2008 Cadillac CTS: Getting You "Through" the Traffic

It's always comical when you hear or see commercials where the product promises to help save time by "getting you through the traffic" in your area. Sometimes the commercial in question is for an aftermarket GPS nav system, sometimes it's for a radio station's frequent traffic reporting system, and sometimes it's for a vehicle's nav system. But in all instances, it's total B.S. With regard to our long-term 2008 Cadillac CTS, the car can most certainly inform you of traffic conditions in your local area.

But as far as getting you through these traffic conditions? Unless there's a teleporting or flying mode I'm not aware of on our CTS, I don't see this information actually helping someone save time in their daily commute across Los Angeles.

Karl Brauer, Edmunds.com Editor in Chief @ 3,204 miles

Posted by Karl Mar 18, 2008 9:40 am

Permalink

Categories: 2008 Cadillac CTS V6 DI


Comments

tony1021 - Mar 26, 2008 11:09 am (#11 Total: 11)  

 
 
Does anyone know if the new nav is heat sensitive like the lexus? Was in a tahoe with nav the other day and i had to tap the screen to give commands

longcommute - Mar 19, 2008 2:02 pm (#10 Total: 11)  

 
 
Like jaguar36, I also have a long commute (~55 miles each way) with multiple options as to which freeways to take (57, 605, or even the 110) to get from home in Pasadena to work in Orange County. Currently I have to log onto sigalert.com on my Blackberry repeatedly before coming to my decision points, and it would be very nice to be able to see practically the same info pop up automatically on the navi screen. From the image that Karl Brauer posted, it looks like the CTS' display shows identical data to what I'd find online - can anyone who has used the CTS' navi confirm this?

roar02ram - Mar 19, 2008 9:02 am (#9 Total: 11)  

 
 
Oh, Lost/Last/Las Angeles.

tlcruz - Mar 18, 2008 5:14 pm (#8 Total: 11)  

 
far far away from my hometown, pa  
I do not for one second miss any traffic on the 605, 405, 105 or 91!!! Granted, I miss certain things about SoCal and definitely my family&friends but I do not miss traffic. I do hate having only two lanes but I'm slowly over it. lol :)

jpr18 - Mar 18, 2008 2:40 pm (#7 Total: 11)  

 
Illinois, United States of America  
my X5 routes me around traffic....

gossard267 - Mar 18, 2008 2:37 pm (#6 Total: 11)  

 
 
Relentless traffic is one of two primary reasons I'm leaving SoCal in August, after living here for 27 years. It wasn't always this way, but it's been getting steadily worse for at least 10 years. For what it's worth, absurd home prices are the second reason.

louiswei - Mar 18, 2008 12:43 pm (#5 Total: 11)  

 
Los Angeles, CA  
Gee, Carl, you are right on!! Last Thanksgiving I was considering upgrade my current portable unit to one that has the real time traffic function. Then my buddy asked me: What's the point, you live in LA right?
 
Me: Good point...

chevy598 - Mar 18, 2008 11:50 am (#4 Total: 11)  

 
 
"So what's our lesson? Don't move to SoCal?"
ewilfong, You beat me to it. If traffics that bad, I'd start looking for a new place to live. It's not hard to see why Nissan left. Outrageous property values and perpetual gridlock can scare even the best away

ewilfong - Mar 18, 2008 11:13 am (#3 Total: 11)  

 
 
So what's our lesson? Don't move to SoCal?

bimmerjay - Mar 18, 2008 10:00 am (#2 Total: 11)  

 
 
Theoretically you should enter your destination into the nav (even if you know where you're going) and let dynamic routing take you the most efficient way around the bad areas. Problem is, if EVERY route is bad it's not going to do you any good. Not to mention that data on surface streets is generally not available to the RTT system, so there could be jams of unknown magnitude that the system routes you into in the hope of avoiding a freeway backup.

jaguar36 - Mar 18, 2008 9:58 am (#1 Total: 11)  

 
United States of America  
It all depends on your commute. On my current commute I have three completely different ways to go, that each take between 30-40 minutes. Except when on of them has an issue (like today when they decided to close a 2-mile stretch of I-95). Right now I have to waste time listening to traffic reports, or checking websites to hopefully hear about incidents like these. A Nav system with Traffic would be a huge help to me, as it could allow me to take a different route depending on traffic. if you've only got one route, well yeah theres not much it can do for you, but if you've got multiple options that are all about the same, knowing the traffic conditions can save you huge amounts of time.






Advertisement
Recent Entries
Vehicles

2007 Audi Q7 4.2 Premium (62)

2006 BMW 330i (52)

2002 BMW M3 (33)

2008 BMW X5 4.8i (11)

2008 Buick Enclave CX (37)

2008 Cadillac CTS V6 DI (12)

2007 Cadillac SRX (49)

2007 Chevrolet Silverado LT (69)

2007 Chevrolet Tahoe (51)

2008 Dodge Grand Caravan SXT (7)

1984 Ferrari 308 GTSi Quattrovalvole (73)

2007 Ford Edge SEL (61)

2008 Ford Focus SES Coupe (16)

2005 Ford GT (91)

2008 Honda Accord EX-L V6 (27)

2005 Honda Accord Hybrid (38)

2007 Honda Civic GX (17)

2006 Honda Civic Si (55)

2007 Honda Fit Sport (87)

2007 Hyundai Azera Limited (53)

2006 Hyundai Sonata LX (13)

2008 Hyundai Veracruz SE AWD (20)

2007 Infiniti G35 Sport (62)

2006 Jeep Commander Limited (46)

2007 Jeep Compass Limited (63)

2007 Jeep Wrangler Sahara Unlimited (62)

2007 Kia Rondo (33)

2006 Kia Sedona EX (65)

2006 Lexus RX 400h (11)

2008 Mazda CX-9 (22)

2006 Mazda MX-5 Miata (66)

2008 Mercedes-Benz C300 Sport (21)

2006 Mercedes-Benz R500 (66)

2007 Mini Cooper S (63)

2006 Mitsubishi Eclipse GT (17)

2008 Mitsubishi Lancer GTS (36)

2007 Mitsubishi Outlander XLS 4WD (61)

2007 Nissan Altima SE (53)

2007 Nissan Versa SL (51)

2008 Pontiac G8 GT (4)

2006 Pontiac Solstice (32)

2007 Saturn Aura XR (49)

2008 Scion xB (42)

2008 Smart Fortwo Passion Coupe (1)

2008 Subaru Impreza WRX STI (4)

2007 Toyota Camry (54)

2007 Toyota FJ Cruiser (91)

2004 Toyota Prius (18)

2006 Toyota RAV4 (48)

2007 Toyota Tundra SR5 Double Cab (38)

2005 Volkswagen Jetta GLS TDI (17)

All (2224)

Archives
Subscribe
Road Tests RSS Feed

 FeedBurner

Add to My Yahoo!

Add to Google

Add to Technorati Favorites