Care to describe your experiences with Cadillic dealers? I, for one, LOVE going to Sarant Cadillac on Hempstead Turnpike (Long Island, New York). I usually work with Joe Mistretta - a very helpful guy. In fact, this guy made me feel so at home that this is one of the reasons my next car will be a Cadillac. Service certainly is important..

Feel free to respond here with your experiences - good or bad...

Hey Sal, I'm from Long Island too, but out east! The dealer I bought from, and used for service, was out in Peconic. When they pulled Olds from him, he gave it up, and bought a Buick/Pontiac/GMC dealer right in my town. The guy that got the Caddy franchise, Buzz Chew, is out in Southampton, and that can be a ride for me in all seasons but winter. I ended up buying my wifes Park Ave. from the first guy, and now he services both cars. Quite a nice group of people. Its Raymond Buick in Riverhead.

Sorry to hear you lost a local Caddy dealer.. Sarant is Cadillac and Oldsmobile as well.. I wonder what'll replace Olds when it's gone..

Sexton Automotive Group in Harriman, TN has been excellant to deal with so far. Southern Hospitality mixed with reasonable prices and service. Might be good to know if anyone is traveling I-40 between Nashville, TN and Asheville, NC at Exit 347 .

Great. Thank you.. I'd like to get as many of the good dealers listed as possible. In the future, I'd like to have a seperate page as a directory for all states to find a great Cadillac dealer. My dream would be to have Cadillac realize this and make every extra effort to have the best customer service possible. Lexus is very well known for their amazing customer service.. I think Cadillac can be just as good if not better...

I live in Western Virginia, just off I64 and I81 in Waynesboro.
The local Cad dealer is Berrang Cadillac.
In my admittedly short time dealing with them, I have had excellent results.

Paul G.

I live down the road in Blacksburg, VA. Our local GM dealer is Harvey's Chevrolet out in Radford. They used to sell Oldsmobile, and still sell Cadillac, and have a wonderful service department and shop. It's very very clean! I had some work done there on my '84 Cutlass and had very positive results. I took it for an alignment and when the steering wheel was crooked, they repaired it the next day, no questions or charges.

If I need something major done, or if I'm just looking for parts, I always visit Harvey's in Radford. (on exit 109 on I-81) :thumbsup:

Great. So far all good news.. I'm glad to hear that..

Yep , going to a Cadillac dealer is only a true Cadillac owners experience... They make you feel like you own the greatest motor vehicle on the road ( which you do anyhows) but they really treat you nice.. I used to bring my Eldorado to Sarant Cadillac on Long Island.... I first started going there when I was going to have my Caddy tuned up at Firestone and the guy there was trying to tell me that i didn't need the platinum plugs for my Northstar....... I said forget it - dont touch my car - I'll bring it to Cadillac! So I did - But it was about 3 times the amount of money..... It's worth it though....... For some reason every time I left Sarant Cadillac, I felt like my ETC was brand new.... :D

Yeah, better off not messing with things.. If you maintain the car the way it's meant to be maintained, it's going to last a long time...

I purchased my 1994 Eldorado off eBay and not a Cadillac dealer.

But a couple years ago I had a mint copper colored 1979 Eldorado Bairritz 350 fi with 79K miles that I was having problems with. The engine only seemed to be running on 3 or 4 cylinders. I took it to a local Cadillac dealer and they refused to even look at it because it was too old. I went to 3 different dealers and NONE of them did anything to repair the car. I then took it to local mechanics and spent tons of $$ but never got it running right. Finally gave it to my son who took it apart and sold the pieces. I don't have much good to say about Cadillac dealers.
Pat

That's a shame, Pat.. I kinda had a feeling it would be this way.. It's their car, though.. They shouldn't turn you away because your car is too old.. I guess that's not where the money is..

Does anyone know of a Cadillac dealer that services older cars?

My local dealership diagnoses/services older cars. It's one I mentioned earlier, Harvey's Chevrolet (and Buick, Pontiac, Olds, Cadillac, GMC, everything). They diagnosed an exhaust leak on my old '84 Cutlass to be a leaky exhaust manifold and they did the (excellent) work to replace the manifold.

