I would probably wait a couple of years just to take advantage of the depreciation and then use that money for mods if they don't have so many different options like the ATS-V. I thought I could do the same thing with an ATS-V, but it is nearly impossible to find one loaded with a stick shift. Then again, I would also rather have a car I can pick up in the $40-$50k range rather than $70-$80k.

 

Yea...a $500-600/month note is a lot easier to swallow than 800+/month....more than half my mortgage

 

Does that mean this thread will still be going in 2024???

It will be interesting to see if the CTV4 sells in higher volume than the ATS-V, or if it becomes another unicorn. My guess is the latter, as Cadillac has never had success penetrating this market segment. This car is going to once again be up against the M3, both in price and performance, and both are getting a 6MT.

 

LOL. Yes, that's exactly what that means.

If not for the OP, for me at least. This time next year I will have two girls both in college, one in an apartment, the other in dorms. Ouch.

 

I think we'll all welcome the return to "normal"

 

Absolutely. However, if the new CT4-V Blackwing is really that much better than a new Z, STI, etc. and it comes with a million different options like the ATS-V (so I have no chance of finding one used) I could possibly justify splurging to get one new, but I doubt that is going to be the case.

I make a decent living, but I don't make an obscene amount of money. I have just always been very frugal with most things (just not cars and houses) and been fortunate with my investments. Oddly, those same skills have made me relatively practical when it comes to getting a new car. In other words, it is difficult for me to justify spending $80k on a brand new car, when I can get the same thing slightly used for almost half the price. I would much rather go that option and use the money I saved to tune/modify the next car.

It is a distinct possibility, but as Rochester pointed out, it might not be due to my search for the next vehicle. Do you spend much time on the VW forums since you got the Golf R? It seems odd that you are still pretty active here. Or maybe the VW forums are boring? Who knows, everyone seems to have a bit more free time with covid going on. Anyway, I have a bad feeling you are right about the CT4-V Blackwing being a unicorn.

 

In the article about the Blackwing posted here earlier it mentioned that 3D printing made it much easier to justify the manual transmission. Hopefully, this is good news for the future of the manual transmission for us (enthusiasts). The 1st article below from carbuzz also talks about how 66% of Americans can drive stick shift and 40% want to learn. Fuzzy math? Either way, those numbers seem really high. The Car & Driver article below from about a year ago showed that 3rd quarter sales of cars with manual transmissions only totaled 1.1%, or less than electric vehicle sales. Yikes!

https://carbuzz.com/news/2022-ct4-v-...-transmissions

https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a2...-transmission/

 

Caddy as a brand is getting thin. It was news last week that one out of six cadillac dealers chose to shut down instead of selling electric cars. Caddy seems more interested in milking their base and selling Escalades than they are in broadening their appeal, so in that context... good riddance. We only have one Caddy dealership in this region, and it has forever been staffed by entitled, arrogant d1cks. I'm sure every region is different, but walking into that local showroom is a surreal and distasteful experience.

Nice specs on that car, tho.

 

I'm bored

Going from an office, to working from home for 9+ months, there isn't the distractions of side bar conversations, people stopping at my desk etc. It's a weird mix of being more productive, and having more down time during the day. I really only watch this thread and one or two others here.

The VW forum is much more active, but I'm also not modding the R like I was my G37, so I tend to hang out more in the off topic sections and chat beer and bourbon and cooking and what not. It's also way less moderated. You can actually share kill stories and swear without threat of being banned

 

I still peek in on this thread from time to time because I didn't get what I really wanted and I'm still sort of keeping an eye on the next car. I like the Golf R but I don't love it. Hard to put my finger on why but I knew when I bought it.

But also it's a nice discussion amongst enthusiasts. I find brand forums to be less focused and filled with fewer like-minded people than vehicle-specific ones, and I'm not just looking to kill time. I actually much prefer a UK based R-only forum to VWVortex for that reason.

 

I'm personally offended by this statement. Therefore you should be banned.

 

Most Cadillac dealerships are part of a Chevy store or linked to another brand. Do they have to give up their Chevy store too or just close down the Cadillac portion. That seems like a win-win for most dealerships since electric cars probably make up <1% of their sales. Easy to make up that loss with Chevy sales or their other brands if that is how it works. Our company has many Chevy stores and sells a ton of them, but I think they very rarely sell many Cadillacs.

That's a good point about working from home. My wife is doing that as well, at least through the summer. I have been back to work since the start of May.

As far as individual forums go, I had 3 Subarus an Evo and an M3 and I was pretty active on all of those forums. The Subaru forum got huge and I kind of outgrew it. I just got tired of answering the same dumb questions from kids who could finally afford an old beat up WRX with a zillion miles. That forum is huge though and is super active. The Evo and M3 forums were always pretty slow, especially the M3 forums. That is one thing I worry about with a CT4-V Blackwing. The forums for the ATS-V were pathetic. MyG37 is a pretty good mix of activity and knowledge without being overrun by idiots.

 

If Lego gets out of hand, you just let me know. He's a loose canon, that one. Very sketchy.

 

I think that is a regional thing. We have 2 Cadillac dealerships and they are both stand alone locations.

It's good and bad. I like sleeping in a bit and not having to commute to/from work, mowing the front or back at lunch, wearing my pajamas half the day and being able to fire up the smoker at lunch and get some ribs going. Sitting on a 90 minute Teams Meeting where only 10 minutes apply to me sucks. At least nobody at my company uses their web cameras

 

It's got to be that VW that is corrupting him. Lego used to be such a nice guy. He gets a Golf R and now boom, ryan gets offended just like that. Got to keep an eye on that guy.