Picture this: It’s 2003 and you have the better part of $80,000 burning a hole in your pocket, ready to be spent on an open-topped cruiser. The Lexus SC 430 is robust enough to pass on to your grandchildren in 20 years, the Jaguar XK8 is old but charming, the Porsche 911 is as iconic as ever, and the Mercedes-Benz SL 500 is a Mercedes. However, what if none of those cars hit the spot? What if you want something different, fashion-forward, and unashamedly American? Behold, the Cadillac XLR. Welcome back to GM Hit or Miss, a series in which we recall all the crazy stuff GM got up to, and then collectively decide if they were good ideas or not.
The XLR wasn’t the first Cadillac to target Mercedes-Benz’s prestigious SL. Back in the 1980s, Cadillac rolled out a high-end convertible called the Allante which used one of the more convoluted manufacturing processes in the history of the automobile. See, GM contracted body manufacturing to Pininfarina, the same prestigious Italian design house that styled the Allante. After the coachwork was put together in Italy, every Allante body was flown by jet to America, where final assembly occurred in Michigan. This process helped contribute to an outrageous starting price that made the Allante a hard sell, even when compared to the then thoroughly-outdated R107 Mercedes-Benz SL.
To avoid making a similar mistake again, Cadillac decided to base the XLR on an existing GM platform, and the Corvette was just the right starting point. While Cadillac retained the Corvette’s hydroformed main chassis rails, much of the XLR was new compared to the C5 Corvette. The body panels were thicker than on the Corvette, the Chevrolet V8 was ditched for an overhead cam Cadillac unit, the wheelbase was altered, the vehicle was two inches shorter overall, and the Corvette’s choice of targa or fabric tops was ditched in favor of a folding hardtop. The result was an all-American Cadillac roadster made on its own line in Bowling Green.
Those wishing for Corvette performance, but with a decent interior, are sure to be disappointed because the XLR isn’t an out-and-out sports car. However, the XLR wasn’t aiming for lap records, and it hit the market at the perfect time. Back in 2001, Mercedes-Benz discontinued the phenomenal R129 SL in favor of the R230 SL. This new-generation crayon-scented cabriolet was very obviously a DaimlerChrysler product, displaying the cost when new of a Daimler product and long-term reliability more on par with a Chrysler product. Sure, it had a power-folding hardtop, but it didn’t have the brick shithouse build quality (that’s a good thing) of its predecessor. The SL hadn’t been in a weaker spot in more than a decade, so the occasion was right for GM to strike.
On paper, the Cadillac XLR offered some compelling reasons to go domestic when shopping for a two-seat grand-touring cabriolet with a folding hardtop and a silky overhead cam V8. It had dials by Bulgari, Corvette DNA, and all manner of fancy gadgets as standard.
I’m talking about a nine-speaker Bose stereo, bi-xenon headlamps, adaptive cruise control, a four-color heads-up display, cooled seats, and magnetorheological dampers. Pound-for-pound, the XLR’s spec sheet look pretty good compared to that of the Mercedes-Benz SL 500.
Arguably more important than tech was looks, and the XLR had them in spades. Born near the start of Cadillac’s brutalist Art & Science design phase, the XLR looks like it was milled out of a single iron ingot. From egg-crate grille to improbably sharp beltline to blunt rear fascia, everything about the XLR’s styling was as crisp and cool as a Manhattan vodka bar. Unlike most of its competitors, it still turns heads today, a remarkable feat for a mid-aughts GM product.
After launching to plenty of fanfare, early reviews of the XLR were full of praise. Car And Driver said that “there is no question that the XLR is a strong entry in the prestigious roadster class.” Road & Track said that “In this, Cadillac seems to have finally sidestepped the old criticism of giving us both more and less of what we want at the same time.” Comparison tests were also promising. While Car And Driver reckoned the XLR couldn’t vanquish the SL 500 or the Porsche 911 Cabriolet, the publication ranked the Cadillac ahead of the Lexus SC 430. Road & Track, on the other hand, ranked the XLR ahead of the SL 500, SC 430, Jaguar XK8, and Maserati Spider GT. Now that’s an impressive showing.
