Welcome back to Shitbox Showdown! Today we’re looking at two stickshift sedans that are far more commonly seen with automatic transmissions. But first, let’s get our German project battle out of the way:
As expected, that BMW ran away with it. There seems to be some dispute as to whether or not that car had a rear window in it, but that’s the new owner’s problem, because as also expected, it’s sold already. Good luck to you, little BMW, and to your proud new owner as well.
BMW is, of course, the first marque that comes to mind when you think of sporty sedans with manual transmissions. But they’re not the only game in town; Mercedes-Benz offered a stick on C- and E-Class sedans for quite a long time, though you could probably count the number sold on your fingers and toes. Lincoln flirted with manual gearboxes in the LS before retreating to the safety of automatics. Jaguar brought the third pedal back to our shores under Ford’s ownership. And even Cadillac, which hadn’t sold a manual since the Cimarron, got back into the act, and still sells a stickshift car today. We’re going to look at a Jag and a Caddy with three pedals each, and see which one makes it work for them.
2004 Jaguar X-Type – $3,999
Engine/drivetrain: 3.0 liter dual overhead cam V6, five-speed manual, AWD
Location: Oviedo, FL
Odometer reading: 103,000 miles
Runs/drives? Yep!
Here once again is our old friend, the Jaguar X-Type. Derided by some Jaguar fans as “not a real Jag” because of its Ford roots, notorious in certain circles for its Jaguar-like reliability despite its Ford roots, and familiar to our old friend S.W. Gossin as one of his more challenging rescues, this sleek all-wheel-drive sedan certainly looks the part. With a manual, it’s supposed to be a great drive as well, though I haven’t had the pleasure myself.
This X-Type looks good, in a nice vibrant but classy shade of red and with a very traditional-looking pale leather interior. One door handle doesn’t match; I presume it came from a junkyard. This paint color must be available in a touch-up rattle can, so that could be easily remedied. There’s a little wear on the seats and the center armrest as well, but hardly worth mentioning.
This car has only 103,000 miles on the clock, and the seller says it runs and drives well. There isn’t a whole lot of information besides that; I get the feeling that this is one of those dealers-masquerading-as-private-sellers ads, which irk me, but if the car is on the up-and-up, I don’t suppose it matters. You’d be wise to check it out carefully, or have someone check it out for you.
It’s nothing to do with the car, but I also want to point out a pet peeve of mine with the ad: the photos are framed in such a way to not show the license plates, but they also don’t show half the car. If you really must hide the plate number (which has never seemed necessary to me, since it’s public information anyway), do it by draping a rag over the plate, or Photoshopping it out. It’s really difficult for us bloggers to use such oddly-framed photos. Please, won’t you think of the bloggers?
2010 Cadillac CTS – $3,200
Engine/drivetrain: 3.0 liter dual overhead cam V6, six-speed manual, RWD
Location: Sebring, FL
Odometer reading: 178,000 miles
Runs/drives? “Runs terrible” – has the timing chain problem
Cadillac, to its credit, hasn’t just dabbled with manual gearboxes since introducing the CTS in 2002. The stickshift option did disappear for a few years, but as of now you can walk into a Cadillac dealership and drive out in a genuine three-pedal manual. You have to step up to the “Blackwing” variant of either the CT4-V or CT5-V sedan to get it… but you can get it.
If that’s too rich for your blood, you can seek out one of these older CTS sedans, available in lesser trims with a six-speed manual. Unfortunately, that means dealing with GM’s notorious “High Feature” V6, and its complicated triple timing chain arrangement, with chains that stretch like jelly bracelets. The seller says this car had its timing chains replaced, but is now running poorly again, meaning the mechanic who did the work is either inept or unscrupulous.
You could redo the timing chains again, and maybe find the root of the problem while you were in there, or – and I’m just throwing out ideas here – you could opt to swap in a different engine that fits right in and has only one short little timing chain: the LS V8.
The rest of this ailing Caddy looks pretty clean, with shiny black paint and nice cream-colored leather inside. It’s maybe not as cheap as you’d like for the start of a project, but it’s a rear-wheel-drive manual that is already set up for the most common modern V8 around. If you can do the work yourself, you could have some fun with this thing. And if the dates on the photos are any indication, you could probably knock some significant money off the asking price; I bet this car has been up for sale for a long time.
Cars that are rarely seen with manual transmissions are cool, but when they’re luxury sedans, they’re even cooler. One of these is ready to go but a bit tame, and the other has the potential for greatness, but is a bit wounded. Which way are you going to go?
(Image credits: Craigslist sellers)
The only old Caddy I’d consider fixing up has the initials VW in its name and probably a diesel under the hood. I opt for Ford’s crying Jag.
