bamagrad03
Member
Background - I currently drive an Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio. Amazing car. Best I've ever owned. It's a 2019 that's had 0.0 maintenance issues.
In looking for a new car, I wanted something that really felt dynamic above all other things. I don't care about gas mileage. Interior matters, but only to a point (as evidenced by my owning a Giulia).
tl;dr; Caddy is the most dynamic by a margin, higher optioned interior (not base trim) gets it closer to the Germans on interior quality.
Cars ranked in reverse order
RS7 - Best looking car of the three in person. Absolute stunner. Pictures do not do this car justice in any way. It's also the most 'exotic' or special looking. Which is a plus. I came into this one thinking I'd hate the interior because of the piano black, and stacked screens. I previously owned an S6 that had a pretty boring interior. But the quality of this interior is outstanding. The "tightness" of everything is unbelievable. One small example is the CF trim that's on the 'shelf' above the piano black that runs the length of the dash. It's so tightly integrated, nice subtle touch.
Sound was amazing. Cold start sounded best of the 3. This really surprised me.
Driving - it's super fast. Land rocket. Hooks up great. But you /really/ feel the weight. It's 800 lbs heavier than the 5BW and you totally notice. This was a complete deal breaker for me. It's over-dampened in my opinion. You don't feel the driving experience as much as you're just along for the ride. Best steering wheel of the 3, worst steering feel of the 3.
F90 M5 Comp - The variance of looks on this car in person color to color is huge. The place I was at had 3, and the black one and white one (I love black cars) looked very regular sedan. Snapper Rocks blue or any of the frozen colors, however, completely change these cars. Interior is nice, though not as big of a gap between the Cadillac and BMW that I expected. Seats are comfortable and look cool but don't feel like sport seats, even compared to my Alfa's standard seats, much less the CF sport seats available.
Driving was better than the RS7 by a margin. Though the roughest suspension setting is hilariously uncomfortable and unnecessary, I think they fixed this with the CS. Crazy fast, handles well. Steering numb but not as bad as the YouTubers want you to believe. Still coming from the Alfa, which may be the best steering sedan ever made, it was a noticeable downgrade.
In general both of these cars just felt like very fast business-y cars.
CT5V Blackwing - This car is good looking in nearly every color (the one I'm getting is red on black wheels). Really don't like the standard wheels though, dresses it down to look like a regular GM product - but they're very nice forged wheels. The interior is interesting because of the absolute wild variance between trims and options. I'm convinced most of the people (rightfully) trashing this interior as a Chevy Malibu amalgamation aren't doing so unfairly - so long as they saw it in the lowest, least optioned form. The standard seats and normal non-CF, non-alcantara interior is basic as they come. But if you put in the upgraded seats, especially in the white/silver or camel colors, and get a CF package or alcantara trim, it punches up the interior by a crazy amount. They're doing a disservice to their own car, and likely costing themselves sales by how big of a variance this is.
The sound deadening on the interior is hyper aggressive. You can get more of the raw V8 with the windows down or the back seats down. But in normal mode, it's tightened up to a level I don't like.
Here's where y'all get mad at me. I'm getting an auto. Wife can't/won't drive a manual and needs to drive my car sometimes. I have 3 small kids too.
On driving, it's the most dynamic of all 3. And it is the most comfortable of all 3 in comfort, and the best handling/steering by a margin of all 3. Even with the auto, it's incredibly engaging. It's far more raw than the other 2, and the power is ever present. Power wise it's underrated, stock BWs are dynoing at 630 at the wheels. For RWD I cannot believe how well it puts the power down.
The car sites all ranked this one higher than the other two. I figured it was because they were fanboying (rightly so) over the 6MT. But even without it, I think it's a better driver's car than the other two.
Here's the best, though admittedly weird, analogy I can give on the two German cars: I love photography, but don't own Sony cameras. I own Fuji cameras. Sony will give me better pictures than the Fuji in a lot of scenarios. But the experience of taking is basically pointing a black box at a subject and a computer giving you the best possible result. The Fuji is engaging and involves the photographer - and often gives better results than the Sony because of its character and imperfections that the glass and sensor give that the clinical Sony does not.
