CT5-V What don't you like about your CT5-V Blackwing?

[Exia]

Seems odd to purchase a high horsepower RWD vehicle and not understand what that entails. Even if you've never driven a RWD vehicle with over 300 horsepower you should still understand what happens when you put the engine up front and power the rear wheels only.

Its unfortunate you didn't, if all you care about is purely straight line speed, no corners, no handling, a Tesla model 3 performance or any AWD performance German sedan will do what you want, you'll just get a watered down driving experience.

I think pretty much every review has shown that this car will step the rear out if you just mash the throttle without a thought but it also delivers a driving experience few vehicles can match. It seems odd you purchased the manual, which would imply you want to be part of the driving experience but then only seem to care about flooring it at low speeds which would contradict the manual because a manual will always be slower.

The vehicle shouldn't have much issue hooking up once your going a decent speed (45+mph) but even then you should roll into the throttle, not stab it. I'd recommend Spring Mountain so you can gain insight into how great it is to drive these cars and maybe you'll discover its amazing or you can go find a 500hp AWD sedan and trade it in to be in something that completely makes you happy.

Between my C7 Z06, my ZL1 1LE and the 5-V Blackwing (all manuals) I actually found the Blackwing to be the most composed and spin the tires less out of all the LT4 manual beasts GM has made.

 

[pmsteinm]

Stabbing the throttle is a terrible habit I learned in my 1st car...a 2000 Cadillac STS...as a FWD V8 with 300hp/295lb-ft and a 4 speed slush-box that was a fun way to drive it. When I got my 04 V, that habit handed me my ass 4 hours after I drove off the lot. I was young and dumb. Fortunately the damage was minor.

When I grew up and got my current 09 V (6M) I learned to respect it and roll on the throttle. They always say smooth is fast. I used to think jolty is more fun. You just have to enjoy different things in a car like this and be smooth. Then it rewards you. In the 09 V I used to not like the throttle tip in being so "slow"...until I took it to VIR. There I really appreciated how they set that up so you could roll on the throttle coming out of the fast turns and the boost builds slow enough that you don't get surprised. You really need to track a car like this to fully appreciate the design.

 

[sonny200]

The parking brake button location

And the fact it doesn't engage immediately but ~1 second or so after pressing it. I let off the brake pedal the other day while parked on a slight incline & the car rolled ~6" before the parking brake engaged after pressing the button. I know I can leave the vehicle in gear but that means if the car rolls, it'll be sitting with slight pressure against the gears -- which I don't like to do.

 

[Mike Martz]

I read somewhere once ..."With great power, comes great responsibility". I think it was a comic book. LOL !

May have multiple sources but it was a line in a Big Bang episode.

 

[bloominguez]

May have multiple sources but it was a line in a Big Bang episode.

I can't tell if this is written unironically or not. Well played.

 

[slacker1201]

I dont like that the front bumper easily chips. Stone chips are common, but large chips from small pebbles is not right. I am planning to install PPF. After a couple hundred miles, doesnt seem to constitute such large chips.

 

[Cenko10]

Small gripe but the pedal placement is strange. It only bothers me when I sit here and think about it but the accelerator pedal being closer to the firewall than the brake, makes it tough to heel-toe without standing on the brakes. The clutch pedal also sits lower than the brake and it feels like I have to contort my left foot around the clutch and dead-pedal. Maybe this positioning is a more track-friendly layout but it's kind of annoying for daily driving. Any way to adjust the pedals at all? On my RX-8, the pedals are all on the same plane and it just makes heel-toe so much easier and I can just pivot my left foot from dead-pedal to clutch much easier.

 

[TalsBW]

My biggest gripe to date is that its been in the shop more than I think its been driven. 4,000 miles on her (since June last year) and back in for a recurring issue that I HOPE AND THINK they are taking more seriously this time around. I dont want to jinx it, i also dont want to get into too many details while she sits in the care of others.

But, I like a few others on the forum, have had some very unfortunate issues with the main function of the car - a correctly working motor that allows it to drive down the street without issue.

