2022 CT5V Blackwing Quality

NorCal Blackwing · May 16, 2022

I have a 2022 CT5V Blackwing pending delivery, currently at Autoport - possibly held up for missing parts or quality corrections.

Like most of us here, I've been following the Order Tracking thread closely. I saw one comment in there I thought would be better to split into a new discussion, so as not to contaminate the delivery tracking one.

@SIX 40 had a post about a chat with his dealer "We talked for a few mins and he echoed all of the frustrations that we talk about here from cars changing status, shipping issues and quality concerns. He told me they received a 4 that had no paint on the bottom half of the door. I told him about some stuff I’ve read here. We both shook our heads. I told him to stay in touch and let me know when they’re ready to roll my order into a ‘23."

For anyone who has actually taken delivery of their 22's, how have they been holding up? Any common issues? I assume the dealer will do a good PDI -- and missing paint is pretty obvious -- but is there anything I should be looking out for? It's one thing waiting patiently for supply chain issues to sort themselves out, but a whole other problem if they are struggling with actually building the cars. I guess it could be worse

Throat Yogurt · May 16, 2022

Not to derail your thread before it starts, but I don't believe for a second that a car was delivered with no paint on half the door. I will believe that there were paint issues, and anything noticable to the consumer is totally unacceptable, but no paint on half the door? Come on.

NorCal Blackwing · May 16, 2022

Throat Yogurt said:
Not to derail your thread before it starts, but I don't believe for a second that a car was delivered with no paint on half the door. I will believe that there were paint issues, and anything noticable to the consumer is totally unacceptable, but no paint on half the door? Come on.

It did seem a bit incredible but these days, who knows? I was searching through the thread (admittedly, not in tons of detail) to try and find the aforementioned quality problems but I couldn't find them.

565565 · May 16, 2022

I think if you think of it as a 100k car, you will be disappointed with the quality.

This is a 37K car (starting price on CT5s) with 60+K of performance stuff added on.

It's much more like a ZL1 (comes out of the same factory and made by the same people)or a GT500, and much less like a base 911. It's the most costly version of a cheap car, rather than the least costly version of an expensive car.

NorCal Blackwing · May 16, 2022

565565 said:
I think if you think of it as a 100k car, you will be disappointed with the quality.

This is a 37K car (starting price on CT5s) with 60+K of performance stuff added on.

It's much more like a ZL1 or a GT500, and less like a base 911. It's the most costly version of a cheap car, rather than the least costly version of an expensive car.

Oh yeah - totally. I had a V2 CTS-V Wagon, and although the interior wasn't up to M5 standards of the time, the performance was definitely there. The main known issues for that car were 'rocking recaros', 'supercharger marbles' and sunroof issues. Mine was rock solid except for oil consumption issues.

I'm referring more to manufacturing defects rather than stuff like the quality of the switchgear and the plastics and whatnot...

565565 · May 16, 2022

sfvagon said:
Oh yeah - totally. I had a V2 CTS-V Wagon, and although the interior wasn't up to M5 standards of the time, the performance was definitely there. The main known issues for that car were 'rocking recaros', 'supercharger marbles' and sunroof issues. Mine was rock solid except for oil consumption issues.

I'm referring more to manufacturing defects rather than stuff like the quality of the switchgear and the plastics and whatnot...

For mine its mostly paint drips in places not easily seen so I didn't do anything about it. There is a gap between the bottom of the taillights and the rear bumper and if you look down from the top into that region you can see alot of paint drips. There are also paint drips on certain areas of the inside of the door panels. The interior quality isn't great but so far pretty solidly screwed together. 1-2 shift has that classic tremec trait that if you don't pull straight back it will grind into gear.

Tall Steve · May 16, 2022

The quality in both my BW's is very poor and I regret even purchasing them now... I'm thinking about selling both and going back to a Honda Civic, but I'm going to go all out on a Type R this time.

NorCal Blackwing · May 16, 2022

Tall Steve said:
The quality in both my BW's is very poor and I regret even purchasing them now... I'm thinking about selling both and going back to a Honda Civic, but I'm going to go all out on a Type R this time.

Hard to be sure about sarcasm on the internet sometimes, but the Type R is a great car. Not exactly comparable with the performance of a BW, and as for the looks, the less said the better.

I'm well aware this car is not put together and finished like a Pagani, and having owned a CTS-V V2 I feel like my expectations are appropriately set. However, I'll go back to my original posting and clarify - In light of SIX 40's posting, I'm really fishing to see if GM are abnormally struggling with manufacturing issues on the first year run of this car.

RobC7 · May 16, 2022

Throat Yogurt said:
Not to derail your thread before it starts, but I don't believe for a second that a car was delivered with no paint on half the door. I will believe that there were paint issues, and anything noticable to the consumer is totally unacceptable, but no paint on half the door? Come on.

