I have the only Cadillac ELR in Canada’s Prairie Provinces (Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta). In fact, two years ago I flew to Vancouver BC and picked up a beautiful black 2014 ELR with 23,000 kilometers on it. I loved it so much I just sold it and bought an even rarer 2016 unit with just 33,000 kilometers on it.
My 2014 went to an awesome couple with ‘him’ in the military at CFB Petawawa and ‘her’ living in Calgary. The plan was to give his first year Chevy Volt to his wife allowing him to take the 2014 ELR back to Ontario. That means my 2016 is still the only unit in prairies.
The 2016 ELR was quite a challenge to find as there were on 11 2016 ELR’s sold in Canada and after a few months of looking, I gave up and bought on of the 1000’s or sold in the US. Mine came from Seattle.
I flew to Seattle from Calgary at 7am, hit the dealership at 9am, drove through customs for noon and was back in Calgary before midnight the same day. That was some serious fun although importing a car to Canada from the US took some work. If you are considering bringing a vehicle into Canada I documented the complex series of required steps HERE.
I bought both of these all but completely blind. I had never even touched an ELR prior to picking up my 2014 in Vancouver. In fact, other than photo’s I had never seen an ELR even auto shows.
I was so concerned that my 6′ frame would not fit in a 2 door, that I required the dealership to send me photos with their 6’2″ manager getting in and out of it.
My 2016 ELR is the ultra-rare white interior with a white exterior. It is Cadillac Certified and has near bumper to bumper warranty though May 2022.
The only issue I had with the 2014 in the two years I owned it was key fobs caused some issues. In the end Cadillac gave up trying to solve the issue and just replaced the defective one.
The 2016 has been in my possession since June 2019 and I was happy I had the warranty because I had five minor problems which CMP GM in Calgary and Cadillac have now worked through completely:
- The passenger door rattled – turned out to be broken clips which were easily changed
- The rear speaker grill rattled – it needed to be reseated
- The shifter lights (P D N R L) went out – oddly the full shifter kit was replaced
- One of the key fobs was dead when I picked it up – the specific problem was something Cadillac told the dealership they had never seen before and in the end they had to twice change the fob and now inexplicably the ELR thinks the fobs are #2 and #8… odd
- Cadillac CUE did not have Android Auto (or Apple CarPlay) – the dealership said that was normal but Cadillac’s ELR website said it should have it. In the end I found THIS Cadi press release saying Android Auto was a free upgrade on the 2016 ELR and the dealership updated my firmware at no cost.
As of last week, all of the problems are resolved without costing me a penny and my 2016 ELR is the head turning work of art is should have been from the factory.
My 2016 ELR has the Sport package and the Performance package along with the $2000 upgraded RIMs. It is art.
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