Recently retired, spare time on my hands, decided to run down to Florida for 2 weeks from my home just outside Toronto. If ever there was a car built to stroll down 1200 miles of Interstate and around Florida, it is the XLR. Car was flawless, gas mileage about 30 mpg, great trip. Storage space a bit tight, but it was just me and I travel light. Only concern was parking at night in motels and praying some idiot did not key the car. Anyway, everything great. Planning for return trip, I knew I needed to find window of good weather andblast home ASAP. Ran 15 hours straight from Florida to just north of Pittsburgh. Weather nice, dry roads, but I was so tired I had to stop. Next AM woke up to a very light snowfall. "Light" in the XLR with run flat summer tires and virtually no ground clearance is a relative term; ANY amount of snow is deadly! Figured the interstate would be OK and hotel was only 1/2 mile off it. Drove carefully out of parking lot, got coffee, hit interstate. Was wet but no snow. Drove steady 55 MPH even though everybody else was 70 MPH but I was in no hurry and I knew that any black ice or just going into a tight corner a bit too fast and I was history. Traffic very light, sun actually came out just past Erie PA. Figured I was home free. About 25 miles south of Buffalo at 11:15 AM, snow started. I slowed down, figured it would pass quickly since forecast was only for "flurries". Snow got very heavy, very fast. Road became snow covered and I knew I was in huge trouble. No where to pull off. Fortunately a 18 wheeler was in my lane ahead of me, doing 30 MPH. That was fine by me. Pulled in behind him 300' back since I knew that if I touched the brakes, I was done. Snow got worse, now it was deep enough that spray from tires was hitting the underpan of the car. I was petrified and knew my only option was to stay in the tracks of that truck and pray. Passed an exit ramp because figured I was better to stay behind the truck than get off on an exit ramp in the middle of no where that by now had 2" of snow on it. By now the interstate was down to a single lane doing 30MPH and you could not see 50' ahead because snow was so heavy. My mind was racing with options; but really I had none. And all of a sudden,15 minutes after it started, it stopped. I thought My God, that was sheer terror! Prayed it was over and sure enough, the roads the rest of the way were bone dry.

Moral of the story is the XLR is a great car but for anyone going north-south, stay away from Buffalo!

One tech question. The adaptive cruise control is great feature but if the sensor gets covered in snow, it will not work. But it appears to mean the cruise control period (even to work in the normal, manual control version) will not work. Is there any way to use cruise even if the sensor is blocked.

First Welcome to the Forum!!! We all hope you will enjoy your time here!!!

You story reminds me of my trips in the norht in Corvettes. Thes cars are just ooo low for the snow and ice. I would say though I would feel far more comfortable with the XLR since it has the ABS Brakes on it and seems to track better...enhancements in engineering.

Cruise Control--Well that's a new one for me at least. I wouldn't think that the cruise would stop working all together if the adaptivepart stopped working...for any reason.

I like your use of the 18 wheeler. I do that with my motorcycles too. They seem to look out for you too when they know you are back there.

Regards

You are correct. When the adaptive cruise control gets blocked, it does not work and you do not have cruise control available. I had that happen while driving in snow in Colorado and road grime/snow/etc. covered the screen and you just get the red collision warning which senses something close, in this case snow on the screen. It shuts down the cruise control until you clean the screen off.

You are correct. When the adaptive cruise control gets blocked, it does not work and you do not have cruise control available. I had that happen while driving in snow in Colorado and road grime/snow/etc. covered the screen and you just get the red collision warning which senses something close, in this case snow on the screen. It shuts down the cruise control until you clean the screen off.
Jim:

How's the 2009 working out??? You and Jean are by far the most "experienced" multiple year XLR Owners out there.

