Introduction

Cadillac has been known to produce big, luxurious cars with plenty of power, but they decided to take a different direction in 1982 with the release of the Cimarron. The Cimarron was a compact car that aimed to compete in the market with the BMW and Audi. Despite having only a year to design the car, Cadillac managed to produce a compact car that had a lot of features and performance capabilities. In this article, we will examine the Cimarron and explore its design, performance, and features.

Design

The Cimarron shares many parts with the Pontiac and Chevrolet, but the designers and engineers made sure to rearrange the front and rear sheetmetal, redo the interior trim, retune the suspension, and add to the standard equipment list. This resulted in a car that had a good fit and finish, with everything being battened down tightly. The body structure was solid and had a tight-fitting look that was almost on par with the Audi 4000.

Performance

The Cimarron’s suspension consisted of MacPherson struts and an anti-roll bar in the front, with a pair of trailing arms connected by a transverse member, coil springs, and an anti-sway bar in the rear. The engineers specified soft springs to ease the Cimarron over bumps, and the anti-roll bars used were the same as those used on the Pontiac J2000 handling package. The drivetrain consisted of a 1.8-liter, 85-horsepower four-cylinder engine and a four-speed manual transmission, with a three-speed automatic transmission being optional. Despite its small size, the Cimarron was a smooth and quiet 80 mph cruiser, and the large cabin was big enough to seat four adults comfortably.

Features

The Cimarron was well-equipped, with a roomy cabin that had commendable supportive seats for long-distance touring. Cadillac was already aware of the improvements it needed to make and was developing a 2.0-liter fuel-injected four-cylinder engine and a five-speed close-ratio manual transmission for the 1983 model year.

Conclusion

The Cimarron was an unexpected move from Cadillac, but they managed to produce a compact car that had a lot of features and performance capabilities. Despite only having a year to design the car, the Cimarron was well-designed, with a good fit and finish, and had a solid body structure. The Cimarron’s suspension and drivetrain were well-tuned, and the car was a smooth and quiet 80 mph cruiser. With a little polishing, the Cimarron had the potential to become a world-class small sedan, and it was already well on its way with the development of a more powerful engine and a five-speed manual transmission.