After driving the same car for 16 years, I bought a new one!

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revvinkevin

revvinkevin

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So… after driving my SUPER exciting Camry hybrid (yawn!) the last 16 years, I decided it was time to get something new and a bit more fun to drive. I was kinda seriously considering going EV (Ford Mustang Mach-E GT) and I probably would have been relatively happy, but then another car came on my radar and I didn’t give the EV a 2nd thought! I wanted a more fun, more engaging, visceral, driving experience, something an EV could never provide, but man, this car delivers in spades!

Introducing my special ordered, 2023 Cadillac CT4-V Blackwing. It goes (472 hp twin-turbo V6), stops (massive Brembo disc brakes) and corners (high-perf Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tires), in fact it’s very “track ready”! But the best part….. it has a 6 speed manual transmission!

A very special perk, as I am the first owner, it came with a 2 day high performance driving school, using their car but same model as mine, with food and accommodations included, all paid for by Cadillac! I went 3 weeks ago and man… was it an absolute blast!

Kevin

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Congrats on your new ride Kevin. While Toyota makes reliable cars, they can be a bit boring and taxing to drive on your soul after awhile since there’s not much exciting about them. Must be fun to have something with a manual transmission, don’t think there’s many, if any cars made with manual transmissions anymore with the exception of speciality and sports cars.
 
Congratulations, Keven

Wow, that looks like a lot of fun. A friend of mine has been looking at one of those also with a manual shift of course, from the car club.

Is it all-wheel-drive by any chance?

I’m about to go order a new Pacifica minivan in all wheel drive I do wish there was a good electric alternative, however, but I can’t see buying a hybrid vehicle unless you can plug it in. Pacifica does have a hybrid model, but it doesn’t have very much range and I tend to use it for long trips.

Will your husband get to drive this car much?

John .
 
Kevin -- In Seventh Heaven!

Wow Kevin, that is an impressive car and sales package!  I know you'll make good use of all of its capabilities! 

 

I'll be seeing my Cadillac aficionado buddy this weekend so will be sure to mention this.  Right now he's driving their smaller wagon, but he trades his cars in for new ones fairly often.  He's a big guy, but if the Blackwing is comfortable for you, it should be for him too.
 
Thank you all!

 

 

Bob, THANK YOU!  I have wanted to drive something like this, meaning a car which is this athletic and well rounded performance wise for the last 20+ years!  Added bonus, it's a Cadillac!  Meaning it can also be very comfortable and quiet.... tho it's not as cushy as the 1980 Fleetwood Brougham I used to own, LOL but I am completely OK with that!
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    Not an EV... yeah I'm obviously not ready to throw in the "petrol towel" and go electric just yet, personally I feel "they" are pushing TOO hard to make it happen TOO soon. The problem is the vast majority of the "pro EV" people (95+%?) do not think about where the electricity to power their cars actually comes from.  OR the fact that another 350+ mines will need to open just to mine enough minerals/elements to make ALL of the batteries and other electronic components required for these EV's they are pushing on us........ BUT I digress... AND this is a discussion for ANOTHER forum.   I'll get off my soapbox now.
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Melvin, Louis, Lawrence, Tim and Eddie, THANK YOU so much!  This car makes me smile every time I drive it!

 

Louis, yes the driving school was really awesome!  I used to go road racing so I was familiar a good portion of the curriculum, BUT it was nice to get a refresher AND I did learn some new things, plus I learned more about my car!

 

Tim, yes it would be nice to visit and see you again.  We actually did our first "cross country" road trip in Oct '21... 14 states in 14 days, over 5300 miles, made it as far as Indiana, but didn't get as far north as Wisconsin, I'm sorry.

 

John, this is the highest-performance model in the CT4 line up, but as such it is rear wheel drive only, also the only model available with a manual trans.  Both the CT4 (2.0L turbo 4 - 237 hp) and the much more sporty CT4-V (2.7L turbo 4 - 325 hp) are available with AWD, but automatic only.  If your friend from the car club has ANY questions, please give him my number so he can call or text me.

 

Ralph, yes I could not be happier with my decision to buy this car and I have ZERO regrets!  However I did kinda have "mpg shock" with how often I was having to fill the tank vs. the Camry, but I got past that after 3-4 weeks, LOL.  As you may remember I'm 6'3" and if the drivers seat is all the way back, I almost can't reach the pedals!  But also, if with the seat is set for me, no one can sit directly behind me either (unless they have no legs, LOL)

 

For Ralph or anyone else who would like to know what this car is all about, please feel free watch and/or share this 16 min video.  While there are many other videos out there which "review" this car, these guys give you the "nuts & bolts" info and sum it all up very nicely.

 

Kevin

 



 
Kevin may I ask, what’s the average MPG? I imagine it’s somewhere in the neighborhood of 16 to 20 MPG but may be off or somewhere in that ballpark.
 
A manual transmission!

OMG lucky you. I want one and I want one now! I have always had cars with manual trannies, for 40 years. I just had to buy a new car and had to settle for an auto for the first time in my life, and I really don’t like it.

It’s easier to drive a stick. Knowing what I want to do, I put it in the right gear and do it.

