I have officially bailed on my new Blackwing.....

[Motorin Mark]

So here is my story.

Ordered my 2022 CT5 Balckwing June 16th, 2021 from a friend of mine that has been at the same dealer for 30 years. Was told production would happen in October 2021 with delivery in November 2021. Much like everybody else here, my build continued to get pushed out, and out, and out again. I made many calls and had a few chats with Cadillac to no avail. My S/A also talked with his Sales Manager, General Manager and his Cadillac sales rep trying to get info/answer as to what was happening, again no response or answer from Cadillac. This is the truly frustrating part about this whole adventure. My dealer has never stopped trying for me.

Fast forward to July 6th, 2022. Great news, my car is finally built and I have a VIN number! Thirteen months after I placed my order. My friend says should arrive in 30-45 days. Nope, now my car goes to 4B00 Bayed, then goes to 4D00, then Delayed.....(and no I do not have CF1 or CF2 ordered) So as of this weekend my car has been built and sitting outside in a lot in Lansing in all of the elements for three full months. Both Rob's tracker and my S/A now show EDD 11/23/2022. Roughly 17 months after my order was placed and five months after my car was built. But I cannot get a straight answer from anybody if it may possibly be delayed more. Again cannot get any answers/info what-so-ever from Cadillac as to what the delays were/are. Any explanation from Cadillac would of been nice. I got more info from this forum than from Cadillac! As most of you know 2023 Blackwings are now being shipped and delivered to customers while some of us are still waiting on our 2022's.

As I work in retail selling Honda motorcycles, I completely understand the impact of Covid and shortages. What I do not understand nor accept is that GM and Cadillac have no answers nor information for either their dealers or their Blackwing buyers (us). Is this or is this not GM's flagship brand? All of the manufactures are dealing with shortages of options and/or parts. Honda is constantly keeping us abreast and advised on what is available and what is not so that we can confidently relay that info to our customers that have bikes ordered from us. A friend of mine ordered a BMW M4 manual trans and yes it was delayed a bit due to options that he ordered, but BMW kept his dealer in the loop at all times, plus my friend was able to track his car on his phone from order, to production, to shipping, to arrival at port, to arrival at his dealer. Now that is great customer service and his BMW came from Germany, not Lansing Michigan. Can Cadillac not have something like this in today's internet world? He has been driving his M4 for eight months while I am still waiting on my Blackwing. (We ordered within a week of each other).

I know what you all are thinking, "heck you've waited this long, whats another two or three months?" So here is why:
1) Cadillac's lack of info/response to its dealers and to myself after many inquiries. I mean after all this is a $100K plus purchase! This is really the most important reason for me bailing out, I just cannot do business with a company with such little regard to its customers. I can only imagine how they will handle long term repairs and parts for this specialty car.
2) The wait really did not bother me too much till 2023's were available for order and now are delivering.
3) I really do not want to buy a year old model car in Nov/Dec of this year, especially considering I, and most of us are paying MSRP or more for our Blackwings.
4) Lastly I am a extremely picky/anal/fussy person with my cars and motorcycles and none of them spend a night outside let alone five months. I just cannot get my head wrapped around purchasing a new car, a special ordered one at that, which has been sitting outside in all the elements around a factory for five months! This is unimportant to some but drives me crazy and I decided to bail out with this last delay.

So I notified my friend salesman that I am out. Of course he is disappointed as I'm sure these pay a pretty good commission and him and I are close as he has purchased many Honda motorcycles from me over the years, none at MSRP (ha-ha). He texted me back in 10 minutes and another sales person at his store moved the next person in line up for "my" Blackwing, along with a $15K ADM! (I was at MSRP).

I will start my car search over again tomorrow. Probably back to BMW, Mercedes, Lexus, or Infiniti as they all seem to understand high line buyers like us pretty well (not saying that they don't have delay's/problems too, but they seem to communicate better). I am done with GM for now as this has been such a cluster for me. I really wanted a super cool, fast sedan with a manual transmission, but honestly this is a small world problem especially here in Florida after Hurricane Ian hit us last week. I will land a suitable replacement soon. (Probably another BMW M5 Competition as I loved my previous one).

