I love how the commenters here say it's forgettable and not worth saving but just by commenting on it alone you are disproving yourselves. I daily drive mine and see others all the time here in Colorado. You just gotta take care of your shit. Might not have been the best Cadillac but this one lasted 30+ years and mine still looks new; could not have been that badly built.
i had one till some one pushed the bumper to the back seat i would still to this day would drive it around to this day miss mine even though i thought it looked a little funky
those were actually pretty nice cars. my dad had an '83 cavalier wagon that he put 230K on with no engine nor transmission work. when he traded it in, they couldn't believe it had that many miles and was still in pretty good cosmetic and physical condition. the problem with the cimarron was you could buy 2 cavaliers for the same price.
Everyone is hating on this car. Yeah it's a piece of ****. But in years to come it'll be one of the most rare classic cars of the 80s. And their value will absolutely go up! Definitely worth it to be saved for the right person!
Jay Smart hey Jay! that is a neat little Cadillac Cimarron! Use a Cavalier as a parts car and save the Cadillac Cimarron! At the very least save that rare and decent leather interior and other Cimarron only parts.
dick flowers Corvairs are awesome! Don't compare these amazing cars to other cars as shitty. People who talk crap about these cars generally don't know anything except what someone else told them!
It's still a thousand times better than what passes for a "Cadillac" today. Seemingly the last of these were vastly improved and actually did get some good reviews. I'd seriously consider saving it.
Cavalier in a tux..much like a Lincoln Versailles was a Granada in a tux. Too bad the front seats aren't in better shape or maybe you could import them into your Cavalier wagon project.
I know its popular to bash the Cimarron but the later models 1986-1988 were much better with the 2.8v6. I owned a super super rare Cimarron that outshines this one. It was a 1988 Cadillac Cimarron with the ultra rare 5-speed transmission. Yes a manual in a Cadillac. They only made 112 units with the 5 speed manual in 1988. It was a dark blue exterior with light grey lower color. Dark blue leather seats. I drove the car till 2003 with 285,000 miles on it with no major repairs. Car was great to me and the 5 speed transformed the fun factor. Got compliments all the time and when they looked inside and saw the manual transmission they always flipped.
Bob Rebello Well lucky I thought about that so not too long after I bought mine, I took several pictures of the exterior aswell as the interior. Got some great shots of the center console to prove they were made. The 1987 Cadillac brochure shows pictures of the 5 speed in color. I think it was light tan in color. But I have legitimate pictures of mine. In my life, I NEVER saw another 5 speed other than mine, in 25 years of looking. They made more manuals in the early 1981-85 years but they had the underpowered 2.0 liter 4 cylinder. If you find one, youre doing better than me. Thanks for replying
I've seen those pictures in the brochures and references to the manual in my 88 owner's manual but would love to see your 'real-life' pictures. I daily drive my 88. www.bobrebello.us/cimarronpage.html
Bob Rebello Your car does look amazing. White wall tires were not available in 1987-88 I believe and prefer the all black sidewalls the way they came from the factory. You have the same color interior I have, dark blue, but you have the rare cloth and leather combination seats. Not many were ordered with that option. Very nice to see that present. You have the optional twilight sentinel and factory luggage rack, which mine had as well. A lot of dealers put aftermarket luggage racks on their cars which were smaller and looked terrible. All in all a beautiful car. If you want to private message me on here we can talk more and ill see if I can help u
I remember the Cadillac Cimarron which was a dressed up Chevrolet Cavalier but in my opinion still looked nice when new which looked one over in 1986 when the dealer was closed on a Sunday. To be honest I wanted one but the I was still in high school until May 1986 when graduated. Your right, it is rare.
Jay! If the Cadillac is not going to be out on the road, can you PLEASE take out the stereo before the whole car gets wasted and sent off to the Chinese? I'll be interested in buying the stereo. ^^
I literally LOLed when I read the title then saw a Cimarron in the thumbnail. I'll admit I actually really like the Cimarron and Pontiac 2000/Sunbird versions of this platform
And I don't think his K-Car analogy was quite right. He might be thinking about how similar the A platform (Celebrity, Century, 6000, etc.) was to the X platform (Citation, Phoenix, Skylark, etc.).
All the crappy gm cars that sensible buyers stayed away from. The 1980's was a decade to just stay away fro. Cars period. Even the best manufactures were struggling due to the epa mandates, and designers with poor taste
my dad's boss was a huge Cadillac man. his daughter had one of these. his wife had a seville...the one where the ass looks chopped off, and he drove a fleetwood.
I knew a lady who bought a new 81 Eldo with the V8-6-4 and of course it was terrible, wouldn't start etc. She took it to the dealer mechanic and he said. 'You have to tell the computer that you want it to start the engine, just turn the key to on, and give it a minute." Never had another problem with it.
Well, that's not the last one on the road. The Cimarron is a "J" body car, along with the Chevy Cavalier, Pontiac Sunbird, Oldsmobile Firenza, and the Buick Skyhawk. The Celebrity is an "A" body car along with the Buick Century and Olds Cutlass Cierra. My parents bought a 1984 Cimarron brand new in May 1985 with just under 80 miles on it. Totally loaded just as the one shown here, but in blue and with the Chevy 2.0 engine. It has been passed down in the family and my niece drives this car every day still. It has 356K miles on it. The transmission was rebuilt and 278K. If taken care of, such as ours, they are very reliable and can last a long time. They are better than the bad rap they've been given. I did change the 13" alloy wheels to 14" steel wheels to give me a wider range of choices for better quality tires.
My mother bought a new 84 Sunbird and drove it for years, then the rest of the family passed it around for who-knows-how-many years after that. I think somebody just parked until they moved away or something. LOL
Oh, it's definitely rare---they didn't sell well to begin with, and just like the Cavalier, they fell apart pretty fast. Believe it or not, the 2.8 V6 was optional---the Cavalier 4 cylinder was standard.
@@jacobfleming565 No, they had an aluminum head. They also didn't use enough head bolts, which is why they went through head gaskets. I used to work at a GM dealership, and the mechanics replaced many. Just because YOU didn't have any problems doesn't mean other people didn't
Here in hungary we call this car the little europe cadillac. The swiss and dutch people love the little Cimarron too. For our small roads and small streets is this size of car perfect.
