Cadillac CT5 Complaints

56 consumer complaints on file.

#11759236August 24, 2026
UNKNOWN OR OTHER
The car was parked for 4 to 5 hours. The keys were with me and the car was unoccupied. It proceeded to unlock from being parked, the alarm went off, and the vehicle rolled down a hill, hit a person and another parked vehicle. The incident occurred on August 8th, 2026. Case No. 26054085 Clayton County Police Department 770-477-3747. The car is being repaired and has been inspected by Cadillac. They were unable to determine the cause. We have video of the incident. With the car being unoccupied we have no idea what the dashboard said or any warnings. While the car was moving it pinched a man in between the car and another car. EMS was called and he was taken to hospital for observation.
Crash:
Yes
Fire:
No
Injuries:
1
Deaths:
0
#11755622August 8, 2026
STRUCTURE:BODY
The door opening mechanism has failed on the drivers outside door handle. It locks and unlocks fine but it will not open. I can use an alternative by the getting the emergency access key out of the fob and popping off the handle and open with that key. Or I can go in thru another door and open it from inside or somehow open all the windows using the fob with some kind of press this and that at the same time, and access inside handle thru the window. This becomes a safety concern because I'm usually alone, and this makes me vulnerable when I have to get into the car. Especially in parking lots and garages or gas stations, or anytime there may be a situation where a quick get out of there may be required. I have been visiting the Cadillac forums and have heard many of this same complaint in the on-line discussions. Many of the complaintants have recommended to report the as a safety concern. There is no warning of this in the systems, nor is there any information coming from Cadillac about resolving this problem in the
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11752089July 22, 2026
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM, STRUCTURE:BODY
Outside door handle/pads stopped working. Car has 30K miles and 2 door handles stopped working and others are starting to be intermittent. Understanding is the pad and electronic switch gets gunked out and wouldn’t make connection. Only way you can open the door is via inside door latch. Seems like a really bad situation if you get into an accident and can’t open thru door from the outside due to a faulty door handle.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11751375July 19, 2026
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM
The driver door will not open from the outside. My car only has 38k miles on it. All doors will open other than the driver door. This is a safety feature that needs to be recalled and fixed. The dealership even told me this happens often. I have to climb through my passenger door to get in the driver seat. I am a single woman and do not feel safe unless I’m in a busy parking lot bc I could easily get mugged while not being able to safely enter my vehicle fast enough.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11748689July 7, 2026
STRUCTURE:BODY
All 4 of my door handles suddenly stopped working and they will start working from time to time. Most of the time it’s 3-4 days where i cant open my door’s from the outside. I have looked into this and have found that MANY other CT5 users have had the same experience where they are unable to open their doors from the outside, most stating that it could be the door actuator. Others stating they have taken their vehicle in and have been quoted up to $4,000 to do the repair on something we shouldn’t have to worry about. Getting into our own vehicles? we shouldn’t have to be worrying about not being able to open our doors because of a faulty door actuator. I believe this should be recalled so no one has to worry about the safety of needing to get into our vehicles quickly or in case a child closes the doors oj themselves and we are unable to open the doors to get the out. Please look into all the complaints about this matter and consider making everybody’s experience a better one and not one where our doors will one day suddenly go out and stop working.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11747734July 1, 2026
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL, ELECTRICAL SYSTEM
Adaptive Cruise control acts like it’s going to maintain a gap (user selectable gap distance is able to be manipulated and displayed on drivers information center) but will rush right onto a preceding cars bumper. I’m told that even though manual transmission cars have the components and illusion that adaptive cruise control works, it doesn’t which is bad if you think it will work. Please make adaptive cruise control work in manual transmission CT5s like it does in auto. Similarly, the Surround Video Recorder equipment is installed but doesn’t record and isn’t viewable. Please make that function as well. Again, all of the hardware is there - implement it!