Lindsay in Alexandria, VA - A+++
Pohanka in Fredericksburg, VA - F----

maybe it's because lindsay is more exclusive top caddie dealer in the east coast
and pohnaka is an auto group (they sell bunch of other brands)

Unfortunately, I hear more people say that they can't get older Caddys fixed anywhere. I know that it's a problem. I think it's because there is a severe shortage of older mechanics that made the transition to the newer cars. So that causes a hell of a hole in the knowledge base available at your local dealers.

yeah, katshot pretty much hit it on the head regarding the older cads...some dealers have an experienced tech that knows the older generation cars and some don't. the cars in general are too complex for the average mechanic to spend any time researching the vehicle to become proficient at fixing them...it took me a while to realaize that the only way to fly is with genuine gm parts installed and serviced by a dealer. i do my own oil changes and tire rotation, but anything else i go to suburban cadillac in stamford, ct and i have been happy with their knowledge of my cad. jackg

Hi Jack. Welcome aboard - and thank you for signing up! Well.. It seems we'll need to have a section somewhere on the site that lets people know which dealers can service their older Cadillacs...

Eventually, I'm going to get a page going for all dealer reviews..

Great. Thank you.. I'd like to get as many of the good dealers listed as possible. In the future, I'd like to have a seperate page as a directory for all states to find a great Cadillac dealer. My dream would be to have Cadillac realize this and make every extra effort to have the best customer service possible. Lexus is very well known for their amazing customer service.. I think Cadillac can be just as good if not better...

Sal lets do this!!!

The dealer I bought my 1993 Sixty Special from, is rightfully out of business. They exemplified everything a business should never do. "Horrible" doesn't even do them justice. They sold Cadillac, Oldsmobile and in later years, Pontiac. They had been a great dealer from 1953 to 1993, then in 1993 right after I took delivery, they sold to a young kid stuffed with money. He ran it down from the crown jewel dealership in the county, to bankrupt, out of trust and locked up in just 10 years. How good it was is testamony to the fact that it took him 10 years to kill it.
My next closest dealer is too far away to be convenient, 14 miles on a major highway.
Therefore, I brought a 2003 Lincoln Town Car Cartier Limited Edition from a Lincoln~Mercury dealer about 2 miles from my previous Cad/Olds/Pont. dealer. This L-M dealer is the top rated L-M dealer in America, with a 99.1 CSI rating and receipant of the "President's Award" from Ford 8 years in a row. They are like a boutique on Fifth Avenue New York. The serivce there is absolutely unreal and waaay beyond description. Ford has made dealer training films on premises. It's a joy to go there. The consideration they give is beyond texbook.

What a shame.. And Cadillac wants to have even fewer dealers - I move I think is not a good one. At the least, they'd better keep the service-centers going..

Sorry to hear about your problems with the dealer. It's unfortunate when take-overs like that happen. The 'heart' of the business never seems to stick around. I hope you enjoy your Towncar.. Would you mind visiting www.lincolnforums.com (http://www.lincolnforums.com) and helping out with that forum?

Anybody who's reading this... Please take a moment to tell us which Cadillac dealer you use for sales and service - and tell us a little bit about them...

My local dealer is wonderful. I can't complain about them at all. They are, Fowler Motors on HWY 501 in Myrtle Beach, SC. They retail Cadillac, Mercedes, BMW and Jeep. Very nice people.

Anybody who's reading this... Please take a moment to tell us which Cadillac dealer you use for sales and service - and tell us a little bit about them...

I bought my Cadillac from Sewell Cadillac in Dallas, TX. I liked how I was treated at Sewell. I have been told by others they're obsessed with customer service. Next time I need a car, even if it isn't Cadillac, which is unlikely, I will look at what Sewell has.

Their owner, Carl (or Karl) Sewell, wrote a book, called "Customer for life" (I could be wrong about the name, though). I intend to read it sometime.

I bought my 2004 EXT from Thompson McConnell Cadillac in Cincinnati. Nice people. Crappy section of town. I think the dealership was probably there LONG before the neighborhood went to hell.

I originally went to lease a 2003 EXT, but when I couldn't get the financing for a "used" vehicle, they found a brand new 2004 with all the bells and whistles, same color and a couple more features for the same $$ as the 2003. My salesman called me and said "we couldn't get the financing for the 2003, but we got a 2004 off the truck today and we're cleaning it up for you right now. Bring us back the 03 and you can take home the 04".

