1985 Cadillac Cimarron Review - The Most HATED Cadillac. Here's Why:
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DISCLAIMER!
The thoughts, feelings, and opinions expressed in this video are the sole thoughts of Zack and no one else. The purpose of this video is to provide entertainment with the hope that you will take what you see and formulate your own opinions. I highly recommend consuming other reviews of this vehicle before making any form of financial decision.
#Cadillac #Cimarron #Jbody
Timecodes:
0:00 - Intro
1:08 - Engine / Transmission
2:17 - Interior
4:32 - BFB Test
4:44 - Seats
6:02 - Trunk / Cargo Space
6:42 - Exterior
7:19 - Final Thoughts
11:43 - Outro - ยานยนต์และพาหนะ
Not only did you find one of these still on the road, but one with 2 0 liter four cylinder in it. When the 2.8 V6 became avalible in '85, nearly all the Cimmirons went out the door with one in it per dealer requests until the end of the model run. In order to get a four cylinder in one of these from '85 onwards, you basically had to specially order it which makes this car very rare.
Lol suckers
I think the Cimmiron was derided as an icon of just how bad Cadillac had become by the 1980s. Was it THAT bad? Probably not. The Cavalier was certainly not a bad car. The issue was more to do with what Cadillac had become by the 1980s. Nobody wanted to admit it, but I think the executives at Cadillac approved Cimmiron because it was on-par with everything else they were making at the time - outclassed by just about everything else in the luxury class.
I have an 84, everything works on it and it's mint. 88 HP. Guess what Cadillacs have 4cyl again.
This man is gonna review every car still running
Yeah, and he's always gonna be "super excited to drive" them, and they all have "tons of trunk space"...
C'mon, Zack!
@@iFixJunk For real, you could be handing this man something boring like a 2004 Ford Taurus, and he'll still be super excited to drive it.
Not the Lynx
This lamb concurs.
Crazy you found two cimarrons. It should have been released in 85 to give it more development. A turbo four would have given it a unique approach more in line with the Saab 900
Saab were way better engineered.
i love your videos ive been sub for a while only thing i wish you would do is maybe do a POV drive for maybe just 1 min of the vid so we can get a feel of driving all these rare and interesting cars that we prob will never get a chance to drive in real life thanks man
Yeah I want a small “driving impressions” portion of the video.
Back in '92 I had an '85 Cavalier for about 3 years. I was a mechanic for a large city fleet department (just retired from there last year) Mine was a base model, but had a V6. The 60 degree 2.8L V6 was one of GMs most reliable engines. Due to it's 60 degree layout, it had less of a V6 sound than most V6s. I knew how this one had been treated, so I had a friend buy it for me at auction. We had a lot of Cavaliers in the fleet back then, also Celebritys, Luminas, and Corsicas. The Cavaliers were the most reliable of all of them. I had no problems with mine. They did have a bumpy ride, and they all had what sounded like a muffled rattle from the front end. We never found where it was coming from. After 3 years I moved up to a Crown Vic. I'm still driving one.
The same front seats were used in the '82-5 Eldorado Touring Coupe.
It's too bad GM rushed this to market. If they could have just waited and released it in '83 as an '84 with all the same improvements it had in '88, I think it would have been a different story.
It wasn’t the build quality that was the problem. The problem was they took a cheaper Cavalier and didn’t do much to differentiate it to make it a Cadillac.
@@unitedcity_mc4421 The Cavalier was a fine car. And Lexus, Acura, and Audi have been turning economy cars into luxury for years. This just wasn't enough.
And although it's understandable that they would try to evolve in a changing car market, EVEN IF they nailed it, this is just not what anyone wanted from Cadillac. When you think Caddy, you imagine a luxury land yacht with a v8 engine - especially when this thing came out.
Please keep reviewing old GM cars! its honestly just so wholesome!
I purchased new in 1985. It was a Chevy Cavalier. Period. Even the dealership didn't want to deal with it. My wife thought it would be a great little car to run errands. We traded it off in 1986 for a Audi 5000. By the way we had no issues out of that car whatsoever.
I remember WHY the Cimarron was such a disappointment. It was a Chevy Cavalier-- meaning GM's entry level American-built car- tarted up a bit and slapped with the Cadillac name. And they didn't even but much effort into improving the interior over the basic Cavalier interior. Then to add insult, they cost something like $10k to $20k more than the top of the line Cavalier.
