2014 Loaner CTS4 2.0T

[G. David Felt]

So my Escalade rear tail gate would not open. Suspect the electronic switch failed. I wish they still had key access as I had to climb over to unload my stuff I had loaded into the Escalade yesterday when I got home.

 

Took it in and they gave me a new 2014 CTS4 2.0T to drive.

 

Initial reactions:

 

Car is great in Touring mode, more responsive in Sport mode but also more noticeable turbo lag.

Love the center stack with touch screen very intuitive and easy to use.

Lower portion that opens and shows the hidden storage / charging bay was noisy. Surprised for a new auto with only 2500 miles on it.

Rest of the leather, fit and finish was really nice.

Enjoyed the Paddle shifters. Was fun to use.

Dash is simply lovely. Cadillac really has stepped up their game and give a superior dash over BMW or MB.

Looked in the trunk, nice and big. Opened up the small door to the battery and wondered how they get the battery in without taking out the full carpet.

Charcoal metallic paint is very nice.

Sky roof is awesome.

Wish it had NAV, but at least I have XM.

Touch screen is very responsive and over all I like the interface.

Annoying is the lane departure warning and the rumble seat affect.

Annoying is also the blind spot that constantly senses cars on the freeway and flashes. I see this as a major distraction that will cause more accidents than it will help prevent.

 

Over all, I have to say the new CTS are very nice and superior in many ways over the BMW 3 series or MB C class.

[Z-06]

You know that it competes with E and 5, unless you got the ATS.

[smk4565]

New C-class goes on sale August 25th though, and Road & Track said the interior is possibly better than any other German car except for the S-class.  That could be a game changer in the small luxury segment.   But the CTS is mid-size, actually the CTS is one of the biggest cars in the mid-size segment. the current CTS is the same length as the 2005-2010 STS.

 

I would like a back up camera, that is something my car doesn't have that I think is useful.  I also could care less about blind spot warning systems, maybe in a big SUV that does have huge blind spots it is useful, but I don't need the side mirrors lighting up every 10 seconds when a car is there.  These nanny systems almost encourage distracted driving, although I would be in favor of self driving cars.

[Cmicasa the Great]

Again this car should have been the STS and the ATS should have been the CTS.  So many things would have fell better in place.What messed this up was despite the CTS (Gen 1 and 2) always being compared to the 3series because of price.. when the 2nd Gen VSeries debuted they benchmarked and improved on the M5, then all comparisons were towards the M5. 

 

That being said.. I LOVED my time in the VSport Short Review from my time at GMI as LovelyMoon back in January

 

Test Drove the CTS-VSport

Was actually out on Thursday in the CTS-V Coupe and decided to pay a visit to the Cadillac dealership after seeing that a colleague of mine had 2 days earlier purchased a black 2014 Cadillac CTS-VSport. He took me for a spin in her and constantly commented on how great the strides were that Cadillac had made since the ’95 Eldolrado he last owned in the early 2000s. He was coming from an Audi A6, which he had had for several years, and genuinely seemed to think that the Cadillac purchase was in his words “next level of luxury.” I agreed. 

The ride led me to embark on locating a V-Sport to test drive myself. A White Diamond on Black 2014 Cadillac CTS 3.6L Twin Turbo V-Sport Premium for $70,990. I did a check on Cadillac’s Website and found that this Premium Model is pretty much maxed out and the only thing that you could really do to push that price up more would be to add the Wood or Red interior for an additional $1650. This is essentially the MSRP of my CTS-V Coupe. Before we get in a hoopla over that, I have to say that getting out of my VSeries and getting into this V-Sport was not as much of a night and day experience in terms of power delivery as one would have thought considering the 126HP difference. My SigmaVseries is 200lbs heavier than the Alpha VSport. That could have accounted for a bit of the lack of shock. 

Power Delivery:

This car moves. I mean moves. I’m not gonna say that it is as fast as my Vseries, but I will say that it has power delivery that seems to come in more instantaneously than the S/C V8. It will snap your neck just as quick as the VSeries too. Think of it as getting punched in the face by the Rock (V-Sport) versus getting punched in the face by John Cena (Vseries). Its kinda of a series of face reconstruction kinda year, if you get my drift. 

In the 30 minute test drive, not once did I think to myself I miss the power of the Vseries. Not once did I feel as though I wasn’t going to be capable of making a few pre C7 Vette or Porsche drivers feel ashamed if they tried to challenge. Not once did I think that this would not be a nice replacement for a Sigma CTS-V owner if he/she wanted to have something a wee bit less ferocious. With “wee bit” being really wee wee. 

Interior vs my Interior:

OK. I hate situations like this. I bought a CTS-V that stickered in at around $75 large which still came in close to a nicely equipped VSport model . Saying all that, my VSeries was pretty premium with an interior that made Benz, Lexus, Audi, and BMW on lookers salivate and smile while doing it. THIS V-SPORT’S interior kind blows mine away. Suede inserts, much better quality leather, larger Nav screen, CUE!!! (must have been reworked, because I experience absolutely no lag and it worked flawlessly), Heads-Up display, Seat Vibration Alert, the list can go on and on. If my VSeries interior was a 10, this cracks the meter at a cool 13. The only interior I’ve seen that looks as nice is the VSport interior my colleague has due to the Wood accents and the ELR that was parked on the lot next to the tester I drove. 

Conclusion:

If this is indicative of the year over year strides Cadillac has made since the debut of the XTS, then I am fully confident that the Omega Flagship is going to make Benz’s S-Class seem like a down grade from a Benz S-Class to a Hyundai Equus.

