Here’s how the Cadillac Catera failed with a little help from a cartoon bird named Ziggy 

Yeah... Pontiac aztek, Chevy sonic, Chevy spark, Chevy trailblazer, Chevy trax, Pretty sure the HHR, Cobalt, encore, and Verano can fit somewhere on that list.

When did GM something logical the past 30 years? They left the second biggest car market (Europe) in the world because they missed the boat completly on the changing European market! GM Europe (Opel Vauxhall Saab) made till mid 90's affordable reliable sturdy blue collar family cars and also a big profit due to a 32% marketshare. Quality declined rapidly due to cost cutting on quality and going "premium" (less for higher price) for GM's shareholders Sales plumeted and they sold of SAAB first and later had to sell the remaining GM Europe division to PSA to stop the huge financial bleeding. The irony is that the year after the sale to PSA the former GM Europe division made a profit again! It looks like a few high placed GM managers in the US did illegal things for personal reasons and had cooked the books.

It’s almost though as if the people responsible for advertising work for congress! Out of touch and no understanding of pop culture.

Back in the mid 2000's when Chrysler and Ford were making boatloads of cash selling retro looking Chargers and Mustangs like hotcakes, GM refused to follow the trend claiming "Retro doesn't sell."

Maybe they shouldn't make the car equivalent of white and blocky boomer sneakers.

Sad they killed the CTS off. 😔

It's how caddy renamed all their cars DTS is the DeVille STS is the Seville.

@@deeacosta2734 they didn’t. It’s called the ct5 now. Why do people let names fool them?

Catera CTS... cateracts 🤣

What did DTS stand for? Deville Touring Sedan

GM had abandoned serious development of new models for the long run at the time to fit a particular market segment. They could have developed an entire new platform for Catera to help it compete against Mercedes & the like, but it seems as if they just stayed with the old shared platform plan that created the 1988 Grand Prix, Buick Regal, Chevy Lumina and Olds Cutlass and then went out for a 3 martini lunch.

the oil cooler leaking into the coolant caused catastrophic engine failure on at 5 that I have seen.

well, that was the whole problem: it was a perfectly adequate car ... but it was marketed and priced as an exciting upscale luxury sport sedan. And it just wasn't. It wasn't really a lemon or anything -- it just wasn't a "Cadillac" in any way other than the badge.

@@thh420 earning the name Craptera.

That's why it was made into a coupe, & rebranded as the Pontiac GTO for '04. Dropping the brand new LS1 engine in it, mated up to a Tremec T-56 manual gearbox. Thus paving the way for the return of the Camaro in '09.

this is absolutely hilarious

Why you write “checks” like “cheques”?

@@brentenjs550 they’re in Canada.

It truly was. It just needed to be taken care of otherwise problems would hunt you. I had one what was previously abused. 2000 facelift with 2.5 V6 automatic.

@@Mike81111 I had a Cavalier with that engine. Smooth motor.

@@Steve-gc5nt Oh yes it was smoot and had very nice performance.

@@Mike81111 It did snap a Cambelt one time but happily didn't damage the engine further!

Got a GLS estate 2.5 manual with 30,000 on it. Fuel economy through floor with E10 fuel and it hasn't come back with a move to super unleaded. Going to have to service it I think. Big cars in UK, considered tiny in America. Love it 😁

👍

Yo tengo el 99y siempre me lo chuliaron y a la fecha me lo siguen chuliando saludos

This is just my opinion but Just about every GM from around 1977ish until their BK was garbage from my mechanic opinion. That being said they had a few wins during that 30 year span like the TPI small block, the 700r4 trans, the LS V8, and the first rendition of the Saturn SL1 and SL2 ... But then they blunder after blunder, their fit and finish took Cadillac from quite possibly the best mass produced luxury car to mundane junk, the Northstar ate head gaskets like clock work, the "spider" injection on all the LT1 small blocks and 4.3 Vsux would crack, the 4l60e trans that replaced the 700r4 was underbuilt, the escalade clearly looked like a rebadged Tahoe, Their Pontiac fiero caught fire, their firebird became a camero with pop up headlights, their Impala went from a full zize beast of a car to a mundane front driver rental car/metermaid car, their Corvette got some weird 4+3 automatic thing... I could go on and on all I know is for 30+ years they lost market share and went from the largest company in the automotive world to a bankrupt company that messed up almost everything they got ahold of, from Saab to hummer, to Vauxhall to even the very innovative for the time EV1 (they designed and engineered a car that was great with rave reviews and they killed it and destroyed almost every one they leased.. dumb). But yet every executive got bonus on top of bonus on top of bonus when they all should have been fired then they had the nerve to beg for a bailout. That is how I see GM. To this day I won't buy any of thier cars that are newer then around 1972 because the quality just isn't there that being said I don't have a lot of experience with the post 2010 era but they lest such a bad taste in my mouth I don't think I would ever buy one and I am a American car nut.

