@@luismanuelvrf They still do. Cars built today are designed to be complicated, time consuming to repair, and in most cases, require very expensive diagnostic and special tools to properly fix the thing. Engine and transmission failures are more common than ever and usually cost more to repair than the car is worth once it goes out of warranty. You can also thank the EPA for writing mandatory specifications that make no sense, allowing auto makers to add more expensive electronic and mechanical devices to their vehicles. New cars are also equipped to be located anywhere remotely by anyone with the right tracking equipment. Now tell me this is a free country when politicians dictate everything you can buy or do.
Jo Ro , What kind of koo-koo clock goes on an on about these cars as if they were some marvel of engineering?. They were awful , embarrassing and made a mockery of incredibly stupid USA inhabitants
I dont think the 4.1 liter V8 or the transmission behind it helped them any either. The Northstar could have been a great engine if they had done a better job bolting the head down. Heres the truth though, I'd still love to have an early 90's Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham with the 5.0 or 5.7.
This same scenario eventually killed Packard by introducing a cheap model called the Packard 120 (later on, the Clipper). This didn't set well with people who bought the expensive Packards for exclusive luxury, watching a cheap Packard on the road.
@@Nothingtoya That Northstar engine may have been a technological marvel on paper but was an expensive mechanic's nightmare to work on. What dumb ass engineer thought putting the starter motor under the intake manifold with all the junk on top of it was a good idea...and then approved by his boss?
Although these cars are now interesting from a historical standpoint, I think they're really the biggest joke ever made by GM. The nerve of them even, ITS A FREAKIN' CAVALIER! The 80s were really the time when GM started to go downhill.
Just goes to show how overly optimistic Motorweek reviews were back in the day. "It's slower than lawn tractor, it handles like a walrus on acid, the brakes are made of celluloid, and you will die instantly in a 5 mph crash... More than a match for Audi, BMW, and Mercedes!"
@@roddydykes7053 Platform still had potential, the Beretta GTZ and Olds Calais Quad442 got through the slalom faster than the Camaro/Firebird of the time. The N and L bodies used mostly J car parts.
Steven D Very clear evidence of GM's lack of desire to spend even a few bucks on this car to equip it with hydraulic hood struts to improve the quality feel. Any real Caddy from this era would have had them.
No it was a Chevy that Cadillac put Cadillac badges on it. It still embarrasses the designers to this day They are very blunt about how Corporate forced them to do it
Eddie Lopez Also simply amazing how the Big Three had the gall to build such crap cars in the late '70s and '80s and foist them on us. Whether one is a fan of certain foreign autos or not, we can thank Toyota, Honda, etc. for literally *forcing* GM, Ford and Chrysler to step up their game and build better quality cars.
All 3 American companies have came to the government for bailouts since the 80's. Chrysler has done this twice, GM twice, and Ford did it twice but theirs were a lot closer together. Ford did it right before 2008, they put up the whole company for a loan, then they did it again after the whole bailout thing with GM and Chrysler had calmed down. The government should have forced all 3 of them to double their production in the US in order to get these loans.
Fascinating watching this. The fact that this car was ever produced is amazing. They didn't even try to hide the fact that its nothing more then a J car.
+Joe Moorman Not with the 2 lousy 4s it was offered with it wasn't. Later on the 2.8 was not much better,since the Maxima and Cressida 6s trounced all over it, Lol
+Joseph Rogers This car is why Cadillac's current offerings are still slow selling. Cadillac is now producing world class cars, as good as and even better in some cases than BMW, Audi or MB. Problem is, after manufacturing tarted up Chevys and generally poorly constructed cars for decades, a potential customer is not willing to pony up 50 large for one. Their pricing is also not helping them AT ALL. The recent drop in price of $10,000 for the slow selling ELR is proof enough.
I can think of a few lower (and more recent) points in GM's history from a European (Opel) perspective. And just as Opel starts to get it's act together, it is sold to Peugeot. You gotta love them CEO's in Murica.
I don't know, I'd say calling a dolled-up 80s Chrysler Le Baron a Maserati takes the cake. Not that Maserati's own products have been all that great over the last 35 years or so.
Even in the video he said that the 1983 version "hit the mark" meaning that it was comparable to a BMW 320. The Cimarron was more than a Chevrolet with a Cadillac badge on it. It had different interior, suspension and was better insulated from road noise. Look at ANY Lincoln of the time, outside of the Towncar, which was an LTD, the rest were Grenada or Thunderbird based.
This could have been a decent car, but in classic GM fashion they were complacent and half-assed it. I think this video shows that perfectly. If GM had started with something like the 83 and built on that, rather than starting with something as abysmally bad as the 82 and fixing it in post, the car may not have been a smash hit but it certainly wouldn't become the embarrassment it's known as now. Then again, I guess I'm being overly optimistic if I expect something good out of a J-body, the living embodiment of corporate cynicism.
GM's dark ages. This is the kind of vehicle a room full of German and Japanese engineers would disassemble and laugh at in 1982. BMW and Audi had nothing to worry about.
The cavalier is a simple, but efficient and deceptively durable daily driver car. I would much rather have a gussied-up j-car than any over engineered piece of european shit. But I realize that BMW is for people with money, and the carelessness to throw their car away after other year or enough of a superiority complex to pump thousands of bucks into an aging ride made by designers who hate mechanics.
From the Cimarron to the current ATS, Cadillac sure has come a LONG way. Thanks Motorweek for these old reviews; nice to look at these older cars that are even older than myself.
Makin Bacon Wrong about what? In my opinion Cadillac has stepped up the game with premium platforms & world-class driving dynamics. Sure they aren't quite there yet (Rome wasn't built in a day), but their current lineup is a heck lot better than Acura & Lincoln.
I had a 81 Datsun 210 Station wagon. If you think a 22 second quarter mile was bad, youd die in that Datsun. Hell, it had a top speed of 80 mph going down hill.
@@Nothingtoya I know exactly what you mean I have a 79 Datsun 210 Sedan I found out later in life that it was a California emissions vehicle making it even more of a turd
@@pyrrhicvictory1707 mine had the larger engine option, I think it was a 1.6l but that didnt matter at all. I do wish I had kept the car though. It was pretty mint and no rust whatsoever.
Everyone's here mocking this car, and GM for producing it, but at the time it was a gamble that made sense to try. Cadillac was already dying. Fewer and fewer people were interested in huge land yachts. It would cost a fortune and take years to design an all-new Cadillac. The J-cars, particularly the Cavalier, were selling extremely well, and were decent little cars. So Cadillac (GM) took a gamble and chose to see if a Cadillac version of this car would do as well as the Pontiac and Buick versions. For people who wanted a Cadillac, but wanted something a little more nimble, better on gas, easier to park, fit in a garage, and less expensive. They lost that bet. A few years later, they took another gamble (actually two) that ended up saving them - the Escalade (a Cadillac TRUCK???) and the unpopular at the time, odd angular styling of their whole lineup. On paper, making a Suburban into a Cadillac sounds just as dumb as making a Cavalier into a Cadillac. One was a huge failure, one was a huge success.
My 86 Trans Am does the same thing when you open the hood, these cars were all about Fuel Economy due to the fuel crisis when they were designed and I swear the metal is paper thin in some places. Guess I shouldn't complain about my 5.0L Fuel Injected TA pushing out 200/215hp after all compared to the smaller motors of the era OMG!
