(first posted 7/16/2014)
Once upon a time, there was a little car called Cimarron.
Cimarron was born to Cadillac, a car company founded in 1902 and named after Antoine Laumet de La Mothe, sieur de Cadillac, the co-founder of Detroit. Earlier that year, Henry Ford had thrown a hissy fit and left the Henry Ford Company. Henry Leland created Cadillac from the remnants, similar to a phoenix rising from the ashes.
Cadillac birthed its first of many offspring, the Model A, in 1903. Sadly, its hard work simply acted as a magnet for those negatively inclined, ever pessimistic critics who derided the poor Model A for wearing clothes discarded by Mr. Ford. The disappointment poor Cadillac suffered was quite like eating cold porridge.
Ever determined to improve their lot in life, in 1908 Cadillac entered into a grand competition sponsored by the Royal Automobile Club of England. In a true test of mettle and quality, Cadillac was confident of its abilities amongst a sea of worthy competitors. Their confidence paid off as Cadillac won the coveted Dewar Trophy, earning the crown of “Standard of the World” due to its ability to so easily interchange parts amongst three identical cars.
An accomplishment of this magnitude is quite remarkable for a five-year-old.
After much hard work, in 1909, Cadillac found its prince. His name was William Durant. It was a match so pure and robust, not even the best internet dating site could have done better.
As the years unfolded, Cadillac, under the keen eye of Prince Durant and his multiple progeny, continued to pen styling and achieve engineering feats of prowess in which there was never a pea under the mattress. A truly formidable combination of Cadillac creativity and Prince Durant’s war chest, the force and reputation of Cadillac was not something with which to be trifled.
In 1912 Cadillac would win a second Dewar Trophy (named after Scottish whiskey maker Lord Thomas Dewar) and in 1915, Cadillac built its first V8 engine.
During the 1930s, there were the breathtakingly beautiful factory and coach-built classics powered by engines ranging up to the legendary V16. As competitors such as Pierce-Arrow withered away, Cadillac continued to dominate the American luxury car market.
For a number of years, Cadillac even offered a V8, a V12, and a V16 all in the same model year. Has this accomplishment ever been duplicated?
After the decline of the Classic Era, Cadillac continued to field models that were always just right for their moneyed customers, and continued to be a trendsetter with design elements such as the tail fin and engineering advances such as their overhead valve V8 engine.
Continually reinforcing their aspirational qualities, Cadillac introduced the original, highly exclusive Eldorado in 1953…
…and the front-wheel drive Eldorado in 1967. A front-drive car was certainly a predictor of the future.
Even in 1976, likely the pinnacle of Cadillac post-war size, Cadillac delivered with style and interior appointments that nobody has ever paralleled. Go big or go home had become a motto of sorts for our hero Cadillac.
By the early 1980s, Cadillac had lowered the hair of its reputation too far from the bell tower. The foibles of Cadillac, such as the V6 and diesel engine options plus the infamous V8-6-4, were being mistaken as Mercury poisoning. However, this shoe of an accusation did not fit as Cadillac had never allowed itself to be anywhere near Mercury.
After much discussion, all the great minds in the Kingdom of General Motors convened for an extensive investigation as to what was happening at Cadillac. The theories were many and diverse.
A renowned hallucinogenic chemist named Leary hypothesized the cause was a brew of noxious vapors, a cousin of radon gas known as obsceneous broughamide, that was emanating from the acres of vinyl being installed on the roofs of new Devilles, Eldorados, and Sevilles.
After intense interactions, an industrial psychologist named Holmes was convinced it was a matter of size insecurity, due to the recent downsizing of the entire Cadillac line.
A world renowned philosopher named Drucker said the answer was simple: Cadillac had gone mad.
Time would prove all our theorists to be sadly mistaken.
What was the manifestation and culmination of the nefarious and undiagnosed phenomena infiltrating itself into the minds of Cadillac designers?
The Cimarron. In an attempt at self-defense and to answer pleas from dealers, this thinly veiled Chevrolet Cavalier helped Cadillac to fall down and break its crown–and, arguably, GM came tumbling after.
