When the Cadillac CT5 was revealed in a surprise announcement back in April, Cadillac stated that orders for the CT5 would open this fall, and the vehicle would begin arriving at dealerships shortly after. Well, fall has come and gone, but the CT5 didn’t arrive at dealers during that timeframe. Now, with a week remaining in the 2019 calendar year, here’s what’s going on with the launch of Cadillac’s latest sedan.
As it stands, a limited quantity of the Cadillac CT5 sedan will start to arrive at U.S. Cadillac dealerships in late December, with significant volumes arriving in the first quarter of 2020, Cadillac spokesperson Tara Kuhnen told us.
It would appear that the launch of the Cadillac CT5 was delayed by various factors, the most prominent of which being the UAW strike that deeply impacted the operations of Cadillac’s parent company, General Motors. The walkout lasted over a month and prevented various plants from producing vehicles, including the Lansing Grand River facility in Michigan that’s home to the new CT5 for North American markets.
Checks to various Cadillac dealer websites show several CT5 models as being “in transit.” The term can refer to CT5 units on order from the dealer but at various stages of the shipping process, which in some cases could take a not-insignificant amount of time. For instance, customer orders placed by dealers for the CT6-V showed the vehicles as being “in transit” for over a month as Cadillac resolved various issues with the large high-performance sedan.
By comparison, the Cadillac CT5 already launched in China – where the Jinqiao Cadillac plant in Shanghai has been producing and shipping the CT5 for the past few weeks. Cadillac’s Chinese operations have not been subjected to a strike or any other forms of production disruptions since the Jinqiao plant went online several years ago.
So, those eagerly awaiting the opportunity to check out and/or buy the CT5 shouldn’t have to wait too much longer – as the wait for the vehicle shouldn’t be much longer.
We’ll have more on the newest Cadillac sedan in the near future, so be sure to subscribe to Cadillac Society for more Cadillac CT5 news and around-the-clock Cadillac news coverage.
Jerry Masiello
Question is will that include 3.0TT equipped models incl. CT5-V?
Alex Luft
Just the 2.0T models at first. The 3.0TT will arrive roughly a quarter after.
Greg
I visited my dealer last week. They showed me a list of 4 that are expected in about 2 weeks.
Alex Luft
Yup, thereby squarely falling into the Q1 2020 timeframe
Frank Ricciardi
I was about to order a CT5 to replace my CTS, but just couldn’t get past the looks. It just doesn’t have the elegance or presence of the CTS. From several angles it doesn’t even look like a Cadillac. Motor Trend and Car and Driver both said there is nothing special about it. So I leased a 2020 CT6. Its a beautiful, elegant and comfortable car and we love it. Its unfortunate that it will go out of production as well. I guess 3 years from now, I’ll bed forced to replace it with a CT5 or switch brands after more than 40 years and 17 new Cadillacs. I think killing the CTS and CT6 is a huge mistake. I hope Steve Carlisle and his staff reconsider that decision.
Greg
What’s the point in keeping 2 cars that almost no one buys? The CTS has been in it’s current form since the Fall of 2013! How long do think a car can stay in production almost unchanged and expect anyone to buy it? Even you didn’t. In 2014 sales of the current generation of CTS were 31K. They have fallen almost every year until, through Q3 this year, only 6000 have found buyers. The CT6 only 5600 for the same period.
Also, have you actually seen a CT5? How do you know it doesn’t have “presence”?
Felix
I don’t think Carlisle has any influence on any Cadillac products. He is just a figure head. The GM upper management will make decision for Cadillac based on what they think will make them the most money with the least effort. Mind you this is just my opinion and will be until proven otherwise.
Greg
As President of Cadillac Division, Mr. Carlisle has a great deal of say over new products currently in development, just as Johann de Nysschen did. (And Remember that all recent introductions: XT4, XT6, CT5, and CT4 were all planned and designed under Mr. de Nysschen.) But a lot of people still have to sign off before anything gets built.
If you’re referring to the death of existing vehicles, he too must sign off on the end-of-production decision but it is still not him and him alone. It’s worth remembering too that even with the very poor sales of the sedans, and the death of ATS, it is expected that Cadillac will post a small sales increase in NA this year.
John Borgia
Waiting patiently for arrival of CT4 & CT5 to compare models.. can’t understand why v6 isn’t coming out as soon as 4 cyl it will be almost a year since auto show a lot of people getting turned off to Cadillac!! This is beyond ridiculous!!
Felix
Just a general question. Why couldn’t Cadillac just offered up the higher performance engines on all CT4 and CT5 without calling them V’S? Save the V for the ones with some real power increases. Just my through. Do anyone else feel that way?
John Borgia
Felix don’t know who you are but you are spot on once again Cadillac disrespects V designation and should only be used with true V products backed by real horsepower engine choices !! John B