This isn’t the first time that this exact car has been featured at CC before, as well as other classic car blogs, but to my knowledge this is the first time that this “1988” Cadillac Cimarron “convertible” has been documented after being spotted in the wild. Quite possibly the most infamous example of one of the most infamous American cars of all time, I use air quotes because of course, there was neither a factory Cimarron convertible nor any authorized aftermarket conversion, and while this car may have started off as a 1988, in its current state, it’s much less of a 1988 than it is an amalgamation of multiple model years. Confused yet?
Well, just as a bit of a refresher, the 1982-1988 Cimarron was Cadillac’s ill-fated entry-level car, conceived and envisioned as competitor to European imports such as the BMW 3 Series and Mercedes-Benz 190E — cars that were growing far more popular than Cadillacs among upwardly-mobile younger buyers. Unfortunately, the production Cimarron was little more than a thinly rebadged variant of the corporate J-body economy car shared by every North American GM division besides GMC.
Shocking to no one, the Cimarron was an abysmal failure, and one that significantly hurt Cadillac’s already ailing brand image. Sales were weak from the get go, and the Cimarron quickly became and ultimately remains one of many laughing stocks of the Roger Smith era of GM.
As with most unappreciated and ridiculed objects, the Cimarron naturally found a few admirers who made their way out of the woodwork, probably none more passionate than the owner who decided to spend a small fortune converting their drab Cimarron sedan into the ultimate J-car convertible.
Now the even more bizarre thing about this particular car is that its VIN ties it to a regular 1988 Cimarron 4-door sedan — its third digit showing it’s a Cadillac, its fourth and fifth showing it’s a Cimarron, and its sixth showing it’s a four-door sedan. Yet I’m skeptical that this car actually started life out as a 4-door sedan, and am far more inclined to believe it has been a 2-door convertible all along, just not a Cadillac Cimarron.
For starters, the body sans rear driver’s side collision damage, without any other signs of weld marks, stress points, or added structural supports. Likewise, its body does not look like an aftermarket job as to the eye it matches perfectly with the factory Cavalier/Sunbird convertibles produced for the 1983-1987 models years.
It just seems like a whole lot of extra work and expense mutilating a 4-door sedan into a custom 2-door convertible, when a J-car convertible already existed and could much easily be transformed badge-engineered into a Cadillac Cimarron with a few styling changes.
Front and rear clips are stock Cimarron, though the strange thing is that the front, with its grill shape and composite headlights is from a 1987 or 1988, while the rear, with non-wraparound taillights is from a 1982-1986. Lacking the chrome across the back and rub strips, the rear bumper is not from a Cimarron, but from a Cavalier. The same can be said for its lower bodyside molding, which consists merely of the Cavalier’s thin black rubber strips and not the Cimarron’s ribbed lower body cladding.
Inside, the story is equally perplexing, as the car possesses a true Cimarron interior, with the Cimarron’s exclusive leather seat design, “stitched” dashboard, “push button” (as the brochure described) HVAC controls, armrest and leather door panels.
The interior, however, exhibits one glaring error that may hint at the fact that this wasn’t originally a Cimarron. Notice the automatic gear shifter — it’s backwards. Cimarrons, and other left-hand-drive J-cars with this shifter for that matter, had their release on the left side. The rest of the console including the gear indicator is correct, but the shifter is definitely a peculiarity.
The interior is otherwise as Cimarron-specific as can be, though the door panels clearly started life out on a Cavalier or Sunbird, as the power window controls are mounted on little pods that stick out. Cimarron sedans by contrast, had their power window controls mounted directly against the door panel.
Now I’m not about to lose sleep over this perplexing mystery, but that’s my two cents on this “1988 Cadillac Cimarron convertible. If anyone else has some insight, please so share.
Photographed in Newport, Rhode Island – June 2018
Related Reading:
1987 Cadillac Cimarron (GM Deadly Sin)
1988 Cadillac Cimarron convertible (eBay find – this very car)
1985 Chevrolet Cavalier convertible
Not a fan of the Cimmaron, but man…I LOVE Newport this time of year!
It’s really beautiful this time of year! I was there for a wedding several weekends ago. My first time visiting for longer than a day trip.
