Wheel Repair Fail

[Finally-a-V]

I almost bought an XT6, twice. I really like them. They really are nice vehicles, especially with the platinum package. Nice ride, decent gas mileage, fairly quick, a V6, not a stupid turbo 4. It was really close. One of the biggest downfalls is that terrible dash. That's one of the things that stopped me. That and it looks "old". If they would have refreshed it for 2025 like the traverse/enclave/terrain, I would consider it. I wouldn't buy one new, but a current model year, one year old is a steal....especially if it's CPO'd. They are also rated fairly high for reliability.

 

[jbawden]

I rented an XT6 during the holidays and plowed a ton of miles on it over 3 weeks driving all over FL. It's a fine vehicle but didn't find anything compelling about it. Way too much badge engineering going on.

 

[sethsquire]

I almost bought an XT6, twice. I really like them. They really are nice vehicles, especially with the platinum package. Nice ride, decent gas mileage, fairly quick, a V6, not a stupid turbo 4. It was really close. One of the biggest downfalls is that terrible dash. That's one of the things that stopped me. That and it looks "old". If they would have refreshed it for 2025 like the traverse/enclave/terrain, I would consider it. I wouldn't buy one new, but a current model year, one year old is a steal....especially if it's CPO'd. They are also rated fairly high for reliability.

I was so XT6-curious that I actually went to a local Chevy dealer to test drive the new Traverse as a possible family hauler when my wife's Nissan Rogue lease is done. The Traverse itself looks great (especially in RS trim), the tech is cool, the car has massive amounts of space and it has super cruise. However, the new 2.5 turbo which replaced the 3.6 is absolutely awful. It was loud, gruff, and unrefined, and I'm sure in the real world has no meaningful fuel economy benefit over the six. Handling was pretty lackluster as well compared to the XT6, but the only trim they had to test drive was the Z71 with the light-offroading tires which I'm sure played a role there. Very disappointed. Maybe the Buick Enclave is better? Who knows.

 

[Finally-a-V]

@sethsquire .....when I heard and saw the new Traverse was coming out, I thought it could be an ideal replacement for my 6 YO Expedition. Sadly, after reading and watching reviews for it and the Terrain, most reviewers say the same thing. It'll be great for the rental fleet; loud, coarse engine; no real improvement in gas mileage; does everything just ok. Very sad for a major refresh. I can't imagine the Enclave will be any better. They are all off the list for me.

 

[sethsquire]

@sethsquire .....when I heard and saw the new Traverse was coming out, I thought it could be an ideal replacement for my 6 YO Expedition. Sadly, after reading and watching reviews for it and the Terrain, most reviewers say the same thing. It'll be great for the rental fleet; loud, coarse engine; no real improvement in gas mileage; does everything just ok. Very sad for a major refresh. I can't imagine the Enclave will be any better. They are all off the list for me.

It really sucks, because the car is a great overall package aside from that albatross of a powertrain. And not all turbo 4's are necessarily bad, but this one was bad. I asked myself, could I live with this groaning mess of an engine if the rest of the vehicle is good? No, no I could not.

That said, can we get an updated XT6 with all the cool tech and features and updated interior but keep the V6? Pretty please, Cadillac?

 

[FLYARMY]

I was raised in the family auto body business world . I got to see, work on and drive many various models of cars over the years. Talking with owners about pros/cons of their vehicles. There are specific things that always break down on specific models. My Dad and Grandfather ingrained in me that we would "never " buy a German or Japanese vehicle. Reason being, these people did kill family members and friends during the previous wars "that they started" and it was in our country's interest to only "buy American". I have only owned many GM's and one Dodge. Two years ago I was in the market to get the wife a new car (during Covid mind you) and my research lead me to the Traverse and a the Kia Telluride. I wanted a Tahoe , but they were and are ridiculously priced and marked up. I convinced myself that the Telluride is made by South Korea (who is our ally) and Consumer Reports gave it a top rating. I ended up buying a well equipped Telluride and ended up driving it from NY to California and back , for a 2 week vacation. I had just retired and never done a huge cross country before. The ride was an immense pleasure and the car was getting 25 miles per gallon. I have a 2017 Jeep Grand Cherokee that is due for a trade in and I was thinking about a Traverse, but....the 17' Jeep was a great vehicle and I just might get a new one. More research to be done !
****In 2022 I bought my 5BW as a retirement gift for myself. No regrets !

