Article Comments - Cadillac V-Series: V for Vexation

12 messages, Last post on Mar 21, 2009 at 4:14 PM

You are in the Cadillac CTS/CTS-V Forum. Your Hosts are pat & karens

What is this discussion about? Cadillac STS-V, Cadillac CTS-V, Cadillac XLR-V, Sedan

Cadillac V-Series: V for Vexation - The V-Series cars have garnered mixed reviews since Cadillac introduced the original CTS-V in 2004. The V-Series idea began with the Cadillac Northstar LMP racing sports car that went to the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2000 - 2002, and then found its expression in the CTS-V that entered the SCCA's Speed GT racing championship in 2004 and then won the championship in 2005-'07. Yet for every person who wanted the V-Series to be a racing car, another suggested that a luxury car in the style of a Mercedes-Benz AMG might be a better answer. (more)

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#10 of 12 Re: Quality counts [sptsdn] by kqqlv Mar 21, 2009 (12:53 pm)
Replying to: sptsdn (Dec 01, 2007 1:28 pm) As long as we have people who rely on outdated talking points and myths that are demonstratably false we will continue to have discussions like this where North American car quality is belittled as if it were still 1985. Anyone who REALLY is into performance cars that are in the class of M's, R's, AMG's and V's and has followed any number of quality and reliability metrics that are published would know that Cadillac is equal to or superior to Audi, BMW, and until recently was miles ahead of Mercedes (as was everyone), when it comes to reliability and quality. BMW and Merc rely heavily on buyer loyalty and the got-a-have-it prestige factor. Just check out the JD Powers run down on quality over the last few years. In 2008 BMW was well below the industry average as was Mercedes for MANY years prior. Mercedes for years suffered from VERY poor quality. They have clawed their way back recently. So why are we talking as if that is not the case? Being a mechanical engineer myself I can tell you that the reason Cadillac doesn't put $20K worth of leather in the interior of the V is because they don't want to. They want to undercut the price of those M's, R's and AMG's by $20K-$30K. The reason they only sell 5K V's a year is because that is all they want to build. In 2008 only 2.5K M5's were sold. Why?....that's all they built !! V's don't even get a chance to get to the sales floor before they are gobbled up. I own a 2005 V and when compared to the M5 it can more than hold its own in any performance catagory on any day and do it it for $35,000 less. The guy in the 2005 M5 I passed at Nelson Ledges Race Track in Ohio last summer spent $85K because he wanted lots of leather on the inside, the BMW tag on the outside and probably thought the quality was superior to my V....but he was wrong.....and JD powers said so. Please spare us all your stories about friends who owned a Caddy and had transmission trouble. Because I'm bored with repeating the story of my office buddy's 2006 M3 that has cost him thousand's of dollars in mechanic bills since his warranty ran out. Hint to future car buyers: It is NO LONGER considered fashionable, vogue or a sign of snobby Eurocentric sophistication to belittle North American car quality. As we used to say down in Texas....That dog don't hunt! Replies to this message: cdnpinhead (Mar 21, 2009 1:17 pm) kqqlv (Mar 21, 2009 4:14 pm)
#11 of 12 Re: Quality counts [kqqlv] by cdnpinhead Mar 21, 2009 (1:17 pm)
Replying to: kqqlv (Mar 21, 2009 12:53 pm) Paragraphs are good. They help the reader follow the logic of the post and the train of thought, assuming either exists. That said, I did plow through. The CTS has had rear-end troubles and a number of other less-significant issues over the years. These are facts. Even so, it appears to be generally recognized as being a worthy vehicle. These are not good times to be marketing an upscale status toy, regardless of the make. If you want to discuss snob appeal, the Cadillac will come up short most of the time, if not always. If all you care about is how well it does on the road & how it makes you feel, then who cares what others think? I bought into the Lincoln LS hype nine or so years ago & can certify that American manufacturers can either drop or de-content a car in an instant. With the LS, they did both. I will never own another American car; the LS was my first and last. I went British, Swedish, Japanese & Canadian before the LS. Now I'm back to Asian. If the CTS, in its various forms, remains through the next few years, I'm sure it'll continue to be shown to be a worthy car. Whether the uplifted-nose crowd will ever consider it worthy remains to be seen. I'm guessing it'll never happen. You never know, though -- it's a fickle group. Who knows? Maybe you're driving what will be universally recognized as a classic in ten years. Maybe not. Replies to this message: kqqlv (Mar 21, 2009 4:14 pm)
#12 of 12 Re: Quality counts [cdnpinhead] by kqqlv Mar 21, 2009 (4:14 pm)
Replying to: cdnpinhead (Mar 21, 2009 1:17 pm) My V's wheel hop is annoying. Reports are the 09 has nailed it. My buddy would lick I-75 clean from Tipp City to Sidney rather than give up his never ending M3 transmission bills if it meant he could never have a BMW again. Engaging in tit 4 tat antidotal examples of poor or superior car quality is a chump's game....not that you are a chump. As JD Powers has shown, and when you take predictable statistical error into account, all but a few models and makes can claim essentially equal quality. Get a clue cdnPINHEAD. Bragging about the fact you will never own another American car again is nothing to ..............well.........brag about. It makes you look silly, uninformed and frankly like a Asiancentric snob.