Rob, thank you for this forum and all the info you and it has provided. Sorry I had to bail but believe it or not, I actually am a bit relieved as this was driving me frickin' nuts and pissing me off more and more each day that went by with no info and no car! I just know I would not be happy with it in my mind with all of the negatives I have stated above and then would of re-sold it immediately and honestly I am too busy for that....even at a profit. Please remove me from the list.

Sorry for my long final post and hope some of you can see where I am coming from. Here's wishing everybody on here gets their Blackwing and enjoys them!

Motorin Mark....Over and out.

 

[VagonLove]

Wow! I thought my seven months from order to delivery was pretty bad but this takes the cake. I can absolutely relate to your feelings about a new car enduring the MI elements for five months! Mine sat from January to March in the yard. That said, after some initial paint correction and ceramic coating my BW is now pampered in my garage, never seeing any of those nasty elements again. I was shopping the Germans as well but must say (especially after Spring Mountain) I am so happy I chose and waited for the BW. Good luck with whatever you end up with!

 

[ajamils]

I can totally relate to your sentiments and I'm close to doing the same. At this point my car has been awaiting delivery for over three months and that was after waiting for the car to be built for almost a year. Even then I had to compromise on specs due to CF being on constraints.
One thing that CT5-BW has going for it is the 6-speed manual and if that wasn't the case I would have long gone to the German route with X5m Comp being the top of the list.

Like you my biggest complaint is not the wait but the lack of care from GM about providing any kind of updates to the customer and just providing a canned response of "talk to your dealer".

 

[rubberduck]

I was thinking along the same lines when I ordered mine, that if it sat outside in the winter for 6 months I may bail. Now that I have my car I'm not sure I would bail so easily. I would be upfront with the dealer about my concern and ask that I be able to inspect the car before committing to buy. The 5BW is a wonderful car and the M6 is so nice. I think most people get some form of paint correction done even if it's not outside for very long. Mine was not parked outside very long, but still needed some work done.

I do however question the dealer's integrity when they turn around and charge another customer in line a $15K ADM. I would look for a another dealer and place another order. Buy another car in the meantime to satisfy the desire.

 

[vj123]

Sorry to hear that you are bailing out and i agree that the whole process could have been much better. After escalating, your area rep could have escalated this issue and tried to make some progress.

I am coming from the BMW world (sold my M3 last month) and things might just look greener on the other side. Even though they give you the ability to track the build progress, same issue is seen there as well. Some vehicles are shipped from German port within days whereas other vehicles are sitting at port for months without any progress and there is hardly anyone helping out the customer. Delivery time is ranging between 4 to 12 months and it seems like pure luck.

Good luck with your search on your next vehicle.

 

[Finally-a-V]

I do however question the dealer's integrity when they turn around and charge another customer in line a $15K ADM. I would look for a another dealer and place another order. Buy another car in the meantime to satisfy the desire.

That was one of my first thoughts too. Why not try to save the sale? Why not try to find out something? It's such a cluster right now.

I'm sorry to hear about your decision, though I get it. That's only part of why I bailed to buy my 4. My order sat for 9 months and not built and I knew it wouldn't be built for 2022. Very happy I now have a 5BW. It really is an outstanding vehicle. Again, no regrets!

 

[shbox]

So here is my story.

Ordered my 2022 CT5 Balckwing June 16th, 2021 from a friend of mine that has been at the same dealer for 30 years. Was told production would happen in October 2021 with delivery in November 2021. Much like everybody else here, my build continued to get pushed out, and out, and out again. I made many calls and had a few chats with Cadillac to no avail. My S/A also talked with his Sales Manager, General Manager and his Cadillac sales rep trying to get info/answer as to what was happening, again no response or answer from Cadillac. This is the truly frustrating part about this whole adventure. My dealer has never stopped trying for me.

