Tag Archives: Crest Cadillac

Test Drive: 2010 Cadillac CTS-V The Pickup

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Mike Brosin and Thomas Bies of Crest Cadillac suggested that I needed a little more Cadillac hands-on experience, so Crest Cadillac set me up with a test drive in the 2010 Cadillac CTS-V super car for this weekend.

I picked up the CTS-V this morning.  Tony Griggs of Cadillac Sales handled the paperwork for me.  Tony also found a treat for me, a 2008 V-Series mini-brochure with the color cards for the 2008 STS-V, since he knows I have my eye on the STS-V market.

Tony Griggs of Crest Cadillac

The Staff was nice enough to treat me like a paying Customer, and I got a full vehicle familiarization briefing from Greg Vetrano, a Crest Cadillac Delivery Coordinator.  Greg went over all the controls and features of the Cadillac, and explained how to customize the car for my use.  Yes, I am a Cadillac fan and I currently drive a CTS, but it does not have some of the features of the test car.  Also, I appreciate the time and care that Greg takes one on one to ensure that the Customer knows how to operate everything.  Everything is easy once you know how, but having someone show you beats even reading the manual for time savings.

Greg Vetrano, Delivery Coordinator

Everyone at Crest was perfectly friendly and chipper.  They appeared to have good traffic in the Dealership, with people taking advantage of the beautiful day to shop for a new car.  I appreciated them taking so much time with me.  I plan to drive and write about the car over the weekend.

2010 Cadillac CTS-V Window Sticker

The test car is the perfect Cadillac CTS-V to check out — it has the Recaro Sport seat option, and the Midnight Sapele Wood.  More on these later.

First impressions:  this is an absolutely amazing vehicle.  It is quiet, refined, smooth, and world-class fast.

My Host for this test drive is Crest Cadillac of Plano, Texas.  They are located at 2701 North Central Expressway, Plano, Texas.  You can contact them by phone Toll-free at 1-866-697-9144 or locally at (972)578-7511, or on Twitter or Facebook

Cadillac V-Series Turning it up to 11

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At Cadillac, V stands for Velocity.

What happens when Cadillac takes one of their current sports luxury sedans and turns the volume up to 11?  A Cadillac V-Series Model.

What is the Cadillac recipe for the V-Series?

  • More Power — swap in one of the most powerful engines available
  • More Handling — Tune the Suspension &  wheels/tires.  If a ‘normal’ base Cadillac suspension is FE1, Luxury models get an improved, tuned FE2 suspension.  This brings different shock/strut tuning, and sometimes anti-roll bar tuning. Performance models get summer tires and the FE3 suspension.  The V-Series gets FE4 tuning, which tends to be a  road & track setup.
  • More Brakes — rapid, fade-free stopping power.  Most sports cars and sports luxury cars can stop rapidly.  But when are driving at the limit one is on and off the brakes frequently through the corners, and the brakes rapidly heat up, and begin to fade.  The V-Series receive high performance, cooled braking setups for maximum stopping power, lap after lap.
  • Unique branding, markings, and distinction.  This seems trivial, but when you care enough to purchase the best vehicle available, it is nice to have reminders of just what your vehicle is capable of.

Let’s look at the examples Cadillac has accomplished to date:

  • 2004-2007 1st Generation CTS-V:  Added 400 hp LS6 (04/05), then LS2 (06/07) V8 engine.  Tuned sport suspension (FE4), with a track suspension (FG2) available as a dealer-installed option.  Brembo 4-piston caliper brakes front & rear.  Only 6-speed manual transmissions.

    2007 Cadillac CTS-V

  • 2006-2009 STS-V:  Added 469 hp LC3 4.4L Supercharged Northstar engine.  The engine was actually lowered in the chassis in order to give a lower center of gravity when compared with the non-V STS.  Tuned sport suspension (FE4).  Although the MR suspension was available, the Sachs tuned shocks gave just a bit of an edge on the track at the time, and were selected.  Brembo 4-piston caliper brakes front & rear.  New 6-speed Automatic transmission introduced.

    Supercharged Northstar

  • 2006-2009 XLR-V: Added 440 hp LC3 4.4L Supercharged Northstar engine.  Tuned sport suspension (FE4).   Because the XLR already shared the Corvette chassis/platform, sporty handling was already in its DNA.  The XLR-V and the STS-V were both originally specced at 440 hp, but with a bit of additional room under the domed hood the STS-V was tuned just before certification to 469 hp.

    Cadillac XLR-V (left) and STS-V (right)

  • 2009 2nd Generation CTS-V: Added 556 hp LSA 6.2L Supercharged V8.  Tuned sport suspension (FE4). 6-piston Brembo brakes front, and 4-piston in rear. The 2nd Generation CTS-V premiered the newly sport-tuned multi-mode MR Magneto-Rheological Suspension, which can react within 10 milliseconds to changing road conditions.

    2009 Cadillac CTS-V

Overall the Cadillac V-Series has provided the custom coach, high performance livery of this period.  The 2009 CTS-V casually set the world record for sedans on production tires at the Nurburgring of 7:59 min:sec, (since contested by the Porsche Panamera).  The 2006 STS-V had a previous time of 8:15 min:sec.

When your new 2nd Generation production CTS-V has the same or more power than the racing version of the 1st Generation CTS-VR, you know that you are making a serious production vehicle.

What’s next for the V-Series?  This summer we will see the V-Coupe, and the V-Sport Wagon, both with the terrific LSA Supercharged 6.2L engine and the rest of the go-fast CTS-V kit.  Cadillac has said that we will not see a V-Series of every model.  So probably never a V-Series Escalade, or SRX, or XTS.  But other manufacturers have reversed course and offered performance-tuned sport utility vehicles, so we may yet see more diversity.

2011 Cadillac CTS-V Sport Wagon

Cadillac CTS-V Sport Wagon

What is the best way to show Cadillac you want to see more of these terrific cars?  Buy one.

CTS Seat Experiment — The Loaner CTS

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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.