As the 1980s faded into the 1990s, Olds kept one foot planted as firmly as it could in the 1970s. After all, plenty of bluehairs would still line up, with their checkbooks open, for faux luxury. But even as our elders took delivery of cars like this 1993 (I think) Ninety Eight Regency Elite, you could see that this is exactly how they’d end up, and fast. (Presumably the cars, and not our elders. -Ed.) These cars just seemed cheaply thrown together and covered in as much ticky-tacky as it was possible to apply. Remember how all the girls in seventh grade inexpertly slathered on their makeup? This is their automotive equivalent.
But unlike those girls, Olds was old enough to know better. I’m sure this time period gave Oldsmobile quite a shock; after all, the Cutlass Supreme had been America’s car during much of the ’70s and ’80s, when it seemed there was some sort of Cutlass in every other driveway. But by 1990 those days were over, and Olds would spend the rest of its life trying to figure out what it should be. Sadly, their soul-searching didn’t stop them from selling dreck like this.
At least this example’s interior isn’t chewed up too badly. I spotted this not-quite-Curbside-Classic one day a couple of weeks ago in the parking lot at work, and photographed it for much the same reason one slows down to rubberneck at a crash on the highway.
And then it turned into Oldsmobile Week in the office parking lot. Maybe my eyes had just become attuned to them after noticing the whored-up Ninety Eight. The telltale sign of a W-body coupe is the door handle in the window frame, of course. At least GM had figured out by the mid-1990s that when multiple vehicles share a common platform, each needs to have a unique and brand-specific style. Unfortunately, Oldsmobile’s W-body coupe ended up being the most anonymous of the bunch.
That cabin doesn’t look like too bad a place to be, though. Except for that dimple in the armrest, this one looks to be in pretty good shape for its age. I think this Cutlass Supreme is from about 1995.
This 1998-or-so Eighty Eight was parked across the way from the Cutlass Supreme. By the time it was built, it was already too late for Olds; we can all see that now. But Olds was still pitching, hoping the Aurora would catch on, and tried to make all their cars look a little more like it, which explains this aero front end.
I knew an elderly lady who had one of these. She’d driven nothing but Oldsmobiles for 40 years, Cutlasses mostly, and she described her Eighty Eight as being one of her favorites–powerful enough, comfortable and easier to park than the larger cars she was used to. The cabin certainly looks like a decent place to be.
But of all the Oldsmobiles I saw in the parking lot that week, this is the one I’d have. Sure, except for the front and end clips you couldn’t tell it from the Buick LeSabre. Sure, they were smaller on the outside than Cutlass Supremes of a generation before, and lacked the presence of Eighty Eights gone by. But I spent enough time in them to know they were competent enough, comfortable enough and plenty roomy.
Could the time I spent in these have softened my heart toward them? The others, I’ve never so much as sat in.
Check out the solid interior on this one. I’m rather charmed that the seats are covered in cloth–and that single cup holder is amusing. Fortunately, by the 1990s GM got the memo that both front-seat passengers might want to stow their respective venti caramel-mocha macchiatos.
Ah, GM paint from the ‘80s. Anyway, if I ever come upon one of these, in the elusive coupe version with a For Sale sign in the window, I’ll be tempted to bring my checkbook–even if the roof looks like this.
I always found the Olds W-body the most attractive of the bunch, even if they started cribbing from Saturn. That coupe is one of the few 20 year old cars that still looks attractive by modern standards.
And the final big Oldsmobiles had a wonderful body shape. Still looks attractive, one of the few American full-size cars that attracts me.
I liked the early Olds W-body coupes the best out of all of them. Clean split grille, tons of glass, those alloys that looked like a throwback to styled 60s wheel covers… but the mid-90s updated version (like this one) was pretty nasty. I can get on board with the six tiny headlamps, but I can’t get down with the “Ribbed for Her Pleasure” Pontiac-style cladding and extreme levels of cheapening GM subjected these cars to (the early ones were fairly solid).
I do like the C/H-body Olds’ of the 90s a lot, however. Often times they did suffer from some very questionable trim details (the blue vinyl top is hideous on that 98) but overall I thought they were nice cars, and nearly bulletproof with the 3800. The only thing that bugs me about them is that their Buick equivalents seemed put together so much better and used much nicer, sturdier materials on the inside. How’d that happen?
I agree with you about the Cutlass Supreme coupe. The late-’80s versions looked far better. Composite headlights, better wheels, and none of that Pontiac Grand Am ribbed body cladding I detest!
I’m in complete agreement.
GM still put out a respectable Oldsmobile during the 1980s. It was clean, sharp with well proportioned lines and although it looked like all the rest of its matching GM siblings, it was still a decent enough ride to get stuck in. It wasn’t what I would drive, but I didn’t wonder why someone else drove them.
That changed in the 1990s, however. I remember clearly sitting in the show room totally shocked at how cheap and poorly made the Ninety Eights were. The cheesy bad black plastics were glued together everywhere and the tacky chrome painted plastic was covering hollow plastic buttons and switches that wouldn’t have passed approval from the cheapest kitchen appliance manufacturers. The instrumentation was Yugo-quality. The “leather” didn’t feel real. The weight of the doors, fenders, and body looked as though GM didn’t want to add unneeded pounds for fuel efficiency, but the overall effect was strikingly poor body integrity with questionable durability. The grilles looked like they came from recycled playground equipment. AND they were expensive cars! I couldn’t feel worse for Oldsmobile.
The entire 1990s line up was uninspired. Were they trying to copy Saturn? Is that why they looked like giant plastic cars? It was as though Oldsmobile stopped trying to deliver an Oldsmobile during this decade, but instead, give us a full size Saturn S. For Oldsmobile to mimick Saturn for sales leverage in the Market would be like Lincoln mimicking the Escort for their Continentals. Oldsmobile lowered the bar for what an Oldsmobile meant traditionally in order to appeal to a younger generation of buyers, I am wondering. It just cheapened the brand.
By then end of the Century, it was obvious that Oldsmobile stopped trying to be what it once was. The Aurora was a confused mess of motoring motifs, apeing some kind of bland import with cheap GM design elements. What it made up in quality, it lost in presentation.
For those of us who remember the “Gallant Men of Olds”, who grew up in their number one market – Chicagoland, watching Oldsmobile flail as it went into a death spiral was pitiful. GM couldn’t save every brand, but at least they could have ended them with a little class. That is what I remember best about Oldsmobile during the 1990s – NO CLASS.
I’m sorry but I dunno where your getting at, the 1995-1999 Aurora was one of the prettiest cars of the 1990’s, it still looks good even today, the Saturn-Oldsmobile tie ups were there because they almost did merge the divisions, except Oldsmobile dealers balked and fought back, right around the time that Saturn was introduced in 1990, Oldsmobile started offering The Oldsmobile Edge program, which was very similar to Saturns customer care program, I believe it was the first of GM traditional divisions with full roadside assistance, a 30 day exchange program, etc, etc, Oldsmobile even started offering “one price” versions of the the Cutlass, Delta 88, Acheiva and Ciera at large metro market Oldsmobile dealers, if they had folded one into the other, Saturn would have covered the small cars that Olds never did well in, Oldsmobile would have covered the mid to full size cars, minivans and the Bravada suv and then Aurora would have been like a Lexus/Acura within Oldsmobile. I would be interesting to ponder what the outcomes would be like today if that had happened.
They wanted to move away from a “me too Buick” velour, whites and wires look, to something in am more import oriented style, which is why the plastichrome started to fade away and the faux wood became less glossy, or disappeared altogether.
The Aurora was a fabulous vehicle, which was originally supposed to debut in 1992 along with the redesigns of the other models. Unfortunately the financial situation at the time did not allow that to happen and it came out in 1994. The biggest obstacle was that it was a “diamond in the rough” so to speak at the time for Oldsmobile. The debut of the Aurora also coincided with the debut of the new logo. It was a transition time and a very difficult one at that one that the division never really recovered from. I for one move from Oldsmobile to Cadillac right before the debut of the Aurora, the division shed about 25% of its core staff plus about a 1/3 of the dealers left by the time the Aurora debuted.