He's called me a few times since I brought it home to make sure everything's okay. Very nice people. They were even extremely patient when I brought it in for the pinstriping... I couldn't make up my mind, tan or black. lol...

CadillacJenny

In 1995 we bought a Certified '92 Seville from North Bay Cadillac in Great Neck New York (North Shore of Long Island). Service advisors David Chinn and Barry Weingart know their product well, and everything has been done right the first time. Our current Cadillac, a 2000 SLS, was bought new from North Bay based upon this experience.

My folks got their '99 deville from North Bay as well. I know David Chin, great guy and excellent service. I also like Potamkin Cadillac in Manhattan. Good prices and people are nice there.


I bought my used '99 deville from Baron Lincoln Mercury about 6 months ago, address below:

BARON LINCOLN MERCURY
20116 NORTHERN BLVD
FLUSHING NY 11361
718 631 9600

Stay the hell away from them. Sneaky bastards. When they mean small print, they mean small print.

99 deville, midnight blue outside with matching interior, chrome wheels, lumbar & heat option, memory seats. Rest is typical deville "stock" package. 40k miles, with new michelin tires, and there was like 2 minor error codes on it. The driver seat leather looked like as if someone drove it only for a year, minor wear and tear. A fantastic condition car which was worth the 6 hrs haggling.

The ad originally said $15k for the car, but once we start writing up the papers, numbers changed. Now there's inspection fee of $1k, mandatory extended warranty of $2k, and some other BS fees which brought the final price to $18k which is a still a good price, but I was pissed off at them cuz they pulled such crap on me. Got them down to the original $15k.

Like I said, I would have walked out of there the moment they pulled that crap on me, but that car was worth fighting for. 6 months later, I'm still happy with my car. Heck, it still looks like it's just an 1 yr old car.

Harvey Cadillac in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Excellent sales & service.

www.harveycadillac.com

TALE OF TWO DEALERSHIPS!............COMING SOON....CENTRAL MA.

:worship: BAKER CADILLAC, Leominster MA
:banghead: :helpless: :hmm: RAGSDALE CADILLAC, Auburn MA

I have three Caddy dealers in my area. The first McGuire Cadillac in Woodbridge,NJ. I called to have warranty work done on a Goodwrench engine that was installed in my 91 Seville. The service manager told me they only accept customers that bought cars from their dealership.
The second dealer was Crown Cadillac in Watchung,NJ. I had to get the regional Cadillac service rep involved to have the warranty work on the Goodwrench done. They had the car 2 1/2 months. I had to get Cadillac involved again to get them to finish the car.
I needed warranty work done on my Allante. Called McGuire again since they're practically around the corner. Got the same BS story from the service manager. Told him to go F**k himself this time. Got Crown to take the car. It sat there three weeks. I called them again and again. They finally got back to me and said one of the proportioning valves in the back was leaking. $360 to fix since it wasn't covered. I called GMPP and they said it was covered. Pulled the car and fixed the valve myself. The fitting was loose.
I don't bother with either dealer anymore.
Dealer #3 is Brogan Cadillac-Oldsmobile in No. Brunswick,NJ. I bought my SLS there. There's not enough space here for all the issues with them. The writer is a major a**hole. I had a meeting in the office with the GM and the service manager, who by the way tried to hand me crap like I never popped a hood before. The GM was sitting there smiling while I ripped the service manager a new one.
Three weeks later, Brogan was looking for a new service manager. I also found out that the old manager that I had a problem with was the same one from McGuire. It seems that they fired him too.
I wrote a letter to the owner of Brogan and they are now trying to straighten out their service dept. and have asked me to try them again. We'll see.

I am reviving this thread as I have a story I feel everyone should know, albeit it may not have much to do with a dealer, but it is about servicing a Cadillac customer.

Lately I wanted to rent a Cadillac from Enterprise and though they advertise them, the clerk couldn't find one for me. I was also told they're getting rid of Cadillac line as they cannot sell them well used. That is pretty sad and definitely a blow to a Cadillac...or maybe not as it is known that if a car company rents a lot of cars, that means they cannot sell them otherwise.

