Sorry we're a bit late on this one, but what's the rush? In May, sales of the Cadillac XLR fell 54.4 percent. In absolute terms, that's a slide from 206 to 94 units. So Cadillac's not so hot (as in absolute zero cold) roadster is getting a refresh for the 2009 model year. This includes engine upgrades a redesigned grill (meant to resemble the lower-level CTS sedan), redesigned taillights, an Alcantara headliner, new wood trim and, wait for it… faux side "vents" (a la Ford Focus). From now on, the XLR will only be available in either the previously high-line Platinum trim line ($86k) or the V-spec performance designation ($100k+). While the XLR is a nice car, so is the Mercedes SL. If Cadillac wants to shift a few [more] XLRs in the model's final years they need to drop prices and add a CTS quality interior. But no; it's easier to let the XLR stand proud as GM's most expensive-ever "almost there" product.
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The Evoq show car was cool, but the resulting XLR never quite lived up to the hype. Apparently almost nobody wants a Corvette with plastic surgery and high-heels. Speaking of which, I wonder how many of those 94 units were sold in the Palm Springs – Palm Desert area.
Have a look at the original Evoq:
http://www.ultimatecarpage.com/pic.php?imagenum=1&carnum=1162
I just never could get into the XLR’s appearance. It looks way too forced, and we know it is a Corvette underneath. Just begs the question, why?
There is so much better to be had for the same price or less, the Corvette included.
Does anyone in the business have any insight into the cost of interior upgrades?
The interior is a critical weakness with the XLR, why spend money on other updates and ignore the most significant shortcoming (other than price)?
GM repeats this over and over. Does an interior upgrade cost more than the tooling for a new grill, fenders, or tail lights?
Rather than take a Corvette in a pretty dress, I’ll just take a Corvette ZO6.
@SupaMan:
Or even just a regular Corvette if you ask me. The 6.2 liter V8 with 430 horsepower is plenty as far as I am concerned. Very fast and still extremely comfortable.
The few times I saw that car, I first thought a tank ran over a CTS and flattened it…
94 units? 94?! I am just trying to think of the vehicles that would likely sell in lower numbers, and pretty much all I can think of is a few ultra-exotics.
My wife loves the XLR. At the same time, she has no love for the Corvette. With XLR resale prices in the dumpster, this combination means that there’s a high liklihood that a nice used one would end up in our driveway. Which means I would get to drive it. Since my sister won’t let anyone drive her ’06 Corvette, this is my best chance…
bad luck bunkie
bunkie
You should have been nicer to your sister.
In May, sales of the Cadillac XLR fell 54.4 percent.
Cadillac sells XLRs?
Faux side vents? Are you kidding me? On an $80k+ car? Wow. Just…wow.
Looks like they’ve kept the gawdawful cheap sunvisors that wouldn’t look out of place on an Aveo. Worse still, they stick out like the sore ears when the top is down.
I always thought the XLR had potential, but, like almost every other GM product, there doesn’t seem a corner that isn’t cut.
@Matt:
Mercedes just added them to the SL, also.
My sister won’t even let her husband drive her ‘Vette. :–{
I’ll take a Corvette and $50k instead.
94 units? Apparently half of those owners are out here in Palm Springs.
If you check out e-bay, you’ll find that you can find several used XLRs that can be had for quite a bit less than a convertible ‘Vette. Yes, it’s not quite a Corvette, but it has a nicer interior and a hardtop roof.
Its a real shame. If there was ever a chance for a profit making rebadge it was this. A slightly upscale Corvette without the Corvette image/baggage would likely sell for an extra 10k. An extra 50k? No.
Oh well. They missed the boat again.
Bunkie, if you’re ever in the Boston area you can drive my ’06 Vette, as long as you know how to drive stick
As some of you may know, I own an XLR-V. I’m 28 months into driving it with ~35,000 miles on the odometer. I’m also a former Corvette owner. While it’s true that the XLR/XLR-V are built on Corvette’s platform, the two cars are very different and should not be thought of as interchangeable. More on that in a moment.
I don’t like the fad aspect of side vents, but at least on the V, if said vents are functional to extract heat from the engine bay, then no foul. If these are merely cosmetic, then I’ll prefer the less adorned styling of my car. It’s a good move for the XLR to give it the V’s hood, but then the V should have a little more visual differentiation. The revised grille and front cap as shown on the base care looks fine to me. The car’s front end design elements keep the CTS style grille within tasteful proportion.
Every automotive interior can be upgraded from where it stands today, including the XLR’s. After a few years on the market, it ought to be upgraded at least in subtle ways if for no other reason than that the market expects it. The Alcantara headliner will be a tactile upgrade over the current woven material and I am guessing that noise abatement is the best reason not to make the headliner in leather. Leather does reflect a lot of sound compared to most woven materials. But overall, the interior of the XLR is well done. Its control interfaces are simple, accessible, direct. Seats — at least in the V — are comfortable, firm and GT-appropriate for keeping you in your place. The plastics are no better nor worse than other cars in its class. Touch points are leather, with the V placing you in a full leather surround. My interior still looks and feels new. Complaints about the interior seem to come mostly from people who haven’t driven one. I’d like it to emulate Maserati, but no one else does that.
