After enjoying a mid-day Tuesday movie followed by a refreshing extra dry vodka martini at Alma Nove on my day off, I stepped out to lay eyes on this nondescript Cutlass Supreme sedan. I say nondescript, because my first thought was that it was in remarkable condition for a nearly 30-year old car. Of course, my mildly vodka-influenced brain was harking back to the W-body Cutlass Supreme coupe’s initial release back in 1987, and not the sedan’s 1990 introduction, or 1992 facelift like what turned out to be this 1997.
Either way, the W-body Cutlass Supreme was produced for a total of eleven model years in a single generation — an excessively long period for any car, let alone a mainstream midsize car (of course, nothing compared to its Cutlass Ciera stablemate’s 15-year generation). So while this black sedan is only a 19-year-old car, its styling is based on design that’s ten years older, making it seem all the more antiquated.
I need not divulge more into the details on this Cutlass, as it’s been documented at Curbside Classic before. But I should add that these W-body (or “GM10” to some) Cutlass Supremes are becoming quite rare in coastal Massachusetts, and ones without significant signs of use and abuse are getting as hard to find as a pearl in an oyster.
Related Reading:
Curbside Classis Complete Cutlass Chronicles: 1992 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme
These always hit kind of a sweet spot for American cars of the era for me. Not too small and crude, not overly large or gimmicky. Decent looks, and decent reliability. A respectable comfortable middle-class car designed for American conditions. Certainly in the days when this era of Cutlass’ ruled the mall parking lots, one could never imagine the death of Oldsmobile was one the horizon.
The problem is: it was always, ONLY, a hint. Accords & Camrys gave you MUCH more of the sweet spot.
My hat is off to you, Brendan. It would take more than just one martini to get me to stop and take pictures of one of these. 🙂
Good one, JPC!
🙂
+1
+1.
I couldn’t have said it better myself!
Given the parking job done, the owner may have stopped in for a quick one himself. The blacked out C piller was getting dated by 1997, but I have always been a fan, even more so on the two doors of these.
A 1996 Cutlass Supreme SL sedan was the third new car I ever owned.
I remember it was $21,500, approx., and it was fully loaded (leather, moonroof, optional engine, sport suspension, cd player). Olds had begun some “all-package price” thing, or something. I don’t remember.
Anyway, my car was black with a charcoal leather interior and I had them swap out the wheels, as seen on the above car, with the sportier wheels from a coupe. I didn’t think they’d do it but they did.
The wheels I had looked like this:
I’ve never been a fan of the 4 door version of the Oldsmobile Cutlass.
All of the W four-doors looked kind of half-baked.
When you were back in school, did you ever look over yesterday’s homework in the morning only to realize you forgot to complete an entire section then rushed to get it done before you had to turn it in? That’s what the W sedans looked like to me. “Oh, crap, we need to make sedans. Bob, scribble together a quick roofline for each division and we’ll tool up next week.”
I did like the coupes though. When they came out my uncle was a Buick salesman at a large dealer in Chicago and thus had access to a preproduction or very early production Regal coupe. I want to say they came out in 1987, which would have made me 8 or 9 years old at the time. I had seen photos in the magazines but this was the first one I had seen in person, and my uncle took me for a ride in it. For a car nut kid like me it was awesome. The pre-decontented dash was pretty cool, too. The radio and climate controls were both in oddly shaped square pods, which seemed really futuristic at the time.
“Oh, crap, we need to make sedans. Bob, scribble together a quick roofline for each division and we’ll tool up next week.”
Love it!
Thanks!
Those engineers went through the college just like that for the papers and senior projects.
Cutlasses of all stripes are thin here in Chicago. Other than the occasional donked G coupe I can’t remember the last time I saw one, and that includes the Ws and rebadged Malibus.
The Cieras have given way to tin worm and age around here. The W Impala is now the ‘GM beater’ of choice
Yeah, and I’m actually starting to see more new Impalas than beater Ws. Either that, or the Wimpalas are just so forgettable I don’t notice them.
I never cared for this particular front end, which was used on the later versions of the W-body Cutlass Supreme. The first few model years of this generation of Cutlass Supreme were reasonably handsome. The big problem was an interior made of cheap materials that felt as though it could be taken apart by your bare hands.
Another problem was that Oldsmobile introduced this generation by touting the nicely trimmed, high-end models. When the car failed to sell in the expected numbers, Oldsmobile responded by turning it into fodder for Hertz, Avis and Alamo. We’d later see the Achieva and Alero follow the same path.
In most of these W Cutlass rear tail panels, water would appear. Either in the tail lamp or back up light lenses 😛 Another ‘cost cutting’ error.
Very true . My brother in law bought a 1990 cutless supreme ,and when I saw the interior my only thoughts were cheep cheep . Looked more chevy than oldsmobile .
In a few short years the digital dash crapped out the, top of the dashbord warped and of corse the clearcoat paint pealed away
Of all these, whether Lumina, Grand Prix or Cutlass, I like the Cutlass convertible best, even with the convenient “carry handle” “roll bar”!
I’ll take one in red, please.
These W Cutlass Supreme 4 doors never sold as well as the oldie Cieras, which undercut the W body. “Why pay more?” Said most Olds [and Buick] loyalists. Dealers wanted quickie sales from the A bodies, but the W’s didn’t attract any buyers, young and old.
