Extended-Term Road Test Update
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Our long-term CTS is coming in hot—and a tiny battered.
WHAT WE LIKE: Our CTS has been picking up steam, piling on the miles and charging hard into the property stretch. We’ve been obtaining it out on the open road a lot lately, where we’ve been relishing its lengthy-haul comfort, easy 400-mile range, and the 3.6-liter’s frugality. On a couple of legs to and from Ithaca, New York, we logged as high as 27 mpg. And, as it nears the 40,000-mile finish line, the CTS nonetheless feels remarkably tight, with no squeaks or rattles. Cadillac’s Premium Care Upkeep program implies that our last 2 solutions have come at no charge.
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WHAT WE Don’t LIKE: We’ll skip the straightforward pickin’s—okay, no we won’t. We’re just holding onto our CUE complaints for one more minute or so. Anyway, whilst we applaud GM for extracting 420 strong horsepower from 3.6 liters, the engine has a challenging time making moderate amounts of that power, taking much more of an all-or-nothing at all approach. Try to drive the Vsport just moderately fast, and you finish up obtaining a lot more energy than intended. And in the cold, it idles rough sufficient that we’re surprised it hasn’t thrown a code.
WHAT WENT Wrong: As previously detailed, we have been carrying out about 70 mph on the highway a single day final fall when a chunk of truck tire jumped up and yelled, “Slappa da face, mon!” A new bumper, hood, and left-side headlight assembly later, we were $ 5971 poorer and far more vigilant about our following distances. Just 10,000 miles later, we had to create another check for $ 673 to replace the windshield, which had been gradually developing a crack directly in the driver’s line of sight.
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Exactly where WE WENT: The CTS has ultimately been pulling the sort of lengthy-variety duty at which it excels. Because our last update, it is been to Atlanta, Georgia Ithaca, New York and to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. That final trip was more than a extended weekend with a GM electrical engineer riding shotgun. After 4 days of punching in destinations and DJ’ing from phones each plugged in and paired by way of Bluetooth, our proud, self-described “company man” concluded that CUE is “indefensible.” “The guys who program this point sit on the other side of the floor from me,” he said. “I’m gonna have to go more than there and ask them what the [forceful expletive] they have been thinking.” But on the UP’s 2-lanes, we had plenty of possibilities to wow ourselves and other drivers with the twin-turbo 6’s eye-opening passing energy. In our initial testing, the vehicle required just 2.5 seconds to get from 30 to 50 mph and just 3.3 to go from 50 to 70. In this automobile, if we weren’t complaining about CUE, we’d hardly complain about anything at all.
Months in Fleet: 13 months
Current Mileage: 38,333 miles Typical Fuel Economy: 21 mpg
Fuel Tank Size: 19 gal Fuel Range: 400 miles
Service: $ Normal Put on: $ 1457 Repair: $ 90
Harm and Destruction: $ 6784
Continued…
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2014 Cadillac CTS Vsport Lengthy-Term Update: Heading into the House Stretch
