We’ve seen three Cadillac XLRs here on Barn Finds over the last few years. It’s hard to believe they’re old enough to be considered even remotely a vintage vehicle. What I wouldn’t give to be 21 years younger. This 2005 Cadillac XLR can be found here on Facebook Marketplace in Virginia Beach, Virginia, and they’re asking $11,200. Here is the original listing, and thanks to Chuck F. for the tip!
The paint variation between the Crimson Pearl paint on the passenger door and the right front fender is pretty noticeable, as is the door gap there. The seller acknowledges that there are a few cosmetic issues to get worked out, but they don’t go into detail on what they are. That’s really the only one that I notice. How about you? They are very sleek and sexy cars; it’s impossible to argue that. Well, not impossible, but darn near impossible.
This view shows the buzzword for these cars, the taillights. For the Pinto, it’s that every one of them will eventually blow up, for the Delorean, it’s the flux-capacitor. Every single 80s LeBaron convertible has been owned by Jerry Seinfeld’s dentist, and so on and so on (times 1,000,000). For the XLR, it’s the taillight lenses that apparently are harder to find than (insert really hard to find thing here). Thankfully, these look good and haven’t been stolen yet by gangs of roving XLR taillight thieves. Or maybe they’re still concentrating on Prius catalytic converters. We rarely get to see inside an XLR trunk compartment for some reason.
I’m assuming the sheepskin seat cover is for comfort or maybe to preserve the driver’s seat rather than hiding anything, but we don’t know. The back seat… er.. wait. No, the interior looks really nice to me overall. A 6-speed manual would have been nice here, but the XLR, even in XLR-V trim, came with an automatic transmission. The folding hardtop is a cool feature, that’s what I’d want on my convertible, if I had a convertible. They say the top works great, by the way.
The plastic shroud hides a Northstar 4.6-liter OHV V8, with 320 horsepower and 310 lb-ft of torque. Passing through the 5L50-E five-speed automatic to the rear wheels, this is basically a luxury Corvette with Cadillac sheet metal and badges. I’d take one over a Corvette every time, but that’s just me. The seller says it runs and drives great, which is nice to hear. Hagerty is at $10,900 for a #4 fair-condition car and $17,000 for a #3 good car, just as a reference. How much is this car worth?
SG, fun discussion of “buzzwords.” I’ll be on the lookout for “gangs of roving XLR taillight thieves.” But given I’ve not seen an XLR in ages, I don’t think I will be helpful in apprehending any.
Not a bad car. I like the colors. Not particularly expensive. Just enjoy it as a fun cruiser.
Thanks, Bob. I only mentioned a few “buzzwords,” there are a million of them. Maybe some other folks will mention a few, like every white Chrysler is “as big as a whale,” etc.
I agree, we just paid $11,000 to the gov’ment for taxes, even though I made 30% less last year, so $11k for this car seems like a steal. I know which one I would have rather spent money on.
Probably those Coleman minibikes would be on the top of the list!
Gaaaaa, I know, they’re already sold. I asked the seller to keep me in mind if the buyer backs out, but they must have already paid, dang.
I am pretty sure I wouldn’t buy this car if I was 41 years younger.
Great write up Scotty. About the tailights. I really liked your line “lenses that apparently are harder to find than (insert really hard to find thing here).” I never knew that until joining Barnfinds. I’m wondering if these cars are so old now, that the newer generation of parts stealers wouldn’t even know about these lenses. It’s a thought…..I’m right with Bob, wash, wax gas it up and enjoy it. I wouldn’t go Full Bull Moose Nuts with the minor panel gaps etc. Just hop in and have a blast with the top down. Thanks Scotty!!!
Way cooler than a Corvette of that era,& seems to be a steal
at that price if it’s as good as it looks.
Why are these so cheap?
Cadillac with a Northstar engine. Once you have been burned by one of these, you make a vow.
This is not the old Northstar of the 90s. It was redesigned and easily goes 200 000 miles. No headfasjet issue unless you are an idiot and drive it hot fir 100 miles.They do leak a bit of oil but 90,% of older cars do that. This car has no engine issues
Agree, my 1998 Eldorado did the Northstar thing, but I can go out and start my 56-year-old 1970 Eldorado and drive it anywhere! It took Cadillac way too long to fix the Northstar problem.