Fast forward to July 6th, 2022. Great news, my car is finally built and I have a VIN number! Thirteen months after I placed my order. My friend says should arrive in 30-45 days. Nope, now my car goes to 4B00 Bayed, then goes to 4D00, then Delayed.....(and no I do not have CF1 or CF2 ordered) So as of this weekend my car has been built and sitting outside in a lot in Lansing in all of the elements for three full months. Both Rob's tracker and my S/A now show EDD 11/23/2022. Roughly 17 months after my order was placed and five months after my car was built. But I cannot get a straight answer from anybody if it may possibly be delayed more. Again cannot get any answers/info what-so-ever from Cadillac as to what the delays were/are. Any explanation from Cadillac would of been nice. I got more info from this forum than from Cadillac! As most of you know 2023 Blackwings are now being shipped and delivered to customers while some of us are still waiting on our 2022's.

As I work in retail selling Honda motorcycles, I completely understand the impact of Covid and shortages. What I do not understand nor accept is that GM and Cadillac have no answers nor information for either their dealers or their Blackwing buyers (us). Is this or is this not GM's flagship brand? All of the manufactures are dealing with shortages of options and/or parts. Honda is constantly keeping us abreast and advised on what is available and what is not so that we can confidently relay that info to our customers that have bikes ordered from us. A friend of mine ordered a BMW M4 manual trans and yes it was delayed a bit due to options that he ordered, but BMW kept his dealer in the loop at all times, plus my friend was able to track his car on his phone from order, to production, to shipping, to arrival at port, to arrival at his dealer. Now that is great customer service and his BMW came from Germany, not Lansing Michigan. Can Cadillac not have something like this in today's internet world? He has been driving his M4 for eight months while I am still waiting on my Blackwing. (We ordered within a week of each other).

I know what you all are thinking, "heck you've waited this long, whats another two or three months?" So here is why:
1) Cadillac's lack of info/response to its dealers and to myself after many inquiries. I mean after all this is a $100K plus purchase! This is really the most important reason for me bailing out, I just cannot do business with a company with such little regard to its customers. I can only imagine how they will handle long term repairs and parts for this specialty car.
2) The wait really did not bother me too much till 2023's were available for order and now are delivering.
3) I really do not want to buy a year old model car in Nov/Dec of this year, especially considering I, and most of us are paying MSRP or more for our Blackwings.
4) Lastly I am a extremely picky/anal/fussy person with my cars and motorcycles and none of them spend a night outside let alone five months. I just cannot get my head wrapped around purchasing a new car, a special ordered one at that, which has been sitting outside in all the elements around a factory for five months! This is unimportant to some but drives me crazy and I decided to bail out with this last delay.

So I notified my friend salesman that I am out. Of course he is disappointed as I'm sure these pay a pretty good commission and him and I are close as he has purchased many Honda motorcycles from me over the years, none at MSRP (ha-ha). He texted me back in 10 minutes and another sales person at his store moved the next person in line up for "my" Blackwing, along with a $15K ADM! (I was at MSRP).

I will start my car search over again tomorrow. Probably back to BMW, Mercedes, Lexus, or Infiniti as they all seem to understand high line buyers like us pretty well (not saying that they don't have delay's/problems too, but they seem to communicate better). I am done with GM for now as this has been such a cluster for me. I really wanted a super cool, fast sedan with a manual transmission, but honestly this is a small world problem especially here in Florida after Hurricane Ian hit us last week. I will land a suitable replacement soon. (Probably another BMW M5 Competition as I loved my previous one).

Rob, thank you for this forum and all the info you and it has provided. Sorry I had to bail but believe it or not, I actually am a bit relieved as this was driving me frickin' nuts and pissing me off more and more each day that went by with no info and no car! I just know I would not be happy with it in my mind with all of the negatives I have stated above and then would of re-sold it immediately and honestly I am too busy for that....even at a profit. Please remove me from the list.

