I saw a pizza sign on the roof of a late model 3 Series a few weeks ago. If you’ve got to moonlight delivering pizza to afford your car payments, you don’t have your priorities straight.
I test drove one when they came out. The salesman who sold me my DeVille asked me to drive it and tell him what I thought. I told the guy I liked it, but I just wanted to be nice. I felt very cramped and thought I was sitting against the left windshield pillar.
I always thought they looked like a Chevy Lumina, just another jellybean car, not unique enough to be a real Cadillac.
My uncle owned one. He got the recall notice about the timing belt failing. The day before his car was scheduled to go to the dealer for the work, the affected part failed and engine “crashed”.
He was hoping that they would replace the engine altogether. Because he was just idling when it happened, it was decided that the internal damage wasn’t that bad. GM opted to have the dealer repair the engine instead of replacing it. He promptly traded the car, but not on another Caddy.
I test drove a Catera a few years ago. It was old and tired, so probably not a good specimen by which to judge the entire breed.
My feeling with these cars has always been that if GM had been smart with the engines (shame the 3.8 was strictly for transverse FWD applications) they would’ve been decent machines.
The other problem was branding: it did look just too downmarket, too much like a Lumina, to be a Cadillac. It would’ve made a great replacement for the Oldsmobile LSS though, done properly.
What a joke. As much as people joke about the Cimarron and share horror stories about the diesels and HT-4100s, this is the car that should have finally killed Cadillac. A complete piece of junk that looked like a rebadged Malibu.
Somehow, Cadillac has been on an upward trajectory, in styling and engineering, ever since. Not that it takes much to improve on this piece of crap, but from GM, it’s a miracle.
To think that, circa 2000, Cadillac had this and Lincoln had the LS. Amazing what a decade will do.
Cadillac learned from its mistake and in a fit of NIH, decided to whip up their own Catera in the form of the CTS. Along with the Escalade, that car managed to pull the entire marque upwards, allowing it to develop better products as time went on.
Lincoln left the LS to wither away. Then Mercury died. Afterwards, Lincoln resigned itself to selling rebadged Fords, just as Mercury did. Shame.
Assuming there was money in my budget to re-engine the XR4 with something that doesn’t sound like a tractor engine when it’s revved, and would be light enough not to upset the balance of the car, I’ll agree with you totally.
There was an XR6 and XR8 available in South Africa.The XR6 had the Essex 3 litre V6 from Dagenham and the XR8 had the 302 V8 Detroit’s finest.Good luck finding one though! The XR8 was a homologation special in limited numbers and most had a short and brutal life on the race track.
There’s been a genuine Sierra XR8 for sale here recently on trademe. Mint, and low mileage. Think it was about NZ$30K they wanted. A mint Sierra Cosworth would be about the same price, but the XR8 would be an intriguing alternative.
When I used to vacation on Cape Cod about 10 years ago, I remember a pizza place that had a fleet of Geo Metro delivery cars. A couple of days ago I was stopped at a light and noticed a pizza place on the corner with Geo’s (Metros and Prizms) as their delivery vehicles. I guess pizza restaurants must have been Geo’s loyal group of buyers. It surprised me that there were even Geo’s still on the road.
To everyone who has said “the car is a POS!”, here’s proof that you are dead wrong. I have never owned one but I still see them out on the road. And the ones I do see look like they have been taken really good care of. Now I will agree that what really killed the Catera was an excellent engine with a timing BELT! And an interference engine at that. I missed my mark in life. Back in 97 I should have built a kit to drop the 3800 out of a 4th gen F-Body into a Catera. I’d either be rich or bankrupt. I will admit I see way to many of these in the boneyards. Almost always I can tell it was condemed to death from a busted timing belt. Cateras are by far the cleanest cars I see in the salvage yard. Too bad the resale value sucks for them. I could have made a small fortune flipping Cateras. Take one with a busted timing belt and use the motor from one crashed into something solid by a teen aged pizza delivery driver. I tell you I’m a genius. LOL
So you see lots in the wreckers in nice condition, presumably well taken care of, but the timing belt still wiped-out the engine. Obviously great cars. 🙂
Actually the best set up would be a kit to drop a LS1 V8 and 6 speed in these creating a proto-GTO sedan, or a Clinton era CTS-V. Its true though, these are the nicest cars in a junkyard in most cases.