Did you stop by either the Audrain auto museum or the other one?
I didn’t get a chance to. But I did get to spend a few hours at Newport Vineyards, which I highly recommend!
With only 48,000 miles! I see you’ve found my car
Wow. This actually looks great! The owner has done such a good job, it makes me wonder why Cadillac never did a Cimarron convertible to begin with. I mean, it couldn’t have been any worse or more brand inappropriate than the sedan…
As ghastly a case of corporate hubris as the Cimarron was, it was a smart-looking little thing, especially the later models. But then, the Cavalier was a sharp little car itself and not that much was changed in the “transformation”…
I’m guessing they had the convertible already and liked it… and somehow came into possession of two dead Cimarrons and stripped them of the appropriate parts to make the “conversion”. Not gonna guess about the shifter though…just not familiar enough with the car. I always thought the Cimarron looked decent, if you could ignore what it was underneath. I certainly couldn’t have!
Definitely an oddball. The front end with flush headlights could be from an ’86 – it was used on the optional D’Oro package.
I’d be inclined to believe you’re right about the body having always been a convertible, with all the parts moved over (which is then the donor?).
The gear lever isn’t the same as a Vauxhall Cavlier convertible.
http://car-from-uk.com/ebay/carphotos/full/ebay465559.jpg
so that’s one possiblity ruled out.
The Vauxhall gear lever looks exactly the same as the Opel Ascona / Chevrolet Monza (Brazil), only with the quadrant on the left side.
The left pushbutton on an automatic gearbox gear lever is one of the whistleblowers of a RHD car converted to LHD. It’s apparently cheap to bring over Japanese cars to Chile, Bolivia and Paraguay, and I have seen several well converted examples. But there are some things they don’t change, like the gear lever and quadrant, the wipers, and some controls like the hood release. Of course, there are also the ultra cheap conversions, where they leave mostly everything on the right, including gauges and light controls.
Isuzu built these things called Aska, 2.0 injected they got rebadged Holden Camira for the NZ market only. Ive seen one in 21 years of being back in NZ.
Is it possible that the shift handle can be attached to the shaft and linkage in either direction and work fine?
I too believe this was a Cavalier convertible “converted” into a Cimmaron, especially given the lack f the lower body cladding. The Cimmaron dashboard, including VIN was most likely swapped over. I have often contemplated this amalgamation after doing my Nova-Seville mashup a few years back. It certainly would have been a more “bolt-up” procedure. Kudos to whomever performed the task.
(http://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/cc-readers-ride-the-noville-coupe-and-who-still-thinks-the-seville-wasnt-just-a-tarted-up-nova/ )
Me too.
I would be interested to see what the VIN on the door is. If I recall the VIN plate is riveted to the dashboard so it is possible that the VIN number is from the Donor car that gave up the dash board.
Ether the owner of this car forgot to switch them when the dash was off or did not care.
Odds are that you are correct and this was a Cavi convertible. I see no weld marks
Bingo! The VIN on the dash is portable. There are more VINs on the body and those probably don’t match.
Yeah, the more interesting question would be what VIN is on the title. If it’s a Cavalier VIN, that could make for some issues if this owner ever tries to sell this car, especially to an out of state buyer.
Yup the VIN tag visible through the window is attached to the dash so it came from the car that provided its dash which may or may not have donated other parts.
As a lover of both Chevy and Cadillac, i really like this Cadvalac or Cimvalier or Cadvalier or…………………..
Cadaverlier?
If it wasn’t a converted Cavalier. We could thought then this Cimarron convertible was a prototype saved from the crusher.
So this person took two crappy cars and converted them into one craptastic, after-market mess?
A Crapillac? A Crapalier?
Works either way.
The Cimarron Bizarreitz? 🙂
I will join the crowd and vote that this is a Cavalier convertible with Cimmaron pieces swapped wherever possible. Had it not been such an awful power plant, this would have been a fabulous application for the 4.1 V8.
Why do I actually kind of like this?? Brendan, I’m so confused… confused, I tell you!
Great find and write-up, as usual. Before I even finished reading this, I was thinking Cavalier convertible donor with a little VIN swap a la “Gone In Sixty Seconds” (’74 version).
