skepticman

I have an '05 CTS with the sport suspension. I test drove cars with both suspensions. The base model is bouncy over rough pavement and the steering is more numb. The sport suspension feels glued down to the road, has a slightly firmer ride, and the steering is more weighted, sharper and more precise. The 17" wheels also look much nicer than the tiny and cheap-looking 16" ones. I didn't think the base model was worth buying. You also get StabiliTrak with the sport package, which has saved me from the ditch or hitting other cars more than once. I think it was irresponsible of GM to not provide stability control as a standard feature on a powerful RWD car like the CTS. Unless your roads are incredibly beat up or you're a grandpa who values comfort over handling, you should get the sport suspension.

This looks like the original photo. The rear passenger tire looks a little low in both. The rear door looks awfully close to the read wheel opening in both, too. The STS photo shows a wider trunk and bumper, which I think looks better.

http://gm.wieck.com/forms/gm/previewpage?025667

Weird... it still says you guys are moving when I use Firefox but when I use IE, the site works like clockwork.

I know jack about the internet so maybe guys know whats going on?

Firefox is caching the outage page. Hold the Shift key down and press the Reload button on the toolbar. Or you can clear the Firefox cache.

You have to register there first before you can do anything.

Yes, it was from GuionM but at GM Inside News. And it was a current April posting.

It is a GMI guionM post from February 11th, which certainly doesn't deserve a front page link or much of any discussion now.

http://www.gminsidenews.com/forums/showthread.php?t=26728

STS-V: http://www.cadillacforums.com/forums/cadil...v-series-forum/

XLR-V: http://www.cadillacforums.com/forums/cadil...v-series-forum/

Here are excerpts from my 2005 CTS Owner Manual. Traction control is not a first gen Stabilitrak. They are two separate systems that operate independently or could potentially work together. For 2005, Stabilitrak came on the sport package. I don't know how it is packaged for 2006/2007. I'm glad I have it, because it straightens my car out quickly if I am sliding in the winter.

Stabilitrak® System

Your vehicle may be equipped with a vehicle stability

enhancement system called Stabilitrak®. It is an

advanced computer controlled system that assists

you with directional control of the vehicle in difficult

driving conditions.

Stabilitrak® activates when the computer senses a

discrepancy between your intended path and the

direction the vehicle is actually traveling. Stabilitrak®

selectively applies braking pressure at any one of

the vehicle’s brakes to help steer the vehicle in the

direction which you are steering.

Traction Control System (TCS)

Your vehicle has a traction control system that limits

wheel spin. This is especially useful in slippery

road conditions. The system operates only if it senses

that one or both of the rear wheels are spinning or

beginning to lose traction. When this happens,

the system brakes the spinning wheel(s) and/or reduces

engine power to limit wheel spin.

For anyone who wants to save a local copy and has a stream dumper like mplayer, here are direct links to the videos.

Preview video (38 seconds): rtsp://real.sportsline.com/cbsnews/2006/03/31/video1461002.rm

Full video (1:34): rtsp://real.sportsline.com/cbsnews/2006/04/01/video1461829.rm

Judging by the sloping rear roofline and the short overhang in back, this is almost certainly a coupe.

I can not belive that the number of CTS-V's sold is that great, I would suspect that it would be less than 5 a day.

I haven't seen any official V sales numbers, but there were some posts on cadillacforums.com claiming - 2,401 in 2004 and 4,194 in 2005. That's about 6.5 and 11.5 per calendar day or about 9.2 and 16.1 per work day, ignoring holidays and vacation/sick days.

Chris stick to taking pictures and not tryingsay what engine goes with what vehicle.

The next CTSv will get the LS7, and will stay the most powerful V Series vehicle, why do you think we are getting the Blue Devil Corvette? Because the Corvette will always be the most powerful nameplate within GM.

You're aware that the LS7 is a low volume engine that is built by hand? To completely replace the LS2 with the LS7 would require a big increase in volume and a big price increase for the V. Unless they make the LS7 an optional, special order engine, or if they mass produce it instead of hand building it, which would likely reduce the engine quality.

LS7: The Largest, Most Powerful Small-Block Ever Built

"Team members are engine-build specialists selected from GM's experimental engine lab, and they complete about 30 LS7 engines per day."

LS7 Unplugged

"Each engine is hand-assembled by a single technician who builds it from start to finish."

"The engines are shipped to Johnson Matthey Testing in Taylor, Michigan, where they're subjected to a 20-minute "hot" test--10 minutes of no-load "break in" and 10 minutes of loaded operation. After this, the engines come back to the PBC and are ready to ship to the Corvette assembly facility in Bowling Green, Kentucky."

well, it's not likely to stay with the LS2, so what's it going to be?

