Help! Should I buy this 2006 XLR for 25K?

[Treasureroom]

I have a friend who is a multimillionare and owns an XLR. He is not into cars at all, he is into yachts. The XLR was owned by his 80 year old father until last year when the father died. The father maintained the car well but I know my friend and his 18 year old son beat on it. The car is still in his deceased fathers name so it’s a one owner car. The XLR is no longer under warranty.</SPAN>
Millage is just 17000 miles and the interior and exterior are perfect
</SPAN>
Problems</SPAN>
The tires have flat spots form the car sitting for long periods. They will need to be replaced.</SPAN>
The message on the dash board says something like “Speed limited to 80 MPH” and “SERVICE RIDE CONTROL
”</SPAN>
The serpentine belt is squealing bad. But after about ½ hour of driving the squeal went down considerably. </SPAN>
The car seems to bounce a lot at bumps in the road at high speeds.</SPAN>
DVD nav disk is all scratched up and cant be used. </SPAN>
The car lived its life in a shore town at a house right on the beach. Salt air. The XLR does not appear to have any rust but EVERYTHING there rusts must faster than normal. </SPAN>

All other systems and mechanicals on the car works perfect. No accidents. HOWEVER the car was stolen by the current owners girlfriend in 2010. She had the key and took it cause she was ****ed at him. He did not know who took the car and call the police. He ended up pressing charges on her. No damage was done, the car was shut off and located using on-star. I don’t know if this will show up on the car fax as I forgot to write down the vin.</SPAN>
Price $25000 firm. He wont budge on the price.</SPAN>

While my friend is a multi-millionare, I am not. 25K is almost exactly half my savings. This could potentially be a great deal. But if it ends up costing me another $5 k in repairs, I am not interested. My friend does not actually want to sell the car. He does not care about it. He is only selling it because I am pestering him about it. He is not going to fix anything before he sells it and the nearest Caddy dealership is 1.5 hours away so a pre-purchase inspection is not really an option.</SPAN>

LMK your thoughts. Please email me at xx7xx@hotmail.com</SPAN>

 

[Treasureroom]

The exterior is Blue and the interior color is cream.
The message on the display is "SERVICE RIDE CONTROL" Speed limited to 80 MPH

BTW, what is the little round thing that pops out of the center consule where the persons shoulders are. The back part of the center consul.

 

[First Robin]

The message on the display is "SERVICE RIDE CONTROL" Speed limited to 80 MPH

Sounds like a good buy to me even if you have to spend another $5,000. I have 26,000 miles on my 2006 and would not sell it for less than $45,000. You probably can buy an extended warranty from a Cadillac Dealer. What color is the one you are talking about?

 

[XLR-V Lover]

BTW, what is the little round thing that pops out of the center consule where the persons shoulders are. The back part of the center consul.


Twist it and it will open up a storage area.

 

[airmike]

first thing is to check for a salvage title! Nothing matters until then, because the value of a salvage title is roughly half. I owned a stolen recovered, trans am, never wrecked and perfect car, wonderful car to drive, BUT, not to resell or trade. If you ONLY want it to drive, then its not a deal breaker, but NO dealer will give a decent value for it, and many lending institutions would not lend on it either. I own 2 salvage title cars now, but not to resell or trade.

As far as the speed limited, probably suspension. everything on an xlr is expensive but that could be as simple as a bad connection, though if it bounces, it is likely struts? Someone will chime in on that probably, I don't have any idea of cost. Do you do any work on your cars, that should matter, because something like struts being hired, vs self repair would be a great difference.

You can find over 100 xlrs for sale on carsforsale.com to compare prices and mileage. there are a lot of low mileage ones out there.

 

[airmike]

I just had an additional thought. If you were talking about the body not having any rust, You definitely need to do car specific research, because they are fiberglass and wont rust body panels. They are far from cheap if you need to repair them also. Do some serious tire research too, because they have runflats from the factory and no jack so that is something to consider on that car. I am not trying to be demeaning at all, I just think you need to get more aware of what you are considering buying, it is not an ordinary car! that is great visually, bad repair wise. I KNOW I got lucky when I bought mine, because I didn't do good research.

