The Cadillac XLR Is What Slumlords Think Rich People Drive
Let's say you want a Chevrolet Corvette. But you don't want to actually drive a Corvette. You need something more expensive. Something luxurious. Maybe something with a fancy hardtop convertible roof like those Germans have on their Mercedes cars. What do you buy?
In the mid-2000s, GM had exactly what you were looking for-the Cadillac XLR.
It was built on the C5's platform but had a more luxurious interior, advanced features like adaptive cruise control, distinctive styling, and, of course, the Corvette's powerful LS1 V8.
Oh, wait. Never mind. It didn't have the Corvette engine, the legendary small-block V8 with a longer-running history of enthusiast products and motorsports than any other engine in history. It got a 4.6-liter Northstar V8.
And because of its weird positioning in the market, the XLR never quite managed to feel like a premium Corvette or a high-performance Cadillac. It's just odd. Only slightly more than 15,000 were ever produced, too, so they're rare, though perhaps not desirable.
But hey, at least it's got that (incredibly slow) power-folding hardtop. That's a cool feature for a Gen-X-er who wants to project an image of being more successful than they actually are, right?