I bought this new in 1985 for my wife. A Chevy Cavalier...It almost broke Cadillac. It was so very poor to carry the name badge. We traded within 3 years. Thank you
I'd still rather have this than some BORING BMW that has looked the same for decades and costs tons of money to repair. BMW has it's share of problems like horrible AC and parts that put you in the poor house. No thanks I find BMW's boring ugly boxes and see way too many on the street to feel unique.
Go Clunker 37 years later, and the Cimmaron looks better than any 30 year old BMW I have ever seen. Let's face it, the '80's was a bad year for all auto manufacturers. I blame it on the epa forcing tight emissions standards on engines when technology was not there yet to do so. The manufacturers had to rely on vacuum controlled systems, and other means that all robbed horsepower, reliability, and added great cost to the automobile
My friend bought a brand new '82 Chevy Cavalier, which was the same car. It was actually a pretty good car, quiet and well built, but it was dangerously underpowered.
GM thought they were saving lives using those anemic carburetor engines & the early wheezing fuel injection systems. Give the customer 82HP and let em crawl to work.
Ah, the memories!! Haven't seen one of these on the road in years. Mom and Dad had an '84th Olds Omega Brougham. A slightly larger car, but same premise. Compact luxury. The Omega was plush and comfortable. Velour seats that were like a couch, loaded, a veritable baby Delta88. Under the hood, though, was an anemic 2.5 liter four. Good on gas, but slow and noisy. No power at all on a steep hill. 40 mph with 4 ways on, foot buried in the carpet, with older v8 cars blasting past
brett cannon You must have missed when he said the Omega was a "slightly larger car" than the Cimarron - he acknowledged it's not built on the same platform. His point was that it's another GM car built with the same purpose as this one.
I remember when this so-called "Cadillac" first hit the market. I was working at a full-service gas station when a local realtor, a regular customer, came in with a new 1984 Cimarron D'Oro (not 'Cimmaron' as titled here). He bought it for his blushing bride for a whopping $12,000! lol. The Cimarron with the D'Oro package, which is Italian for 'Gold', was basically just a few gold accents, it only came in black, with a tan leather interior. D'Oro Package Gold accents were added to the following: Aluminum Alloy Wheels, Grill, Fine Gold Accent Stripes on the Beltline, Bumper Rub Strips, Hood Center Line, and a unique D'Oro Hood Badge. Also included were blackout bumpers with smoke grey fog lamp covers. Inside there was D'Oro plaque on the instrument panel and the 3-spoke steering wheel which had all-metal spokes in a special gold finish. The very next day we had to go out and toe the blushing bride's new baby Caddy back to the dealership. It turned out to be a fault with the Lil computer. Poor Cadillac, after the late 1970s Cadillac was never the same status symbol car company ever again.
Never knew someone who had one and didn't have lots of issues. The problem was not just that it was a cavalier. The larger issue is GM tried to "Caddy" it up with technological bells and whistles that broke more than they didn't. Frankly it was a better move to stick with the regular Cavalier. They weren't too bad.
+BroccoliBeefed It probably looked good on paper to them and figured people wouldn't be able to see that it was a fucking Opel and not a real Cadillac.
+MinnesotaChevy454 They were probably thinking... Hmmm, a rearwheel drive sedan, engineered in Germany, and relatively successful in Europe.. Noww this is gonna work! How hard can it be?! :P Over time, here in Europe it was also known for a unreliable piece of a GM rustbucket...
The cylinder heads used to crack regularly on these 1.8 and 2.0 POS engines, too. Unfortunately, I was working for a GM dealer back in those days, so I'm used to pain.
Many car manufacturers attempted to rebrand their luxury brand cars on cheaper models by adding a few options and the badge. Heck even Maserati rebranded a Chrysler Lebaron back in 88-89 even after the Cimmaron thing! Currently in 2016, the Maserati Ghibli is drawing comparisons to a Chrysler 300
Loving all these retro clips of your old shows and I am really enjoying all your current shows also. It's a shame we don't get it transmitted here in Scotland. I was wondering if you have done any more reviews of cars in Canada like the one you did for the Hyundai Stellar for cars that were never sold in the USA for example the Lada Signet (Riva in the UK).
It's like putting a Band-Aid on a turd. It's a Cavalier anyway you look at it. Leather, and power sacraments will not save this car. Cadillac had made some bad choices over the years. The Opel based turd mobile was one of them, as well as the Cimmaron. I was working in retail sales. An influential customer customer came in, and the lights were left on in his Cimmaron. Of course they were of the "Twilight' variety, but I mentioned that his Cavalier had the lights on. He was quick to point out that the car was a Caddy, and I was quick that it was a cheap Chevy. He still bought.
I love how he keeps comparing this gussied up Cavalier to Audi's, Bmw's and the like! LOL. Eventually they did add a V6 but by then the whole model was toast.
Everytime I see a new (C)TS, that's all I can think of. I would think they would have avoided the letter C in their new models considering those 2 cars were a PR nightmare.
Yeah, why did Cadillac use a waddling water bird as their symbol for the Cat-era? At least use a Jaguar (no can't use that), or maybe a Cougar (nope, taken by Mercury), how about a Linx (nosiree, also used by Mercury) or maybe a Tiger (uh-uh, Sunbeam made one), oh I got it, Wildcat (scratch that, old Buick moniker). "Okay, boys," says a Harvard MBA, "let's use a DUCK!" "Brilliant!" exclaims a VP hired by Roger Smith, "Give that guy a raise and a promotion!"
LOL. I've always wanted to find a clean Pinto, and tart it up as a "Lincoln Trinket" - complete with the padded 'spare tire' hump on its little ass. *padded for safety!
The later, V6-powered car was pretty great. It was, more or less, a Z24 with a really plush interior and classy looks. Great combination. Lousy Cadillac, though. Wish I still had one.
"If those initial comments are less than favorable, they can haunt that model for its' entire run..." Oh, you had no idea back then Pat. No idea that it would take Cadillac almost 30 years to live down the '82 Cimarron.
Especially since that's what the C in CTS could stand for - Cimarron Touring Sedan. (STS Seville Touring Sedan, DTS DeVille Touring Sedan). Though some would argue that Catera Touring Sedan is correct....
Actually I think the C stands for Catera. I'd like to think that GM would have been smart enough to let the Cimmaron name stay dead since the 80s, and not bring it back even in an abbreviation.
"Comments... can haunt that model for it's entire run." Amen to that! The V6 Cimarron was SOOOO much better, but suffered because of the boat-anchor '82 model. It deserved so much more.
@@brettcannon74 I suppose they needed more market share by some corporate edict, but it’s just that in 1984, fior instance you could still buy a new coupe deville for about 18 large, depending on options. I dunno. Maybe there were customers who just had to have a wreath and crest on their hood no matter what, and $12000 was their hard ceiling.
6:30 14.6 seconds to 60, and that's an improvement! And, I can just imagine the 4 cylinder buzz that would ensue when the car was driven with such gusto. The Cimmaron looked like a nice car until you saw that it was just a dressed-up Cavalier. It wasn't really bad, but it must have had the same bearable but unsupportive read seats as the other J-cars (and due to undersized brakes, no middle seating position in the first couple of years). I'll bet it was more comfortable in front, though. From what I've read, even the V6 didn't turn it into a $13,000 car, since there was too little space under the hood for compliant engine mounts. It was probably a good buy as a used car, if you wanted the nicest Cavalier on the block.
