Good morning! Today we’re lowering our price ranges a bit again, and looking at two nice old sedans from defunct GM brand Oldsmobile. Eagle-eyed Coen Brothers fans will also recognize these two as the Oldsmobile models most prominently featured in the 1996 film Fargo. That’s not important, but it just occurred to me, so I had to point it out.
Yesterday we looked at a couple of Ford-based RVs, and I honestly wasn’t sure what to expect. Would you choose the cheaper, larger, but scruffier option, or the tiny, neat-as-a-pin truck that might be a bit overpriced? Well, it looks like your frugal side won this round by quite a large margin; the F-250 took an easy win.
And I suppose I have to agree. That little Courier is way cool, but it’s expensive for what it is. The F-250, with more room and more amenities for three grand less, just makes more sense. Man, practicality is annoying sometimes.
All right; let’s check out some nice bargain-priced Oldsmobile sedans. Yah? Yaaah. Real good.
1985 Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera LS – $2,400
Engine/drivetrain: 3.0-liter overhead valve V6, four-speed automatic, FWD
Location: Littleton, CO
Odometer reading: 97,000 miles
Operational status: “Runs and drives like new”
When an automaker has a really popular nameplate, they tend to milk it for all it’s worth. Oldsmobile had a hit on its hands with the Cutlass nameplate; for a few years it was the best-selling car in the US. But then things got confusing. In 1985, when this car was built, Oldsmobile sold three completely different cars, all with the Cutlass nameplate. There was the FWD compact Cutlass Calais, the RWD Cutlass Supreme, and this car: the mid-sized FWD Cutlass Ciera.
The Ciera highlights Oldsmobile’s identity crisis in the ’80s; they weren’t really the sporty division; that was Pontiac. Neither were they the low-end luxury division; that spot was taken by Buick. The ads told us “This Is Not Your Father’s Oldsmobile,” but then, whose was it? They were nice cars, but sort of redundant, which is why Oldsmobile ended up getting axed later. (GM’s decision to end Pontiac is far more confusing.)
This Ciera is powered by a Buick-sourced 90-degree V6, a de-stroked version of the famous 3.8/3800, displacing 3.0 liters. It’s backed by an overdrive automatic with a traditional column-mounted shifter. It’s still under 100,000 miles, and the seller says it runs and drives like new. Cieras, and the A-body cars in general, enjoyed a pretty good reputation for durability and reliability, so this car should have lots of life left if it has been maintained.
Cosmetically, it’s OK, but not great. The interior is a little grubby, and the driver’s seat has a popped seam, and the seller admits they took the exterior photos of the car in the rain. It’s probably nowhere near that shiny in person. Still, it’s rust-free, and straight, which is more than I can say for the seller’s parking job.
1989 Oldsmobile Eighty-Eight Royale – $1,995
Engine/drivetrain: 3.8-liter overhead valve V6, four-speed automatic, FWD
Location: Hanover, PA
Odometer reading: 141,000 miles
Operational status: Runs and drives well
Oldsmobile played a bit of a name game with its full-sized sedan, too. One year earlier, this car would have worn a badge that said “Delta 88.” But for 1989, Oldsmobile dropped the “Delta,” in use since 1965, and spelled out the name as “Eighty-Eight.” The larger and fancier 98 got the same treatment, becoming the Ninety-Eight. These new names were spelled out in a neat sans-serif font on the rear quarter panels, a more modern look than the script font of the old badges.
All Eighty-Eights got the same engine and transmission: Buick’s 3800 V6 and a four-speed 4T60 automatic. We are told this one runs and drives, but we don’t get a lot more detail. It’s being sold by a dealership, and I get the feeling they’re just trying to get rid of it, probably because of its age. It’s not quite old enough to be a classic, and it’s definitely not special enough. It’s just an old car, but it’s in nice condition.
This is the fancy Royale version, so it has a bunch of power toys to play with, more trim outside, and more padding inside. It looks like it has been well cared for. Being a thirty-five-year-old GM product, some of the fancy power stuff probably doesn’t work, but at least the upholstery and carpets are clean and intact. These are quite comfortable cars, too.
Outside, it’s a nice shiny dark blue, with lots of brightwork. The whitewalls are a nice period touch, but you’d be well advised to check the date codes on them; better to deal with blackwalls if you have to than risk a blowout. And since it’s in Pennsylvania, a peek underneath to check for rust isn’t a terrible idea either.
When you’re looking at these, consider the price: Two grand or thereabouts is cheap for a car that isn’t a rustbucket or gushing fluids these days. The days of the $500 beater are gone, and they aren’t coming back. These are both low-mileage, fairly clean, honest-looking used cars. Which one strikes you as the better deal?
(Image credits: Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist sellers)
My very first car was a tan 1985 Ciera. A coupe. What a piece o’ junk.
I would probably ditch the door-mounted shoulder anchor point seat belts and install the proper seat belts in the B-pillar. Never understood why they were even legal as they could crack the skulls open or cut the scalp apart in the side collision.
I chose the 88 for $1995 simply because it was cheapest. If I’m buying a POS car, I’m spending a little as possible.
My mom had a burgundy Ciera. Everywhere. Interior, exterior, all that color. Dad bought it for her. She hated it. I drove it on occasion and it got me where I was going, but I never liked it either.
