Quote:
Originally Posted by hans007
i was at long beach BMW a few weeks back.
checked out an estoril blue f30 328i in their showroom to see the color up close (i ordered one today from another BMW dealer).
that said, my friend and i walked next door to cadillac. sat in a 3.6 V6 luxury line ATS. had a cadilac sales person treat us like complete garbage and to the point where he actaully stormed off after we refused to give him our phone numbers for him to harass us when all i said was i was checking out new cars to buy and currently drove an A4 with 45k miles on it. my friend has a C300 with about the same milage, so we were both at least thinking about a new car soon.
anyhow, guy storms off after trying to pressure sale us into buying a loaded ATS for $52k when i said i'd probably spend up to $50k on a car tops.
So my friend and I are both 31. we look extremely young in general, people ask me if i just got out of college, but that said we expected to be treated at least semi decently.
BMW and i'd say honestly mercedes have treated me by far the best (never bought a mercedes, but my friend did). that said i own a current gen A4 and my friend owns a current gen c300. so i'm familiar with the cars in this class (other friends have infiniti Gs and lexus ISes as well so i have driven / sat in all the cars).
horrible dealer service not withstanding (i think GM dealers given they are all combo dealers, they have idiot sales people who think they can sell a luxury car the same way they dupe a moron into buying an impala... so thats strike 1) this car is not that great.
first off the ATS looks small for some reason up close. its not nearly as distinctive as the CTS up close and seems to lack i suppose prescense (maybe its just small) compared to my A4 or a new 3 series. now i've never actaully driven it (since the asshole caddy dealers would barely even let us sit in their precious entry level sport sedan let alone drive it) and i'm assuming its pretty decent based on reviews. but SIT in the car and you know its cheap. things like the door panel inside plastic cubby feel chevy cruze cheap. the center stack reeks of cheesy cheap glossy plastic and looks like they pulled it right out of the volt. the center interior light button switches felt cheap. the chrome plastic el cheapo trim looks super tacky and is everywhere. and the capacitive buttons for EVERYTHING is plain horrible and they dont feel good at all. and obviously no tactile feedback. on the non cue models the touch screen you have to control everything also feels sluggish. it is basically the opposite of refinment
i have to say , nice try cadilac but you still lose. the ATS is not inexpensive either, so its basically a few grand less than a bmw, and probably more than an audi to have to deal with horrible dealer service etc on a car with a crap interior. why would you do that? i'd buy a 3 series, A4 , C class in that order and even a G37 before buying an ATS based on cars i've driven just from interior feel alone (i'm huge on interiors, i didn't buy a C class the minute i felt the hvac knobs and steering wheel on the pre refresh W204 and got the audi. new F30 thumbs up bmw compared to the e90 btw).
anyway thats my 2 cents. the reviews will say it drives great... but it just doesnt feel premium enough. its like the first gen G35 , great driver, unrefinied and not luxury but for most people they will think its great since they dont know better (i know, i bought a first gen G35 when i was 23 and didnt know any better.... my tastes are more refined now)
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This is funny. Can you find one review that says anything about the interior being cheap or looking cheap? I've driven a 3.6L ATS, and the interior is anything but cheap. It's much nicer than the BMW and I think most people would agree (BMW fan or not). Say what you want about CUE, as people will either like it or not, but at least it's more interesting than sticking half an IPad into the dash without the ability to have it go down lol. I question whether you really sat in it at all.......
As someone who is currently shopping around, I'd rank the interiors like this:
1) Audi A4/A5
2) ATS
3) Mercedes C Class
4) BMW 3 Series
That's not to say any of the interiors are "bad" or poorly done. But the Audi has to be the nicest overall. The ATS is the most daring, interesting and technologically advanced (the stuff CUE does is pretty incredible). All the C has going for it is the interior. And the 3 series is just plain dull. That's how I see it.