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Coupes & Convertibles Cadillac XLR and XLR-V Cadillac XLR vs. Mercedes-Benz SL
63 messages, Last post on Mar 07, 2009 at 4:51 AM
You are in the Cadillac XLR and XLR-V Forum. Your Host is claires
Compare and contrast the features of the Cadillac XLR/XLR-V with those of the Mercedes-Benz SL-Class models.
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Replying to: woodlands (Aug 07, 2006 5:06 pm) Do we really want to get into finding comments on the net about unhappy owners? GM owners would own the bandwidth on that one! M
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Replying to: merc1 (Aug 07, 2006 8:31 pm) Mercedes has zero advantage regarding quality and in some cases places behind Cadillac (or other GM brand). I will admit that neither brand comes close to the Japanese competitors. It is interesting that for the 2006 JD Powers initial quality survey, the Chevrolet Corvette and the SL Class tied. If you want to know what owners think of their cars you need to survey 'net sites where owner's talk about the good and bad of vehicles. The Mercedes site says there are problems with the vehicles.
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Replying to: woodlands (Aug 08, 2006 9:29 am) The SL and Corvette tied in initial quality - big deal. The SL has been wiping the floor with whatever roadster Cadillac has had for the last 20 years! What this has to do is with you trashing Cadillac, when in fact the ratings (JD Powers) reflect that owners/buyers believe they are as good as Mercedes. Whooptie doo, so they're happy that their Cadillacs aren't falling apart anymore, doesn't mean much when the rest of the car is lacking compared to the competition and getting beat left and right and doesn't sell in good numbers relative to the class. Win one battle, but Cadillac still looses the war big time. Let me know when Cadillac gets their build quality, styling, engineering, and interior plastics above regular GM products and truly worthy of a 100K car. Mercedes has zero advantage regarding quality and in some cases places behind Cadillac (or other GM brand). Yet it doesn't do them any good when compared to the competition! Reliability isn't the same as quality either. GM cars manage not to fall apart of cough up their internals in 90 days, but they're still shoddily built and for that the mis-informed take this as being a better "quality" car. M
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Replying to: merc1 (Jul 09, 2006 9:23 pm) Crossed 9,000 miles in the XLR-v last week. Dead nuts reliable, feels faster than new, as expected. This car gets more attention than an SL. And the interior materials show no signs of use whatsoever. Very high quality, and not overwrought. A friend and I swapped cars for a few hours -- he has an SL55. Man, do you feel that extra quarter ton in the porky MB. Yeah, they keep the tires planted, but you feel the inertia of that useless mass in every change of direction. I far prefer the more incisive, agile V. Phil
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Replying to: merc1 (Aug 08, 2006 12:57 pm) 9,000+ miles on the XLR-v and nothing about the car has deteriorated. Friends who have SLs have all been back to the dealer for numerous fixes, corrections, adjustments in similar mileage, including cars that refused to start. I noticed trim lifting from heat on a few SLs in parking lots in this hot summer in L.A. (an unusual 119 degrees F where I live, at peak heat). No such problems on my XLR-v. The car is nimble, quick, comfortable, fast, assured, stout. Similar miles on the CTS-v and same experience. Couldn't be happier, especially when I hear that dorky-sounding BMW V10 M5 beside (or behind) me on PCH. What a godawful, untuneful buzz. One really good sign for Cadillac: the XLR-v turns heads en masse near elementary, middle and high schools. Better yet, here's a story. This summer I was driving to Santa Monica through Topanga Canyon one morning. A car was stopped to make a left turn at the Fernwood Market, and a lost truck driver was blocking room to pass on the right. Some kids were standing in front of the market. I'm looking at oncoming traffic, and I see a Bugatti Veyron rolling in the opposite lane, approaching me. (I'm thinking it was Jay Leno, as he is sometimes seen on that road, and there are very few people who combine the means to own that car with the inclination to drive it in everyday traffic.) As the Veyron rolls past me, one of the boys in the parking lot points and yells, "Hey Mister, what's that?" I jerked my thumb in the direction of the just-passed Veyron and say, "it's the new Bugatti Veyron!" The kid says, no, not the Bugatti, YOUR car!" I said, "Oh, it's the Cadillac XLR-V." The guy making the left turn moved out of the way and I rolled away to two-handed thumbs-up from 6 teenage boys. This is an excellent harbinger for Cadillac. Anyway, I'm in the biggest local Mercedes market in the world, Southern California. You couldn't find a blander more cliched car to drive than an MB, and if you see who is driving them, you don't want to emulate the marque's drivers. It's not like the old days when Clark Gable drove something interesting. Paris Hilton drives an SLR McLaren for cryin' out loud! Really, none of their cars are the least bit interesting here. Fortunately I don't have to drive something so mundane. I'm also seeing a steady pickup in XLR/XLR-v in routine traffic. A few years on, the XLR design still looks fresh and advanced. The platform is light, high performance and luxurious in this iteration. If someone prefers a Mercedes SL, or worse a Lexus SC, that's up to them. But there is no substantive reason other than brand-seeking, social insecurity, or lemming behavior to buy either over the Cadillac. Phil