That’s OPEL OMEGA in Europe. Both Opel Omega and Cadillac Catera are shipped to Russia. The Catera also have an adapter for European sized Russian licence plates on rear bumper.

@@AtomicReverend I agree completely. And the post 2010 era is still junk. Go watch on the Car Wizard channel. GM 3.6 V6 are garbage and their transmissions are still rubbish. The trucks are ok at times I guess, as long as you don't get one with the Cylinder deactivation time bomb

Opel Omega in continental Europe.

That is very true. That being said I find I funny that the VT was so much better than the Catera and Omega. My Supercharged V6 VT S was/is still one of my favourite cars that I’ve owned. I’ve also owned a VY Series 2 SS though the transmission and motor I found didn’t work very well together and it was more sluggish than it should of been, same with my 05 Lumina wagon and the VY and VZ just didn’t haven’t the same aura as the VT did I feel. Overall the VT/VX/VY/VZ we’re very good cars that put Holden on the world map. It’s a shame that the GFC in 08 and the big wigs in America canned Holden from properly selling the VE and VF into America and making a whole bunch of cars on the Zeta platform. If that had happened Holden may still have been here in Australia today. I also think it’s shame that we never got to see Cadillac here in Australia. Maybe just maybe there’s a hope they bring the CT4 and CT5 to Australia under GMSV.

@Stuart Roberts I wonder why they didn't use the Holden VT Commodore instead?

@@watershed44 The stupid big wigs in America.

@@watershed44 It's a shame, really. The Commodore would have made more sense to suit US tastes as if was bigger and arguably better. The later VE and VF cars which went stateside were such good cars, criminally underappreciated.

@@watershed44 during development the Holden was to have an American version for Buick (XP2000). When cancelled late in the program the LHD conversion would be used later for the Pontiac GTO revival

You're avid Scientific Research will be lauded in all of Fin-dom!! Lol.. Very interesting, friend!

In America, we find European ideas of what constitutes a big car as “humorous”.

@@reidboggs4344 I'm German and I agree with you guys.

@@reidboggs4344 Same here in europe with your "compact" and "small" cars.

@@Random-nf7qb Good one.

Remember the Vauxhall Cavalier of the 1980s? In USA it was a Chevrolet Cavalier and was considered a compact sedan.

Thats cool. Its not usless.. typical gm.. using parts from other cars..why cant caddy just be on its own.. all new everything just for caddy. Noone else..

Alot of those ups vans use headlights from an oldsmobile alero

@@ScrotieJohnson yup. The wienermobile I mentioned earlier used Pontiac Grand Am headlights as well.

@@charlietuna350 They were very unreliable

I had the 1995 SAAB 9000 CDE and it was a far superior car to this. I believe it listed for $40K and I got a whopping $10K off sticker! 12 speaker Clarion sound system, heated seats, the GM Opel V6, headlight washer/wipers, sunroof, yellow fog lamps, rear fog lamps, ... A really nice car , all black.

What other crappy Chevy from the period..? The Cavalier from late 90's was a home run for the brand, so was the Malibu, and the Impala SS from 1996, and the F-Body Camaro... I'm assuming you never drove any of those cars and you're just talking out of your ass

Adam, the Catera was not a low-quality car; it wasn't a step down in terms of quality. It was a step down in terms of style and perceived prestige.

You folks can defend 90's GM (and Cadillac, and the Catera) all you like, but your Fanboy is showing. As I said, the Catera looks generic to me and very "un-Cadillac". It doesn't have the styling cues that scream "luxury" to me like every other Cadillac has had. No way in hell was this car worth the equivalent of 50k today when you could get a Mercedes, BMW, etc., for the same price or not much more; an opinion borne out by how few folks bought one. On top of all of this, It was not a high-quality vehicle that could stand against similarly priced offerings from other makers. That's a fact. Don't call me ignorant for pointing out the flaws in a car you happen to like. P.S. - just because a car sells well, does not make it a success. No matter how many Malibu's Chevy managed to sell, they're still a big old box of suck, IMHO.