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11740325May 27, 2026
STRUCTURE:BODY
My driver side door is unable to open due to the pressure pad. This is a known problem to Cadillac. I have already had to have 2 door handles replaced on the passenger side. It is unsafe to not be able to enter the driver seat of your vehicle in an emergency.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11738910May 19, 2026
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: WARNINGS, UNKNOWN OR OTHER
While driving vehicle at approximately 50 mph in normal driving conditions, the vehicle’s automatic emergency braking/forward collision system activated an alert when a vehicle ahead of me slowed and turned out of my lane. After the lane was fully clear and there was no obstacle in front of the vehicle, the system aggressively braked and brought the car completely to a stop on the highway. During the event, the vehicle temporarily would not respond to accelerator input even while pressing the gas pedal. This created an extremely dangerous situation and nearly resulted in a high-speed rear-end collision. No crash occurred, but if a larger vehicle such as a semi-truck had been behind me, serious injury or death could have resulted. I am reporting this as a potential false automatic emergency braking / phantom braking event. Vehicle is a rental, history unknown…
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11738510May 18, 2026
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM
We own a 2021 Cadillac CT5 that we bought used in 2024 from Sewell Cadillac in Houston, Texas. During our first year of ownership, and while still under warranty, we started having intermittent issues with the rear doors. At times, one or the other rear doors would only open from the inside of the vehicle. My wife mentioned it to the dealer when the car was in for other issues, but because we couldn’t reproduce it at the dealership, nothing came of it. Then in March of this year, both rear doors completely failed. Neither rear door will open from the inside or the outside, and they are still that way today. We took the vehicle back to the dealer, and they performed a software update and sent us a service video. In that video, the technician described the issue as “weird” and not something they had seen before. After a couple of days, the dealer came back and said both rear exterior door handles need to be replaced, with a repair quote of $3,950.49 (for their trouble, they also charged us $265.00 to diagnose the issue). What really shocked me was that, because neither rear door will release from inside or outside, their quote indicates they would have to cut through the interior door panels just to open the doors and perform the repair. The more I researched this, the more it became clear that this problem is not “weird” at all — it appears to be a frequent issue with the CT5, with multiple owners describing similar door-handle failures and forum discussions suggesting it may be a well-known weak point rather than an isolated event. We frequently transport our granddaughter in this vehicle and that can't be accommodated until the issue is resolved with Cadillac. I don't think I can even imagine all of the potential safety implications of this type of failure should this have happened when anyone, much less a child. They would be trapped in the rear seat of the vehicle and possible strapped to a car seat. I can't imagine a better case for a recall, honestly.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11731179April 14, 2026
TIRES
Incident Overview: A Continental Control Contact Sport SRS+ tire (DOT 5323) experienced a catastrophic internal structural failure during normal driving on a wet roadway. The tire had approximately 50% tread remaining and was 1–1.5 years old. Failure Description: Inspection indicates internal belt/carcass separation originating within the tire structure, leading to rapid pressure loss and rupture. No road hazard or external impact was present. Crash Sequence: The failure caused immediate loss of control, vehicle yaw, roadway departure, and multiple impacts (frontal and lateral). The driver airbag deployed, confirming measurable crash force. Injuries: - Aggravation of pre-existing back condition (surgery required) - Hip labral tear and bone spur (surgery required) - Neck and shoulder pain Conclusion: The initiating event was a premature internal structural tire failure, not driver negligence or external hazard.
