Best SF Bay Area dealer...or does it matter?

[roxnadz]

Still thinking long and hard about my next car, but I am seriously leaning toward the General and buying a CTS (don't want to pay more than $50K pre-tax) Couple questions:

- Who - in terms of customer service pre- and post-sale, and automotive service - is the best in the SF Bay Area?

- I'm sure that nobody is going to have a Blue Diamond Tricoat FE3 DI manual with Nav, so I'm going to have to special order it. What's the minimum amount of deposit required to get an order going? I'm accepting the fact that an order now means delivery in April or May (or even later with the January plant shutdowns)...

Thanks for any and all help.

[sid1200]

I was acutally in the same boat as you, but I had an expiring lease so had a huge incentive to move now and take the lease incentive and red tage pricing etc. I acutally got my car in VA and am getting it shipped now. With the deal they made me it was actually well worth it.
Amazingly enough they had 2 cars. Both in good colors. I got the black/black, though the other one was great as well as I think black/cashmere is a great combination.

If you have any interest let me know and i can give you more details.
alexvarum@gmail.com

the car that they have is got the PDR package (that is the 10k package I think)
Y43 summer performance tire, and of course 6 speed manual. October production so supposedly slightly better seats, etc.

Merry Christmas!

[Zymurgy]

There is no hard and fast rule on how much deposit is required for an ordered car. It depends on what you are ordering and the dealer. If you order a car with options that do not sell well, then generally a larger deposit will be required (because if you back out, the dealer is stuck with a potentially hard to sell car). The fact that you want to order a manual transmission makes you a candidate for a larger deposit, as the vast majority of CTS's are automatics. Still, it will really depend on what risk/reward the dealership is willing to take.

Good luck.

[ewill3rd]

I used to work for Team up in Vallejo.
Not sure if I'd recognize anyone there now, that was 5 years ago, but I know the owner is a great guy.

[NorCalCTS]

I take my cts to St. Claire Cadillac in San Jose. I've had a number of issues fixed through them:
1. gas tank venting problem - I wasn't able to fill the tank at full rate at the pump. SCC found the problem and fixed it promptly. This occurred when the cts had just been released, so I was happy they were able to get a replacement tank quickly. I've only heard of one other person on the forum with this problem so I think it must have been a teething problem that has been resolved.
2. original dealer left swirl marks on the hood - I didn't notice this until I had taken delivery (my bad). It looked like someone had used a dirty rag to remove some bird doo. SCC accepted responsibility and did their best to fix the problem.
3. was bashed in the rear end by some dude in rush hour traffic. Referred me a good repair shop and again took responsibility for insuring that every last nit I found was picked. I hate a car with crash damage, so I was very picky about the quality of the repair.
4. "itchy" sunroof. The sunroof made an "itching" noise when the body twisted, e.g., entering a drive way. SCC fixed it perfectly - not an itch since.

Overall, I'm happy with the quality of the service. I don't know about the quality of the sales experience since I leased mine down in gilroy. Hope this helps!

[1stCad]

NorCal glad to hear you've been taking your car to SCC. I purchased my CTS this July from SCC and was very happy with the the deal I got. I have a very small list of items that need attention but have been holding off waiting for more. I think after the 1st of the year I'll bring it back to them for warranty work. I feel more comfortable taking back to them after your positive review.