Q: Buying a 2007 CTS

A pre-purchase vehicle inspection is a good idea. That inspection, carried out by a certified Mechanic, dispatched to your location, will give you very specific data regarding any current problems that the car has. You have additional opportunities, too, in evaluating particular used car models. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration maintains a database of consumer complaints, official recalls and factory service bulletins for all makes and models, by year. I encourage you to go to the NHTSA website and enter "2007 Cadillac CTS" into the search dialog box and simply review the existing reports. For the 2007 Cadillac CTS, I see that there are 7 recalls, 2 investigations and 169 consumer complaints. Those reports will give you an excellent idea of what has been experienced by other owners insofar as faults in the particular make, model and year you are interested in. I would post the text of the reports here, but they are detailed and voluminous so it will be more practical for you to view them online (it is free). Finally, "Consumer Reports" publishes system-by-system vehicle reliability data for all years, makes, and models. This data is available free in the library, or on-line if you are a paid subscriber. That reliability data will give you an excellent indication of the relative likelihood that key systems on the model (and year) of interest to you will fail at greater, or lesser, frequency compared to those rates reported for other vehicles. Obviously, what you want to be looking for in that database is an indication that the vehicle "make and model year" of interest to you is not a "lemon" insofar as reliability. If you are unable to access any of these resources, or desire data of a different type, please do not hesitate for a moment to re-contact YourMechanic and we will assist you further in your attempts to make a wise used vehicle purchase.