So liek a couple other people here, I am considering getting a CTS and had a few concerns before hand. I dont see manuals too often, i here that they are rare. Does this make it harder to get parts for it like clutch etc.? anyone have experience working on a manual transmission? how hard is to pull the tranny?

What are some common problems with this car? i know its a farely new car, but there msut be a list of things everyones been through

hows the aftermarket for this car? (suspension in particular)

If you can help me out with any of these it would be appreciated. I definately want the manual, but if its a difficult car to work on, i might have to pass this up. i never really considered Cadillac before. I was always intoimport luxury cars, but i have fallen out of the new styling theyr doing. i dont like that rounded look. i was always into sharper, boxier cars. when i saw a CTS on teh road i fell in love with the styling. i think it would look sick with rims and a drop. i found out the 05 come with a 6spd and went from there..

 

I have an 03 CTS with the 3.2 litre, and unfortunately I have not had to pull the transmission in my car, haha, but I have about 66,000 miles on it and the trans has not had a problem yet. On a cold day the shifting is a little stiff but its not the first vehicle I have had do that and I know its a common thing. The problem I had with my car and you might have heard of it before is faulty rear axle seals. I had to have them replaced. It didnt do much damage to my wallet with a total of about $500 for parts and labor. I have been looking around for aftermarket parts. it seems that a strut tower brace is the must common suspension part but I dont think you would need anything more if the manual trans comes in the sport edition. The suspension on that should satisfy your needs especially with a tower brace. I have a set of michelin PS2's on after market rims and have been out-cornering every car I owned before. The only downside to this car, interior wise, is the lack of compatibility with after market stereo components. The car uses a bose system which means the head unit puts out less power and each speaker is amped individually, this prevents you from putting in after market speakers without amping them. Also alot of the functions are run on the stereo (trip meter, temp, avg mph) so you if you like those you can really trash the stock unit. I hope this helps.