Sorry for my long final post and hope some of you can see where I am coming from. Here's wishing everybody on here gets their Blackwing and enjoys them!

Motorin Mark....Over and out.

Very sorry things did not work out for you, but I certainly understand. It's sad that Cadillac can't do a little better communication. Good luck on your next purchase.

 

[Motorin Mark]

Sorry to hear that you are bailing out and i agree that the whole process could have been much better. After escalating, your area rep could have escalated this issue and tried to make some progress.

I am coming from the BMW world (sold my M3 last month) and things might just look greener on the other side. Even though they give you the ability to track the build progress, same issue is seen there as well. Some vehicles are shipped from German port within days whereas other vehicles are sitting at port for months without any progress and there is hardly anyone helping out the customer. Delivery time is ranging between 4 to 12 months and it seems like pure luck.

Good luck with your search on your next vehicle.

Believe me we escalated all the way up the Cadillac chain, but to no avail.

Like I said, Not looking for greener grass, I realize that all manufactures have supply chain issues right now, but its all about customer service to me, and Cadillac has none in my opinion. I have been working for/with Honda Motorcycles for many years and love their transparency to both the dealers and their customers, so I guess maybe I was expecting a bit too much from GM. I have already located four M5's and five M8's I will be looking at in the next few days or so.

 

[Motorin Mark]

I was thinking along the same lines when I ordered mine, that if it sat outside in the winter for 6 months I may bail. Now that I have my car I'm not sure I would bail so easily. I would be upfront with the dealer about my concern and ask that I be able to inspect the car before committing to buy. The 5BW is a wonderful car and the M6 is so nice. I think most people get some form of paint correction done even if it's not outside for very long. Mine was not parked outside very long, but still needed some work done.

I do however question the dealer's integrity when they turn around and charge another customer in line a $15K ADM. I would look for a another dealer and place another order. Buy another car in the meantime to satisfy the desire.

My car was Raven Black so I'm sure a major paint correction would be necessary and of course GM is not going to cover that so just another negative to me. This is also why I order cars rather than purchasing off of the lot as some cars sit on dealers lots for 6 months or longer. I am just very picky with my cars. YMMV.

Heck most dealers are charging ADM on Blackwings right now, so as long as this one has taken to get to them and as much crap as I have put them through, I guess I can't blame them. I don't even know how some of these dealers are staying afloat with 8-10 total new cars on their lots to sell.

 

[jbawden]

I can easily see getting sucked into the "where's my BW" vortex and working myself into a rich later over it, so I totally get the OP's emotional state. This is particularly true since he was such an early order and didn't have the data points to set expectations like we have now.

As an armchair therapist ( I can assure you the chair isn't very nice), the path of listening to your gut can be filled with odd twists and emotional anguish. If you made this difficult choice and feel a huge sense of relief, I think a congratulations are in order. Careers and marriages are other sources of similar journeys to find enlightenment and peace of mind.

 

[Motorin Mark]

I can easily see getting sucked into the "where's my BW" vortex and working myself into a rich later over it, so I totally get the OP's emotional state. This is particularly true since he was such an early order and didn't have the data points to set expectations like we have now.

As an armchair therapist ( I can assure you the chair isn't very nice), the path of listening to your gut can be filled with odd twists and emotional anguish. If you made this difficult choice and feel a huge sense of relief, I think a congratulations are in order. Careers and marriages are other sources of similar journeys to find enlightenment and peace of mind.

Thank you and yes for me a huge sense of relief. Things like this really bug the sh*t out of me and I tend to just fester on them waaaaay to long making me lose focus on the really important things in life. So definitely have made the proper decision for myself. Even my heart rate on my Fitbit has gone down today!

 

[SIX 40]

Seriously man. With work, kids and other stressors in life this is supposed to be an enjoyable and exciting experience. I feel your pain. I placed my order in March '21 and never got an allocation for a '22, despite my dealer receiving 4 for the '22 MY. I'm still holding out but it feels like the BW is fading from view more and more every day. I was offered a '22 at MSRP back in August but I didn't go through with it because I'm stubborn with my specs, as I should be with a $100k purchase. Someone bought the one I was offered and I saw them trying to flip it in one of the FB groups a few weeks later.