In 1998, Wisconsin, I worked with a guy with an old Cimmaron. The door skins were rusted through along the bottom the entire length of each door. He could pull back the door skin, reach his arm up through the rust hole and unlock the door. Wisconsin, like the Cimmaron, is an automotive nightmare. Salt, salt, salt,...
It was my first car . I was at a hole in the wall car dealership with my dad ( God rest his soul ) where he bought it for me . I tried to steer my dad to the v6 cavielier to no avail . I am grateful though for the first car I ever owned though . It was an electrical nightmare to work on . It 1.8 liter carbureted engine and 3 speed slush box was underpowered . It handled well and the previous owner put super wide tires on the stock wheels like 225 so it handled like a go cart .
These were amazing cars for their time. They spent such little time on the road that when they went to the junkyards they were crushed whole, no one needed any parts off of them. Truly prestigious for GM.
I'm damn near 60 (MORE than old enough to remember when these were new). I just NOW noticed that the on the '92 Cimmaron, the Cadillac badge has neither the "V" or the Wreath. I thought THAT only happened on Cadillacs in 1970 an 1971.
we had the 5 spd and its issue was the clutch neutral kill switch popping off the spring at stop lights[often] you then had to set the brake and park to reach under and place the plastic back on the spring for the clutch to engage drove our lady friend nuts w family in car. mpg 33 avr w good 92 prem
It's funny because the Cavalier replaced the Monza in the Chevrolet lineup; and the Monza was the better car. My dad owned a 78 Monza and later an 82 Cavalier; and he said the Monza was better even though it itself was a piece....
The Cimmaron's problem isn't that it was a bad car. For what it was and the standards of the era in which it was sold, it was actually a pretty good deal. During the 80s, pretty much every car was slow and unreliable (that second one with the exceptions of Mercedes and Volvo), because technology *still* hadn't caught up to the safety and emissions standards that had been implemented nearly a decade ago. The problem was that although it was a decent car for what it was and with a price that undercut the German competitors by enough that its faults didn't matter, it was a Chevy Cavalier with microscopic Cadillac badges and almost no styling differences. It doesn't matter how OK of a car it was for its price and class, what's the point of buying a car to impress people with if nobody can tell that you have one? Current Audis suffer from the same problem, their entry level cars look just like VWs, so everyone buys C-classes and 3-series instead. Their mid-range cars sell well because you get an incredible amount of prestige and interior build quality for a price much lower than the closest competitors, but the low end stuff looks too anonymous. The largest profits are at higher price points, but it doesn't matter how much you make per car if you don't sell any, and near-luxury is where the volume is at. Even Infiniti and Acura, 2 brands that ceased to carry any prestige nearly a decade ago but still charge luxury prices, outsell them in those segments. Audi IMO is 2016's 1980s Cadillac: unreliable, mediocre, and overpriced versions of cheaper cars, with a bloated, expensive to produce range that hardly sells except for a few near the top that just barely pay for the ones that don't. An A5 is great, but an A3 is not even close to an Acura ILX competitor, let alone a 3-series fighter. They've been making massive improvements to the A7/8 and Q7 at the expense of their models that actually sell, like Cadillac used to do with the Eldorado.
Dude. You weren't alive in the '80s. Trust me, by comparison, this was a complete joke, not just in comparison to the imports (Volvo 240 series, VW Jetta, Audi 5000, etc.etc) but domestic as well. The lebaron was world's better than this, and that's saying something.
It depends. If they don't rot into 3000 pieces, the engines seem to be fairly reliable. Still see quite a few of the A-Body GM cars around. Few Escort/Tracer/Lynx around. Lot's of 80's and 90's C/K and F-Series around with massive rust holes in most.
GM did not fool anyone it was a cheap Cavalier with some Cadillac badges gluded to it. To the few who bought it, they were quick to take off the Cadillac emblems when they got laghed at
I really don't mind that it's a rebadged Chevy. Just do a good job on a rebadged Chevy if they just put more quality Parts on the little car it wouldn't have been so bad
06:10 That is a very thin hood. Cannot believe how much it twists. My parents had a 1984 Opel Ascona, which is the same body. The hood didn't twist on that. The Opel Ascona 1,6 is a very boring car, so I tried to "upgrade" it a little, inspired by the Cimmaron, by having it painted two tone blue, often seen on the down size Chevrolet Caprice Classic, putting tinted windows in it, and white wall tires on it. Last but not least, adding noise reducing mats under the hood. It helped. It turned out quite cute. Before I did that, you could not tell their blue Ascona from other blue Asconas, without reading the license plate. But afterwards it was easy to spot them.
An equivalent of the Cimmaron today would be taking a Chevy Cruze, and adding leather and a Cadillac badge so it can compete against the Mercedes C Class and BMW 3 series.
A fucking Chevy Cavalier with a Cadillac badge, God Bless the USA and now you know why American cars are still suffering. They're still pulling this kind of bullshit and demanding a premium
88HP!?! I can push a car faster than this thing can move. Wow, I never really think of my 82 Corvette as being a performance car with only around 200 hp and a 8 second 0-60... but wow, compared this to disaster my Corvette is amazing. Man did the EPA just destroy car performance for about 15 years.
Rod Munch the Corvette was a performance car, this was a luxury economy car. You think the huge DeVille and Fleetwood did any better with 125 HP with over two ton of weight?
brett cannon Those cars had V8's making over 200ft/lbs of torque even with all the detuning. Those cars would hit 60 in about 10 sec. So they would smoke this cadavalier.
88HP isn't luxury. I've owned 3 Cadillac's, a BMW, 3 Corvettes - lots of different cars over the years. I really like Cadillac, well except for the God awful CUE system - it's f'ing awful, but 88HP in a Caddy in the 1980s? That's disgraceful, no matter if it was just a rebadged Cavalier or not. Also a ton of the blame is on the EPA that just destroyed car performance for quite a while.
It's the same european project called "Opel Ascona". It was also sold in South America, from 1982 to 1996, under the name "Chevrolet Monza". Maybe it was ok to be sold as an Opel or Chevy, but it doesn't match to the Cadillac badge. It's weird.
My '77 Pontiac Astre Formula wagon (Vega Kammback clone) with Iron Duke 2.5L 4 banger and 5 speed manual (28 MPG city, 34 MPG hiway) outperformed this car in every way!
Apparently I've been pronouncing this car's name wrong all along; I've been calling it the "Se(mare)in". I still think it's a fairly handsome car for he time. Whoa! Did you see how flimsy that hood looked when he opened it at 6:10? Crazy!
my grandad, who worked at a variety of GM dealerships as a mechanic from 1968 until he retired in 2002, said that the Cadillac Cimmaron was the biggest pain in the butt to work on, other Cadillac models weren't far behind from that same time period. He said that after the 1980s, Cadillacs became easier to work on despite the Northstar engines of which my grandad was free from having to work on😁
Not all American cars were built so cheaply. My grandmas 1984 Monte Carlo CL was a trooper. Lasted for years. When Body by Fisher was the rule of the land and a 302 V8 was top notch.
yeah but the vast majority of the American car build quality back then was bad. American car companies got cheap, because they wanted to compete with econo box imports back then. that's when the American car companies started going down hill in build quality, they were more concerned about quantity at that time over quality.
I love when the 1/4 mile and 0-60 times are basically the same.
