Mom Wants an XLR...Help Me Talk Her Down

Last week my parents were out and about and my dad struck up a conversation with some guy over his Cadillac.  Dad had never seen one before, and had no idea what it was- he texted me frantically and said "it looks like a Corvette, but its a Cadillac!  Are they valuable?"  I knew what car he was talking about, but since everything modern Cadillac is an alphabet soup of model designation I had to google it.  OK, so it's an XLR (Exeller?)  It's basically a C6 (or is it a C5?) but with a Northstar (!!) and a fancy  power retractable roof.  And the newest ones are like 15 years old.  Based on just this, I know the following:

1. It's a 15 year old GM product, so everything will start breaking on it, if it hasn't already

2.  It's a 15 year old Cadillac, so all the parts will be expensive.

3.  They only built 15,000 of them, so the parts will be REALLY expensive, AND no one will know how to fix them, AND insurance will cost through the ceiling.

4.  It's got some oragami-grade automatic folding retractable hardtop E36 M3.  That's going to break.

5.  It's got a Northstar engine, which makes up for being not as powerful as an LS by being more unreliable.  

Did I miss anything?  Is there a single redeeming quality about this car?  My mom saw a red one for sale online, and fell in love.  I told her to buy a Corvette instead.  

Have get a V. Then it DOES have an LS in it. Problem solved. 

I think you covered them, parts expense and rarity are the big ones. A C6 or C7 convertible might be a good substitute, or maybe even a Camaro convertible?

Find the price for a single headlight and show that to her.  In 20 seconds of online searching I find the price associated with those to be "real bad".

p.s. I like the above suggestion of a C6 convertibe about 1000x more than an XLR.  XLR looks cool from a distance, that's all I think about them really.

Mndsm said:

Have get a V. Then it DOES have an LS in it. Problem solved. 

Nope.  It's a supercharged 32valve 4.4l Northstar.  Yikes!

I'll be a contraian view:  They look wicked and they're pretty rare.  They should buy it and enjoy it.

-Signed, the guy who owns a modern diesel Mercedes and a Maserati Biturbo.

pres589 (djronnebaum) said:

Find the price for a single headlight and show that to her.  In 20 seconds of online searching I find the price associated with those to be "real bad".

 

p.s. I like the above suggestion of a C6 convertibe about 1000x more than an XLR.  XLR looks cool from a distance, that's all I think about them really.

I saw someone quote 1700 for a headlight.  It really says something about the maintenance of modern cars that that doesn't even seem horrific to me.  Then again, that might have been on a website from 2018, so maybe they're 5 grand apiece now.  

I think the cool-looking-ness of it is the appeal...and perhaps the only one.  That and the party trick of the top dropping.  

Yes, the V has a supercharged Northstar.  They reduced the bore, reducing displacement from 4.6 to 4.4, to help prevent it from popping head gaskets.  

Camaro, Corvette, or Mustang would all be better options IMO.

wae said:

I'll be a contraian view:  They look wicked and they're pretty rare.  They should buy it and enjoy it.

-Signed, the guy who owns a modern diesel Mercedes and a Maserati Biturbo.

Mom asked, what if they buy one with low miles and only drive it on sunny days?  Then it should last a long time, shouldn't it?

I responded that it would be a good idea to only drive it on nice days, so the weather is amenable to standing on the side of the road whilst awaiting the tow truck.  

what about an R230 variant of the Mercedes SL?  fully depreciated at this point, expensive maintenance, factory hard top convertible...

or a later model SLK350.  

i.e. I think i would rather have a 15 year old mercedes than a 15 year old cadillac.

In reply to volvoclearinghouse :

If your parents can afford it, and go into it knowing repairs will probably be rather expensive, and that doesn't bother them, I say go for it.  

When it comes to engine swaps in cars, everyone wants to see the "Dare to be different" swap.  It's expected that it'll cost more than just a SBC or LS swap.  I see this as the Automotive equivalent of that.

Have them buy the nicest example they can afford.

I thought the problem on these was tail lights not headlights.  I thought the tail light problem was an led circuit board that stops working. 

In depth...

https://jalopnik.com/why-a-cadillac-xlr-brake-light-can-cost-more-than-a-use-1840556672

In reply to John Welsh :

I think they're just using the headlight as an easy to understand example of how ruinously expensive parts would be in general.

I don't think these are going to be nice enough to justify all of the potential headaches.

wvumtnbkr said:

Mndsm said:

Have get a V. Then it DOES have an LS in it. Problem solved. 

Nope.  It's a supercharged 32valve 4.4l Northstar.  Yikes!

Coulda swore the V got a spicy LS. my bad. 

That's where I went.  Something that's likely to be broken in a very mild collision.  Price I saw was $6500 but that's also ebay results.  car-part.com makes me think $2500 or so for a decent used unit that will probably need some basic refinishing.  That's just the LH side headlight.

I found one for $7000 a while back. I entertained the notion of selling the four lights and some other parts to recoup and make a challenge car. I wasn't brave enough.  

Possibly not true... But, Mrs Frog told me if I see a car part on flea-bay at an outrageous price, that s because it is code for the fact that the part comes with a free bag of cocaine.  

Indy - Guy said:

In reply to volvoclearinghouse :

If your parents can afford it, and go into it knowing repairs will probably be rather expensive, and that doesn't bother them, I say go for it.  

Have them buy the nicest example they can afford.

 

Agreed. As long as they understand what they're buying, go for it.  It'll be a needy car and they will probably need to go out of their way to find a good place to get it serviced.  And when it does need service, they'll need to make sure it's done immediately.  And don't whinge at the bills. 

In a way it's like buying a Ferrari - there's a difference between being able to buy one and being able to own one.

I would agree with the sentiment about a Vette instead. Try to convince her to drive both and see if a Vette is tolerable to her.  Especially a C7, which should have a nicer interior than a C6 and maybe even the XLR. 

I always thought it would have made a lot of sense if GM had just re-badged the Corvette to make the XLR.

A luxury Corvette? Sign me up.

Everybody here talked me out of trading the excursion for one. If this group says"no", I think it's safe to assume "run and hide"

Purple Frog said:

Possibly not true... But, Mrs Frog told me if I see a car part on flea-bay at an outrageous price, that s because it is code for the fact that the part comes with a free bag of cocaine.  

Maybe all modern car headlights come with cocaine and I can just sell it to recoup value, that would be a relief

Personally, I think a far worse problem than the ones on your list is that they never offered it with a manual.

I doubt that I'm the only one that checked headlight prices. The mega auction site shows listings from $3000 to over $5000.

If they go for a corvette, they also might be able to find someone to pay money for it when they're done with it.

A little different perspective...

My parents are in their late 80s. Mom has been in a nursing home for five years, and  I just moved my dad into an assisted living. If I could go back in time 10-15 years, I would tell them the buy the turquoise T-Bird.  

Colin Wood said:

I always thought it would have made a lot of sense if GM had just re-badged the Corvette to make the XLR.

A luxury Corvette? Sign me up.

It's got some Corvette DNA, no? I seem to recall a transverse leaf spring, and that cannot be convergent evolution.