By Liz
As I mentioned recently we are in the midst of one of the major aspects of the launch – that being the Captured Test Fleet. This is a group of 250 or so cars that our team drives every day, as much as possible, to evaluate the very latest and greatest cars in every aspect. Our Captured Test Fleet vehicles have been shipped all over the world. Many of our counterparts are driving our vehicles in Asia and Europe!
Every person driving these cars reports their findings immediately! But there are no reports or papers to fill out. They simply hit the OnStar button. But this form of OnStar is not for flat tires, directions or restaurant reservations or the typical OnStar services consumers enjoy. Via our partnership with OnStar, when we hit the blue button the operator listens to our verbal reports of anything we’re observing in the cars and wish for the team to analyze. Then the OnStar guys post those reports every single day – verbatim – onto a protected website where we go through the data.
All issues are categorized, organized and tracked on this site. This web site is now part of my daily routine. And we also track the mileage accumulation. Our goal is to drive these cars a combined total of more than one million miles. We’re at about 600,000 now, which is on track. This helps us to identify and resolve issues before we start sales. It’s a big tool for gaining insight on improving long-term durability and quality.
I have almost 10,000 miles on my Captured Test Fleet vehicle! More on those issues soon.
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Comments
I just wish they would post some high resolution full sized photos of the test cars in different colors. There seem to be no picture gallery unless I have just missed it.
Posted by: Antrow | August 7, 2007 11:23 AM
About how many miles do you speculate each individual car will have in the end?
My 2005 STS4 at 25k mi developed a heavy jerking or "chuggling" as GM called it. And it's progressing over time. Using the manual-shift mode helps. But now my car is out of warranty and I'm to pay $70 to have the transmission reflashed. I know, my fault for waiting 11,000 miles, but this REALLY should be counted as a recall. I mean, come on! Take your car to Caddy dealer for 10 minutes if you have a problem, computer fixes it.. No big deal! Saves a lot of trouble and skin for Cadillac enthusiasts, and it's not like it would cost half GM net-worth, atleast I wouldn't think it would..
Posted by: Dave | August 7, 2007 12:04 PM
I'm sure there's other long term testing, right? 1M miles divided amongst 250 cars is only 4K miles each, not a whole lot of long term test data can be gathered from that. Please clarify.
Posted by: jack | August 7, 2007 12:15 PM
Well, I checked the Edmunds site to build the specs that I wanted on my '08 CTS 6-speed and to request a dealer quote. Sadly, here is what I found:
MN6 Manual Transmission
Includes Aisin 6-speed manual transmission. NOT AVAILABLE with MX7 (all wheel drive), PDQ (luxury collection), Y41, Y43, PDR (PERFORMANCE collection including HID's, sport suspension, and 18" wheels), Y42.
Why have you gone thru all this trouble to develop what appeared to be a great car, and then put together a PERFORMANCE option package that doesn't allow a manual transmission or AWD? I just don't get it - it's as though you just don't want my business.
I'm really depressed now... Please tell me that the Edmunds site is wrong or that this gross oversight will be corrected. Sadly, I won't be ordering a CTS until I can get the options that I want including the 6-speed, AWD, HID's, leather, sport suspension, Bose surround radio, wood trim and direct fuel injection engine.
Posted by: T Gladkowski | August 8, 2007 9:55 AM
Will the CTS offer the pedestrian protection package in the states or is that only for Europe?
Also, I would not take the Edmunds information too seriously, if Cadillac.com - or any other GM site - does not show this information than how reliable is the info from Edmunds. BTW I have seen several of the cars around GM's proving grounds in Milford and they look SO much better in person.
Posted by: Scott | August 8, 2007 1:04 PM
To clarify, the Captured Fleet is not "long-term" testing.
We will post about durability testing in just a few days. That kind of testing is its own process, one we'll give you a look at shortly.
Posted by: Editor | August 8, 2007 1:53 PM
What do they do with the cars that are used in the test fleet after the evaluation is over?
Posted by: Paul | August 9, 2007 10:05 AM