Cars We Drive!



jet said:

.... i was ready to murder the finance guy, dude spent 40 minutes trying to sell us extended warranty

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I hate the finance guys, absolutely hate them and their bag of tricks.



rocks said:

Congrats! I went with my sis a few months ago to get an IS and experienced the same thing. Needless to say I dragged her out, next month we will be buying a new car via the internet and have it delivered. Less headache and time that way.

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I avoided them this way when I bought my Porsche in Chicago. I negotiated the deal by phone then flew into Chicago to pick it up. They picked me up at the airport. Took less than 10 minutes to sign and drive away. Did the same thing with my second MB when I purchased it in Chicago. When I purchase locally I end up with very long drawn out processes that seem to take all day long.

^from the time we got there to the time we left it was 4.25 hours hence me putting it off as long as possible when my aunt kept asking when i was going to take her to buy a car, we didn't even test drive it

when i bought my m3 i think it was a total of about 45 mins and finance office time was about 15 mins

after the 3rd attempt i started laughing internally and was like this guy is relentless and couldn't imagine all the people who fall victim to this, i mean it would be a good deal if it was like under 1k like maybe 500 but the absolute lowest program was about 1800, it started off at like 8500 which added 200/mo to the monthly payment, get the **** outta here...this guy had so many tricks i was about to grab him by his tie and be like look asshole, he's lucky they were there

if that happens again i'll probably just walk out of the office, but if I'm by myself i'll tell the guy straight up after the first offer "look, i know you're doing your job, the answer is no and don't ask me again" as politely as i can

word of advice when purchasing, there are irrelevant questions on the credit app so don't answer them and finance guy will ask a lot of probing questions to which I was vague as possible but just tell them you don't plan on keeping the car past the warranty period but i'm sure they'll come up with some other bullshit

thanks rocks, car is as lovely as a japanese car can get and for the price there is no better...we looked at IS250s which I like but a huge ripoff at 40k for the base motor? give me a ******* break, they're priced 5k higher than they should be and their margins are mysteriously lower

The car service company I use in NYC recently changed their fleet from town cars to avalons. Very comfortable cars and a much tighter ride than the wallowing Lincolns. I think the LTC has it beat on trunk space and back seat space, but the Avalon is still very respectable.

I had a Cadillac CTS last week as a rental, fairly impressed with it as well. Steering and handling are more like a European car and less like the traditional caddy land barge crap



HRoi said:

The car service company I use in NYC recently changed their fleet from town cars to avalons. Very comfortable cars and a much tighter ride than the wallowing Lincolns. I think the LTC has it beat on trunk space and back seat space, but the Avalon is still very respectable.

I had a Cadillac CTS last week as a rental, fairly impressed with it as well. Steering and handling are more like a European car and less like the traditional caddy land barge crap

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2014 CTS or the 2nd gen?

It was a 2013, so not the all-new one. I saw the 2014 at the car show yesterday - it's nicer, but more evolution than transformation. They definitely aren't moving away from their crazy angular aesthetic

I really liked the super-angular look they had. I know it wasn't for everyone but I appreciated its boldness. It seems now that they're softening the look considerably and I think it looks kind of like ****. Neither here nor there, it's watered down and lacks balls.

IMO.



HRoi said:

It was a 2013, so not the all-new one. I saw the 2014 at the car show yesterday - it's nicer, but more evolution than transformation. They definitely aren't moving away from their crazy angular aesthetic

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Douglas said:

I really liked the super-angular look they had. I know it wasn't for everyone but I appreciated its boldness. It seems now that they're softening the look considerably and I think it looks kind of like ****. Neither here nor there, it's watered down and lacks balls.

IMO.

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Previous owner of a '06 CTS-V here (that's the first gen CTS, the really angular one). There's a reason why they used CTS's as road cars in The Matrix (unlike other movies that made cars up, like the Lexus from I'Robot) that's because the CTS at the time didn't look like anything else on the road. At the time, Cadillac designers had taken the Art&Science language and applied it amazing well to a production car. The second generation is a fantastic looking car, but they softened it all the way around. There are angular fixtures and trim, but there's quite a bit of rounded 'ness. Still, the coupe and wagon (even with their faults) were bombastic exercises in style.

The latest 2014? I think they've lost their way. Take away the gimicky headlights that wrap up and onto the hood (like the ATS) and you've got a car that's back to looking like almost everything else. Plus, they've bumped the pricing up square into 5 territory and it's a loser. Heck, the V-Sport is now in M pricing and that's not even a true V (will they even have one?). I always thought the CTS positioned between the 3 and 5 was a sweet spot, clearly GM didn't.