The Cavalier by Cadillac. 88 hp and 20 mpg. Audi and BMW must have been terrified when they got word.
JRH lmaooooo
Hahahahhahahhahahhahhahahhahhahahhahha
Javohl! Zuruck to zhee drawing board, Fritz!!!! Zhee Americaners are fwightening me.
I actually believe that American carmakers at the time thought people were stupid
@@luismanuelvrf They still do. Cars built today are designed to be complicated, time consuming to repair, and in most cases, require very expensive diagnostic and special tools to properly fix the thing. Engine and transmission failures are more common than ever and usually cost more to repair than the car is worth once it goes out of warranty. You can also thank the EPA for writing mandatory specifications that make no sense, allowing auto makers to add more expensive electronic and mechanical devices to their vehicles. New cars are also equipped to be located anywhere remotely by anyone with the right tracking equipment. Now tell me this is a free country when politicians dictate everything you can buy or do.
LOL! The hood bends when he opens it. God, embarrassing
+BroccoliBeefed Hahaha! Thanks for putting words to that. I noticed that too but was too busy thinking about the "brushed" aluminum.
Jo Ro
, What kind of koo-koo clock goes on an on about these cars as if they were some marvel of engineering?. They were awful , embarrassing and made a mockery of incredibly stupid USA inhabitants
BroccoliBeefed try bumping into a pole with the cheap plastic bumpers all new cars have
lmaooo
Oh my god. I just saw that. It literally bends!
What an absolute hunk of crap shoveled upon the public by GM.
TinHatRanch lmaoooo
TinHatRanch they were testing a new 82 model and thought it needed repairs already 😂
How they even sold one of these is beyond me
They are very good at something
TinHatRanch what else is new lol
This car killed Cadillac's rep big time, selling a cavalier as a caddy! so disgraceful
cant be any worse than rebadging a corvette, or a suburban/tahoe and calling it a cadillac.
LRulesTheWorld. Or a Nova and calling it a seville.
I dont think the 4.1 liter V8 or the transmission behind it helped them any either. The Northstar could have been a great engine if they had done a better job bolting the head down.
Heres the truth though, I'd still love to have an early 90's Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham with the 5.0 or 5.7.
This same scenario eventually killed Packard by introducing a cheap model called the Packard 120 (later on, the Clipper). This didn't set well with people who bought the expensive Packards for exclusive luxury, watching a cheap Packard on the road.
@@Nothingtoya That Northstar engine may have been a technological marvel on paper but was an expensive mechanic's nightmare to work on. What dumb ass engineer thought putting the starter motor under the intake manifold with all the junk on top of it was a good idea...and then approved by his boss?
Although these cars are now interesting from a historical standpoint, I think they're really the biggest joke ever made by GM. The nerve of them even, ITS A FREAKIN' CAVALIER! The 80s were really the time when GM started to go downhill.
retroolschool I guess theres no better proof that Drugs had a big impact on the 80s. Lol
Well, the original Seville (75-79) was a dressed up Chevy Nova with an Olds engine (350 TBI/Digital Fuel Injection)
I SAT IN ONE AT THE GM FLAGSHIP SHOWROOM IN NYC THAT HAD ROLL DOWN WINDOWS. THE '75 SEVILLE WAS AN ELEGANT TRANSFORMATION THE CIMARRON WASN'T.
@@FirebirdCamaro1220 After Cadillac was done with it other GM divisions got it.
It may be the biggest joke ever by GM, but remember the Aztec, lmao
This car epitomized Detroit arrogance. Stuff like this allowed the Japanese to move in and take market share.
AND THE KOREANS AND SOON THE CHINESE. CADDY WANTED TO BUILD THE SOON TO BE CANCELED CT6 PLUG-IN HYBRID IN CHINA FOR SALE HERE.
Cadillac COULD have gone the Lexus route & created a modest little "IS" vehicle from the ground up instead of this great imposter.
mediacritic yeah imagine choosing between this or a Datsun Maxima. About the same price car.
Tather more desperation than arrogance, I'd say.
MICHGO1 Turn off caps lock, thanks
Just goes to show how overly optimistic Motorweek reviews were back in the day. "It's slower than lawn tractor, it handles like a walrus on acid, the brakes are made of celluloid, and you will die instantly in a 5 mph crash... More than a match for Audi, BMW, and Mercedes!"
2:05 That handling looks pretty decent..
Nick Motsarsky he’s barely going 30
😆🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
@@roddydykes7053 Platform still had potential, the Beretta GTZ and Olds Calais Quad442 got through the slalom faster than the Camaro/Firebird of the time. The N and L bodies used mostly J car parts.
Maybe just none of its competition were that much better? Naw this things still a pos lol
Wow look at how that hood flopped over when he pulled it up on its right side. Nearly folded in half under its own weight.
The way it was twisting and flexing, he almost ripped it right off.
Actually, it's not the car. It's the strength of John Davis. Back in the 1980s, John was an Olympic Weightlifter.
Funny you mention that. I watched that section, then immediately scrolled down here to see if anyone else was as horrified as I was.
Ive seen paper cups with more structural integrity.
Steven D Very clear evidence of GM's lack of desire to spend even a few bucks on this car to equip it with hydraulic hood struts to improve the quality feel. Any real Caddy from this era would have had them.
First time I ever saw one of these was in high school around 2005. I honestly thought it was a Cavalier that the owner put some Cadillac emblems on.
Yep, GM pioneered "badge engineering "
You pretty much just called it...
No it was a Chevy that Cadillac put Cadillac badges on it. It still embarrasses the designers to this day They are very blunt about how Corporate forced them to do it
Absolutely love these old car reviews. Simply amazing to see how much auto technology has evolved in such a short time.
Eddie Lopez Disagree
***** And I "vehemently object" your choice of fancy words...
Eddie Lopez Also simply amazing how the Big Three had the gall to build such crap cars in the late '70s and '80s and foist them on us. Whether one is a fan of certain foreign autos or not, we can thank Toyota, Honda, etc. for literally *forcing* GM, Ford and Chrysler to step up their game and build better quality cars.
1980s GM, the company treated it's consumer base like we were morons. It came back to haunt them as they had to crawl to the government for a bailout
TWICE.
All 3 American companies have came to the government for bailouts since the 80's. Chrysler has done this twice, GM twice, and Ford did it twice but theirs were a lot closer together. Ford did it right before 2008, they put up the whole company for a loan, then they did it again after the whole bailout thing with GM and Chrysler had calmed down.
The government should have forced all 3 of them to double their production in the US in order to get these loans.
Thanks to Roger Smith, GM's worst-ever CEO.
Amen
And no matter what GM did, we are the ones who paid the price.
The '82 accelerating at the drag strip looks like someone going for a CASUAL Sunday drive!
Fascinating watching this. The fact that this car was ever produced is amazing. They didn't even try to hide the fact that its nothing more then a J car.
+Joe Moorman Not with the 2 lousy 4s it was offered with it wasn't. Later on the 2.8 was not much better,since the Maxima and Cressida 6s trounced all over it, Lol
+Joseph Rogers This car is why Cadillac's current offerings are still slow selling. Cadillac is now producing world class cars, as good as and even better in some cases than BMW, Audi or MB. Problem is, after manufacturing tarted up Chevys and generally poorly constructed cars for decades, a potential customer is not willing to pony up 50 large for one. Their pricing is also not helping them AT ALL. The recent drop in price of $10,000 for the slow selling ELR is proof enough.
