Fractured Friday

In my opinion…unlimited freedom, especially in the context of a country or a society, is not freedom. It’s anarchy. You don’t have to like your neighbors; you don’t even have to care about your neighbors. However, you do NOT have the right to risk the health of others through what I can only describe as willful negligence. Yes, that phrase sounds like an oxymoron like “current American music.”

We are all suffering from coronavirus fatigue and we all want to be back to normal as soon as possible. However, the timetable is not up to us and it’s not up to government, either. The virus and the pharmaceutical companies will determine the course of events.

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Yesterday I had a long (two hours) and very enjoyable conversation with my long-time friend, Mel Kiper. Believe it or not, most of the conversation was not about football. He and I have known each other for almost 30 years, but I think we both learned things about each other that we did not know before yesterday.

I really do know a fair number of famous people. Fame has eluded me, not that I have been actively seeking it. From our “hometown” newspaper, The Baltimore Sun, a picture of Mel.

 

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I have not really written about this car in about three months and seeing one yesterday (or was it the day before yesterday?, time compression secondary to aging is no fun ☹️), in addition to receiving a listing for one in my daily email from Classic Cars, were the impetus I needed to show this car again.

Originally shown as the EVOQ concept at the 1999 Detroit Auto Show, the Cadillac XLR was the make’s second unsuccessful attempt to sell a two-seat roadster to compete with the Mercedes-Benz SL models. Success or not, I have thought these cars were simply stunning in design from the first time I saw one at an auto show. From the aforementioned Classic Cars a picture of a 2007 XLR-V (the “V” means the engine is supercharged):

 

The XLR-V was powered by a supercharged 4.4 liter/267 cubic-inch V-8 that produced 443 HP/414 LB-FT of torque. The XLR was based on C6 Corvette architecture and was manufactured in the same Bowling Green, Kentucky factory that builds the Corvette.

Before I bought a used BMW Z4 in May of 2016 (was that really more than four years ago?!), I considered buying a used XLR. While at breakfast some time before I bought the Z4 I asked a friend, a “car guy,” if he knew anything about the XLR. I didn’t know he had owned two of them that he had purchased new and that BOTH of them were re-purchased by Cadillac under our state’s lemon law. One of his cars had been in the shop for 244 of 365 days. That was enough bad news for me. Of course, the Z4 hardly turned out to be a trouble-free car and I sold it after 29 months.

Maybe Cadillac thought it had to get the XLR to market as soon as possible although the car was not available for more than four years after the EVOQ was shown in Detroit. Just like with the Allanté, though, maybe just another year of refinement would have enabled the XLR to be released with far fewer issues. In all honesty, Cadillac overpriced the car and, in all honesty, the market for cars like this collapsed in the wake of the beginning of the “Great Recession” in 2008. The XLR was built from 2003 through 2009 although the first cars were sold as 2004 model year.

Initially projected to sell between 5,000 and 7,000 units per year only 15,460 were sold in total, including 200 leftover 2009 models sold new in 2010 and 2011. The most sold in a year was about 3,700 in 2005. Problems with the car became well known (welcome to the Internet age) and even though cars built from 2006 on are supposed to be quality vehicles, the damage was done and the “Financial Meltdown” was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

I don’t think Cadillac will ever build another two-seat roadster, which is a shame in my opinion. I still think the make is the most logical builder of an American super-luxury car that I think could sell the number of units originally projected for the XLR. I don’t know how much it would cost to design and to tool for a new car. Maybe the car would have to be priced way too high to recoup those costs in a reasonable period of time. Then again, maybe such a car would be a “Giffen Good,” a product that contradicts the normal law of demand and is consumed more the more expensive it is. A really outstanding car could be such an exception.

For quite a long period of time, I really thought I would own an XLR someday. Who knows? Maybe I still will, warts and all. I’m talking about the car, I think.  🙂

 

#FracturedFriday

#MelKiper

#CadillacXLR

#GiffenGood

#somanycarsjustonelife

#disaffectedmusings

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