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2004 CTS V

drbrock

drbrock

Golden Member
I am thinking about buying one these and did not know if they are reliable(corvette engine) and how much I should pay for one. Any opinions about the car would be helpful. Right now I am looking at a g35 or the CTS V.
 
AFAIK, there are numerous issues with these ranging from minor to severe. Should be loads of fun, but cross-shopping with a G35 is just weird. This will be waaay faster, but more expensive to maintain.
 
I know it is crazy bit here in south florida they are in the same price range. I would not even consider the V, but insurance and actual cost is not much difference. I don't know the gas difference which I expect to be different but I already have a huge v-8 with worse mileage than the V, so I don't think that will bother me too much.
 
Reliability is at or above average. the only real major problme is the rear diff. The pinion seal was bad on the 05's and up but the rear end has a hard time with the V8 if you really work it hard a lot. Some have reported that using a good high quality syn gear oil helps.

A minor item is the buttons on the Nav wear off from use. It still works but for some reason the compnay that made the nav did not use a good paint for the buttons.

The rest of the car is good as long as oyu take care of it and don;t flog it all the time.


I have a 04 CTS with the 3.6L. No real problems and the only thing it went back to the dealer for was the battery, but the notes said it was for customer not because of a faulty battery? I did upgrade the suspension to the CTS-V swaybars and also drilled/slotted brakes that look good on the factory open style rims.
 
I think most of the diff problems are related to axle hop with the big V8 under hard acceleration.

I'd get the history on the car for sure.
 
Strong Engine and Trans should last with regular maintenance, rear should be fine for normal and spirited driving, but if you stay in it during wheel hop, kiss that or most any other rear good bye.

I like the CTS Vs quite a bit honestly.
 
2004 is pretty early in the life, newer models have much nicer interiors. The vette driveline is bulletproof, though rearend issues mentioned my Marlin do not suprise me. For everything but motor/trans the G35 will be a much nicer car.
 
Originally posted by: lurk3r
2004 is pretty early in the life, newer models have much nicer interiors. The vette driveline is bulletproof, though rearend issues mentioned my Marlin do not suprise me. For everything but motor/trans the G35 will be a much nicer car.
Click to expand...

Actually 2004 was the "3rd" year. The CTS came out in 2002 as a 2003 model. If he was looking at a 2003 then I saw stay away as most of the 03's had the 3.2L motor. The LATE 03's had some 3.6l's squeak through but that was very late and just early enough to be called a 03 even though it was based on the 04 design.

The fit and finish is as good or better then most cars. Its style though is very unique. Either you like it or don't. At first I did not think it would be good from seeing pictures. But after driving, and now owning one, i really like it. It does not look like all the other "bubble" cars out there and i like that.

Of course I also like 914's, Monza's, and AMX's. 😛
 
Originally posted by: melchoir
Strong Engine and Trans should last with regular maintenance, rear should be fine for normal and spirited driving, but if you stay in it during wheel hop, kiss that or most any other rear good bye.

I like the CTS Vs quite a bit honestly.
Click to expand...

What do you mean by that statement?

<---n00b
 
The back wheels will spin so violently they litterally "hop along" the ground spinning and that can be very hard on most rearends, causing them to break sometimes.

 
Basically the suspension binds up when torque is trying to make it ground... resulting in the basically the rearend skipping.

This happens alot in trucks that have a lot of torque and not a lot of weight on the rear end.
 
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