+Joe Moorman "Half"-assed is an understatement for this car. No-ass-at-all is more like it.
+brett cannon Who pissed in your corn flakes?
.
Bob Lutz said the Cimmeron was the lowest point in GM's history. That is from the book, "Car Guys and Bean Counters".
I can think of a few lower (and more recent) points in GM's history from a European (Opel) perspective. And just as Opel starts to get it's act together, it is sold to Peugeot. You gotta love them CEO's in Murica.
Excellent book about the car industry!! Also a lot of great wisdom that can be applied to other industries
Chevy Vega. Chevy citation. Corvair. How far back want to go?
The Cadillac by Chevrolet.
albear972 😅
Cavalier by Cadillac
Literally the *worst* example of badge engineering ever committed by an automobile manufacturer. Ever.
I don't know, I'd say calling a dolled-up 80s Chrysler Le Baron a Maserati takes the cake. Not that Maserati's own products have been all that great over the last 35 years or so.
Even in the video he said that the 1983 version "hit the mark" meaning that it was comparable to a BMW 320. The Cimarron was more than a Chevrolet with a Cadillac badge on it. It had different interior, suspension and was better insulated from road noise. Look at ANY Lincoln of the time, outside of the Towncar, which was an LTD, the rest were Grenada or Thunderbird based.
The Cadillac Catera comes close, but this one takes the cake.
Yup.. definitely a waste of money.. !! My god
Nah I'd say GM's GMT 360 Suvs are the worst because there are 6 variants of the same damn SUV.
This could have been a decent car, but in classic GM fashion they were complacent and half-assed it. I think this video shows that perfectly. If GM had started with something like the 83 and built on that, rather than starting with something as abysmally bad as the 82 and fixing it in post, the car may not have been a smash hit but it certainly wouldn't become the embarrassment it's known as now.
Then again, I guess I'm being overly optimistic if I expect something good out of a J-body, the living embodiment of corporate cynicism.
Had they started with the 2.8L V-6 and Fuel Injection and a slightly more reasonable price it might have been a winner.
Might as well call it a Cadavalier!
Do you mean that it was Dead On Arrival? (That's funny!)
BYGDAWG1419 I mean it's nothing more than a Chevy with pride.
When it came out I remember we called it a Cavalier with leather seats!
SUV Man This car was an embarrassment to the American car buying public, which was par for the course from GM back then
SUV Man lmaoo
GM's dark ages.
This is the kind of vehicle a room full of German and Japanese engineers would disassemble and laugh at in 1982.
BMW and Audi had nothing to worry about.
Yeah too bad they weren't allowed to go defunct in 2009. They were and still are the biggest embarrassment the USA has ever known.
BroccoliBeefed Truth. And Chysler too.
The cavalier is a simple, but efficient and deceptively durable daily driver car. I would much rather have a gussied-up j-car than any over engineered piece of european shit.
But I realize that BMW is for people with money, and the carelessness to throw their car away after other year or enough of a superiority complex to pump thousands of bucks into an aging ride made by designers who hate mechanics.
@@cxeroannuki2840 The J-cars ran forever. Tough, tough cars. They were longer lasting than Japanese cars in the salt belt in those days.
Can you imagine a Lincoln Escort?? 😂😂😂😂
That would have been a worse idea than the Cimarron was.
Good lord, GM must have been run by three martini lunch types.
Yes. Yes, it was. Hence the closing of plants and the literal death of Detroit within 5-10 years of this test.
The roger smith years!
It was and ruined their reputation forever.
@@MrLuckytrucker21 bean counters are still
Spending there money ! Some laughed their ass all the way to the bank !
Designed by committee !
I remember the gold trim package. Wheels badges everything. Worth tens of dollars tiday!
D'0ro package
From the Cimarron to the current ATS, Cadillac sure has come a LONG way.
Thanks Motorweek for these old reviews; nice to look at these older cars that are even older than myself.
Trades46 Cimarron wise, yes, but you are wrong otherwise
Makin Bacon
Wrong about what? In my opinion Cadillac has stepped up the game with premium platforms & world-class driving dynamics.
Sure they aren't quite there yet (Rome wasn't built in a day), but their current lineup is a heck lot better than Acura & Lincoln.
Trades46 Wrong. Nice try
Makin Bacon
And yet you don't explain.
Either you can't justify or be trolling.
Trades46 No real reason to explain. You would have to experience them yourself in order to see whether I am right or not...
A 20-22 second quarter mile time? Wait, what?!?
Golf cart mode
I had a 81 Datsun 210 Station wagon. If you think a 22 second quarter mile was bad, youd die in that Datsun. Hell, it had a top speed of 80 mph going down hill.
@@Nothingtoya I know exactly what you mean I have a 79 Datsun 210 Sedan I found out later in life that it was a California emissions vehicle making it even more of a turd
@@pyrrhicvictory1707 mine had the larger engine option, I think it was a 1.6l but that didnt matter at all. I do wish I had kept the car though. It was pretty mint and no rust whatsoever.
@Potato Puffs they made some really slow stuff back then lol.
Wow, the early 80's really were just a terrible time at GM. It's amazing they lived through it. Oh wait, I guess in a way they never really did.
14 seconds 0-60
Detroit did everything they could think of to move the US consumer base to imports. GM was the most successful at achieving maximum suckage.
5:30
Sad how horribly bent the hood is compared to the fiberglass nose clip. Nice work, GM!
Everyone's here mocking this car, and GM for producing it, but at the time it was a gamble that made sense to try. Cadillac was already dying. Fewer and fewer people were interested in huge land yachts. It would cost a fortune and take years to design an all-new Cadillac. The J-cars, particularly the Cavalier, were selling extremely well, and were decent little cars.
So Cadillac (GM) took a gamble and chose to see if a Cadillac version of this car would do as well as the Pontiac and Buick versions. For people who wanted a Cadillac, but wanted something a little more nimble, better on gas, easier to park, fit in a garage, and less expensive.
They lost that bet. A few years later, they took another gamble (actually two) that ended up saving them - the Escalade (a Cadillac TRUCK???) and the unpopular at the time, odd angular styling of their whole lineup. On paper, making a Suburban into a Cadillac sounds just as dumb as making a Cavalier into a Cadillac. One was a huge failure, one was a huge success.
Good insight
@awd protege I mentioned both in my comment
outch... garbage haha. Did you see the hood almost bend when he opened it.
😂😂 I saw that too
My 86 Trans Am does the same thing when you open the hood, these cars were all about Fuel Economy due to the fuel crisis when they were designed and I swear the metal is paper thin in some places. Guess I shouldn't complain about my 5.0L Fuel Injected TA pushing out 200/215hp after all compared to the smaller motors of the era OMG!
vulpixgrant still stronger than the cheap plastic they use now
One would hope, but to be honest I'm not sure lol.
cheap plastic of 2017 vs cheap plastic of 1982. Hahahaha
I bought this new in 1985 for my wife. A Chevy Cavalier...It almost broke Cadillac. It was so very poor to carry the name badge. We traded within 3 years. Thank you
@@appalachiahiker853 wtf he do to you boy 😂😂
Old Hollywood- NBC Mr. Hahn You must not like your wife very much lol.
This car would be enough to piss mother teresa off.
account4info ...or make Gandhi beat a child...
Erik Hertzer 😦😧😳👏🏼💯
account4info or make the pope choke a bitch
Meh,not into East Indians !
