Cadillac Catera

Production period:	1996 to 2001
Class :	Motor Car
Body versions :	Saloon
Engines:	Gasoline engine : 3.0 liters (149 kW)
Length:	4882-4928 mm
Width:	1786 mm
Height:	1430-1433 mm
Wheelbase :	2731 mm
Curb weight :	1768 kg
successor	Cadillac CTS

The Cadillac Catera was a top-of-the-range vehicle offered as a Cadillac entry-level model . It is a badge-engineered model based on the Opel Omega B with standard equipment of higher quality.

History 

Already in the 1980s, Cadillac had taken with the Cimarron an Opel derivative as an entry-level model in the portfolio.

In the 1990s, a new approach was started with a vehicle to expand the model range down to a mid-size vehicle.As in this segment, European brands Mercedes-Benz and BMW were very strong, they decided on the Opel Omega. T

The first formal presentation of a concept vehicle for the Catera took place at the Detroit Auto Show in 1994 under the name Cadillac LSE . Since the rear was redesigned due to the reactions of the fair audience, a renaming of the production vehicle in Catera.

The Catera was produced in Rüsselsheim together with the Omega and exported as a complete vehicle to the USA. However, the launch was only in autumn 1996, So two years after the start of production of the Omega B.

It was available exclusively with the three-liter DOHCV6 gasoline engine. The maximum power was given in America with 149 kW (200 hp), while the European variant had a maximum power of 155 kW (211 hp) The automatic transmission was the GM 4L30-E  type also from Europe.

Around the same time in the summer of 1999, the Catera was slightly revised as the Omega B with facelift and interior update.

Of the American auto testers of the Catera was well received, he received about 95 000 copies produced but no commercial success. Although well-equipped, Cadillac buyers expected a more spacious car, while the Catera failed to convince Mercedes and BMW drivers to make a purchase. Even before the end of production of the Omega in mid-2003, the Catera was withdrawn from the market in the fall of 2001 and replaced by the in-house development Cadillac CTS .