 

[Neveready]

) I have a manual(so I don't know if the auto is different), but if you really want to hit it quickly, the car
just doesn't feel safe/stable in starting out. So on a trip I had gotten on the on ramp on interstate and thought ok this is a perfect time to accelerate from 10/15 mph to like 60 or 70 very very quickly. So I florred
it quickly in 2nd gear and once I did for a brief second the steering wheel felt very unstable(it twisted/contorted in a different direction) and the car itself swerved violently as it was trying to gain traction I guess. I anticipated this when stopped because of the AWD, but I didn't know if I was already going like 15 mph that wouldnt be enough traction to grip the road and accelerate quickly. In the F pace svr this was never an issue- I could floor it from 15 to 60 in such a situation and feel that rush with total stability. This car's specs say it should be a lot more powerful and have more torque than that f pace svr, but if I don't feel safe flooring it then what's the point? I'm afraid if I try that again I will lose control.....so in the end I end up going much slower and it ends up feeling much less powerful than the svr.

So besides having close to 700hp transferred to 2 wheels vs 4, you have to understand that the power comes on quick and it comes on almost all at once. No offense, but those mom SUVs limit power output. It's also the alignment which is setup for safety and stability, not performance and handling. You're right the Jag might feel faster on that particular on ramp, but there's a certain level of restraint you have to have with this car. It's not some awd e63 AMG or Tesla thingy, where you can just floor it and live to tell.

Most on ramps are not straight lines, they curve, and they go up or down. I've never seen any highway ramp that's a perfect straight road. You can't lay into all that power immediately and expect it to hook up, not even with slicks.

It's happened to me too where it was 47 degrees out on a road that was flat but slightly curved and 3/4 throttle in 2nd gear and it broke loose... Scared the shit out of my father and I just laughed.

I find the default traction controls are very good and keep things locked down very well, but I never forget what's under the hood.

 

[Neveready]

So I have one small gripe.

It may depend where you live (I'm in SoCal)but around here the drainage ruts slope really deep and I have to slow down in a lot of places or I'll bottom out. I even go in on an angle, people behind me get butthurt because I'm slowing down to 4mph.

There is this one street in particular I can't avoid. The other day I scraped the front right lip and I hate myself for it. Thank God I got PPF on it and I am pretty sure it can be polished out. If I did that to a CF lip I don't think I'd sleep for a week.

Am I the only one who has this issue? Do you think driving in sport mode would limit suspension travel enough so the front end doesn't dip too low?

 

[Speed Racer 007]

This was one of my favorites all time toys, 840WHP-760LbsTq and all rear wheel drive. It had some nannies, but I never turned them on, she would spin the 315's R888's at triple digits if I wanted to. Very fun car!!!!

 

[Mike Martz]

My biggest gripe to date is that its been in the shop more than I think its been driven. 4,000 miles on her (since June last year) and back in for a recurring issue that I HOPE AND THINK they are taking more seriously this time around. I dont want to jinx it, i also dont want to get into too many details while she sits in the care of others.

But, I like a few others on the forum, have had some very unfortunate issues with the main function of the car - a correctly working motor that allows it to drive down the street without issue.

I feel your pain! I have had mine since the first of last July and after the break-in period, it ran right for about two weeks. Been trying to get it right ever since. GM thinks it know what is wrong and my dealer should have all the parts in this week. Fingers crossed and good luck with yours! FYI - I am at about the same number of miles

 

[TalsBW]

I feel your pain! I have had mine since the first of last July and after the break-in period, it ran right for about two weeks. Been trying to get it right ever since. GM thinks it know what is wrong and my dealer should have all the parts in this week. Fingers crossed and good luck with yours! FYI - I am at about the same number of miles

Man I hope it works out for you too! Sounds like maybe you're on the right track. Wonder if its the same/similar issue and our cars happened to be built around the same time?

Anyhoo...its still at the dealership awaiting prognosis. In the meantime, I have a sweet 2020 base CT5 in the same color as my car so at least its easy to find in the parking lots. But its SO SLOW...