This car gets so much hate, I love it. It's so obviously re-badged, I love it even more.
Cadillac may as well have rebadged a Yugo
It's so perverse, I kind of want one...
@@rayford21 Your comment is an INSULT to the YUGO!
@@TheOzthewiz Puh-lease. You've obviously never driven either one of those, keyboard warrior, so settle down.
I love early J cars, the 3 box design hits me just right especially the first gen Cavaliers.
Hmmm this or a BMW 3 series... such a hard choice... /s
+David Hoffnung , LOL! Too freakin' funny David
I'd still rather have this than some BORING BMW that has looked the same for decades and costs tons of money to repair. BMW has it's share of problems like horrible AC and parts that put you in the poor house. No thanks I find BMW's boring ugly boxes and see way too many on the street to feel unique.
David Hoffnung Something else: Alfa Milano 3.0 V6! ;-D
Well, the Cav-illac does have a better turning radius!
Go Clunker 37 years later, and the Cimmaron looks better than any 30 year old BMW I have ever seen. Let's face it, the '80's was a bad year for all auto manufacturers. I blame it on the epa forcing tight emissions standards on engines when technology was not there yet to do so. The manufacturers had to rely on vacuum controlled systems, and other means that all robbed horsepower, reliability, and added great cost to the automobile
My friend bought a brand new '82 Chevy Cavalier, which was the same car. It was actually a pretty good car, quiet and well built, but it was dangerously underpowered.
GM thought they were saving lives using those anemic carburetor engines & the early wheezing fuel injection systems. Give the customer 82HP and let em crawl to work.
Still have one , 82 wagon with 3 speed, and yes its slow, but still love it
They can’t even sound positive which is something that always happens on motorweek
Ah, the memories!! Haven't seen one of these on the road in years. Mom and Dad had an '84th Olds Omega Brougham. A slightly larger car, but same premise. Compact luxury. The Omega was plush and comfortable. Velour seats that were like a couch, loaded, a veritable baby Delta88. Under the hood, though, was an anemic 2.5 liter four. Good on gas, but slow and noisy. No power at all on a steep hill. 40 mph with 4 ways on, foot buried in the carpet, with older v8 cars blasting past
Ohiomusical Sawman no your Oldsmobile was an x-car, this is a j-car, look it up
brett cannon You must have missed when he said the Omega was a "slightly larger car" than the Cimarron - he acknowledged it's not built on the same platform. His point was that it's another GM car built with the same purpose as this one.
I remember when this so-called "Cadillac" first hit the market. I was working at a full-service gas station when a local realtor, a regular customer, came in with a new 1984 Cimarron D'Oro (not 'Cimmaron' as titled here). He bought it for his blushing bride for a whopping $12,000! lol. The Cimarron with the D'Oro package, which is Italian for 'Gold', was basically just a few gold accents, it only came in black, with a tan leather interior. D'Oro Package Gold accents were added to the following: Aluminum Alloy Wheels, Grill, Fine Gold Accent Stripes on the Beltline, Bumper Rub Strips, Hood Center Line, and a unique D'Oro Hood Badge. Also included were blackout bumpers with smoke grey fog lamp covers. Inside there was D'Oro plaque on the instrument panel and the 3-spoke steering wheel which had all-metal spokes in a special gold finish. The very next day we had to go out and toe the blushing bride's new baby Caddy back to the dealership. It turned out to be a fault with the Lil computer. Poor Cadillac, after the late 1970s Cadillac was never the same status symbol car company ever again.
Never knew someone who had one and didn't have lots of issues. The problem was not just that it was a cavalier. The larger issue is GM tried to "Caddy" it up with technological bells and whistles that broke more than they didn't. Frankly it was a better move to stick with the regular Cavalier. They weren't too bad.
My family has had two. Very little problems. I still have mine and I'm a mechanic
And then later, GM rebadged a Opel to a Cadillac Catera...
+Sean Spring yup....lol
+Sean Spring
The Caddy that zigs....right into non existence.
+acronus , It was an electrical nightmare. GM does so many stupid things. I don't understand why, but they do
+BroccoliBeefed It probably looked good on paper to them and figured people wouldn't be able to see that it was a fucking Opel and not a real Cadillac.
+MinnesotaChevy454 They were probably thinking... Hmmm, a rearwheel drive sedan, engineered in Germany, and relatively successful in Europe.. Noww this is gonna work! How hard can it be?! :P
Over time, here in Europe it was also known for a unreliable piece of a GM rustbucket...
The cylinder heads used to crack regularly on these 1.8 and 2.0 POS engines, too. Unfortunately, I was working for a GM dealer back in those days, so I'm used to pain.
Many car manufacturers attempted to rebrand their luxury brand cars on cheaper models by adding a few options and the badge. Heck even Maserati rebranded a Chrysler Lebaron back in 88-89 even after the Cimmaron thing! Currently in 2016, the Maserati Ghibli is drawing comparisons to a Chrysler 300
The 300 and Maserati Ghibli share nothing
So when John says, "And boy does it make a difference" what he's really saying is, "It still sucks only not as much."
Loving all these retro clips of your old shows and I am really enjoying all your current shows also. It's a shame we don't get it transmitted here in Scotland.
I was wondering if you have done any more reviews of cars in Canada like the one you did for the Hyundai Stellar for cars that were never sold in the USA for example the Lada Signet (Riva in the UK).
Thanks for watching, Paul. Not many other non US reviews. We've got Citroën DC2 and a Japanese spec Subaru rally car...that's about it.
+ViolentDeepFart we'll to them soon
Hey i like to see the 86 to 89 accord or the 90 to 93 accord plz
It's like putting a Band-Aid on a turd. It's a Cavalier anyway you look at it. Leather, and power sacraments will not save this car. Cadillac had made some bad choices over the years. The Opel based turd mobile was one of them, as well as the Cimmaron. I was working in retail sales. An influential customer customer came in, and the lights were left on in his Cimmaron. Of course they were of the "Twilight' variety, but I mentioned that his Cavalier had the lights on. He was quick to point out that the car was a Caddy, and I was quick that it was a cheap Chevy. He still bought.
I love how he keeps comparing this gussied up Cavalier to Audi's, Bmw's and the like! LOL. Eventually they did add a V6 but by then the whole model was toast.
This and the later Catera were Caddy's "forgotten" vehicles - for a reason!
Cimmaron and Catera , worst of cadillac.
The entire 80 were bad for caddy. The 8-6-4 that small v-8 the list goes on and on
they should have used the bulletproof 3.8 V6 instead of those crappy V8's
Everytime I see a new (C)TS, that's all I can think of. I would think they would have avoided the letter C in their new models considering those 2 cars were a PR nightmare.
One would think gm learned something back then. Enter the Cadillac ELR. Based on the volt and loosely engineered with the Cruze.
Yeah, why did Cadillac use a waddling water bird as their symbol for the Cat-era? At least use a Jaguar (no can't use that), or maybe a Cougar (nope, taken by Mercury), how about a Linx (nosiree, also used by Mercury) or maybe a Tiger (uh-uh, Sunbeam made one), oh I got it, Wildcat (scratch that, old Buick moniker). "Okay, boys," says a Harvard MBA, "let's use a DUCK!" "Brilliant!" exclaims a VP hired by Roger Smith, "Give that guy a raise and a promotion!"
"Gone is the anemic 1.8L that made 88hp. In its place is the new 2.0L! And it makes the same 88 hp."
