Junkyard Find: 1986 Cadillac Cimarron

Murilee Martin
by Murilee Martin

When will Cadillac’s long Cimarron nightmare be over? You’d think that the Caddy-badged Chevy Cavalier would be just a bad memory, but no— actual real-world examples of Cimarrons keep popping up all over the country! In this series, we’ve seen this ’82, this ’82, this ’83 Cimarron d’Oro, and now I’ve found this white ’86.

Starting with the 1985 model year, Cimarron buyers could have an optional 2.8-liter V6 engine. Yes, the same engine that was optional in the Fiero.

This car is a super-rare 4-speed model. Yes, even lowly Toyota Tercels came with 5-speeds in 1986, but the original purchaser of this car felt no need for that extra gear.

MSRP of the ’86 Cimarron was $13,838, or a few hundred bucks more than a brand-new Nissan Maxima. Meanwhile, the nearly identical ’86 Cavalier coupe with V6 cost just $7,316.

The last owner must have been a big Catan fan.

Smaller dreams. That’s for sure.








Murilee Martin
Murilee Martin

Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.

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  • MaintenanceCosts It's not a Benz or a Jag / it's a 5-0 with a rag /And I don't wanna brag / but I could never be stag
  • 3-On-The-Tree Son has a 2016 Mustang GT 5.0 and I have a 2009 C6 Corvette LS3 6spd. And on paper they are pretty close.
  • 3-On-The-Tree Same as the Land Cruiser, emissions. I have a 1985 FJ60 Land Cruiser and it’s a beast off-roading.
  • CanadaCraig I would like for this anniversary special to be a bare-bones Plain-Jane model offered in Dynasty Green and Vintage Burgundy.
  • ToolGuy Ford is good at drifting all right... 😉
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