You have the name wrong. You are thinking of the Catera… an Opel Omega with a Caddy badge. The V platform. The taxi driver’s friend!
The Cimarron was based off the small car J platform, the Chevy Cavalier.
Whoops!
Yes, you are right. I was thinking of their Catera abomination, rather than their earlier Cimmaron abomination.
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The Catera was also MUCH nicer than the Cimmaron in so many ways
In europe, the Opel Omega was considered a fine mid-sized car, but definitely not equivalent to an E-class or 5-series
For a big public corporation to design and market a new model, have to get buy-in from a lot of the various corporate managers. Proposal must outline the fixed one-time initial expenses, estimated cost to build, estimated sales price, and predicted future sales volume. Have to wonder where in that process it all went wrong?
Something sort of similar in book car-guys vs bean counters. Innovator (author of book) wanted GM to produce a hybrid car to compete with Toyota Prius. Estimate, it would cost $300 M R&D, cost to build $25,000, estimated selling price $21,000, so GM would lose $4 K on each car they sold. Couldn’t get corporate buy-in on that deal. Author speculates the reason Toyota could do it is b/c Toyota is a semi-private corporation, so owners are willing to lose money on each Prius sold, benefiting the corp only by public image and customer good-will. I wonder if that’s actually the case? i.e. does Toyota lose money on each Prius they sell?
Well, for that matter, most cars of the '80s & '90s were better than the Cimmaron.
Of course! Otherwise, it wouldn’t have been used so often by taxi companies.
I wonder how many clueless Americans realized that they were driving a pimped-up version of a “standard”, much lower-priced car. Probably… not many.
Toyota did lose money on the early Prius. They admitted it. But the Prius became profitable by the second gen cars.
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Definitely not many. It was not a sales success. I spent a LOT of seat time in Cateras and Opel Omegas with our various electronic shock systems under them. Pretty pleasant place to be, actually.
Spent a bit less seat time in Cimarrons. Best of the US J cars. That isn’t saying a lot because the US J cars were crappy.
Both cars were overpriced for what they were.
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You’d think GM managers would understand with a new model intro, they’d lose money on each car sold for the first few years, but then would make it back in later years. Or maybe GM managers will only approve a new model if it makes money on each car sold from nearly day 1.
That is pretty much the idea… maybe not day 1 but you have to show a clear path to positive cash flow and a profit. But all business plans are guesses.
The Fiero was very successful in its first 2 years. After the blown motors and fires, not so much.
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Years ago I was helping a small start-up on a gizmo they planned to invent & market. CEO novice to tech world, so couldn’t understand why it would cost $1 M in R& D before first gizmo was sold. I asked for estimate of predicted sales volume, 100,000 units per year. Explained if profit was $20 on each gizmo, R&D cost paid off in 6 months. CEO: Gee Whiz, that’s remarkable! … lol …
Many years ago my sister in-law taught at Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany. She could buy a US spec car there and ship it home at DoD’s expense. Her father always dreamed of owning a Mercedes Benz sedan. She used her free shipping to buy the yellow C-class that he dreamed of. She didn’t have the heart to tell him that there were a ton of yellow c-class taxis in Germany.
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I always hear that overseas cars tend to be nicer than what we have available here. The J body was never anything special but a lot were sold in their time.
How does it work importing a Euro-spec car? I know it can be done but often they have to be over 25 years old to be exempt from various standards. I guess so many cars these days are designed with a global market in mind so that all the required standards (ABS, airbags, crumple zones, and emissions) are made to comply no matter where the car is sold? Is that how it works with a new car?
A friend of mine used some BMW-deal to combine a pleasure trip to Germany with purchasing a new BMW. She purchased in USA, but picked up the new BMW in Germany, drove around Europe sight-seeing with it, then put in on a boat to ship back to USA. She seemed pretty pleased with the experience, very much in love w/her new BMW. Only problem I noticed, she wouldn’t park it in the parking lot b/c she said the parking lot speed bumps were “too hard” on her new BMW. Same bumps didn’t seem to harm my Corolla. … lol …
Bmw previously offered delivery of a new US spec car in Germany with registration and insurance covered for 2wks included, a choice of drop off locations were available at the end of your trip and the car would be delivered to your BMW dealer. Came with a 5% discount on the MSRP as well.
Main trade off is you pay for the car in full before leaving the US and the warranty starts on day one in Germany. Hasn’t been offered by BMW For a couple years and Mercedes and Audi have stopped offering their programs.
Technically you could import a euro spec car newer than 25yrs old if you go through the federalization process, several companies are in the business but it can cost more money than you’d reasonably want to spend unless you’re importing in bulk. Some vehicles can be brought in as show-and-display that are restricted to 2,500mi a year as part of the loophole that was originally crafted for the Porsche 959.
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