I believe it. I was going to buy a slightly used 2014 C7 (Sept 2013 build I believe, I forgot the exact VIN but it was one of the first 500 built) in 2016. The car was white and you can see on the inside of the rear hatch and doors the paint did not cover the panels completely. In addition the car had a number of runs on different exterior body panels.

A few members on CF had this same issue and actually had their cars repainted or new panels sent from the factory.

RDATLTE · May 16, 2022

565565 said:
I think if you think of it as a 100k car, you will be disappointed with the quality.

This is a 37K car (starting price on CT5s) with 60+K of performance stuff added on.

It's much more like a ZL1 (comes out of the same factory and made by the same people)or a GT500, and much less like a base 911. It's the most costly version of a cheap car, rather than the least costly version of an expensive car.

And built on the same assembly line as $26K (starting price of a Camaro) cars.

jonnywaffles11 · May 16, 2022

CT4-V Blackwing said:
And built on the same assembly line as $26K (starting price of a Camaro) cars.

Don't worry, Larry doesnt let anything slip through his watchful eyes

SIX 40 · May 16, 2022

Throat Yogurt said:
Not to derail your thread before it starts, but I don't believe for a second that a car was delivered with no paint on half the door. I will believe that there were paint issues, and anything noticable to the consumer is totally unacceptable, but no paint on half the door? Come on.

I kinda misspoke, it wasn't half the door. I just wasn't sure how to explain it exactly but it was the lower part of the door below the lower body line on the drivers door of a CT4. If it's a light colored car I could see how it could be missed. Both the manager and my salesman told me the same story separately, why would they lie about shit quality on a car they're trying to sell me?

They also mentioned the foam insulation that's supposed to go under the wheel arches was shot all over the wheel well on another car. It wasn't noticeable to the naked eye but I guess they caught it in PDI.

Given the assembly quality of my V3, I'll believe anything. It wasn't terrible but it wasn't perfect either.

Throat Yogurt · May 16, 2022

SIX 40 said:
I kinda misspoke, it wasn't half the door. I just wasn't sure how to explain it exactly but it was the lower part of the door below the lower body line on the drivers door of a CT4. If it's a light colored car I could see how it could be missed. Both the manager and my salesman told me the same story separately, why would they lie about shit quality on a car they're trying to sell me?

That's quite a bit different from what was said above.

668LT4 · May 16, 2022

SIX 40 said:
I kinda misspoke, it wasn't half the door. I just wasn't sure how to explain it exactly but it was the lower part of the door below the lower body line on the drivers door of a CT4. If it's a light colored car I could see how it could be missed. Both the manager and my salesman told me the same story separately, why would they lie about shit quality on a car they're trying to sell me?

They also mentioned the foam insulation that's supposed to go under the wheel arches was shot all over the wheel well on another car. It wasn't noticeable to the naked eye but I guess they caught it in PDI.

Given the assembly quality of my V3, I'll believe anything. It wasn't terrible but it wasn't perfect either.

So if you get the CT5-V BW, will you trade in your M5? I think you will lose a lot of the interior and overall build quality you are used to. But you'll gain that glorious LT4!

flipray · May 17, 2022

565565 said:
For mine its mostly paint drips in places not easily seen so I didn't do anything about it. There is a gap between the bottom of the taillights and the rear bumper and if you look down from the top into that region you can see alot of paint drips. There are also paint drips on certain areas of the inside of the door panels. The interior quality isn't great but so far pretty solidly screwed together. 1-2 shift has that classic tremec trait that if you don't pull straight back it will grind into gear.

Yep, I'm noticing all kids of paint drip in my 4BW. Sunroof got a few of them and found a few in the trunk. Havent really dug into the car as hard but I've noticeds those.

sfvagon said:
Hard to be sure about sarcasm on the internet sometimes, but the Type R is a great car. Not exactly comparable with the performance of a BW, and as for the looks, the less said the better.

I'm well aware this car is not put together and finished like a Pagani, and having owned a CTS-V V2 I feel like my expectations are appropriately set. However, I'll go back to my original posting and clarify - In light of SIX 40's posting, I'm really fishing to see if GM are abnormally struggling with manufacturing issues on the first year run of this car.

Expectation for a V2 was its a $65K car. Car was underpriced for what they were in 09...cheaper than a C6 Z06 and more livable in with a back seat to boot.

NorCal Blackwing · May 17, 2022

flipray said:
Yep, I'm noticing all kids of paint drip in my 4BW. Sunroof got a few of them and found a few in the trunk. Havent really dug into the car as hard but I've noticeds those.

Expectation for a V2 was its a $65K car. Car was underpriced for what they were in 09...cheaper than a C6 Z06 and more livable in with a back seat to boot.

No paint drip in my V2 and that does sound unacceptable. Clearly GM is having issues in their paint shop at the moment.

As for pricing, I bought my V2 wagon for 75K in 2011... see image from inflation calculator: