If such a file existed, the curious case of some vehicles would be a large, stuffed manilla folder with many chapters to it. The Cadillac XLR would certainly find a spot in there.
Regular Car Reviews picked out a 2005 Cadillac XLR for a shakedown, to uncover what this car means, who bought it and what the driver is likely listening to on a mixed CD their nephew burned for them.
The XLR was the only non-Corvette vehicle to be produced at a Corvette assembly plant, but it didn’t act like a Corvette. That’s because it was cushier, and used Cadillac’s long-departed Northstar V8 engine. It’s the Corvette for those who really didn’t want a Corvette at all.
It was a great vehicle on paper, bestowing Cadillac with a grand tourer like this, but it never executed the way it should have it real life. Delve into the XLR in the video above.
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This Roadster was a amazing car forever
There’s also a great Cadillac XLR site and registry out there called the XLR Net:
http://www.XLR-Net.com
Imagine if Cadillac was still building the XLR; it would be built on the C7 Corvette and with David Leone in charge, one would think Cadillac of having a 335 hp LGX 3.6L DOHC-4v V6 for a base engine, one step up would be the LF4 twin turbo 3.6L V6 making 464 hp and the top engine option for ‘2,000’ lucky buyers would be the 640 hp LT4 used by the CTS-V.
Neat car but a good example of how GM just did not have the money to do things right. Granted they did a lot with little but it fell short.
The real issue was it was too close to the Corvette and really did not better the Corvette in many ways in the eyes of the buyers. Most were happy to pay less and have a Corvette.
I have a friend with a V series that as he said cost right at $100K new but just was not worth that kind of money. He paid just over $30K for it with low miles and like he said it was a damn good car at that price.
These are great on the used car market if you want a fun and interesting car but you will not impress the guys at the club.
GM will not repeat mistakes like this in the future. If and when they do use the C8 platform it will not be associated by customers with the Corvette in anyways. To be honest I hope they do an even better job than Audi and Lambo do with their shared platform.
Keep in mind that GM pretty much was broke when this car was around so it was a good effort with little funding to work with. Just not enough in the market to do better than it did at that price.
Also it did not help the rest of the line had some issues yet too.
What a gorgeous automobile. I still see these time to time. I can’t wait for the mid-engine car to come out in the middle of next decade.
Just saw a report of a mid engine coupe that would be set apart from the C8 is being planned in about 8 years,
That is what they needs to do. They need to make sure if anything is shared you can not tell it from the outside.. Also do not associate both.
I don’t think XLR was really a failure, as the video says – to me, it was more like a low volume niche product.
There is one of this kind in the parking garage of the high rise building complex where I live – it is actually not just regular XLR, but XLR-V – a true rarity. Its owner rarely drives this XLR-V, from what I can see – even in summer. I guess, for him, it’s more like an asset – financial, emotional, or both.
More than that, the same owner also owns – guess what? CTS-V Coupe, sitting besides XLR-V. And CTS-V Coupe also stays without motion almost all the time.
So, it seems to be another asset, in a sense – newer, faster, and so even more expensive than XLR-V.