An automatic has to figure out what you want to do, figure out it’s in the wrong gear, figure out what the right gear is, and shift to that….. Dumb. And you have to hold the brake down harder at stop lights because it wants to creep forward. Feels like I have no control over anything and it’s never doing the right thing. Whatever. 99% of the population would disagree with me but I think a stick is easier to drive.
 
Ode to the ICE

An opinion piece was in today's paper and it seems appropriate for this thread.  It originally appeared in the New York Times.  Surprisingly, when I pulled up the NTY on line, there was no request to shut off my ad blocker or to sign up for a subscription (maybe opinion/syndicated pieces are treated differently?) so here's the link:

 

PS

I remember Signal gas stations from my younger days.  They disappeared well before the first oil embargo in 1973.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/30/opinion/gas-powered-cars.html
 
Congrats!

 

Lots of power, stiff suspensions, low profile tires, stiff seats, and manual transmissions aren't my thing anymore (even though 2 of my 4 vehicles are manual trans equipped) but ya gotta do what makes you happy.

[this post was last edited: 7/2/2023-21:56]
 
Thanks Mark, let us know when you are back in PS, perhaps we can come visit again if our work schedule allows.

Thanks Ralph, unfortunately when I clicked the link it wanted me to subscribe in order to see the article.

Thanks Dan. Fortunately with the Magna-Ride adjustable suspension, while yes it can be stiff on the “track” settings, fortunately the other settings are not, even with the 18” wheels/tires. The seats are firm-ish, but extremely comfortable, even when I drove 4+ hours each way to / from Las Vegas.
 
The Article

I hit my limit of NYT articles just now.  I copied this from the SJ Mercury on line since I'm a subscriber.  Proper credit given to Farhad Manjoo at the bottom.  I hope that's kosher.  Here it is:

 

****************************************************************************************

 

I’ve been driving for nearly 30 years, but until recently, I hadn’t ever changed my car engine’s oil by myself. Of course I hadn’t: By the time I got my first car, in the mid-1990s, cars had long since become reliable enough that you could go years without popping the hood. In Southern California, where I grew up, there’s a quick-lube place on just about every other corner. Owning a car meant pulling into one as regularly as you visited a dentist, catching up on old magazines in the lounge as a technician mucked about under your ride for a half-hour before you went on with your day.

 

But a month ago, figuring I may not have many more chances, now that oil-free electric cars are becoming the norm, I decided to jack up my car and do it myself. The process wasn’t nearly as messy as it might sound and, thanks to YouTube, was pretty simple, even for a lube noob. I was able to drain the spent oil, pour in new oil and pop out and replace the filter without a hitch.

 

I didn’t save any time or money doing it on my own — the equipment I had to buy was more expensive than paying to have the oil changed, and I’ve still got to take the dirty oil to a service station for proper disposal. But for the uninitiated, I’d recommend trying a DIY oil change at least once. Decked out with cameras, touch-screens and microprocessors, modern cars can feel like entirely digital devices, little more than iPhones on wheels. However, there’s nothing like replacing a stream of gooey sludge with a bottle of fresh motor oil to remind you of what anachronistic marvels our gasoline-burning cars really are.

 

The fossil-fuel-powered internal combustion engine is slowly on its way out — and good riddance. As I’ve written before, it’s long past time we replaced these inefficient, pollution-belching, climate-warming beasts with other ways of getting around. And even if electric cars are no panacea, they’re a huge improvement over their gassy predecessors.

 

But let’s not put gas-powered cars out to pasture without a proper farewell. Gasoline cars are among the last remnants in our daily lives of the pistoning industrial age — machines powered not by quietly streaming electrons but by noisy, fiery explosion, by sequential gears and timing belts, by the primal growl of thermal expansion. America’s overreliance on cars has been ruinous, but as we celebrate another national birthday, let’s remember, too, how the gas-powered car helped realize a quintessentially American idea of liberty: the freedom to roam just about anywhere you please.

 

Yes, I’m romanticizing the automobile, and yes, the poetic way the automotive industry wants us to think about cars is rarely reflected in the misery that is daily urban commuting.

 

But as critical as I’ve been of cars, I can’t deny loving driving and loving it in a primal way — loving the thrum of a revving engine, loving slaloming in and out of turns on a windy country road, loving simply going very far, very fast, conveyed by fire.

 

And here’s another confession: I’ve never felt anything approaching this sort of exhilaration in an electric car.

 

Electric cars are quieter, more efficient, less polluting and easier to maintain and generally even accelerate more quickly than their gas counterparts.

 

But boy, can they be dull. The fastest electric car I’ve driven, Tesla’s Model S Plaid, is also the fastest car I’ve ever driven. The Plaid can go from a dead stop to 60 mph in about 2 seconds.

 

Yet I’ve driven gas-powered cars half as fast that were twice as fun.

 

On a weekend road trip not long ago, I rented one of my dream cars, a manual-transmission BMW M3. The Bimmer isn’t nearly as quick as the Tesla — it needed almost five seconds to get to 60 — but because it’s lighter, more nimble and louder and its engine quivers like a purring cat as you slide from gear to gear, the M3 felt alive in a way unmatched by anything Elon Musk has ever made.

