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I visited my dealer this morning and got a chance to see the new CTS, but didn't get into it. I was in a hurry to pick up a lug nut cover for our 03 CTS and didn't take the time. My mistake.
The 08 CTS is strikingly beautiful, much better than in pictures. The dealer had two on the floor and two in the back room that had been sold. They were all AWD. There was another in the back room that had a "not for sale, zone car" sign on it. That car had a superb "White Diamond" paint job that made me jealous.
Still, I think I like the Red CTS best, maybe next spring.
I've been checking the inventories of local dealers and saw that one of them (not my regular dealer) had gotten some in Wednesday so I went over to look at it. That was when I found the problem with the headrest. Today I see that the dealer I bought my '03 from has just gotten two in stock so I think I will go over and discuss the problem with my favorite sales lady. I sure hope we can find a solution to the problem. I really want that car.
Actually I think Black accents the bling as it makes the chrome and stainless stand out more.
I had another chance to sit in a CTS and I was able to find much more comfortable seating positions, so hopefully, if my wife agrees that she can find a comfortable seating position, I will be ordering a car in a couple of months.
This time I am waiting for someone else to find any problems with the car. Last time I got a car with no engine temperature gauge and a clock on the left side of the instrument cluster. It took six months of production for Cadillac to recognize their mistake and make a production fix, but they never made a correction for the early adopters, they never even made the engine temperature an item in the DIC.
The company rep assured me that the car had been very thoroughly tested and would never overheat. I wonder how many cars overheated because of a leak, a busted hose or a blocked grill (newspaper or plastic sheeting picked up off the road), with no warning until the DIC said to turn off the engine because it had overheated.
I found the drivers seat to be extremely comfortable. I spent about 5 minutes in the car on the showroom floor. I will have to take the car on a long drive and review the seat comfort with a critical eye but my initial assessment was positive.
i asked the guy who tinted my windows if he could tint the top too and he said no. something about it being different type of glass and the film would come off over time.
also, there is some deal where the wood steering wheel and gear shift knobs were unavailable? i thought mine would have that, but the dealer said that none of the new cts's would have that for now. when they do become available, GM isnt' replacing them either. grrr.
on the plus side . . . this car is a dream. i am very impressed with it. it drives very quietly. i went from a 325i to this and the cts handles very nicely. the cts has far more power than what i was used to in the bimmer.
the nav system and hard drive takes some getting used to. not difficult, it's just that they system does LOTS and LOTS of stuff.
by the way, i think the seats are really nice. but, i had some hard "leatherette" seats before. even so, the interior is fantastic and i think the seats are a big reason why. also, the ambient lighting is one of the nicest touches in the interior. just makes it real purdy at night.
the remote start button works from a great distance. i can literally start it from my third floor office and it is perfectly cool by the time i get downstairs.
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It was parked next to a STS and I was hard pressed to tell the difference between them, which to some may be a plus.
It just looked a little bulky and front end heavy.
I think the new MB C is much better looking.Just my opinion.
As for me, I think it is the best looking Cadillac in some time. I think the STS looks unfinished by comparison.
On another note, I had a chance to get my wife into a new CTS and to my surprise and relief she had no trouble with the headrest, although she did complain about the seat being a bit short, the bolsters narrow and the console shiny, none of which constituted a reason not to buy the car. Now I have to decide on the color, which engine to buy and when to actually order the car. I definitely will not order the car until they are able to supply it with the wood trimmed steering wheel and shift knob.
anyway, you might have seen me driving around springs blvd for the fun of it (and you'll forgive me if i was going a bit too fast). the speed bumps are hardly felt at all.
and i know what you mean about getting a matching set. now the wife is wanting to get her into a caddy (an srx or an escalade).
Bingoman, he's referring to last month's First Drive article which he has apparently twisted into the negative statement made above. The admission from "senior Cadillac engineers" is completely fabricated. In the first paragraph I've copied below there are some comments from a Caddy engineer referring to the DI engine's power and efficiency, not NVH problems. Perhaps the quotes from the first paragraph were mixed with the reviewer's comments in the next to come with his rediculous statement? Anyway, the actual text from the article being misenterpreted is here - judge for yourself:
"This engine does exactly what the badge says-inject gas directly into the combustion chamber, just like in a diesel engine. This requires much higher fuel-rail pressures-up to 1750 psi-but the benefits include much more precise fuel metering, with a resultant improvement in power and torque, but with better gas mileage and lower emissions. GM global rear-drive chief engineer Dave Leone claims a 15-percent power increase (though you'll only get the full 304 horses if you run it on premium unleaded), and an eight-percent increase in torque to 272 pound-feet over the PFI version. The three-percent improvement in gas mileage sounds meager, but Leone points out the DI-engined automatics run a lower final-drive ratio (3.42 versus 3.23) to deliver best performance.
It's a technically impressive engine, but in truth, it's the CTS's weakest link. Performance isn't the issue-proving ground tests in Germany suggest Cadillac's claimed 0-to-60-mph time of 5.9 seconds for both auto and manual DI cars is right on the money, and we saw 7000 rpm in fifth-an indicated 153 mph-in a manual on the autobahn south of Mainz. The problem is noise and vibration; there's a granular quality to the 3.6's soundtrack that can be heard and felt, especially in the upper rev band where the DI V-6 loves to play. You hear it in the gargling induction note and feel it back through the pedals and the shifter, especially in the manual cars. It's not overbearing, but you notice it because the rest of the car is so quiet."
That's not even close to describing a design flaw. More importantly, what ggurr said is simply not true.
Calling this a design flaw is a stretch.
If you are buying this CTS to keep it "regularly and often" above 4,000 rpm, well -- you may notice some sound. It may NOT be as sweet as some of the latest and greatest V8's on the planet.
