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Automotive News & Views Can GM make Cadillac the standard of the world Again?
6098 messages, Last post on Aug 14, 2009 at 4:43 PM
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| that the 8-6-4 engine was a maintainence hog, not unlike a Mercedes 600. The 4100 engine was, I think, much worse though, until they finally (after a few years) figured out the problem and fixed it. The Cimarron may have been the only Cadillac without major engine troubles in the 1980's. | |
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Replying to: sls002 (Apr 08, 2007 8:43 am) Let me ask you, if you don't mind---were you old enough at the time to sort of witness or experience the Cimmaron in "real life"? It was really an embarrassment of a car, not only to Cadillac, but to the American auto industry. When it came out, everyone knew it was just a tarted up Chevrolet, and the styling, appointments, ergonomics and running gear---it was all hopelessly outdated. Cimarron was almost a National Lampoon parody of an American car at its worst. And just so you know I'm not making this up, the legend of the Cimarron lives on to this day: Check out this website on "crap cars": http://www.metroactive.com/metro/12.07.05/rev-0549.html) Or this one on "automotive atrocities": http://www.amazon.com/Automotive-Atrocities-Cars-Love-Hate/dp/customer-reviews/0- - - - 760317879 The car was heavily ridiculed in the media at the time of introduction. It was a sad, sad commentary, and I didn't enjoy watching it happen either, as an automobile enthusiast and as someone who remembered the glory days of the American car in the 60s, and Eisenhower in his 50s Eldorado or Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio cruising down Wilshire Blvd in their Caddy convert or Elvis giving away Cadillacs to his roadies and toadies. I remember being really PO'd at GM for doing this. It looked to me at the time like deliberate murder of a famous brand name. It seemed like a senseless decision, or a desperate one. I can still remember talking to this old used car guy named Herb Zisser. Great guy. He had a little lot in San Francisco. One day about two weeks after the Cimmaron "debuted", we were sitting around talking and we heard sirens in the streets. He turned to me with a sly grin and said: "Hear that? That's an ambulance going to another Cadillac dealer". True story. And amazingly enough you still see Cimarron comments, even in 2007, in blogs and auto magazines whenever a car company decides to come out with a cheap re-badged model. I don't think enough people appreciate what a fatal blow the Cimarron was to Cadillac prestige and how it is STILL rippling out there in people's consciousness. It was to my mind Cadillac's "Pearl Harbor", only difference being the fleet was scuttled by its own admiral.
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Replying to: Mr_Shiftright (Apr 08, 2007 8:50 am) It is my understanding that much of this rebadging etc is a result of the CAFE rules on mileage averages imposed on each brand. I could be wrong. That is the only reason I can imagine for the Cimarron, "C" MB or the IS Lexus.
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Replying to: gagrice (Apr 08, 2007 2:39 pm) I really don't know why they did it. CAFE sounds like the theory of apologists, but no answer is simple, so maybe there's at least something to it...one of a combination of factors? You might find this website interesting. I really enjoyed reading it. http://web.archive.org/web/20001217123800/http://www.rideanddrive.com/disasters/- disasters.html The author posits that Cadillac was trying to lure BMW 3-Series buyers with the J-body/based Cimarron. Now that is pathetic if true.
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Replying to: Mr_Shiftright (Apr 08, 2007 2:50 pm) That's very dark humor.  >CAFE sounds like the theory of apologists IIRC CAFE was an import part of marketing a small, fuel efficient car--anything to increase the sales of more fuel efficient cars to avoid CAFE penalties. A friend of mine had a Cimmaron, manual trans IIRC and it had a 1.8 motor? But I believe the motor was different than the OHC 1.8 motor I had in a Skyhawk '85 at the time. He loved the gas mileage it got. The hope was that a small, perky car would keep some buyers from going to small cars from such as BMW. I don't recall it was vice-versa.
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Replying to: imidazol97 (Apr 08, 2007 3:14 pm) Marketing a Cadillac for gas mileage makes no sense. That's what Chevrolet was for. Cadillac should have gone UPSCALE to challenge Mercedes, not DOWN. GM just gave Mercedes the high end on a silver platter. Even some GM execs were apparently appalled at this decision. But typically gutless nonetheless, to protest very much. The early 90s Cadillacs should have been the early 80s Cadillacs....that would have changed everything. |
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Replying to: Mr_Shiftright (Apr 08, 2007 4:18 pm)
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At least I gave the year and models of Toyotas and Honda that caused me grief. I would still consider either one if they had something that I liked the looks of. Or fit my wants and needs. I agree that most of the GM bashers are living in the 1980s. As recently as the early 1990s I was renting cars for 20 plus weeks per year. My favorite was the T-Birds from Hertz. Then the Pontiacs. I stayed away from the Japanese cheapo stuff because I did not want to be stranded out in the desert. I have not seen any compelling evidence against buying a recent Cadillac, presented in this thread. Nice vehicles best warranty in their class. |
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Replying to: gagrice (Apr 08, 2007 5:52 pm) If I recall correctly GM was hated by the hippies because it was the 9th largest country in the world in terms of GNP or some term like that. CR hated them because of, well, just because, I guess. They could do no right. Anything from another country was wonderful. Everyone should be driving econoboxes to save the environment. And the beat still goes on... bong...bong...bong...
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