Regards

Jerry

Recently retired, spare time on my hands, decided to run down to Florida for 2 weeks from my home just outside Toronto. If ever there was a car built to stroll down 1200 miles of Interstate and around Florida, it is the XLR. Car was flawless, gas mileage about 30 mpg, great trip. Storage space a bit tight, but it was just me and I travel light. Only concern was parking at night in motels and praying some idiot did not key the car. Anyway, everything great. Planning for return trip, I knew I needed to find window of good weather andblast home ASAP. Ran 15 hours straight from Florida to just north of Pittsburgh. Weather nice, dry roads, but I was so tired I had to stop. Next AM woke up to a very light snowfall. "Light" in the XLR with run flat summer tires and virtually no ground clearance is a relative term; ANY amount of snow is deadly! Figured the interstate would be OK and hotel was only 1/2 mile off it. Drove carefully out of parking lot, got coffee, hit interstate. Was wet but no snow. Drove steady 55 MPH even though everybody else was 70 MPH but I was in no hurry and I knew that any black ice or just going into a tight corner a bit too fast and I was history. Traffic very light, sun actually came out just past Erie PA. Figured I was home free. About 25 miles south of Buffalo at 11:15 AM, snow started. I slowed down, figured it would pass quickly since forecast was only for "flurries". Snow got very heavy, very fast. Road became snow covered and I knew I was in huge trouble. No where to pull off. Fortunately a 18 wheeler was in my lane ahead of me, doing 30 MPH. That was fine by me. Pulled in behind him 300' back since I knew that if I touched the brakes, I was done. Snow got worse, now it was deep enough that spray from tires was hitting the underpan of the car. I was petrified and knew my only option was to stay in the tracks of that truck and pray. Passed an exit ramp because figured I was better to stay behind the truck than get off on an exit ramp in the middle of no where that by now had 2" of snow on it. By now the interstate was down to a single lane doing 30MPH and you could not see 50' ahead because snow was so heavy. My mind was racing with options; but really I had none. And all of a sudden,15 minutes after it started, it stopped. I thought My God, that was sheer terror! Prayed it was over and sure enough, the roads the rest of the way were bone dry.

Moral of the story is the XLR is a great car but for anyone going north-south, stay away from Buffalo!

One tech question. The adaptive cruise control is great feature but if the sensor gets covered in snow, it will not work. But it appears to mean the cruise control period (even to work in the normal, manual control version) will not work. Is there any way to use cruise even if the sensor is blocked.

DO NOT DRIVE ON SNOW OR ICE WITH CRUISE ENGAGED!!!!
The system is also affected by road spray from heavy rain, the "radar" sees the moisture and reacts as if a vehicle is present. Use manual control in less than optimum conditions. That is to say "hand fly the aircraft".

The 2009 is great and so far has been trouble free. I really enjoy the upgrades from the 2006 (except for the vents). We have not seen another 2009 on the road anywhere and not even at any dealerships that we have been by during our travels. I really like the new Black Cherry color. Jean is still very happy with her 2008 Electra Blue and has also not experienced any problems.

The XLR was designed with only ACC, can you imagine if there was a manual control, or a ACC/Norm mode and you were traveling along at 70 mph and were approaching slower traffic just ahead. With that comfortable knowledge that in a short while your XLR would de-throttle and simply slow down to match the traffic in front of you.

Then all of a sudden you realize your approaching way to fast, and you remember that you had switched your ACC to a norm mode!!! That is the exact reason there is your ACC only.

Remember the XLR-V does not have ACC just the normal cruise as the lower wire mesh would hamper the radar unit.

www.Cadillac-XLR.com (http://www.Cadillac-XLR.com)

Thanks
Allen

Just another note about cruse control and wet/icy weather - depending on where the speed sensor is in relation to the driven wheels it can be very dangerous to have cruise engaged. For example if your speed input comes from the front wheels on a rear drive car and the front wheels start to slip or hydroplane, the CC may call for more acceleration, thus causing possible loss of control. (It would be good for additional tech input from someone on the speed sensor location on the XLR). I know I don't worry on my front drive DTS, but am very careful about using ACC with my XLR in bad weather.

Thanks for the feedback. Just to be clear, I was not using the cruise at all when the roads were even a bit wet, let alone snowing. But once the snow cleared up, the roads were bone dry and weather sunny. I find when traveling through different states, cruise is the best way to be sure you are inside the speed limit window.

Point about possible confusion if adaptive cruise could be switched on/off is well taken. We do tend to get lazy when the technology takes over!

The 2009 is great and so far has been trouble free. I really enjoy the upgrades from the 2006 (except for the vents). We have not seen another 2009 on the road anywhere and not even at any dealerships that we have been by during our travels. I really like the new Black Cherry color. Jean is still very happy with her 2008 Electra Blue and has also not experienced any problems.
Jim :

I'm very happy to hear you guys are enjoying your cars. Maybe we will survive all of this car meltdown and get back to enjoying the cars.

Happy Holidays to you guys!!!

If ever there was a car built to stroll down 1200 miles of Interstate and around Florida, it is the XLR. Car was flawless, gas mileage about 30 mpg

!! Most of my driving is highway related, but I only get 18mpg ...... :cuss

DFAD:
The next time you get in the Erie, PA area and the weather is less than optimum, if you'd like a place to stay for the night or till the weather gets better, let me know. We'll put you up for the evening or till the weather gets better. The V is in storage right now but I'm sure we can still talk about XLRs.
Ernie