 

[Treasureroom]

Well, I look under the underside of the car the best I could. I will be getting the carfax before I purchase the car. Im sure it is not a salvage car as the ex-girlfriend did not crash the car. I was told that On-star cut the engine to the car and it coasted to the side of the road where the police promptly showed up to arrest her and her accomplice. However I don’t want a theft recovery on the carfax. This affects the value too.</SPAN></SPAN>


Does anyone know what serpentine belt cost to replace at the dealership. I don’t plan on doing any maintenance myself with the exception of little things such as oil changes. </SPAN></SPAN>

 

[ChicagoDave]

I replaced shocks on my car - they are not cheap. I was quoted about $2,800 to replace all 4 shocks (by a Goodyear dealer when replacing tires). I bought the shocks myself and Bruce (Cadillac Tech) installed them. The shocks list for about $1,100 each (full retail) - I bought mine for about $700 each. Shocks are expensive - but they make a huge difference.

IMO - buyer beware... if the car has been driven rough, you just never know what could break on it. But a low mileage car at that price is still a good deal. Just make sure to take it to a Cadillac dealer for a thorough inspection if you do go for it. Good luck.

 

[BoughtTheXLR]

Service Ride Control could mean the car has had the dreaded flooded electronics issue. Left rear corner of trunk, dig up the carpet and see if there is any sign whatsoever of water having ever been in the compartment below. Both the top mechanism and ride control electronics are in there, and if they have been wet it could be very expensive to fix the ride control.

Knowing what is already known, I'd stay away unless it can be inspected by a certified XLR technician. Ideally, the one who is going to be asked to work on it if you bought it.

 

[b_pappy]

Service Ride Control could mean the car has had the dreaded flooded electronics issue. Left rear corner of trunk, dig up the carpet and see if there is any sign whatsoever of water having ever been in the compartment below. Both the top mechanism and ride control electronics are in there, and if they have been wet it could be very expensive to fix the ride control.

Knowing what is already known, I'd stay away unless it can be inspected by a certified XLR technician. Ideally, the one who is going to be asked to work on it if you bought it.

DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE THE IMPORTANCE OF THIS!!! The good news is this one is a 2006, and parts are available, the computer retails for around $500.00. Just check this compartment, if it has standing water, or shows evidence of it be very cautious. Also, make sure the top retracts normally. These can be finicky cars when things start to go bad.
Bruce

 

[sschooley]

The XLR is no longer under warranty.
Millage is just 17000 miles and the interior and exterior are perfect.

All other systems and mechanicals on the car works perfect. No accidents.
Price $25000 firm. He wont budge on the price.
LMK your thoughts

My thought is have the XLR checked to qualify for an extended warranty and buy the warranty. If it qualifies for the warranty buy the car if not then pass. Orlando Massey Cadillac North has a number of good XLR techs. Worth the trip up here and they can work the warranty extension deal for you. Call ahead and ask for "Troy" to be your service rep, he is just great.

Would really like to meet this X girlfriend! She obviously has great taste in cars!!
Actually, having my XLR disappear in the hands of a hot woman is not so unusual for me. Been there all Summer.

Steve

 

[onalaska]

Does the top raise and lower normally? This would be a good indication that the electronics in the trunk are OK. I doubt if the shocks need replacing at 17,000 miles unless it was really abused and there would be other evidence of that. Something as simple as a bad wheel position sensor could cause that message to show up in the DIC. It will definately affect the ride until it is fixed as all the shocks are computer controlled.

 

[Johnxlrv]

Why did Cadillac put such a tiny drain hole in that trunk compartment anyway. Fl is a wet state...worth checking...any signs of water intrusion means seals (or opening the trunk with beaded water)

Can you still get a warranty for a six-year old car?

