Saw an XLR today and I like it. A lot.

In reply to Chris_V :

It's expected that a significant portion of the owners will be older.  But at the same time, I see plenty of younger people who have done very well in life driving expensive newer cars.  But it's usually BMWs, Porsches, etc.  Certain cars (like the XLR) just seem to slip through and the younger crowd with money doesn't buy them.  

In reply to rslifkin :

Young people with money were buying Escalades instead of XLRs

Liked them a lot, and even saw them being built at Bowling Green during a plant tour.  But, I’ll pass on pretty much anything with a Northstar unless I can get it for less than I can easily part it out for.

I think they're cool cars.  

When I was a valet, I remember these two friends came in at the same time. One in a gold/biege XLR, the other in a burnt orange C5 vert. I parked them both up front right next to each other with the tops down. They seemed like completely different cars, until I hung the keys and realized they both used that same crappy mid-2000's GM key fob. You know the one.

What do we count as "having money" these days?

I see young people (us milennials) driving newer cars all the time, doesn't mean they can afford it when they had to stretch out their loan to 96 months.

But on topic, the XLR and Northstar just make me go meh. Would rather C5 Z06. Or a 07+ C6.

I think the supercharged N* was a beefed up (and smaller bore??) 4.4 version.  Not sure if these still had the same headbolt/gasket issues the regular versions had?  I've always thought they were cool cars.

I got to drive a new on in 2006.  Even at a time when 300hp was a healthy number it didn't feel very fast to me. I'm not sure if it was the throttle tuning or what. I tried both with and without traction control on. 

If I had no plans to drive it hard it would be great. If I wanted the thrill of some power under my right foot the same year corvette was way more bang for the same money. 

Also interesting is that I know a small business owner who traded a grand sport c6 for a xlr-v. His employees gave him he'll about flaunting money when he had the vette, but never said a word about the Cadillac. 

 But, I’ll pass on pretty much anything with a Northstar unless I can get it for less than I can easily part it out for.

I don't really hate the Northstar so much as the cars you find them in. I wonder how bad an XLR is to work on? Probably better than a FWD Cadillac! Is it $1000 in labor to do an oil pan gasket? Or a transmission sensor? Probably not. And, it won't suffer the problem that minor repairs are so labor intensive that their cost equals the value of the vehicle so everything goes unfixed until a perfectly decent vehicle essentially goes completely to E36 M3 in fear of repair costs. Considering XLRs are still worth 5 digits of money after all this time, they will never suffer that fate which makes every other Northstar Cadillac a rolling exhibit in what happens if you never fix anything ever.  

If I had an XLR, I'd become a small business owner too. It's just that the small business would be in China, where we would pump out knockoff tail lights.

SO, what you are saying is find a base model with perfect taillights and top and a blown motor, and swap in an LS7?