Do you remember the GM 5.7-liter Diesel? Even those of a certain age who haven’t directly experienced one undoubtedly have heard of them. My parents’ friends down at the marina had a Dark Jadestone 1982 Delta 88 Diesel coupe, and I can distinctly remember its lud-lud-lud-lud engine beat. The Werthmanns had good luck with that car, and kept it for 10 years. While theirs ran like a top, that wasn’t exactly the most common experience…
Oldsmobile was the pioneer in engineering GM’s Diesel V8 (’78 Delta 88 Diesel CC here). The engine was also available for the Cadillac Seville in 1978, and for the Eldorado, Fleetwood Brougham, Coupe deVille and Sedan deVille in 1979.
As shown in BigOldChryslers’ ’78 Olds Diesel CC, the much-maligned 5.7 Diesel, when properly maintained, could be reliable. However, many of the buyers of GM cars fitted with this engine were quite unfamiliar with its type and the attendant needs; as a result, most of them proved troublesome. The whole GM Diesel V8 episode turned Americans off to Diesel engines for years to follow and, indeed, even today they are more or less a niche in the U.S.
Ah, but what of the newly-downsized Eldo? Well, in a word, it just worked. Despite losing several hundred pounds of blubber (blubbery ’78 Eldo CC here), it lost none of the imposing presence of its larger predecessors. And if the “plain” Eldorado didn’t do it for you, you could always move up to the über-flashy Biarritz.
Yes, the Biarritz had every luxury feature your heart could possibly desire: button-tufted leather (White with red carpet? No problem!), a stainless-steel roof cap, a landau vinyl roof, coach lamps, and your choice of wire wheel covers or aluminum road wheels–and with whitewall tires, of course!
Among the very few changes made for 1980 were a restyled, vertically-oriented grille–and behind it, a new, Caddy-only 368 that succeeded Oldsmobile’s gasoline-fueled 350 V8. Here is the ’80 Eldo, from that year’s brochure, looking quite natty in Colonial Yellow. I have always had a thing for Cadillacs in this color, with the matching pale-yellow leather. It just looks right. You can read all about my love of these yellow Caddys in my ’83 Eldo CC.
Today’s CC is not quite so brilliantly hued, but still quite attractive in gunmetal gray with a red pinstripe. I really like the aluminum wheels on these cars, but can’t recall ever seeing them in person. This one rides on the much more common wire wheel covers.
The interior is also restrained–at least as much as is possible on a button-tufted Biarritz–with Light Antique Gray leather.
This car appeared to be largely original–including the paint. I shot this car nearly a year and a half ago, and I finally figured I’d better get it written up lest I forget about it for another six months!
And, believe it or not, this is not the only Diesel Cadillac I have found in my rust-prone region–in fact, I’ve spotted two more, but they are CCs for another day. When’s the last time you saw a Diesel Caddy?
Always liked these, especially the slick top Touring Coupe. Maybe not with the Diesel though.
I wonder why the Eldorado has no license plates. Did somebody abandon because of the diesel engine? 🙂
Maybe they just bought it and temp tag fell off?
Or its a mafia drop car, check the trunk……….
The bigger question is whether it still has its diesel engine. Quite a few of the Olds diesels were replaced by the 5.7 gas engine.
Hey Paul, I had an 80 Toronado with a diesel when the heads blew out I had the top half of the motor replaced and added a 4 barrel carb. The block is very robust and once tuned properly it was smooth, quiet and quick. Oh and with all of the additional sound deadening it was great ride. I sold it when jacking it up to repair the exhaust system part of the body separated from the frame. (Michigan ya know). I had a newborn and couldn’t risk her getting hurt. If I found one with a solid body and under carrage I’d buy it and relive the past. Most of the diesel blocks are still being used in drag racers.
What about the camshaft? I assume that had to be changed too. But yes, these were tough blocks, for a gas engine.
I like the styling of late 70s early 80s Cadillac. Just make mine a 368 V8 please.
Amen, bro.