The Cimarron was a "J" body similar to the Cavalier/Sunbird/Firenza/Buick Skyhawk. It was not in the class with the Celebrity, which was an "A" body similar to the Buick Century/Olds Ciera/Pontiac 6000. GM took a lot of flack for trying to sell a Cadillac wrapped in a subcompact Chevy body with Chevy quality. At the time Cadillac buyers were used to the big land yacht Cadillacs.
Ah yes the infamous "J" car. Here in Australia it was inflicted on us too in the form of the Holden Camira. Horrid little buzzbox that was poorly built and underpowered. They tried a couple of fixes, going from 1.6 liters to 1.8 and eventually 2.0 liters. It was too late, word had spread and it limped off the market shunned and unloved. I can't remember the last time I saw one.
I remember that when my dad went into a GM showroom to buy a smaller car he looked at the Cimarron and an Olds Firenza wagon. Both were around the same price,but my dad felt the Olds drove better and had more storage room being a wagon. Plus,it was a heck of a lot cheaper to insure than than the Cimarron(due to anything with the Cadillac brand on it getting a heck of a coverage mark up). So,my dad went with the Firenza and we got 12 trouble free years out of it.
Jay Smart, if I were you I'd get that Cadillac out of there, it is rare I agree with you even rarer is that is a two tone colour very hard to find, plus it looks to be in good shape as far as condition, if you did get this car you would be owning something almost impossible to find today, if you were to repair it then you would have a fantastic looking car they are a very high en Chevy Cavalier in essence, to find a 1st gen cavalier is very rare especially with a cadillac, I think it's really cool that you made a video on it but please try and buy it if you can, I would be a happy man.
The Beretta/Corsica/Celebrity/6000/Ciera/Century/Cutlass Supreme/Regal/Lumina/Grand Prix/Grand Am/Skylark/Acheieva were based on the Citation's "X" platform, not the Cavalier's "J" platform. I love the approach someone took to removing the hood ornament.
That is true. Because if it never ran it would never blow up. The 2.8 with those pressed aluminum heads were worthless except for recycling into beer cans.
the Cimmaron was a failure IMO because it was a Thinly Disguised Cavalier. but that can't be it...i know Badge engineering is a very Tricky game it seems......the 1st Generation Seville was a good seller for caddy despite its Nova Underpinnings....and the 2002 2nd Gen Escalade sold like Hotcakes despite sharing nearly everything with its lower GMC and Chevrolet Truck siblings. the car market is Very fickle. there's no way to explain one badge engineering job failing so horribly in the market and others being very sucessful.
i have a neighbor who still drives a cadillac cimarron , not sure what year it is , but a very nice looking little car , and i drive a 96 cadillac fleetwood brougham .
Only a true junkyard man would call out that 92' was the first year for Cavi's to get a flip down console arm rest. Even die hard Cavi enthusiasts probably don't know that. One of the many reasons I love going to the local yard and scrounging for parts, you always have the resident encyclopedia who knows all of these random bits of info.
Well, it’s a terrible car. It’s literally a Cavalier that tried to compete against Mercedes and BMW. I’m almost certain that there are still many more out there.
I had an 83, with a 2 liter 4 cylinder, fuel injected engine. I don't get why the Cimarron, the nicest of the J body cars, attracts such harsh criticism, when the Chev, Pontiac, Buick and Olds versions of the same car aren't held in such derision.
@@stephenandloriyoung5716 The other versions sold for maybe a grand or two over the Cavalier, while this thing sold for about 13K , or roughly twice what a Cavalier cost and it had the same drive train.
@@kennethsouthard6042 So, that may make it a comparatively poor value for money when new. It doesn't make it what Heroic Sultan called it, "a terrible car." As to the same drive train, (I've had a few Cavaliers and one Cimarron) the 83 Cadillac version had TBI when the Cavalier had an E2MC carb, a small but worthwhile advantage, until Cavalier came out with it, in 85 or 86, maybe. The Cimarron interior was much nicer, too. I don't think it was worth all the extra money, either, but obviously some did. I'd certainly have taken two Cavaliers over one Cimarron. It can't be a terrible car without the less exalted brand versions being terrible, too, and they don't seem to attract the hate that the nicest of them all does. This doesn't add up.
and i used to think my dad a car dealer was the bees knees in the uk with a 2 litre 8 valve vauxhall/opel cavalier while you guys only had a standard 2.8 v6 how did you overtake
Im a little confused by your comment. So you thought the 2L engine was good? But your questioning how we got up to speed with a v6? The v6 was loads better in performance compared to the 2L But it was still terrible.
The Cadillac Cimarron shared the J platform with the Chevy Cavalier, Buick Skyhawk, Oldsmobile Forenza, Buick Skyhawk, and Pontiac Sunbird it had nothing to do with the Chevy Beretta / Corsica platform. The Chevy celebrity share its platform with the Buick Century, Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera, and Pontiac 6000. The Chevy Corsica was between the Cavalier and the celebrity in Chevrolet's lineup added in 1987. The Catera was one of the worst most made fun of cars in Automotive History sharing every top 10 list with other winners like the Yugo gvl, and Hyundai Excel Mitsubishi precise
Has not to give up well on!!! It makes left the American automobile heritage, thus it is has to keep and has to resell possibly. really nice this little cadillac ! And the dark blue buick "park avenue", you crush it?
No one is critical of Honda for making an Acura version of the Civic. GM's problem wasn't making a Cadillac version of a small Chevy car. Cadillac's problem was taking a small car that wasn't very highly thought of and not changing it nearly enough when they made it a Cadillac.