The problem? Just like the Piss Boy looked too much like King Louie XVI and Tom Canty looked an awful lot like the Prince of Wales, the Cavalier and Cimarron looked and behaved way too much alike for Cadillac clientele to find palatable. The attempt was insufficient to fool savvy buyers into thinking it was anything but a gussied up Cavalier.
When our little Cimarron was introduced in 1982, the evil twins of CAFE and High Fuel Costs were yanking the hair on the automaker’s chinny-chin-chin. In an effort to appease this determined and dynamic duo, the Cimarron was created to help lower the average fuel consumption rates of new Cadillacs. With a sales crest of 25,000 units in 1982, and settling at 15,000 to 20,000 per year thereafter, it didn’t greatly offset the 50,000 Cadillac Fleetwoods that were built annually.
Likely hearing the message from the mirror-mirror on the wall, in 1983 Cadillac brewed up an enhancement to the Cimarron–the D’oro package. Adding $975 to the cost of an already overpriced 1985 Cimarron, it also brought the 2.8 liter V6 and a slightly firmer chassis.
One of the many criticisms of the Cimarron was it only being available in the single, four-door body style whereas the other J-cars were offered in multiple body styles. Never was a convertible offered despite one being available on the Cavalier and Pontiac Sunbird. So what is this ragged out mess sitting idly before you?
Not having seen the title or VIN, only speculation can tell us how it began life. However, the front is definitely Cimarron and…
It matches the Cimarron treatment in the rear. So while this mighty little cherry and burgundy colored Cimarron has obviously kissed something much larger than a frog, somebody went to a lot of trouble to source more Cimarron parts to complete the repairs of this chariot.
The interior, despite the “D’oro” plaque and all exterior styling, is still screaming “Cavalier” to all the land.
So while Cadillac never made any Cimarron convertibles, it is refreshing to see somebody somewhere tried to turn this pumpkin into a carriage. It also shows how Cadillac set an example for being Standard of the World as its parts interchangeability had rubbed off onto other divisions.
Found in the exact same spot a Kaiser Dragon was once parked, this car is likely for sale. With the right owner they could easily live happily ever after.
Related reading:
Curbside Classic: GM Deadly Sin #10, A Big Bowl of GM Schadenfreude for Breakfast
Nicely played, sir… 🙂
The Cimarron convertible…the answer to the question nobody was asking!
I recall seeing another one of these conversions for sale online, It even had a Cimarron vin number on it (checked it on a vin decoder website)
It’s linked to above. That one is much better done, with a complete Cimarron interior installed and better replication of the exterior trim as well. This one left the Cavalier interior intact except for the Caddy steering wheel. The seats are from the restyled second-generation (’95+) Cavalier.
And no highly-processed “breakfast cookies” to be found?
Well written Sir .
I’ll take the flat fender in the back gound .
-Nate
The original Cavalier did share its instrument panel with the Cimarron. The Cavalier was updated, the Cimarron never was.
The Cavalier was updated twice! The first update (seen here) only found its way onto the upper trims or sporty models, others stuck with the original dash, minus the chrome and woodgrain on the original 1982 CL model.
I love how the hood ornament is slightly out of line with the center line of the hood. About 10 degrees counterclockwise? Yep, pure luxury car quality.
Doctor Leary, or How I Learnt to Love a Two-Door Bomb.
Great story, Jason.
“How are the mighty fallen!“
Just a thought: What if Cadillac went Diesel instead of Oldsmobile (& did so properly)? Then they might’ve kept up their CAFE numbers on the RWD C barges w/o Rube Goldberg solutions like the 8-6-4 etc.
It might’ve flown in the face of the idea of luxury quiet & refinement, but they could reply, “Hey, it’s OK for Mercedes!“
Cadillac offered the Oldsmobile diesel in the Seville in 1978 and then offered it in every Cadillac model for 1979. For 1980 the diesel was the standard engine in the Seville. Cadillac went diesel more than any other US car company, and probably for the reasons you mentioned. While it was an Oldsmobile engine and an unmitigated disaster of one at that, it isn’t like Cadillac was any more capable of engineering an engine. Just look at the V8-6-4 you mentioned, the practical joke of a lump called HT4100, and ultimately the Deathstar. Cadillac no longer has a single engine of its own making, and whoever is buying their cars probably is perfectly content to get where they’re going without smoke emerging from under the hood.