I briefly drove an XLR years ago and I can see what the road testers of the time were on about. While the C6 Corvette is a bit creaky over bumps and doesn’t pay too much mind to cabin noise, the XLR glides remarkably well over pockmarked streets. The 4.6-liter Northstar V8 isn’t gushing with off-idle torque, but it comes alive in the mid-range with satisfyingly smooth thrust. What’s more, the seats are really comfortable and the steering has a pleasing heft thanks to increased caster over a C5 Corvette. Sure, some interior plastics feel notably cheaper than what you’d find in a comparable Mercedes-Benz SL, but they’re nowhere near as nasty as the plastics on an early Cadillac CTS. There’s lots to love about the XLR so long as you take it easy and cast Corvette-like notions aside.
However, while timing made the XLR a credible competitor to the Mercedes-Benz SL, timing also undermined Cadillac’s flagship aspirations. See, the XLR was based on the Chevrolet Corvette and compared to the 2004 Vette’s 350-horsepower floor, the XLR had a reasonable 30-horsepower deficit. However, just one year after the debut of the XLR, Chevrolet dropped the sixth-generation Corvette. Here was a 400-horsepower sports car on a newer chassis than the XLR for more than $30,000 less than the flagship Cadillac. Ouch. What’s more, the C6 Corvette had a much nicer interior than that of the outgoing C5, to the point where it didn’t feel like it was made from melted-down Citations. Oh, and keen drivers could spec a Corvette with a six-speed manual gearbox while the XLR made do with an automatic.
Suddenly, Cadillac needed to distance itself from the Corvette, and the XLR-V attempted to do just that.
A supercharged 4.4-liter Northstar V8 similar to that in the STS-V found its way under the XLR-V’s hood, while a six-speed automatic transmission offered a leg up over the base car’s five-speed auto ‘box. The result was a 443-horsepower cabriolet with a zero-to-60 time of 4.6 seconds. That’s Mercedes-Benz SL55 AMG territory. Unfortunately, the XLR-V was also priced like a Mercedes, with an MSRP of $97,485. That was a difficult pill to swallow in an era when the Escalade started at $53,850.
The stiff pricing and internal competition meant that although Cadillac expected to sell 5,000 to 7,000 XLR roadsters per year, only 3,730 were sold in America during the car’s most-popular 2005 model year. Cadillac eventually pulled the plug in 2009, yet the XLR was such a slow-seller that sales of new units were reported into 2011. By the time everything was tallied up, the XLR sold even fewer units than its Allante predecessor and is now little more than a footnote in Cadillac’s history.
So, despite not living up to Cadillac’s expectations, does the XLR deserve a better reputation? I’m going to say absolutely. The XLR still looks properly cool, and with used examples sliding under $15,000, they seem like neat vehicles to take a chance on. By the 2004, GM had largely fixed the Northstar engine, so aside from roof concerns, the XLR seems to be one of the better 20-year-old luxury drop-tops to own. Just don’t look up what a tail light costs on eBay.
What’s more, I believe that an XLR successor might actually succeed today. See, the automotive landscape has completely changed over the past 20 years. The Corvette is now a mid-engined machine doing battle against full-fledged supercars, so it’s conceptually far enough removed from a traditional roadster to open up some white space. Then there’s Cadillac’s electrified push upmarket. The Rolls-Royce-fighting Cadillac Celestiq electric sedan has seen interest outstrip supply, to the point where Cadillac may once again live up to its “Standard of the World” past. If there’s genuinely enough interest in six-figure no-holds-barred Cadillacs, I don’t see why an electric grand touring Cadillac cabriolet couldn’t be made. What do you think? Would a new Cadillac roadster be cool to see, or do you reckon I’m just talking nonsense?
(Photo credits: Cadillac, Chevrolet)
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These cars looked Mean in person. It’s the craziest thing – most cars look better in the press pictures, but I never saw a picture that captured how good the XLR looked in person.
I saw one on the road recently with my Wife in the car and had to explain the entire…. all of it to her briefly, the Corvette base, the tail light price, the neutered engine. Still a fantastic looking car to see in person, man they are sharp in the sense that that era had some edgy designs.
They were always a head turner on the street for me and when I found out my then-boyfriend now husband’s grandpa had one, it was exciting to see it up close. A couple years later I had an excuse to drive it through the mountains for a couple hours shuttling it from their house to the cabin on a nice summer day and it was absolutely worth the sunburn I got. It’s totally a comfy cruisy GT car but that Northstar wakes up when you put your foot down and it will cheerfully do triple digits. Having driven SL500s of the same era, I’d rather have the XLR even just on looks alone. The Bulgari gauges are a bit vulgar though, I’ll take points off for that.
> then thoroughly-outdated R107 Mercedes-Benz SL.
Young man, I’ll have you know the R107 is still not outdated today. That car is perfection.
These will always be remembered as what could have been. Cadillac definitely should do another XLR or equivalent but not based on a Corvette.
A proper Mercedes SL competitor with the Omega or Alpha II chassis, with a Blackwing engine and price tag exceeding any Corvette would be the best shot at carving out its own place in the GM lineup. GM will never do this though lol
Love the look of these. The V should have had an LS. Wonder how hard it would be to swap one in?
Probably not hard at all. It’s based on the Corvette already, has enough room for its big, complicated DOHC V8, and the LS is ridiculously compact. I’d imagine it’s a pretty swap and it would improve the car exponentially.
…but at that point why not just buy a Corvette from this era? They’re pre LS swapped!
Proving that there is a shoe for every foot I never thought I would find people actually defending the looks of this atrocity. I always assumed the designers had one of those pink-eraser-and-push-pin cars sitting on their desk but then had to erase something so the back end was worn down.
Joking, I think – but Blackwing engine swap!
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still not enough for a set of tail lights on the XLR 😛
This would be the only Cadillac I would ever consider. If just for the fun of telling people it’s a front-mid engine Cadillac.
I think what might have also eventually doomed this was the fact that the target audience suddenly found their homes being auctioned off for less than the cost of this car.
I think Cadillac would be better served by offering an EV version of the Ciel as a better looking cousin to the Celestiq, than by trying to revive a 2-seat GT. The competition for 4-seat luxo-barges is essentially just the Bentley Continental GT and the Rolls Royce Dawn now that M-B has discontinued the S-class convertible. I’d say the Ciel is better looking than both the Dawn and Conti.
The XLR and C6 will always be two of my favorite designs of the era, and probably ever. Just absolutely fantastic looking vehicles.
The C6 Z06 is a legend, and apparently the C6 grand sport is the sweet spot that no one talks about. My source is Savagegeese and when it comes to monkey mode V8 buffoonery I trust my mans Jack.
I have a 2004 XLR that I bought in 2013 and had 30 thousand miles on it. It’s is still sweet. It never has given me a problem, still snaps people necks as I drive by. That car and my ’91 Miata (that I bought new and still drive) are the best cars I have in my collection..
There were two big problems with the XLR. These conclusions are 100% fact rooted in my exhaustive research based solely on my own gut, perception and complete lack of real data to back any of this up.
1. The XLR appealed to the same demographic as the C5 Corvette: aged men with money to burn. The problem is that the Corvette was always the goal for these fellas. If they could finally, one day, buy the car they were lusting after for 50 years, then it was all worth it. It doesn’t matter that the XLR was more refined, composed and better looking than the C5. The Corvette was the only car that mattered.
2. GM still had it’s head shoved up it’s own ass and thought it could charge a lot of money for a Cadillac just because it was a Cadillac….as if the previous 30 years were from an alternate timeline that didn’t happen because Marty went back and retrieved the almanac, thus repairing the space-time continuum.
Fwiw I was a broke-ass young person who didn’t like any GM products when this came out and wanted one badly. My boss even gave me a model of it.
My sister’s boyfriend had one of these in black. It was literally the most interesting choice he made in his entire life – including my sister.
You’re right. It was more than a neutered Corvette. It was an *ugly* neutered Corvette.
I’ve always liked the looks of these. If they bring the concept back, I hope they retain the sharp-edged look of this one.
I’m not sure an EV version would work though. This is more of a convertible GT than roadster, and the lack of range of current EVs might preclude that working well.
The XLR had the same fundamental issue as all the Cadillacs of the time – the underdeveloped Northstar. It could have been a great engine, but like a lot of GM engines, it had issues that weren’t addressed until immediately before it was cancelled.
Buying a used XLR could be expensive if the headbolts are bad or parts are required (such as the unobtainium tail lamps). A used Corvette would be a much cheaper car to maintain since there is so much support.
I really dug the styling, but I agree the Northstar reputation by that time was fully clinched in place and adding power adders to it seemed like the wrong route to go for the long term reliability options. It was kind of too late, even though many of the earlier issues had been resolved….
These days the cost to replace just the tail light can make a person pause when considering purchase.
It’s great until you need new tail lights 😛
I thought about this car once. Something under the radar to buy for summer top down driving. Then I read about the tail light prices. On to something else. Good way to make parts for a Mercedes look cheap.
I have it on good authority that Jason Torchinsky bought out Cadillac’s stock of replacement XLR taillights to generate scarcity and finance the Autopian with the profits.
A friend of mine needed new taillights for his. He saw an XLR on Facebook marketplace ($1,000 or under, my memory is a bit hazy). He noticed the car was flooded (which the seller did not disclose). So he paid the guy, removed the taillights, and took off. The guy got his money but of course, he had a ruined car sitting in his driveway. He called my friend calling him unethical, he didn’t respond. But yeah, those things are expensive as hell. Maybe it’s a new market we Jalop….err Autopians need to corner.
First and foremost-I’ll acknowledge that these are gorgeous cars that have aged well, and on paper they make a lot of sense. The issue was and remains that, in practice, they just didn’t and they still don’t. The Northstar V8s are an over complicated mess, and shoving one in here over one of the venerated GM small blocks was a crime worthy of The Hague.
The hardtop is cool…until something goes wrong. I get why they never offered a manual, but at the same time in a car like this I’m firmly in the “3 pedals or no dice” crowd. The fact of the matter is that, if you’re an enthusiast, there are 0 compelling reasons to buy this over a comparable Corvette. They’re slower, they’re less reliable, they don’t offer 3 pedals, they’re exponentially harder to work on/more expensive to fix, etc. Hell…I’d go Miata over one of these as well and give up half the cylinders.
It’s not like we’re talking passing on a Coyote V8 or an LT1 here, we’re talking about passing on a neutered, over complicated, luxury V8. I want to love the XLR. I really do. But I can’t. There’s no compelling reason to own one of these in 2023 unless you’re a masochist and/or are willing to make a pile of sacrifices just to have something weird and different. If you are I respect you…but my 15-20 grand for a toy would go to a Miata, Corvette, or time bomb Boxster 365 days a year.
I’d like to hear more about what GM did to fix the Northstar. All I’ve ever heard is to avoid it like the plague in Allantes and Sevilles.
Well, it’s the head-bolt threads, as you probably know. From what I can glean online, the earliest versions (’93-’95) are the worst, then they get slightly better for a couple of years but not much, then they get slightly worse for a couple of years, but not much, and then they slowly get better into the 2000’s. A lot of people point to 2005 as the earliest one they would buy, while others say 2007. You can also send your broken Cadillac and $4,000 to this guy in Ohio, and he’ll drop a rebuilt (and re-head-bolt-threaded) Northstar into it and give you a warranty.
I wonder how hard it is to swap an LS4 into a DeVille or Seville?
A new Cadillac roadster would be fun, but you (or rather, GM’s designers) have to keep in mind that Cadillac’s brand strength isn’t in performance but rather comfortable luxury. (Lincoln, too, although they seemed to have accepted this already.) So, sure, build a Corvette-based Caddy supercar, but remember it should be a grand tourer and not a drag racer. A powerful engine is a must, but a docile ride, a comfortable interior, and other luxury features are, too.
If they can make it a car where you don’t notice you’re going 150mph, then I’d call it a success.
And always respect that GM can never allow any other GM auto to steal even a bit of the Glory of the Corvette.
Sorry. The image that is forever burned in my brain of the XLR was the time I pulled up to a stoplight and there was one in the cross street. Driven by a fat, old, bald man and his old wife with the ridiculous perm and some yappy lapdog. I never liked the “arts and sciences” look that Cadillac came out with. Looks like it’s from some bad 70’s science fiction b-movie that only played in the dollar theater or went straight to VHS.
