Get information and pricing about the Cadillac Cimarron, read reviews and articles, and find inventory near you. Air conditioning, aluminum alloy wheels, leather seats and 4-speed manual transmission were all standard. When new, the car’s un-Brougham-ness was shocking – this was the first new Caddy since the bustleback Seville remember. Would you buy another car from this manufacturer. I then move to this 1985 article and adjust my mind to “I live in 1985 (Michael Jackson and Madonna are awesome! Doing things on the cheap and lazy never works out well, especially up against someone near the top of their game. In yesterday’s article, I called the Cimarron Cadillac’s Flagship Of Mediocrity. Right down to every door, roof, and fender. The compact Caddy was touted as "a new kind of Cadillac for a new kind of Cadillac owner" in its day. Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Was the first-gen Honda Accord really perceived as a Audi/BMW competitor in its day, or did C/D just love Hondas then and now? DriveWire® Ignition Coil - Set of 3. Copyright 2011 - 2021 Curbside Classics. He was no car enthusiast, but he did have good taste and an instinct for buying GM’s Greatest Hits (see the CC article I wrote about his cars). No luxury cruiser by far, but I had it for 100,000 trouble free miles. How about a few years later, when Cadillac may have had a bit more realistic and humble appreciation for the Cimarron’s prospects in the market? My Cimarron is about 3200 lbs so it's considerably heavier that the other J-body types. Those do seem to be reasonable choices, based on design, engineering and market significance at the time. Sure, there are always nationalistic variations, often almost excusable by very different conditions in each market, but essentially, the bad cars were always called for what they were for the reasons that mattered to the enthusiast reader. I’ll bet they took a bath on the trade-in. It is slower than the BMW 320i and Volvo, but also substantially less expensive. Three years is enough car-development time to do almost anything, though, and the mid-cycle refresh for the Cimarron could have been much more ambitious. square ones for the ZR-1, everyone at first had a fit! Cadillac and GM would have been smart to make the 2.8 V-6 a Cimmaron exclusive. The handling, the largess.. just no, in every way. (first posted 1/21/2020) If yesterday’s Curbside Capsule of a 1988 Cadillac Cimarron whet your appetite for Cadillac’s 1980’s flagship of mediocrity, this should be just the main course to satisfy you. But, just as the Seville was a frankensteined Nova, the bones of the Cimmaron doomed it to Deadly Sin Top 10 status. The CTS that followed in 2003 wasn't perfect, but it was at least worthy of the Cadillac name -- and a big seller, too. Represents the "D (large cars)" market segment. Check your in-box to get started. I drove one once in ’91 and it was a nice driving car. The author says “It’s embarrassing to be so cock-sure of what a car can and cannot do, only to find out that your preconceptions weren’t even close to reality.” He also allows that Cadillac has “radically transform[ed] a ho-hum car” into a legitimate performance sedan. Required fields are marked *. Looking at the MT cover, I have to think many readers would have looked at the photos of the Cavalier 4 door sedan, turned back to the Cimarron feature, looked at it, and drawn the obvious conclusion. All problems experiencing with my car is a resulting from not taking proper care form previous owner (s). They probably thought that the J car would be a legitimate competitor with Euro and Japanese stuff. Here are a couple of  the previous reviews: Curbside Classic: Cimarron by Cadillac – GM’s Deadly Sin #10 by Cadillac, Curbside Classic: 1984 Cadillac Cimarron – Poor Execution Meets Bad Timing. Nice Price Or No Dice. but too late. . GM’s aggressive downsizing bet in the late ’70s paid dividends and exempted them for a while from the stigma that too much big car product had at Ford and Chrysler. Not sure if the Cadillac would have been any better, but I have my doubts…I think other than the luxury touches the bones were still the standard GM stuff. The all-wheel-drive system is the same as that used in the famously successful rally-racing Quattros. I had a nicely optioned 1984 Firenza, the Oldsmobile Division’s J car. The Audi and BMW have progressed in appearance quite a bit, but the Cimarron looks pretty much like it did in 1982 and is transparently similar to models sold by every other GM division. It is the most inexpensive item on the restaurant’s menu at only $11 per breakfast sandwich. And many more openly wondered what on Earth was GM thinking? The other way to look at it is that three years is a long time. reading the Cimarron S, it was a what if excercise that Motor Trend cooked up in their minds as a hotter sports sedan version of the Cimarron. This product is designed and tested to ensure the ultimate in Save cars. A few of them led troubled lives or werent successful, but they all seemed like important cars at the time. I've known people to own an '88 civic DX, a 99 Solora, and a couple other Japanese vehicles and I'm not much into them. Not being able to make time in the Alps didn’t hinder 1st generation Seville sales in the US or the UK. Yet it's still in good shape and still looks good. Amazon Vehicles: 1986 Cadillac Cimarron Base: Read expert reviews, research vehicles, leave comments, and ask questions! Even today GM could legitimize all of their laughable Cadillac sedans by offering Suburban-calibration V8s in the mid-range trims. What became of him? During its seven-year model run, 132,499 Cimarrons were built. I loved reading about that, although if I recall that article was only 1-2 pages in length. Er, quite. Have you wondered the same thing? Such as updating the Fleetwood Brougham sometime in between 1980 and 1992. I love the side profile pic of the blue test car… it appears to be 4 different shades of blue. The 1985 1/2 Cimarron was a much improved 1982 Cimarron, but you could certainly argue that by this time it should have been far more evolved and was essentially still