2004 Cadillac CTS (2 year report)

[kodos78]

I mentioned in my 2006 Ford Explorer EB review that we had traded in this car for the Explorer. We bought the car in March 2004, so we had it for almost 2 years. We had 24,000 miles on the car when we traded it in.

Pros: Well built, very comfortable seats. Nothing was falling apart, no rattles or squeaks. Very reliable. Exterior design.

Cons: Poor visibility, terrible alignment from factory. Dash appears cheap, though it is full of soft touch materials! Center console is a little tacky. Hard to get some items into the relatively narrow trunk opening.

Options: We had the standard 3.6L VVT V6, with the Luxury Package. Dual power seats, standard audio system (CD player, no navigation). We got the entire car for around $30k even if memory serves brand new. Trade in value was $22k which wasn't too bad, considering that the GM employee firesale has pretty much driven resale values into the gutter.

We hadn't planned on turning this car in until the 4 year warranty had been completed and the car had been paid off for at least a year. It was my wife's car, I drove the SRT-4 except on weekends when we'd go out and run errands and what not. We recently had a second baby, and the trunk just wasn't big enough for a double stroller and any other items you might need to carry. In addition, the in-laws are coming in town shortly, and we would have to take 2 cars to do anything (the rear seat is rather narrow in the CTS, and having two car seats meant that the 3rd passenger would have to be shaped like Olive Oil). My wife was rather reluctant to let the CTS go, she really loved it (first car she really loved, she had a Neon and an Accord previous to the CTS). It was our first car we bought together, and it brought both of our children home from the hospital! So we had lots of good memories of it.

We had the two tone option inside, which I think really livens up the car. You can see more of the design cues of the interior and it makes the passenger compartment a more pleasant place to live in. The center console is the only thing that really is out of place, I think if the center console was redesigned with better looking materials it would make the car look a little less cheap on the inside. All the interior materials other than the console are first rate. Soft touch materials adorn virtually every surface. The seats are very comfortable and have that "Cadillac Leather" smell. Quite a difference from what passes as 'leather' in our Explorer (feels more like vinyl quite honestly).

The biggest problem we had with the car in the time we had it was that the car's alignment was terrible from the factory. Before the time of our first oil change I could notice the wear was uneven on the tires. Both of the last two GM cars I've had ('97 Corvette and the CTS) have had spotty alignments. Neither the SRT-4 or the Explorer seem to suffer from this fate however. Odd, but a minor inconvenience. The only other minor quality control problems were that the hood liner rubbed against the plastic engine cover slightly scuffing it, and our headlights were slightly out of alignment when we purchased the car. Things that got fixed on our first dealer visit. Nothing else in the car had a quality problem however. Panel gaps were consistent, and I would rate the paint job as an 8/10. There was some orange peel on the trunk lid. The paint really shined up well when you would polish the car and seemed pretty thick however.

The observed mileage city/hwy was about 21.6mpg. Just a bit shy of my wife's 4 cylinder '99 Accord (it would get about 22.5mpg). Not that great, but not that bad either.

The verdict? The car needs another engine option (between the 255hp V6 and the 400hp V8) that will allow it to be competitive with the G35. And if the interior was updated, then GM would have a tremendous car that would truly be able to capture the 'standard of the world' moniker. We had zero real problems with the vehicle, and it is very sharp. When you see a CTS coming down the road, there's no doubt as to what car you are seeing!

We loved the car, and are sorry to see it go. Unfortunately for GM, the weak point in their lineup for people who want to stay in the Cadillac brand is the SRX -- it appears to have some spotty reliability problems, and keeping the interior essentially the same as the CTS made it really hard to like. 2 years in the CTS interior was fine, and we could do another 3 easily. However, swallowing that interior in a $40k+ car is a little harder to do.

[member12]

I am glad you got the entire car for around 30K instead of just parts of it. :-)

I agree, the 250hp 3.6L engine should be in all buicks, and uplevel Chevrolets. Cadillac needs a 275hp-300hp 3.6L engine.

But it is nice to have a car that runs on regular. If you would have gotten a G35, you might get some extra horses, but you would have to buy premium.

I can't wait for the new CTS.

[CobaltSScrazy]

me either the new cts will be amazing so i hear, its supposed to be slightly bigger with a little longer wheel base and a stunning design. the 3.6 will be the base engine in 4-5 years....too long i know but better late than never.

[pagemaster]

We had zero real problems

What minor problems have you had?

[kodos78]

The aforementioned alignment issue, and the slight scuffing of the engine plastic cover. That's about it.

Originally Posted by pagemaster

What minor problems have you had?