Its sorta funny that the 86 would get the title for the worst
eldog ...Emblems and cadillac aside the cars are really fasincateing from a mechanical standpoint.
At the time the car was a pretty smart move when GM began its devlopment. GM got caught with its trousers about the ankles in the early 70s dureing the first gas crunch. In the early 80s gas prices were riseing to a point that when adjusted for inflation has only recently been topped. Id imagine GM was trying to get the crystal ball working and gambeled that prices wouldnt fall back down. Chrysler and Ford were stuck with what they had. Chrysler would ride the K car and Ford would wing it on the EFI setup they had but still use pretty large cars. GM had alot of money and devlopment time in the citation and j car. It prolly made good sense to use some of those lensons learned and build a smaller line of Cadillacs and hope that gas prices wouldnt fall back down. Cadillac would have had the market cornered. And with all the money wrapped up in the 4.1 there couldnt have been any turning back without going to a non cadillac engine.
The cars are neat , but by 1986 prices fell , and the car was ready ....the gamble failed ...They could have Swichted Edorado to a 2 door caprice type deal or maybe made it an F body ...Most likely that could have been the only way to keep eldorado current and not loose a ton of money ...
The stuff is desinged and invested into 6-10 years before it hits the showroom floor ...