I had the weirdest thought...

"MultiplaOrgasms" (themightymultipla) 01/04/2015 at 07:08 • Filed to: What if.., Thoughts, Cadillac, Cimarron, Opel, Senator

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...in part because of the circumstances under which I had it but that is a story for the adult section of Oppo.

What would have been if the Cimarron by Cadillac™ hadn't been based on the frankly rubbish J-Body, but on the slightly larger rear-wheel-drive V-body instead?

Think about it. What matters in the luxury car market is prestige, which the Cimarron lacked miserably. Cadillac badging isn't worth double the price of a Chevy Cavalier. The basis for a rear-wheel-driven Cadillac to compete directly against european offerings was already there in form of the Opel Senator, which in its home market was already fighting against the Mercedes S-Class. I believe that this could have had some distinct advantages over the J-Body:

a) RWD. If you want prestige, make your car RWD. FWD is most often associated with cheap, uninspired econoshitboxes (does this remind you of something?) while RWD is associated with finely balanced sports sedans as well as top tier racing cars, which brings me to

b) Race Car. In it's earlier incarnations the V-Body enjoyed quite a bit of success in motorsports, most notably the Steinmetz versions of the Commodore A which in its day could give the BMWs and Ford Capris a run for their money, not to mention the successes in Australia that were to follow.

Marketing could have played that card along the lines of "Something something Motorsport, something something beat BMW, something something fast". Speaking of fast...

c) Cadillac Cimarron V. Being RWD there would have been plenty of room for powerful engines, maybe a nice V8 or the Turbo V6 from the Buick Grand National. And if the engineers were doing their homework with the chassis they could have made a brilliant super sedan, maybe even beat BMW to it and invented the genre. Cadillac could have been the benchmark for performance saloons that everyone including BMW was aspiring to beat nowadays.

d) Coupé version. Every decent luxury sedan has a Coupé version. The 5-series has the 6-series, the S-Class the SEC, the RR Silver Shadow the Carmague etc... Thankfully GMs german division thought of that as well.

(Not to be confused with the Chevrolet Monza)

e) Germany. Being based on a german car and platform Cadillac could have used that to their advantage and given the Cimarron another prestige (and probably quality) boost. Also no one in america would have known that the Cimarron was just a rebadge because GM hadn't sold any V-body cars in america before so no one could tell.

This was just a short thought of mine I had while sitting on the throne. You can now give your opinions or go away and do something productive. I'd do the latter.

deekster_caddy > MultiplaOrgasms 01/04/2015 at 07:25

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In the 80's I don't think GM gave any thoughts whatsoever to competing. They were just trying to sell the strange things they were building...

MultiplaOrgasms > deekster_caddy 01/04/2015 at 07:31

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GM were certainly trying to europeanize their lineup. This is why cars like the Seville or the C4 Corvette existed.

pip bip - choose Corrour > MultiplaOrgasms 01/04/2015 at 08:00

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worst part of the Catera was in Europe , as an Opel , they made them with the V8 (gen3) in LHD.

that's something you need to import when the time comes.

MultiplaOrgasms > pip bip - choose Corrour 01/04/2015 at 08:27

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That V8 Omega was only a Prototype though, as the gearboxes kept blowing up because Autobahn yo. 32 were made, all of them are still in posession of Opel.

oldirtybootz > MultiplaOrgasms 01/04/2015 at 08:51

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Solid idea that was still a dud 10 years after the last Cimarron.

oldirtybootz > deekster_caddy 01/04/2015 at 08:58

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This is relevant here

http://ateupwithmotor.com/model-historie…

PS9 > MultiplaOrgasms 01/04/2015 at 09:08

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It still would have been a piece of crap. Caddy was scrapping the bottom of the barrel back then, and GM management was busy running the place into the ground.

PS9 > deekster_caddy 01/04/2015 at 09:09

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They were just fullfilling their role in the Benjamin Rolland prophecy, making sure he would have plenty of chariots to choose from after he came into being.

jariten1781 > MultiplaOrgasms 01/04/2015 at 09:27

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Nah...RWD didn't equal prestige in that time period. Shitboxes like the Chevette, Starlet, Gremlin, etc etc were all RWD while Rivieras, Eldorados, etc. were FWD. The RWD = prestige thing came along after the Japanese blitzed the market with really good but very cheap FWD cars and the American companies started making shitty copies of them.

Also, Cadillac wasn't the sport luxury marque for GM at that time. They we're the boulevard cruiser market. GM's BMW competitor was ostensibly Pontiac.

Anyhow the solution to GM's addiction to badge engineering in the 80s and 90s wasn't more badge engineering.

MultiplaOrgasms > PS9 01/04/2015 at 10:40

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Fair point.

 > PS9 01/04/2015 at 10:41

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Yup, it still would've been completely Rubbish.

shop-teacher > MultiplaOrgasms 01/04/2015 at 11:21

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Could have been great, and I like the idea a lot ... But GM probably would've screwed that up too.

MultiplaOrgasms > jariten1781 01/04/2015 at 11:26

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You see, I was looking at the subject from my own slightly european point of view. By 1980 RWD had become a thing of the larger vehicles over here with most compact cars having adopted FWD by the end of the 1970s. Small-ish RWD cars were already seen as dinosaurs back then. I presume that due to the different development of the car industries of america and europe after WW2 FWD was still seen as something revolutionary in america, previously being reserved for high end cars like the Eldorado and Toronado.

The Stig's Rustbelt Cousin > MultiplaOrgasms 01/04/2015 at 12:13

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It's an intriguing idea, though there are several flaws, which I shall point out:

1) Cost. Which is the reason why they tried to turn a Cavalier into a Cadillac in the first place. By the time they federalized the Opel and used pictures to teach the workers over here how to assemble it, it would not be affordable. Furthermore, the Opel was built from European parts, so figure in additional time to get the supply chains set up over here, or ship the parts from over there, which would increase the cost even more.

2) FWD. In the early 80s, FWD was a selling point for the average buyer in this country. Most cars had such sloppy chassis setups and steering that the drive wheels didn't make a difference. Buyers wanted FWD for better traction in bad weather, and car makers were only too happy to build FWD cars, because they were cheaper to make.

3) Mentality. This is Old GM we're talking about, where each division was its own little fiefdom, ruled by managers who fiercely defended their territories and budgets. I promise you, no US division of GM wanted anything to do with selling a car that the European division had designed and engineered. These are the same people who were resistant to using one 350 V8 engine for the entire company, instead of 5 slightly different 350 V8s, designed by 5 different divisions.

4) Quality. Opel could compete with Mercedes, but there was no way that the UAW assembly quality of the 1980s could come anywhere near the same level.

5) Bureaucracy. I'm willing to bet that some middle manager had the same idea back then, adn tried to make it happen, and did, but by the time the slow-moving GM behemoth got it to market, it was the Cadillac Catera, which then hobbled with a terrible ad campaign.

deekster_caddy > MultiplaOrgasms 01/04/2015 at 18:15

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Huh. I guess after some reading material has been pointed out to me what you say is true, but not being aware of it at the time (teenage years) I would never have guessed that's what they were trying to do.

pip bip - choose Corrour > MultiplaOrgasms 01/05/2015 at 07:02

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i thought they made more and sold a few.

MultiplaOrgasms > pip bip - choose Corrour 01/05/2015 at 07:03

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Nope, just prototypes.