Went to go fill up.
We are driving to the AP Monday Morn for a 1 week trip to Vegas/Grand Canyon
.
Stone Cold Dead.
Battery (or something) is apparently shorted.
Charger shows 12 amps (Limited to that) and after 1 hour, nothing. Not even interior lights.


In baseball they call this strike one.
Absolutely no problem. These things happen.

(However, should the vehicle achieve 3 strikes in 1 year, it would be sold/traded.)

It will sit in the garage for the next week.
I return late next saturday so it will be the 24th of March before I can even call it in.
I can't hardly wait for the flatbed to come and pick it up in this neighborhood of imported entry luxury cars..........

In the mail today I got a JD Powers survey.
I have to be honest.

And I will have to fill out a report for True Delta (When I know more)

Sorry to hear of your woes--hope it's nothing major. Let us know the next Chapter . . . and have a great trip! :ill:

Sorry to hear it Homer. I said it before - GM needs to step up their QC.

Have a great time in Vegas...

Southern,
Since we have nearly identical cars, I am also disappointed. Please give us an update when you can. Good luck..........CJ

Southern,

Sorry you had to go through this experience. Have a great trip and I hope the dealer can quickly fix the problem when you return.

Oh no! You guys are freaking me out! I ordered my CTS 1 week ago. Best of luck to you.

are you still in vegas.. come over to my place... let's have a zaino day!

Here is the problem, and it is a problem with all cars. With all of the computerized items on today's cars, there is a tremendous parasitic effect. Dealers are supposed to start all their cars on a regular basis. (They don't because that is one more salary.) These cars sit at railhead and on dealer lots for months and months.

If a battery fails prior to a sale, manufacturer will not replace it unless dealer can clearly demonstrate that the dealer has a person responsible for starting all cars.

Therefore: dealers will deliver new cars with defective batteries. Dealer will then expect you to return with defective battery. Dealer gets reimbursed. Customer gets new battery. This parasitic effect started in the mid to late 80s.


End of story.

that sounds crazy bigbird.. because my Camry's battery never died until after 6 years when the suggested life has past.. which make sense. I dont know what are they doing with american cars. hope these common problems aint apply to our military stuffs

It doesn't hold for CTS.
There has never been an 08 CTS that has sat on a railhead or a dealer lot for months.
Mine was built,and was in my garage two weeks later.

But maybe he's right about other GMs because very frankly, true or not, GM is known for crappy batteries.

Yeah know... everyone needs to keep these little mechanical issues in perspective. There have been over 30,000 08 CTS's built by now. If one or two have a battery / starting problem, guess what, its gonna happen. I bought the 400th or 500th one off the line last August and have not had a single problem. And the constant references to Toyota? One really needs to take a hard look at the JD Power studies and initial quality trends Toyota's been delivering lately. Their skating by on years of perception, because today their cars are no better nor worse than GM's.

I start hearing weird noise with my CTS now whenever i back up, but i dont know what it is yet. guess the mechanical or design problems are there. GM really need to put a regulation on dealers' service dept to improve their da cars' quality. I had my car at one of the random GM dealer onstars suggested to fill some air to my ties.. and the kid dont know how to start the engine and the service guy ask me for the key.. this isnt a problem.. the problem is that they actually mess up my ties' PSI.. isnt that the only tiny thing what i wanted to get fix initially? how about the bills.. my gmac bill was due on the 11th and i didnt receive the bill until the 10th after they reconfirm me that i'd receive one when i call and ask them 3 weeks in advance--> a week or two right after i got my car. Yes i check my mail box everyday. Yes i dont want to pay the bills.. good job not mailing them to me

PS: dont even get started comparing the cts to toyota or lexus.. that isnt what i intended at all. i take carmy as an example just because that's the only car i ever had problem with battery.. lol

Sorry to hear about your trouble, Southern. Hopefully it gets fixed quickly and permanently.

If this is battery….
In the resent past I had battery fail in Ford, Nissan and Infiniti. Each at approximately 2.5 – 3 years of ownership…I learned, living in tropics for a while that battery should be changed at least every 3 years…And this is what I intend to do with the CTS.

Initial quality – just look at J.D Powers ratings – Cadillac is almost at the bottom! My experience confirms it. However, Cadillac gains ground in longevity ratings. And this is a good thing. I can live with an initial quirk or two but do not want long-term problems…

For the record – CTS is a car with most initial problems I have ever had! By the same time I think it is the beast car I have owned…

Hopefully it's just a bad battery. My 04 had a similar problem. Replaced the battery and good as new. Good luck Southern!

If it is the battery, and I hope that is all it is, I think "Another Dead CTS" is a little alarmist. Dead battery is nowhere close to Cackerzot's seized engine.

I hope you win a million bucks in Vegas, and when you get home, I hope all you have is a dead battery!

...Initial quality – just look at J.D Powers ratings – Cadillac is almost at the bottom! My experience confirms it...
I can confirm the low initial quality ratiings, too. Hopefully my experience will take a turn for the better this week with my first trip to the dealer's service department.

...For the record – CTS is a car with most initial problems I have ever had!
Ditto, again.

...By the same time I think it is the beast car I have owned...
Not even close so far, but I'm still hopeful.

Southern...best of luck to you...hopefully it is just a bad battery!

Just yesterday I had a client tell me that she's had to have her 2007 Acura MDX towed out of her garage two times in 6 months because the car would not start, and both times it was a dead battery. They finally figured out that there was some electrical issue which was draining the battery while the car was not running...

It doesn't hold for CTS.
There has never been an 08 CTS that has sat on a railhead or a dealer lot for months.
Mine was built,and was in my garage two weeks later.

But maybe he's right about other GMs because very frankly, true or not, GM is known for crappy batteries.

FOR WHAT IT'S WORTH: I have owned nothing but GM cars since 1963 (First car after graduating from college: a 1963 Chevy II Nova convertible); have had nearly 20 cars from GM, including 13 Cadillacs: I've never had a battery problem with any of them, ever! I have owned my '92 Allanté for 15 years; I replace the battery every 4 years as standard procedure.

It was just the battery.
FWIW the dealership was so sure they asked me to just let the road assistance truck come out.
Turns out they have had very poor luck with the Batteries.

The driver also indicated that the batteries on the CTS have been problematic.
Of course, in some instances they may just need charging, but Val Ward doesn't mess around, they change out the battery for a brand new one that has been completely charged.
The driver indicated that of the ones he used to just recharge, more than half failed soon after.


So I am happy.
In fact I am probably even happier than if the battery had not failed.
I was not seriously impaired, my dealer came through in 1 hour from time of call, and all of my settings were retained in memory.

Batteries failing was a fairly common problem on Corvettes in the past couple of years as well. I haven't heard of any recently, but I think GM needs to have a serious heart-to-heart with their battery supplier (probably already have!).

Glad, it was just battery . I had a similar battery issue w/ my 'lade when it was new too . I agree, GM should find a better supplier for the batteries

You mean that there are better batteries than DELCO.................?
Just kidding. Glad that all you had was a dead one, Southern.

Glad to hear it was only a battery--and that it got taken care of to your satisfaction! :thumbsup: