There’s an unspoken rule among us automotive journalists; that for about one-third of all jokes ever written, the original punchline could be replaced with “Cadillac Cimarron,” at no perceivable detriment to the joke. (For those less well-acquainted with GM’s history, “Pontiac Aztec” can function just as well.)
That’s what makes this retro episode of MotorWeek – recently shared by Car Scoops – so darn tasty. In it, John Davis insists that the 1983 Cadillac Cimarron “finally hits the BMW/Audi market right on the head.” Considering how universally derided the Cadillac Cimarron is today, our knowing hindsight allows us to laugh at the perverse comedy of that statement.
This MotorWeek Retro Review actually rewinds about a year in the beginning, to revisit how the show felt about the 1982 “Cimarron by Cadillac,” as it was called back then. And it’s because of the context lent by this retrospective Cimarron review that we can kind of see how MotorWeek could have come to such a conclusion in 1983; compared to the 1982 Cimarron, every car is a winner. The 1983 Cadillac Cimarron achieved better handling, braking and acceleration, from a larger 2.0-liter four-cylinder, all while boosting fuel economy (as-tested) by 10 mpg, or 50 percent.
So, yes, were you in John Davis’ shoes in 1983, it’s conceivable that you could have reached the very same conclusion: that the Cadillac Cimarron was reworked sufficiently to take on the big guns. In actuality, it was revamped just enough to be slightly better than horrendous.
Comments
Just a gussied up Cavalier. GM still tries to put lipstick on pigs like that, and sells expensive small cars that are cheaply built: The Buick Verano (really just a Cruze), and Encore (a Sonic’s bones) come to mind.
All car companies do this (the Cayenne sits on the same exact platform as the Touareg). The problem is in execution (see previous statement). GM is getting better at it. Buick is getting high reliability and customer satisfaction marks as well.
Lincolns are just a Ford Taurus, Explorer and Edge.
Many of the future Chryslers well all be re bodies Fiat products and none from Ferrari.
Even the Bentley based W12 and W8 was used in a VW’s
So what is your point bait breath?
My father had bought an ’83 Cimarron, he had traded are ’80 Eldorado with one the god awful diesel engine I remember we used too have to plug it up in the winter time. It kinda of went from bad too worst. I really hated that Cimarron, really because of it seemed like a down grade if you will. But it was not a bad car for that time in space, I drive a few times it had a tight steering feel to it. But you wanna hear another joke, pops had traded the Cimarron for a, you guessed it a ’88 Eagle Premier ES…..LOL !!!!
68 This is true as this was an era of many very bad cars that did not appear all that bad as they were replacing even worse cars from the mid to late 70’s.
The fact is the Cimarron was not really a bad car in itself. It was a bad Cadillac but the car itself was reliable and comfortable and it did more damage to Cadillac’s image than the customers who bought it. I think this part of the story gets lost often.
Ford at the time had Escorts and Tempo’s with bad engines and headlights that would fog over in 5 years or less. Chrysler had cars that would burn oil and just fall apart like the K cars. Lets face it the first FWD New Yorker was worse than this car ever was with the Mitsubishi engine issues.
The fact is the Cimarron as a physical car was reliable comfortable and drove well. The only real flaw was GM trying to sell it as the answer to a BMW 3 series. This was the major mistake of the car and hurt GM and Cadillac.
But that was not the first time that had happened as Pontiac tried to sell the Grand Am in the early 70’s as their answer to the Euro car and Benz. There are road test of the two being compared?
The 70’s and early 80’s had many companies struggling to make changes and sell cars in segments they really did not understand. the Cimarron is the one that get mentioned most often but is far from alone in this segment.
Remember this was the era of the 180 HP Corvette too.
Chrysler was really a mess while using a mix of their own parts with Renault, Mitsubishi and VW parts to fill out their line. It was bad enough to use other parts but at least get the good ones not the worst in the world at the time.
If the Cimarron was a Buick or Olds there would have never been any controversy as it would have been just sold as an American car and nothing else.
My parents bought a brand-new 1986 Cimarron with a V-6. Personally for me, I loved the car! It was a dream to drive and park when compared to the car they had before (a 1973 Buick Estate Wagon)! But the dang thing had its issues. The valve cover gaskets leaked oil and with a transversely mounted V-6 engine it was a nightmare for mechanics to work on (especially when changing the plugs facing the firewall)! The dealership tried to fix it but it would still leak and drip on the exhaust manifold (pew!). But I loved the smallness of it and it had a great ride.
I didn’t think this could seriously be compared to a BMW 3 series. But could see it as a new subcompact “entry-level” Cadillac for the 1980’s.
I bought a 1983 Cimarron D’Oro (Sable black exterior with tan interior and gold trim). It was a great car for what is was… a very luxurious sub-compact car. Compared to almost all American cars of the day it handled very well and rode very well. It was quite happy on interstates and returned excellent gas mileage. I enjoyed owning it and was quite unhappy when an errant deer destroyed it in 1988.