(first posted 7/11/2017) For a company that was touting the use of unique designs amongst its divisions, the ’97 Cutlass was a relapse back into blatant badge engineering that arrived just in time for Oldsmobile’s centennial. Ostensibly a replacement for the Cutlass Ciera, the Cutlass – yes, just Cutlass – siphoned away sales from Oldsmobile’s existing compact and mid-size offerings, much like its predecessor had.
The Cutlass Ciera had undermined its supposed replacement, the Cutlass Supreme, throughout the first half of the 1990s. Now it was time for this rebadged Malibu to do the same to the Intrigue, one of Oldsmobile’s new, make-or-break models. Priced from $18-20k, the Cutlass slipped into the narrow price band that existed between the ageing Achieva ($15-17k) and Cutlass Supreme ($19-21k), both of which were retired after 1997. The dashboard was changed slightly from the Malibu, while exterior tweaks were limited to taillights, grille, badging and wheels. The Malibu’s four-cylinder engine was not available, Oldsmobile offering only the 3.1 V6 in base and GLS trims.
In fairness, the Cutlass was probably only ever intended as a stopgap. While the ’92-vintage N-Body Pontiac Grand Am was sold right up until its replacement arrived in 1999, its companions the Buick Skylark and Oldsmobile Achieva were withdrawn earlier–all 1998 Achievas were sold to fleets. This meant the Cutlass served as an indirect, interim replacement for the Achieva for one year, as well as a replacement for the Ciera.
Cutlass sales were nothing to write home about. Fewer than 20,000 units were produced for 1997, but that was because Malibu/Cutlass production was just starting. For the first full year on the market, 52,864 Cutlass sedans were produced. That was better than the Achieva had, ahem, achieved in 1997, and almost as good as the Cutlass Supreme’s numbers that year. But it was about half what the decrepit Ciera had managed in 1996, and the Ciera had done so with both the Achieva and Cutlass Supreme selling alongside.
While the new ’98 Intrigue was priced slightly higher than the Cutlass Supreme, there was still little breathing room for the Cutlass. Once the new N-Body Alero arrived in 1999, the Cutlass was looking more redundant than ever–1998 had been the only year it didn’t overlap with two different models. GM must have realized the danger to the Intrigue of having a car in Olds showrooms that was almost as big as the Intrigue, looked as nice inside, had a V6 standard, and cost less. The Cutlass wasn’t as fun to drive as the Intrigue, as it didn’t receive the same kind of new Oldsmobile ‘import-fighter’ suspension tuning as the Alero, Intrigue and Aurora. It also lacked the refinement of the Camry and Accord. For most buyers though, especially those who would’ve purchased a new Ciera, the Cutlass was good enough.
The Cutlass was retired after 1999 and the Oldsmobile lineup now appeared a more cohesive whole, while the Intrigue was finally rid of some internal competition (the Eighty-Eight was also retired that year). Alas, the Intrigue’s reprieve and the division’s harmony was short-lived as GM announced the shuttering of the division shortly thereafter. Although the Bravada SUV and Silhouette minivan were simple rebadges, Oldsmobile’s final sedan lineup was uniquely differentiated from their GM platform-mates and were thoroughly “on message”. Fortunately, the last Oldsmobile passenger cars made weren’t lazy rebadges like the Cutlass.
White Cutlass photographed near Wayne State University in Detroit, MI.
Gray Cutlass photographed in Long Island City, Queens, NY.
Related Reading:
Curbside Classic: 2002 Chevy Malibu – The Truth Hertz
Curbside Classic: 1998-2002 Oldsmobile Intrigue – Oldsmobile’s Last Best Hope
My Curbside Classic: 1993 Oldsmobile Achieva SC – Underachieva
Curbside Classic: 1989-96 Buick Century & Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera – Sheer Frustration
When the Cutlass/Malibu came out, I saw a Cutlass long before I knew there would even be a Malibu wearing the same body. So at first, I thought the Malibu was the cheap Cutlass clone!
The final direct-to-video sequel in a once-great movie franchise that had long ago been run to the ground.
I also find it funny that they actually gave the Cutlass and Malibu slightly different dashboards. (Check out the vents…) Both look like flimsy clones of the “cockpit” Mazda dashboards of that era – the Cutlass like an MX-6 and the Malibu like a 626.
A friend inherited one of these from his late mom, and refuses to sell it. Keeps it going.
An automotive heirloom, probably chock-full of memories.