Based on the cars alone, I like the Jag. Based on the sellers, I’d go with the Caddy. I’ll let the 6 speed be the tiebreaker!
I had an 04 5 speed with the sports package in BRG (no chrome other than the leaper), it’s basically a Ford Mondeo so is really easy to work on and parts are cheap if you get them from the Ford side instead of the Jag side.
That car was awesome, 40/60 rear wheel bias AWD system and sports suspension? Hell yeah. I put 150k miles on it (180k total) and the only major issue I had was dealer inflicted when they didn’t refill the transfer case fluid after replacing the sump gasket so it ran dry and grenaded on me.
I also legit still regret selling it all these years later. I owned it for a total of 10 years before selling it because I wasn’t driving it enough.
Jag since it’s red and it runs. The Caddy is probably a better car, but I’d budget for an engine replacement in the worst case. Also I never noticed the strut brace on the Caddy. Look how beefy that thing looks!
That Jag is sketchy. As others have already pointed out, it is registered out of state and those photographs clearly weren’t taken anywhere near Orlando. Is it being sold here to avoid emissions or safety inspections?
Between the two, I would probably still pick the dodgy Jag, but I would want a few answers and a thorough prepurchase inspection.
“If you really must hide the plate number (which has never seemed necessary to me, since it’s public information anyway)”
So, I was of the same opinion until someone tried to scam my Dad when he had his car listed on Craigslist with plates visible. The trick is that they know you are selling your car, and also have the plates. They put a “garageman’s lien” on my Dad’s car, saying it had been parked at some lot in Dallas, TX and the fees were never paid. The lien was for not a ton of money, something like $500. When you go to try and transfer the title, you are required to pay off that lien. My Dad found out what their address was, and called the local police their to tell them they were running a scam. The lien disappeared a few days later. I assume some people who were trying to finish the sale of their car, would just pay off the lien to get the transaction done.
That all being said, I agree with Mark that there are better ways of doing this than just not photographing half of the car.
Forget the LS swap. Go with a crate 350 and headers as loud as you can stand.
The V came with an LS. They can bolt right in. . .
and even a truck 5.3 is generally faster than a Goodwrench Crate 5.7 with headers.
Nope. Jag on rep alone. I’ve had that configuration of cts and it was terrible at its absolute best. Rode like garbage, bottom of the barrel gm interior, truly dogwater engine.
If the cars were both midwest cars, I’d happily-ish sign on for a timing chain job on the CTS, as X-Types develop prolific levels of rust in this part of the world, and the packaging of stuff that one will eventually need to fix is horrendous (I speak as a current Jaguar owner). But since these are Florida (or mid-Atlantic?) cars, it’s the Jag for me. The Duratec motor is solid, and the manual ‘box gives one a chance at almost having fun in the Jag.
I was thinking the same thing. Every X-Type I have ever seen has had visible rust, even in states not known for rust. I like the X-Type (though I think the Mondeo design looks better), so in this case I’d take it over the CTS, but would definitely take a peak underneath to verify the rust-free status.
It’s the Jaaaaaaag for me
The black caddy looks cool, but a jag (even a ford one) is cooler. Also, the timing chain issues here are nightmare fuel. The door handle on the jag is vexing…that thing must be straight out of the ford parts bin – you telling me you couldn’t find a red one from any other model?
I also have to note, I’m calling BS on that Jag being in Florida – at the very least the pics don’t look like they were taken there (buildings, trees, grass). Virginia? Maybe…
The Jaguar is wearing inspection/registration stickers from Virginia and DC. I believe a red sticker was last used in VA in 2021. Why a “dealer” or anyone wouldn’t scrape those off before offering a car for sale in Florida is a head scratcher.
The Jag is kind of sketchy, so it will likely be broken soon. The Caddy is broken. The Caddy is probably more desireable to me overall, so recommend me a good GM mechanic and see where the seller’s bottom dollar is on it.
Neither. Thanks for offering!
This is the correct take.
An aging Caddy with 180k on the clock and doesn’t really run. Let’s face it, this thing already has 3 tires in the bone yard.
Or an aging Jaguar(ish) that’s notorious for being unreliable even by Jaguar’s already impressively mediocre standards for reliability. My aunt had one of these back in the day and it was in the shop pretty much weekly with one issues after another. She loved to drive it but it was a financial catastrophe when the warrantee was up.
I don’t care if they are both rare three pedal versions. They are both just a complicated and ultimately irritating way of flushing 3 grand down the toilet initially then more every time something fails, which will be often, probably on the first drive home.
