Look real nice fancied this till I priced some spares front brake pads £211!!!!
FoF buys parts on the internet - 3/4 days later they arrive and the prices are OK according to him.
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The downfall of most US cars is traditionally the crummy interiors, allegedly.
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Anyone in here run one of these fabled beasts. Give us an indication of real world MPG's , service costs, pro's con's etc, can local competant garage do the spanner work etc.
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... Oh dear, I have a Caddy BLS but Evans-Halshaw have a CLS in Lincoln so I guess I have got to go and have a look this morning... can't hurt can it?... can it?
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Hi
I'm a newbie on this forum and will be taking delivery of a CTS 3.6 tomorrow after extensive research checking it all out. Inspected and test drove it today and it's superb.
Happy to answer any questions going forward.
Regards
Tim
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About 1 month ago there were 15 x CTS @Stratstones /Evans Halshaw in Scotland.
Today there are 5!
So 10 people have bought @£6K each - all cars 10K mls or less - I would like to know about how happy the owners in 6 months time!
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They do look like a lot of car for the money. Have they been daily rentals?
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>>Have they been daily rentals?
2.5-3 yrs old and only 10K mls or less I guess they have been sitting in a field.
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I guess they have been sittingin a field.
Those in a compound i go to regularly spent the whole down time on tarmac.
Tim16V,
i hope you enjoy your car and do please keep us posted, i for one would be very interested to see how she fares, so a full appraisal please and maybe a follow up later on when you've found some things you don't like?
Parts wise i had a good source of very reasonably priced parts from my local American car parts place, most parts would be priced as for say a Escort, but that was on a 5 litre 86 Camaro.
I wouldn't know if the place was still there, but i should imagine a good googling will find others if not.
Quite disappointed, if i could have got just a slightly better price for my old MB i would have taken the plunge meself, i really wanted that dark blue with cream two tone leather...sigh...
I can't say the car is good looking in a European way (thank goodness), but the value for money coupled with a proper engine and gearbox and RWD, and some individuality amongst the cloned overpriced and overrated Euroboxes makes the car very attractive overall.
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These are very solid cars. American cars last a long time if you service them. Google NPR Car Talk and have a listen. I think these are demos or Caddy exec company cars, the execs have moved on to STS's. The 100k is a fact, but only on the Northstar v8, it only needs oil changes, the you change the plugs at 100k. Sadly in this price range there are just v6s. If you buy one, you need to find a really good automatic transmission place. The transmission will not give trouble if you keep an eye on the fluid level and get the fluid changed, the filter and have the bands adjust (Do the new Hydramatics still have bands?) when the manual says. The important thing is they know what they are doing, because this is brain surgery in the motor world. Only problem for most people is gas insurance and the 440 pounds for the tax disc.
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Collected it last night and drove home 60 miles. Very torquey and effortless - lovely. Although it's three years old with 11k on the clock it's nigh on mint. Seriously - it's unmarked and I'm very fussy. Strats did a full service and MoT and I'm delighted - price was £6,891. With that age and mileage it's clearly been sitting around a lot but you have to take this in to account overall.
Initial quality impressions are very good. Also, in the US, the emissions equipment is warranted by law for 100k miles and interestingly the service book goes up to 180k miles (never seen that before!) so the fundamentals are sound and I researched very carefully. Hopefully all will be well.
Tax is £211 as it was registered before end of March 2006 and the insurance is £300 pa but with a bigger excess and I'm quite old - 43!!
Will report of fuel in due course but happy to answer any questions in the meantime. Most of them have gone now and I've just taken a view on it all - no one forced me to buy it!!
Regards
Tim
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As the fella who kicked off this thread I have read everyones input carefully especially Tim above, thanks... reason I hadn't posted any more was because I had not been able to find one locally to look at myself
That changed this morning...
one of two local Evans Halshaws (part of the Stratstone Group) has a 2.8 on his fourcourt I spotted. took it for a test drive.
Obesevations:
Very good ride quality, I went on some boneshaker potholed roads, and smoother dual carriageways. on the boneshaker roads nothing rattled, nothing shook, yet it didn't feel floaty, i could feel the road surface well and the steering felt light but "connected".
On the dual carriageway it felt very good, again not floaty, and taking a bend at speed revealed what I felt anyway was good roadholding when i was perhaps expecting understeer.