These things are so anonymous-looking that I really couldn’t tell you whether I see any around or lot. They’d be good cars for cops to do stakeouts in – they fade into the scenery.
I’m sure as with everything its about how you care for it, I let mine go in the winter of 2007, as a trade on a fully loaded 07 Kia Optima. The 98 Catera had 114000 miles on her and needed a couple of leaks fixed. As I drove about 100 miles to and from work daily my wife and I thought a new car would best suit my needs. I liked it, it drove and road like a german sedan and I bought it in the summer of 99 as a second car. It was as flawless as the S420 I also owned at the time. The Optima is now semi retired and it gave me 111000 miles with little or no trouble. I now drive a Camry SE, having a young family now keeps the luxo cars out of reach.
Opel was responsible for the major engineering of this car (especially the engine). I though German engineering was supposed to be good. What happened?
The sport versions were pretty nice looking, though very uncommon. The larger wheels and decklid spoiler set them off nicely. The 1999 and 2000 Sports had Recaro style articulated seats with leg and side bolsters and adjustable thy supports. Huge improvement of the flat standard seats (though probably not too Cadillac like with their primarily manual adjustments)
Amazing these haven’t caught on as engine swap candidates. Drop in a LSx and you have a real sleeper. A GTO at a fraction of the cost.
I think the LS1 would be a tight fit in them. I remember reading that Lingenfelter or Callaway was working on a LS1 conversion when they came out but the problem was they engine compartment isn’t wide enough. I believe the really hot versions of these had turbo straight six engines in Europe at the time.
I believe the Aussie version (our GTO) had a wider chassis by a couple of inches making it possible to fit the LS series in like we all know came later.
Nar same chassis as this but originally Holden used their own V8. The GTO shared nothing with these it was a much newer model Holden that was rebadged pontiac
I liked how these looked, but not as a Cadillac. Like a few others mentioned, I always thought it should’ve had the 3800 V6 – just for the sake of simplicity – been an Oldsmobile/Buick, and been available with a manual transmission. They probably still wouldn’t have sold any, though.
The only person I knew who had one loved it. He traded in an Acura 3.0CL on it and swore the Catera was a million times better. Unlike everyone else, whenever I see one now it’s totally trashed. The depreciation on them was massive and you could probably pick up a good one now for under $3k.
My friend bout 4 years back bought a 1999 base model one and as soon as I saw it I let him know that he wasted his $. Told him he would be lucky to drive it for few months before it broke down on him. Guess what, I was right car went to boneyard and he was a very sad fellow to say the least. I would never buy one or any similar “Faux Caddy” as it just dont make sense to drive a ticking time bomb that needs hard to find cheaply parts.
i owned a 98, bought it CPO with extended warranty. The 3.0 was super smooth and had nice snarl up high, but not enough torque off line. Handling was heavy, but very tight. Really nice highway car. Warranty replaced very expensive dash unit – just went dark at 50k mi – and as I approached 70k mi the tranny started doing funny things, so I dumped it.
I really liked it, and traded it for a cousin – an 03 Saturn L300 with the similar (i think) 3.0 V6. Been a winner, over 150k and still very reliable and fun. I like odd duck cars.
An older guy I used to play golf with had a black Catera. He never really had any problems with it. The guy had been a pharmacy medical officer in WW2 and was a retired hospital administrator in civilian life. I recall that he drove his car like a turtle. Guys in our golf group used to run out to leave before he backed up traffic. His driving habits probably helped account for his lack of problems.
I witnessed and attested to a hole in one he made on a short par 3. Shortly after, I learned he had passed away, well into his mid 80’s.
Digression aside, he was a nice fellow, indeed one sterling example of the greatest generation.