a lightly modified Cavalier. Cadillac also reworked the suspension for ’83, and gave the Cimarron a redesigned grille, finned alloy wheels and fog lights – in a desperate attempt to make it look slightly more Cadillac-like. 1982 Cadillac Cimarron: See user reviews, 14 photos and great deals for 1982 Cadillac Cimarron. Irnsher didnt do anything to the standard cars. Aug 03, 2020. As was stated, it has good performance, handles great, comfortable, sounds good, among others. Thanks for subscribing. Of course, many of those cars later had terrible reputations for recalls, poor workmanship, and/or poor quality/reliability reputations. It wasn’t enough that the Cimarron was a bad car, but it was an even worse Cadillac. Only one suspension configuration was offered and it was the area Cadillac put the most development into. Well, I did the math so you don’t have to. Looking at the 1982 model in isolation, or compared to the cars C/D considered its competition, it seemed reasonably competitive, and a good-looker to boot. However, the biggest turkey among them was the Cimarron. I especially like their mention (on p. 39) of a “brief visit with the world’s only running Cimarron”. His grandparents had recently purchased a brand-new, loaded 1985 Buick LeSabre four-door sedan. After the fiasco of the Cimarron in the early '80s, I thought Cadillac would stick to what it does best: luxurious, commodious coupes and sedans with healthy V-8 power. No wonder the buff books got that nickname and their reputation for what we might nowadays call fake news. After the fiasco of the Cimarron in the early '80s, I thought Cadillac would stick to what it does best: luxurious, commodious coupes and sedans with healthy V-8 power. (IIRC) When they changed the round tail lights to GASP! The mid-year 1985 revisions seen in the 1985 MT article would be the most substantial changes Cadillac bestowed on the Cimarron. - Cruise control module went out/replaced at 120,000 miles. Meer weten over Cadillac? People just didn't want a small Caddy and I believe it would have done better if it was released later. Thanks, I should do that one. The Cimarron had a base price of $12,131 ($32,333 in 2019 Dollars), vs the Audi’s base of $10,865 (which being 1982’s inflation conditions, was over $1,000 more than in 1981). There is a logic to that choice. A Cutlass Supreme shared its bones with more-pedestrian Malibus, but it appealed to people who wanted a little more style and luxury. Even the AC still works great. I think that the most damning thing here was what followed the Cimarron, which was radio silence. Search from 0 Cadillac Cimarron car for sale. They hated their Cimmaron. For example, the K-cars deserved to win over the under-powered ’81 Escort/Lynx. Oh wait . The people buying high end German embarrassments today are people who were only shopping for prestige all along, or people who need to keep up with the Joneses. I tend to agree also, that I’ve never bought into the theory that the car mags were and are bought and paid for by auto companies. The last page (121) covers ride and handling. I did try to test drive a Cavalier Type 10 stick like a cousin owned, but the dealer (a big dealer, too) had nothing remotely like it and let me drive a rental-grade version with an automatic. Cadillac Cimarron Car Model. For an 86 model, they put in everything the luxury cars of today have. It isn’t a bad little car at all, Charlie Brown. Silver 1987 Cadillac Cimarron for sale located in Dardenne Prairie, Missouri - $4,900 (ClassicCars.com ID CC-989633). Can you imagine a compact car with luxury pretensions weighing 2,200 lbs. Detroit had done sporty for years, and even pseudo Euro sporty had been done with cars like the Pontiac Sprints in the 60’s, Grand Am in the 70’s as well as the aforementioned Seville. But what say you? The secret sauce makes eating one a gourmet experience. My grandfather had this Motor Trend, not because he subscribed or anything, he just said he liked to read them every once in a while to see what was new in the car world. From mechanical specifications to styling tweaks, nothing is left out. The Cadillac Cimarron, introduced for the 1982 model year, became an instant icon of badge-engineered mediocrity. GM has recalls, Ford has recalls, Chrysler has recalls, even Toyota and Honda have recalls. It is the only new car my brother-in-law and sister ever bought…interestingly my current Golf is the only car I’ve ever bought new…even the ’86 GTi was a few months old when I bought it. A Cadillac J-car was too much of an overreach, especially when it looked way too much like a Cavalier. I plan to get a new paint job even though the paint is still good and shines well, just to make sure there isn't any rust problems. Oversteer Autotrader Find: 1986 Cadillac Cimarron. The regular grade 2.0 Isuzu Aska was sold in New Zealand as a Holden Camira handling was like being on tip toes and nervous they were not much of a drivers car my father totalled his one on the way to work the body shells were very strong it went end for end down a 20 metre bank backwards he climbed out of the wreckage grabbed his briefcase and thumbed a ride to his morning job unhurt except for a cut on the wrist. The term is not used in the article, but Cadillac really wanted to capture a slice of the Yuppie market. 1985 Volkswagen GTI Even Mercedes-Benz 560SELs had precisely zero ‘soft-touch’ interior surfaces or form over function nonsense. The Cimarron was simply one of GM’s most brazen and callus attempts to dupe the few remaining Cadillac devotees into buying the new ‘European’ Cadillac by doing nothing but raiding the J.C. Whitney catalog, slapping a few pimped-out shiney bits on the outside (and a grungy leather interior on the inside) of a 4-door Cavalier, then having the audacity to double the price. Looked and works so far as advertised. It would be interesting to know what they didn’t like about the Cimarron. Still, the Cimarron had recently received a major power upgrade and finally gotten a set of real performance tires, among other enhancements. That's my personal view. 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