From the spell check has no idea what sort of word Cimarron is department comes this 1988 Cadillac Cimarron. A junkyard hoof over the holiday weekend revealed dozens of quality automobiles ready to be picked clean, and melted down into steel poles for partially solar-powered sustainable parking meters that simultaneously confuse the public and spit out squares of recycled paper. This GM J-platform car named either after a big horned wild sheep or eastern flowing river never found its way with the public as other variants of the GM J-fleet did. The cost premium for a fancy Cavalier is something the eighties Cadillac crowd never fully embraced. The Cimarron ceased to exist in 1988. The forgotten Cimarron should never be, as it is reminder exactly how disconnected the automakers can become, and how far automakers have come since the great eighties malaise.
It’s too bad those cars get spit on so bad. The Cavalier was a good reliable car. We had 2 from brand new and both were excellent trouble free cars. That’s all the Cimarron was but with more option and GM should have sold it that way (compact luxury) but as a Chevy.
It doesn’t take a lot of effort to find evidence that General Motors is too busy competing against themselves to be bothered with actual competition with the premium brands. They might not be fans of badge engineering, but it’s their bread and butter. Always has been. Always will be.
And that engine. Oh my. Maybe it was nice in the tin can Cavalier, but in the larger cars like the Grand Prix and Cutlass, it was a complete turd. Only Detroit needs almost 50% more cylinders to produce power on par with your typical Honda. The 2.8L MFI V6 found in the 88 (first-year-of-the-FWD-Grand-Prix and proof-GM-is-pathetic) made just 130hp. Wow. 2.0 L-4 found in the Dodge Neon some years later made 150. Oh well.