)Re:
The following excerpt came from a local guy, friend of mine, that is an XLR tech.
"I agree on the pricing...it's way over the top. Even $75k for a "regular" XLR is excessive, IMHO. I've torn apart just about everything that can be disassembled on one, and have yet to find where the extra money over the 'Vette went. It probably went into mating that damned Northstar to the body. I know Cadillac's staple engine, and most of their image, is the Northstar V8, but even though they've redesigned them, they STILL have all the problems of the Gen2 Northstar. The block is a 2 piece design, and the seal between them ALWAYS leaks from the factory. We can fix them, but it's a $4k-5k repair. The blocks aren't a strong enough aluminum alloy, and after 50-60k miles, the threads will pull out of a couple of head bolt holes, and will blow the headgaskets. You have to put thread inserts in every head bolt bore, 20 total, and just the inserts are around $10/piece. A complete head gasket job is around $3k-4k as well. Now that the engine is being used in RWD applications, the design of the front cover has changed, and has become another problem. Every XLR our dealership has gotten, I've PDI'ed (pre-delivery inspection), and every single one of the is leaking oil from the front cover gasket. To this day, I've probably put 10-15 new seals on. I was the first person in the country to put a new engine in an XLR - I had an '05 with 1200 miles on it blow headgaskets I've put in at least 10 radiators because they leak at the mating surface of the left side tank to the tube/fin grid. There's a recall on some '04's to fix a couple of conditions that cause brake lines to be rubbed-through and causing a brake line leak The factory Michelin MXM4 Runflats last 15k-20k miles...that's it (albeit, it's better than the 4k-8k miles that CTS-V Eagle Supercar Runflats go). Surprisingly enough, I've only had a few problems with the folding top, for as complicated as it is...
I'll quit my rant about the problems they have They do have some unique features, like the folding top, heated and cooled seats, radar adaptive cruise control, EZKey system, etc...but IMHO, they aren't worth the MSRP GM wants for them. Imagine a 'Vette with a nice interior, a couple of cool options, less power, worse handling, and a higher price tag, and you have an XLR "
He does love the cars really...he was just giving it to me straight...
The following excerpt came from a local guy, friend of mine, that is an XLR tech.
"I agree on the pricing...it's way over the top. Even $75k for a "regular" XLR is excessive, IMHO. I've torn apart just about everything that can be disassembled on one, and have yet to find where the extra money over the 'Vette went. It probably went into mating that damned Northstar to the body. I know Cadillac's staple engine, and most of their image, is the Northstar V8, but even though they've redesigned them, they STILL have all the problems of the Gen2 Northstar. The block is a 2 piece design, and the seal between them ALWAYS leaks from the factory. We can fix them, but it's a $4k-5k repair. The blocks aren't a strong enough aluminum alloy, and after 50-60k miles, the threads will pull out of a couple of head bolt holes, and will blow the headgaskets. You have to put thread inserts in every head bolt bore, 20 total, and just the inserts are around $10/piece. A complete head gasket job is around $3k-4k as well. Now that the engine is being used in RWD applications, the design of the front cover has changed, and has become another problem. Every XLR our dealership has gotten, I've PDI'ed (pre-delivery inspection), and every single one of the is leaking oil from the front cover gasket. To this day, I've probably put 10-15 new seals on. I was the first person in the country to put a new engine in an XLR - I had an '05 with 1200 miles on it blow headgaskets I've put in at least 10 radiators because they leak at the mating surface of the left side tank to the tube/fin grid. There's a recall on some '04's to fix a couple of conditions that cause brake lines to be rubbed-through and causing a brake line leak The factory Michelin MXM4 Runflats last 15k-20k miles...that's it (albeit, it's better than the 4k-8k miles that CTS-V Eagle Supercar Runflats go). Surprisingly enough, I've only had a few problems with the folding top, for as complicated as it is...
I'll quit my rant about the problems they have They do have some unique features, like the folding top, heated and cooled seats, radar adaptive cruise control, EZKey system, etc...but IMHO, they aren't worth the MSRP GM wants for them. Imagine a 'Vette with a nice interior, a couple of cool options, less power, worse handling, and a higher price tag, and you have an XLR "
He does love the cars really...he was just giving it to me straight...