1980s American auto industry in a nutshell.
Imagine if Lincoln had done something like this to an Escort. It would have been worse.
The Lincoln Mark VII is basically a fox body Mustang.
Mecury lynxx
@@basshead. yeah, but at least they didn't sell them with wimpy 4 bangers.
LOL. I've always wanted to find a clean Pinto, and tart it up as a "Lincoln Trinket" - complete with the padded 'spare tire' hump on its little ass. *padded for safety!
For all you budget minded Mafia members we have the Cimmaron! "Yo can I get dat in powda blue?"
🤣🤣🤣🤣
The later, V6-powered car was pretty great. It was, more or less, a Z24 with a really plush interior and classy looks. Great combination. Lousy Cadillac, though. Wish I still had one.
"If those initial comments are less than favorable, they can haunt that model for its' entire run..."
Oh, you had no idea back then Pat. No idea that it would take Cadillac almost 30 years to live down the '82 Cimarron.
My grandma bought a new 1982 and she got angry when I told her it was a jazzed up Cavalier.
1VaDude lmaooo
You’re poor grandma. She was probably Greatest Generation and for them a Caddy was a quality car. She was not expecting this POS.
i would love to find one of these. an 85 or 86 d'oro package with a digital cluster and 2.8 multiport v6.
"Mom, I want a Cadillac"
"We have a Cadillac at home"
The Cadillac at home:
Somebody at Motorweek was on the payroll for this one.
If I could afford a CTS-V I would slap Cimmaron badges on it. The reactions would be priceless HAHA!!!
Especially since that's what the C in CTS could stand for - Cimarron Touring Sedan. (STS Seville Touring Sedan, DTS DeVille Touring Sedan). Though some would argue that Catera Touring Sedan is correct....
Actually I think the C stands for Catera. I'd like to think that GM would have been smart enough to let the Cimmaron name stay dead since the 80s, and not bring it back even in an abbreviation.
James Eaton CADILLAC TOURING SEDAN, gggeesshh!
James Eaton this car is the grandparent of current and past CTS 😂😂
"Comments... can haunt that model for it's entire run." Amen to that! The V6 Cimarron was SOOOO much better, but suffered because of the boat-anchor '82 model. It deserved so much more.
The cimmy deserved a v6 from the start.....shit even that boat anchor 3.0 litre from the Century/Ciera would have been nice.
One of many examples of why my family gave up on GM by the late 80s. Amazing this model stayed in production so long.
Because Cadillac needed even the small 20k or so she's a year it produced
@@brettcannon74 I suppose they needed more market share by some corporate edict, but it’s just that in 1984, fior instance you could still buy a new coupe deville for about 18 large, depending on options.
I dunno. Maybe there were customers who just had to have a wreath and crest on their hood no matter what, and $12000 was their hard ceiling.
6:30 14.6 seconds to 60, and that's an improvement! And, I can just imagine the 4 cylinder buzz that would ensue when the car was driven with such gusto. The Cimmaron looked like a nice car until you saw that it was just a dressed-up Cavalier. It wasn't really bad, but it must have had the same bearable but unsupportive read seats as the other J-cars (and due to undersized brakes, no middle seating position in the first couple of years). I'll bet it was more comfortable in front, though. From what I've read, even the V6 didn't turn it into a $13,000 car, since there was too little space under the hood for compliant engine mounts. It was probably a good buy as a used car, if you wanted the nicest Cavalier on the block.
22 second quarter mile. Not too shabby. Equals a new Rascal scooter.
In 1998, Wisconsin, I worked with a guy with an old Cimmaron. The door skins were rusted through along the bottom the entire length of each door. He could pull back the door skin, reach his arm up through the rust hole and unlock the door. Wisconsin, like the Cimmaron, is an automotive nightmare. Salt, salt, salt,...
I had one of these when I was 17, it was a real beater, I've only seen 2 since
It was my first car . I was at a hole in the wall car dealership with my dad ( God rest his soul ) where he bought it for me . I tried to steer my dad to the v6 cavielier to no avail . I am grateful though for the first car I ever owned though . It was an electrical nightmare to work on . It 1.8 liter carbureted engine and 3 speed slush box was underpowered . It handled well and the previous owner put super wide tires on the stock wheels like 225 so it handled like a go cart .
6:11 and 6:24 - That hood flex is alarming! Yikes!
These were amazing cars for their time.
They spent such little time on the road that when they went to the junkyards they were crushed whole, no one needed any parts off of them.
Truly prestigious for GM.
😆
My mother had her 1983 8 years and I still have my 84. Beg to differ
@@brettcannon74 I'm sure that youre not only the envy of the neighborhood but also the life of any party.
@@brettcannon74 By the way, the correct pronounciation for that 'cadillac' is LeGarbage
@@brettcannon74 to me they were somewhat reminscient of the Chevy 🚗 Cavalier
1:42 Pretty nice noise level.
Every GM make had a version of the J... including Opel, Vauxhall, Isuzu, Holden, and even Daewoo. I think they should have left Cadillac out of it.
0 to 60 time was clocked with a calendar
This makes a Toyota Tercel look like a C 63 AMG lmaooo😂😂
Noo, wait a minute!! The 83 have fog lamps!!
What a great deal and improvement!
I own a 84 Cimarron with the rare factory astroroof. I love it and it's been trouble free. All the hate geessh. The world is full of it now
@brettcannon74 Well if you're happy with it, God Bless Ya!!!!!
I'm damn near 60 (MORE than old enough to remember when these were new). I just NOW noticed that the on the '92 Cimmaron, the Cadillac badge has neither the "V" or the Wreath. I thought THAT only happened on Cadillacs in 1970 an 1971.
OK, it's not great. And yet, I still kind of want one. The conversation piece!!!
LOL!
"piece" is the correct word lol
we had the 5 spd and its issue was the clutch neutral kill switch popping off the spring at stop lights[often] you then had to set the brake and park to reach under and place the plastic back on the spring for the clutch to engage drove our lady friend nuts w family in car. mpg 33 avr w good 92 prem
can you imagine Jeremy Clarkson reviewing something like this today?
I'd love to see that.
Well, his views on the successor 2(?) generations down are well known, no? Just look for the Vauxhall Vectra…😱
I hope he does.
Oh he would Desimated this car to dirt
I'm pretty sure I saw this new on PBS Houston Chanel 8 when first Aired. You guys rock!!!!!!!!!
all these are is a caviler with power windows..
+DW Red And leather, don't forget that.
SuchANiceGirl22 Cant forget the leather...lol
And brushed chrome instead of simulated wood grain on the dash. European styling, but still an insult to Cadillac buyers.
+David James an insult to anyone really
It's funny because the Cavalier replaced the Monza in the Chevrolet lineup; and the Monza was the better car. My dad owned a 78 Monza and later an 82 Cavalier; and he said the Monza was better even though it itself was a piece....
I would love to restomod this with Buick regal 2.0 T AWD power train and keep the outside visual appearance mostly stock .
The Cimmaron's problem isn't that it was a bad car. For what it was and the standards of the era in which it was sold, it was actually a pretty good deal. During the 80s, pretty much every car was slow and unreliable (that second one with the exceptions of Mercedes and Volvo), because technology *still* hadn't caught up to the safety and emissions standards that had been implemented nearly a decade ago. The problem was that although it was a decent car for what it was and with a price that undercut the German competitors by enough that its faults didn't matter, it was a Chevy Cavalier with microscopic Cadillac badges and almost no styling differences. It doesn't matter how OK of a car it was for its price and class, what's the point of buying a car to impress people with if nobody can tell that you have one?
