Buying a Car Long Distance with Caddyinfo

[Bruce Nunnally]

5:07 PM Jim reports traffic on I40. This also means he turned the corner at Little Rock from I30 to I40.

EDIT BY JIM: The cars were stopped, and so was I.

[Bruce Nunnally]

Jim got all the way to Nashville, Tennessee on Saturday --

Bruce: The hotel in Nashville. The batteries in my flash died; emergency spares in luggage, but no flash photos tonight. The Canon sees in the dark and I will get that one to you later.

Bruce: Here I am, after 685 easy miles on the first day.

Home Sweet hotel

Nashville, Tennessee

[Bruce Nunnally]

Life on the road -- nest of wires

[Bruce Nunnally]

Bruce Nunnally wrote:

Great progress Jim! On the map you look to be a good part of the trip there.

With ~825 miles to go you should be there well ahead of Wednesday!

Jim wrote:

That's the idea. The CTS-V is a dream on the Interstate. The seat cooler is a revelation.

[Cadillac Jim]

The navigation system is, as one would expect, a whole different animal than a pocket GPS. My really old Garmin Nuvi remains in the luggage, a forgotten Plan B, destined for use on my motorcycle. The route out of Dallas was different that what I expected from online maps and planning, which routed me south from Plano to pick up IH 30 in Dallas. Instead, it routed me north, then northwest, along Dallas tollways, but did not insist that I get on the tollway. If I had, it was accurate enough to have noticed immediately and adjusted but not having an express tag on the car I stayed on the "access road" which was just fine, with multiple lanes and a highway speed limit, but a traffic light every few miles.

Voice output is interesting, with complex intersections noted with comments like "Follow the signs for Interstate 40" and "Keep left" instead of the confusing remarks that you get from a pocket GPS in a complex interchange. When a turn comes up, you get a chime, like the seat-belt warning. When you turn off for gas or a hotel, you get another chime. Instead of the "Recalculating!" that you get from a pocket GPS, you get the same chime, and a bar chart appears on the map as it figures out how to get you back on track.

The CTS-V is like any other really good highway car, except that the world-class suspension, steering and brakes give you the car a feeling of safety and competence unmatched by lesser cars. The 556 hp puts you in charge of any demands, and no entrance ramp gap is a challenge, no matter how small.

The CTS-V is so easy that I drove until I got hungry. I drove through Nashville instead of stopping in the cluster of hotels you see when driving into a large city, so that I would not have to drive through the city in rush hour in the morning. Here's the car, resting after an easy 685 miles on the first day.

Here is my Home Sweet Hotel, a Hampton Inn on the east side of Nashville.

[Bruce Nunnally]

Bruce:

Yes, the ventilated seat feature of the Recaros is another nice reason to prefer those

over stock. I think you have the ultimate CTS-V setup all in all.

Glad to hear it continues to do well on the highway.

Jim:

"Do well" is a major understatement.

[BodybyFisher]

Glad you are doing well Jim and it sounds like you are very satisfied with the CTS-V

[Bruce Nunnally]

Feeding the V -- Jims_97_ETC refuels his 2011 Cadillac CTS-V first thing Sunday near Nashville

[Bruce Nunnally]

Food & gas on I40 near Pigeon Forge, TN -- 214 miles east of Nashville around 12:20 CT / 1:20 ET. Around 634 miles to go.

[Bruce Nunnally]

Jim writes from Lexington, VA: I stopped early to keep the trip easy & fun. Its drizzly & geting dark and I don't know the tires in the wet. I want to be able to see the road if conditions are less than ideal on my second day with the car.

I think that puts him at a good place, around 350-375 miles from home.

[Texas Jim]

Jim....

Sounds/looks like you are having a nice trip back home and having fun while doing it...

Sorry I missed you in Dallas, but it couldn't be helped...

Jim

[Cadillac Jim]

Texas Jim - I'm very sorry that things didn't work out like we planned either. Next time, or whenever you are within 100 miles of Philly, we'll do dinner or something.

I have some Big Camera pictures that I took. Here's one in Nashville just before loading the car to go on.

Here's the customer parking for the place I ate dinner.

Here's another customer's car, apparently owned by a self-proclaimed "flirt."