Edited August 14, 2014 by Cmicasa the Great

[Cmicasa the Great]

The Seat vibration alert and lane departure warning can be turned off. It is the first thing I think I did when I bought my new Yukon

[smk4565]

Agreed that the CTS name should have been used on what is now the ATS, people are used to "CTS" being the entry level Cadillac.  The STS name could have been brought back to be what is the current CTS.  Now you have to convince people to pay $50k for what was an entry level $35k car 5-10 years ago.

[G. David Felt]

Yes, I meant to say against the 5 series and E series but like everyone so many years of the CTS being against the 3 series and C series.

[G. David Felt]

Just got back from taking my parents to dinner. I am really impressed with how smooth handling and quiet the new CTS is over the 1st generation. The car is really surprising me and I believe Cadillac would benefit by having more road shows of letting people compare CTS to 5 series / e class and ATS to 3 series / c class.

 

Cadillac really stomps on the Germans.

[A Horse With No Name]

Absolutely!

[Cmicasa the Great]

Agreed that the CTS name should have been used on what is now the ATS, people are used to "CTS" being the entry level Cadillac.  The STS name could have been brought back to be what is the current CTS.  Now you have to convince people to pay $50k for what was an entry level $35k car 5-10 years ago.

 

 

 

Precisely. Its one of the reason why I said in another thread that going back to names would fix this issue. I still am not convinced though that the CTS and ATS are failed vehicles despite the 3 week plant closure. I think Cadillac's biggest issue with all of its vehicles, no GM's biggest issue, is that they love to cram down our throats one damn variant of a particular vehicles while the competition goes out of its way to accommodate the individual tastes of its buyers. The Chevy Cruze is a great example of this. It has consistently been one of the top selling cars in the U.S. and Globally. In the U.S. it has had to do that with just a sedan though. It could have easily topped that wretched Corolla if it had of had a Coupe or a Hatch. Up until this model year even the Corolla got to include Matrix sales in it's numbers.. and the Civic still gets a coupe and Si model to help sales along. What would a Cruze SS, hatch, or Coupe do? Same thing goes for Cadillac trying to compete with a 3series Sedan, coupe, wagon, convertible, and M with just an ATS Sedan, and thinking it would win that race. Its preposterous

[G. David Felt]

So a full day in the CTS4 Loaner with the Turbo 4 banger. Still impress, I reset the MPG average and for a day of stomping on it and driving it around town, I am averaging 20.5mpg as of this morning.

[A Horse With No Name]

Keep us posted, looking forward to more of your review.

[G. David Felt]

So after a weekend of driving the CTS4 2.0T I can say I love the Dash!

 

But I have to Say I hate the 2.0T

 

Why love the dash? Customization. I was able to have all the info I wanted quickly right in front of me and the over all controls and interaction was fast, easy to understand and made total logical sense.

 

Why Hate the 2.0T engine? Lag, Lag, Lag and pathetic MPG. Yes this engine makes horsepower and easily moves the AWD CTS smoothly and quickly. Yes with that said, you have noticeable lag between 15 and 30MPH. I triad all the modes and it did not make any sense, you always have this noticeable lag and then boom power. MPG, Made 4 Trips on the Highway cruising along for 120 miles the first time and 171 miles the second trip. Both trips I never got better than 21.7MPG.

 

At this point, I say get the V6, a far superior smooth engine then turbo garbage.

 

Comfort level was great. The seats for as big as I am were very comfy and supportive. Love the Sky roof this CTS4 has and the Bluetooth connectivity for phones and USB 3.0 ports for charging.

 

Over all I would have no problem recommending the CTS4 to anyone and would state they get the V6.

[smk4565]

Rather weak mileage for a small engine, sort of surprising.  Really the 2.0T should be the entry level engine, most of these should be built with a V6, but I don't know if that is what they are doing.   They should also drop a diesel in there, my friend has a 535d, and averages 31.7 mpg and he has 413 lb-ft of torque available from 1800 rpm, there is no power lag at all in his car.

[A Horse With No Name]

Were I to buy a car in that class a diesel would be mandatory.

[Drew Dowdell]

I wonder if it is something that gearing could fix.

[G. David Felt]

I wonder if it is something that gearing could fix.

Not sure about that but always an option. It was weird that I was at 1200-1300 RPM cruising along at 70 the whole time and only getting that poor of MPG.

[Z-06]

How many miles did this puppy have when you got it?

[G. David Felt]

How many miles did this puppy have when you got it?

2584 miles when they gave it to me as my loaner.

[Drew Dowdell]

At that mpg... something is wrong.

[Z-06]

Okay screw what the DIC says, back to basics, did you manually compute the mpg?

[G. David Felt]

Okay screw what the DIC says, back to basics, did you manually compute the mpg?

Yes for the gas I used, I tracked the miles driven by the amount of gas into the auto and that actually was not far different than the computer. Maybe it will get better as the engine breaks in in old style thinking, but I thought with today's modern engines that the Gas mileage was pretty consistent.  This whole experience is why I believe we need a much better real world driving rating on engines as the EPA rating system is a joke.

[Drew Dowdell]

The car is rated for 23mpg combined and 28mpg highway.  If you were really doing 170 miles at highway speeds, you should have gotten far better than 21mpg.  That's why I think something is wrong.

[G. David Felt]

Weird is right as I was expecting much better than that for my trip. I knew it would be lower since it is a AWD, but still I expected better than what I got.