I vaguely remember when these came out that their new owners were a bit perturbed that their plug-in 12v accessories would not plug into the port. Evidently the imported Opel (and other foreign cars) have a larger cigarette lighter hole that wouldn’t work in the Americas.
I remember sitting in a new Catera in the Caddy showroom when my dad was buying a Deville (base Deville, couldn’t talk him into an STS or even a Deville Concours — but I tried!). I remember the Catera feeling very tight and “German” compared to the other Caddys of the time. In the late ’90s Cadillac had yet to earn any real performance credentials, so the car really did seem out of place in the line-up.
Interesting note: apparently Caddy came THIS close to naming the first-gen CTS “Catera” (so it would have been the second-gen Catera). The very early build first-gen CTS’s apparently have some parts labeled “Catera” in the engine bay. I do remember the buff books referring to the first-gen CTS as the “next Catera” in the coverage leading up to launch.
BTW, out here in LA I see quite the assortment of pizza delivery vehicles. The two most notable in recent memory were a brand-new 5-series (current-gen) and a Land Rover LR4. It’s things that this that make me realize where this place gets its “la-la land” nickname from…
I thought about buying one of these when they were a couple years old. From what I’ve read and seen since I’ve very glad I didn’t.
Supposedly the problems with the 3.0 V6 were fixed after the first year or two. I’ve also heard others claim it was still a POS.
So that’s what happens when GM rebadge a Vauxhall Omega.It’s a while since I’ve seen one come to think about.
I saw a pizza sign on the roof of a late model 3 Series a few weeks ago. If you’ve got to moonlight delivering pizza to afford your car payments, you don’t have your priorities straight.
It could be a kid working with a car paid for by his parents.
Or somebody who got “downsized” scrambling for every buck they can get.
I test drove one when they came out. The salesman who sold me my DeVille asked me to drive it and tell him what I thought. I told the guy I liked it, but I just wanted to be nice. I felt very cramped and thought I was sitting against the left windshield pillar.
Just didn’t feel right in it.
Was that piza delivery girl Lisa Catera?
I always thought they looked like a Chevy Lumina, just another jellybean car, not unique enough to be a real Cadillac.
My uncle owned one. He got the recall notice about the timing belt failing. The day before his car was scheduled to go to the dealer for the work, the affected part failed and engine “crashed”.
He was hoping that they would replace the engine altogether. Because he was just idling when it happened, it was decided that the internal damage wasn’t that bad. GM opted to have the dealer repair the engine instead of replacing it. He promptly traded the car, but not on another Caddy.
I test drove a Catera a few years ago. It was old and tired, so probably not a good specimen by which to judge the entire breed.
My feeling with these cars has always been that if GM had been smart with the engines (shame the 3.8 was strictly for transverse FWD applications) they would’ve been decent machines.
The other problem was branding: it did look just too downmarket, too much like a Lumina, to be a Cadillac. It would’ve made a great replacement for the Oldsmobile LSS though, done properly.
The 3.8 Series II was the base motor on the F-bodies from 1996 til 2002.
I believe Holden had a longitudinal 3800 in their Omega derived Commodore, including the supercharged version.
Yeah, and the Chevy V8 too- this just looks like any old Commodore to me!
+1!
Yeah GMH did it right and ditched the Opel l6
You know…those Cimarrons weren’t that bad….. (I want one). I see these things & think “Malibu with crappy drivetrain”.
What a joke. As much as people joke about the Cimarron and share horror stories about the diesels and HT-4100s, this is the car that should have finally killed Cadillac. A complete piece of junk that looked like a rebadged Malibu.
Somehow, Cadillac has been on an upward trajectory, in styling and engineering, ever since. Not that it takes much to improve on this piece of crap, but from GM, it’s a miracle.
To think that, circa 2000, Cadillac had this and Lincoln had the LS. Amazing what a decade will do.
Cadillac learned from its mistake and in a fit of NIH, decided to whip up their own Catera in the form of the CTS. Along with the Escalade, that car managed to pull the entire marque upwards, allowing it to develop better products as time went on.