It’s like the Allante’s predecessor that never was…but I actually like the idea. Hopefully it will get finished, with a correct dash and interior, then take it to shows and blow some minds. Heck, with some updated running gear (Cobalt SS mechanicals?) it could actually be fun.
I have a slight weakness for cars like this, variations of production models that never actually existed.
Cavalier convertible dressed up with Cimarron bits.
I guess someone so loved their J car that they had to make it “theirs.”
Industrial psychologist Holmes? Really?
I really don’t want to spend any time on his couch.
Put it in a trash-masher, mister!
The Curbside Pickup Classic is rated to handle a J Body 🙂
I noticed they left the key in it. Hoping someone would steal it perhaps? In the run position no less. They should be so lucky.
I remember when I first saw a Cadillac Cimarron. I was At the time, I thought “what the hell was Cadillac thinking? If Cadillac wants to make an entry level car for beginner Cadillac owners, fine. But why use the Chevrolet Cavalier as its base to start its design?” That didn’t make any sense. And a Cadillac Cimarron convertible? Huh?!
That was probably about the worst possible platform to use (other than the T-car). Personally I’m not sure why they didn’t use the new downsized A-body platform–still considerably smaller than the Seville (10″ shorter wheelbase) but with proportions befitting a Caddy.
I agree. Why didn’t they do that? Whatever the hell were they thinking?
The J cars were new and supposed to be better than the X cars. Basically the problem was that Cadillac wanted/needed a small car immediately and there was no time to make over any existing small car platform into a Cadillac, nor was there time to design a new platform befitting a small Cadillac. What should have been done was to down size the 75-79 Seville into a smaller car instead of moving it onto the E platform.
The A-body was new for ’82 also. (FWD, the former RWD became the G-body that year). And personally I think a Buick Century with caddy-specific nose and tail caps would have been *worlds* better than what we got as the Cimarron. Sure, they may have tried to pitch the Cimarron as a BMW 3-series fighter because of its size, but that was pure bull. I doubt there was much, if anything, that they could have gotten out of the J platform that wasn’t possible on the A, plus it’s bigger, better proportioned, and can take a bigger engine.
It’s not like the A-bodies were automotive genius but, of what GM had available at the time, it would have made the most sense for a small Caddy.
I think that Cadillac dealers (or some of them) wanted a compact car, not a midsized, that could be sold to people who wanted something like the BMW 3 series. The basic problem is that people wanted the 3 series because BMW’s were “in” cars.
I think the Cimarron was better looking than the Cavalier, but it’s based on the same body chassis, drivetrain and engine as the Cavalier, which wasn’t a bad vehicle in itself, but why use an existing body, chassis, and drivetrain as the lower vehicle on the rung on the General Motors ladder of cars?
Because they were already working on full size sedans (C-body)that were just going to be marginally bigger than the A-bodies, which were originally due out for 1983 as early 84’s and the E/K cars were going to be even smaller than the new C-cars, so it would have not really made sense for Cadillac to make a midsized A-body based car when all of it’s dealers were wanting a compact car.
What Cadillac should have done was ask for a bigger budget and more time, and told its dealers to STFU for a year and they could have refined the J-car for another 12-15 months, designed a unique body and interior, offer the tweaked 2.8 litre V6 from the X/11 and raided the X/11 for other suspension and brake upgrades, in essence, do what they did just 6 years prior when they made the K-body out of the X-body and created the Seville, which was a massive hit for Cadillac, instead, Cadillac did a Lincoln and created a Versailles that was virtually the same as the cheaper car that spawned it.
If they could have waited for the ’84 model year then yes, that would have been far better. And I didn’t consider the fact that the downsized E/K, already in the pipeline at this time, would have been smaller than an A-based car. I was thinking more of an “entry level Cadillac” in price rather than *specifically* as a compact. More along the lines of the ATS, which is a good bit bigger than the J300 (Cruze) but smaller and less expensive than the CTS.
I think what Cadillac dealers really needed was a product to counter the BMW 3-series sports sedan. In my opinion, GM’s managers at any level had no real understanding of just what a sports sedan was. It took them about 20 years to figure it out, sometime after the Catera was brought to market.
I don’t think it was after the Catera–The Seville STS with the Northstar was quite a competent sports sedan. And people took notice–those cars had a great repuation until they started showing their lack of reliability some years later. They weren’t the same caliber as a BMW 5-series but at least they “got” it.
if you’re specically talking about a 3-series fighter, the ATS is the closest they’ve come. Nothing they’ve put out previously is anywhere remotely close.
The 3 series is mentioned often, but the Cimarron wasn’t just pegged against the 320i, remember the new 3 was still a couple of years from being in the US when the Cimarron came out, but there was concern from Cadillac dealers about ALL of the smaller imported cars that younger upwardly mobile consumers were buying, 320, 900, 240, 505, Mercedes was still developing the 190, which was still rumored to be FWD at that time.
I don’t think that the Cimarron needed to exactly ape the 3 series punch for punch, the original intent of the Seville was to go toe to toe with the S-class, what came out was something different than that mission, but still extremely successful for Cadillac, what Cadillac needed for the Cimarron to succeed was some that Seville formula used in the same manor as it was in 1975, instead though the Cimarron was a rush job done on the cheap, and it showed.
The FWD STS did not do well in the comparison tests with the European sports sedans, it was generally dead last in camparisons of 5 or 6 cars. If the STS in the 90’s had been a competent sports sedan, the RWD STS would never have been designed, nor would the CTS ever have made it to the drawing boards. GM and Cadillac expected the stiff body structure to make a difference for the 1998 Seville, but FWD was still dead last. The Audi had AWD, which usually gave them 3rd place or 4th.
“For a number of years, Cadillac even offered a V8, a V12, and a V16 all in the same model year. Has this accomplishment ever been duplicated?”
I cars no; in Semi-Land in the 1970s you could get V-71 Detroit Diesel in 8, 12 and 16.
The high water mark for Cadillac was the 1930’s, when the V16, V12 and V8 engines were offered in a number of body styles and varying levels of refinement (price). Fleetwood body still existed in the early 30’s. Cadillac was greatly diminished after World War 2. The Eldorado Brougham was an attempt I think to bring back a higher end model, but it did not work out.
I don’t think you could ever get a 16V-71 in an over the road truck, at least not from the factory. It was pretty much an industrial engine, commonly used in large off road dump trucks, marine applications, stationary generators and such. They were actually 2 8V-71s bolted together. Lots of fun to set up the rack and synchronize everything, and I seem to recall 1900 RPM was the limit for these.
There was also a 16V-92 later on in the ’70s. There are a few custom trucks out there running them, but I’ve never heard of anyone running a 16V in revenue service. You’d need a pup trailer full of diesel to feed one!
Has this accomplishment ever been duplicated?
Not only hasn’t this feat been duplicated, but there hasn’t been another V16 production car since the 30s. And even back then, it was only Cadillac and Marmon – so there have been exactly two, ever, in 110+ years!
There was an Italian supercar in the early 90s called the Cizeta-Moroder V16T which had 16 cylinders in a V arrangement, but it was actually two V8 blocks cast into one solid piece, and unlike GMC’s Twin Six V12, they operated independently of each other, so it was really more like a twin-engined car. Between each “side” was a transaxle that took inputs from each crankshaft. Imagine trying to do a clutch job on that, or anything for that matter?
Oh, and the “Moroder” part of the name comes from Giorgio Moroder of Italo Disco fame, who was involved with the development in some vague way. As if this car needed to be any more ridiculous…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wk_A2MSmpIY
It is cool, though!
Looks like it started off as a 1986-1987 Cavalier convertible, I would have used a slightly earlier car so the Cimarron dash bits could be transferred over to the basic Cavalier dash, this one has the sportier Type10 dash that was used in the Z24 too.
I never thought a Cadillac (any Cadillac) would ever look like a Renault Fuego… Bingo!
How Cadillac managed to go down this road so soon after Lincoln made a laughingstock out of itself with the Granada-sourced Versailles, is beyond me. The market clearly punished Cadillac for being so cavalier. (Sorry.)