In looking for a new car, I wanted something that really felt dynamic above all other things. I don't care about gas mileage. Interior matters, but only to a point (as evidenced by my owning a Giulia).
tl;dr; Caddy is the most dynamic by a margin, higher optioned interior (not base trim) gets it closer to the Germans on interior quality.
Cars ranked in reverse order
RS7 - Best looking car of the three in person. Absolute stunner. Pictures do not do this car justice in any way. It's also the most 'exotic' or special looking. Which is a plus. I came into this one thinking I'd hate the interior because of the piano black, and stacked screens. I previously owned an S6 that had a pretty boring interior. But the quality of this interior is outstanding. The "tightness" of everything is unbelievable. One small example is the CF trim that's on the 'shelf' above the piano black that runs the length of the dash. It's so tightly integrated, nice subtle touch.
Sound was amazing. Cold start sounded best of the 3. This really surprised me.
Driving - it's super fast. Land rocket. Hooks up great. But you /really/ feel the weight. It's 800 lbs heavier than the 5BW and you totally notice. This was a complete deal breaker for me. It's over-dampened in my opinion. You don't feel the driving experience as much as you're just along for the ride. Best steering wheel of the 3, worst steering feel of the 3.
F90 M5 Comp - The variance of looks on this car in person color to color is huge. The place I was at had 3, and the black one and white one (I love black cars) looked very regular sedan. Snapper Rocks blue or any of the frozen colors, however, completely change these cars. Interior is nice, though not as big of a gap between the Cadillac and BMW that I expected. Seats are comfortable and look cool but don't feel like sport seats, even compared to my Alfa's standard seats, much less the CF sport seats available.
Driving was better than the RS7 by a margin. Though the roughest suspension setting is hilariously uncomfortable and unnecessary, I think they fixed this with the CS. Crazy fast, handles well. Steering numb but not as bad as the YouTubers want you to believe. Still coming from the Alfa, which may be the best steering sedan ever made, it was a noticeable downgrade.
In general both of these cars just felt like very fast business-y cars.
CT5V Blackwing - This car is good looking in nearly every color (the one I'm getting is red on black wheels). Really don't like the standard wheels though, dresses it down to look like a regular GM product - but they're very nice forged wheels. The interior is interesting because of the absolute wild variance between trims and options. I'm convinced most of the people (rightfully) trashing this interior as a Chevy Malibu amalgamation aren't doing so unfairly - so long as they saw it in the lowest, least optioned form. The standard seats and normal non-CF, non-alcantara interior is basic as they come. But if you put in the upgraded seats, especially in the white/silver or camel colors, and get a CF package or alcantara trim, it punches up the interior by a crazy amount. They're doing a disservice to their own car, and likely costing themselves sales by how big of a variance this is.
The sound deadening on the interior is hyper aggressive. You can get more of the raw V8 with the windows down or the back seats down. But in normal mode, it's tightened up to a level I don't like.
Here's where y'all get mad at me. I'm getting an auto. Wife can't/won't drive a manual and needs to drive my car sometimes. I have 3 small kids too.
On driving, it's the most dynamic of all 3. And it is the most comfortable of all 3 in comfort, and the best handling/steering by a margin of all 3. Even with the auto, it's incredibly engaging. It's far more raw than the other 2, and the power is ever present. Power wise it's underrated, stock BWs are dynoing at 630 at the wheels. For RWD I cannot believe how well it puts the power down.
The car sites all ranked this one higher than the other two. I figured it was because they were fanboying (rightly so) over the 6MT. But even without it, I think it's a better driver's car than the other two.
Here's the best, though admittedly weird, analogy I can give on the two German cars: I love photography, but don't own Sony cameras. I own Fuji cameras. Sony will give me better pictures than the Fuji in a lot of scenarios. But the experience of taking is basically pointing a black box at a subject and a computer giving you the best possible result. The Fuji is engaging and involves the photographer - and often gives better results than the Sony because of its character and imperfections that the glass and sensor give that the clinical Sony does not.