As much as I did not care for it personally, a merge with Saturn probably would have been effective. A high percentage of Oldsmobile dealers picked up Saturn when those licenses were issued in 1988 and 1989, partly because they could use the volume as well as the fact that Oldsmobile never had good luck selling smaller cars. The problem was that, as was said, most of the dealers were stand alone and with an extremely high percentage of them owner-operated the culture was engrained.
John Rock, who was something of a maverick (as many Olds GMs seemed to be historically) unfortunately he left after only 4 years for personal reasons. Had he stayed longer he might have been able to make a better go of it. He was replaced by a long-time Buick guy which, although competent, allowed the division to drift back towards luxury cues which pulled it away from the progressive image it had fostered (hence why the Aurora was toned done for the second go around). His biggest regret was no letting go of Burnett the ad agency that had served Oldsmobile since the 1930s. Although they were tremendously successful for most of Oldsmobile’s history, they also did create the ‘Not Your Father’s Oldsmobile’ campaign of the late 1980s that did not draw in new customers and alienated older ones.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2j3LkfLGgMo Speech that Rock gave at Oldsmobile annual meeting in 1993 the last one I attended for the division.
My thoughts on Oldsmobile probably go way beyond what a comment could justify, I simply do not have the time to write up a proper CC on the subject. The quick and dirty of it is simply this, Oldsmobile was always considered the luxury brand for the blue collar crowd, the kind of car that a guy that made good money at a steel mill or a middle management guy would buy when he could afford to move up from Chevrolets. The problem was, that type of person disappeared from the marketplace. As ethnic neighborhoods emptied out in urban areas and younger Boomers decided they wanted their money now rather than later , they turned to more flashier cars. Families moved away from large sedans into minivans. 30 and 40 somethings felt the need to have a high monthly car payment to show off their income producing prowess, and well there just wasn’t as many older folks left. Like everything, markets evolve, and products evolve, nothing stays the same.
This past weekend, travelling 8+ hours attended one of the shows I photographed and pulled in behind a guy in a 1970 Olds Cutlass S in the entrance lane. Lo and behold he was from North Carolina (I did not know him) coincidentally living only about 15 miles from me attending the same show 8+ hours from our home. He bought the car brand new from Stackhouse Oldsmobile and lovingly preserved it for 42 years since including through a stroke which crippled him from driving for a couple of years.
Olds seemed to have that bad luck with effective and strong division heads, same thing happend with Bortz(Beltz?) in the early 70’s, he died after only running the division for a couple of years.
Beltz was chief engineer for Olds prior to being GM. He had been around since the first OHV Rocket, so his influence was deep at the division. He was the GM when I was accepted at GMI but had died by the time that I arrived for school. I generally liked all of the GMs until the late 1980s. Most of the transformation of Oldsmobile from its traditional feel to the progressive feel was due to Michael Losh who ran Pontiac during the 1980s after Bill Hoaglund went to Saturn and was instrumental in pushing Pontiac into plastic clad performance image and the SSE. He was extremely young like 42 at the time, which his 21st century themes were hard to swallow for the conservative minded crew at the time.
John Beltz was also concerned with quality. It is too bad he died, he may have been head of GM and they could have avoided the messy cars of 80’s.
I share your high regard for the original Aurora. I’ve never driven one, but have sat in one. The exterior was stunning, and still looks futuristic in 2013. The interior was definitely a step above other Oldsmobiles of that era. Material quality was noticeably better and the real walnut accents definitely conveyed the luxury aura if was after. The dash design is definitely the most “cockpit” I’ve ever seen in a sedan. It was a stunning car. And you could get teal leather!
I’ve never heard of that Oldsmobile/Saturn merger plan, but it makes a whole lot of sense.
Both Olds and Saturn were divisions with problems that a merger would not have solved. Both produced products that were redundant within GM; neither had a unique selling proposition or market niche that made sense in a modern automotive marketplace.
The public (finally) figured out that four versions of same car with slightly different trim pieces was still the same car; they more or less saw through the marketing. Sales plummeted, and Saturn, Olds, and Pontiac were doomed. When GM had 50% market share these divisions were justified, but not at a market share under 20%.
BTW, Vanilla Dude is right, the 1990’s Olds were by and large an embarrassment. The Aurora was an interesting car but it was so tarnished by the other garbage on the Olds showroom floor that it never stood a chance.