 

[Finally-a-V]

@FLYARMY ...I get 100% what you're saying....BUT, what IS a foreign car anymore? You can buy a RAM built in Mexico, Lincoln's best seller, the Nautilus, is built in China. Honda Accord built in Ohio, Camry built in Kentucky. The Lexus TX and Toyota Grand Highlander built in Indiana. Bunch of BMWs' built in Georgia. And your Telluride in Georgia. Ironically, the sister Palisade is made in Korea.

So, what's more important? Where the money goes or jobs? It's a very odd conversation. Ask my father in law who fought the Koreans and now owns a Kia.

 

[FLYARMY]

@FLYARMY ...I get 100% what you're saying....BUT, what IS a foreign car anymore? You can buy a RAM built in Mexico, Lincoln's best seller, the Nautilus, is built in China. Honda Accord built in Ohio, Camry built in Kentucky. The Lexus TX and Toyota Grand Highlander built in Indiana. Bunch of BMWs' built in Georgia. And your Telluride in Georgia. Ironically, the sister Palisade is made in Korea.

So, what's more important? Where the money goes or jobs? It's a very odd conversation. Ask my father in law who fought the Koreans and now owns a Kia.

My Dad fought in Korea also......but against the North Koreans. The South Koreans ( Hyundai/Kia) were our allies. I understand that many parts and vehicles are assembled elsewhere, but the bottom line is where does the money profits eventually go to. It seems that if you go to war against the US and lose......you eventually will come out better economically after we rebuild you. We had many customers who were Jewish and my Dad always asked them why are they buying German cars , when they tried to eradicate the Jewish people. A few of them after that conversation, never bought another German automobile.

 

[shbox]

I know and understand how the world work these days with auto manufacturers and don't really have any problem with it. A plus is that they can avoid tariffs by having plants in other countries they want to sell to. I have always had GM products, though my parents had some Fords when I was young. I'm just comfortable with GM and have worked on my own cars all my car driving life. The rest of my family buys whatever they want-mostly Honda and Toyota.

I don't know if this has influenced my allegiance to USA auto company products, but my dad spent 39 months as a prisoner of the Japanese in WWII and had to work as a shooter (think dynamite) in a coal mine operated by Mitsubishi. He was very lucky to have survived and come home.

 

[Throat Yogurt]

I got offered Dent Protection and other gibberish on the 991.1 C4S I just picked up. Between that stuff and the wheel tire protection plan, it was close to 12k or so add ons. Which I declined all of. When I declined all of it, I made sure to laser eye him so he would not keep trying.

On a used car?? Never even heard of that.

 

[sethsquire]

Conclusion: 4 months, 3 unsuccessful refinishing attempts, 8 (!) separate visits to the dealer, countless unreturned phone calls, and a whole lot of headache, and I was finally given a new wheel.

To add insult to injury, after being told it would take about 45 minutes, I had to wait at the dealership for three goddamn hours this morning for them to actually fit the new wheel. I'm pretty sure if they had given me a block of aluminum and a chisel I could have hewn a new wheel in the time it took to complete the very simple task of changing one wheel!

While I was twiddling my thumbs amongst a bunch of Lyriqs and XT5's, I went into the finance office and told them I wanted to cancel the wheel-and-tire insurance and get a prorated refund. He said they would get on that, but I guarantee it will take another six phone calls to make it happen for some reason. I calculate that with the pro-rated refund and the new wheel, I paid slightly more for that new wheel than I would have just buying it on my own, in addition to paying for a lesson learned. In fact, had I known what I know now, I would have just lived with the slightly curbed wheel.