@@LNSLateNightSaturday Hmmm, well I do know that Mercedes and BMW also are Mysteriously rumoured to have a service department as well. Listen, ALL vehicles have faults, and all need service. And when service time comes around, you better have a good chunk of spare change in the checkbook to cover the costs on the imports. I had a few and thank God they were always new and under warranty. That's how the rich fucks do it. Lease it so it's always under warranty. A Suburban or Tahoe is a hell of a lot less to service than a Range Rover.

*Pony cars. Australia has never had muscle cars, they've had pony cars and sports cars. Muscle cars are uniquely American phenomema. The only muscle car in production right now is the V8 Challenger; Charger, Camaro and Mustang are all pony cars.

I miss the Justy.

I loved the Starion. I was a kid when it was new, and thought it had a cool spacey sounding name. It wasn't until decades later I found out that it was simply a poor Japanese attempt at pronouncing Stallion.

I drove a 3.0 liter 24v for a couple of years, was a really nice car. Comfy, more then fast enough, even on the autobahn. Did like it's petrol though lol.

In Brazil they were sold as Chevrolets from 1992 (1993 model year) till 2011. Man, those were THE cars. They still hold many fans. There were (or still is, Idk since I left Brazil) a Omega Club were owners reunions throughout the year in different states. I was one crazy about this car, unfortunately I was financially to young to afford one at that time. For those whose aim comfort and a reasonable powerhouse without fuel economy concern, it is still a nice car to have.

@@baronvonlimbourgh1716 yeah, the Omega engines were all quite thirsty. Even the base 2.0 I had averaged about 10-11l/100km

@@martinlutz5446 When you put small engine into heavy car you get worse mileage than with bigger engine because it struggles to move it and has to rev higher.

@@martinlutz5446 it was a heavy car, that made it thirsty no matter what engine i think, and automatics always where less fuel efficient.. Still was very happy with it though, and not the thirstiest car i've owned by a long shot lol.

Holy shyt same here same color same experience same year 😂

This. A Cadillac should waft you to your destination. I have no idea why GM decided to constantly try and out-German the Germans since the CTS. They'll always be second rate 3/5 Series or E/C Class.

When caddy dropped the big RWD cars, the Cadillac buyer went right over to decked out Suburbans. Cadillac caught on quick and made the Escalade. Mainly the only thing now keeping them alive

Everybody does? We live in an age of different preferences.

Today you can have both a relaxing ride and a sporty ride in the same car with adaptive suspensions. Land yachts are nice to look at, but were unsafe resource hogs.

@@kkal1183 I've yet to see a modern car that's had that soft of ride and I've owned Lexus vehicles and still not that soft of ride. I bought a used 96 town car and the ride was very smooth

So crazy even MP's woke from their sleep to debate why it needed to be so fast. Then they went back to sleep.

The Catera was RWD tho

@@indiekiddrugpatrol3117 I guess so. I was just comparing the 2 as they were both on similar segments of the market. Heck being FWD would be an plus for the Sable as isn't that what people want in cars these days? RWD seemed kinda old hat in 1995-1996.

The sable and taurus had a terrible ride and the transmissions were prone to fail! We had a 96 3.0 gs

Damn

Catera was at least rwd and way better looking :D

Same as the VT Commodore that was a longer version of this and also like the Omega, The VT is one of Australia’s greatest cars ever and in V8 performance models was nearly as good as an M3 or M5 (obviously not the same or as good but I think you know what I mean), but the VT was basically the poor or working class man’s BMW.

any european car from that era was not better or worst than the catera, they were all very bad, we had the gto and the g8 from aussies which those were very bad cars too, the catera was my first car, entirely european, extremely unreliable

@@retrocompaq5212 You’re a clown. The GTO or known in Australia as the Monaro and the G8 are some very fine cars and some of Australia’s best ever.

But very shiny and glitzy.

Coming from Michael "Chevy" Cavalier? lol j/k .. In my time, I always understood it as the way Mr. My Old Car said it.

Always knew “the Toyota of” anything would be as much fun as a toaster.

@@michaeljordan6008 Slam Dunk Right there!!! lmao!!!

@@michaeljordan6008 The 2nd generation Supra '82-'86 was fun! But that was back when Toyota was considered weird. Not Subaru weird....but yah, weird.