They need to swap over one more thing – the 2.8 V-6 as it was available as an option in the first gen Cimmaron in 1985 and was made standard in 1987. Since I don’t see V-6 or 2.8 badging, I’m guessing the engine is the Four
I wouldn’t say that just because it doesn’t have the badges doesn’t mean that it isn’t packing a V6 under that hood. It is obviously a mash up so who knows what lies under the hood.
I’ve seen this car (online) before. It’s a V6, with the strange, finned manifold that I’m not used to seeing. The later cars had a big, flat plenum cover.
I guess you mean the 2.8l V6 LB6 motor? It was used from 85-86 and was a multiport fuel injected engine with 130hp. It was replaced by the flat plenum 2.8l(Gen II) in 1987
The engine is a 6 cyl 2.8.. I just sold this car. Great little block island and Newport cruiser. I’m also the one who crashed it.. someone hit her at stop and shop..
Interesting conversion – looks like a mini-Allante.
One question not asked here…..WHY?
WHY NOT?
Why not? It is nothing different then all those pickup trucks with the Escalade front ends.
I think thats cool!!! you gotta be a true GM lover to get it.
Despite the nicer interior, this thing looks all Cavalier to me. Why on earth would anybody bother?
I’ve read somewhere that there’s a Cimarron portrait hanging at Cadillac headquarters captioned…
“LEST WE FORGET.”
Making a small Cadillac wasn’t the issue. It was making THIS small Cadillac.
At least the Seville, as well-noted elsewhere on CC, was changed enough from its X-body roots that the general public never saw the Nova origins, even though that car had its faults too.
He [converted] his Chevy into a Cadillac..ac..ac….. There’s a Billy Joel reference in there somewhere, albeit paraphrased.
“Sgt. O’Leary is walking the beat until he becomes a bar tender…” Love it!!
At night* he becomes a bartender. 🙂
I already made it below, but when it was pointed out that this car is an amalgamation of Cimarron parts from different model years it made me think there was really more of a Johnny Cash reference in there.
Like so?
Exactly.
I’ll still take his ex-wife Christie’s Ferrari 🙂
As was mentioned the VIN tag that is visible through the windshield is on the dash so that explains why it says that it is a Cadillac 4dr.
As far as the front and rear mismatch there are a number of different possibilities. The one I think is most likely is that the early rears were a simple bolt in affair on this particular body shell and they preferred the newer front end. Or the donor for the front end was damaged in the rear and thus had to look elsewhere for the rear pieces and that is what they were able to find.
Either way I think it looks like they did a good job and I say Kudos to them for making the car that Cadillac should have from the get go. At least a convertible version would have been seen as a little more upscale and/or sporty. Buffy might have accepted a Convertible Cimarron when she really wanted a VW convertible.
Someone took a lot of time, and probably money, to make his dream come true. Kudos for doing so. Oddly, this is probably representative of what GM could have done to make the Cimmaron a viable choice. Load up the convertible with all the options, add the V6, and suddenly it makes sense. A Cadillac for the younger, probably female demographic that bought the BMW convertibles instead. If the price would have been about 20% less than the BMW, that is….
In all honesty though, I love mashups like this. Especially when they start out with just your run of the mill stuff. I’ve contemplated too many of these types of mashups in my years. And it usually involves GM stuff from the 80s/90s because of the level of badge engineering already. I’m really happy when I see someone take the time, effort, and money to pull something off like this.
I’m really surprised GM didn’t actually do this from the factory. All the parts were there, and it would have cost practically nothing to give the Cimmy another bodystyle and one that could look to be a touch more upmarket. I mean, they already started with a thinly rebadged Cavalier sedan to start with. Why not a thinly rebadged Cavalier convertible as well. It would have given maybe some competition to the 3-series convertible.
A couple of random thoughts …
– If I had walked past this car I wouldn’t have given it a second glance, let alone noticed it was a unique Cimarron convertible. At best, maybe “hey that J Car is in nice shape for New England.”
– If Cadillac had sold this, I think it could have been quite popular. At the time, small and Cadillac and convertible could have appealed to some of their elderly fixed-income Sunbelt clientele (sorry for the stereotype).
