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2004 CTS opinion

R

railer

Golden Member
I've noticed that I might be able to snag one of these with 55-60k for under $10k.

The seem to get pretty good write ups, and I know to go for the 3.6 over the 3.2.

My biggest worry is maintenance/upkeep on these vs your garden variety pontiac/nissan/mazda.

Are parts/repairs on Caddy's more $$$ than run of the mill brands because Caddy is a "luxury brand"?

Basically I want a cheap, reliable, "good" car. I almost grabbed an 04 Grand Prix GTP comp g when I noticed the CTS's going for only slightly more.
 
I have a 04 CTS. have not had to do any thing major to it. Mine has under 30k.

the 04's had the old style rear diff seal. the one that replaced it had problems, so the old design was good.
Repairs are about the same as any other rear drive car. The systems it offers are similar to any other car.


If you do get one make sure it is the 3.6 (you seem to know that already), get soem sway bars off a CTS-V (handle better but does not really mess up the ride), and for oil filters go to rockauto.com and get the pro-tec filter (its cheap and just a rebadged Wix).

If you have any other questions just ask.
 
Yeah, Caddy parts are going to run you more. If you want to see how much just hit up www.napaonline.com and compare a couple of the key maintenance parts costs. Things like pads, rotors, alternators, belts, etc. Should give you a good idea of what the price difference is.
 
So I got myself curious and went and looked for you. CTS parts are more money as I suspected, but not terribly expensive. If it were me, I'd probably go for the CTS.

CTS
Pads - $58.99
Rotors - $84.49 apiece
Alternator - $214.00

Grand Prix
Pads - $18.19
Rotors - $73.49
Alternator - $164.00
 
My buddy has one from that year. It's a good all around car and they hold their value well. The CTS is one of the few all around quality cars in the GM stable at this time.
 
I've been in the CTS from that generation, and I'd say the interior construction/materials and ride quality are roughly on par with the base-model Mazda 3i I rented a year ago.

To those who will counter that those cars aren't in the same "class," I say: that's exactly my point.
 
Originally posted by: thomsbrain
I've been in the CTS from that generation, and I'd say the interior construction/materials and ride quality are roughly on par with the base-model Mazda 3i I rented a year ago.

To those who will counter that those cars aren't in the same "class," I say: that's exactly my point.
Click to expand...

The Mazda3 is basically the MK2 Focus that Europe got in 2004. It's a very well-balanced, capable vehicle. But the 2.0 (or even the 2.3) in the Mazda3 is not enough to match the experience of driving the 255hp 3.6L in the Caddy. Mileage is decent as well, 17/27. Max torque of 252 hits around 3k rpm. Fun stuff, really.
 
10k for a 60k miles... hell i might be looking into that. if they have proper traction control and etc for the winter.
 
Originally posted by: T2urtle
10k for a 60k miles... hell i might be looking into that. if they have proper traction control and etc for the winter.
Click to expand...

I know 04 and up has the winter button to make the car do better in slush and snow. Also traction control works very well. In fact it could tell the difference between a 225/50-16 and a 225/55-16 and kept trhowing on the traction control even though the 50 tire was new and the 55 has 30k on it. So I had to put the smaller tire on the front and big one on the rear to get that fixed.

 
doing higher profile and not thinner tires will throw off a lot of lights in cars.

http://www.miata.net/garage/tirecalc.html

225/50-16 = 75 inch cir. VS 225/55-16= 77.7 its going to be 3 mph off..

now if you could somehow fit 245/50-16's it wont be able to tell since thats will only make you .2 mph off and a diff of .3 in
 
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