2008 Cadillac CTS: A Long Way

But it's still probably a good thing that the CTS wasn't named the 'Cimarron II'.

"I am constantly impressed every time I see one on of these on the road."

Here in NCal they're still a rarity - I think I've seen maybe two or three on the road. While I would never buy one personally I'm surprised there aren't more of these here, it's a decent car.

Brian- rear visibility is probably something that would bother me... especially since we parallel park here on the east cost.

As an old friend from NYC used to state,

"Visibility isn't that important when parallel parking, that is what bumpers are for!!" :)

You don't see many Caddy CTSs here in NCal because the auto buyers in this region (especially Silicon Valley) are pretentious snobs who lack originality and who only care about BMWs, Audis and Mercs. I've seen a handful of the new CTS on the 101 to 880 corridor I commute every day and they stand out and demand attention in a sea of bubble-shaped Asian and European clones that clog our streets and freeways. Trust me when I say you NEVER mistake a CTS for anything other than a Caddie - even at distance. Very few auto manufacturers manage that so strikingly. Good job Cadillac!

Parallel Park? Never heard of it - is it better than a regular city park?

limeman, careful who you are insulting. Sure, the local asians who buy their 3 and 5 series then put t-shirts on drivers' seats, and drive them like they would a camry are gullible, but trust me if you had a hint of understanding why real drivers buy BMWs and Audis you wouldn't be calling everyone 'pretentious snobs who lack originality'. How old ARE you?

I don't really know what you guys are talking about, I live in San Jose and I see CTS' around a lot. One jaunt down Steven's Creek Blvd around Santana Row and Valley Fair and I gaurantee you will see a handful of these Caddies.

On another note: limeman I agree that there is some brand snobbery that drives people to the Germans, but the CTS's striking lines are polarizing. While I personally think the car is very attractive I have talked to many people who find it just plain ugly.

Also, I am in agreement with ctpax here. I did not purchase my Benz for the status, I bought it for its ability to juggle supreme refinement and genuine performance capability seamlessly.

I dont know anyone who thinks the CTS is ugly.

I love it when media types pretend that there were nice cars in the 80s when the Cimarron was on sale. Take it from me, the cars from that era look terrible and I woudlnt want any of them. Detroit's cars were uninspired but so were the boxes being sent over here from Japan and Germany. The 80s was a sad time for cars in my view. Since I'm too young to remember when the Cimarron was new I dont get why people over 40 or 50 are so obsessed with singling out that car. Its one of dozens of boxy, dull cars from the 80s. It just happened to be a Cadillac.

Hey guys... I didn't say the CTS was necessarily beautiful (although I do really like the look), just easily recognizable. Also didn't mean to offend the easily disturbed. Too much coffee for me that day I suppose. Let me just say... "Many of the buyers in the region... blah blah blah". By the way, I have owned and driven the pants off of a BMW 3, an Audi TT and a Porsche Boxter S. Trust me when I say I do understand why "real drivers" buy these cars. I currently have my sights set on a 2008/09 Pontiac G8GT. By the time you get all the discounts from GM, add in a few thousand for Pedders upgrades and do some very minor software updates, you will have a vehicle that will put some serious hurt on the BMW 3 or 5 series for not much more than $32K. Prestige? Who cares when you can have so much fun for so little.

The relative smallness of the rear door and the strange shape of it's opening is a turn off to me. Additionally, at a local golf tournament, there was CTS on display and the driver's seat was all the way back, and I was aghast to see that it was seemingly one inch from the rear seat. This does not look like the "comfortable" family hauler some pretend to be the reason for buying one. At least in my Altima, I can sit behind the seat adjusted for me in front and it still looks great (even though they are commonplace).

"I love it when media types pretend that there were nice cars in the 80s "

There's an interesting challenge, nice cars from the 80's.

There were some nice sports coupes..
-RX7 (1st gen)
-Supra (2nd gen)
-Sirrocco (can't remember spelling for some reason)
-Prelude (2nd gen)
- MR2

Trucks included the...
-Jeep Cherokee and YJ
-4Runner (1st gen)
-too many good mini trucks to list
-1987 C/K pickups (1st modern pick ups)

Economy cars...
-easy winner is the 1984 Civic family
and runner ups ...
- Colt Turbo
- GTI
-Omni GLH
and the rear drive 16V Corolla

Sedan are tougher as I never had any interest in them. Someone else can fill in their favourites if they like.

If you think the 80's are tough, try finding a list of good cars from the 70's. I'm old enough to remember both and the cars in the 80's were a huge improvement

Mercedes from the 70s and 80s rocked. I'd love to find a classic 500SEL.

And let's not forget the birth of the mighty M3 in '86. Fantastic car.

firstwagon,

I agree the 70s were sad. The 80s werent much better. At least up until the 70s we could say cars had soome style and flair. Asian cars just got some soul within the last decade or so. Sure they had powertrains that were durable but beyond that they were simply dull boxes on wheels that rusted easily. All cars were pathetic in the Dark Ages, regardless of manufacturer.

Those "dark ages" in the auto industry were mostly caused by government over-regulation and a clueless president (first name goes with "cricket") who literally tore our economy down to it's knees. Fun times, and something I fear we are about to revisit.

And yet the current collapse is caused almost entirely by lack of regulation.

By allowing the banks to loan money to every idiot just so they can make a quick buck...

By allowing everyone with access to the internet free rein on the stock market causing it to spike to unsubstainable levels and crash even worse...

By allowing the government to spend money like a drunken lottery winner in Vegas while building up the biggest debt in history without a clue on how to control it...

and you're worried the new government could somehow make this worse?