Well, I finally had the opportunity (and reason) to drive a CTS-V today. The specs on the car:
Black/Black, ultraview sunroof, standard seats (non-recaro); 3200 miles.
Automatic.
I went into this with fairly high expectations at this point due to sheer lack of cars that appeal to me even in the least. I thought this one was still in the running. Color me surprised.
I read many reviews and all said the stock seats were "bad" and the recaro's were the way to go. People weren't exagerating. The stock, non recaro seats, are some of the most uncomfortable seats I have ever had ths misfortune of sitting in....
That aside, I have and continue to be unimpressed with the build quality of the car, mostly on the exterior (misaligned panels, paint drips, etc). I was even able to overlook that. I got into the car, the interior was decent but the plastics have a very cheap feel to them and the "fake" carbon fiber is actually less realistic looking than what I had done to my lexus IS-F grille. The navigation/interface and audio controls were all decent. I liked the way you can turn off the traction control from the steering wheel. Being an automatic the car of course has a "manual shift" mode, with no paddle shifters - just ridiculous unreachable buttons on the back of the steering wheel that I didn't even bother with. I just used the shifter itself to do the manual shifting...
First off, the car sounds nice (engine, exhaust, supercharger). Then you tap the gas. Then you push it a little more............... and more... and more. And then the car starts to move. It's as if it has the worst throttle response system ever. It is completely non-linear. Driving a stock IS-F in NON-sport mode is comparable, and still not as bad as the CTS-V. You feel like you need to floor it to get the car even rolling.. it's very bizarre.
Once on the road I was actually very happy with the ride QUALITY of the car, due to the magnaride suspension. The car handles poor road surfaces with ease.. but things go horribly wrong after that. It sounds as if cadillac didn't spend any money on insulation for the car. The road noise from the rear end at 60MPH on a "decent" road is almost so loud that you have to talk OVER it. I was really surprised by that, honestly.
The other issues I experienced were a bit interesting. The car had just been washed and had armorall (sp) but on the tires. I think it spread on to the actual tires themselves creating a pretty slippery contact patch. I was driving the car in "sport" mode (transmission shifter in manual mode but haven't actually instigated any manual shifts yet) and "track mode" (I think it was called) which is something that is supposed to loosen up the traction control. Let me tell you, I was disappointed and baffled. Half of the time I stepped on the gas (Didn't even dare to go WOT) at a decent speed the car would BUCK like a bronco, it almost felt as if it was slamming into the rev limiter (but it wasn't). It was really, really bizarre. I can only assume it was due to the wheels not having proper contact, but I can't verify that.
Even when the car was able to get traction transmission shifts were harsh and extremely unpleasant. Really harsh. I was kind of surprised by this and the utter lack of refinement. At this point I was starting to wonder if I was either "doing something wrong", or the car had an issue, or.. I don't even know. Either way, it (transmission) in automatic was far from impressive. Put it into manual mode and it's even worse. Shifts were slow, unsettling, and seemed somewhat disruptive to the chassis due to the abruptness (and the HUGE delay between shifts). I was really, really disappointed with the transmission. I wasn't expecting perfection, but I wasn't expecting... whatever it is you call this, either.
The brakes were another issue. I don't know if the previous owner drove it really hard for ~4K miles, but the rotors were absolutely warped. Braking resulted in a reasonable amount of vibration through the pedal and rest of the chassis. Disappointed yet again.
At this point I think i was done with the test drive...
Seats: Fail
Transmission: Fail
Brakes: Fail
Quality: Fail
Engine:
Ride quality: Pass
This is a pretty quick review, obviously - but I wanted to at least document my experience. I really, really wanted to like this car and it failed me in almost every way.