[airmike]

Jim I love your car and I'm sure you are enjoying the trip home. Keep the photos coming. I love it when a guy gets an awesome car and then gets to enjoy the ride like that. Is the gas mileage about the same as the etc? I know the power isn't.

[Cadillac Jim]

The CTS-V and I made good progress today, about 495 miles, leaving us 325 miles from a warm garage according to the navigation system. I stopped at dusk because it was raining and I want to be able to see wet roads when I'm driving through the mountains on the second day I have the car. The route for the remaining drive takes us up IH 81 to IH 66 which takes us out of the mountains to Washington DC, then up IH 95 all the way home.

The CTS-V is King of the Road on the fast twisties in the mountains. The tight, fast, sensitive and responsive system with a world class Nuremberg-tuned suspension give the driver complete control and confidence at any reasonably legal speed... so much that I found it easy to change lanes in the curves as a courtesy to allow other drivers more safety margin for their fun exercises. The casual ease and grace of such maneuvers seemed to amaze a few sport sedan and GT drivers who were near their car's limits at the time, which is why I deemed giving them a little more room or a clear lane a good idea.

When you are King of the Road, you can always find a way to be courteous. It's safer that way, and everybody has a good drive. This is particularly important for the 18-wheelers, for whom momentum is time and money, and occasionally safety. It's so easy to brake a little to generate a gap big enough for a big truck to keep his speed up a grade by passing a more heavily laden truck when he comes to it and still has the momentum to pass. I view helping these guys do their job well is my part in keeping prices down on just about everything you buy, as well as a contribution to safety and well-being to the industry whose road taxes pays for the maintenance of the Interstates.

Ever wonder why a trucker seems irritated when he is blocked, and loses speed and momentum that may take miles to recover? Truckers are often paid by the mile. If a driver gets, say, $0.50 per mile, and averages 55 mph while driving, he is earning $27.50 per hour. If he averages 50 mph over a stretch, he is making $25 per hour. Safety is paramount, though, because if they get tickets or have accidents, they lose their commercial driving license. That's why their universally observed rules of the road are so sophisticated and courteous. Over the years I've learned a lot by watching truckers (and, in the 70's, listening to them on Channel 19).

I've seen lots of cars, particularly on the long, flat expanses of IH 40, that seemed to revel in the freeway, as if they didn't get there very often and really missed it. There was one new Prius with a paper license tag that wanted to drive considerably faster than I was comfortable with, and I watched it disappear in the distance ahead of me. One younger fellow in an older BMW 318i pulled out and rode beside me for about a mile, then nailed it. My cruise control failed to respond or even notice, though. About an hour later I saw him by the side of the road. A state trooper was parked behind him and helping him out.

I must mention one FM station that I listened to between mountains in Tennessee. IH 40 tops mountain after mountain, and you lose your station right after you top a mountain pass. I touched the search button on the radio whenever that happened and got another. In one valley, I got a station that played funky country music non-stop. There were the old standards, "I left something turned on at home" and "Shay don't know shay's bayuuutiful" but there were a lot of songs that I hadn't heard before. There was one, with the chorus (and possibly title) "Shay cranks... shay cranks... shay cranks... de traaaactor!" which included many memorable superlatives of a fellow's lovely lady, including the touching "ten pounds of sugar in a five pound bag." The hits just kept on coming, and the station faded out on the next pass playing a song destined for immortality, a young suitor crooning to a lady of his acquaintance that "I'd like to check yew fer ticks!"

[Texas Jim]

Jim,

I am glad that you are enjoying your drive back home.

Sounds like you and the car are getting well used to each other.

I love a good car that can run down the road and inspire confidence in the driver.

There is not a much better feel than that when driving.

I want to thank you for being courteous to the truck drivers.

I have two brothers that drive big rigs for a living... and I used to drive one also, before I got into fixing networks and computers.

So many people in cars have no idea how dangerous it is to cut off a big rig.

Some of the idiots act like they think it is s funny game.

OH Jim....

I know you are probably just waiting with great anticipation to hear the Tractor song again....

Just for you.... here it is... LOL LOL

[Cadillac Jim]

During my free breakfast of eggs and juice at the HoJo's above, the lady at the restaurant suggested that I put their phone number in the blog. I thought, hey, why not? It's the Howard Johnson Lexington (Virginia), and the phone number here is (540) 463-9181 or you can find them on hojo.com. I know because the family down the hall has two primary-school-age children and I saw the mother with the children walking the puppy yesterday when I checked in, and again early this morning. The puppy is a great German shepherd, a very happy and friendly little guy (he certainly liked me!) and I will get a photo of him if I see him before I go.

