CTS Seat Experiment — The Loaner CTS

Took my 2005 Cadillac CTS over to Crest Cadillac in Plano, Texas today to see about the Service Air Bag light on from The Great Cadillac CTS Seat Experiment. I had emailed and called ahead to make an appointment, and my Service Adviser was waiting for me when I arrived.  We briefly discussed the situation, and then I worked with the Loaner Car desk to get the Loaner car setup and I was off.  In and out around 20 minutes total.  Everyone was very nice and helpful, especially since I arrived at the extended hours opening time of 7 am.  Crest’s service hours make it super easy to drop off your Cadillac for service and still get to work on time.

The Loaner CTS appears to be a 2010? Cadillac CTS 3L with 9k miles or so.  Light platinum exterior, neutral leather (now called cashmere?) interior.

UPDATE:  the loaner car is a 2010 CTS 1SD 3.0L Luxury Model.  So it has Luxury Level One Package, including (ARH) heavy-duty pet guard cargo net, (RYJ) retractable cargo area shade, (UA6) theft-deterrent alarm system, (U2R) audio system, and (TSQ) accent lighting, 6 disc CD player, leather upgraded seats, and bluetooth.  The wood trim accents are also part of this package.


No insignia on the rear left which I think indicates this is the 3.0L model and not the 3.6L model.


These wheels are a 1000% improvement over the 08-09 base model wheels. I love these, although I suppose they are difficult to clean. Certainly worth the trouble though.


Engine compartment shot. No markings on the engine cover, which seems uncharacteristic. I would have expected the cover to say VVT, DI, 3L etc. Look at that strut brace! Here is a closeup:


This has a very ‘aftermarket’, serious look to me with the exposed weld. I like it, but surprised to see it as the ‘stock’ piece.


I am a sucker for the wood trim steering wheel and shifter.

Overall this CTS drives very well. I am jealous of the manual-shift option on the 6-speed automatic transmission, and it holds selected gears which is perfect.  The 3L seems to have plenty of power for the CTS.  This combination has gotten a lot of mixed reviews from the buff books, but I am not sure why.  The 3L and 6-speed automatic seem to work very well together to me.

Hopefully I’ll get my 2005 CTS back today; God willing and the creek don’t rise they just need to run a diagnostic to correct the airbag issue.  I have ordered a new control panel for the driver’s door to address the new discovery that the new driver’s seat is a memory seat.  In other words, it wants to move to the position that I select when I open the door with my remote so it is ready for driver 1 or driver 2.  Unfortunately, my CTS does not have the position selector switch, so I have ordered one.

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