2008 Cadillac CTS: Finding a Buyer -- It Only Takes One

huh... this is the same thing my wife went through. We were selling our 2005 Canyon SLE 4x4 Extended Cab. I was marketing the crap out of the truck looking for "the one" because it was a very rare fully loaded, 4x4 5cylinder with a manual tranny. But we all know that most people want an automatic. So I had it up for 5 weeks and waited, waited and waited. Had a couple of looks but nothing serious. After 2 weeks of no calls, out of nowhere a couple calls from San Jose they drive over the hill to look at and buy it on the spot. He just happened to be looking for a Canyon/Colorado under $14k and was fond of the 5 Cyl and Manual transmission. Cool thing was I ended up selling it for only $200 under the Edmunds Private Party TMV! I thought I was going to have slash the price on it just to get rid of it especially with bad news on GM coming out every 10 seconds!

I saw one identical to yours the other day at the beach. I thought to myself, "Maybe it's Kate Walsh, like in the commercials.."

It ended up being a 4'9" 250lb Woman.

I had a 1970 Cutlass I was trying to sell a few months back. It was my first car and a lot of fun for the couple mile drive to school, work, and cross country/track practice, but real life happened and I had to get something a bit more reliable and efficient for serious commuting. I tried to keep the Cutlass as a weekend project car, but again real life happened and it ended up sitting in front of my parents' house with no work being done on the "project". This seemed kinda pointless, and while I didn't have the money to work on it, I wasn't desperately in need of money either. So I put it up for sale at $5,000, above market value for the trim, body style, and condition, and waited for the car to mean something to the right buyer. Months went by as I weeded out unworthy buyers (choice quote: "So does the car have a V4 or V6?") and a couple promising inquiries fell through. Then during a week out in the middle of nowhere in Mexico my wife sent me a text saying my parents found a buyer and decided to act on my behalf and sell it. Turns out some Swedish guy visiting the U.S. had a Swedish friend who really wanted the car, so he bought it for $4,500 and shipped it all the way to Sweden. Not bad. It really did just take the one right buyer. Oh, and when I said I didn't really need the money; turns out a few weeks later I was laid off, and the cash made a really nice safety cushion until I landed another job. Sometimes things just work out.

"A day later, I picked up our buyer (who bought it based on pictures and good faith) at the airport. "

Did you tell him about the CTS's various squeaks and/or direct him to the blog?

"unworthy buyers (choice quote: "So does the car have a V4 or V6?")"

Unworthy buyers - that's funny. Definitely someone clueless about cars.

It's always great when finding that right buyer who loves the car and lets you know.

Thats cool. Good. So... how about selling the G8 GT to g8gtnorth?

Just checking...

P.T. Barnum said it best, "There is a potential Caddy owner born every minute."

So what car will be replacing the CTS in the LT fleet? An Acura TL sh-awd would be interesting, IL has never tested an Acura long term.

"A pleasure doing business with you, chummmmmmmmmmmp..."

No offense, but I don't think I would ever buy a car out of Edmunds' long-term fleet.

+1 on an acura

TSX V6, TL with a 6MT... hell I dont care for the type of vehicle, but I'd even take an MDX

Ah yes, a thing is always worth what its purchaser will pay for it. Glad you sold it at a reasonable price despite the general market conditions.

Still, is $2,500 less than TMV really a vindication of TMV?

Waiting for the " They'll probably add another BMW" comment any second now....

I'm thinking we need an X6 in the lineup. You know, just to see how BMWs steer and handle because none of us really know.

bahahahah - this car had a 47k MSRP and it sold for 20k less than that a 16 months later?! Wow, that's horrendous.

GT5000: I don't know why anyone would, unless it was a screaming deal.

ecole2: They had a previous generation TL a few years ago, but I too would like to see an Acura.