Some possibilities include: continuing with the LS2, the supercharged Northstar from the STS-V and XLR-V, the LS3 that is rumored to replace the LS2, the LS8, or the Ultra V-8 that is rumored to replace the Northstar.

Of course, there is the possibility that the entire V series could be put on hiatus or dropped if GM's financial condition deteriorates too much.

The headline on the front page is incorrect. They registered a trademark, not a patent. They are two very different things that are govered by separate laws.

It's also not exclusive to C&G. AH-HA posted on his site on 1/18 that they had registered the name and I verified it at that time by searching on the uspto.gov site.

"In addition to several sources, GM also recently trademarked the Astra name under Saturn Corporation in the U.S. and Canada this past week."

Posted on Wednesday, January 18, 2006 at 06:33PM by Registered Commenter AH-HA

Almost the same car??

You gotta be f***ing kidding. The Pursuit and G6 are whole different. Size, proportions, nothing are identical.

Pursuit: 180.3 long, 67.9 wide, 58 high

Cobalt: 180.5 long, 67.9 wide, 55.5 high

G6 coupe: 189.1 long, 70.4 wide, 56.4 high

You call that much of a difference? They're close enough for the G5 coupe to be redundant.

Look for GM to align the names across all three countries, the G4 being the sedan and G5 the coupe.  The US will get both the G4 and G5 and the Pusuit name will be dropped in Canada in favor of G4/G5 as well.

It doesn't make sense to me for Pontiac have a rebadged Cobalt coupe when they already have the G6 coupe. It looks like the G5 coupe and the G6 coupe will be almost the same car, but on two different platforms, Epsilon and Delta. Are they even going to have a G5 GXP with the supercharged 2.0L engine and a G6 GXP coupe with the 3.9L engine?

Maybe the G5 is meant to utilize excess plant capacity after the new ION/EVOKE was killed off. Or maybe needing capacity for the G5 is the reason the ION replacement was killed off and replaced with the Opel Astra.

I was just checking the media.gm.com site and it said "Video Webcast: Buick Enclave Concept Vehicle at NAIAS, 2:10 p.m. Sunday, Jan 8, 2006." I went to the link and started the video stream under Buick. It says it's Eastern time, so that is 10 minutes from the time of this posting.

Road and Track set up a redirect to the home page, but the image and video are still there. Not sure if the video link can be opened in IE or Media Player since I'm not on Windows. I saved a local copy of the video with "mplayer -dumpstream -dumpfile" on Linux.

Image

mms://c9o.earthcache.net/woc-01.media.globix.net/COMP000787MOD1/roadandtrack/2006/0601_camaro_hi.wmv

Another quote from the GM Media site below. (Note the word "economical"). GM has decided to have separate families of HF and HV engines for some reason, most likely cost. If you want a definitive answer on why, you could try contacting someone at GM Powertrain. "The 3500 3.5L V-6 is part of a new family of sophisticated overhead valve 60-degree V-6 engines that are economical to produce but also incorporate technologies like variable valve timing to generate very competitive specific horsepower and torque outputs."

Notice the cars that have the high feature engines (pasted from GM Media Online, Product Information Guide, Powertrain page). Buick Rendezvous Buick LaCrosse / Allure Cadillac CTS Cadillac SRX (base) Cadillac STS (base) Nothing from Chevy or Pontiac. Probably because GM would have to increase the prices to make the same profit as the 3.5L or 3.9L OHV engines. I could maybe see using the HF engines in Chevy SS or Pontiac GXP models instead of the V-8. I think the 3.6L engine is going to be available on the Saturn AURA, so apparently GM considers new Saturns to be premium.

GM's New 3.6L V-6 VVT To Debut In 2004 Cadillac CTS (Note the "premium and high-performance" part).

"Created to fulfill GM's strategy calling for sophisticated V-6 engines for global application in premium and high-performance vehicles, the all-new 3.6L V-6 VVT engine will make its debut in the 2004 Cadillac CTS."

Holden Reveals Advanced, All-New Alloytec V6 Engine

"Holden has revealed details of the advanced Global V6 engine that will provide the high-tech heartbeat for future generations of its Australian-built vehicles."