An ’05 Corvette was a first year C6 with a 400hp LS2 in the base car. The Caddy may look nice, but the problematic Northstar is probably why it’s priced where it is. I have the LS2 in my ’05 SSR with 54k miles and I’d take it (with its fully retractable roof) over the XLR all day long. I had a C5 with an LS1 and it was a great, comfortable car.
I begged my daughter, literally BEGGED her to buy a Caddy like this. She said, get this, “oh dad, I don’t want some old grandpa car”,,,sigh,,,she went with the BMW. I told her she’d fit right in at the studio parking lot,,old grandpa car,,,see? We all have these inherent misgivings about cars, that nothing can penetrate, and these are “cheap” because they are a nightmare to repair. Not that the BMW isn’t( $6500 for a new engine wiring harness some rats chewed) This really is a nice car.
How many miles does it have?
Tail light assembly, no problem, available on Parts Geek and other vendors too.
https://www.partsgeek.com/46dslyt-cadillac-cts-tail-light-assembly.html
Nice Vettilac!! Nice plush seat cover also!!
Even though I dislike automatic transmission Corvetts. I do like these. I was the top sales guy at our dealership for this model vehicle. (I was in commercial sales) But somehow a commercial contact from Las Vegas called me on one and later kept telling his friends to call me. Every single one I sold went to Las Vegas. (About 425 miles away) We had one on the showroom floor that got rearended. A person (high on dope) decided to drive through our showroom. He hit exactly at the center of the two glass doors, and shoved 2 other new vehicles into the XLR. Lots of broken glass, tail lamps, bent sheet metal and coolant all over the showroom floor!
Never knew that about the taillights on these. Doing a little research, I see they are going for 2-3 grand a piece. Wow.
$215 on Carparts.com
That is a pretty nifty car except for two things, the automatic and the Northstar engine. (I have heard numerous horror stories about them)
I completely agree with Don, why in the wide world of sports didn’t Cadillac go with the LS-2? That, and a six speed would make this thing ultra desirable.
Interesting comment OldRodder but you may be being a little unkind about the Northstar engine. By 2005 these engines were well and truly sorted and anyway a DOHC engine to my mind suits a sports car far better than a push rod variant. As an aside, The Car Wizard of YouTube fame did a number of episodes on these about a year or so ago – well worth a look. Given that the Northstar was okay by the time his car was made, what he did was probably unnecessary but it’s interesting viewing just the same.
Richard, my comment re: the Northstar was made based on what I had heard and not on personal experience.
But I still stand by my feeling about the LS-5.
My best friend bought his wife one of these around 2010 when they were still new(ish). Man, what a machine. Even though it was based on the Corvette platform it rode nothing like a Corvette. He traded it in on a new Cadillac Optic last month and much to his chagrin the trade-in value was squat and the car only had about 80k miles.
The tail lights were fine, save a few burnt out little led bulbs, the biggest gripe, other than all the electrical issues that recently started popping up was the headlights. He had the car a couple years and the headlights started to craze like usual and the little insert inside had started to discolor and warp.
He called the local Cadillac dealer and surprisingly they still had the new headlights for sale at $1000 per side. He damn near died right then and there choking on his beer at that price. I told him he better jump all over that with both feet while he still can because I knew good and well nobody was ever going to repop those puppies and nothing makes a car look worse than crappy headlights. I suggested he buy the new headlights, put them on his car and save his old ones just in case.
A couple years down the road and the headlights are starting to look really crusty. GM no longer carried them and the last we saw, several years ago, a single NOS headlight was a $5k and very used ones were going for $2500 +-. I just did a quick look on the Bay of E’s and there is a single NOS going for $6500 and the used ones going for at least a couple grand each.
He did however, wind up with an NOS XLR engine that is sitting in his shop on an engine stand.
@Scotty Gilbert
Awww, Scotty, you were going to buy this for me? $11,000 would be a steal. I was thinking let’s split it between fair and good at $14,000. That is if you couldn’t get at 11.