Current Audis suffer from the same problem, their entry level cars look just like VWs, so everyone buys C-classes and 3-series instead. Their mid-range cars sell well because you get an incredible amount of prestige and interior build quality for a price much lower than the closest competitors, but the low end stuff looks too anonymous. The largest profits are at higher price points, but it doesn't matter how much you make per car if you don't sell any, and near-luxury is where the volume is at. Even Infiniti and Acura, 2 brands that ceased to carry any prestige nearly a decade ago but still charge luxury prices, outsell them in those segments. Audi IMO is 2016's 1980s Cadillac: unreliable, mediocre, and overpriced versions of cheaper cars, with a bloated, expensive to produce range that hardly sells except for a few near the top that just barely pay for the ones that don't. An A5 is great, but an A3 is not even close to an Acura ILX competitor, let alone a 3-series fighter. They've been making massive improvements to the A7/8 and Q7 at the expense of their models that actually sell, like Cadillac used to do with the Eldorado.
Interesting analysis!
Dude. You weren't alive in the '80s. Trust me, by comparison, this was a complete joke, not just in comparison to the imports (Volvo 240 series, VW Jetta, Audi 5000, etc.etc) but domestic as well. The lebaron was world's better than this, and that's saying something.
@@jefranke Dude. It seems like you know nothing. This IS german car.
It's every bit as bad as the beamers they were trying to replicate. Great job!
Cimmaron's said overheating was "normal" in the owners manual. One of the biggest pieces of shit ever built. Right up there with a Topaz/Tempo.
Most American cars in the 80s and 90s were garbage besides the sports cars.
My 2000 Malibu says the same thing about overheating being normal, if you drive at highway speed or uphill for along time.
It depends. If they don't rot into 3000 pieces, the engines seem to be fairly reliable. Still see quite a few of the A-Body GM cars around. Few Escort/Tracer/Lynx around. Lot's of 80's and 90's C/K and F-Series around with massive rust holes in most.
CTJacob My 93 Tracer is doing great at 150k. Gets 38mpg on the highway. NO rot.
^ southern car tho? Up north it's rare to see any cars older than say, 2001, because they're all rusted and useless.
My elementary school librarian had that lil caddy lol she looked so jazzy pulling up in her fur coat and hat Rest easy Mrs.H
GM did not fool anyone it was a cheap Cavalier with some Cadillac badges gluded to it. To the few who bought it, they were quick to take off the Cadillac emblems when they got laghed at
I really don't mind that it's a rebadged Chevy. Just do a good job on a rebadged Chevy if they just put more quality Parts on the little car it wouldn't have been so bad
06:10 That is a very thin hood. Cannot believe how much it twists. My parents had a 1984 Opel Ascona, which is the same body. The hood didn't twist on that.
The Opel Ascona 1,6 is a very boring car, so I tried to "upgrade" it a little, inspired by the Cimmaron, by having it painted two tone blue, often seen on the down size Chevrolet Caprice Classic, putting tinted windows in it, and white wall tires on it. Last but not least, adding noise reducing mats under the hood. It helped. It turned out quite cute.
Before I did that, you could not tell their blue Ascona from other blue Asconas, without reading the license plate. But afterwards it was easy to spot them.
The contempt GM showed to the car buying public by offering this car is almost unforgivable. I only hope the people responsible were sacked.
Yeah, but whoever went out & bought one should hang their head in shame. Didn't they even test drive it first?
I wish I could find one still on the road in my area. I would love to own one as a joke.
I still can't believe this was a thing.
GM should forever be ashamed for this.
AdamG1983 I think they are
they have no shame
An equivalent of the Cimmaron today would be taking a Chevy Cruze, and adding leather and a Cadillac badge so it can compete against the Mercedes C Class and BMW 3 series.
A fucking Chevy Cavalier with a Cadillac badge, God Bless the USA and now you know why American cars are still suffering. They're still pulling this kind of bullshit and demanding a premium
Here's a Motorweek Retro Review of the 1982 and newer Cadillac Cimmaron from 1983.
88HP!?! I can push a car faster than this thing can move.
Wow, I never really think of my 82 Corvette as being a performance car with only around 200 hp and a 8 second 0-60... but wow, compared this to disaster my Corvette is amazing. Man did the EPA just destroy car performance for about 15 years.
Rod Munch the Corvette was a performance car, this was a luxury economy car. You think the huge DeVille and Fleetwood did any better with 125 HP with over two ton of weight?
brett cannon Those cars had V8's making over 200ft/lbs of torque even with all the detuning. Those cars would hit 60 in about 10 sec. So they would smoke this cadavalier.
88HP isn't luxury. I've owned 3 Cadillac's, a BMW, 3 Corvettes - lots of different cars over the years. I really like Cadillac, well except for the God awful CUE system - it's f'ing awful, but 88HP in a Caddy in the 1980s? That's disgraceful, no matter if it was just a rebadged Cavalier or not. Also a ton of the blame is on the EPA that just destroyed car performance for quite a while.
It's the same european project called "Opel Ascona". It was also sold in South America, from 1982 to 1996, under the name "Chevrolet Monza".
Maybe it was ok to be sold as an Opel or Chevy, but it doesn't match to the Cadillac badge. It's weird.
was 88 the last year of the cimmaron? It had a gutsy lil 2.8 v-6 by then and euro lights...Did you guys ever test one?
I drove one of those back in the day, the v6 was light years faster than this one...
But I still hated it. ;)
joegolden481 yep, the 2.8 V6 in this car had one of the best sounding exhausts I've heard
When he opened the hood at 6:12 it looks so flimsy
My '77 Pontiac Astre Formula wagon (Vega Kammback clone) with Iron Duke 2.5L 4 banger and 5 speed manual (28 MPG city, 34 MPG hiway) outperformed this car in every way!
Man, your beautiful Astre is a lot better than the Cimarron.
Apparently I've been pronouncing this car's name wrong all along; I've been calling it the "Se(mare)in". I still think it's a fairly handsome car for he time. Whoa! Did you see how flimsy that hood looked when he opened it at 6:10? Crazy!
The hood is so flimsy! Ah 80s american cheapness
At least it rusted less than Japanese cars.
my grandad, who worked at a variety of GM dealerships as a mechanic from 1968 until he retired in 2002, said that the Cadillac Cimmaron was the biggest pain in the butt to work on, other Cadillac models weren't far behind from that same time period. He said that after the 1980s, Cadillacs became easier to work on despite the Northstar engines of which my grandad was free from having to work on😁
lol that hood is soo flimsy, that's 80's American car build quality for you.
Not all American cars were built so cheaply. My grandmas 1984 Monte Carlo CL was a trooper. Lasted for years. When Body by Fisher was the rule of the land and a 302 V8 was top notch.
yeah but the vast majority of the American car build quality back then was bad. American car companies got cheap, because they wanted to compete with econo box imports back then. that's when the American car companies started going down hill in build quality, they were more concerned about quantity at that time over quality.
My grandfather's 96 Cutlass Sierra (pretty much the same car, celebrity, etc) had an iron hood, very heavy. The car still got excellent mileage too.
I drove a 86 in high school and loved it. Also had no problem getting it airborne.