The sad thing was that the 1997 Cutlass really was a good replacement for the Ciera. It was reasonably comfy to ride in and all controls were with in easy reach of the driver (like the Ciera)
However unlike the A-Body Ciera and Chevy Celebrity, the 1997 Cutlass just looked like a Malibu with different tail lights and a different grill. It is like GM got lazy or did not care. One of the reasons that the A-Body cars(with the exception of the Pontiac 6000) were such a big success was that despite being pretty much the same car, there were enough changes to each that none looked the same. Nobody was going to mistake a 1988 Celebrity with a 1988 Cutlass Ciera because both looked different. The 1997 Cutlass and Malibu looked the same
As a kid who had grown up with the F-85/Cutlass from the very beginning and lived life riding in a 61, 64, 68, 72 and 74, I think I qualify of someone who knows what a Cutlass is/was. To paraphrase Lloyd Bentson, I knew Cutlasses. Cutlasses were friends of mine. This was no Cutlass.
It is clear that by the 90s the only objective was to shovel something into dealer showrooms so that they could try to sell it. Each of GM’s 6 car units (what used to be called Divisions) was trying to do the same thing and there was just no way to slice the bread that thin. I was a little sorry to see the Intrigue go, but not this one.
Olds dealers wanted the “Malibu-Cutlass” to get Cutlass Ciera* trade ins.
*Never understood why Olds shorted the name to Ciera for only 1996, after over a decade of production.
Summer of 2000 my wife made my buy a 99 to replace her pontiac. I couldnt get rid of the cutlass fast enough. Chrome hubcaps and its GM metallic green paint job that no matter how much you washed/waxed always looked dull. Horrible suspension and handling.
traded it after 2 years for a new mazda 626.
I had a 2000 Malibu 3.1 V6 during the mid to late “aughts.” It was mostly reliable and served me well. There are a fair number of this generation still on the roads of Central Ohio (some in decent condition.)
My biggest gripe was that the seats were overly firm. Most Cutlasses I remember seeing had leather seats, so I always wondered if those would’ve been more comfortable.
Wasn’t the Olds Alero a re-skin of sorts to the Malibu / Cutlass platform?
No, the Alero was a reskinned Grand Am, the replacement for the Achieva.
The Alero and Cutlass/ Malibu were in two totally different size classes.
PRNDL is more correct than not. All were variants of GM’s N-body platform, although the Malibu/Cutlass had a longer wheelbase than the Grand Am/Alero.
Alero actually had Grand Am side sheet metal, but without cladding. 2003-05 GA’s had cladding removed by Bob Lutz.
My grandparents have one that looks exactly like your featured car. It was originally my great grandmothers car. It’s a 1999 and only has 69k on it, However, the years have not been kind. The tan leather is very cheap and aged badly, showing huge gaps where the thread came apart. Has had a/c compressor replaced 4 times. Has been ok for around town and basic stuff for them, but for the serious stuff at least they have a Ford Edge. A dull and bland driving experience, the one plus was it never got the Malibu’s anemic four cylinder. I will say, at the very least, this 97-99 Cutlass is a fairly rare find. Malibu’s are by far more common. Good article.
If this car had come say, 1993, as a Ciera replacement (and not supplement), I think it would’ve made more sense. By 1997, these were just so bland and afterthought-like. Too bad, because I actually like the minor visual changes made to the Cutlass over the Malibu.
I love how Olds made such a huge deal of a built-in pen holder in the glove box!
This was never sold in Canada, am I correct? Was this during a period when Oldsmobile had a very limited range in Canada of Eighty Eight, Ninety-Eight and Aurora (if I remember it correctly?).
Is this due to GM dealer rules about automobile allocation for Canadian dealers or am i wrong here?
IIRC Canada had always, or at least since the ’60s, had only two dealer channels – Chevrolet-Oldsmobile and Pontiac-Buick-GMC (not sure how Cadillac was handled), so there were no freestanding Olds dealerships to keep stocked with product. They already had Chevy Malibus.
In Canada wad Chevrolet, Oldsmobile Cadillac and Pontiac, Buick, GMC. I strongly believe, correct me if I’m wrong, but the Malibu and the Cutlass would be sharing the same dealership showroom and create internal competition.
Correct. I don’t believe I have every seen one of these.
This example above is one of the major reasons people have come to hate GM. It’s products like these that absolutely ruin what was once the gold standard in American cars.
Back in 1999 when we were looking to unload our 1996 Intrepid due to a recurring issue, we looked at one of these in Malibu guise. I can honestly say that the ONLY thing I found desirable was the wave badge!
We then bought the 1999 Stratus that carried us over to when I sold it and bought Wifey her 2002 CR-V.
For several years, even up to recently, each and every time I saw one of these sad creatures, whether they are a Malibu or a Cutlass, I thank myself for never buying one!
