Gosh, Mag, I didn't say the XLR-v was perfect, merely "just right" for a new alternative in the category.
This car underprices its only equivalent competitor by more than $30K when they are equipped as peers. More power? The SL55 carries 8.68 lbs./pony and the XLR-v carries 8.6 per. Hmmm....not so far apart. The Merc has a clearly noticeable advantage in torque, however it's also almost a quarter ton heavier and in real world driving it's not like we're actually shy on torque on our side. I've driven both cars. Let's just say I am not as impressed with the German entries as you are. And if I didn't want the top to go down, I'd far prefer the Maserati Grand Sport over the boring Merc, even though it has to limp along with 400 hp from its magnificent naturally-aspirated engine. By the way, have you really tromped on the loud pedal of an XLR-v yet? It doesn't have any trouble getting out of its own way. But truth is, these cars do not get driven 10/10ths, and shouldn't be. They are suboptimized by the weight penalty imposed by their features.
Brakes -- I really don't get it. I've had decades of sports and muscle cars that I've modified for Porsche-level braking. I don't see the problem. On my V I get lots of pedal feel and it hauls down from speed pretty quick. Z06 brakes on this car would be nice, but not as the default for all drivers. Too much bite for a driver not having had performance car experience. You can upgrade that aspect anytime you want, from myriad sources.
Why don't the seats have deeper bolsters? This car has a structural center tunnel. It's wide relative to the overall width of the car. Deep bolster seats would work for me -- I'm 6'3" and 180 lbs. -- but one look at the population of folks who can afford $100K+ 2 seaters and you can see why it won't work for a good chunk of the market. The suede inserts accomplish most of the same thing for the practical purposes of the clientele. This isn't a sports car, nor a race-car derivative. It's a sporting car as previously described.
The engine is its own thing. It is Northstar architecture, but you couldn't strip one down and reassemble it a clone of the 4.6L Northstar. The supercharger is integral and the aggregation is holistically engineered.
You got my point on tires. Wider rubber would offer more grip. But you missed part of it -- wider rubber (not just a tread function) hydroplanes at lower speeds and tends to lose grip more abruptly. 255s stick quite well and yet have very progressive slip, which is easier for most people to manage. Snap oversteer is not welcome for this customer. But higher NVH is the bigger immediate problem. 285s, 310s, 335s, etc. would drop many people out of the eval process as soon as they roll the first 1000 yards. You want bigger shoes, have at it. Caddy made the right call for how the car ships, IMO.
Inside, the dash is french seam leather, crafted in Europe, as are the tops of the door panels, the rear deck and the roll hoops. Outside, yeah, the composite body panels aren't quite as perfect as sheet metal, but if the car were sheet metal, it wouldn't have the shape it has and would look dated like the SL does. The SMC exterior is improved from Corvette standards, but the manufacturing nevertheless is still a work in progress. It's a small price to pay for the overall aesthetic of the car and the large weight savings over unibody sheet steel.
All that said, I am absolutely sure the car's interior will be upgraded, GM will figure out how to make the panels progressively more perfect, and if the consumer climate doesn't change significantly due to fuel concerns, more power will find its way under the hood. None of that invalidates what the car is today as Cadillac's first 6 digit effort. Anyway, I bought the car to enjoy it, knowing it will continue to evolve.
