Comparison Tests
Let's face it: The following is a bit of a scam. Although it's billed as yet another of our famed comparison tests, the underlying reason for the exercise was to find out exactly how the new and much-touted Cadillac XLR fits into the very fast league of $60,000-to-$80,000 fliptops currently prowling the parking lots of the nation's country clubs.
This is a particularly competitive group: The stunning Mercedes-Benz SL500 hit our shores as an all-new car for '03, and the aging but classic Jaguar XK8 benefits from a recent upgrade to a six-speed gearbox and an up-sized, more powerful V-8. The plump but pristine Lexus SC430 remains a popular choice, and it's thousands of dollars less than its competitors. Finally, the classic Porsche 911 Carrera 4 cabriolet, equipped with the Tiptronic transmission, is another excellent option for those who seek premium top-down grand touring for two.
But as the new kid on the block, it was the Caddy that intrigued us. The '04 XLR—part of a campaign by Cadillac to rename its vehicles with a garble of consonants in place of its traditional and well-known DeVilles, Sevilles, Eldorados, and Fleetwoods that have not dominated the domestic luxury-car market since 1998—has been in the planning stage for four years. It was first hinted at when the two-door Evoq hit the show circuit in 1999 and had been expected to play a starring role in elevating GM's premium brand into the elite echelons of the business.
The new Cadillac would ride on the Corvette C6 platform and be powered by the much-regarded 320-hp Northstar DOHC V-8 with a new five-speed automatic, and much was expected of it. That, coupled with an edgy, all-plastic body, a modern folding hardtop, and a price competitive with its rivals, produced high levels of curiosity among the C/D staffers who hauled south from Ann Arbor toward our favored stomping grounds in southern Ohio's Hocking Hills.
Could a Caddy play in this league? The division's last foray into this segment with the Allanté ended in humiliation and a much-deserved banishment to the gray pages of Hemmings Motor News. But this time management seemed serious beyond the cosmetic pig perfuming so common in Detroit. The XLR, at least on paper, appeared to be a contender in a pack dominated by the premier marques of Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, Lexus, and Jaguar with the kind of status punch identified by Thorstein Veblen in his 1899 classic, The Theory of the Leisure Class. If any group were to analyze the Cadillac XLR and four other serious fliptops in this context, who better than a classy group from the classiest of car mags?
