Final Parking Space: 1982 Cadillac Cimarron

Since this series is all about automotive history, we can’t be afraid to shy away from the vehicles that stir controversy. We’ve already seen such polarizing discarded machines as the Chevrolet Corvair, the Edsel, the Pontiac Fiero, the Ford Mustang II, the Audi 5000, and the Cadillac Allanté. Today we’ll be taking a look at the vehicle most likely to enrage Cadillac purists today: a first-year Cimarron, found in a Colorado Springs car graveyard last year.

The path that led to the Cimarron began in the middle 1970s, when GM developed the Cadillac Seville. This car was derived from GM’s compact X Platform, and despite the Seville’s chassis having benefited from extensive modifications, it was still a close relative of the proletariat-grade Chevy Nova. Plenty of Cadillac buyers didn’t worry about that association, however, and the Seville was a sales hit.

For the 1980 model year, the Seville moved to a front-wheel-drive platform derived from the one under the Toronado/Riviera/Eldorado. That left the Cadillac Division without a fuel-efficient compact model, just in time for the oil crisis caused by the Iranian revolution.

But wait! A family of front-wheel-drive small cars was being developed for use on the new J Platform. This would be the Chevrolet Cavalier and its siblings from Pontiac, Oldsmobile, and Buick (the J2000, Firenza, and Skyhawk, respectively), to hit the street as 1981 models.

It seemed to make sense to add a Cadillac-badged J-Car, and the Cimarron debuted as a 1982 model.

The biggest problem with the Cimarron was obvious at a glance: It looked distressingly similar to the Cavalier. For 1982, the list price of a new Cimarron was $12,181, while a 1982 Chevy Cavalier sedan started at a mere $7137 (those figures come to $41,034 and $24,042 after inflation).

And while the 1976-1979 Sevilles got Oldsmobile V-8s not available in the Chevy Nova, the 1982 Cimarron had exactly the same engine as the Cavalier: a 1.8-liter pushrod straight-four rated at 88 horsepower and 100 pound-feet. This was the first Cadillac model with four-banger power since 1914.

The base transmission in the first-year Cimarron was a four-speed manual, the first three-pedal Cadillac since 1950. This car has the optional three-speed automatic, which cost $370 ($1246 in 2025 dollars).

Bigger engines (including a 2.8-liter V-6) came in later Cimarrons, along with a five-speed manual.

The Cimarron’s interior was much nicer than the Cavalier’s, with leather seats and standard air conditioning.

But still, it wasn’t European enough to woo young buyers away from Audis, Saabs, and BMWs. And it was too Cavalier-ish to appeal to “traditional” Cadillac buyers.

The Cimarron stuck around through 1988, with more than 130,000 sold. Its legacy has been mostly negative, despite the J-Body becoming a tremendous, decades-long global success story for GM. Dan Neil included the Cimarron in his famous 50 Worst Cars of All Time list, blasting it as “everything that was wrong, venal, lazy and mendacious about GM in the 1980s.”

Personally, I think putting Cadillac badges on Chevy Suburbans was a greater violation of Cadillac tradition than putting them on Chevy Cavaliers, but that’s just me.

You’ll need driving gloves to get the most out of your Cimarron!

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