Will be in one of these two in the next 2 weeks. Lease is up on my G37 coupe.

The Cadillac:





Key points
-Leather seating
-Older looking cluster
-Nice interior but a lot of gloss
-Cadillac App and factory remote start
-Rain sense wipers
-Decent power out of 2.0T
-Solid fuel economy
-memory seats



The Lexus:







Key points
-F-sport eliminates a few nice features such as memory seats, ventilated seats, and rain sense wipers
-Pretty aggressive styling and an awesome premium feeling interior
-No factory remote start
-NuLuxe instead of leather
-Different driving modes
-Awesome LFA style cluster
-Great ride/cabin feel

Unfortunately, Lexus removed some nice features when you select the F-Sport package, but I feel like the car is much to 'ho-hum' without it.

MSRP for these two are going to be pretty similar with the Lexus coming in a few K cheaper, however when the programs for the Cadillac come out next week I am expecting to pay ~$50 less per month for the ATS than the IS, all things being equal.


Thoughts?

 

Both cars were on my list as well. Couldn't get over the old style gauge cluster. One positive for the Caddy can use regular gas the Lexus requires premium.

 

Good call I hadn't considered that. Are you sure the turbo uses regular?

 

I know a lot of people put regular gas in their lexus even though it says to use premium only and their cars seem to be running fine? The person I talked to said, if you plan on holding the car for atleast 7 or 8 years, then it makes a diference, if only like 5 years, then you can put in regular gas?

 

I thought caddy uses medium 89.

 

That kinda doesn't make sense. The reason for using premium gas is to prevent pre-detonation in a high compression engine. Almost all forced induction engines need a higher octane fuel (although I know the Ecoboosts don't require it, but they do get better performance when using it). So if you use "lesser" fuel either you'll get detonation, which will destroy your engine before long if you try to push it hard, or the ECU can read that it's crappier gas and it'll retard timing worsening power output and fuel economy.

So theoretically, if you wanted to use crappy gas, so long as you never try to really push the engine, it could run as long as you wanted it to without there really being a problem.

 

Also depends on where you live the higher you up the more pings and crappy the engine will run on the lower grade fuel. Sure you can put regular in your tank but if something happens and they figure out that you were using a lower grade fuel then required good luck with the warranty.

 

The ATS is very nice. I couldn't get by the high gloss black plastic. the demo had finger prints all over it. The CUE is a little scary based on user reports. Also, I just could not buy from a company that foisted crap on the American public for years while everyone including union workers got fat and lazy. remember the Cimarron aka chevy cavalier?

 

I think if you reconsider the items in bold I highlighted above, and also read ALL of the online reviews you'll see that each and every online review I have read put the Lexus above the ATS every single time! FWIW they also put it ahead of the Bimmer in several areas and above the Infinity as well as the Audi.
its not the fastest or the most fuel efficient, its not even the best braking but the areas it falls short on the scale of importance make it a much better value when you consider all the other aspects it ranks best at.

look at what the car is first of all. it's a compact lux sports car it's not an economy car like a prius, its not a drivers car like a bimmer (although many reports say it handles better then a bmw 3 series and its not as fast as the Audi S4.)
but lets look at the car from a real world use perspective shall we?
how often do you really have the room to see a good MPG on your day to day commute? how often do you get a chance to take a curved canyon road or run on a track? how often do you need the extra 30 hp to pass someone?

look at the things that the IS is really great at..
everyone says how awesome it is to drive just in general. I look at the dash every time I drive, the F sport cluster is a must have!
the ML system sounds pretty damn good for factory (I know I spent a good deal of time at the dealership with my own music)
I don't think anyone has as refined driving experience as you get in this new IS model and what do you think most of your driving will be? just driving I am guessing..

you bring up a lot of points I also considered, but if you step back and realize the negatives are just nit picky I think its easy to see the IS is a way better bang for the buck, and consider the resale value is going to be a lot better than a caddy.
looking at the cost of ownership taking into consideration trading in sometime in the future I think your get a much better overall value with the lexus than any other choice.

why is the caddy cheaper to buy? because as you pointed out the only way to move American made cars is to discount them, offer incentives and cash back from the manufacturer to entice you to buy one. this also has a very negative effect on resale value. imagine what your caddy will be worth in 3 years when anyone can walk into a dealership and get 5,000 off the sticker why would they pay you anything for your used car?
this is exactly why all domestics have a poor residual value, there are too many on the market and you can buy a new one for almost the same money as a used one.
the good thing about domestics is with all that wiggle room they can usually get you out of your upside down trade a lot easier than a lexus dealer can. if your not trading anything in it's probably a moot point.

 

Thank you for all the info. I didn't realize I could get remote start. What I like about the Caddy is the app that shows oil life, fuel level, etc. Kinda gimmicky but also kinda cool.

As far a power, the Caddy has 277hp and has beaten the IS250 in most tests I have seen as far as acceleration breaking in handling.

However I do feel that the Lexus is a nicer interior and that cluster is plain sick. I will be leasing the vehicle so I don't really care about the long term. I am looking to lease for 36months/12k miles and putting inception fees only. I am looking at ~$500 per month for the IS and mid-low $400s for the ATS.

Edit: Dealer says no factory remote start available. They say dealer installed is possible but only for non nav vehicles.

 

^^^ even though it's a three year lease you're looking at and things are under warranty, reliability still plays a role here. There's a greater chance of electrical, suspension, transmission, and engine/turbo issues to occur during your lease with the ATS as compared to the IS. Something to consider... Good luck.

 

Tough call between the 3IS and ATS. Same class, but they do different things more or less. Caddy will have more luxury and power, whereas the Lexus will be better built and handle better.

Best thing to do is go drive both back to back if you can. Good news is though you're getting a lease so you're no stuck with either

 

I will never trust American car manufacturers to produce a quality product again. This is the car company that produced this 23 years after the 1982 Cimarron fiasco. Compare that to 2005 Japanese and German models.

 

there's going to come a time when everyone needs to drop the "I hate American" argument. There's essentially an equilibrium coming where quality will be roughly the same. Many American vehicles are much improved (check out your latest CR), and some Japanese cars lost some quality. Granted everyone is on an uphill trend now again. It'll come down to feature content and the buyers favorite design/brand. Nothings perfect, and not every BMW you buy will be a lemon and not every Honda you buy will be trouble free

 

this has been addressed in another thread 2 people here have installed on Nav units with no problem both were f sport, speculation may be that only affects the lux models. the thought is whatever doesn't work is not offered on the f sport. look for the thread should be recent in this section.
and FWIW I've seen the instructions to install. should take less than 10 minutes and only tool may be a screwdriver.
then you need to take to the dealer for a program to make it work

and for me i have all but forgotten the 250 even exists! i think that is a gutless POS engine and mostly because i live at 6,500 feet. if you live at or near SL it may be adequate, but just adequate. if you really want performance the 350 is the only way to go. and i seriously doubt you can lease one for 400 a month or even 500 more like 600-650 and with nothing down for 36 months at 10k a year.
of course i am biased, im getting the 350 but i guess it all depends on your budget.