Mr. Cadillac had so many names, I wonder why the car division never used any of the others. “Introducing the new Cadillac La Mothe for 1984!”
I commend you on your imaginative telling of this car’s story. There are so many less constructive things that one can do when finding a car like this.
“Count da Money! Count da Money!” “de MONET, de MONET!”
“Thank you, thank you Heddy.” “That’s Hedley!”
Comedy gold. RIP Harvey Korman.
You know, IF gas had gone up to $6 a gallon like they were forecasting, Cadillac would have been lauded for their foresight in producing a compact car that got 30 mpg with big car luxury.
I daresay Chrysler did a better job of the same thing, though, with the K-car based LeBaron models. No, they weren’t quite as luxurious, but that can be fixed. And at least they had the good sense to give them entirely unique sheetmetal. Plus an available turbo.
Maybe I’m outing myself for bad taste, but I actually think the interior on the top-of-the-line K LeBaron looked great. This is obviously rooted in a 70s luxo-barge sense of style, but the layout is 80s modern – more driver oriented and ergonomically correct. I think this is even real wood and the leather is way better than anything I’ve seen in a Cimarron.
If broke-ass Chrysler could come up with this, we know Cadillac could’ve done better.
I don’t think they even used pictures of real wood to make that fake wood in the LeBaron, sorry but Chris M had somewhat of good argument before, but this looks as much as a Reliant-K with leather as the Cimarron looks like a Cavailer with leather.
Mark Cross though! That must have meant something to the 3 people that still knew what Mark Cross was at the time, this car does get extra charisma points for being Lidos “return of the ragtop”, but in reality, it’s just a notch better than a Cimarron, or to put in better perspective, it shows that maybe the Cimarron isn’t that bad when its looked at from the perspective of that era. I mean if this is what Chrysler was passing of as a luxury convertible, charging $12,000 to $15,000(35K BIG ONES today kiddies) for this cowl shake special? Was the Cimarron that wrong?
Yes, this finally proves that the Cimarron wasn’t so wrong. Thank god… after all these years. They weren’t so wrong! Fuck! If only we’d known back then…
Someone call up the history books, tell them to re-write themselves. If the Cimarron was only a notch – a cunt-hair’s width – below a K-car with leather than we really need to rethink a whole lot of shit. I can’t believe I fell for the buff book/liberal media conspiracy takedown. We need a goddamn time machine to get back to 1982 right now so we can warn people. If only they’d known that the Cimarron was hardly worse than a Dodge Aries with a Chrysler badge and leather, that would have changed everything.
Seriously though, if I had a stroke and it only manifested through erasing the portion of my brain that deals with J-Body knowledge, I could be tricked into believing that the inside of a Cimarron was some high-spec European Ford. It really wasn’t bad for the time, but it was also a goddamn fancy Chevy Cavalier. That is bullshit when you’re calling yourself the Standard Of the World. Chrysler has never been a true luxury brand, so for them to trot out a Dodge/Plymouth with leather and fake wood is no harm no foul, especially since it came off better in the end anyway. And that’s not just my opinion, they also sold shit-tons of them compared to the Cimarron.
I hate that you’re making me argue about these stupid cars. I do like the LeBaron, but I like it as a novelty. It has fake fucking wood on the side of it for godssake! Still, it was somehow more convincing than a Cavalier Talisman Brougham Touring.
Oh, sorry, I didn’t know this was a quantum physics forum, I thought it was for talking about stupid cars. Hey if you think that Chrysler charging todays equivalent of $35K for that Snooky Orange “Mark Cross” leather interior is AOK, but the Cimarron is the equivalent of AIDS, cancer and Hitler that only a drooling, blind retard would have bought, then I don’t know what to tell you.
I’ll knock the Cimarron for the mistake that it was but don’t try lead me on with that bullshit about “ergonomically correct” fancy ReliantK LeBaron that was…ahem, again, MORE EXPENSIVE than the Cimarron, because your mesmerized by some silver paint on an Aries dash. I am looking both vehicles from the perspective of what you got for the money in that era. The Cimarron was the cheapest Cadillac.
Thank you for completely missing the point…
Ah what the fuck am I arguing with you for, you thought the wood in the LeBaron was real.
