NEW CAR TIME! Wife Getting a New Cadillac XT5 and I'm loaning my bank money to do it.

[69hurstolds]

Whew! It's finally done. We're back home and I've been going over everything in and out of the car again. I inspected the crap out of it at the dealership and it was all there. Talked to Limu Emu on the phone, gave them the heads up on the car change and what the F**K do you know? The insurance DROPPED by $28 annually. Sure, that is about 1 good dinner at Outback, but the fact that it dropped was welcome news. I thought I would take it up the shorts due to being a new car. They said with the adaptive cruise, the safety and security package and a couple of other things added more discounts and that's what pulled it down. Ok, I'll take it.

Stopped at a rest area on the way home and it was $1.75 for a diet Dew. This really WAS highway robbery. I was thirsty so I tossed in 2 bucks. Got the drink and whattaya know, there in the change thingie was $2 in quarters. Granted, one of them was mine, but I put in $2 and got $2 back plus the drink. Shortly after that the clouds dissipated into clear blue skies and we enjoyed the rest of the ride home on those essentially FREE mother f**kin Michelin tires with 20" LPO wheels. SOB rides a whole lot better than I thought it would. It's still an SUV, though.

And what do I find in the mailbox when I get home? The title to the 2016 CTS. I guess I'll mail that to them Monday. Turned out to be a pretty good day, all things considered. Much better than the other day. Wife was smiling today and I got a free Mt. Dew and then the clouds parted and gifted with sun and 65 degree weather. What's not to like?

The wife is pleased, loves the color of the car. (it is weird flip floppy paint. Gray in some light with bronze/gold metallic flakes in other light). So if she's happy, I'm happy. I worry about paint match being a beeyotch if a shopping cart gets it. The wife says to lighten up, it's her car, she ain't sweating the minor scratches and what not. It's not going to live a pampered life. I guess she's right. It is a Cadillac - and the value dropped off the cliff the minute we signed the purchase order.

 

[olds307 and 403]

Your old Cadillac didn't have adaptive cruise? It is a great feature for the lazy, I tell you that. You realize you are following someone slow, go to pass the throttle automatically come on. I like you can set how close you follow the car in front. Also auto dimming headlights are the cats meow. I assumed cars like the Cadillac had these features years ago since my 17 Challenger has them and isn't a luxury car.

 

[69hurstolds]

In 2016 you had to get the upper crust trim level to include that. It was optional on any of the levels if you ordered it a la cart, but you didn't automatically get it on the luxury level which is what she had before. Actually, you still don't get it on the XT5 automatically unless you get the platinum level.

The adaptive cruise has it where you can swap back and forth to regular cruise at a touch of a button. Strange. Auto dimming headlights suck *ss. I live out in the country and they're flashing all the friggin' time. I hate that sh*t. I won't be driving the car that much so I don't care, but it's there. Has the auto belt tightening thing, it grabs you when you least expect it. And the auto braking thing front and rear with pedestrian braking. All I can say is don't walk out in front of the car when I'm driving, because I have to figure out how to turn off all that crap.

One thing I REALLY hate about this new one is the auto OFF/ON feature for stopping the engine at a redlight. BUT- unlike the CTS, there's no override OFF button!!!!!!!!! NO!!!!!!. It's not as violent of a startup from a stop though. Maybe they tamed that.

Oh, and I got schooled today. "It's a CUV, not an SUV. It's a crossover." Whatever. I call it a cross DRESSER. Engine is sideways. That can't be good.

But there's a good reason I'm not complaining about her car purchase.....

….hint.....

 

[olds307 and 403]

We almost never get flashed with the auto dimming headlights, it works that quick on our Dodge. As soon as it senses light, it dims, even works on curvy roads and hills. We also have the auto braking and pedestrian/collision emergency braking. Only had it come on once. I was just impressed with all these features and AWD for under 50K Canadian list price, we paid 40 because nobody wants cars these days and sat on the lot for almost a year. I like the name Crossdresser. I call them Diaper Mobiles. You either have kids in them or you are wearing them yourself.

 

[69hurstolds]

We never got flashed from other cars with the auto dims because it's lightning fast, but the car itself switching back and forth between high and low a lot is simply annoying to me. I like the idea of me controlling when I want the high beams on. The HID's throw out a lot of light anyway, so I don't need the highs on as often as the car thinks I do.

As much as I would have preferred it over a, ahem, CUV, I don't think I could get her to even sit in a Challenger. This time around it's not just me paying for the car, she's got skin in the game, so she gets what she wants. That's why we didn't leave the dealership immediately when things started going sideways. I certainly was ready to bolt. But she was interested in what they had to say. Looking back, the difference in the MSRP between the original car they hosed up on and the one we ended with was about 3K, and a free extended warranty, and all for an extra $400 and change than originally planned. I'm pretty confident we wouldn't have got that deal anywhere else. She's happy, I'm happy it's over. And now I get to start perusing Denalis for the next 6 months or so...plan is to set myself up ready to pounce, and when they first announce the big sales events, I'll be in a position to strike when the iron is hot and the rebates are high. 🙂

Do I hate this car? No. I probably would have if we didn't have the CTS wagon two Caddys before. Other than the wrong way drive train, it's tolerable. It rides smooth as silk, which is rather surprising to me. Controls aren't THAT much different than 2016, and the versatility the wagon exhibited has now returned.

 

[69hurstolds]

Obligitory new car pics. Rained last night and didn't clean it up (hopefully tomorrow), so there's that to do.






AND...the sideways drivetrain. Note at the bottom there's a little icon to tell you NOT to pressurewash engine I guess.

 

[olds307 and 403]

The interior is nice looking, how is it for room?

 

[69hurstolds]

It's very roomy considering. Surprisingly so. It's not quite as big as the XT6 with its 3rd row seating since the XT5 has only 2 rows, but the headroom as compared to the CTS is cavernous. The cab forward design puts the dead pedal a little bit further toward you, but not too bad at all. It's easier to slide in and out of the car because of the ride height is a bit taller, and the opening is higher obviously, so I'm not banging the side of my skull getting in. Everything on the dash except for the woodgrain is padded and the ergonomics are decent. Everything is in reach pretty much. One thing I learned that due to no big driveshaft hump, the rear seats fold down 70/30 just about, and the entire seat drops a bit so that the floor is flat and even from the front seats back to the lift gate while the seats are down. Told the wife it should hold a driveshaft or bumper from the junkyard quite nicely. For some reason she did not agree.

 

[1 RARE T]

As they often do, she changed her mind. Decided the colour wasn't right.

We drove 5 different cars on Sat.

Still looking………………………..

 

[69hurstolds]

As they often do, she changed her mind. Decided the colour wasn't right.

We drove 5 different cars on Sat.

Still looking………………………..

I feel your pain. Actually, not anymore. But I recently did.