Hello CTS owners, I am been lurking here on the forums for the past two weeks and reading up on this wondeful looking car.
A little background on myself, I am a pretty big GM nut, my family is predominatly big 3 owners our in entire life. I myselfy have owned nothing but GM and have been happy, however they all had their shortcomings, especially the older ones.
But now I am in need of a new car, a more well rounded car now that I am a little older. And now matter what I look at, I keep coming back to the CTS but in my area it seems to be only 2008's if it in my price range, and 2009's all seem too have AWD which I do not want despite living in northern Illinois. I also don't want more then 50k mi and want Nav and Xenon's (why buy a luxury car and not have the lux features?).
So this leaves me at the 2008's and 2009's. Which I am ok with. I am very mechanically inclined, I have done pretty major repairs on and kept 2 out of 3 cars i have owned running all the way to 170k+. So I'm not two worried about replacing a Timing Chain and cleaning some valve gunk.
So I want to ask something from all of you, the owners, especially the 2008's, how has your CTS held materials-wise. My 97's cavaliers absolute rattleboxes, my 93 blazer had a riduclous squeak. My 2000 Corvette was pretty damn solid but had a tiny squeak every once in awhile and only had 3 issues in the 4 years and 30k mi's I owned it.
But it seems around mid-2000's GM turned around, because my sisters 06 H3 has 101k mi and has runs and drives new, not a single squeak or rattle, same with a 09 G6 GXP we have in the family with 56k mi. I know that with any car, the number of people that are happy are usually more silent the the ones that are not. Which is what any car forum like. So I really consider (hoping) the problems that are vocalized on the forum represent 10% of the actual car experience.
I read about the rear deck rattle and fix for that, I will be prepared for it. I just want to know how many of you have are HAPPY with the interior noise of your CTS? I test drove a few Acura TL's and i was very disappointed with how loud they are, they are not any quieter then the Accord counter-part (gf has a V6 accord). While a friend's 2008 Malibu i drove was very nicely quiet. I would hope a Cadillac can meet or beat those expectations.
Last question, I can spot the differences between the FE3 suspension (which I want and found one I'll be test driving tomorrow) and the other suspensions due to the polished 18's but how can you tell the difference between the 17's and 18's with the Fe1 and FE2? i searched but they looked the same and it Is hard to tell from pictures a 1" difference.
Before anyone says just go test drive, I am tomorrow, two of them. One with FE3 and one with FE1 (no Xenon's). The FE3 is a smidge out of my price range but is fully loaded and I'll see if I can get creative cause it's also the right color.
But a test drive won't tell me what a car is like a year or 40k mi's from now. So if you can help this guy out and give me some insight, it would be great.
Thank you for taking the time to read my post!
A little background on myself, I am a pretty big GM nut, my family is predominatly big 3 owners our in entire life. I myselfy have owned nothing but GM and have been happy, however they all had their shortcomings, especially the older ones.
But now I am in need of a new car, a more well rounded car now that I am a little older. And now matter what I look at, I keep coming back to the CTS but in my area it seems to be only 2008's if it in my price range, and 2009's all seem too have AWD which I do not want despite living in northern Illinois. I also don't want more then 50k mi and want Nav and Xenon's (why buy a luxury car and not have the lux features?).
So this leaves me at the 2008's and 2009's. Which I am ok with. I am very mechanically inclined, I have done pretty major repairs on and kept 2 out of 3 cars i have owned running all the way to 170k+. So I'm not two worried about replacing a Timing Chain and cleaning some valve gunk.
So I want to ask something from all of you, the owners, especially the 2008's, how has your CTS held materials-wise. My 97's cavaliers absolute rattleboxes, my 93 blazer had a riduclous squeak. My 2000 Corvette was pretty damn solid but had a tiny squeak every once in awhile and only had 3 issues in the 4 years and 30k mi's I owned it.
But it seems around mid-2000's GM turned around, because my sisters 06 H3 has 101k mi and has runs and drives new, not a single squeak or rattle, same with a 09 G6 GXP we have in the family with 56k mi. I know that with any car, the number of people that are happy are usually more silent the the ones that are not. Which is what any car forum like. So I really consider (hoping) the problems that are vocalized on the forum represent 10% of the actual car experience.
I read about the rear deck rattle and fix for that, I will be prepared for it. I just want to know how many of you have are HAPPY with the interior noise of your CTS? I test drove a few Acura TL's and i was very disappointed with how loud they are, they are not any quieter then the Accord counter-part (gf has a V6 accord). While a friend's 2008 Malibu i drove was very nicely quiet. I would hope a Cadillac can meet or beat those expectations.
Last question, I can spot the differences between the FE3 suspension (which I want and found one I'll be test driving tomorrow) and the other suspensions due to the polished 18's but how can you tell the difference between the 17's and 18's with the Fe1 and FE2? i searched but they looked the same and it Is hard to tell from pictures a 1" difference.
Before anyone says just go test drive, I am tomorrow, two of them. One with FE3 and one with FE1 (no Xenon's). The FE3 is a smidge out of my price range but is fully loaded and I'll see if I can get creative cause it's also the right color.
But a test drive won't tell me what a car is like a year or 40k mi's from now. So if you can help this guy out and give me some insight, it would be great.
Thank you for taking the time to read my post!