Lexington, VA is off of IH 81 about halfway between Roanoake and Staunton, where IH 64 connects to take you to Richmond. This particular HoJo is pictured on post #35 above, and it at the top of a hill, at the end of a steep winding driveway. That gets you a magnificent view of the countryside, and it's quiet and isolated from the road, making it safe for new cars, walking pets, errant kids, etc. and the price is right (I'm so tight my eyeballs squeak!).

I'll take a photo of the view when I check out and add it to this post when I get home. Bruce may choose to post the cell phone version, which he will have in about ten minutes.

[Bruce Nunnally]

JIm writes: This is the puppy I mentioned in my car blog!

[Bruce Nunnally]

Jim writes: This is the view from across the parking lot toward Dressage Horse country.

[Cadillac Jim]

Texas Jim - thanks for the music video for "She Cranks!" Otherwise some people might not believe me. But, you just can't make this stuff up.

Bruce - thanks for posting my cell phone photos in real time. I'm checking out now. More from the road. I'll need one more gas stop before I'm home. It looks like I will beat the threat of snow if I leave now.

airmike - I haven't found the gas mileage tracking in the computer of the CTS-V yet, and it didn't come with the owner's manual, being sold by a Porsche-Audi dealer that didn't notice. Bruce will likely tell me by email how to get to the instantaneous and average fuel economy but I do know that the tank holds 18 gallons, and that I need to find a rest stop after half a tank. I top off the tank when I stop. Once it needed just under 8 gallons to outlast me. So, whatever the gas mileage is, it isn't a problem.

[Bruce Nunnally]

Jim writes: Cold, wet CTS-V wants a garage.

[Bruce Nunnally]

Jim arrived home safely with his CTS-V and will share more of the story later

[BodybyFisher]

Glad you are home safe Jim!

[Bruce Nunnally]

Jim's CTS-V tucked away safely in his garage.

[Cadillac Jim]

The CTS-V and I drove out from under the bad weather before it materialized, mostly. It snowed in the mountains but it didin't stick. I would have pictures but the cell phone takes two hands and I'm not even going to think about trying to take pictures with the big black box while driving.

I filed up one last time on US 50 on the way out of Washington, DC and arrived home with over a half tank. With help from Bruce, I found the instantaneous and average mileage readouts on the DIC. The average was almost 20 mpg and I didn't reset it before I left, so I figure it got about 20 mpg on the trip. I did absolutely nothing to conserve gas mileage. Most of the trip was on cruise control set at... well, flow of traffic. As my progress shows and my photos document, I traveled to cover ground within the limits of prudence, safety, and courtesy. So, no special care is needed to get 20 mpg.

My wife loves the CTS-V and thinks it's beautiful, inside and out. She loves the Recaro seat, and I haven't shown her how to adjust it yet. We went for dinner, and she even likes the sports-car ride, but, hey, her car is a Grand AM GT, which has the GM Level 3 suspension, which is like the FE3 that is on stiff all the time, and 225/50HR-16 high performance tires. We thought about taking a ride but she felt that we needed to spend some time with our dogs, who are frantic to get at us now that we are all home again.

Tonight I'm taking care of business from not being here for a few days and fixing things and such. The paperwork is apparently here; I have a PO notice of a certified mail package or letter. I need to find a brushless car wash in the morning, first thing. Since the bad weather will hit here tomorrow, the wash job will wait another day. But that is for another Topic. The story of The Long-Distance Purchase of a Cadillac CTS-V has been told.

I'll clean up the rough photos on this Topic within a day or two. When I'm done, there will be no thumbnails and embedded pictures will be sized to scroll nicely. Bruce told me how to do it without the software I use on my home desktop, but I asked too late for the information to do me any good on the trip home.

[Cadillac Jim]

Here's a rare sight: Two world class Cadillacs in the same garage:

The paperwork was not here. The certified letter was a zoning board meeting notice. As of March 21, the NJ Motor Vehicle Commission has not received the paperwork for the VIN of my car.