1987 Cadillac Cimarron: Regular Car Reviews

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It's a 1987 Cadillac Cimarron review! In this week's episode of Regular Car Reviews, we'll go into why the Cadillac Cimarron has a reputation as the worst car ever made, and why it represents one of GM's biggest failures. The 1987 Cadillac Cimarron we're reviewing is an interesting piece of automotive history, so we'll go over all the details in classic RCR style, including getting behind the wheel and showing you what the driving experience is all about. Is this car really as bad as its reputation? Or could it be a surprise gem? Check out our review of the 1987 Cadillac Cimarron!

[jimw]

The fact that a 35 year old cassette plays so well in a 35 year old delco head unit is impressive.

[expansivegymnast]

That widow impression was way too spot on. Also Jerome totally had another family in Vietnam.

[dforrest]

The most impressive thing about this is the lack of rust on a 35 year old J body.

[beauleidig]

As someone who owned an 84 Cavalier, I can confirm that this is absolutely the same car with different badges and leather seats. GM seriously did not give a shit in the 80's, and then had the nerve to wonder how Toyota and Honda surpassed them in the 90's.

[grantcrockett]

All through elementary and middle school, my best friend's grandmother "always wanted a Cadillac" but couldn't afford it. When her husband died, she finally bought her first Cadillac with the life-insurance money in 1984. I about fell off my chair laughing after you said "widows" as the first category for Cimarron buyers.

[_zigzak]

The “don’t run the engine in the red part of the tachometer” tells you everything about the people who bought these

[Blippity_Bloop]

A friend of mine was shopping for a used car back around 2000. The salesman said, "I have just the car for you", and directed us to a lemon yellow Cimarron. I must admit that, body-wise, it was pretty flawless. It was definitely the "widow" car. This thing even had matching yellow floor mats. My friend wasn't knowledgeable on cars, but my first words were, "Oh God, no." The salesman saw my face and knew this wasn't going any further.

[RobDucharme]

When I saw this vid come up, I was like, I knew this would be gold. I'm familiar with the reputation of this car through automotive folklore.

Cadillac had a bad reputation in my family. My dad bought a used 1978 Fleetwood sometime in 1988, as he had just become a realtor and it was a good people mover for showing houses in style (kinda). It had a massive engine (it was the 425). Damn thing could nearly chirp tires on the highway. But it had seen a rough life by the time he got it, and it was as reliable as a politician. In 1990 he traded up to a 1988 Fleetwood. You'd think, "Well then, that would have been a quality and reliability boost eh?" no. By 1992 it had what was described as a floppy piston (that's my recollection as a kid). He took it to the local GM dealer. They said they'd take a look (it would take a few days). Meanwhile they gave him a Pontiac Firefly as a courtesy car, after they had originally agreed that if he bought this car, as a realtor he would need a mid-size sedan as a loaner for when he got oil changes or any work done. So that was strike one. His office was right down the road, so when they called him to say it was ready to go, he drove onto the lot and did what I probably would have done (he had already lost some trust with these guys), and check the tires. He had marked them to see if they even moved the car from where it was parked. It hadn't moved. Someone probably got in, started it, shrugged, and said it was fine. I kinda doubt they had handheld diagnostic devices back then. You generally had to pull the car into a bay and do it there.

So into the service department he marched. Our neighbour, a Brit with the stereotypical name Mick, worked there. Super great guy. He only worked on foreign and exotics (I one got to sit in a 1976 Lotus Esprit that was parked in his driveway - that was rad). He saw my dad coming in hot and quickly exited stage left (I don't think he even worked there for much longer, mostly out of disgust). My dad chucked a wobbler and probably ruined the day of a few people. That became strikes two and three.

Side story on the Firefly "courtesy" car: While stewing in the driver seat of that go-cart with doors, he drove to the Ford dealer. There was a 1992 Lincoln TownCar parked on the lot. It had 100 or so km's on it. Basically brand new given that some new cars on a lot will get test driven enough times to get to that point. Well, this wasn't that. It had been owned by an elderly guy who probably drove it to church a dozen times and then he up and passed away, so the car returned. This of course meant it had to sell at a discount, and my dad was there for it. The dealership, looking at his Firefly situation, offered to let him use the TownCar as his surrogate courtesy car (that's such a hilarious power move, by the way). He would buy that car shortly after. It became the car he owned the longest out of any car, and he had gone through many. I think he had it from 1992 until 2006 when he traded it for a 2005 TownCar.

I don't normally write comments this friggin' long, but I thought it was a fun story to tell.

[amerigo]

Mercedes S class 1987, "When a Mercedes was a Mercedes."
Cadillac Cimarron 1987, "When a Cadillac was a Chevy."

[heu]

I'm old, but I remember this car like it was yesterday. My good friend's family owned a Cadillac/Oldsmobile dealership in eastern PA. His mother got a brand new Cimarron every year starting in 1983 through 1988. I recall quite well all of the rides to his house on the buttery leather, impressed by the Cadillac badge, looking forward to time in his pool with his older sister looking after us. What caught me off guard was when my aunt picked me up in her brand new '87 Cavalier and the 10 year old me came to the realization that GM was full of shit.

[regularjim]

Best part about the Cimarron: No worse than a Cavalier.
Worst part about the Cimarron: No better than a Cavalier.

More disappointing than bad.

[brianp]

"affluenza ridden peasants thirsty to drink from life's pimp cup" Sometimes you turn a phrase so well I have to rewind multiple times just to appreciate how good it is

[Roofgeese]

As someone who works in the car business, that conversation with Janet was painfully real. How dare you lol

[dgw]

My dad had the 5-speed manual Cimarron. He adored it. Everyone else hated it. Really reliable. Far more reliable than the 5 Northstar STS he bought after it. He then sold it to my uncle. My uncle gave it to his son. I learned how to drive stick on a Cimarron.

[dragonknight]

OMG! I remember my neighbor bringing home his new "Caddy Cimarron" and he was soooo my sister had just bought a new Cavalier that looked suspiciously just like it, it was hilarious! It was so hard not to laugh every time we saw

Happy Belated Birthday Roman!

[BrianSiskind]

"scale model of hopelessness" - possibly my favorite RCR line ever.

[RHTeebs]

My grandma had one of these. My grandpa bought it for her birthday back in '88. He passed in '92 from a heart attack.

But, my grandma is 82, and still going.

One time, when we were sitting in the garage, she told me how often she would take the car for a ride around the lake. Then, she walked over to her current car, (2015 Chevy Trax, ) and she opened the trunk. She pulled out the last remaining thing from that old Cadillac: one of the floor mats.

Now, she uses it as a trunk mat to put boxes of plants on top of, when she visits my grandfather's grave.

[pbase]

Has there ever been a feature in ANY car with as cool a name as "Twilight Sentinel"?
Other than that, I like the look of this car. It looks cheap but clean, like it's wearing a Burlington Coat Factory suit that was fitted by their in-house tailor.

[mx_nana_banana]

I love these bad 80s cars, they’re just so weird.

[davedelarosa]

I cannot get enough of the audio on the tape. It's such a perfect time capsule of what corporate America believed spoke to 51st and higher percentile. It also syncs so well with a lot of the audio cranked out by Disney at the early years of EPCOT Center (a different obsession of mine) which again was such a target of the 51st+ er's.