Yessir, 368, for the eventual 472/500 swap and having the 368 makes it a slam dunk being the littlest brother to the 425/472/500 family.
Then again, that much torque in a FWD car, would lead to shenanigans that are unseemly for a Cadillac….
Shenanigans? A 500 would rip the driveline to shreds before any shenanigans
could take place.
Love these, I’ll take a 1979 or 80, I’d be okay with the injected Olds 350 or the Caddy 368. Biarritz trim…..of course.
My feeling is the reason diesel autos are still not that popular in the US is that every article that mentions them starts off with a recounting of how “bad” they were in the ’80s. Thus the legend perpetuates itself and folks continue to stay away in droves.
A secondary reason might be that US regulations (certification costs) make it nigh-impossible for automakers with diesel offerings to make a business case for bringing them here.
A tertiary reason is because, on top of a higher initIal purchase price, in almost all cases diesel is more expensive than than regular unleaded. Then on top of that double-whammy, many (if not most or all…I’ve not kept up) require occasional urea fills to keep the emissions down. Unless you’re running a vehicle for many, many miles, or need the torque (as in the case of trucks), it’s difficult for many buyers to comprehend the financial benefit.
Still, owning a diesel is on my “bucket list.”
There are other reasons why diesels are not that popular in North America.
– There’s no price advantage for diesel fuel in NA. In many European countries, diesel is taxed at a significantly lower rate than gasoline. Combine this with much higher fuel prices in Europe, and the payback period/mileage is much shorter.
– Until fairly recently, diesel fuel in NA contained high levels of sulfur. Diesel engines designed for low-sulfur markets needed extensive mods to be used in NA.
– And in cold weather climates, diesels are still relatively hard to start on cold mornings as the fuel thickens.
> There’s no price advantage for diesel fuel in NA.
Specifically there’s no price advantage in the United States, because diesel is taxed at a HIGHER rate than gasoline. Currently, in southern Ontario, regular gas is about 1.30/L and diesel is about 1.23/L. Ignoring currency conversion between Can$ and US$, that’s about $6.35/gal and $6/gal respectively.
> And in cold weather climates, diesels are still relatively hard to start on cold mornings as the fuel thickens.
In the winter, the refiners switch to a different blend of diesel that doesn’t have a gelling problem. The bigger problem is that the cold engine saps the heat of compression away so quickly that the fuel doesn’t heat up enough to ignite. This problem is greatly reduced on new diesels.
I plug-in the block heater of my (19 year old) 12-valve Cummins if the forecast calls for daytime highs of below -15C (5F), same as I used to do with my 6.2L diesel Chevy van. I got my Cummins started with a dead-cold engine at -40 once, but sure wouldn’t want to do it regularly.
I have friends with newer VW and Chevy Duramax diesels. They never plug-in their block heaters and never have a hard time starting.
It will be interesting to see how the new Chevy Cruze diesel works out for GM. Their strategy is to offer it beginning at the LT2 trim level that includes almost all the features of the LTZ (so no base model available). I’m still waiting for diesel Cruze road tests to see if it is actually more of a “sport” model than the “RS” package Cruze – with the tremendous torque from the 2.0 turbo diesel it might be.
I agree, should be interesting to see how the Cruze Diesel works out.
From the tests that I have read it is a little slower than the Eco 5 speed. The engine is heavier, so it doesn’t handle as well. It does get the 4 wheels disks, leather, sunroof and fancier compound link rear suspension, all unavailable on the Eco 5 speed.
I’d still have a hard time justifying the purchase price over the cost of an Eco. The ones around here list for 27K pluss. I don’t think I’d make back the 7K difference in price that the Eco listed for (and I only payed 15K). $12000.00 is alot of fuel for the difference in price.
For the same money, I would buy a VW Golf TDi in a heartbeat.
However, I have also realised the folly of spending $30,000 to save money on gas.
