Proud owner of a CTS V

After years of drooling and driving a regular CTS, today I bought my 2005 CTS V. I nearly poo'd myself just accelerating in 3rd.

I got a saab 9-3 to tame the beast a few months ago but my wife stole it for her daily driver. Hardest question to answer was her when she said "What does the V stand for?"

It has an odd paint for the V and a 2 tones interior. Aparently per the dealer, it as a custom one off

Cool! Looks nice. Judging from what I've heard, stay off the autocross course with it. Otherwise, wail the hell out of a cool car. Congrats!

Wow, that color is tasty! Any shots of the interior?

Lovin' it! These are on my short list.

Duke wrote: Judging from what I've heard, stay off the autocross course with it.

O RLY?

They handle well for something that size, but that size prevents them from being competitive, of course. I ran mine in ESP for a little less than a full season and had a lot of fun with it.

Maybe it's an oil starvation thing.

Did they strengthen the diffs by '05?

I think it's an airbag thing, but on the newer ones.

gjz30075 wrote: Did they strengthen the diffs by '05?

No. Made me sad to have a 400 hp car that couldn't do a burnout. I never hurt mine, but I got wicked axle hop plenty of times and had to back out of it.

Congrats. Cool car, huh?

Will wrote:

gjz30075 wrote: Did they strengthen the diffs by '05?

No. Made me sad to have a 400 hp car that couldn't do a burnout. I never hurt mine, but I got wicked axle hop plenty of times and had to back out of it.

This. The "clunk" will never go away, no matter what you do. Make peace with it. If you're still on the stock fluid filled mounts, I'd start looking for solid mounts now. Just a matter of time before they leak.

The cts-v really looks like a cool car, saw one the other day, makes you rethink cadillac. For me a caddy has to be 20 ft long though love the 63-64 coupe deville.

Dave,

V stands for Va-room.

Caddy refers to Vengeance in the ad below, but never really marketed what it stands for. Reading between the lines, it's probably Victory, as in a checkered flag over a BMW M-series.

So is the Mrs. the girl with the Chevelle from a few years ago?

Nice car. Know exactly what you mean about the wife and the 9-3. Mine loves ours.

Just some notes on problems I had with mine:

--Had the diff mounts replaced at ~35k miles, and they needed replacement again when I sold it at ~85k.

--The radiator cracked just shy of 50k miles.

--The oil temp sensor went berserk after a while and would constantly insist that the oil temp was ~300 degrees. That set off the world's most annoying alarm. Turning the car off and then back on seemed to reset the sensor.

--I broke a shock once. There are two factory shock options: the standard ones are FE4, and the optional performance shocks are FG2. I had the latter, and naturally, they were only sold in sets of 4.

--Paint flaked off the interior buttons. If the car's under 50k miles, it should be covered under warranty.

--Pretty sure I broke at least one motor mount launching at the drag strip.

I'm not trying to get you all worried. Seriously, enjoy the car. I did.

Hey Rob, Lol I knew what the V meant, explaining it to a significant other is another thing. Also, PM me, i have to stop by the shop

Someone asked for pics of the interior. This is the dash and G-Force meter

And this is the Two Tone interior:

Duke wrote: Cool! Looks nice. Judging from what I've heard, stay off the autocross course with it. Otherwise, wail the hell out of a cool car. Congrats!

A guy locally does really well with his V.

Also plan on these:

• Aluminum Radiator: Drop in replacement. Just remember to do lower belt tensioner BEFORE installing the radiator
• Creative Steel mounts: This will lessen the parade clunk . . .but as stated earlier, live with it
• Drain and fill the diff (stock diff juice is fine)
• LS7 clutch and flywheel: When it's time to do the clutch, get all LS7 stuff and dump that dual mass junk

That's the last thing on the list for my V. HOPEFULLY, I don't have to replace the driveshaft as I getting a low freq sound in 1st-4th gear and noise and vibration in 5th and 6th. It's similar to what my BMWs did when a new center support bearing is needed. Of course on the V, it is non-serviceable item. The only fix is a new or aftermarket driveshaft starting at $800 and goes up from there.

Congrats! I've had mine for a year now and still have palpitations when I drive this car. Getting on the gas in a banked on ramp with the G meter saying " oh E36 M3" makes my insides scream with excitement like a preteen at a boy band concert. Needless to say I'm in love.

I did an autocross and it was not very competitive on a wet day with a just resealed slippery asphalt top. Time wise i got my ass handed to me by a beater corolla with a slush box. Still, driving and trying to coral this beast was fun as hell.

Also Careful the wife doesn't borrow it too often because it will become her dd before long.

Cool car. I still want a V wagon in the worst way. I always imaging myself as the coolest stay at home dad in the world with a V wagon.
It always seemed like they would be a better lapping car than an autocross car. Anyone done laps in one?

You're living the dream man, enjoy!

CTS-V is one of my daily craigslist searches...I really want a silver '06 or '07.

nice, those are pretty great looking cars...surprising amount of GM love in this thread. Gives me hope...

Cool car! I've always liked these.

The only thing that I find strange is that weirdo 6-bolt wheel pattern. Does anyone but GM make wheels that fit, you know, if you wanted winter wheels or track wheels? I know they changed this on the 2nd gen cars.

I have a customer who always complains about the clunk but will never fix it.