If you judge a car brand/model by the worst of its drivers, every car sucks.
If you like the XLR, I might recommend watching the Car Wizard YouTube channel episodes where he bought one and did a lot of reconditioning, including a driveline out engine rebuild. Very interesting watch.
Yet another bashing of the C5 interior. I’ve owned a C5 and now I own a same year BMW 5-series, and I can tell you that the BMW doesn’t have anything over the C5 in terms of interior finish, fit, and quality. There’s just as much plastic in the BMW as in the Chevy (sorry, that wood grain isn’t wood). C4’s were just as bad as any other 80’s to 90’s car and C5’s were just as bad as any other 90’s to 00’s car. If people were willing to pay Ferrari money for a Corvette, it would have that level of interior. But they’re not.
“I might recommend watching the Car Wizard YouTube channel”
WEEZARD!
He has become much more comfortable in front of the camera.
That’s an understatement. His “debut” on Hoovie’s channel when he just stared with dead eyes down the barrel of the camera for 20 seconds straight is the stuff of legends.
The BMW has panel gaps large enough to see the metal structure under the dash? The BMW has plastics so cheap that they creak if you look at them funny?
I love my C5 and I think there are things you can defend about the interior (the ergonomics are not bad and there are a lot of soft-touch finishes), but fit and plastic quality are not in that category.
‘If people were willing to pay Ferrari money for a Corvette, it would have that level of interior. But they’re not.’
I’ve seen a 15 yo 550 Maranello dash need to be replaced despite living in a garage. Ferrari money does not buy you Toyota quality.
It really is amazing how long it took (and in some cases is still taking!!) for GM to realize that Cadillac customers weren’t and aren’t buying cars based on the number of camshafts in the engine.
Imagine having a compact, powerful, inexpensive, and reasonably efficient family of V8s in the corporate stable, and instead deciding to put a more expensive, more complicated, and dimensionally larger engine in your flagship product “bEcAuSe GeRmAnS uSe DoHc”.
The mistake was repeated with the CT6-V, at great cost.
They are still making this mistake with the ATS-V/CT4 Blackwing. That car should have always had an LT1 standard.
I got to drive an XLR a bit back in the day when they were new. I liked the styling, and it was powerful, quiet, and handled well. The thing that never worked for me though was the interior. There was just something wrong about it. I -think- that the problem was that the designers over-compensated for the snugness of the Corvette interior. The XlR’s interior was not cosseting or inviting like its European competitors. As I remember it the interior sides of the doors were straight slabs coming to a 90° angle with the floor and there was a ton of space between the door and the flattish seats. The impression it gave me at the time was of a pick-up truck interior with leather seats and a fancy but plastic dash. The ambience wasn’t helped by the Zebra wood. I don’t know what Zebra wood is but damned if it doesn’t look like plywood with a nice clear plastic poured over it.
You (I, anyhow) just didn’t feel connected with the car at all. It was more like sitting on a nice upholstered chair in a dentist’s waiting room while have a steering wheel in front of you.
TL/DR – driving the car didn’t deliver any pleasure or satisfaction.
You’re not wrong! As a potential CT4V BW buyer down the road I really have no idea why it has an overboosted 6 rather than an LT1. That engine is going to be a lot more trouble to own and it’s not like skipping the V8 helped them emissions or fuel economy wise in any noteworthy way. Hell…it’s rated at 16/24, which is identical to a Camaro SS.
So we have a more complicated, less reliable, equally inefficient engine that makes roughly the same power. GENIUS!
The official reasoning behind the ATS/CT4 decision is that it was because some countries tax displacement (The same rationale probably isn’t true for the XLR because 4.6L is already in the largest category).
To which my response would simply be: Either offer the option in more enlightened countries like the US, or simply tell customers overseas to pay up if they want a world class performance car.
GM has also made it clear that their goal is to compete with European sports sedans…so I suppose it makes sense that they’d want to sell it in Europe, but still. It’s not the best solution to the MO POWA? question in this situation.