teh CL.... lost his V card
 

Hey guys,

Been MIA for a bit, work/rinse/repeat has been my life for the last little bit & as riveting as that's been, it does have it's perks though.

As I mentioned in a previous thread, I've been getting the itch for sometime to get into something new. The checklist a worthy candidate had to have was:

- Power (350hp+),
- AWD or RWD
- Luxury
- Rarity is always nice.
- $35k CDN
- Most importantly, a 6MT.

At first, I was pretty set on 08/09 RS4's, checked all the boxes & seemed overall bad ass. Saw a few of them but none of them ever worked out for various reasons. The general consensus on here was heavily against the RS4 as well :rofl:

The RS4 fad faded rather quickly though when a semi local 2nd gen CTS-V popped up for a price that I could work with. Went to check it out & just the presence of the car had me hooked, then buddy took me for a rip & my decision was made, a V was my next car. Unfortunately that car didn't work out either which was a buzz kill since it was the definition of CLEAN. With that said, maybe it was for the best since it only had 70k KM (40k miles) but also had 7 owners which kinda rubbed me the wrong way.

The car hunt kinda faded for the last 2 months since work has been the story of my life. Heavy research into the V world was on though & the deeper I went, the clearer the decision was. Only bad thing I could find anywhere was the MPG which was understandable considering it's a 4k+ lb sedan with over 500hp on tap. Fast forward to a couple weeks ago & all the local V's were all north of $40k as usual, so I decided to broaden my search to all of Canada just for shits and giggles. One caught my eye in British Columbia with 70k KMs (40k Miles), 2 owners, maintained only at the local Cadillac dealer it's whole life & a clean car fax. At first I wasn't even gonna bother with it since it was north of my budget & on the other side of the country. I decided to message the seller just for the hell of it & over the years I've dealt with multiple people purchasing parts/cars but this guy was the definition of consistent/top notch service. He ended up sending me a video of the car showing every nick/nack on it. The car had some scuffs on it but considering it's close to 10 years old (09') it was as close to mint as I was gonna find.

Everything seemed legit on this side of the computer screen as it could be but I still ended up battling with my self for the last few weeks justifying buying a car on the other side of the country, let alone sight unseen. After much debate & buddy accepting my offer, I made the decision to take the risk, send out a deposit to hold the car, book a flight to check it out & drive it back if it all checked out. To make everything even more interesting, with how busy I've been with work, I could only pull Friday off of work. So I had to fly out Thursday night, check out the car Friday morning and crushed 4000+ KM (2400+ Miles) in 2 days to be back on work on Monday. :what: :rofl:

I've never been more scared in my life but to say that it was an unreal experience would be an understatement, car had a couple minor hiccups along the way but considering it literally did the cruise non stop (day/night) with respectable MPG (19MPG), I can't complain at all.

Here's some random pics from the cruise..

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This car is the definition of a beast & left it in "competitive mode" for the entire cruise.. :rofl:

Killing me having it sit in the driveway for the last few days since I haven't had time to get it certified/plated. Hopefully have it legal by the weekend. :thumbsup:



:cheers:

:cheers: Congrats!!! This is a very happy ending man! It sucks you weren't able to take more time off and enjoy the trip more, though I'm sure it was plenty fun. That's some insane distance in a short time. :what: What do you do for work, if you don't mind my asking?


Also... temp plates are your friend. Go to ServiceOntario with $15 and proof of insurance, they'll give you a sticker/plates valid for ten days. :)

Damn dude, I am the definition of jealous right now!!! The 2nd-gen CTS-V remains one of my realistic dream cars and that one is an absolute beauty!!! The only sticking point for me in truly considering one is the gas mileage. I drive 90 miles round trip to work and back every single day and even though my Genesis averages 29 mpg I still end up having to refuel every 4-5 days (at about $45 a pop), I can only imagine how much of a dent into the budget a 556hp S/C V8 would put into my budget! Still, that damn thing is just so amazing (and don't even mention the new CTS-V which is about as ugly to me as the previous car was beautiful).

Yea I wish I could have had a couple more days to fully take in the cruise. Can't lie, I had a BLAST ripping through northern Ontario, have to go back up there again.

I'm a truck driver, so early mornings & long days, plus summer is busy as hell.

Planning on getting a 10 day permit, just need to get there before they close, struggle is real. :rofl:

Thanks man. Seems it's the car of choice around here & for good reason. It's gonna be fun.

:rofl:

Honestly, smiles per gallon > *

In all seriousness though, they can get decent mileage, especially if the majority of your cruise is highway. I averaged 19mpg throughout the cruise with cruise control set between 60-90 mph, some stop/go traffic & some full boost sessions in the twisties. Far stretch from 29mpg but you won't be dissapointed. :thumbsup:

Congrats! :cheers:

That is one hell of a drive to pull off in 2.5 days. Can't imagine driving that much in that short of time and not falling asleep. Even in something as fun as the V the highway just gets boring eventually.

Also Welcome to CTSVzine!

Now it makes sense. You drive for a living so racking up miles is a normal occurance. I have a buddy that does this as well and the stories he tells of trips he makes in his time off is crazy. PA to FL non stop. Bet the drive was a lot more fun than in your truck :biggrin:

Thanks man. Driving for a living definitely helped. Actually pulled it off in less than 2 days, left BC Friday at 1030am & pulled into my driveway Sunday morning just before 1030am. Not bad considering we lost 3 hours along the way with the time change. :rofl:

My brother came with me which was a game changer, even though I crushed 90% of the cruise, having someone to keep going while a had quick power naps helped. He's not a car guy at all & fell in love.. :chuckle:

Congrats on the "V", yeah they are a blast to drive.. I love the combo of luxury and performance.. BTW get used to the last pic, you'll be spending a lot of timing putting gas in it...LOL

congrats on the V. welcome to the club. when i bought the Vagon it was 300 miles (4 hrs away). the ride home was a blast. it's such a roadtrip friendly car.

i'm wondering what kind of hiccups you had with the car on the way back?

another one to the brotherhood!!!

this man speaks the truth!!!

I'm use to the RL being a pig so this thing is only slightly worse. I'm sure my right foot won't help the cause. :rofl:

Thanks man. It was definitely an experience.

As for the hiccups, a TPMS sensor took a shit literally 15 minutes into the cruise which of course got my mind scrambling that this thing was a piece.. :rofl: .. The only other hiccup was when the center console, navi, radio, climate control didn't power up after shutting the car down to get gas. Did some quick research & 09'/10's randomly suffer from this due to a ground bolt on the fuse block above the battery. Of course I didn't have any tools but it all came back on 15 minutes later & has been fine since. :shrug:

:cheers: on the V
AZ is turning into CTS-V-zine & German-zine.

One of the few cars that I think I'd consider buying in black.

ahh yes both very minor things... ctsvowners is a great forum to find out all the fixes. so you should be fine... just be ready to become a cunt...

Awesome purchase :cheers:

I miss my Vagon and find myself searching the classifieds pretty often on those. I'm sure you'll love the car so be sure to keep us updated on the mods!!

Come on JB come back and join the club :D

Haha... it's on my shortlist. Nothing till late next year at the earliest. Just closed on some land up by the lake yesterday... meeting with homebuilder tomorrow to finalize options. Once that's done and the shop is built I can look into another car. Shortlist is currently Vagon, Mustang GT (Roush), Charger SCAT. That list does change daily though so we'll see what actually happens :chuckle:

Same piece you were looking at before or a different piece and location?

From that list I vote Vagon as it will appreciate some probably or at least stay the same as you add miles.

Glad to see all the OGs are doing well for themselves!

Congrats! Looks great and I'm glad you got a 6MT.

Same piece. Off of Fern Hill Road by Kenway Loop... about 10 min from GoPro Motorplex :D

How did I miss this thread?? Congrats man, this is a great purchase! If I wasn't so much of a stickler on reliability and driving my cars into the high miles, I would have bought one of these for sure!

Congratulations! You have great taste in cars.

Thanks man, much appreciated. :thumbsup:

Thanks man & it definitely seems that way.. :rofl:

The black is so damn stealth, yet aggressive.. :drool:

:rofl:

Between that site & the Facebook groups, the info on these cars is ridiculous. Definitely helped with the decision.

Thanks man.

A Vagon was/is the dream but those things are priced & impossible to find up here.. :bored:

Definitely having a blast so far & so are the local gas stations lol. Told myself to wait till next year for mods but we'll see how that works out.. :rofl:

Work hard/play hard.. :biggrin:

Thanks man & it was 6MT or bust.

Thanks man.

I went deep into research before biting the bullet with this car & except for the MPG, there weren't any serious reliability issues. Many guys well into the 100k mile club with only fluid/tire changes.

Car passed safety with flying colours, just needed front tires since the alignemnt was off which lead to the inner wires slowly starting to peak out.

Only other issue was that the rear shocks are gonna need to be replaced in the near future. It's either grab another set of mag rides or save up for coils/mag ride bypass.