Oh, so you just meant they weren’t a good value? My bad… in that case the $15k LeBaron convertible makes the $12k Cimarron sedan look like an absolute bargain. What a great way to get your “foot in the door”, as they say, at America’s finest builder of luxury automobiles. A new kind of Cadillac for a new kind of Cadillac owner! They’ll sell millions!
Did you forget Cadillac’s far more absurd asking price on the Cimarron? I’m sure the retort will be “none of them actually sold for that”, which A) isn’t a good thing and B) probably can be said for most American cars back then, which makes it irrelevant here. I bet the droptop LeBaron was one of few exceptions to that, though. You only had so many options if you wanted a convertible for a few years, and for awhile they were the only option; which is also the only reason Chrysler got away with charging so much for them.
If you want to compare apples to apples, it’s really easy: a K LeBaron sedan cost about $9k new and even with every option checked – turbo engine, Mark Cross leather, power everything, sport suspension, alloy wheels, console, the best stereo, and all the other little knick-knack crap – it would still only cost about as much as a Cadillac with an 88HP Chevy four banger and crank windows.
If you want to compete against performance oriented luxury car companies like Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and possibly Porsche, you need to build your car to their standards. That may cost the company more money, but at least it’d be competing with, possibly against the other guys.
What a classic!
No, not the Cimarron, but the term obsceneous broughamide
+1 lol
Wow, bizarre timing. I saw a J-body convertible that received the Cimarron treatment yesterday. It was too far ahead of me and turned onto a different road before i could get any pictures. I was coming home from an abnormally long work day and didn’t feel like chasing it.
This is friggen hilarious!!! The writing, that is. The car? Looks like a botched sex-change operation, but I guess we’re only viewing it mid-procedure. I have very little love for the Cimarron, but building a droptop version from Cavalier parts is pretty cool; also very funny how you tied that “parts interchangeability” bit in at the end – that’s great!!
The formula is: same platforms and bodies with slightly different front and rear designs and badges. The Cimarron Convertible is like an S-10 with Bravada front end. Or an El Camino with the Grand LeMans front end. None of them were in production.
The last Cimarron I saw had a Cavalier front end and was driven by some girl that worked at a Mcdonald’s near my work several years ago.
I would love to know how this came to be. Someone has a sense of humor.
Maybe a fellow was driving by the junkyard listening to Johnny Cash’s “One Piece At A Time” and thinking about that Cadillac convertible he always wanted and the idea for this bubbled up in his mind.
This was great! I am going to share it with The Brougham Society…
Am I the only one who misread D’Oro as D’Oh?
I was thinking the same.
“This Little Piggy Went to Market”
Looks more like it went to the slaughterhouse.
OK, now let’s Cimarronize a J-car wagon, hatchback coupe and notchback coupe, to complete the series of what-ifs. Someone out there must be bored enough to have nothing better to do than that.
I’d kinda like a Cimarron wagon…
Wow , tough crowd to please here ! =8-) .
I don’t see why this parts bin special is so bad , I like drop tops in general and I remember gear Heads in the 1960’s making ” Ed-Cheros ” out of Edsels and Ranchero junk…. not for everyone but the folks who made them typically were die hard Ford Men and so did them right .
FWIW , I rather liked the Chrysler K Car Drop Tops , cheesy or not they were fine for the times and still provide good open top motoring dirt cheap .
TRUE Gear Heads understand that ” In matters of taste , everyone else is _wrong_ ” and so just let abortions like this slide , whatever floats your boat .
-Nate
Never mix LSD with car design.
In 1985 I was in high school and mom was looking for a new car to replace her 1979 Mercedes. She had previously owned a Cadillac but liked the smaller size of her Mercedes. She had to travel 50 miles for he nearest Mercedes dealership. She decided to visit the Cadillac dealership in our town. They tried to sell her that tarted-up econo-Chevy, the Cimarron. She liked the size but the finial straw was the plastic dash and instrument panel. Cadillac didn’t even bother to upgrade anything other than the upholstery. My mom said it best that day “what in the #@#!! is going on with Cadillacs.