I would suggest that we, who care to opine, take one of each out for a test drive.
Of course, this suggestion implies that we will test drive a brand new engine and rev it to over 4,000 RPM (maybe over 6,000) to determine if there is unacceptable NVH -- don't know if this is a good practice on an engine with perhaps dozens of miles on it.
You read the reviews and you see the power and torque figures and you have to imagine that at any US speed limit -- plus 20 mph -- the thing (everything about it, in fact) will be very quiet.
When I test drive it, I'll report back and hopefully many of us will do the same.
BTW, I have only intentions on driving the AWD version and if possible an FE2 equipped model, equipped w/ all season "V rated" 18" tires/wheels -- and if the dealer has both versions, I'll try the two engines too.
:surprise:
Now I have to decide whether it is worth the extra $1,000 for the bigger engine for ordinary street and freeway driving. A little extra horsepower is always nice to have available, but is it worth that much. It would take a 2 mpg difference almost 100,000 miles to pay back the difference at $2/gallon. The one mile/gallon difference reported is actually somewhere between a half a mpg and one and one half a mpg. So it might take from 100,000 miles to never to pay back the cash outlay.
And by the way, since I got my wife to try the seat it is no longer "the uncomfortable seat".
Now please give me the other factors so I can justify buying the DI engine.
The relatively low HP diesel engines are capable of weapons grade torque, for instance. The ability to accelerate in stop and go driving has more to do with the "size" of the torque number (say 270 pound feet) coupled with the "when" the torque is at full boil.
A 300HP engine with 300 pound feet (or foot pounds) of torque will be listed 300HP @ 5,500 RPM & 300 pound feet at 4,000 RPM for instance. The torque curve and the torque number (that is how steep the curve) will have a lot more to do with how the engine feels to most of us 'mericans than HP.
A 250 HP engine with 250 pound feet of torque that is available at 1,800 RPM will, typically, out accelerate a 300 HP engine with 300 pound feet of torque that doesn't reach full boil 'till some RPM's north of 3500 (all things being ~ equal, of course.)
So, the question to be answered is the extra HP AND torque (and the relative IMPROVEMENT in MPG) worth a $1,000 over 50,000 miles or whatever?
This is entirely personal -- I would say yes. I would say yes because of the "performance" boost for the bucks.
You may say, "na baby na. . .it just ain't worth it."
Check out the HP and Torque figures AND be sure, too, to check out the final drive ratio so you have an idear of what you are getting (or not getting) for your grand.
:shades:
I rented a 2007 Cadillac for the long weekend and it had On*Star and it was great for voice dialing and calling and talking, etc. It would suck for voice mail since there is no way to enter in your PIN, and no way to forward VM's, etc -- but the system worked and sounded great (but the minutes were way overpriced, but that is another story.)
So, what do you get with this Verizon set up? Is this a "rigged" set up that is really pretty clunky? What is it what do you get and what do you give up?
I have Bluetooth in my 2005 car and it permits voice dialing and control of all aspects of the phone system -- it was so easy and SAFE. My wife tried to use her phone in the rental Caddy for the heck of it and watching her dial and drive was enough to make me write my elected officials and beg them to make using a cell phone without voice response and in car speaker interface a felony!
But otherwise I'm pretty much against govt interference -- this is nuts to try and dial and drive without a bluetooth interface.
Man, when even a $99 per month Mazda has bluetooth, what in the wide wide world of sports was Cadillac thinkin?
:confuse:
http://blogs.edmunds.com/karl/600
As to the smart buy, if the car is kept at the end of the 48 months the other 51% of the difference in the cost of the engine will still have to be paid. If the car is turned in at the end of the lease same problem exists as with any other lease, no car and no equity. A lease is not a particularly good choice for someone who is retired with no business expense write off possibilities.
As to the paint choices, what exactly does being 'on restraint' mean?
Are you kidding? The DI feature has been on diesel engines for only god knows how long and other manufacture has already proven that DI technology can increase engine's power and FE with no notable down side. The only negative about DI engine is probably the higher cost.
IMO, the 3.6L DI is the only choice for the '08 CTS. 50HP could go a long way for a such heavy car.
2009 BMW 335i, 2003 Corvette cnv. (RIP 2001 Jaguar XK8 cnv and 1985 MB 380SE [the best of the lot])
That is why they added all the insulation. It will probably make the CTS with the current engine super quite.
"Constraint" means that there is a problem and production is limited for a particular reason (in this case white diamond is on constraint and will be discontinued--definitely in Buicks starting next month and probably company-wide for all GM vehicles).
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I would not say that the DI is the only choice. Here is an excerpt lifted right from Brauer's review:
"As for drivetrain considerations, the base, 263hp engine will satisfy many CTS customers because it's mated to what is simply one of the best automatics on the market. Cadillac went the German route by offtering three settings: full auto, auto with "Sport" mode, and fully manual mode. In auto mode it works about like you'd expect, which is to say it upshifts and down shifts (quite crisply, too) when it should under normal driving conditions".
The car feels solid like the Acura TL with a better suspension setup and more power. The shifts are smooth and the sport mode holds the revs.
The interior is tastefully done, and the French stitching looks money.
I tested the car at night, and even my girlfriend, a German car snob, loved the ambient lighting and the general comfort and class of the vehicle.
I believe that my car search is over. I planned on also test driving the MB C350, but after piloting this car last night, I don't think I have to. The fit and finish is brilliant, the trunk is big enough for my staff bag, and some 20" wheels would set this car off like no other.
Beautiful, capable car. And the kicker? Regular unleaded.
I'm calling Frank today. I just wished they could source those wood wheels, shift knobs, and bluetooth solution before I place my order.
Just passing along information.
I'm just not one to be "forced" into a specific fuel requirement, ala my Dad's Lincolns.