 

None of this is to suggest we should keep the internal combustion engine around any longer than necessary. I yearn for silent roadways and pristine air, for the end of oil wars and pump-price politics, for corner gas stations and oil-change shops to be replaced by charging stations, independent bookstores and Boba tea spots. (A coastal liberal can dream!) The internal combustion engine must die.

 

Still: Long live the internal combustion engine!

 

Farhad Manjoo is a New York Times columnist.

 
 
Hard to believe that GM is still putting out MT

But, glad to know they are - an AT in a sick ride like this would be like kissing your good looking cousin.

Are you keeping the Camry, or did you trade it/sell it/donate it?

--Chris
 
Congrats on the new ride!  We actually traded back in October.  As much as I loved our Volvo S80 that got almost 40mpg, I am getting to the point where I need something a little higher off the ground.  I love my commuter car, 2001 VW New Beetle TDI, but I feel like a sardine crawling out of a can when I get out.  For its fuel mpg I can tolerate it since it's just my work car.  But our vacation car...we've always had Lincolns and Cadillacs, a couple of Mercedes....we got an Acura MDX AWD and absolutely love it.  It rides as good or better than our Lincolns did.  Nothing like the smell of a new car.....happy for you.  I know how it feels!
 
Wow that is quite the change there... I'm not sure I could see it as a daily driver but it would be fun to drive one, especially on the track!

Interesting they add a 0-60 timer in the instrument cluster. Somehow that strikes me as a potential liability issue.

Years ago when I bought my 750 GSX-R I got a track day class as a spiff with the purchase. The cool part was at the time I was working as a mechanic for a local club road racer and we were racing at the same track (Brainard Int Raceway here in MN). I got to leave my shiny pristine motorcycle at home and was able to ride our GSX-R race bike for the class. Pity they had to put a chicane 3/4 way down the front straightaway, I couldn't get the last 500 RPM out of the bike so I topped out at ~150mph.

Congratulations & Stay safe!

I have kinda lost any interest in fast vehicles after owning that bike for years. Ultimately I learned that a slow vehicle driven fast is a lot more fun than a fast one driven slow. I have finally had all the tickets fall off my record lol. 0-60 in 2.6 seconds (in 1st gear) is a sure way to aquire paperwork from the PD...
 
 

 

Ralph, thank you for posting the article, I really appreciate it!

I don't agree with how he makes cars sound like they are STILL extreme gross polluters (like cars from 60-70 years ago) and if we make all of the internal combustion vehicles go away, then all global warming will stop (my words).

 

Chris, LOL actually the 10 speed auto they put in these cars are pretty good AND it will accelerate more quickly both 0-60 and 1/4 mile.   When I booked the V-Performance driving school, cars with the manual transmission were "sold out" for the dates I went.  Honestly I felt the auto was really great for the track as it allowed me to focus more on all other aspects of getting the car around the track as smoothly as possible.  But would I trade my manual trans for the auto?  Hell would have to freeze over first, LOL!  I still have the Camry and am driving this to / from work most week days.

 

Greg, Thank you!  I really enjoy the car!  I drove it to Las Vegas (4 hours each way) for the driving school, had the suspension set to "tour" and it was very comfortable.... tho not as cloud-like as a big Lincoln or Cadillac, but still very comfortable.  A friend of mine works for Honda and often has an Acura MDX Type S for his pool car.  We have ridden with them going to dinner and yes, at least the back seat is very nice and comfortable!

 

Hello Phil!  THANK YOU!   I drove it pretty much daily for the first month or so and I love driving it.  I could very easily drive it daily, but I haven't had the chance to get the ceramic coating for the paint yet.  As such I don't like it sitting in the parking lot as work, with all the industry around us and all the misc crap that falls out of the sky and settles on paint.  BTW... not only does it have the 0-60 timer, it has a G-force meter, line-lock for the front brakes and launch control!

Bikes: I have a GSX 1100 G (3 year only model), which is much more a"sports touring" bike, but still quick.  I ran it down a drag strip a couple times, with my big a$$ on it and trying to keep the keep the front wheel on the ground when I launched it... managed a 12.12 @ 118 mph.

 

For anyone interested, this is two of the many laps I did at the Cadillac V-Peformance Academy, via the PDR (performance data recorder) built into the car I was driving.

<span class="video-url-fadeable style-scope ytcp-video-info"> https://youtu.be/mZm6LnBVAto </span>
 
Camry Hybrid

I have mine still and it is 8 years old. Not quite as good as new, but still is a great car. People are always impressed while driving it. However, the same bug bit me. I ended up purchasing a new 23 4Runner Off Road Premium. Life is too short not to drive something you thoroughly enjoy, and especially something without as much personality! Enjoy the Caddy! I really like it!!
 
Not in the same league by any stretch of the imagination

Kevin, I thought you might find this interesting. The upcoming 2024 Mazda3 S Premium sedan will only be available with stanard transmission. The other trims in the Mazda3 will have auto transmissioon.
 

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