I actually had one of these many yrs ago, it was a Cimarron D'oro, special paint color and badges, it was actually a very nice little car...... for what it was, the port injected v-6 had plenty of snap. it rode and handled completely different than the Cavalier wagon I also had at that time, much quieter and smoother. I would really like to find another one, especially the Cavalier wagon w/a v-6. just a perfect size little hauler
They were cool for the time. But fell out of style faster then foax fur in June. My cavalier wagon is waiting on a nice 3.1 swap. One day ill get around to it .Id love to have it on the open road again
I remember them, I took a cluster from one of them and installed it in my 90 cavalier :-) the only thing I saved from the cavalier before I scrapped it..were the X-11 Citation rims..I still have them, can't scrap them..lol
This platform was shared with the Olds Firenza, Buick Skyhawk, Pontiac Sunbird, as well as the Chevy Cavalier. The Cimmaron was not a bad car in its own right, but buyers were expecting more than a badge engineered Cavalier out of a Caddy. A better engine and a little more differentiation would helped.
The Cimoron was part of GMs J Car playform. shared with the Cavalier,Pontiac J2000/Sunbird/Sunfire,Olds Firenza and the Buick Skyhawk. The Beretta was an L Body witch only the Corsica shared that platform. And the Celebrity was the A-Body witch was shared with the Buick Century,Olds Cutlass Ciera and Pontiac 6000.
GM saw Lincoln fail with the Versailles, so they thought they would fail, too. Enter Cimarron by Cadillac. These were supposed to compete with BMW and Audi. Actually, the last couple years these were produced ('87-'88), they weren't half bad, as long as you didn't think of it as a Caddy. These things would depreciate so bad, you could probably have picked up a year or two old one for year or two old Cavalier money. God help anyone who purchased one brand new, though.
I hadnt thought of Versailles in forever.... I always thought Caddy had its heart in the right place. But the followthrough went south fast.. They should have taken more notes from Mercedes, and less from Chevrolet. in 1986 Luxury was a power game chevy didnt have its hands in !
Having grown up during the 70's I've always thought the Granada based Versailles was built to compete with the Nova based Seville that Caddy came out with. I actually just saw a late 70's Seville just yesterday driving down the road, looked all original, off-yellow paint and same colored vinyl top to boot!
Right you are. Those 1st generation Sevilles are becoming collectible classics now. Cadillac had success with the Nova based Seville. Doubt Ford could claim success with the Granada-Monarch based Versailles. I think it only lasted 2 or 3 years. And that yellow, 1st gen Seville you saw was probably a '79. I believe that might have been the only year of that color. My Dad's secretary at that time used to say that that color yellow Seville was her dream car. BTW, I owned an '84 Seville in that pale yellow (possibly called 'Waxberry') that about 50% of all Cadillacs sold in Florida were during that era. I think the other 50% were white. LOL. A friend of mine in high school even had a '77 Coupe Deville in that pale yellow. Was a hand me down from his mom, who got a new one. Had Tru-spoke wheels on it, too.. Life was good for Jarred 'til he found a beached bale of weed in the Keys and decided to bring it back to Sarasota High and start selling it off an ounce at a time. I'm sorry. I strayed off topic. My bad.
It's a bit of a shame that the knucklehead previous owner ruined that one by cutting chunks out of it as it looked to be in pretty fair condition and certainly good enough to put an engine in and keep on driving it. Yes, it may be a terrible car but it's a rare and high spec terrible car and if they all disappear then there is the chance that Cadillac will try and make something like it and equally terrible in the future but if there are still some around people will remember how terrible they were and Cadillac will never dare to repeat it. And, to be perfectly honest, some highly regarded cars are pretty horrid such as the VW Beetle which is a bona fide classic and pretty sought after while, in standard form, it is also slow, noisy, uncomfortable, a bit too prone to catching fire and really not a good place to be in a crash. By all reasonable standards it should be a terrible car yet everybody seems to love them. The idea of Cadillac making an economy car, hell one of these would be worth it for the comedy value...
I await your comment on every video i post. Seriously. You single handedly provide the most knowledgeable feedback and I thank you. I hearby dub the, " JAMIE< KING of the COMMENTS >
+Jay Smart Thank you very much. I seem to recall that some of the big US motoring magazines named the Cimarron as the worst car ever made in the US. It seems a little harsh really, considering some of the utter clunkers that US manufacturers have created. I suspect the Cimarron and it's other Cavalier-based siblings would have actually been forgettable but fairly decent cars if they had had some kind of build quality from the start, but because the build quality early on was so dire they all got stuck with the trouble label which stuck with them right through their lives...
Cimarron was a J car, one of the rare if not only the only time that every car division of GM had a model in the lineup. Chevy had the Cavalier, Pontiac the J 2000, Buick the Skyhawk and Oldsmobile the Fireanza. Cadillac's looked more like a gussied up Chevy than a Cadillac at least the Buick and Oldsmobile versions used a nicer dashboard, where Cadiillac just shared with Cheverolet. GM was truly a WTF when they came out with this and sold it for twice as much as the Cavalier.
We had a Chevy Celeberty at our shop a few times. Sadly at the time I didn't know how to drive so I didn't have to rare opportunity to drive it and see how it feels
I got a Ascona C, same "body". 20 000 miles on it since 1984. so pretty nice picked it up untouched with license plate (have been registerd and driven every year). Old man had it. paid 2400 dollars for it (cheap in Norway) if you want a lets say shitty BMW E39 your looking at a pretty 6000 dollar. with like 150 000 miles
Beretta and corsica were the same platform, not related to the cavalier. -the cavalier, sunbird, and cimarron were on the J body. -pontiac 6000, olds cutlass ceira, chevy celebrity, and buick century were the A body platform. - full sized FWD cars..... the bonneville and buick lesabre were H body - cutlass supreme, chevy lumina, and pontiac grand prix were W body -grand am and buick skylark N platform there you go basic run down of older GM platforms.
Additionally, Olds took the J Body bones [it was the lead engineering unit for the N bodies] and developed the Calais, Grand Am, Somerset/Skylark from it. Enough so that it got it's own platform designation. Chevrolet took the N and developed the L body for the Corsica/ Beretta. Chevrolet declined participating in the N Body program. Lots of stories on the development of the various platforms in the rags of the period. According to Brock Yate's book "The Decline And Fall of The American Automobile", the J Body was slow, partly because it used parts bin units [transmissions, suspension pieces, steering parts and etc] from the Xs and that added weight. The original first year 1.8 OHV Cavalier engine made 88 HP. The next year it was opened up to 2.0 liters, both were standard on the Cimmaron for those years.
A shame someone did such a shitty job removing the radiator and the battery. Leatherheads, Cimarron was the first compact car that I can name that was based off of a cheaper variant, think of it today as the Volkswagen Golf and Audi A3
They always looked like a overpriced cavalier to me! My mom friend has one since new and still looks absolutely new. I actually like 70's-80's economy cars.
Heh. My mother got pulled over one time in her old Cimarron because the tag came back for a Cadillac and the cop couldn't believe it wasn't a Chevy. Took her several minutes to finally convince him. And let me tell you, being stuck in the cramped back seat of the thing for a 9 hour drive was not of the fun times. The 9 hours back was a little bit better at least, because new tires without wires hanging out didn't vibrate nearly as bad... (typically got over 100 miles daily, and no one had bothered to look at them in ages) >_>
In its original appearance it was the Opel Ascona C from 1981 to 1988 in Germany. And i also have laugh about the fact that americans call a 2.8 litre engine as economic! The Ascona had engines from 1.3 up to 2.0 litre from 60bhp up to 130bhp. These were really economic!
Vauxhall Cavalier mk2/Opel Ascona C, once the most scrapped car in the UK at one point, down to penny numbers, euro cars had horrible OHC engines that ate camshaft lobes, same basic shell in white, and also prone to suffer severe bulkhead/firewall cracks, the start of GM Europe's decline, and now GM Europe is gone
I know someone who had a car really close to lookin like that one... It may say Cadillac, but its basically a Cavalier... The guy I know parted it out then crushed it... Body was perfect but couldnt get it legal cause when he got it, the bumper corner pieces was missing and it wouldnt pass inspection due to that... Otherwise it was in great shape and no matter how rare a car is, if you cant get it legal, whats the point of it...
As an sts-v owner, that is so embarrassing to think that car had the same badge as mine. crush it as soon as possible. I'm sure every other caddy owner feels the same. Rated as one of the worst cars of all time. remember one coming into the wrecker I worked at in the late nineties. think it was an 87 or 88. had different headlights as this one.
It's actually called the Cimarron by Cadillac, or cavalier by chevy if you prefer. I've driving the manual transmission version, and can you say sketchy!
I love how the commenters here say it's forgettable and not worth saving but just by commenting on it alone you are disproving yourselves. I daily drive mine and see others all the time here in Colorado. You just gotta take care of your shit. Might not have been the best Cadillac but this one lasted 30+ years and mine still looks new; could not have been that badly built.
I thought these looked nice when I saw one new.
With the right amount of maintenance most cars by most brands can last hundreds of thousands of miles
i had one till some one pushed the bumper to the back seat i would still to this day would drive it around to this day miss mine even though i thought it looked a little funky
those were actually pretty nice cars. my dad had an '83 cavalier wagon that he put 230K on with no engine nor transmission work. when he traded it in, they couldn't believe it had that many miles and was still in pretty good cosmetic and physical condition. the problem with the cimarron was you could buy 2 cavaliers for the same price.
They also came with a 4 or 5 speed stick shift... that would be hilarious to drive!
Everyone is hating on this car. Yeah it's a piece of ****. But in years to come it'll be one of the most rare classic cars of the 80s. And their value will absolutely go up! Definitely worth it to be saved for the right person!
I agree, everything , ( even the worst of cars) have their day in the sun!
Jay Smart hey Jay! that is a neat little Cadillac Cimarron! Use a Cavalier as a parts car and save the Cadillac Cimarron! At the very least save that rare and decent leather interior and other Cimarron only parts.
dick flowers Corvairs are awesome! Don't compare these amazing cars to other cars as shitty. People who talk crap about these cars generally don't know anything except what someone else told them!
And that one is in the sun....
Idk, I can name one car that I know will never appreciate, or be collectible *cough* late 90's Dodge Grand Caravan
It's still a thousand times better than what passes for a "Cadillac" today. Seemingly the last of these were vastly improved and actually did get some good reviews.
I'd seriously consider saving it.
Cavalier in a tux..much like a Lincoln Versailles was a Granada in a tux. Too bad the front seats aren't in better shape or maybe you could import them into your Cavalier wagon project.
Thats a great idea! Just need to stain the fabric black to match
I know its popular to bash the Cimarron but the later models 1986-1988 were much better with the 2.8v6. I owned a super super rare Cimarron that outshines this one. It was a 1988 Cadillac Cimarron with the ultra rare 5-speed transmission. Yes a manual in a Cadillac. They only made 112 units with the 5 speed manual in 1988. It was a dark blue exterior with light grey lower color. Dark blue leather seats. I drove the car till 2003 with 285,000 miles on it with no major repairs. Car was great to me and the 5 speed transformed the fun factor. Got compliments all the time and when they looked inside and saw the manual transmission they always flipped.
You did indeed drive a rare bird. I'm desperately searching for one (or even pics of one) to disprove people who say a V6/manual were never made.
Bob Rebello Well lucky I thought about that so not too long after I bought mine, I took several pictures of the exterior aswell as the interior. Got some great shots of the center console to prove they were made. The 1987 Cadillac brochure shows pictures of the 5 speed in color. I think it was light tan in color. But I have legitimate pictures of mine. In my life, I NEVER saw another 5 speed other than mine, in 25 years of looking. They made more manuals in the early 1981-85 years but they had the underpowered 2.0 liter 4 cylinder. If you find one, youre doing better than me. Thanks for replying
I've seen those pictures in the brochures and references to the manual in my 88 owner's manual but would love to see your 'real-life' pictures. I daily drive my 88. www.bobrebello.us/cimarronpage.html
Bob Rebello Your car does look amazing. White wall tires were not available in 1987-88 I believe and prefer the all black sidewalls the way they came from the factory. You have the same color interior I have, dark blue, but you have the rare cloth and leather combination seats. Not many were ordered with that option. Very nice to see that present. You have the optional twilight sentinel and factory luggage rack, which mine had as well. A lot of dealers put aftermarket luggage racks on their cars which were smaller and looked terrible. All in all a beautiful car. If you want to private message me on here we can talk more and ill see if I can help u
Thanks for the compliments. She's a blast! I'm not sure how to PM people via TH-cam but if you know how, would you PM me?