Go spend your money on basically anything else.
No, it really isn’t. People who come in here to say “neither” are missing the point.
Is this section called Cool Car Comparison? Desirable Driver Dilemma? Terrific Transportation Tete-a-tete? No, it’s called Shitbox Showdown. OF COURSE neither option is going to be particularly desirable.
The point of this feature is to make a determination based on one’s own reasoning. It’s a fun thought exercise, not an absolutely literal question.
Sorry, this has been bugging me for a while. 🙂
I agree with you most days, but today I choose to exercise the third option of public transportation. I simply cannot bring myself to vote for either of these particular shitboxes.
It’s literally a rebadged Ford, even the relays in the fuse box had ford labeling on them.
I also disagree. This version of the CTS is EXTREMELY simple, trust me. It’s the V’s that were complicated. This version has NO options, and is very easy to work on.
I’ll take the Mondeo.
I’ll take an Uber.
I really wanted to go with the Caddy. At least the timing chain is up front so you wouldn’t have to remove the engine. Still- looks like a very un-fun job. I did a timing belt change on my brother’s Avalon. Much simpler job but still took us 10 hours to do it. I told myself- never again. I would want to see how much it would cost for a professional to do this. I would also want to research if stretched timing chains could cause damage to this engine. A lot of un-knowns. If the cost of replacing the chains was say- under $2k and there was no other damage? Mmmmmaybe…. But if I needed something to drive? I hate jags but would have to go with that one. Its just a Ford anyway so its probably somewhat reliable.
“probably somewhat reliable” – I assure you it isn’t!
This is quite the matchup in that I wouldn’t mind owning either car, and they’re both located in cities where I have relatives currently living. However, I prefer to drive my shitboxes home and I don’t think the Sebring household would let me set up shop long enough to deal with the needs that Caddy has, so Jaaaaaaag it is this time around.
I have a soft spot for most things GM but in this case I took the Jag. At least it’s running…for now…
I appear to be in the minority, but I am taking the Caddy. The Jag just doesn’t appeal to me. Also, the location is Florida, and as noted, the pictures were taken in such a way as to avoid showing the front plates – which we don’t have in Florida. Ditto those inspection stickers. Not necessarily a red flag, but that car didn’t come from here.
Cheaper to LS swap that CTS than to keep the Jag running LOL
You LS the Jag to piss off the Ford People.
My rich friend in college got a brand new base X-Type with a stick and the 2.5 engine. It was a boring car to drive and it was so troublesome the company ended up buying it back if memory serves me right.
Accepting that both cars are too expensive, we’ll take the one that’s actually running.
I’m choosing the Jag this time. Yeah it’s a Ford, but I liked that body style.
That caddy engine will be a bear to fix. Not to mention the year old pictures, who knows what it actually looks like now.
My dad had one of those Jags and I didn’t like it at all. The Cadi was an easy win until I saw the timing chain issues. No thanks.
By the time you upgrade the entire driveline of the CTS to accept the V8, you might as well just buy a V, or a G8, or an SS, or something else that came with the engine from the factory.
Amazing even myself, I’m voting Jaguar.
Or just get a junkyard 5.3L LS and bolt it up to the existing hardware. HP isn’t that much different than the V6, but gives you increases in torque and reliability.
This is the way, well plus a new clutch, but you’re already in there so…
NO you can’t, the tranny in this car is only good to 225ft-lbs, it’s why the 3.2L 327HP V6 was not used instead of the 3.0 at ~260HP. It’s needs both motor and tranny for the V8 to work.
Eh, so grab a 6sp from a V6 Camaro (that was the 3.6L 300+ HP V6) while you are getting the 5.3 LS.
With the prices on a used V, G8, or SS; you’d have to pump a lot of money into this car to come close. Unless the V/G8/SS is also inoperable and in far worse shape than the Caddy here.
You can certainly buy 1st gen Vs and G8s for under $20K, and by the time you buy this Caddy, locate an engine, transmission, rear end, etc and either spend time or money installing them you’re going to be close I predict.
Not saying it can’t be done, just that LS swaps don’t make a lot of sense to me when there are a plethora of mid/full size GM sedans out there already sporting them.
I picked Caddy, at least it’s not a Ford Contour cosplaying as a Jaguar.
Even given its ‘mondeo/contour in a fancy suit’ issues, an X type V6 AWD with a stick is pretty rare for one of these in the UK never mind the States. I looked at a few when I was last buying a car and almost all the ones here are FWD diesels. Mind you, try buying something here that isn’t without paying the German tax. I ended up buying another Lexus IS, and I’ll probably do so again until they’re all gone.