer do these things on my new cars. How do you get your CTS up off the ground to change the oil? It's pretty low and I don't think my 2 ton floor jack would slip under it. And where would you pick up the frame or suspension so you don't damage anything? I figure let the Dealer do it as everything is under warranty and I don't want to screw-up something. If the engine blows they can't accuse me of not changing the oil or leaving the drain plug loose. My vintage cars are another story, I do all of them myself and wouldn't trust anyone else (except Leon) to touch them.
Judging by the photos of the engine I've seen at CaddyEdge, the filter is pretty easy to get at, once the car is raised. Anyways, good luck with your new CTS!! -Jer:>)
As for sythetics vs regular oil. I did sythetics in my 2000 Impala for a while. Read somewhere that they were "smoother" because they were based on pure vegetable oil rather than petroleum..and therefore less particulates in them to cause wear. Then, later, I read that there were those who recommended them if you weren't good at changing your oil (like you said) but didn't recommend if you regularly did it. Since I'm pretty religious about the changes, I went back to regular oil (with an occasional Dura-Lube treatment (much as that's probably more of a waste...but we all have our quirks). Anyway, thanks for the response.
However, ctsjerry is right, the most inexpensive thing you can do to protect your engine is to change the oil at 3000 miles.
As for additives, here's an article that might answer your question.
http://www.canadiandriver.com/articles/pb/additive.htm
ctsjerry - I take our CTS to the dealer for oil changes too. They have specials about every couple of months. Note: if you need to jack up the CTS, the jack points are indicated on the outside of the rocker panel.
Rich
If going to a dealer for an oil change was a 40 mile drive for me, I'd do my own oil change too! I'm spoiled. My Dealer is 3 miles from my work, and I complain about that! Like RichW5 says, they do have specials that I do take advantage of. And my Service Writers have known me for 12 years so they always give me a good deal (even the Senior Citizen Discount before I was one! Ha!).
- A decent fully-synthetic oil (for me right now that's Mobil 1 or Amsoil, there's other good ones too, I don't use 'synthetic blends')
- No thinner than 5W-30 no matter what the mfr spec is (some mfrs have specced 5W-20 in some models for CAFE reasons, with fingers crossed that the valvetrains get past the warranty period.) I typically use 10W-30 unless the engine is specifically built for something else - here in California with our minimal winter even straight 30-weight would work fine.
- Typically changed at approx 6000mi (typical mfr change interval is 1.5-2x that these days.)
There are exceptions:
- Limited-lifespan oil-burners get 10W-30 dinosaur juice, I see no need to feed them the good stuff.
- 3000mi oil changes are reserved for (a) engines with tiny half-quart-or-less filters or (b) engines with worn rings/bores that dump a lot of nasty combustion products into the oil.
Two cars in the house right now that came with small filters will actually accommodate a quart-size Ford filter e.g. Wix 51515. Fram filters do not get onto engines in this household.
If I had any pushrod engines with traditional (non-roller) lifters, I might look for an extreme-pressure additive such as BG MOA.
tire-pressure-indicator mandate from the government. "
I couldn't have said it any better. Brakes are next.
M
I was sort of waffling about waiting a couple years and looking at a good off-lease 03 Lincoln LS8. Only because the V-8 looked to be quite powerful and there has been a lot of talk about how all the changes Lincoln made to the 03 really improved the car.
Anyway, the 3.6 in the CTS makes it faster than the LS8. Ok, so saving up starts now!
According to my brother-in-law, who runs one of those wash and lube joints, the oil drain plug takes a special tool only available (for now at least) from Cad dealers. Ergo he's turning away CTS customers. I haven't taken the time to check the underside yet and for now I get my changes at the dealer.
Gauges - schmauges I want voice activated menu of key engine-drivetrain-chasis sensors and activators that responds in a soothing female voice, or maybe like HAL's from 2001.
"Open the right rear door HAL"
"HAL!"
"I'm sorry Dave that would jeopardize the mission"