Performance - I was expecting to find the 2.8 a little sluggish, compared to my CLK320 but actually it isn;t at all. probably about the same performance as my CLK320. One test I do, is to join a local dual carriageway off a slip road at a point where the dual carriageway is on a fairly steep incline... you need to get going if something big and heavy is steaming up from behind you, its a good real world test, and the CTS 2.8 was fine, picked up speed (from 30 ish upwards) very easily, the kick down responded the way i expected it too, and to be honest I was pleasantly surprised. Still might be tempted by a 3.6 though!
Interior front - very nice - I like it - personal choice but no issues... this one has the TV/SAT NAV thingy which is well placed (some cars have it very low) and the fact that it is controlled by buttons either side of the screen I prefer to a touchscreen, touchscreens get very smudgy, and you have to take you eye off the road to do anything with them.
Interior rear - disappointing amount of space for the size of car. the rear doors feel small, entry for a fairly big fella not that easy, and accomodation felt cramped. Although 3 seat belts are fitted, the centre seating position is fairly useless.. Currently I drive a 2 door Merc CLK, and one reason for possibly changing is the have merc/lexus style leather...toys... V6....in a four door package so as to give other family members a bit more spave comfort- but as discussed above at about 1/3rd the price of lexus GS or somesuch, so the rear accomodation is a factor, if I change from a Coupe, would I want more space in the back? thats the question. i think I would.
Price, for a 2.8 55 plate, 15,000 miles is £6891, but I pointed out to the dealer that on the stock list (albeit another branch) is a 3.6 with 10,000 miles same price, so despite the bargain, I could get maybe even a bit more off or get the 3.6 at same price.
So one questions is should I decide to make the change ... what to do with my Merc CLK
according to Autotrader, if i search for my year and model, the cheapest one is £7295, going up to about £9000. Mine is in lovely nic, though mileage a little high so probably would sit in the middle ( £8kish)
I would like to ask for forum members for their observations...
is the 2nd hand car market relatively lively at the moment?
Are cars selling? or just sitting there un sold at this level?
What sort of deal might I expect the dealer of offer me, against the CTS? whats reasonably and what isn't
Thanks... keep it coming
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Tim
I meant to ask (since you've got the 3.6)
did you test drive it against a 2.8? if so.. what are your observations?
What sort of MPG did you get on your 60 mile trip home?
Does yours have the SATNAV, and if so, how accurate did you find the mapping, are you able to compare it with a TomTom or similar.
Thanks
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GG, i'm in much the same boat as you, though my MB is somewhat older.
Its a 96 E320 coupe, one of the last 124 coupes off the line, with 72K from new and i believe its probably in better condition than most 3 year old cars, overserviced from new (i've had it nearly 7 years now), waxoyled and thoroughly pampered, possibly that old 'no expense spared' cliche could apply.;)
Realistsically i would have wanted to see 3K for my car and then i would have made the difference up and gone for one of these Caddies, and you are to blame by the way, i'd not realised till you started this just what they were despite seeing them daily for months in one of our compounds.
Lets be perfectly honest here, its only the absolute bargain basement prices that are making us look at them anyway, the fact they are so refreshingly different to the thousands of cloned boxes out there is a plus, if they were £15+K like an equivalent MB/BM/Lexus we probably wouldn't bother, i certainly wouldn't at that price as my MB indy wouldn't want to know.
I can't bring myself to put my car on the usual sites, having fielded the most banal questions from imbeciles when i sold my last MB has me dreading the type of potential time waster unbuyers that want the earth for a pittance, and then mess you around something chronic, we all know the type and i don't need them or wish to talk to them.
Larger engined cars are very difficult to shift unless bargains, these Caddies are prime examples.
Thankyou for that enlightening appraisal of the one you test drove, i haven't tested one myself yet, i wouldn't unless in a position to buy, which i am but i will not let some unappreciative or neglectful person have my car for a pittance, i couldn't do that to the vehicle anyway, its too nice.
So i've spent a wedge on car tlc instead this week, new shocks all round, gearbox oil change etc as well as full service.
Will slip a set of discs and pads on all round in the next few weeks too, and top up the waxoyl and keep the old girl which was my intention until your OP made me sit up.
Looks like you'll have to be sharpish in making your choice as these desirable unusual cars seem to be selling quite rapidly, hardly surprising at the price.
Good luck should you decide to do the deal, i'm sorely tempted and will be very interested in a masochistic way to hear just how these cars perform long term.