This is why I tend to buy my cars new, special ordered exactly the way I want it, fully loaded, and I keep it for 8-10 years. This way the first 2 years of depreciation doesn't kill you. ESPECIALLY if you put a lot of miles on the car. If you're not willing to keep the car for that long, then you shouldn't buy new - buy an almost new car that is 2 years old. The worst financial move you can make with a car is buying a brand new car every 2 or 3 years. If you do that, you had better LOVE that new car smell, because you're paying an awful lot for it!

blueguydotcom - Before you jump to naive conclusions, remember this CTS had almost 30,000 miles on it, which is a lot for only 16 months. An average CTS at 16 months should have only 20,000 miles on it.

stingray, 43% depreciation is horrendous. Miles or not that car's dropped like a stone. I just mocked up a loaded CTS DI with 20k miles and it's coming out at 29.5k. That's still a 37% drop.

GM wasn't leasing CTS when I looked at them in February. The salesperson said it was impossible for them to get a good bead on resale value. Maybe he was lying...

bgdc, like all the other GM haters you conveniently forget the "carpocolypse" that occurred between the time the CTS was bought and sold. Both new AND used markets were turned on their heads, so just about everything depreciated more than average in the past few months. Just like Bill Visnic in his "analysis" of Caddy, Buick, and GMC, you look only at negative trends for Cadillac and ignore their application to all other brands.

Yeah, I wouldn't call these normal times. Plus, I doubt Edmunds paid full sticker for their CTS. Further, ALL luxury brands have had resale value take it on the chin the past year - this is not just a Cadillac phenomenon. In fact, the CTS won a best resale value award from Kelley Blue Book for luxury cars recently. So if you think the CTS had poor resale value, other luxury cars in this segment are even worse.

"like all the other GM haters you conveniently forget the "carpocolypse" that occurred between the time the CTS was bought and sold. Both new AND used markets were turned on their heads, so just about everything depreciated more than average in the past few months."

I can attest to this... We owned our 2005 GMC Canyon for 15 months (sold it last month). We bought it for $14,500 which was a smoking deal (it's average auction value was $13,900 at the time) 15 months later and only 11k more miles on the truck (which was low for its age) we barely got $12,200 for it and it's auction value was $9,700!!! That was a huge drop and I attributed it mainly to the constant "bad news" about GM which made it kind of hard to sell. Decent truck but if that thing was a comparable Tacoma I would have sold it in a week for 5 grand more! (would have bought it for more too) But a 4k depreciation in little over a year on a 3-4 yr old truck was pretty bad!

@sting - you keep telling yourself that.

Punch in a 2008 G35 with 30k miles and add the basics for the premium. It sold MSRP was around 37k. Private party is listed at 27k. 28% drop.

2008 BMW 335i with Auto, ZSP/ZPP had an MSRP of 47k. Edmunds lists one with 30k miles at a private party of 34k. 28% drop.

I don't know the pricing on IS350s well enough to judge their drop but I think this might be one car that took the same kind of hit as the Caddy.

Point is, the Caddy didn't hold up well compared to some of its competitors and we're all aware of how prices have plummeted. Some more than others...

BDC you have a point. The CTS's residual value is terrible.

I wonder if it has to do with the market for Cadillacs in California. I'd be curious to see market share figures - I swear since this car's been out I've seen maybe 4 on the road here in NorCal, and one of them was a beige one being driven by an elderly couple. Given the ubiquity of the IS, 3-Series, TL, C-Class, and G35/37 around here (read: the entry-lux segment is REALLY popular), it's surprising the CTS hasn't scored a few more sales.

@06scooby, no offense but you are talking about the Canyon, arguably not one of GM's best products on the market right now that's part of a dying market segment in the US. The waning desirability of compact pickups and resulting lousiness of the segment (Dakota and Ranger...) results in steep depreciation.

If any GM product has a shot at weathering the storm, it should be the CTS.

BGDC - One thing you are forgetting about is the aggressive incentives that GM is offering on CTS's right now, as Philip mentioned. Because of the economy and GM's own financial struggles you can buy a new CTS relatively cheap now (much less than the $42,272 that Edmunds paid 16 months ago)which really drives down used prices. The other cars you mentioned don't have to compete with brand new models of themselves like pretty much all GM and Dodge products have to right now.....