4:05, *for you kids that smoke cigarettes!* lol!
I remember the Cadillac Cimarron which was a dressed up Chevrolet Cavalier but in my opinion still looked nice when new which looked one over in 1986 when the dealer was closed on a Sunday. To be honest I wanted one but the I was still in high school until May 1986 when graduated. Your right, it is rare.
Jay! If the Cadillac is not going to be out on the road, can you PLEASE take out the stereo before the whole car gets wasted and sent off to the Chinese?
I'll be interested in buying the stereo. ^^
I can surely grab the radio out of it. Im currently trying to figure out if the cluster will work in our 89 cavalier
Cool! Is it okay if I pm you about the radio?
Radio is plug and play it will work . Gm didn't wire antitheft into their stereos till the late 90s early 2000s
the interior needs to be saved! Lots of great parts on that car! Or part out a Cavalier and save the Cadillac Cimarron!
I literally LOLed when I read the title then saw a Cimarron in the thumbnail. I'll admit I actually really like the Cimarron and Pontiac 2000/Sunbird versions of this platform
I thought they were cool. And you have to admit, it may not be valuable but it is indeed rare!
This would be a 1st Gen GM J Body which included the Cavalier, the Pontiac 2000/Sunbird, Olds Ferenza, Buick Skyhawk and the Cimoron.
In Europe these were Opel Ascona and Vauxhall Cavalier. From how we see Cadillac over here it's mind boggling to see a one in this body style!
And I don't think his K-Car analogy was quite right. He might be thinking about how similar the A platform (Celebrity, Century, 6000, etc.) was to the X platform (Citation, Phoenix, Skylark, etc.).
All the crappy gm cars that sensible buyers stayed away from. The 1980's was a decade to just stay away fro. Cars period. Even the best manufactures were struggling due to the epa mandates, and designers with poor taste
@@torivar Those were totally different cars, different chassis, engine, styling, etc from the cars we got in the USA
my dad's boss was a huge Cadillac man. his daughter had one of these. his wife had a seville...the one where the ass looks chopped off, and he drove a fleetwood.
I knew a lady who bought a new 81 Eldo with the V8-6-4 and of course it was terrible, wouldn't start etc. She took it to the dealer mechanic and he said. 'You have to tell the computer that you want it to start the engine, just turn the key to on, and give it a minute." Never had another problem with it.
Well, that's not the last one on the road. The Cimarron is a "J" body car, along with the Chevy Cavalier, Pontiac Sunbird, Oldsmobile Firenza, and the Buick Skyhawk. The Celebrity is an "A" body car along with the Buick Century and Olds Cutlass Cierra. My parents bought a 1984 Cimarron brand new in May 1985 with just under 80 miles on it. Totally loaded just as the one shown here, but in blue and with the Chevy 2.0 engine. It has been passed down in the family and my niece drives this car every day still. It has 356K miles on it. The transmission was rebuilt and 278K. If taken care of, such as ours, they are very reliable and can last a long time. They are better than the bad rap they've been given. I did change the 13" alloy wheels to 14" steel wheels to give me a wider range of choices for better quality tires.
Ive seen some of these old 2.8s really rack up some miles. The 2.8 in my s10 had around 310 on it when i sold it. Great motor. Terrible gas mileage
My mother bought a new 84 Sunbird and drove it for years, then the rest of the family passed it around for who-knows-how-many years after that. I think somebody just parked until they moved away or something. LOL
Oh, it's definitely rare---they didn't sell well to begin with, and just like the Cavalier, they fell apart pretty fast. Believe it or not, the 2.8 V6 was optional---the Cavalier 4 cylinder was standard.
4 cylinder was really reliable
@@jacobfleming565 No it wasn't, they popped head gaskets all the time
@@justsumguy2u no they didnt dude. I would know i own one. Theyre simple and understressed. Iron block and head
@@jacobfleming565 No, they had an aluminum head. They also didn't use enough head bolts, which is why they went through head gaskets. I used to work at a GM dealership, and the mechanics replaced many. Just because YOU didn't have any problems doesn't mean other people didn't
Never new this model exists, been subscribed for a while now Jay from the 🇬🇧👍
Here in hungary we call this car the little europe cadillac. The swiss and dutch people love the little Cimarron too. For our small roads and small streets is this size of car perfect.
The Cimarron was a "J" body similar to the Cavalier/Sunbird/Firenza/Buick Skyhawk. It was not in the class with the Celebrity, which was an "A" body similar to the Buick Century/Olds Ciera/Pontiac 6000. GM took a lot of flack for trying to sell a Cadillac wrapped in a subcompact Chevy body with Chevy quality. At the time Cadillac buyers were used to the big land yacht Cadillacs.
Ah yes the infamous "J" car. Here in Australia it was inflicted on us too in the form of the Holden Camira. Horrid little buzzbox that was poorly built and underpowered. They tried a couple of fixes, going from 1.6 liters to 1.8 and eventually 2.0 liters. It was too late, word had spread and it limped off the market shunned and unloved. I can't remember the last time I saw one.
@@area51isreal71 hey, they were nice cars for what they were here in Canada.
I remember that when my dad went into a GM showroom to buy a smaller car he looked at the Cimarron and an Olds Firenza wagon. Both were around the same price,but my dad felt the Olds drove better and had more storage room being a wagon. Plus,it was a heck of a lot cheaper to insure than than the Cimarron(due to anything with the Cadillac brand on it getting a heck of a coverage mark up). So,my dad went with the Firenza and we got 12 trouble free years out of it.
Jay Smart, if I were you I'd get that Cadillac out of there, it is rare I agree with you even rarer is that is a two tone colour very hard to find, plus it looks to be in good shape as far as condition, if you did get this car you would be owning something almost impossible to find today, if you were to repair it then you would have a fantastic looking car they are a very high en Chevy Cavalier in essence, to find a 1st gen cavalier is very rare especially with a cadillac, I think it's really cool that you made a video on it but please try and buy it if you can, I would be a happy man.