– Finally, could the shifter be from the infamous Japan-market Cavalier? It’s gotta be an RHD item, as I can’t imagine it being easy to squeeze that knob on the right side of the handle. Or could the handle just be rotated 180°?
The Toyota-branded Cavy didn’t come along until the ’95 restyle. I’ll bet the handle is rotated, though I can’t imagine why someone would do that.
As I’ve said here before, I’d love to own this car!
Isuzu built a J body car in the 80s called the Aska, rebadged Holden Camira for the New Zealand market, they were rubbish and very very few exist today but both that and the GMH ans Vauxhall versions would have had that shifter,
Interesting mashup and the odd ball wrong side shifter just add to the intrigue .
Rotated shifter handle – – crude attempt to frustrate would-be car thieves??
Maybe an “Oh shit, ah fuck it” moment after installation.
PRNDL approves!
I could go for a nice later model Cimarron V6, although my first choice would be a coupe. Still, I’ve always been tempted by convertibles.
“it’s much less of a 1988 than it is an amalgamation of multiple model years”
So what you’re saying is, he got it one piece at a time.
The later Cavaliers offered the 2.8L V6 in the Z24 coupe and hatch (when it was still available), convertible, and wagon (where it seems to have been a rare option), but not on four door sedans to avoid stepping on Caddy’s toes. This car started out as a Cav convertible; the inner door panels are from the uplevel CL trim that resembles that used in the Cimarron (the Cav door panels had black door latch surrounds rather than Cadillac’s color-keyed larger moldings here); the dash, console, seats, and front clip are from a late-model Cimarron. The earlier Cimarron taillights are used because they fit easily into Chevy fenders; the Sunbird rear fender had a cutout for a wraparound taillamp that’s shaped differently from late-model Cimarrons.
Early Cavaliers had a very similar dash to this Cimarron, but they changed it twice while Cadillac stayed with the same basic style throughout its run.
This car reminds me of the Lincoln Versailles coupe, at least one which was (probably easily) made from a Granada donor car.
Given a possible VIN swap on the dash, I wonder what this is titled and registered as?
Is a VIN swap even legal?
I think I saw this thing on craigslist a while back.
This is actually less awful than a real Cimarron.
Say… didn’t Neil Young have a song called “Cimarron Girl”? I forget which year it came out, but a real catchy tune.
Nope that would be “Cinnamon Girl”, but still a great song filled with Neil’s trademark one-note guitar solos.
Poco had a song and album called “Rose of Cimarron” though, more famously covered by Emmylou Harris.
A classic “Bitsa”. Pieces and parts from here and there, an amalgamation, of sorts. The so-called “Cadillac Bitsa”.
A perfect car for April 1st, but still giving equal smiles and laughs on July 4th as a humorous homage to the memory of Roger Smith,……… and Johnny Cash’s 1976 song “One Piece at a Time.”
Back in 1987, BMW introduced a convertible version of the E30 3-Series. I’d take one over that Cimarron. And the E30 convertible lasted until 1993.
So, there’s no reason why the same Yankee Ingenuity couldn’t be applied to create an entire line of what-if Cimarrons in all the other J body styles — the wagon, the hatchback coupe and notchback coupe.
We especially need a Cimarron waqon. The interior work would benefit from being able to swap all four door panels directly from the donor Cimarron. The rear upholstery, however, would require some adaptation to the split-folding wagon seat.
Pro – you created the Cimarron that never was
Con – nobody knows what a Cimarron is, or that it never was produced as a convertible, or find the styling or interior differences significantly more special than a Cavalier.
This had to be a very low effort creation done purely on a whim for personal amusement by the owner, basically a convenient way to have a affordable convertible Cadillac without taking a sawzall to the roof a Fleetwood Brougham.
This is so wrong and yet so right. My youthful self would have attempted to do this.
The Cimarron with the V6 was actually a pretty good car. Too bad it premiered with the crappy 4-cylinder, that ruined it.