I ordered my M5C in July '21 after witnessing what everyone was going through early on. It took 6 months from order to delivery. This may or may not be the case anymore as BMW is having issues at the ports now as mentioned above. My car was delayed for a few weeks at the port due to a chip for the audio. How about this for service? My car arrived at the port either late November or December sometime. In December, BMW was running an end of year financing program at .9% for 60. The rate bumped up to 1.9 in January. When January rolled around, I asked my salesperson if they would honor the .9 rate since my car was sitting at the port while that program was running. Wouldn't you know, they financed me at .9. It's really a small thing but I could never see any GM dealer doing that for a customer (well, maybe Sewell). My wife's lease matures in March, I might have gone with another Caddy for her if I had mine. Now? No chance.

Aside from all that, I read the issues that everyone is having with their new Blackwings. Of course that doesn't sway my decision either way as I've owned a few recent GM products so I'm not unfamiliar with their issues. My M5 however, was flawless upon delivery. No paint or panel issues, no electrical gremlins or suspension problems as a new car should be. Of course the F90 has been in production for 4 years so they better damn well have assembly down by now.

Good luck MM and let us know what you wind up with.

 

[WONT TAP]

This is a real shame.

 

[Barstoolman1127]

Paint correction on new cars need to be done whether the car is just off the assembly line or sitting outside for six months. The paint process on these cars is mediocre at best and they need all the help they can get. Regardless, special, ordering hard to get vehicles is obviously not for you. At least someone else who ordered the car won’t have to wait as long once they pick up your original order! Cheers!

 

[ajamils]

Looks like the goat Gods saw my post and CT5-BW was shipped to dealer today.

 

[Nadnerb]

Looks like the goat Gods saw my post and CT5-BW was shipped to dealer today.

I went by the railyard we have in Washington and no dice not here yet. I was really hoping seeing all these posts of people's cars just showing up that mine would too ;-;

 

[MacGruber]

So here is my story.

Ordered my 2022 CT5 Balckwing June 16th, 2021 from a friend of mine that has been at the same dealer for 30 years. Was told production would happen in October 2021 with delivery in November 2021. Much like everybody else here, my build continued to get pushed out, and out, and out again. I made many calls and had a few chats with Cadillac to no avail. My S/A also talked with his Sales Manager, General Manager and his Cadillac sales rep trying to get info/answer as to what was happening, again no response or answer from Cadillac. This is the truly frustrating part about this whole adventure. My dealer has never stopped trying for me.

Fast forward to July 6th, 2022. Great news, my car is finally built and I have a VIN number! Thirteen months after I placed my order. My friend says should arrive in 30-45 days. Nope, now my car goes to 4B00 Bayed, then goes to 4D00, then Delayed.....(and no I do not have CF1 or CF2 ordered) So as of this weekend my car has been built and sitting outside in a lot in Lansing in all of the elements for three full months. Both Rob's tracker and my S/A now show EDD 11/23/2022. Roughly 17 months after my order was placed and five months after my car was built. But I cannot get a straight answer from anybody if it may possibly be delayed more. Again cannot get any answers/info what-so-ever from Cadillac as to what the delays were/are. Any explanation from Cadillac would of been nice. I got more info from this forum than from Cadillac! As most of you know 2023 Blackwings are now being shipped and delivered to customers while some of us are still waiting on our 2022's.

