The XLR is dead…
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Well, almost.
Production of the Corvette based Cadillac will stop in a few weeks.
That’s too bad. I guess it does make sense. How many of these do they sell?
But it would have been great to see what a second generation would have looked like.
In related news, the CTS coupe has been delayed until late 2010. It was supposed to be shown last November at the L.A Auto show.
Old timers drive Corvettes in general The XLR is driven by the geriatric crowd. I am not sure what the point of the car was anyway. Will anyone notice or care it is gone?
I am 41 years old and enjoy my XLR very much, it has been tons of fun. That said, I’ve always felt that to compete with the european models, my Cadillac needed an over the top luxury interior and the same level of perfomance as Corvette. If Cadillac had included those easy to add features, I bet XLR would not be on the chopping block.
The XLR is on the chopping block because GM is running out of cash. I would have considered the CTS coupe, this year but I guess they have to pick and choose what they spend money on for now. Sucks anyway…
I disagree with the first comment. Most of the XLRs that I see are driven by people who look younger than 60. I think it’s a beautiful car, but there is no way that it would compete with an SL, 6 series or even the upcoming S5 cabrio that will cost much less. Cadillac cut corners in places where they thought no one would notice. And people noticed.
I loved, LOVED the Evoq concept when it came out ten years ago, and it was great to see, when the production car came out, that its styling remained so faithful to the concept. It’s sad that this car will die without a successor.
I too have seen sub 60 year olds driving these too. However, I hate this car. It never had the performance of the Vette, the interior never came close to what competitors had and although the exterior was it’s best feature, I never really liked it at all. If it had more of a cts coupe look to it, then maybe I’d like it. This car just looked to flat, boxy, angular and weird looking for me. But that’s just me. If you like it then that’s good for you and too bad they won’t be making them anymore. I won’t miss it though. Don’t get me wrong, it had great potential but because it came out during the cheap crappy years (all money going into suv’s and trucks) of GM, I don’t think it had a real chance to compete with the likes of Mercedes SL, Jaguar coupe(XK?) and others.
The car is too blocky in convertible form. It looks pretty in a CTS and even the Escalade but consumers with money wants a timeless design. The SL epitomizes timeliness and class. People would pay whatever Mercedes asks.
Damn rich people!!
The SL isn’t exactly the biggest seller in the US either (nor is the BMW 6 series). But the Cad has the lowest profit margins of the 3 and GM doesn’t have the cash for a low volume showpiece. I suppose the Viper and Ford’s exotic 2-seater are next. All just victoms of a slow economy (and a decided lack of confidence in Obama’s ability to speed things up).
The government wants GM to only produce cars for weak little people so this is cancelled.