"MrZoglog" (MrZoglog)
01/28/2016 at 14:28 • Filed to: cts-v, cts-v wagon, airbags, side curtain airbags, airbag deployment, cadillac, derp, doh, dealership
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"MrZoglog" (MrZoglog)
01/28/2016 at 14:28 • Filed to: cts-v, cts-v wagon, airbags, side curtain airbags, airbag deployment, cadillac, derp, doh, dealership | 7
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I wanted to wait till I got everything sorted out and got my car back before posting the full story about this. Basically I attended a SoCal V club car control clinic event with my Wagon on December 2015 at the Willow Springs Balcony. It was pretty neat for Cadillac to organize such an event so of course I joined in. Turns out one of the new marketing guys from Cadillac was also there to help show support for the event.
The morning started normal with a simple braking exercise. I had heard of stories of curtain airbags on the wagons going off in some cts-v wagons during autocross, but nothing crazy was going on yet, so I didn’t bother pulling the airbag fuses (like I had done at a previous streets of willow track day). During the first exercise, while driving back in line, I make a left turn and the rear tire lost a tiny bit of traction going at approx 20-30mph. Suddenly I feel like I ran into something and the side airbags deploy. Of course it’s a giant black lake of asphalt so there is nothing to hit. I’m just glad I was wearing a helmet at the time and in a controlled environment, otherwise it would have been much more dangerous. People heard the noise but assumed it was an exhaust backfire or something. Everyone was shocked to learn that the airbags had gone off since everyone witnessed what caused it.
Video of the moment:
The headliner was completely ruined and the seatbelts had to be replaced as well as a bunch of trim on the inside. To the credit to the organizers they encouraged me to cut the airbags and try to make the most out of the day (which I did) and still had a good amount of fun. The Cadillac rep promised he would work to try to make things right and to his credit he did. They did the right thing and ended up covering the cost of the repair
Anyway the dealership experience wasn’t the greatest at getting repairs done. They originally freaked me by calling back and saying I needed to contact my insurance.A quick e-mail to the Cadillac rep fixed that issue. The repair took a couple of weeks (which was understandable given the frequency of cts-v wagon parts) and would have cost around $6k total. So after 3 weeks (was out of town for a week). I’ll break down the next parts into visits
Revisit 1: I went to pick up the car. The brand new headliner was dirty, the moonroof trim was loose, and the C pillar trim didn’t fit snug. So I called back and they told me to bring it in the next morning. I brought it in and then said there was some communication error and the interior guy was on vacation (thanks for the heads up?).
Revisit 2: The following week I brought it in when the interior guy returned and he fixed the issue in the morning and they cleaned it up a bit, though not totally. He said he could not fix the C pillar trim to fit perfectly because it was not a part that was replaced.
Revisit 3: After bringing it home I realized that the backlight on my steering wheel controls, my visor lights, one of the trunk lights weren’t working. I brought it back again and left it there for them to fix. Also they would clean the headliner a bit better this time
Revisit 4: I came back a few days after to pick it up and instantly upon picking it up I noticed the trunk light was fixed but the visor lights and backlight were still broken. I talked to the tech who told me it was working he last worked on it... but he apologized to me which was nice (the FIRST apology I got since I brought the car in) So once again I leave the car there Also the tech left his screwdriver and my battery compartment open. Not a big deal but....
Revisit 5: I came back to pick up the car, lights look good. Unfortunately the XM radio is showing “check antenna” now. Sigh...
Revisit 6: This Saturday I go, everything seems like it is fixed finally but I haven’t driven the car that much since then. Fingers crossed, but happy to have it back.
Anyway in conclusion, this is not the only case of this happening. The vehicle is very low volume and there are 6 similar incidents I’ve heard of:
1) !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!
2) !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!
3) Twice on the filming of Hit & Run
4) !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!
5) !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!
6) Mine
There may be more? I had heard of these before, but once I experienced how easily they go off, I have to admit I’m a bit spooked. I suspect it has to do with the Stabilitrak Competitive Mode (turns off TRC but has a bit of ESC) and the airbag sensors tuned for the sedan (which has less body roll than the wagon.) They took the blackbox so hopefully they figure out a fix, because I find the whole thing to be a safety hazard if it happened on the road. However this is GM and we all know how that ignition switch incident went...
TLDNR: Curtain Airbags on CTS-V Wagon deployed when they should not have. Has happened to multiple cars on a low volume vehicle. Dealership required 7 visits or so to do a proper fix. Happy Cadillac did the right thing but would like to see core issue fixed (and maybe the dealership experience too).
Anyway I’ll end with this happy picture of fun that occurred way later in the day after the airbag deployment.
And yes I changed all the tires after the event ;)
yitznewton
> MrZoglog
01/28/2016 at 14:33 |
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Damn, that is brutal. It took 4 visits for us to get our Sienna sliding door fixed. So infuriating.