I bought my 98 Deville from Deland Cadillac and Chevrolet in Florida. I love the car but that dealership is run by snakes. Their 101 point inspection didn't include the air filter ( looked like it was growing a beard ) or the battery which had a green light but when I took it to Auto Zone it came up bad.

The last laugh was mine though they "lost" the check I gave them for the car. Turns out one of their employees stole it (no honor among thevies) so I did get a few extras out of them to replace it. The GM told me he thought I was holding them up. I ask him how it felt. I will never deal with them again. I am a Supervisor and have 8 vehicles that we service that are S-10's told him he could say good bye to them too. Look on his face was priceless.

Detroit TV-7 does story on Goodman Cadillac in Ann Arbor, MI:

http://www.detnow.com/wxyz/ys_investigations/article/0,2132,WXYZ_15949_2680253,00.html

http://www.detnow.com/wxyz/ys_investigations/article/0,2132,WXYZ_15949_2682525,00.html

Well, I would like to tell you about my Cadillac dealer. I bought my first Cadillac (after dreaming of one for 30 years) in Dec. Three days after I drove it off the lot I called and told the salesman that the door panel lights didn't work and that the seat warmer was causing a battery drain. I got the old "bring it right in while its under warranty". Because I live 50 miles away from the dealer I told him it would not be until after the holidays, then there was the snow problem so I had to cancel a Jan. 19 appointment. I brought it in last week to find out that a 6 month-6,000 miles warranty has a $100 deductable attached to it -- even for things that didn't work when I bought the car even though I had informed them of in a timely manner. Well, I went to pick up the car today and as I turned the key on at the service center a got the message "no battery charge." After wainting 30 minutes for a diagnostic I was told it needed an alternator, and even though I had not driven off the lot, it was considered another service call and would cost at least another $100 deductable. I am going to fight this out with the dealership owner and will let you know how it goes before I warn all you Cadillac lovers in Pennsylvania who NOT TO BUY FROM!:rant2:

Care to describe your experiences with Cadillic dealers? I, for one, LOVE going to Sarant Cadillac on Hempstead Turnpike (Long Island, New York). I usually work with Joe Mistretta - a very helpful guy. In fact, this guy made me feel so at home that this is one of the reasons my next car will be a Cadillac. Service certainly is important..

Feel free to respond here with your experiences - good or bad...

BE CAREFUL BUYING CARS IN CENTRAL PENNSYLVANIA!!

HERE'S MORE TO THE STORY I POSTED EARLIER!

On December 16, 2003 I bought a Cadillac from what I thought was a reputable dealership. When I test drove the car it was way out of alignment, and the trunk latch was broken so the trunk did not close. Before I picked the car up those items were corrected, although they should have sent up red flags immediately. After all, what dealer doesn’t know his car is out of alignment? :hmm: Oh, how I wish I had walked away from the car right there rather than trust this dealer!

Three days after the purchase I called the salesman that I dealt with and informed him that the door panel lights did not work, also that there was a short in the seat warmer that was causing a battery drain. Both problems dated from date of purchase. I was told by him to bring the car in right away to get these items fixed. Since I live 45 miles away from the dealership I told him to please make note of these problems and that I would not be able to get the car back to him until after the holidays.

I had a scheduled maintenance day for Jan. 19, 2004, but canceled it due to snow.

FIRST PROBLEM

The next scheduled maintenance day was Feb. 24 and by that time was getting the dashboard computer message: “Service engine soon: emissions system.” When I dropped the car off for servicing the service manager told me that my warranty was not bumper to bumper as I was led to understand at time of purchase. He further informed me that there was a $100 deductible to all repairs. I told the service manager to work up an estimate under the terms of the warranty the way he understood them and not to do any work until he phoned me with that estimate.