Which pushed many to the Cressida and Maxima.
HOLY SHIT thats MY old 1985 cadillac Cimarron LMAO, the American flag on the windshield, Broken mirror controls, the headliner and the small grandma dent in the rear quarter...That used to be mine lmao i have videos of it on my channel I bought it off the original owner with 43,000 miles on it.
It's had a rough life since you had it. It's got a replacement engine in place now. The original engine was overheated to the point it just burned the rings out and lost all compression. It got an engine and now has come to me. I've done a lot to make it totally driveabe again. It's a nice little car. It's getting some upgrades soon.
@@BruisersBeaters Oof that kinda makes me sad, that original engine was super tight when i had it, did you get the suspension i had in the trunk installed? i hope that got sold with it,
@@TechMaster2133 it’s installed and I aligned it. It rides really smooth now. I never experienced it with the worn out suspension.
The engine it got only has 55k or so now, and is my strongest running 2.0 LQ5. My wagon and cavalier sedan both have the bolt for bolt identical engine, cause that’s how I rollolololololol
@@BruisersBeaters lmao awesome, The original suspension was claaaaped out lol no shocks left at all, so im glad that got replaced.
I bought mine from the original owner 10 years ago. One of the most reliable cars I've owned. It's a beautiful little car
Don't know if anyone else is familiar with the show Motorweek, but Zacks enthusiasm, candor, knowledge and overall demeanor reminds me a lot of that shows host John Davis. Which is a good thing because there's a reason that show is so popular and still on TV.
It wasn't just fuel economy, the dealers were wanting a smaller Cadillac to compete with the European imports. Like BMW and Audi. It was initially proposed as an X-car (Citation) but the production capacity on those cars was already maxed out. So it got shifted to the J-body. And yes, someone in a suit at GM thought this was "basically a BMW right? It even has a hofmeister kink!"
What's amazing though, is that the EU J cars (Opel Ascona/Vauxhall Cavalier), were way much better than all of the J cars you had in the States/Canada. Actually the EU J car, not only was a better car, but it was used worldwide as a rebadged car, just like what GM did for the divisions there. So the Holden Camira/Isuzu ...somethin'/Opel and Vauxhall were J car's best variants.
Isuzu Aska (aka Chevrolet Aska in Chilie which is kinda funny).
Not really. It was the same thing, just with more utilitarian (frankly: bland) styling. Probably wasn't even more reliable at all. It's just that the standards were much lower in the old world. Many think of cars from these countries as amazing, because they only know the high end (Mercedes, Beemers, Jags etc.) or 'quirky' models like the Beetle. But in fact there always was a lot of ultra-cheap rust-o-matic stuff on the road, like a Panda, Corsa or Wartburg that no us driver with an ounce of self respect would have bought.
Looks like it has the Delco stereo with the secret radio presets.
Can’t believe you found one! Most of these made it to the crusher. I haven’t seen one in like 30 years
Happy New Year, Guy! Can’t wait to see what new vehicles come this new year!!! Hope you’re smoking on that Illinois ZAZA!!
Totally remember when those came out. Everyone hated them. I still never figured out why. You're right about the heater!!!
Easy, Cressida and Maxima were better in every way.
I noticed the Don Massey Cadillac sticker on the back. My parents bought their 81 Fleetwood Brougham diesel from that dealer. Back in the day, they were great to work with.
I owned a 1982 Cimarron, what a POS it was, it was incapable of getting out of its own way even going downhill and off a cliff. The 1982 had a 1.8 Liter carburated 4cyl engine. Please note it was not a "Cadillac Cimarron" but rather a "Cimarron BY Cadillac"
Cadillac could have been successful in the compact market if it wasn't so obvious that they rebadged a Cavalier. If they'd developed a new platform that was a little sportier and RWD they could have competed with the BMW 3-Series. They had the ability, even though the later Allante was FWD and had the Northstar it still compared favorably with the Mercedes-Benz SL. It's not a bad looking car and the interior looks decent, it's just clearly based on a car that cost half as much.
In the old days, Arab oil sheiks would drive Cadillacs instead of Rolls-Royces because Cadillac used industrial-sized AC compressors. Rolls-Royce, being from a cool wet country, used tiny air conditioners that couldn't keep up with the desert heat whereas Cadillac had generous capacity.