In fact, the best selling Oldsmobile in the 90s was the A-body Cutlass Ciera with a design dating back to the early 80s. I still see quite a few of these cars on the road today. It was the AARP crowd that purchased those cars in the late 80s and early 90s.
Heard around the executive office suite of the Oldsmobile management team every year between 1987-2004: “WHOOPS, guess we screwed up again this year guys. But, just wait till next year!”
If you haven’t sat in and driven my 1995 98 Regency Elite, sans the cloth top, don’t knock it. It has true seventies luxury and gets decent in town fuel mileage as well. My odo is now up to 64,500 and the car rides and drives perfectly. I’m going to buy four new whitewall radials for “Marge” this weekend. I’ll see all of you in the “luxury lane.”
On my way home for work there is a silver blue one for sale. In decent shape it sits by the side of the road quietly waiting for it’s next owner…each time I drive by in “Ophelia”..my 1980 Cutluss Brougham with 38,200 on the odo..enjoying 20 MPG city and 25 MPG highway..all in pillow top couderoy comfort I am tempted to pull in….I didn’t like these cars new but they are becoming attractive-especially due to their low price.
I don’t think the Ninety Eights from the 90’s were all that terrible. In fact, I sort of liked them when I was a kid. They were certainly less geriatric-looking than their Le Sabre cousins. Japanese cars at the time all looked the same–boring. I believe Olds was one of the last cars to offer chrome anything, even if it was plastic underneath. Cheap-ish interior plastics were just a common thing in the early 90’s. Even my ’93 E36 BMW had buttons, knobs, and door panels falling off of it. During my time in college working summers at the local Cadillac-Olds dealership, I remember seeing plenty of these coming in with respectably high mileage. Compared to the Cadillacs at the time with their new Northstar V8s, these were pretty reliable and were the go-to cheap used car for someone who wanted a comfy cruiser to beat into the ground.
Gahh! The kerning on that “N inety Eight” stitching above is searing my eyes out!
+1
I don’t believe it’s factory. Hence the big space. GM’s attention to detail wouldn’t produce that.
GM never offered a factory fabric top on a non-convertible car in those years. Some cars did some with ‘convertible like’ tops like early 80s Seville/Eldorado, but they were made of out pinpoint vinyl. It was probably done by E&G or Salon who both had authorizations to use the logos. As for the specific logo on this car, the perceived gap is likely due to the fact that there is a angle to the stitching and machine had to account for the first letter of the two words being capitalized and separated from the rest of the word. If you look closely at the gap at the top of the N and the I, it is not really off but the curvature of the script produces a gap at the bottom that looks “off.”
Ha! Thought I was the only one that noticed that!
Haha, agreed. I thought it was missing the “i” for a second until I realized it was fabric and that would be rather unlikely.
I could actually drive one of these. I would prefer to avoid the cloth roof (really – I don’t think it ever fooled people into thinking it was a convertible) but that blue leather looks inviting.
This would make it onto my short list if I were to consider a 90s GM car. I sort of liked the retro proportions. There are still some of these bopping along here in the midwest, where they probably sold as strongly as anywhere.
During these years, very few GM cars caught my eye, but the 98 did, for the same reasons as Jim: its retro proportions and certain details. It managed to convey the spirit of the early-mid sixties in a rather creative way: not blatant retro, but suggestive.
But its plastichrome details and general ambiance was very cheap;more so than a comparable Buick. There’s quite a few still around, but every one has trim pieces that are trying to jump off the car. And that started quite a while ago.
I’ve probably seen many Olds Eighty Eights like in the 6th picture down, but never a sporty red one! Seems like a very unusual color for such a car. Maybe it was originally purchased by a fire chief?
Dunno if its the camera or if it was re-painted, that red seems unusually bright for am 88, I don’t think they ever offered anything that bright from the factory, usually the reds on 88’s and LeSabres were a more burgundy, dark metallic red. The Bonneville of this same era DID offer a bright red for a few years, it looked wrong even on the sportier Pontiac H-body, few were ever ordered.
That is not the original color. Eighty-Eights only came in darker red. Additionally, the deep-tint windows and fake wood steering wheel cover are sure signs that this car isn’t driven by the original owner.
