Cadillac problems by model
Owners have filed 14,937 complaints with NHTSA about the 13 Cadillac models with enough data to profile here, covering 64 model years from 1990 through 2024. The SRX draws the most at 3,903, 26.1% of the make's total.
Complaint volume tracks how many cars a make sold as much as how they held up, and NHTSA complaints are unverified owner reports rather than confirmed defects. Nothing on this page compares Cadillac against another manufacturer. Use it to find the model, then the model year, then read what owners of that year actually filed.
Every Cadillac model
| Model | Model years | Complaints | Most-reported year | Top system that year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SRX | 9 2004–2016 | 3,903 | 2010 632 | Exterior lighting (35.8%) |
| DeVille | 16 1990–2005 | 3,413 | 1997 339 | Service brakes, hydraulic (19.2%) |
| CTS | 11 2003–2014 | 2,853 | 2003 450 | Electrical system (12.7%) |
| Escalade | 9 2002–2023 | 1,495 | 2007 320 | Air bags (36.3%) |
| Catera | 4 1997–2000 | 783 | 1997 269 | Engine and engine cooling (29.0%) |
| DTS | 3 2006–2008 | 614 | 2006 356 | Exterior lighting (23.6%) |
| ATS | 2 2013–2014 | 398 | 2013 255 | Engine (18.8%) |
| Seville | 3 1996–1999 | 397 | 1996 156 | Engine and engine cooling (17.9%) |
| STS | 2 2005–2006 | 342 | 2006 197 | Air bags (29.9%) |
| Escalade ESV | 2 2021–2023 | 246 | 2023 141 | Engine (45.4%) |
| XT5 | 1 2017–2017 | 190 | 2017 190 | Power train (13.7%) |
| Lyriq | 1 2024–2024 | 155 | 2024 155 | Forward collision avoidance (21.3%) |
| XTS | 1 2013–2013 | 148 | 2013 148 | Electrical system (27.7%) |
Model years shown are those with at least 100 complaints on file, the gate every page on this site has to clear.
Reading the numbers
Across every Cadillac model year on the site, exterior lighting is the system named most often: 1,886 complaints, 16.9% of those filed under a named system. Individual model years diverge from that sharply, which is the reason to read the year rather than the badge.
The three most-reported Cadillac models (SRX, DeVille and CTS) account for 68.1% of the make's complaint volume. That is a concentrated picture: most of what gets reported about Cadillac here comes from three nameplates. Bear in mind that a nameplate selling in the millions will out-file a niche one whatever its record.
Of the 14,937 complaints, 1,132 describe a crash, 350 describe a fire and 48 report a death.
Most-reported Cadillac model years
The single heaviest model year of each Cadillac nameplate, 1990–2024. Heaviest is not worst. Read it alongside the model page.