I had an 85 Cimmaron, loved it. Adequate power fun to drive, fairly thrifty, comfy suspension. One thing that was EXCELLENT this little front wheel car would go anywhere in the snow. I had a good size tree limb crush the car while I was driving. This car was solidly built structually, it saved my life.
That is definitely one fascinating review of the pre-facelift Cadillac Cimarron!
Also, Happy New Year to you and your family from Indonesia, Zack.^^
Oh that dash is a peach. No cracks in a cavalier dash just makes me happy. I'm okay with some bubbling, that doesn't rattle going down the highway.
I had an '86 which had the '85 face with the 2.8 V6. Also had the vacuum fluorescent (digital) dash.
I actually loved and miss that car. Sold it to a good friend. And replaced it with an '85 Pontiac 6000 STE. Also with a 2.8 V6 and digital dash.
the upload king strikes again 🎉 happy new year!
These are cool. Thanks to the owner it was the first time I’ve seen one since the late 90s
I'm gonna call all auto headlights "twilight sentinel" now
The three speed auto is easily the worst thing about these cars. It might not stand out in a quick review, but when you live with one they sap out what little power and fuel efficiency that 2.0 has. Also the torque converter likes to not unlock so you get a nasty bucking stall when you get off the highway unless you manually downshift them. I would imagine even a four speed manual would be a world of improvement.
Zack please always try to review old cars.. never stop this 🙌🏼❤️
❤️ From Bangladesh 🇧🇩
CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) The Cimarron was never meant to be a huge seller nor fool consumers with its Cavalier base gussied up. The government told auto producers that if your fleet did not average a certain MPG then you would pay gas guzzler type of tax. Rather than shrink your whole fleet add in a small car and your good to go and can keep the big ones. Lincoln did the same with Versailles that was a Ford Granada, Mercury Monarch. The funny thing is people actually bought a few and were willing to pay a premium for a Cavalier. We still have CAFE today in one form or another.
Can’t wait for the new videos in 2023!
6:03 Don Massey, now Suburban Cadillac was a Cadillac dealership in Plymouth Michigan (metro Detroit). For a while they also sold Rolls Royce and Bentleys.
I wonder if this car comes from that dealership....
The Chevy Cavalier/Caddy Cimaron were sold here in Brazil from 1982/1996 as "Chevrolet Monza".
I have one very similar to the Cimaron cause it's four in line with a 3 speed automatic transmission. It's a very nice car, even for today. A lot of people like theese cars in Brazil.
in 1987 the GM caviller was sold in Europe with a 2 litter as the SRI 130 that had 128 Bhp almost the same power as BMW 320I 129 BHP. It was also a lot cheaper than the BMW
Have had Cadillacs for decades - everything from a Cimarron to deVilles to an Eldorado. Had a 1985 Cimarron back then. I liked it. It was the perfect urban Cadillac for the times. NO complaints. It was fun to drive and easy to park. (also was the best car ever in the snow) I enjoyed it for what it was - Cadillac's version of the J body. Every single division of GM had one back then.
Skyhawks were the best looking J Body imo if you can find one to review and complete the J Body lineup....
Lol
Great review! These cars are not as bad a people think. I currently own 2 Cimarrons and love them both. My '83 has 56k on it and my '87 has 36k on it. They are mint condition, all original and dealer serviced. I enjoy driving them and always get positive comments when I take them out.
Will Avila: I too have one and it's from the last year being 1988. Mine is as close to mint as one will find and has 61K. It's the medium red over silver with the red leather. It took me 20 years of careful looking to find it. I'm always looking for fellow Cimarron owners and always hopeful that I'd be able to visit them and check out their car/s. It's funny that you have two of them, because if I found one I liked, I'd add it to this one! What part of the country do you live in? I'm in southern California.
@@danielberning1240 I'm in Las Vegas! My '87 is Garnet over Silver and is a fully optioned car including dual power seats, digital dash and factory sunroof. It even has the full set of gold keys and Cimarron mud flaps. Everything works including the original power antenna. A/C is still R-12 and blows nice and cold! My '83 is blue over silver (repaint) and in great shape. It has most of the popular options and all work perfectly. Nice to see that there are others out there that want to preserve these cars for automotive posterity!
