Oldsmobile had a long and storied history before its I suppose timely demise due to lack of interesting and unique product as well as a general loss of distinct purpose. But many of us coming of driving age in the 1980’s will remember a very long stretch of time that the midsize Cutlass Ciera was ubiquitous on our streets, with the herds really thinning out within the last decade or so. So seeing this first-year 1984 wagon, the Cutlass Cruiser, was a bit of a surprise.
The Ciera line (and that of its sisters) had started production for the 1982 model year in Doraville, Georgia; the newly downsized Cutlass Cruiser wagon was introduced and added to that line a couple of years later for 1984. These A-bodies were of course derived from the X-body platform (i.e. the Citation) and over a long run of some fifteen seasons were sold through 1996 as the Olds Cutlass Ciera and Cutlass Cruiser, Buick Century, Pontiac 6000 and of course the Chevy Celebrity.
1996, the final year, finally saw Olds drop the Cutlass part of the name, likely to save a few pennies on the badging. All were FWD with the exception of one version of the Pontiac 6000 sedan which offered an AWD option. Imagine if AWD was offered across the divisions and in wagon form, perhaps they would have sold in even greater numbers. Opportunity wasted.
Fifteen years is an eternity in the car business and with the running start that GM got practicing on the X-body warm-up act, it’s no big surprise that by the end (OK, quite a while beforehand) they had really figured it out and these ended their run as generally excellent vehicles from a reliability and durability standpoint even if they were heavily outclassed well before the end in most other respects. Still, they were big enough and most importantly could be produced cheaply enough to for the most part keep both buyer and producer happy.
Like many families across the United States, mine owned one as well, in our case a well worn 1985 (I think) Celebrity wagon with the Iron Duke (uh, I meant Tech IV), tan vinyl interior and a suspicious odor. It was acquired pre-owned sometime in the early ’90’s. It was a very far cry from this exceedingly well equipped Oldsmobile that comparatively is dripping with luxury touches starting with the woodgrain siding, rear-most vent windows and wire-wheel covers, the last of which denoted real luxury and “you’ve arrived!” in 1980’s General Motors marketing psyche.
This one even has a very ornate hood ornament that retains all of its original luster.
I don’t fully understand how GM can bundle that ornate ornament with the modernist rocket image peppered around the rest of the car though. The rocket is cool. The hood ornament is Grandma but might look good as a tattoo on Johnny Depp or similar. But they don’t go together. This one seems to have been a local its whole life ending up here less than ten miles from where it started out. Emich is still around but Olds obviously isn’t.
Of course the Olds Cutlass Ciera line is also very well remembered for its role in the Coen Brothers’ film Fargo, where car salesman Jerry Lundegaard is scheming using his dealership’s fleet of Cieras. A subplot has him selling one and getting into a debate with his buyer regarding the “TruCoat”, a coating that the buyer doesn’t want to pay for but “they put that on at the factory” and “we can’t sell it without it”. The DiamondCoat on this one may not be called TruCoat but as we all know it does the exact same thing to the paint, i.e. absolutely nothing.
This Olds wagon is powered by the Buick 3.0 liter V6, putting out a respectable for the day 110hp and 145lb-ft of torque. The Klein Family Celebrity’s crappy Iron Duke (excuse me, I meant to say crappy Tech IV) produced more noise than power but was also available here, this owner made the wise choice.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again but cars with bordello red interiors seem to hold up better than anything else seen in the junkyard. Just look at that velour, it almost (almost) makes one want to strip down and lay on it. So decadent. And so (seemingly) clean and filth repellent, the red hue could contain anti-microbial properties. Perhaps the DiamondCoat comes as an interior protectant as well, if so then maybe it works after all.
It looks pretty loaded from here, although there was a trip computer option with center console available at one point, I am not certain it was for 1984 or in the Olds wagon. Power windows and doors, a power driver’s seat, woodgrain dash, split bench seat, all the modern conveniences.
It’s 1984, why isn’t the owner’s manual on a floppy disk ready to be inserted into your Radio Shack TRS-80 or Commodore VIC-20? Oh yeah, not everybody had an 80 column card installed and only about 512 bytes of memory. Better just to depict it on the cover, so futuristic!
It’s missing a CB and possibly the optional “Rally Fun Pack” as in Clark Griswold’s Antarctic Blue Sports Wagon, but everything else is here. A full set of gauges without blanks, virtually unheard of in Junkyard GM finds! The rear window defroster. A/C. It’s all here.
