The cars of General Motors are moving in an exciting direction, and Cadillac is leading the way. The stunning new Cadillac XLR is the company's new flagship, a luxurious high-performance sports car built on the next Corvette platform.
Its styling is edgy, classy, powerful, and distinctive. It boasts a beautiful and luxurious interior that befits its $76,200 price. And it's a hardtop convertible: Press a button and the hard top goes up or down in 30 seconds. But the XLR goes beyond that. It boasts impressive cornering capability and thrilling acceleration performance. It benefits from a high-tech structure and a powerful Northstar V8.

The 2004 Cadillac XLR ($75,385) comes one way, with a convertible hard top. Its 4.6-liter V8 engine is mated to Cadillac's newest five-speed automatic transmission.
XM Satellite Radio is the only option ($325). The list of standard equipment is long: side-impact airbags, a nine-speaker Bose sound system, DVD navigation and video, StabiliTrak electronic stability control, radar-controlled adaptive cruise control, keyless entry and push-button start, a head-up display, and OnStar, the highway assistance service featuring the helpful voices of genuine human beings beamed to the car by satellite.

The styling of the Cadillac XLR is distinctive and controversial. Some people like the sharp styling, some people hate it. Most people like it. We like it. It's unique with a cause, which is difficult to achieve and reason enough to like it. It's an in-your-face kind of grace.
We especially like how it looks when the hardtop is up. Very cool, chopped, and suggesting a hot rod, with a steeply raked rear window and lots of angles like the rest of the car. The top is made of aluminum and magnesium with composite panels, and contributes to the structural rigidity of the car. The Mercedes-Benz SL roadster has a similar top but it's rounded at the edges and doesn't do for the Benz what this top does for the XLR. It adds power to the aura of the car, erases the top-down gentrification.

books

sponsored links

Four wide exhaust tips, pointing out from under the center of the rear bumper like the tips of two big double-barreled shotguns, add to the statement of power. We think they could and should have done something different with the wheels, though: 18-inch, mirror-polished alloy, a seven-spoke wagon-wheel design. They are the same wheels available on the CTS sedan and SRX crossover SUV. The XLR ought to have its own wheels. Actually, the special wheels on the V8 CTS-V are what the XLR needs.

The shape and silhouette of the XLR works, but if you take it apart the elements suggest it was designed by two people with clashing ideas because the details seem incongruous if you study the shapes for a while. The bright and bold egg-crate grille announces the flow of the styling, and the headlamps wrap around the corners; they touch front, top, and sides. The front bumper / airdam is massive, and extends like an underbite but not conspicuously. The rectangular foglights don't seem to take part in the styling, and the long horizontal opening in the air dam is just big and just there.
The sides are blessedly smooth, and the wheel cutouts are full with the fenders flared just enough. The XLR is low and wide, and the wheels are a big 18 inches, so this looks hot. The rocker panel bodywork, a composite plastic, like the rest of the body, is sharp but tidy, while the mirrors are bulky. The high angularity of the tail perfectly complements the shape, but the big pseudo carbon-fiber box around the license plate, also containing the backup lights, mostly messes it up. But the four cool exhaust pipes almost redeem it. They draw the eye, at least.