Nothing special here, move along!
And that was the problem with most of GM’s 1980s-’90s offerings.
The 80’s??
At least GM cars looked like quality(even though they were far from it) back then, especially the full size RWD Cadillacs, the 1980-85 B-body cars, and the 1979-85 Eldorado/Tornado/Riviera.
The Olds Cutlass Supreme RWD coupe was a top 10 seller till it was called Cutlass Supreme Classic, along with the Chevy Monte Carlo as the last of the RWD G body personal luxury coupes.
At least you could tell an “American” styled GM car in the 80’s from a European or Japanese offering.
In the mid 80’s the Accord, Camry and Corolla were taking the lead away from GM’s once strong sales.
Now, in the 90’s GM’s “Euro” styled cars(ie, Lumina, Reatta, Catera(Opel Omega), etc), made GM lose it’s core customers and caused them to forever lose their way.
When GM couldn’t beat the imports, they tried to join them, or try to be cheap imitations of them.
In the late 90’s(1998-99), the styling lines between American, Japanese and European were starting to become blurred.
Compare a 1968 Chevelle Malibu, to a 2017 Malibu. In 1968, you KNEW, the Chevelle was an American car.
In 2017, you could mistake the new Malibu for a Kia, Hyundai or VW.
You couldn’t make that identity mistake in a crowded parking lot in the 80’s.
Your name is appropriate. I said “most” not “all”.
The 80s G and B and 79-85 E body cars were 70s cars to me, designed at a time when Bill Mitchell was still around, and all presumed to be on the chopping block once the FWD A body and H body debuted. What GM came up with *in* the 80s was dull, chintzy slapped together clones of each other.
Forget their plunge in marketshare, what GM lost in the 80s and never ever recovered from was styling leadership. I think there was a fleeting moment in the early 90s where they rolled out some truly unique designs, but they were unique in the same way Mercury designs often were for Ford, the ones that weren’t simple badge jobs that is – polarizing – Japan certainly didn’t come up with a design like the bathtub Caprice, or the 1991 Olds 98. These cars and many others during that short period were better efforts than anything GM rolled out in the previous decade, they just were love/mostly hate designs. GM overcorrected yet again by the mid 90s to build ananymous appliances, like this Olds Malibu.
I agree that the loss of styling leadership was a key part of GM’s horrific plunge. The brief reappearance of design mojo in the early 1990s was due to the belated appointment of Chuck Jordan as the Head of GM Design. Jordan, who was the real heir apparent to Bill Mitchell but was passed over for Irv Rybicki in 1977, finally got the top design job in the late 1980s and was responsible for the short-lived GM design renaissance with cars like the ’92 Seville/Eldorado, Buick Park Avenue and Olds Aurora. Like Bill Mitchell’s efforts, some of Jordan’s work was polarizing (Shamu Caprice, ’92 Buick Skylark), but at least all were memorable, unlike the products before and after the Jordan-era at GM.
I often wonder how different GM’s trajectory would have been in the 1980s if Jordan had gotten the lead design job in 1977–I think he would have been successful at blending function with flair for GM’s downsized fwd U.S. lines, just as he had done when leading design for Opel, delivering some of the best looking small cars ever from that German brand in the 1970s.
So many stop-gaps, so little time.
“We’re going to stop offering cars just as something to sell in the segment” says GM of the period…. and then comes this. And the Bravada and Olds mini van, the Relay and the other clone “APV”s, the G3, the Torrent, the first Escalade.
Just wait till GM wakes up and then you’ll see something, said the Internet crowd.
Saw an early Malibu yesterday in that hideous brown/grey/bronze metallic, a non color if there ever was one and a white one in the parking lot of Frys with the gold package. Still very common around here.
I despised these as they were so blatant, such a non-effort re-badge, they were hard to take seriously as a viable offering from a brand I had grown to like.
Every bit as bad as the Cimarron.
Ticks me off all over again every time I see one.
A sad end to what was once a proud nameplate.
Once the Aurora came out, they should’ve either redesigned this to better give it some resemblance to the Aurora, or just scrapped it altogether. And once the Intrigue came out at the same time, there was no reason for this car to still be sold. I could see that GM tried to give Oldsmobile some new life, and seeing this on the showrooms, was a stark reminder of just how far it had fallen. If I was a customer in the late 90s looking at Oldsmobiles, and I saw this on the same lot as the Intrigue, it would’ve made me think twice about considering an Olds for a car. Stopgap or no, it was clearly outdated by 97 and I could see only the most diehard Oldsmobile loyalists picking one of these over anything else in the showroom.