I wonder if the owner’s grandson was practicing neutral drops and killed it, that RPM gauge needle stuck at almost 6000RPM well into the red zone of the tach (in an Olds) is a bit scary. 83,203 miles are showing, it could well be 100k more but the interior is so clean, perhaps not…
That steering wheel design is a bit of an abomination though, who thought that looked good with the Olds logo trying to slide off the bottom there? Lots of dash vents but nothing for the crotch anymore. There’s even fake stitching around the padded areas of the dash and the wheel’s horn pad, foreshadowing the look in many cars today.
The Delco Stereo Cassette unit with Forward and Reverse buttons as well as Bass and Treble controls looks like the fancy unit for 1984 and that HVAC controller was of course ubiquitous across virtually every product in the GM stable.
The back seat is even more pristine than the front, if a bit out of place due to the workers looking for coins or whatever underneath. Ooh, the rear passengers each get their own ashtray as well.
Going back around to the rear, it’s not an unattractive design at all. I don’t fault Toyota or Volvo for their boxy 80’s designs so really can’t complain about this either. I sort of like it, actually, just a shame the “wood” is peeling.
The keys were in the ignition where Junior probably left them after the last neutral drop, so let’s see if they work back here. Use the round key and twist left to open the glass only, or right for the whole tailgate. What shall we do?
We turned it to the right and holy crap is the tailgate heavy, the struts probably wore out in the mid 90’s and weren’t replaced. But there’s quite a bit of room back here without the descending roofline seen in too many of today’s wagons and CUV’s.
And look at that, Old-Skool 8-passenger seating (3/3/2) even if the last two are the wrong way around with a handy footwell to catch the vomit from the littles, who needs a Suburban? Note the total of two headrests in the car and they seem the same as what was in the Klein Family 1977 Pontiac Ventura if I’m remembering correctly with that blade-like shaft.
This badging always astounded me, I can’t really think of a car that appears less internationally flavored than the Olds Ciera lineup. What’s curious is the omission of Japan’s flag (Ok, not really curious, it was the 80’s and the domestics were getting creamed by the Japanese) but if there is one country that seems to appreciate this car today, although in Buick form, it would be Japan. But why is Belgium on there? And Italy? Dude….
There’s a special feel. I guess that’ll do.
Related Reading about Cutlass Cruisers in happier circumstances
Brendan Saur finds an ’86 Olds and a ’96 Buick version a few yards from each other
Ed Stembridge comes across a much more basic 1994 version
I would have taken the hood ornament.
I spent a lot of time driving a base model 87 sedan with the tech IV as a teenager.
My best friends mothers car. She gave it to us to use for all her errands.
Not fast boat like handling but I really liked the car
Tru Coat, Diamond Coat, and the like all did one thing exceeding well. They relieved many green pieces of paper from the customer’s hand.
Many people still regularly waxed their cars by hand, a task many loathed. These products capitalized on the promise to make people’s lives easier in the pursuit of happiness. 🙂
then we got to the point where- for the most part- paint stopped looking terrible after 5 years.
well, at least he didn’t fall for stem lube.
though winter is coming…
Here in California the brand I remember was PolyGlyCote. That plus Scotchgard in the seats for about $1000 was standard on all Honda’s until they realized they could save the money on the snake oil and just call it “Additional Dealer Markup” and people would still pay for it. But based on the ads that interrupt my YouTube watching, similar products are still being hawked. Not for me, I wash my cars about once a year and haven’t waxed a car in decades.
Waxing does help. If you actually care about your car.
Fantastic find! Transports me to my mid-80s elementary school years without too much imagination needed. The graphics on the owners manual! I think I just heard the squealing of a rotary phone modem connection. In all seriousness, I think the styling as a classy, good looking effort.
And you connected at a whopping 600 or 1200 baud.
To read this singe article at that speed would take a half hour for it to load and arrange the page properly. To think I thought that 36,000 baud was fast 20 years ago…and you had to work with your local phone company to get it to that speed. 24K was more the norm then.
Belgium is there for the Minerva fans. You like Spyker? Well, there’s the Dutch flag.
BTW my first car was old enough to have vents, and a very random image search for this model shows a high take rate on whatever level provided the wayback vent windows. Has anyone got experience on how well they worked?
The way back vent windows were provided on the 3 seat wagons to give the 3Rd seat occupants a little air. Two seat wagons didn’t get them.
Ah, good to know.
Excellent find. This Olds is in remarkable condition for an ’84.
