Generalizations: the Five Best GM Cars Ever and the Five Worst

February 19, 2018

Cadillac Fleetwood V8-6-4

This is a strange beast. Variable displacement was in its infancy at the time this car launched in 1981, and it’s safe to say that GM didn’t quite have it down when they produced this car. Fuel efficiency was the watchword of cars in this period, with no one wanting to pay the price that muscle cars had to in the 1970s. As such, an engine which deactivates cylinders as necessary, observed by the watchful eye of a computer (gee whiz!) seemed like a great idea. The 368 cubic inch L62 engine fitted in the Fleetwood V8-6-4, as you might have guessed from the name, was to have solenoids keeping valves closed on up to four of the eight cylinders. There was only one problem. It didn’t work.

Instead of increased fuel efficiency, with no noticeable performance impact, drivers got problem after problem. For a start, the computer wasn’t powerful enough to react quickly, and the engine would overfuel whenever a pair of cylinders were deactivated. When engines were reactivated, there wasn’t enough fuel to go around. The result was a system which bucked around and kept you distinctly unsatisfied. Combine this with the Cimarron, and it’s frankly a wonder that Cadillac got through the 80s.

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