Lincoln left the LS to wither away. Then Mercury died. Afterwards, Lincoln resigned itself to selling rebadged Fords, just as Mercury did. Shame.
In the “Let’s Import our Car from Across the Pond” niche and up-sell Instant Orphans to Americans, I’d rather have a Merkur XR4-TI!
Assuming there was money in my budget to re-engine the XR4 with something that doesn’t sound like a tractor engine when it’s revved, and would be light enough not to upset the balance of the car, I’ll agree with you totally.
There was an XR6 and XR8 available in South Africa.The XR6 had the Essex 3 litre V6 from Dagenham and the XR8 had the 302 V8 Detroit’s finest.Good luck finding one though! The XR8 was a homologation special in limited numbers and most had a short and brutal life on the race track.
There’s been a genuine Sierra XR8 for sale here recently on trademe. Mint, and low mileage. Think it was about NZ$30K they wanted. A mint Sierra Cosworth would be about the same price, but the XR8 would be an intriguing alternative.
When I used to vacation on Cape Cod about 10 years ago, I remember a pizza place that had a fleet of Geo Metro delivery cars. A couple of days ago I was stopped at a light and noticed a pizza place on the corner with Geo’s (Metros and Prizms) as their delivery vehicles. I guess pizza restaurants must have been Geo’s loyal group of buyers. It surprised me that there were even Geo’s still on the road.
There used to be a taxi company in my neck of the woods that ran a fleet of Dodge Omnis.
To everyone who has said “the car is a POS!”, here’s proof that you are dead wrong. I have never owned one but I still see them out on the road. And the ones I do see look like they have been taken really good care of. Now I will agree that what really killed the Catera was an excellent engine with a timing BELT! And an interference engine at that. I missed my mark in life. Back in 97 I should have built a kit to drop the 3800 out of a 4th gen F-Body into a Catera. I’d either be rich or bankrupt. I will admit I see way to many of these in the boneyards. Almost always I can tell it was condemed to death from a busted timing belt. Cateras are by far the cleanest cars I see in the salvage yard. Too bad the resale value sucks for them. I could have made a small fortune flipping Cateras. Take one with a busted timing belt and use the motor from one crashed into something solid by a teen aged pizza delivery driver. I tell you I’m a genius. LOL
So you see lots in the wreckers in nice condition, presumably well taken care of, but the timing belt still wiped-out the engine. Obviously great cars. 🙂
Deferring critical maintenance can kill any car.
Actually the best set up would be a kit to drop a LS1 V8 and 6 speed in these creating a proto-GTO sedan, or a Clinton era CTS-V. Its true though, these are the nicest cars in a junkyard in most cases.
Carmine you just described a HOLDEN they repowered the cratera very very sccessfully
“Cratera” …. love it!
These things are so anonymous-looking that I really couldn’t tell you whether I see any around or lot. They’d be good cars for cops to do stakeouts in – they fade into the scenery.
I’m sure as with everything its about how you care for it, I let mine go in the winter of 2007, as a trade on a fully loaded 07 Kia Optima. The 98 Catera had 114000 miles on her and needed a couple of leaks fixed. As I drove about 100 miles to and from work daily my wife and I thought a new car would best suit my needs. I liked it, it drove and road like a german sedan and I bought it in the summer of 99 as a second car. It was as flawless as the S420 I also owned at the time. The Optima is now semi retired and it gave me 111000 miles with little or no trouble. I now drive a Camry SE, having a young family now keeps the luxo cars out of reach.
Opel was responsible for the major engineering of this car (especially the engine). I though German engineering was supposed to be good. What happened?
They resolved whatever it was, because this was the first gen CTS V6 too, and I never heard about those having timing belt issues.