I collected car badges as a kid. The international flags on the Cutlass Salon was among the most unique and cooler domestic design touches of the 70s. My friends and I used to wonder back then, the logic behind these specific countries being included. I doubt the flag badge would have survived into more modern times if they couldn’t rationalize why these countries were chosen. Ford included the Japanese flag in their ‘world car’ marketing. Though I’m sure that was mostly done to try to legitimize the Escort’s quality image.
For those not interested in minivans, these offered among the best size and space utilization packaging of the time.
If I remember correctly, when the Olds flags first appeared on the Cutlass Salon in the 1970s, it was the source of quite a faux pas early on.
There’s really only two countries that mattered here — the US and Canada, which undoubtedly accounted for about 98% of worldwide Oldsmobile sales… and inexplicably the Olds folks left off the Canadian flag when this badge was first introduced. This was especially egregious since some of the cars on which the flag strips were placed were produced at Oshawa.
When this was brought to GM management’s attention (shortly after production started), the flags were quickly modified. Norway, which was second-to-the-left in the original version was replaced by Canada – and I think the flags remained unchanged after that.
I know this isn’t a great image, but here’s a piece of a 1973 Cutlass Salon ad that shows the flag strip with the Norwegian, instead of Canadian, flag. (I just took this photo now with my cellphone camera… don’t quite have time to scan it for a better image):
Thank you Eric. Never should have happened, given GM would be using the most expensive ad agencies, and layers of review. But GM was well know for hubris, and I doubt their suppliers would be immune from the apathy/ignorance that led to this.
I remember seeing a 73 Cutlass Salon that some neighbors bought new. I was an OldsmoExpert, having accompanied my mother through the process of buying a new 72 Cutlass Supreme. I felt like the rug had been pulled out, with Olds adding this new “foreign flavored” model at the top of the line. Of course it seemed foreign – just look at all those flags!
I had never known about the flag switch. The Salon did not last long as top dog, the Supreme had real staying power.
I would daily drive this car today if I could. My family never had one but they were everywhere when I was growing up. I’m impressed with the rocket logo on the taillight. It looks like a 3D piece and not just a cheap decal like later GM products. What I’ve really been looking for for years now is a later model 6000 wagon in decent shape. I don’t know if there are any left but I sure haven’t seen one down here in Georgia.
I had a ’91, same paint scheme. Same interior scheme. But by 1991, GM had relegated these A bodies to profit machines. No power windows, no power seat. Actually, the cable that connected the adjuster claws on my front seat broke at some point in the 6 years I owned the car between 2002 and 2008. The AC Delco stereo cassette got swapped for an Alpine CD player. The stock P195/70R14s were bumped up to 195/75s. As 185,000 km broke 225, 250, and finally 325,000 km, the oil in the 3300 V6 went from 5W30 to 10W30 to 15W40 HD in the summer, to 10W30 HD in the winter. The only persistent issues with the car was a shitty first gear and fussy torque converter lockup in the very tired 4T60 slushbox. Overall, good car, cheap to fix, cheap to maintain, my wife HATED it, so I loved it of course. I’d have another in a minute.
Although it is a wagon, I don’t think this Oldsmobile ever had to serve as a family car. Even children in the ’80s weren’t well-behaved enough for the interior to have held up this well. Whatever Diamond Coat is, I wish my car had been treated with it. I had plenty of experience with many variants of A-cars, and yet I would have had a hard time sending this one to the junkyard. Was it just lack of interest? Gummed up carburetor and water in the gas tank? It looks like a contender for Radwood with just a couple of afternoons of effective detailing.
When I see this car, I can’t help but to think of a family I knew who had an identical white-and-wood Cutlass Cruiser.
In the early 1990s I worked in a store, and one of my co-workers was a woman named Tracy. She lived about an hour away, and had two preschool-aged kids who she’d drive to work and then drop off at a relative’s house for the day. Tracy wasn’t exactly a clean, neat person, and neither were her kids, and as a result of the three of them spending 2 hours a day in this wagon, this became the messiest car I’d ever seen.
At one point, Tracy had mice living in the car, and that prompted her to get it detailed, but I think that was the only time it was ever cleaned. However, the car was absolutely reliable for her, and she loved it.
She liked it so much that in about 1994 she bought another one (this time it was a gold-colored wagon without the wood), and her husband bought a Ciera sedan at the same time. With her kids being a bit older by then, she was able to keep it in better shape, but I still don’t think it was ever washed.
