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14 Cadillac Cimarron
The Cadillac Cimarron is a notable piece of the puzzle when considering how American manufacturers lost their way in the 1980s. With a debut for the 1982 model year, Cadillac should have chosen to introduce a new car to match the new decade, but instead the marketing team must have overwhelmed the classic American luxury manufacturer’s designers and engineers, because the Cimarron was actually just a Chevy Cavalier with a couple of different badges on it.
Rather than building on the Cavalier’s platform, perhaps upgrading engine options or interior amenities, Cadillac left in a four cylinder engine (their first in a production car since 1914) that displaced less than 2 liters (a first since 1908) paired to a base four speed manual transmission (the first since 1953).
An automatic transmission was optional, though with only three forward speeds. The price tag for a Cimarron was nonetheless thousands of dollars higher than the nearly identical Cavalier, yet Cadillac still tried to market the car as a cheaper and more efficient luxury alternative to offerings from BMW, Volvo, and Saab. In reality, the Cimarron was a more expensive cheap car, rather than a less expensive luxury car – and Cadillac paid the price with significant declines in both sales and consumer confidence.
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