Just picked up 2015 3.8 Ultimate Caddy Guy

[shoelessj]

Just picked up a 2015 Genesis Ultimate Black/ Beige after leasing four caddys (3CTS, 1 SRX)
This is a company leased vehicle. Was going to 'blindly' roll into a new CTS but their pricing was nuts and styling not exciting. For my lease payment I could initially get a 2.0 AWD without nav (53,000). This deal sweetened by incentives so I was at a 3.6 AWD luxury with NAV. By then I had started looking around. I was smitten by the Genesis style and options. Drove Lexus GS 350 also but did not care for style. I wound up saving my company 100 bucks a month with the Genesis which was not my intent (would have loved 5.0 but not in Midwest winter).

After two days of driving my thoughts:

Interior is classier than CTS. Wood, some knobs and buttons and space are more old school than CTS which is hampered by the CUE touchscreen system.

More readily available interior color options. They have pretty much shut down CTS production because of lousy sales.

Engine performance is inspiring- CTS hurt by older tech 3.6 and 6 speed (like stepping in a bucket with lag when you floor it).

Big reason for Genny was options and am floored by stereo, rear seat heat cool, etc, etc. the list goes on and on.

Rebadged the car trunk with wing. Sadly this did not go as smoothly as you tube examples I have seen but everything in place and looks great.

Handling was perhaps only ?- it is a bit soft. Good or bad I have the michelin primacy tires which are not high performance. Still not objectionable just think if this car had dialed up handling it would be perfect. Super quiet ride though

Still love the classic style- longer wheelbase long hood- maybe rear lights could be more distinctive but Caddy ATS and CTS look alike as do Lexus GS 350 and ES.

Picked up car with 45 lbs in tires which was disappointing from the dealer prep side.

Fog lights? Not - only real downer.

Overall, I hope my impressions remain so positive. I feel like this car is almost everything an E or 5 series could be and prefer it to stripped versions of either $ to $. I have had Merc and BMW in past.

Overall people seem to still have the Hyundai image issue but it is kind of cool to think out of the box and look at the car objectively instead of what the badge 'projects'

All comments of course IMHO.

Look forward to learning more from this forum in the future.

 

[Aquineas]

Congrats and welcome! I have to admit I love the styling of the newest CTS, particularly in the front.

 

[shoelessj]

Congrats and welcome! I have to admit I love the styling of the newest CTS, particularly in the front.

Agree the front is aggressive with the integrated fogs and the grille. However I didn't like the styling cues (shaped) in the hood. Also the big rear end hangs out quite a bit like they stretched the body but not wheelbase. Our cars are about the same length and two inches wider but have a 4" longer wheelbase.

Styling very objective but out of the cars within my consideration I would rate:

1)Gensis with CTS a close 2nd
3)GS 350
4) QX 70

 

[LA Genesis]

Actually I was looking to move from a 2012 Genesis to a new CTS. What did Cadillac to do the CTS pricing? Prices seem to have gone up $8k to $10K!! They have a good product but it may be the most overpriced car on the market.

I bought my 2015 G and I am very happy.

 

[Sal Collaziano]

Just picked up a 2015 Genesis Ultimate Black/ Beige after leasing four caddys (3CTS, 1 SRX)
This is a company leased vehicle. Was going to 'blindly' roll into a new CTS but their pricing was nuts and styling not exciting. For my lease payment I could initially get a 2.0 AWD without nav (53,000). This deal sweetened by incentives so I was at a 3.6 AWD luxury with NAV. By then I had started looking around. I was smitten by the Genesis style and options. Drove Lexus GS 350 also but did not care for style. I wound up saving my company 100 bucks a month with the Genesis which was not my intent (would have loved 5.0 but not in Midwest winter).

After two days of driving my thoughts:

Interior is classier than CTS. Wood, some knobs and buttons and space are more old school than CTS which is hampered by the CUE touchscreen system.

More readily available interior color options. They have pretty much shut down CTS production because of lousy sales.

Engine performance is inspiring- CTS hurt by older tech 3.6 and 6 speed (like stepping in a bucket with lag when you floor it).

Big reason for Genny was options and am floored by stereo, rear seat heat cool, etc, etc. the list goes on and on.

Rebadged the car trunk with wing. Sadly this did not go as smoothly as you tube examples I have seen but everything in place and looks great.

Handling was perhaps only ?- it is a bit soft. Good or bad I have the michelin primacy tires which are not high performance. Still not objectionable just think if this car had dialed up handling it would be perfect. Super quiet ride though

Still love the classic style- longer wheelbase long hood- maybe rear lights could be more distinctive but Caddy ATS and CTS look alike as do Lexus GS 350 and ES.

Picked up car with 45 lbs in tires which was disappointing from the dealer prep side.

Fog lights? Not - only real downer.

Overall, I hope my impressions remain so positive. I feel like this car is almost everything an E or 5 series could be and prefer it to stripped versions of either $ to $. I have had Merc and BMW in past.

Overall people seem to still have the Hyundai image issue but it is kind of cool to think out of the box and look at the car objectively instead of what the badge 'projects'

All comments of course IMHO.

Look forward to learning more from this forum in the future.