After they divorced she got a Pontiac Sunbird. When she married my stepdad he told her she needed a better car and got her a Z4. Yeah. Ciera to Z4.
All I had to see was Ciera to vote for whatever was up against it. Only way the Ciera would have won was if it was up against a K-Car.
Wow, this is easy…that 88 is great!
I’ll admit that the 88 got my vote due mostly to my very first behind-the-wheel experience being a the family’s 1968 88 with the 455.
The ’89’s got a lot of the same rolling-JDiVan-on-wheels vibe from what I can see (and remember). You don’t steer so much as point.
Eighty Eight all day. I’d rather have the Oldsmobile Touring Sedan, but this is just a softer version of that car, and you still get the 3800. By most accounts, these late-80s Oldsmobiles really did have better fit & finish than their GM platform-mates.
And in retrospect I can see that they were clearly targeting the Volvo 760 in terms of the styling (which is a car I really liked).
The Eighty Eight matches my eyes.
That’s the one I want.
(Probably how it was chosen when it was new)
I picked the 88 for sentimental reasons, namely my parents had 3 Cieras from 87 to 2000 (an ’87, ’81, and ’94, in that order). When they got the first one (’87), I remember driving I-5 from LA to the Bay Area. I had nightmares that night from coming off those hills and the suspension kept bouncing. It got T-Boned, but the dealership decided it just needed a new front clip (fast forward to two years later, tech at that dealership didn’t get the memo: “this car has been in a major accident. I can’t believe they tried to fix this bent turd”).
The ’81 was a former rental car that my dad bought off the neighbor as a charitable act. I drove it to work for a few months. Got rear-ended by an ’84 635csi, and then my brother totaled the car between when the insurance check arrived (for more than my father paid for it) and when we got the work done.
The ’94 I wound up with in 2000. It had a broken engine mount, but I hardly noticed driving it cross-country and then in the Midwest for four years. I left the US, my brother (the same one who totaled the ’81) took it, got the engine mounts fixed, but ended up abandoning it on the NJ Turnpike not six months later. He killed my first car too, but that was a Chrysler. Cigarettes killed him.
So, no, no, never, never no more to the Ciera. If you wanted a FWD car that floated like a 70’s barge, that was the cheap choice. Twenty years ago, you’d have trouble finding your car in a Midwestern supermarket parking lot, because half the cars were CCs. Now: fuel economy, looks, price: obviously you haven’t chosen any of them.
The 88 looks like the better choice. I just want to be in compliance.
The Olds 88 is the better pick. The 3L version of the Buick V6 sucked ass. The late 1980s 3.8 V6 was a much better engine with around 40hp more.
And the 88 was a nicer vehicle than the Ciera.
OK, maybe I’m extrapolating too much from my own family, but:
Oldsmobile made perfect sense for an America that no longer exists. It was a respectable, middle class vehicle for people who were too successful for Chevies, but had neither the money nor the self-regard to drive Buicks, let alone Caddies.
To wit: my grandfather, born near the end of WW1, was a tool & dye maker for Chicago Faucet, which is to say, he was a highly skilled blue collar worker. Class-wise, he was a worker to his core (wore a suit on airplanes, but weekends meant undershirts and not shaving), but he was near the top of that heap, and Oldsmobile reflected his status without putting on airs. He had a ’49 98 that my dad learned to drive on, and my dad always describes how much presence that car had. His dream car was a Toronado, although it never happened for whatever reason. But he was an Olds man his whole life, and my own dad bought a Delta 88 when he was sufficiently situated in his white collar job to move on from a Cougar and AMCs.
Anyway, none of that exists anymore. Brands don’t have market placements that specific, people are lot more willing to take on debt to buy a car that maybe they can’t afford (anathema to my Depression-era Gramps), and “middle class respectability” isn’t anybody’s aspiration.
FWIW, the last 10 years of Olds, with the Aurora and recently-discussed Intrigue, suggested an identity that maybe could’ve stuck (forward-looking, sophisticated, semi–high tech; a bit like Audi, maybe), but GM didn’t have the discipline to manage that, and it would’ve been killed by SUVs regardless.
PS – In college I once pointed out one of the new Cutlasses with the slit headlights (totally novel in ’94 or whatever), and my SF-born friend said with a sneer, “you aspire to the middle class, don’t you?”
I picked the Ciera since I had a terrible example of the terrible wagon version. I hated it. But I had a lot of great times in that shitbox. OK, so I got ate by the nostalgia monster, get off me.
I’ll take the Eighty Eight. Plush, torquey highway cruiser that happens to be cheaper and in better condition than the Ciera.
The Olds 88 is 30 miles from me. If it was RWD, I’d consider it just for the LOLz. A friend of mine had one in the 90’s & it was a smooth/comfy highway cruiser.
The 88 is more appealing is just about every conceivable way. Sooooo, yeah I’m going with the 88.
88 Royale looks a lot less offensive on the interior cleaniness and the blue is super clean. For $2K? Let’s go.
The Eighty Eight is a steal at that price. Judging by the overall condition and mileage, I’m going to venture that there won’t be an issue with rust/subframe – at the most, you’d be looking at brake lines….maybe. These cars are truly comfortable and very quiet cruisers.