here's one reason: every single cts i looked at on line through the dealer inventory, for my neck of the woods had awd....this is not something i would order....none of them were standards (not unusual in this day and age) and they all had sunroofs, absolutely verboten (for me)...the dealers are looking for quick sales and the kind of folks posting on this website are probably more particular about what they want and don't want.
also, the anticipation is kinda nice...makes it worth waiting, imo...
I luckily found my car on the lot the way I wanted it just before I was about to go ahead and order one. Certain colors are really hard to find properly equipped to one's liking.
OH and another reason.........
You don't want to buy a caddy from my dealer if it has more than 5-6 miles* on it. It was likely that I test drove it (In Nov I drove just about every combo of (Automatic avail).
And Mister, when I test drive a car, I can assure you that that car is run hard and put up sweaty. Not a good way to treat a car that hasn't been broken in properly, but I have to know what it will do.
(And I am quite sure there are people who will whip it just as hard as me)
* At my dealership, Val Ward in Ft Myers, every CTS is given leisurely test drive by a technician prior to it being released for sale. The tech is paid for 30 minutes and usually drives it around "the big block" which equals about 4 miles.
He checks everything. Probably why I have not had any problems with my car.
I was able to find the EXACT CTS that I wanted, but it took a lot of effort. The biggest problem up here in Mass was that I went to my local dealer (who didn't have what I wanted), he and I went through the entire inventory of cars in the Northeast, and when we found a good candidate at another dealer it was always "just sold". I finally figured out (what my dealer probably didn't want to tell me) that the other dealers simply didn't want to "swap" a car that they could make a good profit on. Understandable, but difficult for the consumer.
So one rainy Sunday about a month ago, I went to cadillac.com and did a dealer search within 100 miles of my home. I'd estimate that at least 25-30 dealerships came up. I painstakenly took the time to go through each and every dealer's New Car inventory to try and find what I was looking for. I found exactly *one* that fit my options/colors and thats the shiny car parked in my driveway tonight. I even got it for under supplier! So yes, you can find your car if you look long and hard enough. But it may be easier to just order it and wait.
I have found that a lot of the cars on the lots are really odd balls that haven't sold in quite a while. Strange color and option combinations.
I bought both of mine off the same lot, 25 miles from my house, within 3 weeks of each other. Both crystal red, cocoa int, 3.6 DI, premium lux package, FE2, 18 " all season, leather seat package, spare tire, nav, etc. In other words, fully loaded less AWD, which I did not want anyways. Definatly not odd balls, or strange color / option combinations. I hit it lucky, and found what I was searching for. Both vehicles were unloaded off the delivery truck only hours before my purchase of each one.
Timing is everything, and if luck is on your side you can most likely find what you want on a lot somewhere. Good luck.
I order every car I purchase so that I can have it exactly the way I want it. I do a lot of research on options availability, color choices, etc. so I know exactly what RPO codes I want and what the MSRP and GMS (employee pricing) is. I 'm never in a rush to get a car, I can plan ahead enough to know when I need to order one so that I will have it when I want it. In the case of the new CTS, I actually ordered it on the very first day that orders were accepted (well before production even began). I took delivery on August 25 and it was the very first 08 CTS off my dealers lot (a very high volume CTS dealer).
I ordered because the dealership didn't have the color/option combo that we wanted! It was just that simple! And neither did any other dealer in a 500 mile radius. So, that made the decision to order fairly easy.
I searched on line for the exact car I wanted (balck / ebony / premium lux / FE3 summer tire) and found 2 in Florida and 1 in Georgia. Did all the paperwork via fax and rented a car one-way about 200 miles to pick up my new car. Happy that I did not have to make any compromises - the wait would have killed me if I ordered and came real close to taking the FE2 summer tire instead. When I bought my 2005 CTS, the closest 4 dealers had over 200 in stock including 4 exactly the way I wanted it, but that's a different story.
