2009 Cadillac CTS User Reviews

Pros

Best body style ever exterior trim and paint very good

Cons

Glitchy engine electronics and emissions controls

Purchased As New

The CTS has a great exterior from the trim to the paint, underneath that I'm less excited about. Starting at around 11,000 miles the CTS would light the check engine light randomly and more frequently right at a cold start - it would go dark randomly. Those times it stayed lit the dealer found codes for a number of different problems related to ignition control, misfires, and exhaust gas flow and catalytic converter function. Sometime the code was legitimate and required the dealer to fix the problem and sometimes the dealer found the code was spurious. This problem continues and is really bothersome. The best advice the service dept had was to buy an OGM-II code reader check the codes, write them down, and reset the check engine light each time it comes on. If the light keeps coming back on and the codes are the same, then bring it in, otherwise just keep resetting the system. This is really not the way a Cadillac should be and the dealer won't do anything because the service department is not sure what is causing the check engine light to keep coming on randomly. It is very embarrassing to have a client in the car and have the check engine light come on (or to have it left on from the day before) and the client asks whether it is safe to drive and you have to explain this to them. I've written to Cadillac customer service and cc'ed the marketing department hoping they will intervene with the dealer and come up with a solution to this nagging problem. If they can't solve it, I'm getting rid of this and going back to the Lexus I had before which never gave me any problems and I could rely on. It is sad to see this type of glitch in the Cadillac family. My dad used to own Cadillacs and they used to be good quality and when a problem arose the dealer made sure you were happy and resolved the problem. Perhaps they should include an OGM-II code reader as a standard feature and a dash button to reset the check engine light.