Edit, the only downside i can see with these is that the value will be very low in say 3 years, but if you get 3+ years trouble free which i fully expect and get £1500 for it you'll still have a bargain.
Edited by gordonbennet on 21/03/2009 at 13:35
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This is how I intend to proceed...
called the dealer back after the drive, asked him to look at the stock so that he could observe that there is a 3.6 with less miles at same price, told him i would either consider the 3.6 or would want a better deal on the 2.8 on his forecourt and asked him to think about it.
Asked him to get back to me on Monday with the following:
1. response to above
2. Offer against my CLK
3. price on an extended warranty
4. price on pre-paid servicing
re 3. I went to a few web-sites of the companies that do this independantly, none of them cover the CTS,
re 4, every car on the forecourt had stickers on it promoting 2 years servicing for £249, small print underneath said for 4cyl cars or smaller, so clearly it doesn't apply to the CTS, but lets see if they want to offer something.
in both cases, i might be able to extract something as deal makers.
if the info he gives me on monday is good, I will ask SWMBO to go and have a look and take it for a drive (she will be using it as much as me) - if she likes it (though she LOVES the merc so who knows...) then I will probably do the deal.
On the other hand, the Merc still drives like new despite the 102,000 miles. one small problem with it I will post in the techical area of this forum....
Guy
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Hi
I did not drive a 2.8 as it emits the same CO2 and has the same official fuel consumption as the 3.6 but a lot less torque (about 180ish ib/ft IIRC vs about 250lb/ft for the 3.6) and this is a heavy car at 1,700 kilos so the 3.6 appears to be the one to go for on these terms.
I'm getting lowish 20's at the moment but the drive home was through the London rush hour and then 50 miles on the motorway. Looking ahead, I think it's going to be 23ish as an average but I've reset the computer so we'll see over the next couple of weeks (this was priced in to the over all equation). With the auto box and the A/C on it's not going to be brilliant. BTW the A/C is unbelievable - must be designed with Arizona in mind.
Re the sat nav, this is the first time I've ever had one but it pinpoints the location and all the minor adjacent roads with surprising accuracy and detail. I'm afraid I've never used a Tom Tom. BTW the TV works well - great if you get stuck in a traffic jam!
Space in the back is 'fair' for a car this size I would say - maybe the RWD has something to do with it.
Regards
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...thanks tim
actually 23Mpg ain't bad all things considered...
now you've had it a short while... does it put a smile on your face when you think how much car you got for the money?
This TV/SATNAV unit... I forgot to ask the dealer ... does it have MP3 support? i read somewhere it has a 40GB hard drive for storing MP3s, how do you load your music on to it... is there a USB socket so you can transfer songs over, or do you have to rip them from the CD player in the dashboard.
the TV is analogue right? so no freeview channels? and doesn't work when moving I guess.
When running the Satnav do you have to leave the DVD ROM in the dash slot, or does it load in to more permanent memory. (i.e hard disk).
Guy
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Guy
I've done about 200 miles this weekend with a fair bit of motorway and it's showing 23mpg average on the computer. This is about what was expected.
It's great. Feels very solid, handles well (RWD convert in three days), very stable on the motorway (almost unreal when changing lanes, it's got a Stabilitrak system whatever that is ), cruises effortlessly and it's great having something 'different'. Even my Mrs is converted now, and the price was very good. People do look at it though and hopefully interest will increase for Cadillac with a few more about. The Bose stereo is clear and powerful.
I certainly don't mean to sound like an advert for Cadillac but first impressions are good and hopfully this will remain the case. I will report anything of interest good, irritating or bad.
The only thing I do not like is the footbrake. When you release it with the catch it makes a horrible loud and cheap 'clang' and threatens your left shin with GBH as it springs up - but that's it so far!
TV is analogue and comes on when you're still. The sat nav is loaded up permanently and I think you update it with newer CD's if you want to.
I'll have to come back to you on the MP3 etc, I'm a technological dinosaur and still buy CD's so have no idea about that at the moment!
Let us know what you do...either way
Regards
Tim
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Sounds as if you did the right thing Tim.
Will you be changing your handle to 24v now?
I am envious, but not in a destructive censorious way.
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Lud
I think it's a case of 'so far so good' but I'll keep the '16V' handle for now in case I have to move back there a bit sharpish!
I've decided to take a bit of a flyer on this really - Strats included 3 months warranty and hopefully all will be well longer term...
