I purchases a Black raven/ebony with every option but premium paint, AWD, and spare tire. I have had the car for 13 days and have put 1300 miles on the odometer. Due to severe ice storms in my area, I have had the car garaged for 4 of the 13 days of ownership. I'm just not willing to take it on the ice yet.
I was fotrunate to drive it on a business trip out of state through the hills of Arkansas and it performed perfectly. The navigation system was another story but I'll comment on that later. Honestly, I couldn't blame the nav for not knowing where I was when I was driving some back roads. But I digress.
On the twisty curves of these back roads I spent hours pushing the car and driving agressively. The most surprising perk of the car was the Sport Mode on the automatic transmission. It was so incredibly agressive I didn't feel the need to use the manual option. It amazed me how long it was willing to hold a high rev and how it almost always seemed to be in the right gear. It was simply more fun to hold the steering wheel with both hands and let the car do the shifting.
In the past I had a BMW 3 series with a manual/automatic transmission with a sport mode. There is simply no comparision between the two. THE TRANSMISSION IN THE 2008 CTS IS SOOOOOOO MUCH BETTER THEN THE 2003 BMW. This is not an apples to apples comparison as one had 2003 technology and the other 2008 technology but from personal experience, if there is anyone out there who has a 2003 Beemer and is thinking about the CTS I can tell you that the transmission (among other things) on the CTS will blow your mind.

Overall I would give the car a rating of 9. The only reason I do not give it a ten is there is always room for improvement even if I'm unable to articulate it at this moment. I have experienced no wind noise from the sunroof, no unusual vibration from the steering wheel or shift knob (at any speed from 0 mph - too fast to admit publically), no whining, hissing or ticking noises from the engine, etc... It has simply been a great car.
I have been unable to take any quality pictures as the weather in my region has been horrible. I intend to post a few when the weather clears.

Now that's a post! I also gave a 9 rating just 'cause there ain't no ten. flawless nonetheless.
rg

Nice to hear. I also am a former 3-series driver. My last cars have been a '97 Ford Probe GT (manual), an '00 BMW 323i (manual) an '02 BMW 330i (manual) and an '05 Nissan 350Z (manual). I have an '08 Caddilac CTS (DI, AWD, FE2, Auto) ordered.

This will be my first auto in 11 years (my last auto was a 3 speed auto in an '86 Cavalier hatchback) and I must tell you I'm really looking forward to it. I did drive some BMW loaners with autos in them (sourced from GM coincidently) and came away very impressed. Also my wife has an '07 SRX with an auto, and that's a great transmission.

Anyway, I love to see the positive threads. Nature of the message board beast is that positive posts are rare.

Thanks for sharing your experience and getting me even more fired up to get my new CTS.

And, I concur; my '08 CTS4 is the best car (and Cadillac) that I've ever owned. As I've stated before, ANY car, from ANY manufacturer, can have problems, etc. Cars are built by humans.... we're not perfect, either.

You know, as someone about to take the plunge, this is such
a pleasure to read positive remarks like yours.

However, one thing really bothers me about your post....

NAVIGATION. Time and time again I have read within this
forum post complaining about the navigation system losing
signal, taking too much time to recalculate or not at all.

It seems to me something is amiss with the CTS navigation system.

I have an Acura RL I have been leasing for three years.
The navigation system inside was flawless. It routed me
to my destination quickly, effectively and never took too
long when it had to recalculate itself.

I really would love to hear more positive remarks about
the NAV system in the CTS prior to deciding to lease.

My other car is a '99 Corvette that had everything but the block changed and dyno'd at 525HP. My new CTS DI has outstanding acceleration when passing and I don't miss the extra horses the Vette has. My wife finally drove it yesterday and couldn't bring herself to hold the pedal to the metal when passing...it hit 100 just too fast for her! My only complaint is the console storage..someone else summed it up...you need a second elbow joint to access it.

If the NAV is a concern, couldn't you just get a CTS without the NAV, and pick up a Garmin unit or something?

You know, as someone about to take the plunge, this is such
a pleasure to read positive remarks like yours.

However, one thing really bothers me about your post....

NAVIGATION. Time and time again I have read within this
forum post complaining about the navigation system losing
signal, taking too much time to recalculate or not at all.

It seems to me something is amiss with the CTS navigation system.

I have an Acura RL I have been leasing for three years.
The navigation system inside was flawless. It routed me
to my destination quickly, effectively and never took too
long when it had to recalculate itself.

I really would love to hear more positive remarks about
the NAV system in the CTS prior to deciding to lease.

Ron - maybe you can get your dealer to allow you to take an extended test drive of a higher mileage 08 CTS on the lot to test the NAV. Before you start, program in a few destinations to the address book. Then take the car out on the freeway for one of the destinations, get off the freeway and see how quickly it re-routes. Do the same for a surface street destination, or maybe try a mix of surface street and freeway for one destination.

I live in the giant metropolitan area of LA and have traveled to downtown, around the suburbs, up the coast, down to San Diego, etc. and have not had a problem with the speed of recalcs or the accuracy of the system.

I have a friend with an 08 CTS who lives in the midwest and he has driven all around Chicago, Kansas City, and all places in between - with no NAV issues.

