Cadillac Owners Forum banner

Going from 1st to 2nd gen CTS

1489 Views 26 Replies 6 Participants Last post by  Padgett
Picked up my 1st gen from service today. Made some basic things but my mechanic said it would soon be time for some more expensive repairs.

I have been looking for a 2nd gen CTS-V for a while and was close before x-mas but the vehicle had manual transmission and I want aut.

It is damn difficult to find a good CTS-V in Northern Europe - so back to the mechanic.

He had a 2013 white fully loaded 2nd gen 3.6 estate with Recaro seats and paddle shift. I tried it and it is impressive compared to my old Caddy. And the 3.6 works really well with perfect balance in the vehicle. The car is his own car (no sale - I simply take over the leasing contract) has low mileage and the mechanic has changed a lot of parts just to make it feel like new. Simply put: this is the best kept Cadillac in Northern Europe.

Has any of you driven both the CTS 3.6 and 6.2? I guess you can't compare when it comes to pure acceleration, but how is the handling of the cars, I guess the 6.2 should be nose heavy and brakes on their limits with 567 bhp.

The 3.6 has winter tires, treated with anti corrosion, has towbar - simply all the things I need and would have to buy in case I go for the CTS-V. It is not possible for me to test the CTS-V as I have to import it from Germany.

What would you do?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
1 - 3 of 27 Posts
Since I have no plans to track or autocross the CTS, the 3.6 is to me the perfect engine for it. I have a coupe so is more of a two passenger except in an emergency. Getting a mature adult (let alone two) into the back seat would be....interesting. Once I build a cover for the passthrough I'll just leave the seats folded as a platform. If I need to carry more passengers, I'll take the Jeep.

Must admit I do not understand the purpose of the -V on American roads, the V6 has plenty of go even at freeway speeds. Hardest thing to get used to is the manual mode: move to side and push up or down but have to move back for N-R-P. Since must be in P to open the passenger door, this is mildly annoying.

My other two cars that have manual mode autimagics are just slap left for down or right for up & returns to middle.

The other thing is I have never seen so many buttons. Have put a dot of Velcro on the ones I use the most so do not have to look down.
Well with the 3.73 I would be turning about 1750 rpm in 6th at 90 kph (56 mph) a 3.23 would be about 1500 rpm at the same speed. 60 mph in second for me is about 6500 rpm (redline 7000).

Full throttle in first is hard to steer and second just shoves you back in the seat. 28" tires just changes about 2.5%
Seems like all I need to do is to remove the trunk insignia (already replaced the grille) no one knows what it is anyway. Besides there are A Lot of exotics in Orlando already, you need a clown car to stand out.

Land vehicle Vehicle Car Coupé Luxury vehicle
See less See more
1 - 3 of 27 Posts
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top