Regards
Tim
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All
The service book provides for:
1. Spark plugs at 100k miles (it actually says 'every' 100k miles and the same for those below inc the coolant or if necessary!)
2. Coolant at 170 k miles
3. Auto transmission fluid & filter at 100k miles
These are chain driven engines so no cambelt to think about.
The rest is basic so should be OK by a competent garage. Annual oil changes are set in stone and particularly important in the context of a timing chain.
That's enough from me for now.
Tim
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I've been following this thread with interest. I like Cadillacs, particularly the STS 'Northstar' they previously released over here.
My first assumption was that this car was a rebadged SAAB like the BLS (based on the 9-3 IIRC) but apparently it is US built, chain driven V6 and rear wheel drive. Sounds good.
The only thing that puts me off is the lack of dealers, there seems to be only two - one in Birmingham and one in London. So what do you do about servicing? What will parts availability/pricing be like from the US?
I'm certainly tempted.
Edited by Marc on 22/03/2009 at 23:11
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The only thing that puts me off is the lack of dealers there seems to be only two - one in Birmingham and one in London. So what do you do about servicing?
I think some Vauxhall dealers are also Cadillac dealers as well - certainly Drive Vauxhall in central Bristol was/is a Cadillac dealer. My local VX franchise is happy to take on Chevrolet servicing so I guess they'd tackle a Cadillac as well and have access to genuine parts.
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Monday, the sales guy called me and offered me £7250 for my Merc.
I was pleasantly surprised, but tried not to show it, simply asking "so you will put £359 in my hand then" - that Caddy is £6981... he said "yes.. minus one years road tax"
So subject to SWMBO having a quick look, decided to go ahead. i got a couple of insurance quotes (lowest was about £340, then called back, and qualified again the deal commercially and said that I would want Mrs G to have a look.
but Mrs G has been working nights, earlies she could go over was this evening. I called to arrange for her to see the car, the salesman was not in so I spoke to the manager
"your the fella with the Merc" he said, so clearly knows about my interest.
He told me that they had 2 other interested parties, and then told me that he couldn't honour the part-ex value his salesman had made. Oh I wish I got it in writing, it would be binding then. I think what has happened is that he has realised he can sell it for more (net) and is back peddling on an offer made and qualified twice on the phone,
Where do i stand on that? I think I still want it, even if it costs me a grand.
Guy
Edited by Webmaster on 26/03/2009 at 00:43
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>it makes a horrible loud and cheap 'clang' and threatens your left shin
I take that this is a foot-operated handbrake?
I remember having a Chevrolet Blazer on hire in the 'States and it did exactly this. When I bitched about it to the locals, they looked at me like I'd just landed from Mars and pointed out (slowly and using only short words for the foreign idiot) that the reason it's called an "emergency brake" is it's only there for emergencies. Parking is done by putting the lever into the position marked "park" on the transmission. Someone even used the word "dumbass", I was mortified.
I also had the dubious pleasure of a Pontiac Grand Am. That had a handbrake, but it was of such tinny construction that it was quite obviously designed to be used just the once as any serious repeated application would easily rip the handle off the quadrant.
Both these in San Franciso, where there are signs everywhere pointing out it's a legal requirement to apply the emergency brake when parking (it's a tad hilly).....
Edited by Dynamic Dave on 08/10/2009 at 14:49
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Yes TV is analogue.....You could connect to cable TV, but draging a few miles if co ax behind you might seriously affect your MPG !!! And no it wont work while you are driving, as picture goes as soon as you put car in gear .Sound stays on. Would you want to drive and watch TV at same time ??A few penalty points for that !!! CADDYMAN.
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>>Have they been daily rentals? 2.5-3 yrs old and only 10K mls or less I guess they have been sitting in a field. No. not daily rentals, and not living in a field, they were mostly Stratstones demonstrators or managers cars. With the economy in the pits and poor sales of ALL luxury cars Stratstones decided to sell these cars before the end of warranty period. The problem with this was suddenly they flooded the market driving the prices down ( good for potential buyers ).That was some time ago and now and nearly all were sold ...I bought one!. NO REGRETS. You will now struggle to find a CTS for sale compared with the 150 plus you had to chose from a year or so ago. CADDYMAN.
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EXPENSIVE BRAKE PADS? Try on line Ebc Brakes. For CTS 3.6 (05 onwards) Front £58.07 Rear £39.11. 800 Dollars for a new headlight !!!! ? Dont smash it then !
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