That must be some of the toughest leather used in the 90s. If that last gen 88 looked any better inside and out, it would tempt me to commit grand theft auto. Other than the same generation Bonneville the 88 was the H-body I lusted over.
My grandfather owned a 1992 Ninety-Eight and a 1997 Eighty-Eight exactly like the ones above. The Ninety-Eight had velour, and the Eighty-Eight didn’t have buckets, but otherwise they were equipped similar, sans the canvas roof.
Despite you criticism of design and quality, I love these cars. Sure, emotional connection is a huge part. But on quality, these cars were put together with materials no worse than other GM cars of that time (with the possible exception of Cadillacs and the Aurora). From personal experience or riding in them for a combined 10 years, I can assure you that no interior trim pieces fell, nor did anything wear prematurely. They were well-built automobiles.
As for styling, sure the Ninety-Eight was retro, odd, or even homely; whatever you’d like to call it. I call it “quirky”, and I appreciate its “quirkiness”. As I’ve said before, I think open rear wheel wells would have made it looked a lot less “sled-like”. But it was a great car to ride in, very spacious, comfortable, and had great visibility.
I loved the integrated fender skirts personally. I always thought 98s were begging for an air suspension and a 2in chop in the ride height.
98s had factory air leveling in the rear. You could always have the height sensor adjusted to alter the stance if you so desired. Or you could just simply buy the air shock strut kits available and have a manual fill.
All of GM’s trim during this time was less than perfect. Knobs fell off, trim fell off all over on those mid-nineties 98s (inside AND out). Were they dependable and rugged for Midwest duty? Oh yeah! We had several of every Olds featured!
Whats funny is that the 1991 C-bodies reflected a lot of the styling touches that were first tossed around when the 1985 C-bodies were being designed back in the late 70’s.
Spotted today in the grocery store parking lot in N. Royalton OH (Cleveland). Someone saw fit to preserve a 1986 Ninety Eight Coupe.
Wow, a coupe.
Very rare indeed!
The side view of these cars always reminds me of looking at someone whose eyes are set too far apart.
Nice find! I have seen a Park Avenue coupe, but unfortunately did not take a picture. The downsized C-body Olds and Buick coupes were only made for 1985-87. The Coupe de Ville lasted to ’93.
And as much as I like that Ninety-Eight coupe, the landau top makes the car look like it’s wearing a “Cousin Eddie” hat with ear flaps. Would look much more integrated if it was color-keyed instead of white.
I was all about GM cars growing up in the ’70s. As was most of the country. As a package, generally the most competent and best styled cars. I became an Olds man. My best friends parents had ’66 and ’70 98’s. A bank president my Dad knew had a ’74 98 Regency 4 dr hardtop, my oh my! My Dad’s business cars were 88 Royales. Much more upscale compared to our ’68 Impala. I could always tell the sound of an Olds going up our steep hill in front of our house, we were at the mid point on the hill and drivers would hit the gas just as they passed our home.
My first car was a ’73 Cutlass Supreme coupe with buckets and console. The second was a ’75 Supreme Brougham – loaded. The third an ’82 Delta 88 Royale Brougham coupe – loaded.
I was seriously turned off by the transition to front drive. The Omega was kind of okay, but the early Ciera was fussy with broughmy details that tried to look modern. The Cutlass Supreme – awful. The first front drive 88s and 98s not very good, and GM lost me across the board with the door mounted seat belts – I took a cue from Nancy R and just said NO! Lots of bad reviews about product quality, the really awful interiors on Caprices after 1979, and crappy engines and transmissions didn’t help my perception of GM either.
The second gen front drive 88s and 98s were much better, and the Ciera got cleaned up a bit. The first Aurora was attractive, and the 2nd gen Bravada was decent. But, then they started to just cancel the cars that actually sold well such as the Ciera and 88, without logical replacements. That, as we know, didn’t work out so well.
But, GM had lost me in 1995 when I bought my first brand new car, a 1995 LH Concorde. A very good car for 10 years. I’ve been in Chrysler and Ford showrooms ever since.
I’m up for any pre-Y2k H or C body.
My personal favorite here is that first gen FWD 88 though (big surprise).