McLaughlin Motors

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Walk Around

The styling of the Cadillac XLR is distinctive and controversial. Some people like the sharp styling, some people don't. 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 the XLR looks when the hard top 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 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.

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 Cadillac could and should have done something different with the wheels, though: The 18-inch, mirror-polished alloy, a seven-spoke wagon-wheel design looks spindly under the aggressively solid XLR.

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. 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/air dam 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 big, so it looks hot. The rocker-panel extension, 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.

There are no door handles; instead a small release button hides inside a deep notch behind the top trailing edge of the door. You don't need the key to unlock or start the XLR. With the key fob in your pocket or purse, the door will unlock as you stand before it, and you can fire or kill the engine with the push of a button on the instrument panel. When you walk away from the car it locks itself. If the key fob transmitter fails, there's a little hole in the rear bumper with a plug covering a slot for the key.

On the ultra-performance XLR-V, the upper and lower front air openings at least match; both are filled with a polished fine wire mesh calculated to look custom. The V-model's engine hood bulges in the center, somewhat like a third-generation Corvette's, providing clearance for the supercharger but also adding some visual strength to an area where the base model seems a bit reticent.

The XLR-V's 10-spoke alloy wheels are more three-dimensional in design and contour than the standard model's flattish seven-spokers; unquestionably an improvement, they help showcase black-finished brake calipers machined with the V-series logo. XLR-V comes in only three exterior colors: Infra Red, Black Raven, and Light Platinum.

Interior

2007 Cadillac XLR

The Cadillac XLR has an attractive interior, as tastefully done as a Lexus, though it still feels like a Cadillac inside. The interior is awash in beige or black leather. Customers can choose light or dark eucalyptus at no extra charge. Equally tasteful use of anodized aluminum trim brightens the atmosphere. Dash and other trim materials appear to be of high quality. It's as nice as anything from Lexus, Mercedes-Benz or BMW.

The XLR-V has Zingana wood on the shifter knob, cup holder area, steering wheel, and on portions of the door and center console. Its seats feature French stitching and matching perforated suede fabric inserts.

From behind the wheel the view is swoopy. Between the fender bulge and a peaked center line on the hood, a subtle but sharp trough runs away from the driver down his or her line of sight. A head-up display projected onto the windshield indicates speed and the selected gear, the latter convenient when using the manual shifting mode. The HUD also displays the radio station for a moment after switching stations; and does some neat scoreboard-type effects for your amusement.

The instrument panel is by Bvlgari, an Italian design company known primarily for its jewelry. The gauges are clear, with white numbers on a black background, surrounded by unnecessary but seemingly obligatory chrome rings.

The leather-wrapped steering wheel has burled wood between 10 o'clock and 2 o'clock, which has drawn mixed opinions.

The XLR seats feel relatively soft and are heated and cooled. There's decent bolstering. More support could be used in a car that corners this well, though that would make getting in and out harder.

Thankfully, Cadillac hasn't tried to compete in the flawed technology chase that BMW and Audi send their luxury drivers on to control simple things. Most of the functions in the XLR are controlled by simple switchgear with finger-sized buttons. The HVAC (heating and air conditioning) controls are blissfully separate, elegantly designed and easy to use. The navigation system is displayed on a seven-inch LCD screen located in the center console, under neat rectangular heating and cooling vents. The system will also play DVD movies when the transmission is in Park, treating the driver and passenger to virtual surround sound, like a drive-in movie theater without the wailing babies. The screen can be difficult to read in bright sunlight, however.

Setting up the radio is tedious until you know how. Once set up, however, buttons on the steering wheel make switching among your favorite stations easy. Turning off the radio is as easy as pressing the volume knob, aesthetically more appealing than the Mercedes system which cannot be turned off without turning off the navigation. XM Satellite Radio is standard on XLR, providing 24-hour news channels, sports stations, and near-CD quality music anywhere you travel.

It's even easy to reach the dual cup holders on the center console next to the shifter. The XLR is a two-seater, though, so there's not much room to store so much as a briefcase or tote bag without cooperation from your passenger. Places to stash stuff are provided in the doors, center console and glove box, though none of them are large.

The retractable hard top consumes three-fourths of the trunk space when it's down. And because the trunk raises and opens at the back to swallow it, rainwater will drain down in the trunk instead of dropping on the ground behind the bumper. Cadillac says owners should be able to fit a small golf bag in the trunk (or passenger seat), but recommend keeping the clubs at the club.

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