Welcome aboard! And thank you for signing up! Congratulations on your new Genesis! The naturally aspirated CTS is slow - but they DO have a twin turbo version - which is quite quick... Most people are NOT a fan of that CUE system! I would take a Genesis over a CTS any time - and I've been a Cadillac owner many times in the past.

The dealers always overfill the tires. I believe it has something to do with getting a few extra miles out of each gallon to meet the stated figures. I definitely won't be keeping that much air in my tires as I prefer a softer, more luxurious ride than sporty one...

You can get OEM fog lights in your V6 Genesis. Do a search here and you'll find a few discussions going on about that.

Congrats and welcome! I have to admit I love the styling of the newest CTS, particularly in the front.

I'm with ya there. That front-end is very aggressive and simultaneously quite classy. Nice car. But the sides are as bland as a glass of water.

Actually I was looking to move from a 2012 Genesis to a new CTS. What did Cadillac to do the CTS pricing? Prices seem to have gone up $8k to $10K!! They have a good product but it may be the most overpriced car on the market.

I bought my 2015 G and I am very happy.

Cadillac CTS pricing went up for the third generation. Reason being - it is NO LONGER their entry-level model. The first and second generation CTS competed with the 3-Series BMW. The third competes with the 5-Series. You get a lot more car with the third generation. The problem is - most people don't realize this and don't buy the car out of sticker shock. Cadillac should have named the new CTS "STS" and the new ATS "CTS". Sometimes I don't know WTF they're thinking...

 

[shoelessj]

Thanks for the comments.
I've been pretty passionate about the negative (in my mind) moves Caddy has made. Their pres., (newly from Audi) moved design group from Detroit to New York and decided he will compete with BMW and Merc head on ie. ATS is 3 series C class competitor, CTS is E class and 5 series competitor.
Man he missed this by a mile. You must build rep and quality first and then
raise prices not the other way around. Caddy sales are dismal except for the Escalade. The sales people I know were pretty candid in that they knew this was a disaster. I mean when you come off a CTS lease with a 3.6 Performance car and the replacement is 15,000 more it is a problem.
I know when I said I was looking at a Genesis and cited the many advantages I had a lot of raised eyebrows.
When I dropped my leased car off at a Caddy dealer the finance guy asked why I was dropping it there and when I told him because the Genesis dealer is next door he kind of just looked down. I am really kind of sad for the Caddy dealerships. All it takes is some misdirection from the top and alot of livelihoods are impacted (except for those who make the bad decisions).

 

[LA Genesis]

Cadillac felt their newer products were on a par with Mercedes/Audi/BMW and suddenly raised their prices. Their product has improved and may even be on a par with the European makers. The problem is that most U.S. buyers don't know that yet and the few that do want that European badge on their cars.

Genesis had a similar problem with 2G. Hyundai took a chance and raised the the prices fairly dramatically. I'm sure they lost a few sales because of it in the the short term. But they are still priced below the high end competition they are chasing.

 

[Aquineas]

Agree on the pricing observations. I think Hyundai is raising their prices more incrementally.

 

[Alwaysforward]

Congrats and to the forum.

Regarding the tires, they are over inflated for the boat ride over. The dealer should have reduced the pressures at dealer prep.

 

[RSPEC429]

I was giving a serious look at the CTS V-Sports when the '14s were still available to be leased. They were taking about $10k off of those things. The '15s came around though and the incentives dried up. I got some lease quotes for them and they were right around $750/month for a 12/36 lease. Completely priced me out of my budget with the '15s.

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[amartz]

Agree on the pricing observations. I think Hyundai is raising their prices more incrementally.

I didn't think it was all that incremental!

 

[YEH]

Cadillac felt their newer products were on a par with Mercedes/Audi/BMW and suddenly raised their prices. Their product has improved and may even be on a par with the European makers. The problem is that most U.S. buyers don't know that yet and the few that do want that European badge on their cars.

The CTS still undercut the E Class and 5 Series and had bigger discounts than the Germans.

The biggest issue w/ the CTS is the tight rear passenger room for the midsize segment (which may be why XTS sales have rebounded a bit).

Also, Cadillac really bungled the nomenclature - the ATS should have stayed the CTS and the CTS should have been giving another name/lettering.

Previous CTS owners were shocked by the price hike (many not understanding that the CTS moved from an entry-level offering to a proper midsize offering).

To make matters worse, if they looked at the ATS (which is in the same price range as the 2G CTS), they were immensely disappointed by the rear passenger room.

Cadillac really muffed up, and both issues will be addressed w/ the next gen models (will be given new names - some mix of CT and a #) and will get increased passenger room.

Genesis had a similar problem with 2G. Hyundai took a chance and raised the the prices fairly dramatically. I'm sure they lost a few sales because of it in the the short term. But they are still priced below the high end competition they are chasing.

The 2G Genesis is in the sweet spot - reflecting the $7-8k savings (compared to the GS and Q70) in not having the cost of a separate brand and dealer network, but being competitive when it comes to things like interior material, etc.

It costs $$ to upgrade not only things like the ride/handling, but the interior (the 1G Genesis did not have a mid-level lux grade interior, but that was fine considering it's then $32-33k starting price).

Don't think Hyundai went far enough w/ the interior upgrades to the 2G Genesis; don't expect it to be as luxurious as the new E Class (which should really take things up a notch for the segment), but some of the knobs and handles could have been made out of higher quality materials (feels more entry-level than mid-segment).