GM was such a disaster back then and run by 3 martini lunch fools.
The Beretta/Corsica/Celebrity/6000/Ciera/Century/Cutlass Supreme/Regal/Lumina/Grand Prix/Grand Am/Skylark/Acheieva were based on the Citation's "X" platform, not the Cavalier's "J" platform. I love the approach someone took to removing the hood ornament.
That missing hood ornament is probably on a Pontiac somewhere...
I get it haha.
haha. good joke
- We are looking for a thief in a Sunfire. - Sorry Officer but, as you can see, this is a Cimarron.
Cimarron was a J-body. Same as Sunfire,Sunbird and Cavalier. It did not share the L-body platform with the Beretta/Corsica.
that 3 speed is the TH125 trans, they arent the best gearing but reliable. they are good transmission
The Jbody Caddy! Never understood why they got so much hate. That 2.8L Engine is nearly bullet proof.
That is true. Because if it never ran it would never blow up. The 2.8 with those pressed aluminum heads were worthless except for recycling into beer cans.
Michael Wilkening You clearly have absolutely no education regarding that engine
the Cimmaron was a failure IMO because it was a Thinly Disguised Cavalier. but that can't be it...i know Badge engineering is a very Tricky game it seems......the 1st Generation Seville was a good seller for caddy despite its Nova Underpinnings....and the 2002 2nd Gen Escalade sold like Hotcakes despite sharing nearly everything with its lower GMC and Chevrolet Truck siblings. the car market is Very fickle. there's no way to explain one badge engineering job failing so horribly in the market and others being very sucessful.
Michael Wilkening hhfjf
Lol I do the same when I find a penny, pick up with the side with Lincoln's head. I thought I was thr only one.
Some say you should leave ANY coin tails up, because someone less fortunate might need it more than you do.
You should keep that car with all the old classics in a few years that car will be a even more rare.
Yea we will probably set it aside just for giggles
good idea man
i have a neighbor who still drives a cadillac cimarron , not sure what year it is , but a very nice looking little car , and i drive a 96 cadillac fleetwood brougham .
Only a true junkyard man would call out that 92' was the first year for Cavi's to get a flip down console arm rest. Even die hard Cavi enthusiasts probably don't know that. One of the many reasons I love going to the local yard and scrounging for parts, you always have the resident encyclopedia who knows all of these random bits of info.
Man, send that thing to Michigan. I'll drive the wheels off it. Compared to Michigan cars, that's a clean piece.
Well, it’s a terrible car. It’s literally a Cavalier that tried to compete against Mercedes and BMW. I’m almost certain that there are still many more out there.
They only built it for 2 years. Hell theyre may only be 10-20 thousand left
None in NY state
I had an 83, with a 2 liter 4 cylinder, fuel injected engine. I don't get why the Cimarron, the nicest of the J body cars, attracts such harsh criticism, when the Chev, Pontiac, Buick and Olds versions of the same car aren't held in such derision.
@@stephenandloriyoung5716 The other versions sold for maybe a grand or two over the Cavalier, while this thing sold for about 13K , or roughly twice what a Cavalier cost and it had the same drive train.
@@kennethsouthard6042 So, that may make it a comparatively poor value for money when new. It doesn't make it what Heroic Sultan called it, "a terrible car." As to the same drive train, (I've had a few Cavaliers and one Cimarron) the 83 Cadillac version had TBI when the Cavalier had an E2MC carb, a small but worthwhile advantage, until Cavalier came out with it, in 85 or 86, maybe. The Cimarron interior was much nicer, too. I don't think it was worth all the extra money, either, but obviously some did. I'd certainly have taken two Cavaliers over one Cimarron. It can't be a terrible car without the less exalted brand versions being terrible, too, and they don't seem to attract the hate that the nicest of them all does. This doesn't add up.
all that change, I'd say it's a "Jewish Cadillac " lol
Ahhh MaMisfa! I agree
Jay Smart anyway, it's definitely my kind of cavalier.
and i used to think my dad a car dealer was the bees knees in the uk with a 2 litre 8 valve vauxhall/opel cavalier while you guys only had a standard 2.8 v6 how did you overtake
Im a little confused by your comment. So you thought the 2L engine was good? But your questioning how we got up to speed with a v6? The v6 was loads better in performance compared to the 2L But it was still terrible.
The Cadillac Cimarron shared the J platform with the Chevy Cavalier, Buick Skyhawk, Oldsmobile Forenza, Buick Skyhawk, and Pontiac Sunbird it had nothing to do with the Chevy Beretta / Corsica platform. The Chevy celebrity share its platform with the Buick Century, Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera, and Pontiac 6000. The Chevy Corsica was between the Cavalier and the celebrity in Chevrolet's lineup added in 1987. The Catera was one of the worst most made fun of cars in Automotive History sharing every top 10 list with other winners like the Yugo gvl, and Hyundai Excel Mitsubishi precise
Nice throwback to 87, I think all of these were that same color.
Has not to give up well on!!!
It makes left the American automobile heritage, thus it is has to keep and has to resell possibly. really nice this little cadillac ! And the dark blue buick "park avenue", you crush it?
It is basically a dressed up Cavalier. I believe they used to call those "The Poor Man's Cadillac"
My dad's first car was a brand new 1982 Oldsmobile Firenza. I love seeing old J Bodies!
No one is critical of Honda for making an Acura version of the Civic. GM's problem wasn't making a Cadillac version of a small Chevy car. Cadillac's problem was taking a small car that wasn't very highly thought of and not changing it nearly enough when they made it a Cadillac.
I actually had one of these many yrs ago, it was a Cimarron D'oro, special paint color and badges, it was actually a very nice little car...... for what it was, the port injected v-6 had plenty of snap. it rode and handled completely different than the Cavalier wagon I also had at that time, much quieter and smoother. I would really like to find another one, especially the Cavalier wagon w/a v-6. just a perfect size little hauler
They were cool for the time. But fell out of style faster then foax fur in June. My cavalier wagon is waiting on a nice 3.1 swap. One day ill get around to it .Id love to have it on the open road again
My aunt had one when I was a kid
This is sad it's like seeing a citation being wasted away. Even though they are shitty, cheaply made cars they shouldn't be scrapped!
