If you needed graphic evidence that the Sloan Ladder was essentially defunct by 1987, this Oldsmobile Firenza Cruiser Wagon may be it. You’ve probably forgotten that it existed, or perhaps you’ve never actually seen one, but either way only 2,860 of them were built, and this very well-preserved example recently sold on Bring a Trailer in Seattle.
The Firenza stuck around until 1988, when product planners must have realized that for whatever reason, Oldsmobile versions of General Motors compacts rarely sold well enough to be worth the effort. Somehow, however, this 1987 model was well-loved from the get-go, and it even comes with its intact build sheet, telling us that the options we see are the options that were originally ordered. Fairly well-equipped with air conditioning, aluminum wheels, and three-speed automatic, it was built in Kansas City and shipped to Martin Oldsmobile in Newark, Delaware.
The original owner bypassed the standard 90-horsepower pushrod 2.0-liter four and ordered the optional (and unrelated) 2.0-liter overhead-cam four-cylinder, which produced either 96 or 102 horsepower depending on the reference materials you’re looking at (I’m convinced it’s 96). Before putting the Firenza up for auction, its owner unloaded the parts cannon in its general direction, replacing the following:
I don’t want to judge anyone’s motives too harshly, but ten times out of ten I will leave an old factory part on a car unless I absolutely have no choice but to replace it. I’m absolutely on-board with the gaskets, timing belt, water pump, plugs, etc., but those sensors and valves make me a little nervous. I’m abundantly leery of new parts quality.
Not mentioned above is a set of P185/70R13 tires, a little wider and definitely a little shorter than the factory P175/80R13 tires. Tires with an 80-section sidewall are getting pretty expensive and hard to find, so don’t be surprised if the speedometer reads a little fast.
The interior is standard “non-sporty” J-body, with minimal instrumentation and a small, high console for the gear selector. The original AM/FM radio has been replaced with a more modern unit, but aside from that, the interior is nice enough to pretend that it’s 1993 or so; there’s only a little carpet staining to give away that time has passed.
I commend the original owner (or selling dealer) for ordering a Dark Sapphire Blue interior with the white paint. The bucket seats anecdotally prove that 1980s upholstery was nearly indestructible, and aside from a little bleeding rust underneath the upper hinge on the passenger rear door, time has again fundamentally stopped.
So why didn’t the poor Firenza sell better than it did? Its price was about the same as a ritzier Cavalier wagon, but a basic Cavalier wagon was over a thousand dollars cheaper, so maybe that was it. It’s also entirely possible that almost nobody knew there was a Firenza wagon even available, so they didn’t even bother visiting their Oldsmobile dealer. If there weren’t any on the lot anyway, why wouldn’t you just buy a Cavalier? Whatever the case may be, there were 2,860 Firenza Cruiser Wagon buyers in 1987, and someone liked theirs enough to keep it in nearly pristine condition so we can talk about it today.
Related Reading
Cohort Capsule: Oldsmobile Firenza – Should They Have Called It A Cutlass? (by Brendan Saur)
CC Outtake: Oldsmobile Firenza – Could This Be The Nicest One Left? (by Paul N)
Curbside Recycling: 1985 Oldsmobile Firenza S Coupe – A 1970 4-4-2 It Is Not (by Jim Klein)
I do not miss vintage GM cars with giant spaces begging for needles, but only having pointless dummy lights. I do miss the visibility out of cars before rollover standards took effect. (The biggest blind spots in many cars today are created by the A pillar.) I also find this car’s complete absence of any touch screens or gratuitous electronics very appealing in a tactile way.
Robert: I totally agree. I sure miss having that great 360 outward visibility like these had.
Did I miss it in this article? What did this sell for?
Not yet as there is 1 day left. Currently at $1500.
Go take a Honda 2023–26 HR-V for a test drive; the A-pillars are surprisingly thin and the windshield rake is smartly designed—unlike the new Prius. And yes, cars with good visibility and a waistline that isn’t too high are rare these days.
Only 2,860 Omega wagons sold? At this point in Oldsmobile’s history, about the only vehicles I associate with Oldsmobile would have been the 98 and the 88, sold mostly to the blue-hair crowd. Why Oldsmobile would try and sell a rebadged Cavalier in the first place is beyond me. I’m surprised it was that many.
