Spare Parts

[klaptrapper]

Considering the demise of the XLR in April, does anyone know, or can find out, what percentage (except body panels, instrumentation and interior) of parts of our cars are shared with other continuing <NOBR style="COLOR: darkgreen; FONT-SIZE: 100%; FONT-WEIGHT: normal" id=itxt_nobr_0_0>GM</NOBR> cars,, eg. Corvette?

This is a considerable concern, having been an owner of the ZR-1 Corvette, which went out of production in '95. That car had almost 7,000 units made (lots of used parts) as well as a planned spares program anticipating the end of production.

I fear our cars' sudden demise due to financial and Federal pressures has not prepared for a continuing flow of spares.

Thanks,
Rusty
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[onalaska]

Rusty, I can't provide an answer, but I do already have some experience and yours is a valid question. Right now my XLR-V is sitting in Kansas waiting on parts that are unavailable. Even the belts were not available when I checked with the larger Cadillac dealers in Virginia and Houston. They had to be flown in from two different GM warehouses. I am beginning to regret buying the V version of the XLR as the standard XLR has a lot more common engine and parts should be more available for that one. I also own an 1990 Allante and GM abandoned Allante owners much too soon for their then most expensive vehicle. Still that didn't deter me from buying an XLR. I am just glad that I do not depend on it on a daily basis. Now I have to figure out how I am going to get back to Kansas from Houston whenever my car is repaired and I am not so sure I will consider driving it cross country again in the future.

 

[Little Woman]

I'm sure Cadillac Tech, Bruce, will be able to answer these questions for you. Homegameroom, Rich, seems to be pretty good at obtaining information on this kind of stuff to. If they don't post an answer for you, you might want to PM them and ask them.

 

[onalaska]

I'll keep everyone posted on how long it takes for GM to get the parts to the dealer. It was towed into the shop on September 18th and I have had two dealers and Cadillac Customer Care working on locating the parts. They promised to give me an update today. I've owned the car since July 22nd and the selling dealer has had the door and window weatherstrip on order since I purchased the car and still does not have it. He agreed to replace all of the weatherstrip on the car for cosmetic reasons so he is waiting for every piece to come in.

I went through the Bowling Green Assembly plant last week and it appears that most of the chassis components and hopefully the transmission is shared with the Corvette. One big difference I noticed was the Corvette brakes are huge compared to the XLR. I think even the V has the base Corvette brake calipers and rotors. The Gran Sport, Z06, and ZR1 brakes looked huge! Six pistons on the front, four on the back compared to our two piston front and one piston rear.

 

[richardyoo]

I went through the Bowling Green Assembly plant last week and it appears that most of the chassis components and hopefully the transmission is shared with the Corvette. One big difference I noticed was the Corvette brakes are huge compared to the XLR. I think even the V has the base Corvette brake calipers and rotors. The Gran Sport, Z06, and ZR1 brakes looked huge! Six pistons on the front, four on the back compared to our two piston front and one piston rear.

For what its worth, from my research and such I've determined that the XLR-V brakes and the Z51 (high performance) Corvette share the same brakes... (only the calipers are cosmetically different)... the base XLR and the base corvette also seem to share the same brakes.

As for parts - I thought there was some law that said that any car manufacturer that stopped making a model had to carry parts for 8 years? (maybe this doesn't matter in today's climate?)