I sometimes wonder what kind of cars Tracy and her husband bought next to replace their Cieras?
Bought my Mother’s 1988 sedan back around 1992. It had the 2,8 litre V-6. Pretty much trouble free, until the solenoid for the lock up torque converter stopped working. The car would stall when you were stopped like if you were driving a manual and didn’t put the clutch in. This turned out to be a common problem. Most people just unplugged the solenoid and drove without the lock up function.
So that’s what that was! Our Pontiac 6000 did that all the time. Used to drive my father nuts. Of course, nobody in Europe knew how to diagnose or cure this issue.
Another mystery solved thanks to CC…
I miss how Car and Driver would frequently refer to the Iron Duke as the “(low) Tech 4.”
Someone grab that cluster! I believe that was the top of three choices. Base was speedo and fuel, with idiot lights in the third dial and the fourth one blank. Intermediate was the temp/volt gauges but a blank face instead of a tach. Fully equipped like this one, that cluster is as good as anything the Germans or Japanese sold at the time.
Pegged tach notwithstanding, that wagon might have been driven into the yard. Back in the 90’s, the U-pull yard near me often put cars in the public area without draining fluids or removing batteries. A couple of times I found keys, and the cars started right up.
I had two A-body wagons at different times, an ’88 Celebrity and a ’93 Cutlass Cruiser like this one. The Celeb (with 2.8 V6) unfortunately was an unreliable dog. The Olds was a superb car. The wagons swallowed up an immense amount of stuff and have a REALLY low cargo floor, making loading easy — a feature totally lost in the CUV/SUV age.
Any insight as to how much a fully-loaded model like this one would have cost? I wonder how it compared to a nice import, like a Camry wagon. (Though I guess Camry wagons didn’t arrive in the US until 1986.) Or maybe compared to a Maxima?
It’s a shame these were so dumpy-looking. Those solid mechanicals and features-per-dollar might have been compelling through the late 80’s & early 90’s if they were packaged in a more aero body. Doesn’t even need to be as radical as the Taurus, I’m thinking something more along the lines of a Tempo.
I would estimate that this car sold for between $13,200 and $15,500 depending on the competence of the buyer. My sister’s friend’s first car was a brand new 1984 or 1985 Cutlass Ciera ES that was optioned a little fancier than this wagon, having styled aluminum wheels, power bucket seats, and a center console. It did have the same nice dashboard that this one has though.
A Tempo isn’t dumpy????
I drove 1998 Ciera with every option except leather and sunroof. I thought it has a pretty decent car for $900. A little rough on the outside but the interior was beautiful. The instrument clusters on the Ciera is the best I have ever seen.
Yes, GM let these cars go a long time but there was a strong demand for them in Canada, anyway. Many were ex-rentals but they sold quite when new. By 1993 they were cheap as dirt. Buyers loved them by 1989 since the 3300 motor was excellent, a goof shifting transmission, lots of room and good reliability. They handled very well and cost several thousands less than a Taurus.
The car mags hated this car but GM sold a zillion of them.
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Power seats, tailgate glass and 7 seats. Blow the dirt off and drive away. Crime that this car was scrapped ?. Wonder why?.
This ‘perfectly good car’ has a retail value of approx $500; wholesale, it’s scrap. It’s a 35 year old car with plenty of miles and plenty weathered. A brake job and a set of tires exceeds its value. Someone who’s desperate for transportation can find a newer car for near scrap money. Remember that this car is from an era when a 10 year old car was ready for the scrap heap.
Well looked at from another angle these cars are reasonably reliable, seem to hold up to abuse and are super cheap to fix. My long time friend still finds and drives these A-body cars and nothing on them costs much even the tires. As he says it beats a 400 dollar a month car payment and the utility of those wagons is quite respectable.
This generation of GM mid sizers were quite space efficient. When i was 25 years old or so, I remember going to lunch with a big group of work colleagues in a blue version of this Ciera driven by a guy who was about 15 years older and had two kids. Two of us guys volunteered to sit in the rear-facing third seat so that none of our skirt-wearing female coworkers had to make that giant step over the rear bumper. I was okay back there for the 10-minute drive to the restaurant, but my seat mate tore out the seam of his pants trying to get out of the seat, an awkward maneuver for a full-grown male. From then on, we drove in two cars whenever we had a big group outing.
The A body sedans had the same interior space as the X bodys, but were about 8 inches longer. The extra size is all in the overhangs.