I realize some people have problems with the NAV, but I really think the majority of folks have not.

My only complaint is the console storage..someone else summed it up...you need a second elbow joint to access it.

My old BMW solved that problem -- there wasn't any console storage (let alone the two areas that CTS offers). Everyone that looked at the car when I had it for sale tried to open a storage area that didn't exist.

Ron - maybe you can get your dealer to allow you to take an extended test drive of a higher mileage 08 CTS on the lot to test the NAV. Before you start, program in a few destinations to the address book. Then take the car out of the freeway for one of the destinations, get off the freeway and see how quickly it re-routes. Do the same for a surface street destination, or may try a mix of surface street and freeway for one destination.

I live in the giant metropolitan area of LA and have traveled to downtown, around the suburbs, up the coast, down to San Diego, etc. and have not had a problem with the speed of recalcs or the accuracy of the system.

I have a friend with an 08 CTS who lives in the midwest and he has driven all around Chicago, Kansas City, and all places in between - with no NAV issues.

I realize some people have problems with the NAV, but I really think the majority of folks have not.

I'll second that motion. Test it out a bit and see what you think.

The Nav has worked fine for me every time. I live in the metropolitan area of Boise, which is the nexus of a region defined by a 200 mile radius around Boise. :) I can't imagine GM or their suppliers spent a lot of time verifying the integrity of the map data here, but it's never failed to do a quick calc or recalc.

So you guys think that all around, the navigation inside the CTS is first-rate?

My Nav system works great; has no trouble recalculating a route change, etc. It is far superior to the Nav system in my '05 STS.

OMG, a happy post! Hurray! I'm so glad you love your new CTS! :D

So you guys think that all around, the navigation inside the CTS is first-rate?

I do, but you should check it out for yourself on a testdrive. You could even bring along a CD and rip it to the hard drive (or plug in a USB drive with some of your MP3s) and see how they sound to your ears.

Good advice.

Hopefully I'll be a fellow CTS owner within a week.

Looks like a great group here!

The problem I had with the navagation is one that was not peculiar to the CTS but rather would have happened to any navagation system (Acura, Garmin, etc...). The road on which I was traveling was clearly brand new. It had straw in the median and along the edges where they had just thrown down grass seed after completing the project. The Nav didn't register that I was even driving on a road. As far as it was concerned I was 4 wheeling in a field that existed when it was programed. The problem was compounded because the nav wanted me to turn from the old section of road that no longer existed onto another highway. Because the old road no longer existed the turn onto the second highway was impossible. The junction between the new section of highway and the second highway simply didn't exist. Upon re-entering a section of road that the navagation system recognized, it spent a long time trying to get me to make a u-turn and travel back the the junction with the second highway that didn't exist. Being a human and not a computer, I was able to know that the best route was simply to proceed in the direction of my ultimate destination which I did. Eventually the nav system recalculated and lead me to my destination. The problem was that for 30 minutes it told me to make a u-turn at every street. Knowing what I know now, I should have suspended vioce guidence until the navagation properly recalculated the route. Being new to the car I listened to bogus u-turn instructions for an extended period. Oh well...live and learn...this is one a the small draw backs of having a new and unfamiliar car. Like I said originally, I really don't blame the navagation system. It was able to get me to my destination and I was in RURAL ARKANSAS.

The problem was that for 30 minutes it told me to make a u-turn at every street. Knowing what I know now, I should have suspended vioce guidence until the navagation properly recalculated the route. Being new to the car I listened to bogus u-turn instructions for an extended period.

Your best bet probably would've been to cancel and re-enter your destination, and have it calculate from where you were. If only you didn't have to pull over to do that :)

Your best bet probably would've been to cancel and re-enter your destination, and have it calculate from where you were. If only you didn't have to pull over to do that :)

I think SUSPEND would have been the best decision. Then he could RESUME when he was back on a "real" road.

I think SUSPEND would have been the best decision. Then he could RESUME when he was back on a "real" road.

I don't have the NAV (hell, I don't even have my car yet - but I didn't order the NAV), is there such a thing? I wonder whether or not it wouldn't still get confused..

I use "suspend guidance" all the time. I program in my destination before I leave, and if my destination is somewhere that I know how to get to generally speaking (i.e. which major freeway to take), but I don't know exactly where to go when I get off the freeway, I will "resume guidance". Saves you the annoyance of guidance instructions that you don't need, and allows you to get guidance for a non-POI/non-address book destination while in motion.

I used the Nav last night in my little podunk town to go from my house to a restaurant. The restaurant was in the POI list! Chose go & it calculated the route. Great! Purposely drove by the first 'programmed turn' and the recalculate went smoothly. Turned a block before the next 'programmed' turn onto what was essentially a residential street. The Nav immediately said it couldn't guide me anymore, even though the street I turned on to was indicated on the map. It put up a dotted, red, straight line to the restaurant instead & quit talking. Strange. I have also noticed that I get the 'can't guide' message anytime I'm in an area that is not a road in the map database (parking lot, driveway, etc.), even if I'm only a couple of feet from a recognized road. Continue on to the road and all usually becomes well again.

Could it be the database is outdated, these are new roads or both?