It seems to me Caddy could do better if they used the 400HP LS2 with DOD instead of the  320HP Northstar in the STS. Its just as smooth. More fuel efficent. ALOT more POWERFULL at lower RPM's and would KILL the COMPITITION!! I think they should do a 90 degree 4.5L V6 based on the 6.0L LS2 V8 with the same Bore/Stroke not only to use in the pickups as a base Engine. But in the CTS as a base (useing a ballence shaft like the 3800) engine with 300HP in LS2 tune Then have the 400HP LS2 as the NON V opt in the CTS. Then SUPERCHARGE it to 500HP for the CTS V. If you REALLY THINK ABOUT IT these are refined smooth efficent Engines that would improve these cars while rejoining them with Caddies past. STOP TRYING TO EUROPIEN CADILLAC and BE AMERICAN! This would save STRUGGELING GM some $$$$$ while at the same time BOOSTING the power and efficency of these cars! Caddy use to be the STANDARD of the WORLD with L HEADES then OHV's and BIG CUBES NOT OHC's! And with TECH like DOD and 6SP Auto Transmisions these SMOOTH REFINED POWERFULL OHV Engines could/would be GREAT for CADILLAC!!

Sorry, Carguy, but I'm going to have to tear you a new one. I've seen lots of armchair car enthusiasts post on various forums and you're like a lot of others who don't think things through enough.

First, I'm sure GM doesn't consider the pushrod engines refined or smooth enough to use in a luxury car like the STS or any non-V Cadillac. I've heard of a TSB on the CTS-V or Corvette engine saying that GM considered a less than smooth idle to be normal behavior, so they don't build all of their engines to the same level of refinement.

I've read that GM wanted to use the Northstar in the CTS-V, but it wouldn't fit and so they were forced to go with the Z06 engine. GM seemingly wants to move in the opposite direction as you.

I'm certain Cadillac would get criticism from the reviewers for using "old technology" and lots of customers wouldn't even look at a car with a drivetrain that many consider "old technology."

As far as putting a 400 HP engine in the regular CTS, think about all the things that must go along with that much power. Bigger rotors and brakes, a heavier suspension, transmission and differential, wider tires and rims, and who knows what else. There would also be a higher maintenance cost for the customer because replacing high performance brakes and wider high performance tires costs more. You'd end up building a slightly stripped down version of the current CTS-V and it would probably cost nearly as much. And there is more overhead for GM with having more models and options available. You would now have at least three different CTS models at 300, 400 and 500 HP (and maybe a fourth base model under 300 HP), each with increasingly larger braking, suspension, etc. requirements.

If they instead put a 300 HP 3.6L V-6 with direct injection in the CTS, it will have some of these requirements, but not nearly to the extreme that 400 HP requires.

And a V-8 with equivalent power will likely get worse gas mileage in the city than the V-6. And the V-8 with DOD will probably get the same or worse mileage than the V-6 on the highway.

Remember that the vast majority of CTS models sold don't have the performance suspension or the manual transmission, so the typical CTS customer is not all that performance-oriented and all this overhead would almost certainly reduce GM profits because of the large overhead for a small volume of sales. GM should instead be simplifying the options, even though it takes away customer choices.

If you think through what you're asking for, you'll see that GM wouldn't even consider most of these things you want. Sorry, try again.

where was this confirmed? what will they be using to get power like that out of that engine? can we expect other improvements, NVH and mileage in particular?

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Here is a poster who claims to know someone who has driven the new engine.

"My friend just came back from testing for the new CTS. He says the new engine is over 300 HP with the new direct injection."

The CTS is well behind the new 330i and IS350 and they're going to keep selling it for another two freakin' years. I am obligated to make the glaringly obvious statement that they really need to get it out sooner.

On the other hand, I'd rather have them take an extra year to get it right. Maybe they saw the new benchmark set by the competition and decided to aim higher. Hope it's worth the wait. Guess the timing works out better for trading in my '05 CTS this way. I am planning to wait until the new one has been out a year before considering an upgrade.

Still waiting eagerly for some drawings or spy shots of the new look...

Someone here with the alias "evok" (another alleged insider) says:

"SOP is late 4th quarter 06."

More from "evok" here:

"Nope the CTS is nothing like the Sixteen. If you like the current car you are going to love the next generation model. The car still has the edgy look and instantly recognizable as a CTS but it is a lot smoother and flows better without that melted A&S look of the STS. The stance is also more aggessive. The car appears to lean forward where the Lexus GS leans backward. And the interior is unlike anything you would expect from the General. It will look like no other Cadillac interior on the market now. All I can say is, when it is released this will be the best Cadillac to date since the A&S make over. The interior is awesome."

Hooray, my first post. I previously posted to the old C&G under the name "2001Regal" before I chose my black '05 CTS over a LaCrosse.