98 and 88? In those days they were the Cutlass Division. I’m surprised they didn’t rename the Firenza “Cutlass Firenza” to see if it would boost sales.
I’ve long suspected that GM was briefly flirting with the notion of rebranding Oldsmobile to Cutlass back then, when nearly every model in the line was a Cutlass something-or-other, before they ultimately thought better of it apparently.
The ad tagline “Not your father’s Oldsmobile” just reinforced existing perceptions of the brand as a car for old men — I’m surprised their marketing team evidently wasn’t aware of the linguistic truism that negating a frame just evokes that frame — and it’s hard to overcome that perception with “Old” right there in the name.
A rebrand to Cutlass could have done the trick without resorting to an unfamiliar new name or losing much established brand equity. Also wouldn’t have been hard to slightly redesign the familiar Rocket logo into a sword.
My mother in 1987 had narrowed her new sedan choice down to an Olds 88 and Buick LeSabre. She went with the LeSabre as the seats were more comfortable. Also I liked the cool European car style hood opening towards the front. But the Cutlass sedans and coupes were still selling well then. The Calais was also a strong seller in 1987. I remember seeing a bunch of all of them on that Pontiac-Olds-Buick dealership lot. The Calais/Cutlass Calais was real popular among single professional females in their 20s. When I was just starting out my airline pilot career in the late 1980s, many flight attendants had the Calais or Grand Am sister car.
GM’s upholstery game was strong in the 80s. A group of us ferried new and used cars from the old location of an Olds dealership to their new store over the course of 2-3 days, circa 1984ish. I drove several Firenzas, one of which was a wagon with dark brown velour seats that were VERY nice for a little GM compact. The cars themselves were turds, but the seats were nice.
+1000% on keeping good OEM parts vs new aftermarket.
I was a line tech for a Buick dealership in the 80’s & 90’s. We were taught that when an issue occurred, especially out of warranty. that all parts related to the offending system or that were removed to get there; should be replaced. This may have been area specific; but it was mentioned in training classes from GM.
An example would be the RWD front brake service. We were encouraged to not just replace the pads. In addition, we were supposed to turn the rotors and replace the wheel bearings. Not repack the wheel bearings; REPLACE them.
I have a neighbor who wants me to help him do his front brakes on a 79 F-100. He was going over the shopping list (rotors are scored & grooved) and mentioned buying new wheel bearings. I advised him to wait on those because we would check his originals and reuse if they were good because I suspect they would still outlast and current aftermarket parts available.
I love the Oldsmobile-faced Cavalier Wagons! This one is a beauty!
My contribution to CC Firenza content:
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/cc-capsule/curbside-capsule-1986-oldsmobile-firenza-s-coupe-back-to-j-school/
“…but either way only 2,860 of them were built, and this very well-preserved example recently sold on Bring a Trailer in Seattle.”
The link shows the auction is still active with one day to go with the current bid at only $1500. Even if it sells for twice that amount, someone will be getting a nice decent car.
Yeah, sorry about that. I had this scheduled for Friday and it got moved up, so it’s still for sale!
(Quote)…above is a set of P185/70R13 tires, a little wider and definitely a little shorter than the factory P175/80R13 tires. Tires with an 80-section sidewall are getting pretty expensive and hard to find…
13s have been culled altogether from most online listings, over here. That was some time ago. I wouldn’t be surprised, if they’re gone altogether by now, as often as the rug gets pulled out from under us car owneres nowadays. Don’t even bother looking up 12 inchers. You could still get 14s. But the writing on the wall’s there for them also. China will send most of these. Forget about main brands anymore.
Several years ago, when I took my Daihatsu to mandated bi-yearly inspection, my snow tires were outdated, after sudden legislation requiring a different symbol cast into the sidewall. I eventually got a set of used. But the recommended by the inspection facility new ones were only of a lower profile variety still available for trailers. To use these, the inspection facility mandated that I was to remove both back seats, because the tire capacities of these were rated considerably below the original factory-recommended set. Higher than original profile tires were also available, meeting normal passenger car capacities. But they were higher profile than originally recommended which would have given me false speedometer readings. Despite being capable of adjusting to a slower speed reading, the law here still wouldn’t have allowed their use
The auction is now closed. I suspected it might sell for $3,000. I was wrong.