These were built from 1982-1988.
I remember them, I took a cluster from one of them and installed it in my 90 cavalier :-) the only thing I saved from the cavalier before I scrapped it..were the X-11 Citation rims..I still have them, can't scrap them..lol
This platform was shared with the Olds Firenza, Buick Skyhawk, Pontiac Sunbird, as well as the Chevy Cavalier. The Cimmaron was not a bad car in its own right, but buyers were expecting more than a badge engineered Cavalier out of a Caddy. A better engine and a little more differentiation would helped.
So true Walter. Not "The Worst Car Ever", but the decimation of Cadillac's reputation and credibility as a luxury car brand.
The Cimoron was part of GMs J Car playform. shared with the Cavalier,Pontiac J2000/Sunbird/Sunfire,Olds Firenza and the Buick Skyhawk. The Beretta was an L Body witch only the Corsica shared that platform. And the Celebrity was the A-Body witch was shared with the Buick Century,Olds Cutlass Ciera and Pontiac 6000.
GM saw Lincoln fail with the Versailles, so they thought they would fail, too. Enter Cimarron by Cadillac. These were supposed to compete with BMW and Audi. Actually, the last couple years these were produced ('87-'88), they weren't half bad, as long as you didn't think of it as a Caddy. These things would depreciate so bad, you could probably have picked up a year or two old one for year or two old Cavalier money. God help anyone who purchased one brand new, though.
I hadnt thought of Versailles in forever.... I always thought Caddy had its heart in the right place. But the followthrough went south fast.. They should have taken more notes from Mercedes, and less from Chevrolet. in 1986 Luxury was a power game chevy didnt have its hands in !
Having grown up during the 70's I've always thought the Granada based Versailles was built to compete with the Nova based Seville that Caddy came out with. I actually just saw a late 70's Seville just yesterday driving down the road, looked all original, off-yellow paint and same colored vinyl top to boot!
Right you are. Those 1st generation Sevilles are becoming collectible classics now. Cadillac had success with the Nova based Seville. Doubt Ford could claim success with the Granada-Monarch based Versailles. I think it only lasted 2 or 3 years. And that yellow, 1st gen Seville you saw was probably a '79. I believe that might have been the only year of that color. My Dad's secretary at that time used to say that that color yellow Seville was her dream car. BTW, I owned an '84 Seville in that pale yellow (possibly called 'Waxberry') that about 50% of all Cadillacs sold in Florida were during that era. I think the other 50% were white. LOL. A friend of mine in high school even had a '77 Coupe Deville in that pale yellow. Was a hand me down from his mom, who got a new one. Had Tru-spoke wheels on it, too.. Life was good for Jarred 'til he found a beached bale of weed in the Keys and decided to bring it back to Sarasota High and start selling it off an ounce at a time. I'm sorry. I strayed off topic. My bad.
It's a bit of a shame that the knucklehead previous owner ruined that one by cutting chunks out of it as it looked to be in pretty fair condition and certainly good enough to put an engine in and keep on driving it. Yes, it may be a terrible car but it's a rare and high spec terrible car and if they all disappear then there is the chance that Cadillac will try and make something like it and equally terrible in the future but if there are still some around people will remember how terrible they were and Cadillac will never dare to repeat it. And, to be perfectly honest, some highly regarded cars are pretty horrid such as the VW Beetle which is a bona fide classic and pretty sought after while, in standard form, it is also slow, noisy, uncomfortable, a bit too prone to catching fire and really not a good place to be in a crash. By all reasonable standards it should be a terrible car yet everybody seems to love them. The idea of Cadillac making an economy car, hell one of these would be worth it for the comedy value...
I await your comment on every video i post. Seriously. You single handedly provide the most knowledgeable feedback and I thank you. I hearby dub the, " JAMIE< KING of the COMMENTS >
+Jay Smart Thank you very much. I seem to recall that some of the big US motoring magazines named the Cimarron as the worst car ever made in the US. It seems a little harsh really, considering some of the utter clunkers that US manufacturers have created. I suspect the Cimarron and it's other Cavalier-based siblings would have actually been forgettable but fairly decent cars if they had had some kind of build quality from the start, but because the build quality early on was so dire they all got stuck with the trouble label which stuck with them right through their lives...
WOW! Somebody scraped a Chevrolet Cavalier!
Cimarron was a J car, one of the rare if not only the only time that every car division of GM had a model in the lineup. Chevy had the Cavalier, Pontiac the J 2000, Buick the Skyhawk and Oldsmobile the Fireanza. Cadillac's looked more like a gussied up Chevy than a Cadillac at least the Buick and Oldsmobile versions used a nicer dashboard, where Cadiillac just shared with Cheverolet. GM was truly a WTF when they came out with this and sold it for twice as much as the Cavalier.
We had a Chevy Celeberty at our shop a few times. Sadly at the time I didn't know how to drive so I didn't have to rare opportunity to drive it and see how it feels
I need the front seats and power tracks off of that.
Cool, my Great Uncle Bob bought a 1988 Blue one brand new, then Hurricane Hugo hit, Sept. 1989, a tree fell and crushed it, Lake Norman, N.C.
It was probably for the best. But i did always like the cimarron
Yeah, I liked it, too
I got a Ascona C, same "body". 20 000 miles on it since 1984. so pretty nice picked it up untouched with license plate (have been registerd and driven every year). Old man had it. paid 2400 dollars for it (cheap in Norway) if you want a lets say shitty BMW E39 your looking at a pretty 6000 dollar. with like 150 000 miles
I had a teacher back in elementary school who drove one of these. Eventually she got rid of it and bought a Saturn SL2.
I don't know whether that was a downgrade or an upgrade. lol
Motor week retro reviews has a video of this car.
Beretta and corsica were the same platform, not related to the cavalier.
-the cavalier, sunbird, and cimarron were on the J body.
-pontiac 6000, olds cutlass ceira, chevy celebrity, and buick century were the A body platform.