Future next gen S2000 owner
> MrZoglog
01/28/2016 at 14:42 |
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Cadillac is trying to avoid a recall. At least they paid for it.
Stapleface
> yitznewton
01/28/2016 at 14:43 |
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You know, shit like that I just don't understand. How hard is it for someone to check and make sure THE ITEM THEY ARE FIXING works like it should? Even if it isn't for your benefit, you'd think they'd want the this to work the first time so you don't waste their time when you have to bring it back.
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yitznewton
> Stapleface
01/28/2016 at 14:46 |
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In my case it was parts, they kept forgetting stuff. It’s what made me give up on that dealership service dept.
Zip-McBump
> MrZoglog
01/28/2016 at 14:51 |
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Two things:
1: That a pretty terrifying thing to happen all of a sudden. GM is probably glad this is only happening on a low-volume vehicle.
2: this is why a lot of people still aren’t taking Cadillac as seriously as luxury imports (BMW, MB, Audi, Lexus); the dealership experience. It seems like if you buy a GM product, you get the same dealer experience whether you buy a CTS or a Malibu.
jariten1781
> Stapleface
01/28/2016 at 14:54 |
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Every time I've had warranty work done recently I end up taking everything back apart, retorquing all the bolts, realigning the slop, and replacing the hardware they didn't bother putting back in. I've long since given up on expecting a 'professional' job from them.
BREADwagon
> MrZoglog
01/28/2016 at 14:57 |
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You know what, Caddy and the rep did a good job following through and showed a lot of good will.
The dealer you brought it to has TERRIBLE techs and terrible managers that would release such garbage work again and again. It seems like the problem you had was with the lack of skills that dealership crew had, not so much with Cadillac. Did you let that rep know about the shit job that dealership tried to pawn off on you? I would have asked the rep to arrange the car to be brought to another dealer so that it would be fixed correctly and professionally....then I’d never go to the first dealer ever again.
Don’t feel the need to protect a shitty dealer, if they did such a bad job, please call them out in the write up!!! Save others the misfortune!
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Stapleface
> MrZoglog
01/28/2016 at 14:59 |
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I hate to say it as I’d like to have faith in people, but I wonder if the Cadillac rep wasn’t there (and not to mention a whole club full of people) if they would have stepped up and replaced the bags. Something tells me they wouldn't have.
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Stapleface
> jariten1781
01/28/2016 at 15:05 |
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I’ve only had one warranty item fixed on my Civic so far, and they did that properly. I have to take the car in for a squeaking in the HVAC system in the next couple of weeks. I'm not sure how faithful I should be that this will be fixed properly. Although the dealer I use get high marks from Honda, so there's that.
Takuro Spirit
> yitznewton
01/28/2016 at 15:11 |
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Damn parts people.
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MrZoglog
> BREADwagon
01/28/2016 at 16:52 |
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Dunno, part of the dealership network is Cadillac’s responsibility so I wouldn’t put all the blame off of them. The tech seemed like a decent guy but was clearly overworked. He was the only one fixing these problems. But yes I agree the service managers really dropped the ball. As others have posted this is not a rarity. I have yet to hear of a decent Cadillac dealership near me.
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MrZoglog
> Stapleface
01/28/2016 at 16:54 |
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It would have been a battle. I don’t have to speculate because if you look at the other stories I linked to, some of those people had to argue for a month before anything got covered.
Remember, for them to actually cover this by default they have to admit there is an issue which they still do not.
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MrZoglog
> Zip-McBump
01/28/2016 at 16:55 |
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to be fair, my brother gets pretty crappy service at his BMW dealership in norcal. Whenever he gets an oil change the low oil light comes on after taking it home. They never fill it properly.
But yes this should not be the default.
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MrZoglog
> Future next gen S2000 owner
01/28/2016 at 16:56 |
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My theory is that they don’t want to put the money into re-testing and adjusting the algorithm for wagons due to the low volume. The fix itself should be pretty cheap. It’s just the development of the fix.
daender
> MrZoglog
01/28/2016 at 18:24 |
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Yup, I saw one go off years ago in Charlotte at an autocross .
This one, however, wasn’t covered because autocross is considered “competition”.
Hopefully yours is fixed correctly.
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MrZoglog
> daender
01/29/2016 at 11:11 |
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wow, thanks for the heads up. I certainly hope he didn’t have to pay for it himself. I wonder if that’s one of the cases I referenced or another one. I wouldn’t be surprised if there are more.
ChrisGTOTT
> MrZoglog
02/05/2016 at 02:28 |
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Wow. As much as I love like these cars experiences like this make me want to avoid them. There's even a CTS-V Wagon running around my little town in Nor-Cal I've thought about stopping the owner to tell them to call me if they ever sell it.
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MrZoglog
> ChrisGTOTT
02/22/2016 at 16:27 |
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do it