2008 Cadillac CTS: Detroit to Los Angeles Part V

Do you really need the radar detector at 68 mph?

For those of us who have never been down there, whats the limit on highways like that?

it must be hard to go only 68 on a road like that. I would've been doing at least 80.

Can you please wash the CTS? I mean, 5 minutes, $10 dollars. Just do it!

The limit on a lot of non-interstate Arizona highways is 65 mph. On the Interstate, it'd be 75 mph.

Arizona has gone radar camera crazy in the last few months. The budget is in dire straits, I guess. Of course now that they're up, the safety advocates think they're great, too.
http://www.asuwebdevil.com/node/3746 The author glosses over the traffic reduction that came along with high gas prices and a worsening economy, I think.

Speed enforcement is great, but the logic of an officer that can take circumstances into consideration is preferable to a dumb robot. Someone I know got fined for 3 mph over at 2:00 am on a deserted freeway by one of the things. And the placement is sometimes sneaky. I saw one right next to a 45 mph sign, right at the change point from 65mph. You had to have 100% of your slowing done before you reached the sign. That's not logical enforcement, that's "Gotcha!" revenue generation.

And I think you can have too many of the things.

In the time span between my Scion xB trip last May and the Insight trip in December, dozens(hundreds?) of new speed cameras turned-up, with a veritable picket-fence of them a couple of miles apart along my Loop 101 freeway route, the same route I'd taken in the Scion.

Folks jumped on their brakes at the sight of the things, and I saw a couple of near misses as cars in front overreacted by slowing to 5 or 10 mph below the limit, even though they weren't speeding before they saw the camera. Brakes lights looked like Christmas lights all around me. Traffic was created where none existed previously. All four lanes of the freeway were going the same speed. It was a totally frustrating driving experience, to say the least.

I've driven in places all over the world with what I thought was heavy-handed speed camera usage: Japan, Korea, England, Australia, etc. But the placement of cameras I saw in Phoenix was easily 5 times as dense. Who'd have though that Libertarian Arizona would become such a police state?

Note to AZ: I lived there 8 years, but I'm not coming back until these things are history. I've never ever owned a radar dectector, but in AZ I wouldn't leave home without one.

There must be a lot of clean-freaks here. At the smallest speck of dust they insist that a car needs cleaning. On a road trip, a car gets grimy (especially during the winter months). Stopping to clean it every time it gets dirty is time consuming and costly.

Maybe it's a California thing.

actualsize: "Someone I know got fined for 3 mph over at 2:00 am on a deserted freeway by one of the things"

I hate speed cameras as much as the next guy but you were lied to. Until Jan 8, 2009, the threshold for the cameras was 10mph over the speed limit, starting Jan 8 the threshold was 11 mph over.

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/2009/01/09/20090109B1-update01091.html

"There must be a lot of clean-freaks here. At the smallest speck of dust they insist that a car needs cleaning. On a road trip, a car gets grimy (especially during the winter months). Stopping to clean it every time it gets dirty is time consuming and costly."

Amen. Although it is fun to joke about the combination of Michigan road salt with Great Plains dust and Arizona sand.

@esoterica I don't know about AZ but right when you enter DC on one of the main roads from Maryland there is a speed camera I swear seems to nail people for going 1/1000mph over the speed limit.

"Fuel economy jumped to 24.1 mpg. Good, but still way below the car's EPA highway rating of 26 mpg, no doubt due to the numerous elevation changes and high winds on our route."

So when did 1.9 of anything become "WAY"?

I noticed in the photo that the engine shows about 2000 rpm at 70mph.

I have an 07 Aura XR with the 3.6 6speed auto combination and at 2000 rpm I know I am going at least 75mph. I normally cruise around 80 mph, which shows about 2100 rpm on the tach.

I am guessing the CTS has the 6 speed as well, correct.

I wonder how much the gearing was changed, if any, with the DI. If not, I wonder if my car is more aerodynamic.

The more I think about it, is has to be gearing and the extra horsepower of the DI.

If anyone has any info, please let me know.

"Do you really need the radar detector at 68 mph?"

Even if you don't 'need' it, it is still a gadget and gadgets are fun. Even if it is just so you can say to yourself "Hah! I saw him before he saw me."

I had one other thought about the speed, mileage and rpms. If Scott was using the auto in manual mode, he might have been in 5th instead of 6th.

That would explain the difference in rpm and speed. I know in the XR when using manual mode you only have a number to tell you what gear you are in.

aurakr, different transmission. The Aura uses the FWD 6-speed auto co-developed with Ford, the CTS uses the RWD 6-speed (6L50, in fact) developed exclusively by GM.

Also a bit surprised by the mpg. Was that 24.1 just for the last, slow day? Or the total for the trip? I've never owned a car where I could not exceed the EPA highway mpg, especially below 70 mph. Even under the new standards.

Oh well, looking back, the guy who drove it from LA to Detroit got 23.5 mpg with average speed 70 mph. So, there you have it. It's a big, bad, somewhat thirsty car.

For 24 mpg highway, I'd rather have the G8 GT.

I understand about different transmission, fwd versus rwd, but what about the gearing? I would think that the two cars would have about the same gearing as both are GM vehicles.

After all both used the same 3.6 without DI prior to this. I have seen previous highway numbers for the CTS, non DI, to be around 23-24 mpg. That was with the previous 5 speed auto.

I'll take two positives for this. I know I can get 27-28 mpg with my XR while running 70-85 mph and that the DI CTS gets the same mileage with 50 more horsepower than it did previously.

aurekr,

HP production, aero and weight do have an effect on MPG but I don't think you'll find a difference in RPMs @ a given speed because of these things. I think that has to do with gearing - both in the trans and diff; no? (and wheel size - I think)

That is what has me intrigued here.

My XR has the 3.6 6speed auto and 18 inch tires.

I know the CTS is heavier, but I would have thought the gearing would be fairly close for top gear.

The picture shown is about equal to the gearing in my wife's minivan with a 4 speed auto, 2000 rpm at 70 mph.

That is why I wonder if the car was in 5th gear instead of sixth. It would be easy enough to do with the manual mode, many people would not have known at all.