Here's my dealer service rant:
Neil Norton Cadillac, Peoria, IL.
Got a
MINOR door ding in the left rear quarter panel. Took it to the dealer to have it fixed and they offered to rent me a car. Gee thanks, but no thanks.
The dealer had the V for almost a week because they had to repaint it several times to get the paint to match - it is black for god's sake. They finally call to say the V is done. Upon walking into the dimly lit service bay, the first two things I notice are the paint doesn't match and it has zero orange peel (V's have orange peel, oh yes they do). Of course the body shop manager has to be paged and doesn't show up for 15 minutes. Unfortunately, this gave me plenty of time to inspect their work.
With this extra time to burn, I start looking at the new paint more closely and find there are tons of fisheyes in the paint, there is an obvious masking line at the left rear door, the interior stinks of paint, tons of overspray on the 6+ layers of perfectly shined Zaino on the rest of the car and you can still see the original dent in the panel!
At this point, I'm beyond furious and the body shop manager finally shows up. Being the anal gearhead engineer I am, I immediately tell the body shop manager that this is completely unacceptable on a car into which I have over $60k invested. The body shop manager at first is very defensive and doesn't see anything wrong with their work. To which I point out the flaws mentioned previously. Finally, the body shop manager gives in and says bring it back in a week to allow the paint to setup and they'll redo the paint.
During the next week, the interior continued to stink of paint which just made this whole mess even worse as it was a daily reminder of the dealer's crappy work during the daily commute.
The paint curing week goes by; took the V in again. Hoping for the best, I leave the V with them and drive away in a cheesy Grand Prix loaner (wow, a free cheesy car this time!). Three days later, the V is done. This time, the paint still doesn't match, the the orange peel is horrid (they went too far) and the weather stripping at the left rear door isn't attached and is now all screwed up in the door jam. And to be "nice" to me, they washed the V with what must have been 200 grit sand paper. Once out of the service bay and into the sun, the hideous spider web swirls showed up and my heart rate shot up even further. Instead of having just one bad panel, they had now screwed up every square inch of paint on my V.
Words can not describe how frustrated and disgusted I was with them. It had pushed me beyond being mad when the manager said "that's the best we can do." Being pushed to the point of nearly killing someone, I just paid the bill and left with the car knowing they had screwed up my beautiful V all to hell forever. In hindsight, I should have never paid the bill and took them to court but I'm not a litagation is the solution for everything type of person.
Neil Norton Cadillac ruined every painted panel on my V. Fact.
Now for Part 2, let's rewind to June 2005.
After being on the 2005 V order waiting list for over six weeks at my selling dealer (Voss Village Cadillac, Ohio) the V finally showed up on the truck. Excited, my wife and I drove 8 hours to Ohio to pick it up. The day of delivery, I purchased two quarts of diff fluid and one bottle of additive for $90+. The salesman seemed quite taken back by the purchase and I explained I was one of those extreme anal types that believes clean fluids are happy fluids.
My wife drove the V home the 600 miles that day and within 30 minutes of getting home, the engine oil was dropped and fresh Mobil1 went in. A month later at 2165 miles, I decided it was time to drop the diff lube. Imagine my surprise when I dropped the plug and out ran the blackest, crappiest looking lube (looked like diesel engine oil after 2000 hours) that I had ever seen in my life. I've owned 19 AMERICAN (no import ever!) vehicles in the last 19 years and have changed fluids on all my new vehicles in a similar fashion and have never, ever seen anything like this.
Thanking my anal routine, I was happy that I had gotten the crappy diff lube out of there so early and figured this was a one time incident. Well, that assumption was wrong. Five months and 4000 miles later, the differential started to get a geartrain whine at ~40 mph. So off to the dealership for another $100 worth of diff fluid and additive. No surprise, at this lube change, more black crude oil. The new fluid (old GM part number) did keep the rear end quiet for another 5000 miles.
With 5000 miles on diff lube refill 3 (counting factory fill) the whine was back. Now all of a sudden there is the new "grape" scented lube and the additive isn't required! This causes quite a comotion here on the forum for a few weeks until a certain source at GM finally gives us the answer that yes, the limited slip additive is necessary. With this vital bit of information in hand, I proceed to the local Chevy dealership (closest GM around and I am sure as hell not going back to the Caddy dealer) to get the grape lube and additive.
Handing over the part number list of grape lube and limited slip additive to the parts counterperson, the first words out of her mouth is "Are you sure you need the additive? We don't use it here with this lube." Kindly assuring her yes, I need the additive, can I please give you real American money for it; she rings up another nearly $100 bill.
Thinking GM realized the original lube didn't have the proper additive package to prevent the gear whine after time had passed, I put in the magic grape diff lube in for fill number four. After taking the V for a quick spin, it was obvious the new grape lube did nothing to quiet the gearwhine at 40-45 mph like the previous fluid changes had done.
My engine's rear main seal is leaking. The diff continues to whine thousands of miles later and is now leaking around the halfshafts. Just this week I noticed all four tires are wearing horridly on the inside edge like there is way too much camber. The alignment has never touched except for I believe at Voss Village Cadillac after they installed the FG2 shock package.
Other issues with my V and the future of this model:
Wheel hop - of course! During development, was the V ever driven in the rain? Let alone an aggresive launch on dry pavement?
How many clutches were hurt to get the 4.6 second zero to 60?
The infamous "steering wheel wiggle" has plagued my V from day one. Some have had it resolved by different tires, wheels or rebalancing. I've put on completely different aftermarket wheels and it is still there....
A foot parking brake? I've learned to live with it but still don't like it.
The LS2 in the 2006 isn't making us all warm and fuzzy for a new car. We need more power and a "special" engine just like the LS6 was in its day to get our money again.
We are your affluent, get market share from the BMWs of the world, target customers. And for the most part, we're GEARHEADS and are going to do GEARHEAD things with and to our Vs. Denying warranty for marginal OEM product designs and blaming wheel hop on "aggressive driving" is just plain silly.
There is no more die-hard GM guy than I and this whole situation certainly makes one think about what company will get my next $50k+ automobile purchase. With my gearhead love of the V, I've even built a successful business and have over 400 extremely happy customers because of quality products, customer service and product support after the sale. These concepts are actually quite simple when executed properly.
Every time I've been to a BMW dealership, I've been treated like I own the place and I have never even owned a BMW. Taking my V to the dealer is like how a teenager with a 300,000 mile beat up Cavalier would get treated. Oh, we'll throw some paint on it and it'll just have to be good enough for you...
Cadillac either needs to pay to have every panel on my V painted again and right this time or give me a new one. Fix my whining, crappy, wheel hopping differential once and for all. Reimburse me for the $300 I've spent out of my own pocket trying to keep the diff alive. Do all those things, find a better engine than the 400-hp LS2 and I'll put in a $20k downpayment for that 2007 V today. Even if gasoline is $10 per gallon; I will have 500+ horsepower in my next vehicle. Which company wants the money hard enough to get my business?
Problem is, I don't trust a dealer to even wash my car let alone wrench on it anymore.
Yet, I still love these CTS-Vs...Cadillac is oh so close to hitting a grand slam. Support the product, keep us happy and our numbers will grow.
AND NO SLUSHBOXES. EVER.
Thank you.
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