German advertising would have you believe it hundresd of thousands of broken German cars every year tends to mitigate it
The sport versions were pretty nice looking, though very uncommon. The larger wheels and decklid spoiler set them off nicely. The 1999 and 2000 Sports had Recaro style articulated seats with leg and side bolsters and adjustable thy supports. Huge improvement of the flat standard seats (though probably not too Cadillac like with their primarily manual adjustments)
Amazing these haven’t caught on as engine swap candidates. Drop in a LSx and you have a real sleeper. A GTO at a fraction of the cost.
And the interior…
Hmmm. I like the exterior, but I think the comparable Holden Commodore interior looked nicer.
Must get some cohort shots of regular Commodores and Falcons our american readers will freak out
I think the LS1 would be a tight fit in them. I remember reading that Lingenfelter or Callaway was working on a LS1 conversion when they came out but the problem was they engine compartment isn’t wide enough. I believe the really hot versions of these had turbo straight six engines in Europe at the time.
I believe the Aussie version (our GTO) had a wider chassis by a couple of inches making it possible to fit the LS series in like we all know came later.
Nar same chassis as this but originally Holden used their own V8. The GTO shared nothing with these it was a much newer model Holden that was rebadged pontiac
I liked how these looked, but not as a Cadillac. Like a few others mentioned, I always thought it should’ve had the 3800 V6 – just for the sake of simplicity – been an Oldsmobile/Buick, and been available with a manual transmission. They probably still wouldn’t have sold any, though.
The only person I knew who had one loved it. He traded in an Acura 3.0CL on it and swore the Catera was a million times better. Unlike everyone else, whenever I see one now it’s totally trashed. The depreciation on them was massive and you could probably pick up a good one now for under $3k.
My friend bout 4 years back bought a 1999 base model one and as soon as I saw it I let him know that he wasted his $. Told him he would be lucky to drive it for few months before it broke down on him. Guess what, I was right car went to boneyard and he was a very sad fellow to say the least. I would never buy one or any similar “Faux Caddy” as it just dont make sense to drive a ticking time bomb that needs hard to find cheaply parts.
i owned a 98, bought it CPO with extended warranty. The 3.0 was super smooth and had nice snarl up high, but not enough torque off line. Handling was heavy, but very tight. Really nice highway car. Warranty replaced very expensive dash unit – just went dark at 50k mi – and as I approached 70k mi the tranny started doing funny things, so I dumped it.
I really liked it, and traded it for a cousin – an 03 Saturn L300 with the similar (i think) 3.0 V6. Been a winner, over 150k and still very reliable and fun. I like odd duck cars.
An older guy I used to play golf with had a black Catera. He never really had any problems with it. The guy had been a pharmacy medical officer in WW2 and was a retired hospital administrator in civilian life. I recall that he drove his car like a turtle. Guys in our golf group used to run out to leave before he backed up traffic. His driving habits probably helped account for his lack of problems.
I witnessed and attested to a hole in one he made on a short par 3. Shortly after, I learned he had passed away, well into his mid 80’s.
Digression aside, he was a nice fellow, indeed one sterling example of the greatest generation.
I vaguely remember when these came out that their new owners were a bit perturbed that their plug-in 12v accessories would not plug into the port. Evidently the imported Opel (and other foreign cars) have a larger cigarette lighter hole that wouldn’t work in the Americas.
I remember sitting in a new Catera in the Caddy showroom when my dad was buying a Deville (base Deville, couldn’t talk him into an STS or even a Deville Concours — but I tried!). I remember the Catera feeling very tight and “German” compared to the other Caddys of the time. In the late ’90s Cadillac had yet to earn any real performance credentials, so the car really did seem out of place in the line-up.
Interesting note: apparently Caddy came THIS close to naming the first-gen CTS “Catera” (so it would have been the second-gen Catera). The very early build first-gen CTS’s apparently have some parts labeled “Catera” in the engine bay. I do remember the buff books referring to the first-gen CTS as the “next Catera” in the coverage leading up to launch.
BTW, out here in LA I see quite the assortment of pizza delivery vehicles. The two most notable in recent memory were a brand-new 5-series (current-gen) and a Land Rover LR4. It’s things that this that make me realize where this place gets its “la-la land” nickname from…