My least favorite car of all time is the Cadillac Cimarron. I think this car represents everything that was wrong with the American Auto industry in the 1980's and 1990's. It also represents one of the reasons GM is in such huge trouble now.
The Cimarron is the result of platform sharing, something that works now, but in the early 1980's when the U.S. car companies started using it created some terrible cars. The Ford Pinto and Mustang 2 were both the result of platform sharing and the Pinto as many people know exploded if it was rear ended. The Cimarron was just a Chevy Cavalier with some disgusting shiny plastic glued to it. I can't think of a more disgusting car. Some of them were even in vomit yellow with a fake gold grille on the front. At first Cadillac called it the Cimarron by Cadillac, which just emphasized how it was just a Cavalier with some tacky "premium" features added to it. This car was sold for 6 years and in that time pretty much destroyed the Cadillac name.
Platform sharing did at least have some good results, the Chrysler K-Car was an awful car, but the Chrysler Town & Country/ Dodge Caravan did come from the K-Car and those saved Chrysler. Some companies like Volkswagen have made good cars from platform sharing ever since 1974 when they brought out the Scirocco. Volkswagen have always taken parts from more than one platform to create cars like the Scirocco and later the Corrado, that's why they're so much better. The problem with platform sharing for GM was that they made so many cars that were identical, Take the Chevy Venture/Pontiac Montana/Oldsmobile Silhouette as an example, every one of the had the same disastrous safety, quality, and engines.
The Cimarron is a car that really had no good points. It was a truly small car, there is no space inside, but despite that gas mileage is still wasn't good. The EPA ratings for the 2.8L V6 version are 17 city and 25 highway, worse than a new Corvette with a 430hp 6.2L V8. The Cimarron being based off a Cavalier is so terrible to drive that I would recommend it as a new form of torture for the government to use, it would be viewed as more humane than water boarding, but just as effective. The original price was $13,000, or about $30,000 in today's money, but in 1988 it was nearly $17,000, more than a Saab 900 cost in 1988. Safety was another problem, the Cavalier always got terrible crash test ratings even in 2005 when it was replaced, so crashing one of these was guaranteed death, so it's a good thing they were slow. The most outrageous thing is the used values of these. I found two of them on Autotrader for $15,000. I can't think of any reason somebody would spend $15,000 on a 22 year old Cimarron. The Cimarron is a car that I truly hate. I can't imagine why anybody would decide to buy one of these, let anlone decide to build this car. For lots of reasons the Cadillac Cimarron is the worst car of all time.
1 comment:
What about that sporty Caddy that was developed in the 1990's as an alternative to the BMW? I think they even called it the "Caddy that zings" or something like that. It was an awful car as well and didn't last long.
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