The comment above hits the mark:
“Kudos for doing so. Oddly, this is probably representative of what GM could have done to make the Cimmaron a viable choice. Load up the convertible with all the options, add the V6, and suddenly it makes sense. A Cadillac for the younger, probably female demographic that bought the BMW convertibles instead. If the price would have been about 20% less than the BMW, that is….”
Indeed, the problem with the Cimarron wasn’t so much the concept, but the execution, and I blame it mostly on size. GM’s big-profit, bread-and-butter was being able to spread parts commonality among all the divisions, yet disguise it enough so it wasn’t obvious with the upper-tier cars. Lots of profit built into a Cadillac when many of the unseen parts were Chevy-based.
This became harder with much smaller cars and it came to a head with the Cimarron. Cadillac dealers were (rightly) clamoring for a small BMW-fighter ASAP, and the Cavalier-based Cimarron was what they got. If the later, composite headlight, V6 versions had been where they started, things might have turned out a bit differently, particularly with a convertible version in the mix.
I can easily see it fitting into the well-off, female demographic, the types of women with enough funds to eschew the typical Rabbit convertible for something much nicer, particularly the d’Oro gold-trimmed Cimarron. One of those as a convertible might have been something of a success, but it was not to be, and the Cimarron has gone down in auto history as not only a failure, but one that badly tarnished Cadillac’s premium image for generations to come.
This is pretty evidently someone’s clever use of the GM parts bin to build their own version of a car that GM didn’t want to build. No doubt pricey, if all the parts came from a dealer’s parts counter, but much more affordable if they can from the local Pick ‘n Pull.
Add in backyard labor versus doing this all in a shop, and this one of none becomes a curious conversation piece.
Short of someone like this article’s author who knew enough to recognize the source of the donated parts, this car will simply become a conversation piece at the local cars ‘n coffee.
Clearly a Z24 convt with parts swapped at each end. I saw a Tahoe the other day with an HD pickup front end, a totally different look that I would bet only myself and ten other humans have ever even noticed.
The coolest sleepers back in the late 80s/early 90s were base Cavalier wagons with optional rally wheels, 3.1L V6 and precious little else. I test drove one and it was a tire burning little crank-windowed beast. If memory serves the antisway bars were beefed up with the V6 option so I always viewed it as a Z24 wagon. At the time I had a white 87 Z24 coupe, looking very similar to this car above, and later had a black 90 Z24 3.1L stick – another total ripper.
Tbh kinda cool. Reminds me of all the Chevy and GMC pick uptrucks cruising around Houston with Escalade front clips and custom Cadillac style razor taillights on the rear bed. Often lowered with huge rims or Daton spokes with a subtle to outrageous lovingly applied custom paint job. Often they’ll upgrade the interior to have an Escalade dash and seats. And sometimes a Ford pickupwill get a Navigator treatment. Houston’s custom car scene gives Cali a run for their money.
@MX5 Racer I also test drove one of those wagons. 90 with the rally wheels and 3.1 V6. I keep thinking it was a 5 speed, but I could be getting it mixed up with another Cavalier 5 speed I test drove at the time. Super fun car, could have bought it, had the money, but decided I didn’t need a third car. Still think about it though when I see or hear about one.
Having had the shift knob off on my old 84 Cavalier, I remember it being likely reversible. Maybe the clip loosened up from all the interior work, and reversing the knob was a quick solution. Or maybe the button got in the way of the drivers leg. Or maybe they developed carpal tunnel or something and it was easier to pull the button than push with the thumb. Had this happen for awhile once.
In any case, I love seeing mash ups of cars using mostly interchangeable parts. The passion required to do this for a normally mediocre car makes it awesome. I have long since wanted to see a Cimarron wagon too.
Any Cimarron was never competition for BMW etc. Had the subject car seen production, with proper pricing I bet it would have grabbed a lot of Lebaron convertible buyers.
Curbside Classic: Cadillac Cimarron Convertible: making it CCCCC
I wonder if it is insured as a Cadillac??
You actually can polish a turd!
Lower body moldings are of the Cavalier Z24. Outside, I’m assuming the just grafted the Cimarron front header onto a Z24 and added the Cimarron D’oro wheels. Inside? Did they actually go through all the trouble of changing out the dash, seats, etc?
Either way, what a mess. And why?