Shinkaze

Cross posted on CTS-V section.

My Fiancée and I went out yesterday and test drove a 2003 SMG Convertible M3, 2003 M3 Coupe Manual and a 2005 CTS-V. Got a fairly good run in all three, especially the CTS-V. Here are our observations.

Exterior

Him: (Tie) I'm split equally on the M3 vs. CTS-V. The M3 looks more refined and upscale. The CTS-V looks mean and has attitude. Kind of like the difference between a Viper and a Ferrari. The Viper has Attitude, the Ferrari is "pretty".

Her: (M3) She hates the looks of the CTS-V, hates even more the Cadillac emblem on the fenders. I think she could look at the M3 all day long.

Interior

Him: (M3) The CTS-V has a bigger interior, much more useful and many more features. The Value is really there. The materials though are still rather bunk, especially the plastics used on the door locks. GM did a much better job on the plastics in the C6, the V still isn't "there" yet on the materials. It is "there" in terms of options. Heck I think remote start is the only thing they left out. The M3 by is stark and small, the seats are tight and there isn't much elbow room. that said the quality of the plastics are higher, the seams are tight and there is this indescribably higher "feeling" of quality to the fit and finish. The M3 interior is more dated, yet it still feels more upscale. My impression here is quality vs. features and convenience, I'll have to give the nod to the M3 on this one.

Her: (CTS-V) used to the interior of the e39 M5, the e46 M3 interior is stark in contrast. She really wasn't fond of the lack of features and simple straight forward lay out. No buttons, no warmth to the interior. too clinical. By contrast she agreed with me that the use of materials in the CTS-V was cheap, and she hated the vents in the V as well. that said she much preferred the roomy feel of the interior space and much preferred all the features of the V. She also commented that the seats were much more comfortable in the V. For her it was fairly easy choice of the CTS-V.

Ride and Drive...casual

Him: (CTS-V) Yep, it's a Cadillac. On laid back driving the CTS-V feels like a dream and just floats. Very quiet and the road doesn't bother you at all. No noises no squeaks no rattles. There is a little vibration at idle at a stand still from what I imagine is the LS6, but that doesn’t bother me at all. At cruise the motor just purrs itself to sleep. The M3 is also very tight but you hear wind noise, feel a little vibration, even coasting down the road you are still driving this car. Of note here on the M3 SMG vs. Manual, I found in soft driving the Automatic mode is PAINFUL I felt like a 15 year old was doing the shifting. In Manual mode the SMG tranny is a little smoother but still no where near the same league as the Manual. I found the inability to drop the SMG into neutral and coast to a stop annoying as it really made soft cruising difficult. The CTS-V shifter was more vague but in soft driving it really wasn't a concern. The V always had power available so you never really felt stressed out. The M3 you had to anticipate what was going on to make sure you had enough revs even in soft driving. For Soft Driving overall I'll give it to the CTS-V

Her: (CTS-V) I think the spacious cabin was really a determining factor here, she didn't drive either one, but from the passenger seat she said the V was much more comfortable and less abrasive. The M3 was "too noisy".

Power & Acceleration

Him: (CTS-V) The LS6 motor is awesome, even better than the e39 M5 V8 as it has gobs of power everywhere you need it. The car felt significantly more powerful and faster than the M3. Then I shifted gears and got a little axle hop, which made the car lunge a little..ugh. Tried it again with a slower shift and the tires caught just fine and really launched it into second gear. The vague shifter make the car almost impossible to do super hard acceleration in. For instant power the V really has it. The M3 by contrast felt very weak to me. I really had to rev the pee out of the motor to get it to work. Really no torque so it didn't feel very strong at all. Now here is the interesting thing. The SMG under hard acceleration is WONDERFUL! Under "S6" it shifts so fast you get no lunge between the shifts at all and it accelerates very smoothly. The Manual M3 shifted a little better under hard acceleration than the V. Seat of the driver's pants the V feels significantly more powerful, but looking at the actual results that's probably an illusion created by the torque of the motor.

Her (M3 convertible SMG ) This really threw me for a loop. In a straight line she felt the SMG Convertible felt the fastest. I think the reason for this was that the top was down (Giving the illusion of more speed), also she felt the acceleration was much smoother on the SMG so it was a constant pull. She hated the way the V "lunged" between the shifts and said rather than accelerating she felt like she was head banging. That was likely due to my inability to smoothly shift the V without having the axle bounce around.

Handling

Him (M3): Having time in an e39 M5, Vettes and the like I was heartily impressed with the CTS-V, It plows a little into the turn like an e39 M5 and feels like it's gonna wag the tail under hard acceleration out of the turn in a way the e39 M5 doesn't. Subjective seat of the pants testing says the CTS-V is the equal to a Dinan e39 M5 in raw at the limit handling with maybe a little more body roll and less confidence. Then the M3.....oh my freak'n Lord this thing feels like a dream in the corners. As much as this car is the equal of a Corvette in terms of handling it communicates so well with the driver it feels like it's superior to a Corvette (C5 with Hotchkiss suspension). In many ways it reminds me of an EVO in the corners, that is you enter a corner much faster than you think you should and leave the corner underwelmed by the total lack of drama as the M3 laughs at you for being such a Wussy, hands down and by a wide margin the M3 is the corner carver here. When it comes to SMG vs Manual, the manual was more fun in the corners, but I would say they're about equal. With experience I think the SMG would be better.

Her: (M3?) "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!!!!!!" I think between the screams she said the M3 was "less scary than the CTS-V" Whatever that means...well I'll interpret that to be the M3 handles better.

Overall

I learned two things yesterday

(1) Both cars are slower than my Trans Am with Bolt ons

(2) But that doesn't matter because my Trans Am is a Pig of a handler. The V and the M both make my car feel like a Boat.

The M3 is probably "more fun" than the CTS-V, the CTS-V is by far more practical. Looking at the cost to modify, the CTS-V has more potential, but the weight in the corners is gonna be a hard thing to modify out.

Corvette C6: We looked at a C6 corvette after all this (sat in...did not drive), and both of us fell in love. If I could get a good deal on one and not have to wait a month this could be a first choice for me. The C6 interior is vastly superior to the CTS-V in terms of materials and fit and finish, and (Gasp) I think it might almost be the equal to the M3 in that area too (now that I've sat in both back to back). There were some features I wasn't too fond of like the plasticy silver "accent" around the door open button. I also didn't like how the open pad on the outside creeps around the door jam. They did that "right" on the Caddy XLR, don't know why they had to do it the other way on the C6. The Body panel fit and finish was not that great on the C6 especially around the "end cap" where the rear bumper attaches to the body. It looks like it was smashed in.. (Like it was attached so tightly that it bulged the end cap in). Overall thought we both agreed that the interior and exterior of the Vette is much better than the CTS-V and M3.

Anyhow after a lot of seat time in various C5 cars, the C6 looks exciting, but it would take a test drive in a C6 to win me away from the practicality of a back seat and a real trunk and I hardly think we'd be fortunate enough to find a dealer giving out test drives of cars they're asking $5,000 over sticker for

So..... this weekend it's off to go look at the C32, C55 and S4.

-Adam

TriShield

I can drink to all of that.

The CTS-V definitely needs a makeover inside, and the wheel hopping engineered out. I would take a new Corvette over either of them.