 

[Mike Martz]

Man I hope it works out for you too! Sounds like maybe you're on the right track. Wonder if its the same/similar issue and our cars happened to be built around the same time?

Anyhoo...its still at the dealership awaiting prognosis. In the meantime, I have a sweet 2020 base CT5 in the same color as my car so at least its easy to find in the parking lots. But its SO SLOW...

Had one of those as a loaner during one of my many service trips It had the turbo 4 and in crawled! But it did have two features I really liked. The phone charger actually held the phone unlike ours where it just slides over that little lip. Plus it would warn you that you are leaving a phone in the charger when you shut the car off and I am always leaving mine in the car. Instead, ours warns me to check the back seat.

 

[jbawden]

Had one of those as a loaner during one of my many service trips It had the turbo 4 and in crawled! But it did have two features I really liked. The phone charger actually held the phone unlike ours where it just slides over that little lip. Plus it would warn you that you are leaving a phone in the charger when you shut the car off and I am always leaving mine in the car. Instead, ours warns me to check the back seat.

You just need to change the settings for the phone in charger warning.

 

[Exia]

No meme's, this is an actual gripe from me, although this is more bashing the "Luxury" side of Cadillac.

I can't believe the door armrests and center armrest material is as bad as it is. I just got back from the Canadian International Autoshow in Toronto and they had '22 5-V Blackwing in Emerald Frost with both Carbon packages and the Natural interior+Carbon seats. The armrest material was incredibly bad, like it felt very hard even though it was "leather" and felt worse then the leather you get in a base Corvette. The only good quality material was on the seats, the armrests felt almost as bad as my base interior 2017 911, that's not a good thing. You could see the grain on everything that wasn't the seats and it felt like pleather.

The dashboard also shows all the grain in the leather and feels just as bad. This is a 90k US (100k Canadian) Starting price and they can't just make Nappa leather standard on all the materials? Why is Semi-aniline leather only available for the seats? What about the rest of the interior? BMW offers a Nappa leather dash for $800 on a normal 3 series that starts at 50k. I'm pretty sure everyone would be happy if the leather in these cars was at least on par with a 3LT Corvette even if the base price went up $1000. As it stands its pretty ridiculous there is no interior option to improve the leather quality besides whats on the seats but a 3LT Corvette will have better overall leather quality with a 78k price tag compared to the 90k starting price of this Cadillac.

This is a Cadillac for crying out loud, yes I know we all bought it for the nearly 700hp V8 and the manual (most of us) but come on, a 3LT Corvette should not have nicer overall leather material then a 5-V Blackwing. I owned a 3LT C8 Corvette and I currently own a 3LZ Corvette Z06, the armrests in my C7 Z06 feel nicer then the one's in that Blackwing.

I'm really hoping it was because it was an autoshow car and because of the amount of people getting in and out it felt bad but I still can't stand by the fact that there should be no grain showing on the leather of these cars. Cadillac can't just compete with the Germans in performance, they need to bring the interior quality with it (or even just 70%) and my '22 M3 Competition interior material quality made the 5-V Blackwing interior look like it belonged in a 50k vehicle. Look at what Genesis is doing and they barely sell any vehicles, the interiors are top notch, it feels like Cadillac hasn't been putting the effort in except for the Escalade but I guess everything is going towards the electric future now (the Lyriq looks very nice).

Ok, rant over, I know why this car has what it has, but I can't complain about anything else. Cadillac got everything else right with this car so I don't have much of a choice but to compare the interior materials but I'm not willing to spend 30k more for a German vehicle with a quality interior but drives like a Tesla.

 

[Daijoubu]

Floor hinged throttle pedal...what is this? A BMW?

 

[Neveready]

No meme's, this is an actual gripe from me, although this is more bashing the "Luxury" side of Cadillac.

I can't believe the door armrests and center armrest material is as bad as it is. I just got back from the Canadian International Autoshow in Toronto and they had '22 5-V Blackwing in Emerald Frost with both Carbon packages and the Natural interior+Carbon seats. The armrest material was incredibly bad, like it felt very hard even though it was "leather" and felt worse then the leather you get in a base Corvette. The only good quality material was on the seats, the armrests felt almost as bad as my base interior 2017 911, that's not a good thing. You could see the grain on everything that wasn't the seats and it felt like pleather.