When introduced as a Holden the Cruz diesel has a performance advantage over the gas engine,
How/when did the situation come about where diesel fuel became more expensive than gasoline? I can remember decades ago during the first run-ups in gasoline prices, diesel being quite a bit cheaper. I think that was the whole impetus behind GM coming out with their (poorly engineered) diesel engines. They might have cost more and were more maintenance intensive than gas engines, but those detriments were offset by the fuel price advantage.
But, at some point, diesel fuel in the US became as expensive (or more) than gasoline. Coupled with advances in gasoline-powered vehicles getting much better fuel economy, well, more expensive diesel cars that had little or no use for the torque advantages just don’t make much sense in the US.
Diesels are another example of an automotive feature that many complain they’d like to have more of in the US, but when it happens, not very many people actually buy them.
My suspicion is that the oil companies don’t want too great a demand for diesel fuel in the US because it would require too great a percentage of the refined product stream to be diesel fuel, and cause price and availability problems. Remember that diesel car and light truck owners are competing for fuel with all the heavy trucks, an increasing percentage of the medium trucks, and all the railroad locomotives.
It has been that way since diesel pickups have become popular. From a given barrel of oil there is a set ratio of products that can be obtained from simple distillation. In the past the demand for gas was relatively high making diesel a “waste” product, now that has shifted so they have to do more expensive refining to get the mix the market wants. However the tide is turning, CNG and gasoline are gaining traction for HD and MD trucks.
The single biggest reason is that diesel (and gasoline) is a global commodity, and demand for diesel has grown much faster than for gasoline. That’s because in developing nations, the first surge in demand comes from all the diesel-powered equipment, trucks, etc.
The biggest run up in diesel prices a few years back was during the fastest growth spurt in the BRIC countries and such.
And since refineries are set up to produce a fixed ration of gas and diesel, when diesel demand outstrips gas demand, it creates an imbalance. Europe has at times exported gasoline to the US in recent years for precisely this reason, as the demand was uneven for their refinery outputs.
Below -15?
Ouch.
From Miami with Love.
Waah! Try minus 45 C
BOC: How can you take the noise? I know my ears are somewhat damaged, but I wince every time I’m next to one of the older Cummins sixes (and the old Powerstroke). And the UPS trucks are ferociously noisy to o(Cummins four, right?). I can’t help but wonder if the noise level in those open UPS delivery trucks exceeds OSHA limits. I would die if I had to spend all day in one of those.
I drive much of the year with my windows open, and as much as the idea of a diesel truck appeals, those older Cummins would be out of the question. And I’m talking stock; never mind the chipped ones with open exhausts.
Paul, I worked for UPS for many years, and all of the diesels that were in my fleet (aside from Sprinters) were International T444E or 365 (Powerstroke) V8s. They were generally used in the P-70, P-100, and P-120 package cars. This was in Canada, however. The fleet mix may have been different in the US. You are correct with your observation of the noise levels of those trucks. The older T444E was a killer on your ears, especially if you drove a route that had long stretches of high-speed open road between stops. The 365s were slightly better, but a lot of drivers still wore ear plugs on the to-from drive to their delivery areas.
Paul,
The direct-injected diesels are far quieter than the clattery IDI diesels of decades past. Haven’t you noticed that in traffic? I’ll admit that the Cummins engines are still louder than the rest, but you can be sitting right next to a Duramax at a stop light and not even notice it.
redmonjp: Yes, thankfully. And I did say “older Cummins sixes” in my comment, more than once.
Ed: I think the old history is becoming mostly just that; a distant historical relic. Most younger buyers don’t even know about these Olds issues.
The real reason is economics: if our fuel prices were 2-3 times as high, and diesel was subsidized by lower taxes, the diesel take here would be profoundly higher.