It sold for $4,000.
These were cheap cars, but weren’t inexpensive. I remember when they were new and I drove enough J-cars to know what they offered. Compared to their competitors, they didn’t offer much beyond disposability. We rented them.
We can praise their seat covers, but the materials used for the rest of the interior were brittle plastics that were hard, cold and inferior to the competition. Occupants sat low to the floor. It was an uncomfortable place to be. No Olds touches. No pleasant surprises. Nothing exceeded expectations. I spent hours in them.
These weren’t Oldsmobiles. They were generic GM small cars, made to a price point in a market.
I had a coworker seriously considering a Firenza as his company travel vehicle. Really wanted an American brand. Yet, no matter how he spec’ed it out – other vehicles offered better value.
No matter what Olds called it – this wasn’t an acceptable Oldsmobile anymore than it was an acceptable Cadillac Cimarron.
Speaking of the Cimarron, IMO this dashboard molding (same as its Buick sibling) is what the Cimarron should have used as a basis, instead of tarting up a déclassé Cavalier/J2000 dash by modifying the mold to add faux-stitched edging (which this one already has!) and a nicer embossed section above the glovebox.
The lower half here is a bit plain, but nothing Caddy couldn’t improve on the cheap (as they did with the Cav dash anyway) with some nicer detailing, some faux-wood or brushed-metal sections here and there, maybe some chromed outlines.
Of course, the even better solution (aside from not making the Cimarron at all) would have been based on the Opel Ascona C dash molding, as that would not be shared in common with any other US model at all, and already had that dash of Euro panache the Cimarron ostensibly meant to target.
Does this car have its original springs? It seems to be sitting higher than a modern crossover.
But Cavaliers (and presumably Firenzas) had enough ground clearance to drive over a series of light bulbs for no apparent reason! https://www.instagram.com/p/DZsTwdSNDlX/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=embed_video_watch_again
I think it may the non-stock tires that are making it look like an Outback wanabe: “P185/70R13 tires, a little wider and definitely a little shorter than the factory P175/80R13”
To have forgotten about this wagon, I would have had to know about it in the first place.
I can find something to appreciate in almost any car, but that is just awful.
Oh boy. My family actually had TWO of these sh**tboxes in succession – an ‘83 and an ‘87. Both Firenza wagons were hand-me-downs from my grandparents to my parents and had the wood grain appliqué and wire wheel covers. Granddad was a diehard Oldsmobile man his whole life and these were his last two new vehicle purchases. I took my driver’s test in the ‘87. I have ZERO affinity for these vehicles. They were slow, noisy, buzzy, and epically uncool to my teenage sensibilities, I will admit that both at least gave reliable service to my family. The ‘87 had fuel injection and was marginally more refined than the ‘83.
Got to ask my brother; his (and my sister in law’s) “Firenza”, wagon was an “86”, I believe. Blue/ faux wood. I really liked it. he felt it was noisy, buzzy. lol
See, this dashboard molding is what the Cimarron should have used as a basis, instead of tarting up a déclassé Cavalier/J2000 dash by adding faux-stitched edging (which this one already has!) and a nicer embossed section above the glovebox. The lower half here is a bit plain, but nothing Caddy couldn’t improve on the cheap (as they did with the Cav dash anyway) with some nicer detailing, a faux-wood or brushed-metal panel here and there, maybe some chromed outlines.
I think I may have seen this exact car a couple of weeks ago. I passed a white J wagon on I-5 that looked like a time capsule. I expected it to be the much better selling Cavalier but when I got along side of it that wrap around side marker said otherwise and when I pulled a bit further ahead there was no mistaking that modern take on the old Olds styling cue of the turn signal between the headlights. But I could not in fact remember the model name of the Olds version. Skyhawk, Cimmaron, J-2000, Sunbird yes, but Firenza. Not sure how much of that was the fact that I don’t remember every seeing many of them, or that the Fire bit makes me think of Pontiac.
Sold for $4,000!
Probably what it is worth given what it was at the time back then. There is rare and there is RARE with this the first. Of course, on Bring A Trailer they usually fall all over themselves about these things.