The first gen was a great opener at the time, the second made some aspects better but some not so much but was still a CTS, the third gen is smelling to me like Caddy is losing their way. Or, at least, as someone who got onboard with the Art&Science, they are losing me. I lusted for my first V, looked longingly at a 2nd gen, but am unmoved with the 3rd.

I didn't realize that they bumped up the pricing. That is going to be a problem. Styling aside, the CTSV was always the M5 competitor that could be had for near-M3 pricing. Driving its lesser non-V brother, I was like, "wow, and it's interior, steering and highway drive gives up very little to the bimmers".

But if it isn't much better priced then it's not as compelling.

I don't know how you go from comparing the CTS to a 5 series and then the CTS VSport to an "M"... I assume that is the M3 which is not comparable at all.

The clear comparison is a V-Sport to the BMW 550i, considering the size increase (yet marked weight loss) of the CTS. Cadillac doesn't have an M3 category car in size/performance. The ATS loses to the non M 3-Series.

I do agree that while the new CTS isn't as stunning or shocking as the first gen, I do not think the latest is dog either. It's handsome, if lacking in passion or inspiration. To be completely honest, I prefer the Gen 3 CTS exterior to the F10 BMW. The interior is a huge step up from the Gen 2 though.

The CTS VSport seems to destroy the performance figures of the entire segment of German and Japanese cars, 0-60, braking, skidpad, slolam, track times. The huge weight savings and magnetic adaptive suspension I think to be the key pieces to the victories.

That said, it probably wouldn't be my #1 choice if I had ~$60k to spend on a new family sized 4 door. I'd probably go with a A6 3.0 TFSI Sport package and chip it.

The top end V model didn't come out until a year or two after the previous generations, correct?



whiteslashasian said:

I don't know how you go from comparing the CTS to a 5 series and then the CTS VSport to an "M"... I assume that is the M3 which is not comparable at all.

The clear comparison is a V-Sport to the BMW 550i, considering the size increase (yet marked weight loss) of the CTS. Cadillac doesn't have an M3 category car in size/performance. The ATS loses to the non M 3-Series.

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Actually, you're right; the vsport is more aligned with the higher end non-M varieties; my bad; I over vented.

whiteslashasian said:

I do agree that while the new CTS isn't as stunning or shocking as the first gen, I do not think the latest is dog either. It's handsome, if lacking in passion or inspiration. To be completely honest, I prefer the Gen 3 CTS exterior to the F10 BMW. The interior is a huge step up from the Gen 2 though.

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The Gen2 interior was a great step up from gen1, but after people got past the initial impressions, it was less than favorable. I'm wondering if there's more of "the interior is fantastic!" only to be followed by "it's actually just mediocre" once the newness wears off.

whiteslashasian said:

The CTS VSport seems to destroy the performance figures of the entire segment of German and Japanese cars, 0-60, braking, skidpad, slolam, track times. The huge weight savings and magnetic adaptive suspension I think to be the key pieces to the victories.

That said, it probably wouldn't be my #1 choice if I had ~$60k to spend on a new family sized 4 door. I'd probably go with a A6 3.0 TFSI Sport package and chip it.

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But I guess that's my point; the V used to do more at that price comparison point. The VSport gets you numbers that up the competition but without enough of a dollar justification to make any real enthusiast jump ship. Now the full V is presumably going to be a premium over that and lose it's pricing edge. It's really surprising to see the cost jump so much when GM clearly kept cost/performance in line with the 2014 Stingray at 51k including mag ride, etc.

whiteslashasian said:

The top end V model didn't come out until a year or two after the previous generations, correct?

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Yes, but usually at this point (deep into prerelease of the non V variety) we had gobs of info/intel on the V version (though release cycles are accelerating/squeezing too). I'm worrying we're not going to get a C7 engine variant in this gen and they're going to supercharge the 6 from the vsport.

The VSport is already twin turbocharged... I'm not sure a manufacturer wants to take a 6 cylinder much higher than the already lofty 420 HP they're getting out of it.

I think that the Vsport numbers surpassing the competition isn't quite compelling enough to win buyers, which will be a problem...

However now that I see more pictures of the 2014, I'm liking it more, especially from angles like this:



I need to stop by a dealership and check one of these out in person.

Also, a 4.4 second 0-60 is intriguing indeed.

New C-Class. I dig it.

looks great

then again looks like a mini S



whiteslashasian said:

I need to stop by a dealership and check one of these out in person.

Also, a 4.4 second 0-60 is intriguing indeed.

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The CTS is surprisingly good looking