My mom had an ‘82 Ciera sedan, my stepdad bought it new. Was loaded including that instrument cluster. My recollection is that the tach always went up to a high number when the car was shut off and stayed there until it was started again. It was a nice car to drive, but the dash had to be retightened about every 6 months or it rattled and squeaked to high heaven. It was a light metallic green with matching interior.
Having grown up in an area where it felt like fully half the population either worked for GM or had an immediate family member who did I have NEVER seen an A-body with a tachometer. I knew it was available but to me it was sort of a theoretical thing.
FWIW that red line seems as optimistic as if that tach was in a vehicle with the Olds 307.
That’s an Oldsmobile. must be since it says so on the car. Honestly I only paid attention to Oldsmobile models 98, 88, 442, and the Vista Cruiser between 1965-1972. Pretty much the same for Buick and so both faded from my sight after 1973. Pontiac a little later as they did have the Firebird.
That dashboard gauge cluster is great — huge missed opportunity for GM. They had more upscale looking furnishings yet consistently limited them to a small % of the production run instead of making it standard fare and building a better brand. This versus the horizontal speedo? No question far nicer. Ditto the 98 touring sedan as example.
I saw a Ciera sedan a couple of days ago and was surprised. So I guess they have become uncommon even in Lansing.
My parents had the century wagon. I HATED IT. For a family of 6 it was way too cramped and I hated the interior design and asked my dad why gm was using interior designs from the 60s. It was my first realization of the gm hubris. The rear legroom was so limited my friends parents accords back seet seemed like a limo in comparison. It was replaced with a 1990 taurus wagon which was a world above and byond.
Looking back on this design though its huge windws thin pillars airy cabin and double rear hatch are a breath of fresh air compared to todays high beltline slopped roof slit windowed 1 piece hatch crossovers. I wouldnt mind a return to the past but Id still take the Taurus wagon.
We had several A bodies (Cieras and a Century) all sedans with 3.3’s, and if I could have another one that hadn’t lost the rust battle, we would be driving one right now. They were great cars for those of us who prioritize utilitarian reliability over style and high performance because with the exception of a few small items, they were unbreakable and very practical. Aside from the aforementioned rust, and the torque converter lock-up solenoid, we had zero problems over many years and many miles. I doubt if any of the new iron could do better, and many new vehicles will certainly do worse. “Good, old…..” is better than “Latest, greatest……” in my book every time!
A friend owned one of these, identical wood paneling, only a light yellow car with brown velour. I rode in it a couple of times and wondered how anyone could buy something that retrograde by the late 80s. But after some years have passed, I would absolutely drive this example if it could be cleaned up and driven out of that yard. These eventually earned my respect for their old-time toughness.
Yes, those badges are real cognitive dissonance. I recall the rocket from my childhood, and I remember the other one getting dusted off from Olds’ really early history as the Brogham Era got underway. Using both on the same car kind of signified what was going on at GM at the time.
There’s a daily driver Ciera sedan in my neighborhood, but I haven’t seen an FWD A Body wagon for a long time.
The rally gauge cluster was hardly a rare sight and a good many of them were so equipped. Note that these gauges were std on all ES/GT models along with most of the XC special editions. It was also a free standing option on all models from 1982 to 1992. Note too that in a few model years, like the 1989 base sedan I had, was bundled in a lower cost value package with alloy wheels and a trunk luggage rack. For 1993 the only cluster available was the new one that was created a few years before that included a dial speedometer, a temp gauge and trip odometer. This setup carried the Ciera right up to the end in 1996.
As for the interior I honestly can’t recall ever seeing a cloth seat model with heavily worn or ripped seats. We sold a boatload of these cars and the interiors were mostly always in good shape and just needed detailing to be front line ready as far as condition was concerned.
This first year 1984 base Cutlass Cruiser started around 9900 bucks and this example looks to have been loaded up with most options. A/C, 3.0 liter V6 upgrade, tilt and cruise, AM/FM digital cassette, rear defogger, luggage rack, woodgrain, exterior molding package and bodyside moldings, wire wheels with white side walls, power everything and a passenger recliner in addition to the rally gauge package to name the highlights. Note that GM’s 440 4 speed automatic trans axle was also offered but in tight supply and the 3.8 MFI V6 was also available during the 1984 model run but was a very rare option this year. Tallying this car up at the time using original prices for the window sticker would see around 13,800 and an actual transaction price of around 12K judging by what my 14 year old eyes saw on random lot specials at the time.
can I have veins from yunkjard because I need such a hood thank you