The car definitely wasn't driven in the winter as the undercarriage was the definition of clean. Definitely keeping it that way.. :drool:

Also, no kills to report yet... :sad:

I'm glad you did your research :) As far as the mag ride is concerned, I'd honestly replace it with mag ride. I've driven the same car with and without... I would keep it mag ride :) What's the cost on the parts?

EDIT: I found it kind of funny that we bought cars within 6 months of each other and we both went with higher powered RWD cars :rofl:

Sweet ride, I am jealous!

Can you post some interior pics?

I haven't seen anything that says they are not good at high mileage? I mean it is an LS entire. The design it pretty proven as bullet proof.

Get used to the inner tire wear it is terrible. It gets even worse if you lower. Right now I get around 10-12k out of my fronts and 25-30k out of my years if I don't assist their wear at all. To help with it a little I would switch out your front upper and lower control arm bushings as soon as they show any signs of wear. There is a company that makes a poly bushing replacement kit and they are great. They also make turn in better over the rubber ones.

I am torn on what to do about Mag ride. I love the ability to adjust on the fly but wish it was a little more difference than what it is. I would love sport mode to be stiffer. I need new rears as well at some point and still haven't made the decision over them or coils and if so do I go all out with KW3 coils or just go with BC coils which I had great success with on my ISF.

Exactly my thought when I read the original comment. there are guys on the V forums pushing some high mileage and the cars are running as good as day one. The LS engine is a pretty proven platform and not something I'd worry about...

I haven't seen anything that points to this CTS-V generation in particular being particularly unreliable. I can't think of any glaring, major, reliability issues off the top of my head that this car has...

This is the part where I reveal some of my automotive biases: My perception of GM and GM product as a whole during the first decade of the 2000s is what kept me out of this car. As solid as I know the LS and CTS-V to be, it's literally more old habits dying hard. I probably shouldn't be as skeptical of GM considering how long my dad worked in engineering for them (pre and post bailout) and I literally witnessed the improvements in product post-bailout... I just got jaded by the 90s and early 2000s version of General Motors :)

Honestly, that bias kept me out of the CTS-V, not facts :)

:rofl:

Yea, sometimes you just need to step it up. Love the RL for what it is but always left me wanting more.

As for the mag ride, pretty sure I can get there rears for around $700 CDN shipped through rockauto. Not too bad but considering this thing is pushing 10 years, I bet the fronts aren't to far behind either.

Thanks man, I'll try to get some pics later today.

As soon as I saw the inner tire wear, I was off to Google and saw that it was common with these cars. I don't see a point in buying fresh tires if that's gonna be the case. Found a used set of pilot sports with over half life left for like 150 bucks, pretty much the same shit I dealt with in the RL. :shrug:

With the mag ride, at first I wasn't gonna touch them at all but over the past few days I've been pushing the car more and even in sport mode, it's leaving me wanting more. Maybe a set of springs with fresh shocks will help the cause or just bite the bullet and go KW next season since it's always on sport mode anyways.. :ponder:

Here's some quick interior pics, black recaros/navi/no sunroof...

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i'm jealous of your man pedal...

Congrats on the new ride! Don't know how I missed this! You're crazy to drive that far so fast! It looks super clean and nav, no sunroof, recaro is the best!
I sold the CL and all I think about is what my next ride will be. I don't think I'll get anything until the kids are older. A V wagon would be on my list for sure. My CL is in Oakville now so keep an eye..... You can get a kill lol.

Thanks man. Definitely pulled some shit out of my ass getting home that fast..:rofl: ..Definitely love the recaros & was skeptical about no sunroof but I don't mind it at all, makes it feel more like a "4 door Vette".

That's wild that the CL-S is finally gone.. :sad: ..I'll be on the lookout for sure now & be sure to put him in his place.. :chuckle:

Wouldn't have it any other way.. :goldcup:

there is one for sale on fb that was nicely priced... let me see if i can find it...

Slowly but surely, chrome delete has begun..

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Nice, I'll slowly be doing the same on the C.
Either wrap or sourcing Night Pkg parts to replace the existing chrome.

This was wrapped. Not bad for my first ever attempt at wrapping anything, not 100% perfect but the perks of black.. :chuckle:

Love the chrome delete!! Have you thought about debadging the car?

I have one piece of advice to chip in, please drive it :) One of the biggest mistakes I realized I made after I totaled my Camry was this: I felt I drove the hell out of the Camry and for that I felt complete letting it go. And then I looked at the RL and I felt terrible for not driving it. Please don't let this beautiful piece of machinery sit!!

Random question, but what's the "T" tag in Ontario? I thought the tags were usually month and year of expiration??