9th Mar 2006, 22:19

The Cimarron was Cadillac's biggest mistake? What about the defective aluminum engine they used in the early-to-mid 80's? (BTW, What was up with that idea anyway? Wouldn't you think that Cadillac would have learned from the generally horrible early 70's Chevy Vegas, that also had an aluminum engine?)

10th Mar 2006, 16:13

True, the HT4100 was pretty troublesome, but the 4500 and the 4900, essentially improved, larger versions of the 4100 have proved to be quite reliable.

11th Mar 2006, 08:29

Just to be clear here, the Cimarron is not a tarted up Cavalier, it is a tarted up "X" car which included the Omega, Citation, Skylark, and Phoenix.

They were all horrible junk as my parents had a 1980 Skylark that had so many problems they bought a new Camry and never bought American again.

If you happen to have a Cimarron that actually works you are one of the lucky ones.

19th Mar 2006, 19:22

Actually, the Cimarron is exactly a "tarted-up" Cavalier. It was spawned from the then-new GM J-body platform in 1981, along with the Olds Firenza, Buick Skyhawk, Pontiac J2000 (later Sunbird) and the aforementioned Cavalier. You may check any published history of Cadillac to confirm this. Of course, the J-cars used lots of parts from the X-cars, so the previous poster is sort-of right, but not really.

21st Jul 2006, 17:03

FYI: It is true that the Cimarron is heavily derived from the Chevy Cavalier, but once you consider that the Cavalier was the most popular car in America during the mid-eighties, I suppose one would have to conclude that the Cimarron has excellent lineage!!!

16th Nov 2007, 23:35

Hello I own a cadillac cimarron I love the car and will never trade it for any car. I never have owned a car that was as reliable as my cimarron. it never failed me and I'm proud to say it is one nice car. I own a 1985 cimarron and will keep it until I die or at least try to.

7th May 2009, 02:16

Wish I still had my little caddy. 87 Cimarron 2.8L with 5spd manual. Was really quick, especially after I put a beefier cam, injectors, and intake on it. All in all was an excellent car, got it used at 37k miles and sold it at 190k miles all the stuff still worked in it. The only things I had to replace on it other than performance parts was an alternator and thermostat. Digital dash in it did have a short of some kind and would blink on and off occasionally, but even that wasn't so bad.

19th Jan 2011, 22:01

Buick is making the same mistake as Cadillac did with the Cimarron. Their new model -- I can't remember the name -- will be a four cylinder luxury version based on the Cruze. I don't know who they are trying to market this car to. It has bad idea written all over it.

20th Jan 2011, 10:16

It will be called the Verano. I read about it on Motortrend. If you go to NetCarShow.com, they have quite a few large photos of the exterior and interior.

22nd Jun 2012, 21:58

Buick is actually NOT making a mistake with the Verano like Cadillac did (waaaayyy back in the 80's) with the Cimmaron. The Cadillac Cimmaron was a Sunbird with a lot of options. The car was NOT re-engineered, it was badge branding.

The Buick Verano is NOT a Chevy Cruze with Buick badging. The Verano shares only the architecture (space frame) of the Cruze. The styling (the two cars share NO body panels), suspension, interior, several amenities and additions of quiet tuning and double insulated glass are exclusive to the Verano. It is distinctively Buick.