Cadillac XLR (05-06) - Review

With the XLR’s roof in the raised position, there’s not nearly as much space for occupants as the exterior size might lead you to believe. With the roof lowered, wind buffeting is not too bad, but at higher speeds the lack of a wind break behind the seats becomes an issue and at 70mph, turbulence in the cabin makes comfortable cruising unlikely. Thankfully, with the roof up, the cabin is quiet and there’s very little road or engine noise. There are plenty of goodies to pamper the Caddy’s occupants, including climate control, heated and cooled leather seats, sat-nav, and a superb Bose CD stereo.

Keep the roof over your head in the XLR and it has a decent boot, although it’s still quite small compared to many coupes and other sports cars’. Opt for open-top thrills and you kiss goodbye to almost all of the boot space as the roof design swallows up the luggage compartment, which is largely due to Cadillac using a more basic roof design than most of the competition. There’s little in the way of storage inside the cabin either. At least parking the XLR is easy thanks to standard rear parking sensors that help make the car’s expansive width more manageable.

There’s no problem with getting comfortable in the XLR’s driving seat, but the dash misses the style and harmony of its rivals’. The controls are scattered around the driver and the high-set centre tunnel makes you feel hemmed in. This sensation is furthered by the top rail of the windscreen jutting into the driver’s line of sight, though all-round vision with the roof raised is good thanks to the rear screen’s huge glass. A saving grace for the haphazard design of the cabin and slightly cheap looking materials is the head-up display that beams vital information onto the windscreen to save the driver taking his or her eyes from the road.