Yellow on sedans doesn’t usually work; no one told Mazda such when they offered the new Mazda6 in yellow during the 2003 season. That car’s image, for all its Zoom-Zoom marketing, couldn’t justify that loud shade of paint, but that didn’t stop someone from similarly altering this Cutlass Ciera International Series. Indeed, they might have been inspired by Hiroshima’s failed bid for attention.
Although the door frames and other hardware got sprayed over, care was even taken to maintain all the badging and ground effects; even the power antenna bezel was spared. Someone really wanted this International Series car to get noticed. If so, mission accomplished. As someone with a bizarre affinity for special editions of the front-drive A-body, I would’ve spotted its high trim anyway, but when it comes to other (normal) people, this probably goes a long way in getting attention.
If anyone wanted this car not to get any second glances, of course, it was Oldsmobile itself, who found that with a bunch of new Cutlass Supreme sedans on its hands, the Ciera needed to have its leather buckets, console, and trip computer taken away. Canning the model for 1991 was a tacit admission that their expensively-developed new car was less compelling than this hoary model. In fact, despite that year’s addition of a 3.4 quad-cam V6 to the newer car, sales kept declining and by 1994, International Series special edition Oldsmobiles were gone from showrooms entirely. With 1300 Cutlass Cieras so equipped in 1991 and 6000 in 1990, there might not be a ton of these final special-edition A-bodies left nearly twenty-five years later. It’s nice to see that someone appreciates it in some capacity.
Related: CC Outtake: Chevrolet Celebrity Eurosport VR – Very Rare
TAXI!!!
Yes, definitely!
I saw a yellow sedan down the street one late night in Denver and thought, ‘Oh, yes! A perfect convergence of stars! Taxi is really here when and where you really need it!’
I enthusiastically flagged that yellow sedan then got puzzled and upset when the car didn’t slow down to pick up the fare. Uh-oh, it turned out to be a Subaru Legacy Baja done in loud yellow along with roof mounted lights whose silhouette was mistook for taxicab sign in the distance.
I understood very well why the colour yellow wasn’t common amongst the vehicles that were never optioned as taxi cabs in the United States. Go figure!
It’s funny how some colours really seem to work on certain shapes, while others just kick and scream at them. This however….is having a full-blown manic attack!
Yes, it is taxi yellow, but it kind of adds a touch of eccentricity to an already unusual car. Kind of like “Betty” the pink Ford Maverick that I helped to restore.
You should put that story over in today’s Comet post.
What a well done and good looking car. Some vehicles look like taxis no matter the paint scheme (especially to drunk people) so whatever color it is does not matter as much.
Yes this car actually looks well done. It is not your quick and nasty spray paint job, its owner took care to keep all the badging, grill and lights free of the mustard yellow paint. It can be concluded that the painting of the door handles and the rack on the trunk was intentional as he/she could have easily covered those things while it was painted so as to keep them paint free.
All the International Series Cieras I have seen have had leather seats, console mounted shifter and a gauge package with a tach. I think the International Series was just a refresh of the Ciera GT that was offered for a few years.
Having driven a lime green 2012 Fiesta for a few months, I would drive that car.
For a very American car, “International Series” is a form of Verbal Venue Inflation, like baseball’s World Series (you know, all those teams from Cuba or Japan).
3.4 DOHC was never put in the A-body. This car would probably have the 3300, which was capable and reliable.
I think he was talking about the Cutlass Supreme which had the 3.4l DOHC engine and how the Ciera with its leather was stealing the sales away from its bigger sibling.
This car has the 3300; I was referring to the GM10’s sliding sales, despite the addition of the 3400 DOHC.
I mentioned once to my Japanese foreign-exchange student/sister how I “settled” for a gray Mazda Tribute when I really wanted a Ford Escape in yellow, and she said, “Like a…school bus?” Sometimes it does take a really, really outside opinion to show us how we really look.
In the town where I was born, lived a man who sailed the sea . . . .
We all live in a yellow CR-V…oh, wait…
Perfect!
More ‘car song mashup’ nuttiness! 🙂
or this is the staff car for a school bus company!
Woah. Looks like a Volvo took advantage of a prone Town Car.
Cieras are still on the road and well maintained in Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands and so so in Finland. As a North-American car Ciera was one of the types which sold in solid numbers in Western-Europe. This two toned yellow&grey(?) magic is a good idea and appears neatly. Thanks for posting.
I didn’t even know they were exported new; thus, I have to take back what I posted above.
Also es ist ein Postauto.
I remember all the yellow Bundespost vehicles next door to my hotel: Golfs & Vanagons at the time.
The color scheme looks like it originated in the noble house of Thurn und Taxis, who ran the Holy Roman postal franchise way back around the 1600s.
I think it would have looked better with the window frames and B pillar blacked out. But, yeah, at least someone’s keeping it on the road.
The 2015 Camry copied this car’s original glossy black plastic “rear quarter window.” It actually looks better painted body color like this example.
As I said in my Cohort posting, I’m glad they painted over the trunk mounted “luggage rack” I hate those things, anybody ever see lugagge on any of them? What was the first car in the modern era to have them?
good question I have wondered myself- what was the last one?….its like vinyl and carriage lights of the 1970s/1980s
I don’t even really understand how you’re supposed to attach luggage to them. My first car had one and it was just like this. Where are you supposed to attach the straps/bungee cords at the front? Are you supposed to tie them to something in the trunk? There’s probably a very simple explanation that will make me look like an idiot, but I give up – I’ve been trying to make sense of it for 20 years now and I’ve got nothing. Can someone please explain them??
my owners manual for my 1990 Buick has instructions for the optional luggage rack (its raining outside but will grab it for you tomorrow)
On stingray-era Vettes and other small roadsters with useless or nonexistent trunks, then they KINDA make sense. But on anything else…just, why?
The yellow’s okay, but I don’t like the metallic silver with it.
Yellow is one of those colors that some bodystyles just cant pull off. The T-word has been beat into the ground, so I wont pile onto that. But while bright colors work on certain bodystyles, they look hideous on others. This, while its executed nicely and I have a soft spot for loving an unloved car….just…..NO.
I like yellow vehicles, personally. In fact my last Jeep was yellow. It was also a soft top Wrangler, mildly lifted with lots of black trim. Sporty, rugged 4×4 with a good helping of fun and adventure in its personality. Yellow is a good color there.
I really prefer the yellow ‘original’ Rumble Bees to the black ‘negative’ Rumble Bee paint scheme that I have on mine. Again, its a single cab shortbed pickup with a sports package that is homaging a muscle car: useful vehicle but with a fun, exciting side that’s as much for getting noticed as for getting stuff done.
This Olds reminds me of a Ford Explorer I saw at the dealership back in ’05. It was that pale slightly washed out ‘egg yolk’ yellow that Ford was hawking back then. This was on the pre-crossover Explorer: the biggest, most bloated, non-rugged, non offroad capable, family wagon oriented version of a historically soccer mom focused rig. It comes off a lot like a nerdy middle aged balding overweight accountant who habitually wears thick glasses and those short sleeved middle management shirts (think Milton from Office Space) suddenly getting a full sleeve tattoo. Some things just can NOT be pulled off. That Exploder was on the lot, brand new and unwanted for a LOOOONNG time. Meanwhile, youd see yellow Hummers and XTerra’s all day every day.
and as they observed the Oldsmobile cutlass Eurosport is international edition series it is in Mexico could provide information.