I really like the comparison between the Cimarron and Lebaron, and how the Lebaron worked, yet the similar Cimarron didn’t. I can only surmise it’s due to Iacocca’s uncanny ability to differentiate an upscale model from its downmarket cousin. He’d been working his magic ever since the Falcon-based Mustang. It just seemed like it was a lot harder to tell a Lebaron from a Reliant than it was a Cimarron from a Cavalier.
Then, too, consider the manufacturers. By the time of the FWD Lebaron, consumers were used to smaller Chryslers. Plus, although technically a luxury brand, Chrysler had established strippo, cheaper models when they had long ago came out with the Newport. There was never a downmarket Cadillac.
So, the Lebaron wasn’t as much of a shock to the system as the Cimarron. Even the first ‘small’ Cadillac, the original Seville, didn’t seem nearly as much like a Nova and sold quite well. I suspect the Seville’s success was a huge factor in Cadillac thinking they could get away with an obvious quick-and-cheap Cavalier rebadge. It didn’t work.
Someone else mentioned that if the price of gas had risen to $6/gallon (as was predicted), Cadillac management would have looked like geniuses. Unfortunately for them, that spike never occured, and the Cimarron is looked back upon as one of the biggest faux pas in automotive history.
Hilarious, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this! Cimmaron was way way worse than Versailles EVER was IMO!
Just one small point however; Cadillac didn’t dominate luxury car sales in the 1930s, that title was still held by Packard, which outsold it until 1949. From 1950 onwards, Cadillac passed Packard, Lincoln, Imperial and every other luxury wannabe to become top dog. Their fall from grace in the 1980s was truly staggering.
Also, Packard was clearly the prestige leader at least until the Cadillac Sixteen was released, regardless of actual sales volume. The Sixteen was a smash hit until it was understood that the Depression was a fundamental catastrophe, not a transient change of fortune.
It seems like these cars are universally panned. I’ve never seen one in person or had the opportunity to ride in or drive one because they were before my time, but were they really that bad?
Depends on one’s opinion of the Cavalier. In that regard, the Cimarron was no better or worse. In fact, the Buick Skyhawk is actually closest to the Cimarron ‘experience’ and, generally speaking, owners of the Buick seem to have liked it well enough.
The problem with the Cimarron was simply perception. It was way too obviously a Cavalier with a leather interior and some chintzy, JC Whitney-level shiny trim for which Cadillac charged an exorbitant price.
It was all about image. At the top-tier luxury level of autos, image is a very critical aspect and, in that regard, the Cimarron was an epic fail. I can’t imagine the embarassment of someone being laughed at by their peers at having paid Cadillac-level money for a car that was just a thinly-disguised Cavalier. To this day, the Cimarron is held up as a prime example of what ‘not’ to do in marketing.
So essentially, the same thing that Toyota did with the first generation ES. I remember even as a kid thinking “who does Toyota think they are fooling with this Camry in Lexus clothes.” Of course, the Camry was a vastly better vehicle than any Cavalier, or really, anything that GM made at the time, but still, put makeup on a pig….
I don’t think that the Cimarron would have been a success even with six dollar a gallon gas. It simply did not work. It had no class, and never could have been a contender.
It was just too…. Cavalier and just in no way a Cadillac. I remember the first one I saw when they were new. I pulled up behind it at a traffic light. I first registered Cavalier, and then noticed it had Thunderbird emblems in the tail lights. I was puzzling over that when just as the light changed I finally saw the Cadillac nameplate on the back. I seriously thought it was a joke. Sure, there was supposed to be a new small Caddy, but this?? A VW Beetle with a Rolls Royce nose kind of bad taste joke.
Cadillac has (had?) always been about flash recognition as a status vehicle. The Cav-er-Cimarron did not have that. First impression from any distance was cheap Chevy, and then when you got closer, you had to search carefully for any visual indicator beyond the badging to prove it really wasn’t a Chevy. By the time you could smell the leather from the seats, it was too late; your first impression had been formed. Chevy with nameplates. Period.
Your friend who had been dumb enough to buy the thing would keep trying harder and harder to prove to you that it was too really a Cadillac, but would finally realize that even he didn’t believe it. I know this because I had a friend who had one. He bought it with insurance settlement money, got rid of it after seven months and never spoke of it again.