The Cadillac Cimarron has finally come of age. This small sport/luxury four-door sedan no longer looks like something left as an afterthought on Cadillac's doorstep by General Motors. And now, too, it has performance to match the European sport sedans GM considers its competition. Quite a neat trick - but it should be noted that it took more than three years to pull it off.
Based on the GM's J-car, the Cimarron made its entrance in 1982 as the small car in the Cadillac lineup. The rationale, at the time, went like this: If people are willing to spend lots of money on small upscale American car? The idea was sound - after all, everybody else eventually got into the act - and the original Cimarron was certainly a worthwhile alternative. But it was never really taken seriously by those in its intended market. One of the big reasons was, nodoubt, that it was too closely associated with the Chevy Cavalier, which, in typical GM clone designing, it did resemble strongly.