One step forward, two steps back. The prevailing problem of GM in the 90s.
Not to pile on, but to me these Cutlasses seemed to be built primarily for rental car fleets with retail customers given little thought.
(Oh, you want STYLING to go with that totally humdrum mechanical package?)
My father and brother had 2 or 3 of the Malibus. They all eventually suffered the same fate: the intake gasket failed and/or the heater core developed a serious leak, then the engine overheated.
As a competitor to the mid-late 90s Camry, I guess these were okay. Unfortunately, Toyota was already “resting on it’s laurels” by then….and GM seemed content to build (slightly) cheaper copies of Toyotas.
True about fleet sales. For its last year (2004?) this generation Malibu was fleet only, and called the Chevrolet Classic, a fitting bookend to the featured car,
The Classic was sold 2004-05, but still had the Malibu ‘sea wave’ badge on back. Chevy dealers around here loved having them as used cars after fleet duty, and advertised them as “Malibu Classics”.
Still quite a few chugging along in working class areas.
I grew up in an Oldsmobile family, so I have a soft spot for the oldest of GM’s historic brands, but killing Oldsmobile (and, later, Pontiac & Saturn) was the right thing to do. Car buyers had changed since the days of Durant and Sloan, and GM was left slicing the market into slices that were far too thin.
This may not be a popular opinion here, but the current round of GM housecleaning should find a way to make Buick a China-only brand. Make your mainstream cars as good as they can be, and affix a bowtie to the ones sold in the U.S. and a tri-shield to the ones sold in China. That would better equip Chevrolet to compete with brands like Toyota and Ford in the home market.
With Buick out of the way, the next step is to give Cadillac additional plush-riding FWD cars & SUVs beyond just the XTS, which will better position Cadillac against the offerings in Lexus (and Lincoln) showrooms, plus prepares Cadillac for M-B and BMW continuing their march downmarket.
A disgraceful end to one of the best automotive names ever. And to think just 20 years earlier the Cutlass had been a top best seller in America–and was beloved as a well-priced, upmarket car with an incredibly loyal following. This badge-engineered dud represents GM at its most pathetic, and it was painful to see this final nail in the coffin of Oldsmobile’s golden goose.
I absolutely abhor this generation Malibu(I’m not calling it a Cutlass), miserable, cleap anonymous, appliances. No car represents GM’s fall from grace more than these. Even GM themselves shit on these in a commercial for a later generation Malibu.
As for the Cutlass, there was a time where Cutlass practically became a division unto itself, a companion make to Oldsmobile really. Then they pounded it into the ground making Grandpas Ciera forever, making them just good enough to become handmedown cockroaches to sully the name more and more as they become more and more clapped out. And the final insult was this even more indifferent differentiation than the A body ones. I know this goes against everything CC is about but the sooner I never see one of these on the streets ever again, the better.
I totally understand. While these were adequate cars, they were thoroughly unexciting. If you want to copy the Japanese slavishly, you have to copy them thoroughly, and that includes build quality and powertrain refinement. Otherwise, give buyers a better reason to choose your car over a Camry, whether that be style, unique features, etc. That’s what the Big 3 have learned (’08 Malibu, Cloud Cars, Fusion) and forgotten (second-gen Stratus, ’00 Taurus) over the years.
But to me, the GM vehicle that bothers me much more from this era was the ’95 Lumina. It just grinds my gears. At least the Malibu was light enough to accept an optional four-cylinder, at least the Malibu had an acceptable looking interior. The Lumina had a hideous interior and just seemed like a lazily-engineered redesign of the first Lumina, designed and built to a price. This is when Chevy really started touting their value-pricing. It was no longer even trying to beat the Camry, let alone the Taurus, it was just a mid-size car as big as possible and as loaded as possible for the lowest price. The old Hyundai of the GM line-up.
This Cutlass reminds me of French fries on a Chinese food menu. It fills a need, but just doesn’t belong.
These final Cutlasses are kind of sad for me. I’ve never driven one, but have had some decent seat time in the Chevy version. I guess these were the cars for the value shoppers who could no longer buy a Ciera brand new.
In this part of the upper midwest they’re still pretty thick on the ground, which is kind of unusual, especially for a 20 year old car. By the same token, I have to imagine that many of them were purchased by older folks like Laraine, one of my church members who finally retired her 1999 Malibu last year. There were two reasons why she did that, one, the rust was getting really bad on the car and two, her age makes driving a risky proposition.
If these had been released in the early to mid 1990’s, they would have made such a better proposition. The Malibu of this generation that I’m familiar with was a rather pleasant if unexciting car to drive.