- full sized FWD cars..... the bonneville and buick lesabre were H body
- cutlass supreme, chevy lumina, and pontiac grand prix were W body
-grand am and buick skylark N platform
there you go basic run down of older GM platforms.
Good information!
Additionally, Olds took the J Body bones [it was the lead engineering unit for the N bodies] and developed the Calais, Grand Am, Somerset/Skylark from it. Enough so that it got it's own platform designation.
Chevrolet took the N and developed the L body for the Corsica/ Beretta. Chevrolet declined participating in the N Body program.
Lots of stories on the development of the various platforms in the rags of the period.
According to Brock Yate's book "The Decline And Fall of The American Automobile", the J Body was slow, partly because it used parts bin units [transmissions, suspension pieces, steering parts and etc] from the Xs and that added weight.
The original first year 1.8 OHV Cavalier engine made 88 HP. The next year it was opened up to 2.0 liters, both were standard on the Cimmaron for those years.
To add to that, the Chevy Beretta & Corsica were L-body
These are great as "footballs" in a demolition derby.
Wow, you can see a bunch of pieces that were used on the 90's Cuttlass and Spirit
Yea they just threw it together lol.
Knowing cadilac that things not even close to loaded, they take pride in making their vehicles
A shame someone did such a shitty job removing the radiator and the battery. Leatherheads, Cimarron was the first compact car that I can name that was based off of a cheaper variant, think of it today as the Volkswagen Golf and Audi A3
They always looked like a overpriced cavalier to me! My mom friend has one since new and still looks absolutely new. I actually like 70's-80's economy cars.
Heh. My mother got pulled over one time in her old Cimarron because the tag came back for a Cadillac and the cop couldn't believe it wasn't a Chevy. Took her several minutes to finally convince him.
And let me tell you, being stuck in the cramped back seat of the thing for a 9 hour drive was not of the fun times. The 9 hours back was a little bit better at least, because new tires without wires hanging out didn't vibrate nearly as bad... (typically got over 100 miles daily, and no one had bothered to look at them in ages) >_>
Oh. Yeah. And dang was it expensive when anything went wrong. That brand name bit hard when stuff broke!
'See a Penny and pick it up and all the day you,ll have good luck.....Unless its Tails!' 😄
its a chevy celebrity i also want to say that dash and interior looks just like what i had in an 87 oldsmobile calas
Sirtokesalot47 well, its actually more of a cavalier. with Cadillac badges . but the celebrity was a very similar car.
Nice Cavalier.... wait, I meant Cadillac.
I love how he's comparing this with a cavalier
Jay, you gotta throw a battery on it & see what it'll do just for kicks & grins!
Its long gone, but I would have loved to !
Good find! To bad it scrap now!
craziest lookin interior of a caddy iv e seen
In South Carolina the kids that sit in the back probably do smoke cigarettes. LoL
The Cadillac Cimarron was part of Gm's J-Body line shared with the J2000, SkyHawk, Sunbird, Firenza and Cavalier Please buy the car if you can get it.
In its original appearance it was the Opel Ascona C from 1981 to 1988 in Germany.
And i also have laugh about the fact that americans call a 2.8 litre engine as economic!
The Ascona had engines from 1.3 up to 2.0 litre from 60bhp up to 130bhp. These were really economic!
This needs some 22s hahaha
The last model Caddy that had a manual transmission option.
The ONLY way that POS will go up in value, is if the price of scrap goes up! I've driven better cars into trees just for something to do.
Don't be so sure, people pay $50,000 for an old VW bus. The biggest pos ever built.
Kenny DeMartini What the fuck
The tree is worth more than the car is
@@vidguy007 How so?
toyoscio how do what? Ever drive an old VW bus? Try one up a hill on a hot day with traffic behind you
I like your videos bro
Vauxhall Cavalier mk2/Opel Ascona C, once the most scrapped car in the UK at one point, down to penny numbers, euro cars had horrible OHC engines that ate camshaft lobes, same basic shell in white, and also prone to suffer severe bulkhead/firewall cracks, the start of GM Europe's decline, and now GM Europe is gone
nice looking silver Taurus in front of it!
Thats coming up soon!
Has to preserve well on! Collector's future!
A J-Body with leather interior LOL! Put some Daytons on it to even it out.
We've got an 87 Pontaic Sunbird Safari, it's even more rare than this :)
I know someone who had a car really close to lookin like that one... It may say Cadillac, but its basically a Cavalier... The guy I know parted it out then crushed it... Body was perfect but couldnt get it legal cause when he got it, the bumper corner pieces was missing and it wouldnt pass inspection due to that... Otherwise it was in great shape and no matter how rare a car is, if you cant get it legal, whats the point of it...
I had a 1993 Cavalier and it didnt have a folding arm rest... It had a stationary arm rest next to the E brake...
definitely get this saved
As an sts-v owner, that is so embarrassing to think that car had the same badge as mine. crush it as soon as possible. I'm sure every other caddy owner feels the same. Rated as one of the worst cars of all time. remember one coming into the wrecker I worked at in the late nineties. think it was an 87 or 88. had different headlights as this one.
Paul Harvey said it was so bad it was a disgrace to put Cadillac hub caps on it
Way to go man Iron Man.
Needs to be restored!
It's actually called the Cimarron by Cadillac, or cavalier by chevy if you prefer. I've driving the manual transmission version, and can you say sketchy!
Reversal pronunciation. Nice Cadillac. Thanks for the comment! And thanks for watching!
Only in 82 it was named this way
It was a Cimarron BY Cadillac. NOT a pure Caddie. Cynical badge engineering. But now a curiosity!
The J bodies were the Chevrolet Caviler Pontiac J 2000 Oldsmobile Firenza Cadillac Cimarron Buick Skyhawk.
"Cadillac"
I can't believe they had the audacity to put their name on that shitbox.
The Cimarron, the most infamous Cadillac :P
Imo Cadillacs are cool, even THIS one :D
The Cadillac Caviler.....
I wonder if you saved this car Jay Smart? because as I stated before in the comments this thing is rare
Cool.
LoL, why does the front and rear bumpers have holes on each end? That's weird.