@@willavila1551 So I tried to put some contact info in a response because it would be nice to connect with other Cimarron owners. It didn't work as they must have removed my reply due to putting my email in. Darn. Do you or does anyone know of any Cimarron groups where owners can connect?
It's one of of the most reliable cars I own and I have 16. 84 Cimarron with 94k miles with the rare astroroof
@@brettcannon74 Hey Brett. Nice to hear. I'm curious. Do you know of any Cimarron groups? I'm in southern California and would love to connect with other Cimarron owners.
I had a co worker long time ago in the early 2000s who drove a cimaron to work. It was the strangest Cadillac I've had ever seen.
I don't know if it's because they simply don't exist here in Australia (unless someone's imported one), but I've always like them 😅 regardless of whether it's a 4 or a 6, plus they certainly looked better than most J platform cars I've seen
That's funny because I live in the US but have always been interested in the Holden Camira, especially the later models with the flush headlamps.
@danmccarthy4700 they honestly aren't bad cars, thw early ones were plagued with issues and gave them all a bad name, but the later ones had most issues sorted. Never understood why so many people hated them, a friend of mine had one as her first car back when we were I'm highschool but she didn't have a license so I used to drive it everywhere. Even with the 3 speed auto, it'd keep up on the highway very happily. I actually nearly bought one early last year, I'm spewing I missed it!
I think the first gen Seville was a much better product. It was a Chevy Nova underneath. The other one that got bad press, but was actually a decent product with much more technology and quality than its lesser stablemates, (Ford Granada/Mercury Monarch) was the Lincoln Versailles.
I think that's the only J-body ever offered with chrome bumpers. Other than that it looks to me like what a Buick J-body would have looked like and that might have been a better idea. That grille definitely reminds me of my dad's old '89 Century.
Buick did have a J, though; the Skyhawk. Literally every GM division worldwide except GMC had a J.
@@danmccarthy4700 I forgot about that one... and I noticed the Olds J-wagon had a chrome rear bumper too but not on the front.
82 and 83 Cavalier had chrome bumpers as well.
Cool, My Great Uncle Bob had an ice Blue 1989 one. A nice car. Hurricane Hugo made a tree fall on it, totaled.
Yes subscribed to you man! Lol you take care too man!!
I still don’t know why the Cimarron didn’t receive the GM Family 1 2.0L OHC TBI 4 used in the Skyhawk (some models) and Sunbird. I would think it would have a higher redline.
Despite the rebadge. I like the looks of this Cadillac.
Don Massey! Did that car have an original Michigan registration? We had Don Massey Cadillac in the Detroit area!
My uncle had a 87 Cimarron with the 2.8 v6 and a 5speed manual. I thought that was nice car. It was a navy blue two-tone fully loaded.
Your verbal excellence has actually managed to put a bit of shine on that old turd. My kudos indeed.
My father bought the 1985 Cadillac Cimmaron in May of 1985. That car lasted about 11 years or so, but the body rusted out badly over time. Rust sort of bubbled out from large spots all over the body. The steel used on this vehicle must have been really low-grade.
To add insult to injury this looked a lot like a Cavalier. Other than leather inside it looked like Cavalier. Badge engineering in its worst shape. Amazing to think there was a time GM had more than 50% market share in America in 1970s and 1980s and lost all that because of junk like this.
This would've been great if imported to Europe as a luxury trim of the Opel Ascona C with the 2.0 150hp engine. And not being badged as Cadillac of course. They ride the very same platform so probably a lot of parts and underbody structure is the same
Europe had Ascona Irmscher by that time. European and US Js had different suspension and steering, with US cars being far worse.
@@runoflife87 By being worse, that's for sure. However, I don't know why you bring the Irmscher Sprint for the Ascona, unlike the Senator and Omega, it did nothing. It didn't even look good.