This is the irony of GM following the imports, particularly the Japanese cars. Many of them are pleasant if unexciting to drive and are lauded for it. GM makes cars that are pleasant if unexciting to drive and they are excoriated for it.
These aren’t even common in Lansing. Nuff said
There’s one of these I see parked at the mall next to work, the fender is rusted out under the fuel filler.
I owned one of these in 2006-07. It was a 1999 with gold package bought for 3999 from a Chevy dealer. It had 64000 miles on it.The car was a disaster. Needed A/C, Intake Manifold, you name it. I was in college at the time and after three months I was ready to trade it for a new lease. I stuck it out through the year after it had to be pushed out of my dorm parking garage at least once. A year later I was over 80k and I swear the gas mileage plunged to under 20. I traded it in for a new Hyundai Accent which was another disaster. Two years later I finally got it right with an 06 Nissan Alrima. My sister had a 99 Malibu through 2014 that somehow ran better although it still seemed to need 1960s Jaguar levels of work!
The car wasnt bad to drive but its ergonomics were clearly dated. The 3.1 is now outclassed by 1.5 liter fours!Remembering something like this shows you how much better cars overall are now than in the 90s. Id consider the late 90s a low-point for interior and exterior design and for American cars, build quality.
Another car which got under my radar. I don’t think they were ever imported into Europe. The Alero of course was and sold moderately here in Austria – you can still see the odd Alero CC here and there.
1997 Chicago Auto Show made a big deal about having the “exclusive introduction of the all new Cutlass”.
At the time, GM was like “well, it’s new isn’t it?” after running a previous design well past its expiration date. Replacing the Corsica and Ciera with warmed over N/L body was a big deal in Detroit, but a big “yawn” everywhere else.
The legendary Cutlass…. Once America’s best selling car, and then reduced to the pathetic piece of unsightly, plasticy, rubbish (Malibu clone), in the last years of the great nameplate’s life. Oldsmobile needed to die and fast, to put that ailing division out of its misery.
To think of what Oldsmobile once was in the ’50s, ’60s, ’70s and even partly into the ’80s, and what it was reduced to is an abomination!
Indeed the 90s had some pretty horrible looking and poor quality interiors, but mostly from General Motors. There was no originality from car to car. Every GM car had the same blobby looking instrument panels slathered with the cheapest plastic know to humankind. If you’ve even seen the instrument panel on the last generation Buick Riviera and it’s hideous cheap plastic you’d want to puke. I had a pos 1997 Grand Prix that suffered from the same craptastic plastics and rubber switchgear. That GP was garbage. Cost me thousands of $ to keep that clunker running. Head gasket blew at 60K and cost me $1,800 to repair. I absolutely hated that car. A friend of mine bought a new 1999 Corvette only to have the door panels and center console start to bubble and the vinyl separate. And those were just the small problems with his vette. Same thing happened with my GP and the door panels delaminating. But heck, the dash top never cracked! Woo Hoo!
“This is the irony of GM following the imports, particularly the Japanese cars. Many of them are pleasant if unexciting to drive and are lauded for it. GM makes cars that are pleasant if unexciting to drive and they are excoriated for it.”
No one here loves Oldsmobiles more than I do… to wit:
Founder of OCA Blue & Gray Chapter, 1985,
Oldsmobiles owned:
1936 Series F-36 sedan, 1947 78 Dynamic club coupe, 1950 98 sedan, 1956 98 Holiday sedan, 1956 Super 88 convert, 1957 Super 88 convert, 1958 Super 88 Sedan, 1965 Dynamic 88 convert, 1969 Toronado Custom (x 3), 1972 Cutlass S coupe, 1973 Delta 88 sedan, 1974 Delta 88 sedan, 1974 98 LS sedan, 1976 98 LS sedan, 1977 Delta 88 sedan., 1990 98 Regency. Currently: 1969 Cutlass Holiday Sedan.
What GM didn’t follow was a Japanese level of quality and durability. For 30 years I stubbornly railed against the J makes for thin metal, small engines, proclivity to rust, light weight and lack of safety, and for a family car I refused to own one because of it mainly for those safety reasons, but their fit & finish quality and reliability were unassailable.
They had corrected many of those early deficiencies by the 1990s and when I finally realized it I reluctantly threw in the towel. We’ve owned only Japanese makes since 1996. Now when asked for an opinion I have no hesitation in recommending the top Japanese brands. As much as it hurts to have to do so, reality must be recognized. It’s bland and forgettable cars like this sad Cutlass that made the end of Oldsmobile inevitable, a tragic end to a company that goes back to the dawn of US auto manufacturing. Better to be gone than continue to be known for such mediocrity.