Bottom Line: DO NOT BE LIKE ME, DO NOT GET THE WHEEL AND TIRE INSURANCE! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

 

[swoop1156]

That's just wild. I purchased this similar coverage on my wife's Porsche Cayenne with her 22" wheels (and the cover "any wheel currently on the vehicle", which is good since we also have a winter set of 21"... Anyway, low and behold I brought it in for service and pointed it out, and got it back with everything fixed up. I was super surprised.

Glad you got the new wheel. I'm gonna keep this coverage on her car as I just saw her blast a curb in the parking lot of a Chinese restaurant we go to and when we got home, I asked if she knew. Not one idea. I figure just every 10,000 we'll get them reconditioned, ha!

 

[coffee_time]

Does anyone have the part numbers for the tech bronze wheels?

This website (22-24+ Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing Tech-Bronze Wheel Set (Includes 4, Front & Rear) - General Motors) says 85155514 and 85155515. But when I look up those part numbers I just get "F Wheel" for both. What are the numbers for fronts and rears?!

EDIT: Never mind, Just found it. For future reference 85155514 is front and 85155515 is rear.

 

[FLYARMY]

Conclusion: 4 months, 3 unsuccessful refinishing attempts, 8 (!) separate visits to the dealer, countless unreturned phone calls, and a whole lot of headache, and I was finally given a new wheel.

To add insult to injury, after being told it would take about 45 minutes, I had to wait at the dealership for three goddamn hours this morning for them to actually fit the new wheel. I'm pretty sure if they had given me a block of aluminum and a chisel I could have hewn a new wheel in the time it took to complete the very simple task of changing one wheel!

While I was twiddling my thumbs amongst a bunch of Lyriqs and XT5's, I went into the finance office and told them I wanted to cancel the wheel-and-tire insurance and get a prorated refund. He said they would get on that, but I guarantee it will take another six phone calls to make it happen for some reason. I calculate that with the pro-rated refund and the new wheel, I paid slightly more for that new wheel than I would have just buying it on my own, in addition to paying for a lesson learned. In fact, had I known what I know now, I would have just lived with the slightly curbed wheel.

Bottom Line: DO NOT BE LIKE ME, DO NOT GET THE WHEEL AND TIRE INSURANCE! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

What dealership have you been dealing with your issue ?

 

[sethsquire]

That's just wild. I purchased this similar coverage on my wife's Porsche Cayenne with her 22" wheels (and the cover "any wheel currently on the vehicle", which is good since we also have a winter set of 21"... Anyway, low and behold I brought it in for service and pointed it out, and got it back with everything fixed up. I was super surprised.

Glad you got the new wheel. I'm gonna keep this coverage on her car as I just saw her blast a curb in the parking lot of a Chinese restaurant we go to and when we got home, I asked if she knew. Not one idea. I figure just every 10,000 we'll get them reconditioned, ha!

The problem really came down to (1) the finish on the wheels; and (2) the little V graphics on the side. The finish is part gray and part highly polished aluminum. They could replicate the gray just fine, but they could not get the fine mirror finish on the chrome-looking aluminum part. The other issue was that as soon as they took a grinding wheel to it, it zapped off the little graphics on the wheel (which I believe are under the clearcoat) and those were never coming back.

I imagine if you just had a black/gray/silver wheel with no graphics the finish would come out just fine.

 

[sethsquire]

What dealership have you been dealing with your issue ?

Sarant Cadillac in Farmingdale, which is also where I bought the car. I hope to never be there again.

I've been getting my regular maintenance done at Paul Conte Cadillac in Freeport, and I haven't had any issues with them. Granted, it's hard to screw up an oil change.

