2011 Cadillac STS

[Robert Hall]

For the last week because of not having a single drivable car in the driveway, I've had a white diamond '11 STS as a rental.

Taking it back to Enterprise tommorow.

First impressions: Smooth. Quiet. Comfortable. Good exhaust roar when I put my foot down.

Like the color combination--white diamond w/ two-tone tan interior. I've always liked the exterior design of the STS,

crisp and clean..not as aggro as the CTS, but definitely a Cadillac.

This is the first current Caddy I've driven, have driven an '00-02 vintage DTS and a few mid-late '90s era deVilles.

Seats are adjustable and comfortable, not sport seats, but wide enough for fat American behinds (my size 40 fit fine). Like the ventilation fans.

Easy to adjust seat, wheel, mirrors for comfort and visibility. Thick pillars, but still easy enough to see out of.

Multifunction stalks worked well--like how they have the lights on the left, wipeys on teh right, just like my Jeep.

Like the struts for trunk hinges instead of the cheap c-hinges so many sedans have. Seemingly small opening, big trunk.

A few minor nits to pick:

No inside trunk release--odd (Edit: found it, hidden in the map pocket, same color as teh door trim..hard to see)

Foot pedal pb took some getting used to, I guess i'm too used to center console pbs..I grabbed the hood release a

couple times thinking it was the pb release

Some interior plastics are hard...door panels and center console I noticed. Tolerable, though.

noticed the emergency flasher button was on console. Odd

Stereo seems from 2005...6 disk changer is slow to change between disks. Eject and load is very slow. Sound is great, though.

No ipod jack, but white/red/yellow A/V jacks in the armrest..odd..never seen one of those in a car.

Some quirks w/ the locks. Example: parked, unlocked all the doors, got out, took my dry cleaning drop-off out of the back,

came back 5 min later, front doors were still unlocked, but the rear doors had locked themselves.

Maybe it's a setting or something.

Positives:

Soaks up the miles very well on road trips..very comfortable for hours on the road--freeways, twisties.

More than enough power to move around, whether passing slow trucks going uphill at 7000ft elevation, or 90-100mph on the freeway passing a line of trucks.

Spent time on freeways, in towns, big cities, suburbia, rural back roads, twisty mountain roads, all over Phoenix/Scottsdale and northern AZ.

In rain, sunshine, triple digit heat (great cold A/C), day, night...

Did notice a fair amount of tire noise and harshness on rough roads.

Sad to see the STS go out of production...the Seville and STS names have a long history with Cadillac.

All in all, it's been a thoroughly enjoyable experience...after a week of living w/ it day in day out, this is definitely a car I could use as a daily driver for 5 years or more.

Edited August 15, 2011 by Cubical-aka-Moltar

[ocnblu]

It could be yours!

[Robert Hall]

It could be yours!

Thinking about it.. I want to drive the CTS and Chrysler 300C also. And I'm still fond of the Town Car.

[Northstar]

CPO STS-V?

[regfootball]

love love love diamond white.

no one can fault anyone for liking the STS......as long as you say, the admittance of some datedness and cheapness inside.......

the 300 is such a huge beast.....and the STS does not have the stigma that the 300 has.......

[Drew Dowdell]

The locking thing is completely programmable through the menu system.

[smk4565]

The 2 main problems with this car are that used ones, even like 2008 models with low miles, sell for less than half what it costs new and secondly, the a CTS is better. So there is no reason really to buy one new when you can get a used STS for half, or a better CTS for less.

I test drove a V8, rear drive STS once, and it felt floaty and body rolled a lot. I was really disappointed with the handling, that is what turned me away from it.

[CSpec]

Yeah I was never a fan of this car. The styling is a weird mix of strange and really dull, and it was never a legitimate threat to the "real" luxury brands. One of the weakest GM offerings of the Lutz era IMO.

[z28luvr01]

Eh, beauty's in the eye of the beholder. I've always been a fan of the STS - I like the styling (especially the 08-up refresh) and it kind of fit in as the CTS's bigger, more formal brother. I agree that GM was way too ambitious with the pricing, but that's neither here nor there now as the car is out of production. Frankly it's one of the best used car values out there today.