Well over a decade ago, Cadillac was in big trouble. It decided the solution was to start copying the Germans, so they gave us the XLR, supposedly a better designed SL-Class.
After a very short and unsuccessful production run, Bob Lutz and the gang killed it off in 2008. Yeah, it had a V8 motor and sharp lines, but a BMW roadster could run rings around it.
You have to remember that back in those days, an awful thing about the XLR was the fact that it cost about $100,000. Nowadays, you can pay that for an average German sedan, but seemed to border supercar territory in 2005.
The latest video from Regular Car Reviews does a pretty good job of explaining why the XLR is not a real Cadillac. He says a Cadillac is something your grandpa bought after the war, cherished and waxed every day. This is something else, a convertible for the guy who doesn't know how to spend money well.
Everybody knows the XLR is a Corvette in a fancy party dress. Back in those days, Cadillac thought there would be a lot of people who wanted a V8 sports car without the stigma associated with the 'Vette. They were wrong, as only 15,000 of them were ever built.
And then he draws attention to the engine, a V8 that he compares to an Anime character. For the sake of being different, more European in a way, Cadillac engineers sacrificed reliability.
And why would you want a Cadillac roadster in the first place? The roof takes forever to put down and then you can't smoke your cigar anymore. As for the trunk, there's no way to put golf bags in there.
As Mister Regular puts it, Cadillac might try to make another XLR concept and "shove it down our throat." Yet we don't want a Cadillac for the new generation. Wait, isn't that what the Escalade all the rappers are buying is?
Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida. Full profile
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