I consider myself a car guy and pretty knowledgeable about all the different brands and models, but when the Catera first hit the market even I had a difficult time distinguishing a Malibu from a Catera. To make matters worse, nearly every single point of the specifications were nearly identical. Basically, the only thing that distinguished the 2 cars was the driven wheels. The ads for this car were ridiculous, too. Why the connection to European police cars was not mentioned in ads, or a more sensible portrayal of European traits was not used....?

Mike Walker... The Catera was totally the Wrong demographic towards competing with the likes of Mercedes-Benz BMW and Audi or Lexus Acura and Infiniti. It was a "Comfort " car that the older consumer base were attracted to , it was smaller for those consumer who wanted a smaller car with land yacht comfort in a smaller package.; NOT younger driven sports Euro - Asian sedans with sports handling and performance Dynamics.

My Dad's old friends bought a Catera so they could dive to do stuff around town, it broke down every day.

it's not a bad car, just wasnt what people wanted. would have been a great buick though

had they included more luxury features standard like heated leather seats, CD changer with cassette player, headlight washers, rear whipper, addressed the timing belt issues in a more timely open manner with the public, upped the horse power a bit over the life of the car keeping the price at $30K or less, along with not having the goofy ads, then I think it would have done much better. it really is a shame when you think about how simple it would have been for GM to have made this a moderate success.

@@CommodoreFan64 It's possible.

@@_M_O_E_ What did buyers want from a Cadillac?

@@jasoncarpp7742 a cadillac

I think it's probably a miniature pelican, considering how wide its bill is.

Es correcto huele muy bonito aún el mío 99a la fecha 2023

The car was made in Europe it was a rebadged Opel Omega.

@@Embargoman No shit Sherlock.

Wrong badge for the US.

Come to the USA and see what truly large cars are all about.

No, they gave a mass market executive cruiser and pretended it was sporty, which it wasn't. At its price point, the Opel Omega (as it was known in Europe) was very good, but was no rival to MB or BMW.

@@davidjames2910 yes this. it wasnt marketed as sporty in europe. maybe compared to american cars it had slightly sporty handling, but just no.

@@_M_O_E_ eh no, the omega of that generation was NOT marketed as sporty, that was its predecessor. The Omega on which the Catera was based was intended to succeed both the original omega and the subsequent Senator models, thus pushing it more into the upscale executive market against cars as the BMW 5 series and MB E series (which also made more sense length wise). Fun fact though, it is strange that they actually had Corvette V8's for a short time...so it's kind of strange they never gave it a V8 in the US...

@@TheChill001 thats what i said, it wasnt sporty or marketed that way. and i know it replaced 2 previous models, but neither of those was in the same league as the bmw or mercedes. the opel/vauxhall brands have nowhere near as much prestige. the only thing it was really competing with was the ford scorpio. the ford was much worse

@@_M_O_E_ Useless trivia: The first gen Ford Scorpio was also sold in the US as the Merkur Scorpio and of course it failed. The second gen looked like it came straight from the USA, like the love child of a Taurus and a Crown Vic but there was nothing American about it. God knows why they built a European car designed for Americans. Some other useless trivia: There were plans to sell the Opel Calibra badged as a Saab in the US. They eventually decided against it because it would've rivaled their new 900NG Coupe.

I had to fact check this because I was sure the STS was rear wheel drive....I mean c'mon, the car mags compared it to the E430 and Lexus GS at the time. Sadly, Wikipedia confirmed that you were right.

I think he said Dan Marino should definitely buy this car, not this one... Fun fact, my first CTS ( I have a bit of a problem, have 3 right now) was EXACTLY like the one in Bad Boys, silver, black leather, luxury sport package with nav and the same 17 inch wheels. However, having owned several 03s and 04s, my 04 black on black base model with the 3.6 and factory dual exhaust, no sunroof, and so on, will gap my current 03 luxury sport with the 3.2. like no comparison. Glad they tried and failed with the Catera so they could make the first gen CTS. Once you understand the cars quirks they are pretty easy to work on, cheap now, and a 3.6 is plenty of power for the average guy. I of course, am ls swapping an 03 for fun.

Incluso más cómodo el catera saludos

Vauxhall omega

@@louisbeerreviews8964 No, Opel. They developed the car, Vauxhall just rebadged it.

Opel built a one off with the LS1 engine in the late 90s to test it out but it didn't do well under sustained high speeds on the autobahn so was canned

@@sutherlandA1 yeah they were quick in a straight line, but handled like crap at high speed.

Sounds like the perfect car for Americans then

@@liam6nugget yeah true, Americans want quick 0-60 times, but handling and stopping is irrelevant.