The Intrigue was too little, too late, and overlapped Pontiac/Buick W bodies for the disappearing “middle price brand” buyers.
This cars parking effort seems to have been Vodka influenced, as well.
Although as well kept as this car appears to be, possibly aged spirit as in elderly influenced instead.
Ugh. All these years later and I still can’t find a cohesive design in it. Every part seems like it was designed for another car: the front, the rear, the roof line and a downmarket rear back light borrowed for a Saturn S Series.
I never realized they made these for 11 years.
The Ciera gave what traditional Olds buyers what they wanted. Why would anyone else be compelled to buy one of these ? Perhaps the “New Value” buyers [aka yuppies] GM was targeting with the Ns ?
The only car with less effort put into a design was the mid 80s Maxima. But even the Maxima provoked some kind of emotion [for me, contempt]. This Olds doesn’t even do that, except for disgust at the people who designed [to be charitable] and released this. Not even close to being half-baked.
Whenever I see these Cutlass sedans I think “big Saturn”. (Ironically both discontinued and at the time good sellers)
We can go over GM’s failures over and over again, but it all comes down to the same thing – large corporate America trying to make a quick buck at the public’s expense. The American consumer was only going to get burned once before they realized that the product they were buying was a piece of crap. Instead of improving trusted, tried and true nameplates, lets get rid of the popular ones that a few years ago sold in the MILLIONS. Stupid. Totally stupid. GM is lucky to still be in business. And we can thank the government and our tax dollars for that.
These are getting rare down south too, however I’ve managed to find 2 97s within the past week in both bodystyles, with the coupe parked next to another W-body of similar age. For some reason, I always imagine CS coupes with alloys and CS sedans with hubcaps (which was the case for these most recently seen) not sure what causes this discrepancy?
A design that lasted eleven years almost entirely unchanged because it was such a great one. While the interior design of almost any GM car from that era wasn’t great (and has gotten worse with age) the original W-bodies are some of the best looking cars GM has ever produced, even in sedan form like this one.
One of my first “reasonable” car purchases was a 95 Cutlass Supreme SL sedan in teal. I think I bought it in… 2000? Right after highschool. I regret that one. It was reliable, sure, but I realized quickly that I had not done my homework. I was used to lazy engines, but the 3100 always seemed over stressed, which in turn stressed me out. The rear door locks were possessed, the A/C quit a year later, and then its poorly-designed rear calipers froze.
That was an expensive lesson to learn.
The fastest depreciating car this side of a Buick Skylark.
And you know what? I never bought one. I have probably bought and sold about 3,000 cars in my life and not a single one of them was a last gen Cutlass Supreme.
I do have a friend who is into the convertibles for some strange reason. He owned six of them at one point, and would use them as lawnscape architecture at a condemned plot of land where he would try to sell used cars.
The only GM10 car that ever interested me was the Regal coupe, and that was because it represented the only two-door coupe to feature a prominent miniature chrome grille. At the auto auctions in the late-90s where everything looks like a deformed jellybean, the Regal coupe stood out in a fairly nice way.
From the other side of the world the sedan looks like an early 1990s Holden Statesman- not necessarily a good thing.
The coupe always looked like a Mazda 929/Cosmo coupe from the early 1980s, nice, but very dated by the time it went into production.
Agreed. I always thought that model Statesman was just a Magna-ized Opel with a Buick motor and an Oldsmobile roof. Real bitza.
By the time this car was Introduced , the Cutlass had lost it cache’. The market had moved on an so had GM, but in different directions, for sure. These garner no respect and rightfully so.
Well, GM surely didn’t help Oldsmobile’s chances with the Cutlass Supreme sedan by giving the Saturn S Series sedan a very similar greenhouse. The original interiors left much to be desired as well, but the redesigned `94 interiors were some of the most egregious. Olds never stood a chance.
Ugly, ugly and ugly. I had a pristine ’87 Cutlass RWD as my “summer car” and just needed a replacement vehicle for my daily driver. Always loyal to GM, I checked this thing out new. I just couldn’t do it.
My Dad still has his ’95 purchased new. I still think the lines are beautiful on both the coupe and the sedan, and by far the best out of all the W-bodies. It has proven to be a durable, well put together car with very few issues over its long, long life. Probably the equal of any CamCord and certainly better than a Taurus or Intrepid. Larger and nicer than a comparable CamCord on the inside, but not as large or comfy as a Taurus or Intrepid. If you avoided the 3.4 these went for a very long time with generally minor issues.
Oldsmobile was a considerable step up from Chevy, Pontiac, Ford, Chrysler, Toyota, or Honda in terms of dealer experience in those days in terms of both sales and service. Oldsmobiles had a reputation for being better put together and also longer lasting and with fewer issues than the comparable equivalents, plus you didn’t feel like the dealer was always trying to screw you over when you brought the car in for service. Service was prompt, effectual, and reasonable.
At the time he cross shopped the Lumina, which was by far the dreariest and cheapest car ever, looked at the Ciera, decided it was too geezery for him, looked at the Regal and LeSabres and the Regal was squishier and didn’t price comparably and the LeSabre was squishier, didn’t price comparably, and also had very confusing option packages. By 95 Olds had gone to the Honda like practice of grouping options together in three major packages.
GM quality took a huge step downward with the Intrigue and next generation W body. The Intrigues and Auroras were much nicer than the competition and competitively priced but fell apart expensively very quickly. They attracted some buyers who were just as quickly turned off.