At least, the radiator issues, and a lot of other issues were resolved by then.

 

[Stella]

With getting a pretty nice price on the car I would definitely bring to a cert. mechanic. Also ask to drive the car for the weekend or week and see if you arise any problems. You can't get a gm warranty but you can get a dealer service package through Cadillac. I went through my credit union for a warranty. Am able to go six year warranty but you have to get before the ten year old mark. Sounds like a pretty good deal if everything checks out okay. Good luck!

 

[Treasureroom]

A litte udate for everyone.
I got the vin and checked it out.
There is no history of theft or any other unpleasentness on the vehicle history report.

The owner is gonna let me take it to the Local caddy dealer.
I got some prices on what i know it needs from that dealer all installed:
4 new shocks $6300 (I asked does a used car come with those shocks???)
Alternator belt $139
Ride control Electronic box $900
I did not price new tires, but i wont be getting run flats and I wont get them from the dealer.

 

[Johnxlrv]

A litte udate for everyone.
I got the vin and checked it out.
There is no history of theft or any other unpleasentness on the vehicle history report.

The owner is gonna let me take it to the Local caddy dealer.
I got some prices on what i know it needs from that dealer all installed:
4 new shocks $6300 (I asked does a used car come with those shocks???)
Alternator belt $139
Ride control Electronic box $900
I did not price new tires, but i wont be getting run flats and I wont get them from the dealer.

Hopefully, the shocks are fine, just the ride control module. Can the tensioner be adjusted on that serpentine belt?.

But the costs to "make right" can perhaps be subtracted from the purchase price...take the dealer quote to the seller...but I think a tech2 can explain the anomalies at a bit of a lower price.

Hope this works out right for you!

 

[airmike]

That is a good report on the title. Now you know you have a little wiggle room on cost vs value.

As Stella said, make sure you take it to a xlr "certified" tech. In case you didn't already know, Caddy made the dealers get a mechanic certified before they would allow them to sell one if these cars, and you don't want an otherwise good mechanic learning on your car with your money.

 

[Treasureroom]

Is there anyone who can check the official carfax for me. I did some off brand car check (autodatadirect) and the car came back with 35000 miles. The odometer states 17k miles. There is no way my buddy rolled back to odometer. He is not that smart

 

[Hawk58]

Just a few suggestions:

Go to a Cadillac or Chevrolet dealership that services corvettes and pay to have the car run through diagnostics w/Tech II. A little paid up front now will help you make a decision on whether you can afford repairs and what's required.
Ask the service manager to run a service history report and build sheet for your car and get the print-outs.
This will help you decide if you can afford the car.

If the car needs tires, go to tire rack or discount tires on line and get tires.

You can get replacement delco shocks for F55 suspension cars for $700 or less per shock through Amazon and bolt them in or pay a shop to do so for less than what you were quoted.

A replacement belt is $90-100 for the belt alone and is a bit of work to replace.

Make sure the top operates properly as well as everything else on the car.

Don't rely totally on CARFAX to make your decision, what's reported varies per state.

Two cents

 

[Stella]

Just allittle insight the owner of a car is not required to report any accidents to carfax or anyone. When I bought mine I did a carfax before going 2,600 miles to pick up. I examined the car from top to bottom and saw two little fish eyes on the flat part of the rear bumper. Anyone knowing cars knows fish eyes come from dust under paint which you don't get from factory paint. I checked bolts holding rear bumper and every other bolt to see if their we're wrench marks of any kind and couldn't find anything. The car only had 5,000 on her chalked it up to maybe previous owner scratched and had fixed. Looks like factory paint but will never know. moral of story is if owner wrecks and want to save his resale value and no cops present or involved then all they have to do is get to body shop and nobody knows. Personally I would bring to dealer test everything have them check top to bottom, if worried about accidents bring to reputable body shop and have them check top to bottom. Always good to do as much research first so you cover your bases. Good luck