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Replying to: 213xlrv (Sep 12, 2006 7:42 pm) Well it is called being superior, now you can coat it with an excuse about products and phases if you like. Doesn't matter the SL was judged superior by all before the 07' upgrades. Brakes of an XLR-v not quite up to a 911's? Really? Not up to a Z06 either! That's because it's not a pure sports car and it's 600 pounds heavier than those two. However, this is easily corrected in the aftermarket if anyone really thinks that gap is worth closing. I have to ask you if you're been reading you're own posts up until now? I've been telling you that the XLR-V isn't a sports car all along, yet you going on and on about it being lighter and what not and yet none of that turned up in actual testing by the professionals, now you claim that the XLR isn't a sports car! Well no kidding! Now you've got to resort to the aftermarket to get brakes, how lacking is that on a 100K car! Crossed 9,000 miles in the XLR-v last week. Dead nuts reliable, feels faster than new, as expected. This car gets more attention than an SL. And the interior materials show no signs of use whatsoever. Very high quality, and not overwrought. A friend and I swapped cars for a few hours -- he has an SL55. Man, do you feel that extra quarter ton in the porky MB. Yeah, they keep the tires planted, but you feel the inertia of that useless mass in every change of direction. I far prefer the more incisive, agile V. Congratulations on the miles, but the rest of that I'd have to say it is time to turn that record over. Both MT and C&D judged the mere base SL550 to be better handling than the XLR-V, and to add insult to injury MT even said that the SL550 felt lighter and more agile. So much for your friend and his seat of the pants assesment! M
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Replying to: 213xlrv (Sep 12, 2006 8:07 pm) We're down to bragging rights about kids turning their heads when a XLR passes by? They can't buy and by the time they're ready, willing and able, the current XLR will be in a GM historical display in Detroit. I've never seen so much nonsense written in dislike of a particular brand, that wasn't based on anything but a clear and present bias and resentment of said brand building a better car. Goodness that was a lot of nothing guy. M
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Replying to: merc1 (Sep 12, 2006 9:16 pm) Who said C&D has any special insight about automobiles anymore? Not me. They are entertaining to read, but actual experience with a large number of vehicles only leaves me wondering what the magazine reviewers ever knew in the first place. Anyone who thinks an SL550 feels lighter and more agile than an XLR-v is numb or has otherwise dulled senses. The brakes on the XLR-v are fine. Exceptional really. Only if you want Corvette Z06 or Porsche 911 stop distances will you want beefier brakes to make up for the added mass of the luxury GT retractable hardtop. In which case you'll be mucking with the luxury/sports car axis by increasing the unsprung mass on all four corners. Cadillac has it right for the car's purpose. Phil
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Replying to: merc1 (Sep 12, 2006 9:20 pm) Plainly, I'll say it again: Between the Mercedes SL-XXX variants and the XLR-v, Cadillac has built and offers the better car. Phil
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Replying to: 213xlrv (Sep 12, 2006 10:15 pm) I'm sorry guy but you're just back stroking now because I've been saying that the XLR isn't a sports car all along and now that it has been tested and compared against the competition and found to be lacking you've all of sudden seen the light. Also, this advantage you keep talking about regarding mass hasn't materialized anywhere especially in regards to handling, where the SL was chosen to be better at the task. Maybe it is the skinny tires on the XLR or something, who knows, but this weight advantge you're maintaind hasn't shown up in any tests so far. What C&D said was that in the mountains the SL felt agile and MT said that SL actually felt more agile also. Having to mention something, anything about going aftermarket for brakes a luxury GT car is downright inexcusable and really ridiculous. Now to be fair in the C&D test the XLR-V's brakes were pitiful, but in the MT test they turned in the same distance as the SL550 so that could have been just a one time thing, but still. The XLR-V is a the top of the line XLR, the SL550 is the base SL and for all the talk done before the differences are very slight. The SL55 AMG would rip the XLR-V good if the SL550 can come oh so close to doing so already, so much for all that about the Corvette's platform and what not, hasn't amounted to anything, only last place in C&D's comparo. It is amazing how you now refer to the XLR as a "luxury GT retractable hardtop", when just few months ago it was this oh-so light sporting machine that made the SL look like a beached whale. Hilarious. "Unsprung mass" and "right car for the purpose" yet it loses to a bunch of other cars and to the SL each and every time. I love it!!! M
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