The XL7’s drag-race winning powertrain is its biggest source of fun. If you don’t mind squealing your tires for a second and can tolerate the racket, you can blow away pretty much any snoozing driver at a stop light to get that primo spot 100 yards away at the next signal. Otherwise, there’s not a lot of fun here. The engine is unacceptably loud if you’re over 25 years old, the handling is only so-so, and as a front driver, anything more challenging than a light snow is off limits. Less noise and a higher level of refinement would enhance the fun factor, or at the very least, a price well below $30,000 would make the XL7’s sins more forgivable.