As a sports car, a Corvette is superior in every respect. It’s lighter, more powerful base-to-base and topline-to topline, offers a manual transmission and has stickier more generous rubber. If you want a sports car, get a Corvette and save some cash for fuel. The XLR and XLR-V *are not sports cars*. They’re GTs with retractable hardtops. Also, the steep depreciation is endemic to the category.
In the XLR/XLR-V, your eyepoint is typically higher than in Corvette, You sit a little more upright. The car is 600 lbs. heavier because it is a luxury GT and has a folding hardtop. The X cars roll on run-flat tires and for NVH concerns they are smaller than the Corvette’s shoes in all iterations. So Corvette outgrips the X. However, the Cadillac weighs as much as a quarter-ton less than some of its German competition. If you buy a used XLR-V expecting to have a “luxury Corvette” experience, you bought the wrong car. That’s what a ZR-1 will be for. If you buy a Z06 or base Corvette expecting to have a faster XLR-V, you will have a sports car with more NVH, and the roof either will not retract or if it does, it’s canvas. Putting aside the base Northstar in the XLR, the Corvette’s stellar pushrod mill has a completely different power delivery, sound and feel than the XLR-V’s supercharged 443hp 4 cammer. I love the small block and get to drive it in my wife’s CTS-V. But the creamy smooth power unspooling from the supercharged Northstar is a completely different dynamic and aesthetic experience.
I suppose by comments here that the XLR/XLR-V styling has to be considered polarizing, but that’s not what I experience in daily driving. These cars are scarce — especially Vs — and based on the non-stop 28 months of silent thumbs-up from passing drivers and cyclists, and gas-station/supermarket-parking-lot vocal commentary I receive, people love the design and admire the cars.
The total number of cars sold in this entire class is tiny. As the upstart, Cadillac will take years to find its rightful place in the market. The X cars are a departure from what everyone else is offering, so they sell to mavericks or others who simply have different preferences not met by the too-soft over-femme Lexus nor the overwrought, less reliable and porcine Mercedes. For people like me, the dramatic XLR-V nails it.
Phil
I think the interior is very nice and the exterior does have some distinctive style to it, something that is quite absent from most cars these days. If I had the coin I would get one of these over what is offered by Mercedes, Lexus, BMW and Jaguar.
I know how to goose XLR sales: a new tagline!
“Cadillac XLR. The car of some guy’s wife.”
GM’s busy shuffling the chairs on the Titanic deck. How about building cars that people want to buy? Like, more than 94 per month.
Just a thought.
The XLR is an unpopular failure because for an $80,000+ car it sucks!
With everything I write it is important to keep in mind that the XLR lists for $80,000!
1. The styling is bad execise in trying to stretch the Cadillac Art and Science theme over a Corvette chassis. The hard angles of the CTS and STS do not work on the low slung Corvette platform. The Corvette was designed from the get go to NOT have a grill and to have a large ass to cover all the rear rubber. These attributes just do not work well on the XLR.
2. The interior is cheap, ugly, and lacks any kind of design. IMO the interior look like a collection of dupo lego blocks covered in leather and wood like a 1970s exotic! The steering wheel looks like it was simple pulled out of a DTS.
To add insult to injury the interior of your $80,000 XLR (THE FREAKIN FLAGSHIP)is totally put to shame by Caddy’s entry level product the CTS!
I have been in two XLRs and I must say the interior of the XLR is of a much lower quality than a 3 series conv. Leather stretched over a square box is NOT luxurious!
Aside from the few Cadillac fans that must have one the XLR is actually bad news for Cadillac and GM because it does a very good job of reinforcing all of the negative sterotypes about GM and the Cadillac brand. That Lexus thing may be soft and funny looking BUT it is built is a way that folks EXPECT a expensive Luxury item to be built.
Today, the XLR has become a “used car ghetto queen” like the BMW 650i. These are the type of car the are purchased by guys with cash to burn because it was the latest thing and than quickly traded back in because it sucks! Now you see them with big chrome wheels, gold trim, and under car lighting effects crusing in the hood. Yeah, they make a good companion for that Escalade.
I actually love the style of this car and it still turns my head whenever I see one on the street.
The biggest problem with the XLR wasn’t styling, packaging or anything else, it was GM’s over confident pricing of the roadster. It costs about $20,000 too much.
nice car but I guess rich people don’t like it.
Perkins: a thorough interior redesign would cost much more than the changes here. There’s no new sheetmetal, just modifications to existing sheetmetal.
I personally disagree that the exterior does not work (though the base wheels need to be larger, and maybe are for 2009), but agree on the interior. Also, the structure doesn’t feel nearly as solid as that of an SL. Might be a matter of having plastic panels more than the structure itself.