Paul,
I think you hit the nail on the head with that statement. In the area in Maryland I live in, Diesel is sitting at $4.06 a gallon(as of 3pm today) at that same gas station the cost of reg unleaded is $3.68 a gallon. Younger buyers are not turned off of the old Olds diesel BUT of the fact that the diesel fuel cost more then gas and on top of that a Diesel car cost a bit more so there is no point to buying a diesel car. Today’s young driver is more interested in cheaper cost up front and not the long term picture. Never mind that while filling up a Diesel car may cost more to fill up in the short term, that you would need to fill the car less over the course of a month or a year then the gas car so that money is saved, most young(and older) drivers see that gas is 38 cents cheaper
As for me, I am aware of the Olds Diesel(I am an Oldsmoble fan) but when I think of a diesel car, I think of the Benz W123(aka the 240D and 300D/TD) which there is loads of them still on the road for daily use
It is really interesting that diesels have carved out a substantial niche in American pickup trucks, but never in cars or SUVs. Everyone raves about the Cummins diesel in the Dodge Ram, and a BIL really liked his older Ford PowerStroke. But for some reason, there has never been a successful American car powered by a diesel. I also remember a short span when Lincoln offered a BMW-sourced diesel. Today, my sister drives a Jeep Liberty diesel that was offered for just a year or two in the mid 2000s.
These were nice cars, and good cars. For someone who could get to know the GM diesel to give it proper care and feeding, one of these would have been an excellent choice. A very nice find. I cannot say that I have found any in my area.
On the other hand, as the cost of compliance with new emissions regulations (diesel particulate filters, selective catalytic reduction, urea tanks, etc) increases, many manufacturers are heading back to gas engines for their medium-duty work trucks.
I wonder how diesel would look in the face of, say, compressed natural gas as a popular fuel for medium and heavy-duty applications.
I think part of the thing for pickup trucks is that the big rig sound of sizable turbodiesel fits the marketing image. By all appearances, pickup buyers like looking like they could all a 40-foot refrigerator trailer and if the engine rumbles and snorts like an 18-wheeler’s, it’s all to the good. In contrast, a lot of passenger-car buyers would rather not hear the engine at all and tend to assume that a diesel car will idle like a city bus.
Obviously, modern passenger car turbodiesels have made great strides in general refinement, but Americans so strongly associate diesel with big trucks and buses that some people just won’t go near a diesel model. I ran into this a number of years ago when I suggested seriously to someone I knew in Atlanta that they should test drive a then-current E-Class Mercedes turbodiesel. Given their driving style and habits, it would actually have made a lot of sense, but they wouldn’t even consider it; the associations didn’t fit their ideas of what a nice car should be.
Having worked in dealer service, I can state that 90% of diesel trucks are simple PRD’s. The ones I saw in for service did a lot of air hauling: they hauled around the air in the box. It’s all about bein’ a “Real 10-4 good-buddy-trucker,” bragging to your beer buddies that your truck can haul 19,001 lbs and his can only haul 18,999 lbs so your brand is better. The fact that neither will ever do it is immaterial.
It used to stun me how much these guys would spend on these masculinity affirmation objects. I mean, if you ain’t got no mojo, go get it. Truck payments ain’t gonna do it.
I’ve never understood why someone would want their rig to sound like the UPS truck….
Sorry to rain on your stereotype, but from my experience it wasn’t worth it to also have a small commuter vehicle and keep my truck parked versus “hauling air” most of the time.
When we bought my wife a CR-V, I crunched the numbers of keeping her 2001 Civic for me to drive or selling it. It was a wash either way, and since it would also entail the inconvenience of another vehicle taking up space in our driveway and more of my time to do maintenance and most repairs on it, it wasn’t worth it. We sold the Civic and put the money towards paying off our mortgage.
May be “simple PRD” to you, but to those of us that have no idea what “PRD” stands for, we are less than impressed.
I just assumed it was short-form for something derogatory.
I would guess that it finishes with “replacement device”…
Both the 2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee and Ram 1500 have an optional 3.0 ltr. V6 diesel engine from the Italian diesel specialist VM Motori.
That engine has enough performance and refinement to be in the new Maserati Ghibli too, although Maserati tuned it to 275 hp.
Personally I like the “intimidating” rumble of a 6 cylinder diesel engine in the 3.0 ltr. class. As a matter a fact, I even like the more industrial and agricultural sound of a big 4 cylinder diesel that’s in commercial vehicles and Japanese off-roaders and pick-up trucks.
