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Junkyard Gem: 1983 Cadillac Cimarron

Ah, the Cadillac Cimarron. Conceived during a time when oil prices were zooming upward and smallish luxury imports such as the Datsun 810 and BMW 320i were stealing Detroit's customers, the idea of a fuel-efficient compact Cadillac made sense. Unfortunately for GM, the Cimarron was an image-tarnishing disaster. Here's a fairly well-preserved '83 that I spotted in a Phoenix self-service wrecking yard. In the words of Pulitzer-winning Dan Neil in his 50 Worst Cars of All Time: "Everything that was wrong, venal, lazy and mendacious about GM in the 1980s was crystallized in this flagrant insult to the good name and fine customers of Cadillac." The Cimarron was a Chevrolet Cavalier with a bit of added bling and a fatter price tag. The Chevrolet Nova-based Cadillac Seville had sold pretty well during the late 1970s, so there was precedent for a small, Chevy-based Cadillac. The hood latch mechanism was broken (of course), so I couldn't shoot any photos of this car's 2.0-liter pushrod four-cylinder engine, rated at 86 horsepower. Here's a GM-produced documentary touting the futuristic design of the '83 Cimarron. The Cimarron Dream. Featured Gallery Junked 1983 Cadillac Cimarron View 12 Photos Auto News Cadillac Economy Cars Classics Sedan

Crowd lifts Cadillac to free pedestrian after two vehicles barrel toward him

An elderly Missourian is lucky to be alive today after a car that had pinned him to the ground was lifted off him by witnesses. According to WDAF, Orlando Gentry and Troy Robertson were working at a Kansas City, Mo., clothing store when a stolen minivan careened through a red light at 35th and Prospect and was immediately T-boned by a woman driving a gold Cadillac. The impact drove both vehicles up onto the sidewalk at the corner, side by side, directly at pedestrian Carlos Green. "We was out here with our kids, and we was at work, and the next thing we heard was a boom!" Gentry told WDAF. "Man, those cars came out of nowhere, and Carlos was just helpless," Robertson said. Gentry tried to escape but was caught between the vehicles and pinned beneath the Caddy. Then a light pole punctuated the crash by falling on top of the Caddy - and almost on top of Carlos Green. "Yeah, he tried to jump out of the way, but he just got pinned underneath the Cadillac. He definitely hurt his right leg. When I saw all that, I screamed, 'Somebody help me help get this car off Carlos,'" Robertson said. He, Gentry and passersby lifted the heavy Caddy off Green so he could crawl free. Thankfully, Green wasn't seriously injured. He was discharged from an area hospital bruised, with one leg in a cast, but ultimately healthy. The woman driving the Cadillac was unhurt, but the two men driving the minivan ran off during the confusion. Kansas City police are looking for the escaped car thieves. This is the second time in as many weeks that people banded together to lift a car off someone. On May 9 in Philadelphia, a group of good Samaritans lifted an SUV off a little girl who had been run down and pinned beneath an SUV tire. Related Video:

de Nysschen pushes to separate Cadillac, GM

Cadillac President Johan de Nysschen continues his push to separate his brand from General Motors. After controversially picking up shop and moving to New York's trendy SoHo neighborhood, de Nysschen has now gone on record as saying that within two years, the brand will enjoy "a far higher degree of autonomy and self sufficiency." That autonomy will include the brand reporting its own financial results, independent of GM. But what would such a move do for Cadillac? Well, as de Nysschen explained it to Automotive News, "Cadillac at this state makes a very sizeable contribution to the overall profit at General Motors." If that's truly the case, separating financial announcements serves to emphasize the prosperous character de Nysschen seems so keen on attaching to his brand. But that's only one phase of Cadillac's push to distance itself from GM. De Nysschen is eager to revamp the company's dealership model so that it stands out from other GM brands, calling it a "very profound focus." Those moves, according to AN, including a change to the current dealer incentive model with a particular emphasis on building the brand rather than nailing sales figures. "If you aren't strengthening the brand perception, you should have less reward," de Nysschen told AN. While his goals seem clear, de Nysschen's statements have left us wondering whether they're also somewhat counterintuitive. Emphasizing Caddy's prosperity to potential consumers while incentivizing dealers to move less metal seems more like a tactical move rather than a strategic one. And there's no telling how the new dealership model will impact de Nysschen's goal to hit 500,000 global sales by 2020. Related Video: