2012 Cadillac CTS
This year drew an ordinary 67 complaints for a Cadillac CTS — the model's median is 108. What they were about is the unusual part: 14.9% of them mention believe, against 4% across the model's other years.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 67 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 108 |
| Involving a crash | 6 |
| Recalls | 2 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 5/5 |
| EPA combined | 21 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- believe — 14.9% of this year's complaints, against 4% across the model's other years (3.7×). Owners wrote it as: believe, automatic, dealer about, cold.
- causing — 16.4% of this year's complaints, against 6.4% across the model's other years (2.6×).
- onto — 11.9% of this year's complaints, against 3.2% across the model's other years (3.7×). Owners wrote it as: onto, gas pedal, vibrate, dealer advised.
Words owners used for the same problem are counted together, so a fault written four different ways is measured once. Grouped by which complaints they appear in, not by a list anyone wrote in advance.
What owners wrote
BOTH HEADLIGHTS ON THE VEHICLE HAVE HAD TO BE REPLACED VERY RECENTLY (SPRING/SUMMER) FOLLOWING A COLD AND HARSH WINTER. WE BELIEVE THAT THE PROBLEM IDENTIFIED WITH THE SRX MODELS EXTENDS TO THE CTS AND PERHAPS OTHER CADILLAC MODELS GIVEN THE NUMBER ON THE STRE…
WHEN USING FULL THROTTLE, (FLOORED ACCELERATOR) THE GAS PEDAL GETS STUCK IN WOT POSITION. THIS OCCURS INTERMITTENTLY, FIRST TIME WAS APPROXIMATELY 3/2015.
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 14V394000 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM Fixed free of charge.
- 11V536000 SERVICE BRAKES, HYDRAULIC Fixed free of charge.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Cadillac CTS was compared against its own history rather than against other cars, which removes popularity and age from the answer — a common car draws more complaints at equal reliability, and an older one has had longer to accumulate them. A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints.
This is a fault record, not a review. Nobody files a federal complaint to say the car was fine, so it shows what tends to go wrong — not whether owners liked it, and not whether it is a good car.
Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . Look this vehicle up directly on NHTSA's site to check anything here.
Own a 2012 Cadillac CTS? What happened to yours?
Loading comments…