PROMISES, PROMISES; This time, Cadillac has lived up to them.(News)(an evaluation of Cadillac's XLR)

Byline: WES RAYNAL

True confession: We went out to drive Cadillac's new flagship, the XLR, fully prepared to come back and call it a complete and utter loser. We expected to meet a car that was too heavy, too slow and poorly built. We anticipated squeaks and rattles, a power convertible top that was a nightmare, a wobbly steering column and shaking rearview mirror. In short, we expected we'd have to call the whole thing a big mess, just like Cadillac's last two-seater, the unloved Allante.

When we said as much to the Cadillac officials at the launch, the reply was quiet: "Well, we can't really blame you. We've only done everything to earn your skepticism over say, oh, the last 30 years.''

We were encouraged to hear Cadillac recognizes the truth of its situation. And then we were even more encouraged to hit the road and discover this is one of those times when our expectations are proven wrong.

We've now spent a day driving the Cadillac XLR and all indications are it's good. To refresh your memory, the 1999 Detroit show saw the unveiling of the Cadillac Evoq concept, which spawned the Tom Peters-designed production XLR. The XLR was shown 99 percent finished at the 2003 Detroit show, but Cadillac's wild Sixteen concept pretty much overshadowed the two-seater.

Our day driving the XLR took place in and around Palm Springs, California. Our route included some freeway driving on Highway 10 as well as the more twisty roads up in the mountains. Cadillac brought along for comparison a few other luxury cruisers: a Jaguar XK8, a Mercedes-Benz SL500 and a Lexus SC 430. That Cadillac was not afraid to let us drive the XLR back to back with those cars, especially the mighty Mercedes, made us think there might be something to all the XLR hype we've been hearing over the last four years. It was also refreshing to go to a new-car launch and not hear, "Now remember, these are pre-production prototypes, so the quality levels aren't quite up to what you'll see in production...''

We heard none of that.