I had been waiting months for the new CTS-V to hit dealers. My local dealer was absolutely worthless. All they told me was to watch the Cadillac website since that's where they got their information. Finally, I start hearing reports that some dealers were receiving their V2's, of course, my local dealer still said it'd be over 30 days to get one but they'd happily take my deposit, but wouldn't search for the car themselves.
After spending about a week searching online, calling dealers across the country, and being frustrated by all the dealers listing cars as available, but were only 'on order'-- I said, **** it. I found a new black C63 AMG about 5 miles from my office and decided I'd go pick it up in the morning. I really didn't want a manual, but those things sound sweet and I wanted something reasonably quick and comfy for commuting. That morning I woke up to a PM from forum member Nutz-- he said there was a black 6spd at his local dealer, in Ohio.
After a few phone calls to verify that it was basically what I wanted (black/6spd.. i didn't really care about the rest) it was paid for and shipping was arranged. The shipping company said it'd take 3-4 days to get to my house California, but that the bad weather and holidays might delay it a few extra days. After waiting so long for the V2, I figured I could wait another week.
Fast forward a week later: I called the shipping company monday morning at around 8AM to get a status, since I hadn't heard anything. Turns out they hadn't been able to find a truck to pick the car up. I was slightly annoyed, but it was the holidays, and I'm a firm believer that if you want anything done rite, you have to do it yourself. I asked told them I'd give them until the end of the day to find a truck, otherwise I'd have to cancel the order and go get it myself. They weren't able to find a truck and gave me a full refund without any arguing.
After I got off the phone with the shipping company, I called the sales guy at the dealer and told him I'd be there the next day to pick it up myself and asked him to make sure that no one picked up the car.. just in case the shipping company was slow to cancel the order. Once I was done talking with the sales guy, I went over to travelocity.com and ordered a pair of round trip tickets to Ohio (my buddy offered to go with me for the drive back). It's amazingly cheap to fly into Akron from San Jose...
Our flight left San Jose at 6AM that morning. After a slight delay in Denver because of 'aircraft maintenance' issues, we arrived in Akron about an hour behind schedule (4PM local time). We made it to the dealer, picked up the keys, and were back on the road by about 5PM. Because of the bad weather between Ohio and the Rockies, we decided to head south until it warmed up and stopped snowing. It flurried all through West Virginia and Kentucky. Once we hit Tennessee it warmed up a little, so we jumped on I40 West all the way to California. We covered a little over 3,000 miles in 3 days.
Impressions:
- - we spent about 5 minutes at our first stop trying to figure out how to get the 'key' out of the ignition. the sales guy left the car running when he brought it out in front of the dealer, so we never seen how it worked and he said he left the 'spare' key in the car after handing me one.. so i assumed the one he left in the car was the one in the ignition. why the hell did they make the key receiver in the ignition look like a real key? a push button starter would have been much better... i wonder if thieves will think the key was left in the car and attempt to break in more often.
- - the car doesn't remember when the seat warmers are on after you turn it off. that drives me crazy... especially when you drive for 3 days and the average temp is about 35 degrees.
- - the steering wheel blows. i didn't get the suede, it came with the leather wrapped wheel. the leather has a plastic feel that sucks, but i can live with. what really bothers me about the wheel is the 'thumb hooks' at the 9 and 3 position. the plastic for the buttons ends in the middle of the thumb depression. wtf? it's not bad after 10 or 20 minutes, but after 3-4 hour i was about ready to choke a bitch.
- - touring mode suspension is too stiff. now, before you say 'but it's a sport sedan and it has 560hp you ninny!', let me say.. i have plenty of really fast sports cars. my old commuter was basically a race car, so i don't have a problem with stiff suspension. my problem is that this is a cadillac and it already has a compromise of having SPORT AND TOURING MODES. somewhere in their launch cycle i'm sure someone said 'make it a little stiff, so people know they're in a sports sedan'. whoever said that needs to be punched in the throat. i'm fine with the sport mode being very stiff, but the touring mode is harsh. in the twisties and under load it's fine, but for cruising around it's too harsh. good thing it has so much power.
- - the cruise control on downhills sucks. maybe this is normal, i never use cruise control.. but it's really 'surgy'. perhaps they used the normal CTS cruise computer...
- - the manual transmission sucks. i've never driven another car with this transmission, but it feels like i'm driving a truck. the position of the shifter is too far back and too high. maybe this is because the engine is so god damned big it got pushed back a little. all i know, is it sucks. the shifter feel is also really rubbery and flexy. it shakes a lot while driving too, which drives me crazy. good thing it has so much power.
- - the texture of the dash is like a plastic football. good thing it has so much power.
- + the audio system, navigation, and traffic system is really sweet. the touch screen makes everything really easy. i was kind of bummed we weren't able to get a generic USB MP3 player to work with it, but it's not a big deal... most likely operator error. the CD RIP/Record feature is awesome sauce.
- + power. holy jesus. first time we pulled out on the freeway and i went to pass someone we snapped our heads against the head rests. we both looked at each other and laughed.
- + engine/exhaust sound. for a stock sedan, it sounds sweet.
- + did i say power?
- + utimate sleeper car. it looks pretty sedate (except from the front).
Here's a couple photos from the trip, in the order they were taken. I was surprised by how well digital cameras take photos from a car moving at 80+ MPH. :-)
the largest cross in the wester hemisphere... lol?
when i pulled up to my house, the end.
ps: the 3 most common things you'll find between ohio and california are giant firework shops, adult superstores, and churches. no joke.
pps: if you ever find yourself in little rock over new years, a little local advice: don't go outside between 11PM and 1AM or you'll think you were in beirut.
-mike