Crash:
Yes
Fire:
No
Injuries:
1
Deaths:
0
#11728484April 1, 2026
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM
The door(s) would not open from the outside. I had the driver side door handle replaced first - took weeks for the part to come in - this was a safety issue because I had to climb through the passenger side to open the driver side door. (the key entry would not work either) After weeks, and me paying for it, the same thing happened to the rear driver side door. I went to open it to get my grandchild out and couldn't. Again this is a safety issue. What if I needed him out in an emergency and I couldn't. I had to walk around and get him out of the car on the other side. Now my passenger door is broke. This is a big concern, which I let the dealership know about, the safety if you can't get someone out of a car or just getting in your car - a person is vulnerable to outside elements/surroundings. The dealership has said this is a very common problem with this make/model. If "very' common it should be recalled. They shouldn't be waiting for something bad to happen prior.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11720298February 24, 2026
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM
I've had my driver side door handle switch replaced beacuse it was faulty and I could not get into my car through the driver side. Now I am having the same issue with the passanger side. In a case of an emergeny if I can not get into my car I fear for my or my passanger's safety. I fear the quality of the parts are not ment to last. I replaced the driver side handle right before the manufactur warreny ran out then the passanger door stopped working when the warrenty ran out.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11718643February 17, 2026
ENGINE, POWER TRAIN, VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Catastrophic engine failure within 700 miles Requires full engine replacement Problems began around 150 miles on odometer Message: Reduced accelerated speed Check engine light Service transmission system Service variable valve timing system
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11717706February 12, 2026
ENGINE, WHEELS, UNKNOWN OR OTHER
While driving on a very busy highway going downhill when suddenly the vehicle started feeling abnormal like it was going to turn off automatically, heard an abnormal grinding noise coming from the engine the vehicle dropped speed drastically and the check engine light turned on , luckily we were on a part of the road where I merged quickly to the side of the road followed by a sudden engine shut down, the safety of myself and 3 other passengers was very compromised due to nearly being hit by other vehicles coming at a high speed on a main highway when my vehicle suddenly slowed down coming to a shut down due to the engine failure, I attempted to turn the car on again but would not turn on, was not getting any response at all, had to get the car towed, the vehicle did not have other warning lights before the failure, the check engine light came on after the engine failed, the vehicle was taken to an authorized Cadillac dealer where the engine was diagnosed as Engine seized, locked up and will not turn over. I received a Recall regarding Momentary Wheel Lock-Up which leads me to believe that might be related to what happened to my vehicle but did not have 8K dollars for a teardown to further inspect the root cause of my engine failure and definitely did not have over 11K dollars for a new engine/labor cost. The Cadillac dealer was quick to deny the possibility to be related to the recall without even doing a teardown of engine also the dealer denied the option to work on the recall repair due to the vehicle being inoperable.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11715761February 5, 2026
STRUCTURE:BODY
Exterior driver side door handle will not open the door causing issues with ingress into vehicle.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11713127January 24, 2026
SERVICE BRAKES, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING
I put up a rubber stop to test the emergency stop feature the car is equipped with. With car moving either forward in drive or backwards in reverse the car would not automatically stop before hitting this two foot high aid. A warning vibration is felt just before the car struck the device but the way I understand it in the owners manual the car should come to a complete emergency stop. This could endanger anyone or anything that the driver did not see while moving the car, i.e., a child on a tricycle for example.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11711602January 17, 2026
STRUCTURE:BODY
Front driver side door unable to open from the outside. Faulty door handle pad. Initially randomly wouldn’t work, would have to press the pressure pad multiple times or press on specific part of the pad. Eventually, stopped working all together. It’s a safety issue if unable to open the door during an emergency. Pretty common issue on Cadillac CT5s regardless of trim. Affects all 4 doors, just happen to be the driver side is the most used.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11711339January 16, 2026
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM
The passive door locks on the handles to the car do not work. The electronic sensor to unlock the car does not work due to misalignment of the pin that is supposed to press the key. This is a widely known issue on 2020-2021 Cadillac ct5 vehicles. This eventually results in total lockout of the vehicle. I currently have three doors that do not unlock. Please see a link to the issue I reported on Cadillacs form website as well https://www.cadillacforums.com/threads/door-handle-issues.1141023/?nested_view=1#post-18436706
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11709101January 6, 2026
STRUCTURE:BODY
Driver Door continue to not open. You must remove key cover off handle and manually open door with key or roll down all windows with Keyfob to reach in to open doors
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11701084November 23, 2025
AIR BAGS
Air bags did not deploy in bad car accident. Safety issue.
Crash:
Yes
Fire:
No
Injuries:
1
Deaths:
1

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