@@alexmercer8042 well, it was the most desirable Ascona back in the 80's because of proper tuning. Luxury wasn't the "thing" speaking of Ascona/Sierra.
one major reason people hated the Cimarron was that it was nothing more than a tarted up version of the Chevrolet Cavalier and it was way underpowered for being a Cadillac 125HP though a Sedan Deville of the same year had the same horsepower though 35 more Ft LB of torque and the Deville weighed 699 LBs more than the Cimarron did the Cimarron weighed 2,630 LBs while the Sedan Deville weighed 3,327 LBs and you can always tell when a Luxury car door shuts as opposed to an import commuter car of the same vintage shuts and you hear the tinny sound because the Steel is thinner and there's also less sound deadening material used then there is in most American cars a Toyota Celica is comparable in weight to a Cimarron the only difference is the Celica was sold in the US for 35 years as opposed to 7 due to its popularity as a low budget sports car and was also popular as a race car in SCCA group 2 and Indy cup series
I like the Cadillac Cimarron, preferably the V6. Things were different back then as technology was just taking baby steps and companies were charged big fines for poor fuel economy. I would love to buy a Cimarron to drive. My daily driver now is my 1887 Pontiac Grand Prix with the 4.3 V6 with fuel injection. Peppy and economical. I hope to drop a 700r4 tranny in it eventually if it will mate up to the motor
85,lol. When Nissan came out with the redesigned Maxima with a V6 that was the same or cheaper price then the Cimarron.
Is the tape on the corners the new fangled 0 MPH bumper replacement for a rotten 5 MPH bumper?
Gorilla Tape and plastic backing mounted in place, cut to shape of the bumper. Sure is, these bumper covers are like sugar glass now and are made of unobtanium. So you do what you gotta do. Better than BIG gaping holes.
Always when I see this car mentioned somewhere I think what it could have been. I imagine a E30 3-series style RWD Cadillac. Perfect blend of sportiness and comfort to pull in all those import buyers. Facelift Cimarron styling with RWD proportions. Cadillac comfort and luxury in BMW 3-series size. What a unique car it would have been. Too bad there was no chance they could have made anything in that nature.
Cadillac really should have used the A Body instead. I liked the Cavalier in the 80s. They were good little cars but they were way to econobox to be a prestige brand.
Don Massey Cadillac….outside of Milford Michigan!
Bubbly , failing headliner reminds me of cancer lumps on my old dog just before we had to put him down
chevy el camino and ford pinto please !!!
I kinda want one.
Maybe next year.
I like it 👍🏽
See you next year!!!
My bf is giving me a dodge stealth and an 06 Escalade…. debating submitting them for a review when I get them lol
Both sound wonderful!
Happy Belated New Year's !! I warmed up to your videos and love the older cars. You're doing an awesome job !!! Thanks. :-)
Well I could see why it failed. Cadillac is supposed to mean something when you drive one. This is a cavalier. No one felt special driving in one of those.
This is an object lesson in why GM doing things on the cheap ultimately brought them to bankruptcy.
nice car.
MY NEIGHBOR HAS ONE in his garage with 1,018 miles with White exterior and Red interior
(SITTING right next to a LINCOLN DIAMOND JUBILEE he says has real gold & diamonds)
Now I see why Doug doesn't just review any car.
LOVE the Cimarron, HATE Caddy SUVs!!!
Those Thunderbird-ish tail lights looks insanely cheap.
Let’s count all the screws we see in the interior!!!
They should have at least kept the Opel interior and suspension
They wanted a fuel efficient car, we gave it to them, then they cried about it!
To 2023 the new year is going to be better for me.
ShootingCars is gonna go deaf pretty soon from releasing too many bangers
For what one paid for this still 5 digit ODO, when competition like the Cressida had 6 digit lol
Low water mark for Cadillac. They should've just made this as a trim level for a Cavalier you could buy at the Chevy dealer.
A fancy looking Chevy Cavalier
Not only a fast food burger at a 4 star restaurant, but one that costs $30 and comes on the plate with the Burger King wrapper still on it!
Upscale Cavalier
The Cimarron is the only Cadillac that is accepted by the Opel Gang. To the bitter end!!
My grandpa had one of these, it was sad cause he thought it was a real Cadillac. 😢
Legally it was a real Cadillac.
At least its an American built car right?
J series introduced me to Honda. Thx. Really thanks
It took them a year to slap some Caddy badges on a J car?
Is the owner's name spelled "Erin" or "Aaron?"
The dashboard is very ugly, makes Skyhawk/Firenza interior almost luxurious. But Ascona/Cavalier (UK) dashboard is so much better than US-made one. As well as the exterior to be honest.
This car was straight up junk