 

[BimmerFan]

Conclusion: 4 months, 3 unsuccessful refinishing attempts, 8 (!) separate visits to the dealer, countless unreturned phone calls, and a whole lot of headache, and I was finally given a new wheel.

Bottom Line: DO NOT BE LIKE ME, DO NOT GET THE WHEEL AND TIRE INSURANCE! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

Thanks for the update. Sorry to hear of the difficulties, but I'm not terribly surprised. I never buy any of these extended warranties, although I have been tempted a few times on the wife's car (curbs frequently attack her without warning) but it's a losing battle there, and I've just stopped repairing them. I'm glad you finally got some satisfaction, kind of.

We inherited an XT5 with the V6, which we took on a road trip once. The wife asked me what I thought of the car, and I said something like "well, it's not comfortable, there is a lot of road noise, the infotainment system sucks, the nav screen is so small that it's useless, the gas mileage is not very good which is surprising since the performance is lousy, but the seats are OK." I always try to find something positive to say. LOL

Hopefully the XT6 is better, because that 5 was garbage. We sold it about a year later and bought a new BMW X5 which only lasted a year and now the wifey has a Porsche Macan S which is truly so much better... but man was it expensive!

 

[sethsquire]

Thanks for the update. Sorry to hear of the difficulties, but I'm not terribly surprised. I never buy any of these extended warranties, although I have been tempted a few times on the wife's car (curbs frequently attack her without warning) but it's a losing battle there, and I've just stopped repairing them. I'm glad you finally got some satisfaction, kind of.

We inherited an XT5 with the V6, which we took on a road trip once. The wife asked me what I thought of the car, and I said something like "well, it's not comfortable, there is a lot of road noise, the infotainment system sucks, the nav screen is so small that it's useless, the gas mileage is not very good which is surprising since the performance is lousy, but the seats are OK." I always try to find something positive to say. LOL

Hopefully the XT6 is better, because that 5 was garbage. We sold it about a year later and bought a new BMW X5 which only lasted a year and now the wifey has a Porsche Macan S which is truly so much better... but man was it expensive!

I do love the Macan (although it is stupid expensive for what it is) but unfortunately its just way too small for my family purposes. Did you not like the X5?

 

[BimmerFan]

I do love the Macan (although it is stupid expensive for what it is) but unfortunately its just way too small for my family purposes. Did you not like the X5?

I didn't really have an issue with the X5, the wife (it was her car) did not like the new iDrive 8.1 as it is difficult to use, all the menus are gone, the voice recognition doesn't work if you (the wife) can't remember the commands, and it's not well designed. She also didn't like the numerous recalls, the repeated visits for BMW to fix what turned out to be a bad strut, and then when it dropped a valve and they had to replace the engine, she said "that's enough". That was at 7500 miles. Unlike Cadillac engine replacement, it took them less than a week to their credit, but I was supremely annoyed because I was driving the car when it happened, fortunately for me at a traffic light while idling, but if it had happened at speed on a crowded highway (our commute is perpetually under construction, and there is no breakdown lane) and she had lost power steering and power brakes at 65 MPH, it could have been serious.

Me personally, I was pissed because they "upgraded" the iDrive from 8 to 8.1 without telling me or asking first (when it was in for service on one of the recalls) and when I went back to try and get some help from the "genius" on how to do things that were no longer obvious, they had not yet been trained on it and couldn't help. That's just stupid corporate, um, stupidity.

And iDrive 8.1 sucks.

I have a totally dysfunctional love/hate relationship with BMW. I love driving their cars, I just hate owning them.

 

[FLYARMY]

Sarant Cadillac in Farmingdale, which is also where I bought the car. I hope to never be there again.

I've been getting my regular maintenance done at Paul Conte Cadillac in Freeport, and I haven't had any issues with them. Granted, it's hard to screw up an oil change.

Bought mine from Conte and get it serviced at Atlantic. Same here, only oil changes , so far.