CT4

Cadillac CT4 Reliability

Owners filed 32 complaints — 1.07 per production run against 3.73 for the market. The typical failure comes at 2 years, and the basic warranty runs out at 4.

NHTSA owner complaints · 32 complaints · 2020–2025 · Updated Sep 20, 2026
Quick answer

The Cadillac CT4 draws 1.07 complaints per production run against 3.73 for the average car — better than typical. Failures cluster at 2 years, so only 66.7% of them fall inside the 4-year basic warranty.

Cadillac CT4 years to avoid — and the best ones

Ranked by complaints per production run rather than by raw count. A raw count only tells you which year sold well — the best-selling year always looks like the worst car. Dividing by the number of runs removes sales volume and leaves the fault rate.

FIG.01·Cadillac CT4 — complaint rate by model year
Model yearPer runComplaintsRunsEnough history?
20241.265too new
2023133too new
2022166too new
2021177too new
20201.1487yes
ROWS 5·SOURCE NHTSA complaints, grouped by VIN production run

When it starts to break

Not the calendar year the complaint was filed — the age of the car when it failed. That age decides who pays: inside the warranty the manufacturer does, outside it you do.

FIG.02·Cadillac CT4 — age at failure
Age at failureComplaintsRunning totalWarranty
0 years620%covered
1 year846.7%covered
2 years460%covered
3 years266.7%covered
4 years273.3%you pay
5 years383.3%you pay
6 years5100%you pay
ROWS 7·SOURCE NHTSA complaints with incident dates

Basic warranty on this car is 4 years / 50,000 miles. Only 66.7% of reported failures happen inside it — the remaining 33.3% come out of the owner's pocket. Powertrain cover (4 years / 50,000 miles) reaches further, but it only covers engine and transmission, and most complaints here are not either.

What actually fails — and at what age

Ordered by how often owners reported each system, with the age at which it typically goes. On a Cadillac CT4 the early trouble is Engine and Service Brakes — reported at around 3.1 years, so a car still under warranty is the one to check for it.

FIG.03·Cadillac CT4 — what fails and when
SystemComplaintsTypical ageCrashFire
Engine93.1 yrs1
Service Brakes72.3 yrs
Power Train63.6 yrs
Steering61 yrs
Electrical System51.2 yrs1
Vehicle Speed Control51.4 yrs1
Fuel/propulsion System44 yrs
Forward Collision Avoidance41.3 yrs
ROWS 8·SOURCE NHTSA complaints

What else in this class

Same vehicle class as the Cadillac CT4, so the comparison is fair — an estate against an estate, not against a coupé. These 6 share its class; open any of them to see its own build years and failure ages side by side with the CT4.

FIG.05·Cadillac CT4 — rivals in the same class
Same class as the CT4Complaints on recordRecall campaignsYears built
Toyota Corolla12,3602221981–2026
Lexus IS431162001–2026
BMW M3565781988–2026
Acura TLX878412015–2026
Ford Focus22,5451382000–2026
Subaru WRX289172015–2026
ROWS 6·SOURCE NHTSA complaints and recall campaigns

These are totals, not rates: a model that sold in millions collects more of both. Open one to see its complaints per production run — the figure this site is built on.

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How we measure it

Reliability scores usually arrive as a number out of five with no working shown. The Cadillac CT4 figure here comes out of 32 individual reports, and here is exactly how they were turned into a rate — two steps in it are arguable and you should be able to argue with them.

Rate, not total. Volume alone would decide the ranking, so we divide by the number of production runs — the distinct first-eleven-character VIN prefixes on record. The Cadillac CT4 alone splits into 30 runs carrying 32 complaints — 1.07 per run against 3.73 for the market.

Age, not year. Incident date minus model year gives the age at failure, which is what the warranty question turns on. It is why our «worst year» rankings exclude anything built in the last 6 years — those cars simply have not had time to break yet.

What this is not. Filing with a federal regulator takes effort, so what you see are faults someone judged serious — not scratched paint, not running costs, not how nice the car is to live with. For the Cadillac CT4 the file runs from 2020 to 2025, so the older years carry a full life of reports and the newest carry almost none.

Frequently asked questions

Is the Cadillac CT4 reliable?

It draws 1.07 complaints per production run against 3.73 for the average car, so better than typical. Failures cluster around 2 years of age.

What are the best and worst years for the CT4?

Not enough model years with sufficient history to rank.

How long does a CT4 last?

Complaints reach their halfway point at 2 years. That is when faults start being reported in volume, not when the car stops — but it is the point at which ownership starts costing money.

Will the warranty cover it?

Basic cover is 4 years / 50,000 miles, and 66.7% of reported failures fall inside it. The rest are yours.

What fails most often?

Engine with 9 complaints, typically at 3.1 years of age.

Complaint records from NHTSA, grouped by VIN production run (characters 1–11). Rates, age-at-failure and warranty coverage computed by ForCar. Model years newer than 6 years are excluded from rankings — complaints accumulate for a decade. Last updated Sep 2026. — ForCar Reviewed by , founder of ForCar.
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