Since I was told that there was a $100 deductible that applied to the 6 month/ 6,000 warranty, I phoned the salesman and complained that my understanding was that the warranty was comprehensive. He told me it wasn’t his fault that I misunderstood, that he doesn’t deal with the financing only sales and he knew nothing about it. Well, there you have it! A salesman cop-out if ever there was one! Of course, this guy has worked for this dealership for many years, but claims that he knows nothing at all about how the warranties work! :confused: Then he proceeds to tell me that I signed the warranty and that’s what it said. Well, shame on me. The warranty does indeed state that, it is on page two of the fine print of a six page document. :annoyed: I checked the Buyers Guide that was attached to the car window. It stated: “Limited Warranty 6 mo/6,000 miles”, but no mention of a deductible. I checked the other sticker from the car window, it stated: “6 month/6,000 mile comprehensive warranty.” No mention of a deductible. I checked “comprehensive” in the dictionary in the event my command of language was lacking. The dictionary used words such as: complete, inclusive, full, thorough, across- the- board. BUT, I didn’t read the six page warranty statement before signing it...let that be a lesson to us all!!! :tisk:

When the service manager phoned and gave me the estimate I was told that I would be charged for the light bulbs in the door panels even though they were broke at the time of purchase. When I argued that, the reply was: “Oh, well...” The outcome was that I had to pay for the bulbs and the seat relay, but the emissions sensors were covered. Add in the deductible and the bill was $155.51 At the time I brought the car in, I told the service manager that the headlights needed adjusting. When he phoned with the estimate, and I then had the knowledge that I would need to pay for these repairs, I told him NOT to adjust the headlights. When he called back to let me know the car was fixed he told me that he adjusted the headlights anyway, but he discounted the price to $19.00. I guess some dealers think it is okay to do unauthorized work as long as they discount the price of it! So 19.00 of the $155.51 was for work I had requested NOT BE DONE!!! :rant2:

SECOND PROBLEM

When I went to pick up the car, as soon as I turned the key I received the dashboard message: ‘Service engine soon: Battery no charge.” So I never got to drive it off the lot. The service manager told me that technically it would cost another $100 deductible since it was really another service call! I argued that, and the dealership did replace the alternator, covered under the warranty, without adding an additional $100 deductible.
When the car was ready I was only able to pick it up on a Sunday morning and was assured that it would be left out for me.


THIRD PROBLEM

I drove 45 miles on Sunday morning to find my car locked in the compound!:banghead:

FOURTH PROBLEM

I called the dealership and told them to deliver the car!! They did.... but they delivered it with the dashboard message: “Service engine soon: ignition system problem.” Now it takes a real idiot to deliver a car from the service department that needs servicing! :want:

I am now fed up, out of patience, and totally void of all confidence in both this car and the dealer. I phoned and told him to take the car back! I was told that there is only a 3 day return policy and a 30 day swap policy. The best he could do is to come and pick it up and service it again! It made no difference to him that he sold me a lemon that flashes computer messages every time you turn the key. It made no difference to him that I may have owned the car longer than 30 days but that it hasn’t run longer than 30 days! It made no difference that in the 84 days I owned this car it has been serviced for an emissions problem an alternator replacement, and an ignition system failure! His best comment was: “Well, these aren’t big problems.” Well, good! So the lemon will just go into servicing once a week with little problems! That is suppose to make me feel better!:banghead:

Last night the owner of this dealership and I went around again and he said that he might swap it for me for another car, but that he doesn’t know what is on his lot... he would check. It has been 24 hours and I have not heard from him so I guess he has a pretty big lot!

I am not letting anyone pick up the car and fix it, lest it be interpreted as my consent to keep this car!

By the way, the sticker in the window of this car also brags of a 110 point inspection. I wonder what they inspect? Not alignment! Not trunk latches! Not bulbs! Not battery drains! Not weak alternators! Not emissions sensors! And, not whatever it is that is now wrong with the ignition system.

I have an appointment with my attorney tomorrow evening! I’ll let you all know how this goes. I am also going to contact Better Business and Consumer Protection. This dealership is large with more than just Cadillac cars. It is in central Pennsylvania, Florida and Tennessee. There is also an article about this dealership in Wards. You wouldn’t think it could get this bad! I will let you all know the outcome of this and let you all know the name of this dealership when I find out how things will end. I WOULD LIKE TO GIVE THIS DEALERSHIP MORE TIME TO STRAIGHTEN THIS PROBLEM OUT BEFORE I POST THERE NAME ALL OVER THE INTERNET. BUT I’LL BE BACK!!!