As I work in retail selling Honda motorcycles, I completely understand the impact of Covid and shortages. What I do not understand nor accept is that GM and Cadillac have no answers nor information for either their dealers or their Blackwing buyers (us). Is this or is this not GM's flagship brand? All of the manufactures are dealing with shortages of options and/or parts. Honda is constantly keeping us abreast and advised on what is available and what is not so that we can confidently relay that info to our customers that have bikes ordered from us. A friend of mine ordered a BMW M4 manual trans and yes it was delayed a bit due to options that he ordered, but BMW kept his dealer in the loop at all times, plus my friend was able to track his car on his phone from order, to production, to shipping, to arrival at port, to arrival at his dealer. Now that is great customer service and his BMW came from Germany, not Lansing Michigan. Can Cadillac not have something like this in today's internet world? He has been driving his M4 for eight months while I am still waiting on my Blackwing. (We ordered within a week of each other).

I know what you all are thinking, "heck you've waited this long, whats another two or three months?" So here is why:
1) Cadillac's lack of info/response to its dealers and to myself after many inquiries. I mean after all this is a $100K plus purchase! This is really the most important reason for me bailing out, I just cannot do business with a company with such little regard to its customers. I can only imagine how they will handle long term repairs and parts for this specialty car.
2) The wait really did not bother me too much till 2023's were available for order and now are delivering.
3) I really do not want to buy a year old model car in Nov/Dec of this year, especially considering I, and most of us are paying MSRP or more for our Blackwings.
4) Lastly I am a extremely picky/anal/fussy person with my cars and motorcycles and none of them spend a night outside let alone five months. I just cannot get my head wrapped around purchasing a new car, a special ordered one at that, which has been sitting outside in all the elements around a factory for five months! This is unimportant to some but drives me crazy and I decided to bail out with this last delay.

So I notified my friend salesman that I am out. Of course he is disappointed as I'm sure these pay a pretty good commission and him and I are close as he has purchased many Honda motorcycles from me over the years, none at MSRP (ha-ha). He texted me back in 10 minutes and another sales person at his store moved the next person in line up for "my" Blackwing, along with a $15K ADM! (I was at MSRP).

I will start my car search over again tomorrow. Probably back to BMW, Mercedes, Lexus, or Infiniti as they all seem to understand high line buyers like us pretty well (not saying that they don't have delay's/problems too, but they seem to communicate better). I am done with GM for now as this has been such a cluster for me. I really wanted a super cool, fast sedan with a manual transmission, but honestly this is a small world problem especially here in Florida after Hurricane Ian hit us last week. I will land a suitable replacement soon. (Probably another BMW M5 Competition as I loved my previous one).

Rob, thank you for this forum and all the info you and it has provided. Sorry I had to bail but believe it or not, I actually am a bit relieved as this was driving me frickin' nuts and pissing me off more and more each day that went by with no info and no car! I just know I would not be happy with it in my mind with all of the negatives I have stated above and then would of re-sold it immediately and honestly I am too busy for that....even at a profit. Please remove me from the list.

Sorry for my long final post and hope some of you can see where I am coming from. Here's wishing everybody on here gets their Blackwing and enjoys them!

Motorin Mark....Over and out.

The salesperson texting you that your car sold in 10 minutes at a 15k markup is so tacky.

 

[Snowwolfe]

I get your frustration but every time you see a CT5 V you will wish you would of waited.
Good luck with your next purchase.

 

[raptor5244]

The market is declining. You can always try to pick up a slightly used 5BW in the future if you are still drawn to it.

That said, I see you are really after a sedan with a manual transmission. I just traded a ZL1 with the LT4 and bought a 4BW with a manual transmission and I like this 4BW much better and I don't miss the extra 200hp that you can't really make use of here on Florida roads. In fact, the 472hp is comes with is more than enough. The 4BW feels a lot more nimble and fun to drive than the larger, heavier sedans. The only thing I miss is the V8 exhaust note, although the LF4 V6 exhaust does have a nice snarl to it. Furthermore, if you are power hungry you can easily add more power to the 4BW and get into 5BW power levels in a smaller, lighter car.

The 4BW should be easier to acquire at MSRP, maybe even less.

 

[rubberduck]

I can't make use of the 5BW HP most of the time, but when I do it's a real treat. Coming from my last two cars being a V6 supercharged S4 and an AMG I6 turbo the V8 was a must have. I predict in some time you will be back in the V8.