The dashboard also shows all the grain in the leather and feels just as bad. This is a 90k US (100k Canadian) Starting price and they can't just make Nappa leather standard on all the materials? Why is Semi-aniline leather only available for the seats? What about the rest of the interior? BMW offers a Nappa leather dash for $800 on a normal 3 series that starts at 50k. I'm pretty sure everyone would be happy if the leather in these cars was at least on par with a 3LT Corvette even if the base price went up $1000. As it stands its pretty ridiculous there is no interior option to improve the leather quality besides whats on the seats but a 3LT Corvette will have better overall leather quality with a 78k price tag compared to the 90k starting price of this Cadillac.

This is a Cadillac for crying out loud, yes I know we all bought it for the nearly 700hp V8 and the manual (most of us) but come on, a 3LT Corvette should not have nicer overall leather material then a 5-V Blackwing. I owned a 3LT C8 Corvette and I currently own a 3LZ Corvette Z06, the armrests in my C7 Z06 feel nicer then the one's in that Blackwing.

I'm really hoping it was because it was an autoshow car and because of the amount of people getting in and out it felt bad but I still can't stand by the fact that there should be no grain showing on the leather of these cars. Cadillac can't just compete with the Germans in performance, they need to bring the interior quality with it (or even just 70%) and my '22 M3 Competition interior material quality made the 5-V Blackwing interior look like it belonged in a 50k vehicle. Look at what Genesis is doing and they barely sell any vehicles, the interiors are top notch, it feels like Cadillac hasn't been putting the effort in except for the Escalade but I guess everything is going towards the electric future now (the Lyriq looks very nice).

Ok, rant over, I know why this car has what it has, but I can't complain about anything else. Cadillac got everything else right with this car so I don't have much of a choice but to compare the interior materials but I'm not willing to spend 30k more for a German vehicle with a quality interior but drives like a Tesla.

glad you spoke up about your feelings on the quality subject.

Nappa leather is nice looking but it's also a complete pain in the ass to maintain. I had nappa semi aniline leather in my $90k Volvo XC90 t8 inscription. It felt luxurious and soft. It was really nice... For the first 4 years. By 50k miles the leather had worn, cracked and it looked ridiculous. I also used Volvo cleaning supplies as directed but none of that mattered. It really bothered me and that was my 2nd biggest gripe about that vehicle.

The dash was also matching nappa leather and that held up well because it never gets touched. There is no doubt that leather would eventually crack under the sun. Then what would you say?
Prob something along the lines of " this car is so inferior, cracked dash and worn leather seats at 100k miles. Bmw's and Hyundai's, I mean, Genesis are made for the hear and now. They are lease machines designed to last about 7 to 10 years or 100k mi, after that they start to fall apart. BMW plastics look really cheap imo, esp the side by the seat switches and near the bottom dash and kick panels.

But that's just my experience, your mileage may vary.

 

[GTANotch88]

I still don't like the rear side window styling detail thing... I accept it, but I don't have to like it.

 

[Rolfe.oliver]

After almost 500 miles, I will chime in here.

• I hate that when you engage rev match, it does not stay on and cannot be combined with My Mode
• The parking brake button location is annoying, sure, but my bigger gripe is that there is a big delay in its engagement and release. It seems like I am always having to hit it again to release it or it says I took my foot off the brake too soon.
• This next one is not only for 5BW's, but I am annoyed that I need to clutch+brake to start the car. I believe GM started this in 2019 as an added safety feature.
• This isn't really a dislike, but I wish that Track mode exhaust was louder. With music at any decent volume, you can barely hear the car. I came from an M5 with the M Performance exhaust and that was much louder - though not adjustable.

Other than those small things, I truly think this car is perfect. I don't see any issue with the distance from the steering wheel and the stalks - they seem to be placed great.