2006 Cadillac CTS from North America - Comments

GM must do everything it can to stop these problems at their dealerships, especially Cadillac dealerships. GM must also stop trying to cut costs on a car by using cheaper materials. This has been seen on many new American cars, even the ones people otherwise like very much, and the money that may be saved from such an act will only be lost in the form of consumers who turn away after hearing or seeing such cheapness. If GM, and Cadillac in particular, wants to be number one in the US market again, cheapness should be a word used only when speaking of pens and wastebaskets.

Simply put, GM - If you wouldn't give even one out of all of your products to your own parents, what on earth is that car doing at your dealerships?

AND you wonder WHY GM maybe going into bankruptcy.

At this moment every car company in the world is looking at bankruptcy. My 2005 CTS has gone 60,000 miles without so much as a hick-up. Dealers do vary greatly in this area, my local dealer just closed due to this. Many dealers sell a dozen other brands now days like Hyundai or KIA along with Cadillac- they forget what Cadillac service is all about. Many mechanics do more damage than good when attempting to fix something. Find a good mechanic and you find the best dealerships. Me, I fix my cars myself if I need to- My Eldorado's Have 225,000 and 335,000 miles and will probably live longer than I will. This CTS will last me until the Gas in the world runs out. GM makes great cars from my experience (30 years driving them)

My 2006 CTS engine just blew up, apparently there was less than 1 liter of oil left in it.

The dash never lit up to say that there was low oil, no engine light, nothing.

The dealership ripped the engine apart (at my expense) and found there was a defect and that the engine has significant oil blow by, but GM refuses to cover it, even though a couple months earlier another CTS was in with the same problem and they covered that.

I will never own another GM in my lifetime.

And this is all part, in my personal opinion at least, of why GM is where they are today (Chapter 11 court, and to emerge out of that under federal government ownership). With the exception of a few stalwart rock-solid models, they made almost ridiculously poor marketing and development decisions (really need to mass produce a 425 hp 40,000 dollar CAMARO right now??? to take just one example). And the Pontiac division would require a whole other book to be written to document its ridiculous designs, subpar build qualities, and poor reliability.

The sad fact is GM has been generally beaten out for years now in the build quality and reliability and even customer service sectors of the market by foreign competition (much of which is, love it or hate it, built at least partially right here in the US now by American workers). All these ultra free-marketeer and uber-capitalist Americans waving flags and yelling Buy American Only (as if there even is such a thing left anymore), take note; the free market spoke...

This entire thread encapsulates why the once-invincible GM lays dying on life support while I type this. How on earth did a company with such massive resources, history, brand identity, customer loyalty, and intelligent people mess it all up so badly?

I can't remember getting into a GM car that was built in the last 40 years and being impressed by it. Even as a kid I could see they were flimsy, primitive, cheap, and uninspired. By age 12 I could see that all a Cadillac was was a Chevy with leather seats and some goofy gadgets thrown in at extreme cost. It appeared to me even then that GM buyers were being had on some level or other.

My brother bought a CTS brand-new in 2007. I was impressed by the "Art and Design" styling but when I got in I was like, "What?" I was expecting Lexus but it was more like Dodge. I reached to the side to adjust the seat and there was no switch. Turns out it was a manually adjusted seat, like I had in my 83 Toyota pickup. IN A CADILLAC. Cadillac, which became synonymous with "luxury". In Mercedes, Lexus, Acura, etc. and all the other import luxury brands, things like power seats are standard, but I guess GM feels they can wring out a few more bucks making it an option -- all the while destroying their brand.

My grandfather just bought a Buick and when I got in I thought it was a 1995 or something based on how cheap the interior was (vinyl "leather", cheap switches, plastic everything). Turns out it was a 2005. Has GM learned nothing? They should have invested money in quality materials and better design instead of paying Led Zeppelin millions to use their music in their commercials. If you build a great car, people WILL buy it. But if you build a sub-par car, you have to spend millions making it look sexy so that people will be fooled into buying it.

The new CTS, the upcoming Buick LaCrosse 2010, and the Buick Enclave seem to be decent cars. But its too little too late. You can talk about union contracts and credit crunch and all that but in the end, GM committed suicide by slow poisoning.

QUOTE: "And the Pontiac division would require a whole other book to be written to document its ridiculous designs, subpar build qualities, and poor reliability."

^ Two more recent cars under the Pontiac division that I drove that I felt did NOT have those qualities (although not everyone felt their styling was inspired enough) were the newer GTO and the new G8. But ironically both of them are actually Australian-designed & built, and therefore one can sense a good dose more 'Euro' in their interiors & overall feel -- far different from, say, a Grand Prix or a Vibe or that downright silly Aztek.

" (really need to mass produce a 425 hp 40,000 dollar CAMARO right now??? to take just one example) "

No, they don't NEED to, but with over 22,000 of them pre-sold at prices up to $10,000 OVER invoice it WILL help their bottom line and the profits of struggling dealers. High interest cars bring high dollars. A friend of mine at a Ford dealership recently told me that they had sold one Mustang GT500 at $12,000 over invoice. When the more sensibly priced and more fuel-efficient Camaro V-6 goes on sale in the $20,000 range my guess is that Chevy will have a runaway hit on their hands.

As for GM quality, it is good... VERY good. The Buick has toppled Lexus from its lofty perch atop the J.D. Powers list in customer satisfaction, the Corvette outranks European sports cars costing 4 times as much, and the Cadillac CTS is the fastest production sedan on the planet. It is also a VERY high quality, well-built car.

We greatly prefer domestics for their greater reliability and higher build quality. We currently own a 9-year-old Pontiac and a 7-year-old GMC SUV. Both could pass for new, and the only repair either has required is a headlight bulb. We also own a Mustang and a Fusion. The Fusion is INCREDIBLY well built (much more so than the Mustang). Neither Ford has ever required a single repair.

I think we should be proud of the accomplishments of Ford and GM in recent years. I would take a GM or Ford product over a BMW or Mercedes any day (and my family has had those brands as well).

"At this moment every car company in the world is looking at bankruptcy."

No, only Ford, GM, and Chrysler are looking at bankruptcy. And GM and Chrysler did go bankrupt. Honda and Toyota are doing just fine, probably because they build quality vehicles and don't overpay their executives.

I want to get a hold of the person who left that comment on 4/1/09 regarding CTS engine blowing up. About a month ago... the SAME thing happened to me with my 2006 CTS. And they told me the same things about the oil level. That's BS! I am now fighting with GM to cover it. Did you get your car fixed?