On road tests the diesel Chrysler 300 performs as well as the V8 gas engine in the same car,
Chrysler 300C ? Rebadged as a Lancia Thema here, but it does have exactly the same 3.0 ltr. V6 diesel engine from VM Motori.
Sales numbers wise the Oldsmobile diesels were probably the most “successful “American diesel engined passenger cars, reputation wise is another story…..
On the topic of diesel engine noise, a friend of mine briefly owned an older Ford diesel pickup, built before they started calling their diesels “Powerstroke”. He commented to me one day, “My engine sounds like it’s saying ‘purple-purple-purple’ at idle”. I replied, “Well my truck sounds like ‘doom-doom-doom’ at idle. What’s cooler, a truck that says ‘purple-purple’ or one that says ‘doom-doom’?” 🙂
Either way, those older pickup diesel engines are way too noisy for my poor old ears.
+1 I have always thought the older Powerstrokes were incredibly noisy. Yet I took a trip recently in my neighbor’s 2002 F-350 Powerstroke dually and it was a serenely-quite ride on the road.
Looks like its been sitting awhile…no tags and the tires look low so maybe its rods made their last knock.
3 USMC decals too, thanks for his service!
Diesels have improved vastly from the bad old days,I get to drive a Mercedes CLC 320 which is quick and quiet.
well, it depends of how you compare: the old-school indirect injection Mercedes diesel engines (W115, W123 and W124, among others) were quiet, indestructible and powerful enough. They can last 500k miles w/o trouble. The addition of turbos, electronics, high-pressure indirect injection, timing belts and many other things to fulfill environmental regs, led to great power-to-weight ratios, even smoother ride, and other “advantages”, but also to a catastrophically short life expectance and expensive manteinance. All diesel advantages, with the exception of its inherently lower specific fuel consumption (185-240g/kWh diesel v/s 260-350g/kWh gasoline) were lost. I really fear of repair costs of new-generation diesels after the happy first 2 or 3 years (would only buy them new, with at least 3-year guarantee), but I completely trust old-school ones. Of course there are exceptions to the rules. It seems that the GM diesel engine of the 80’s was such an exception. Even then, I would love to drive one of those for a day!
I read a lot of claims about diesels having better torque here. That’s not necessarily true anymore. The brand-new Merc A 250 has the same torque of 350Nm than the diesel-powered A 220CDI. Impressive!
One of my grandfather’s Olds was a diesel. My mother has mentioned the distinctive noise and smell of it several times. I’m not exactly sure of the model, but this early-’80s Cutlass Supreme of his could have been the one. The LTD behind it was owned by my mom’s then-boyfriend.
The owner’s manual of my 1987 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme sedan still contained a diagram of under-hood layout of the 350 diesel (which I’m pretty stinking sure was not offered by then) and I was always amazed that they fit two batteries under that hood along with the extra equipment required for the diesel. Room was at a premium even with the 307 V8 gas engine.
Interesting that it was still listed in the 1987 owners manual, from what I recall all Oldsmobile Diesel engine production ceased in 1985-1986, they were still making the diesel 350 and the 4.3 litre diesel V6. I know they list the diesel in the 1985 98 owners manual I have, but not in the 1987 one.
It was a very “generic” owners manual in that it showed the layout for the 3.8V6, 307V8, and 350 diesel. I’ve sometimes wondered if it was sheer laziness because they knew the car would be replaced soon with the W-body. This was the same car that had a 4-speed auto straight from the factory but the indicator on the dash said: PRND21. My father at first thought there was something wrong with the car and someone had slipped an overdrive transmission in it after the fact (the car had 65,000 miles on it when he bought it). However the mechanics at the local Olds dealership quickly confirmed that it had been delivered in that configuration.
Oh Lordy, an old school diesel engine from the seventies !
I’ll bet any senior citizen in a wheelchair will outrun this Rudolf Diesel on a hilly track.
Heck, even a Volkswagen T1-2-3-etc. van will do a faster 0-60 run.
I had read a Car and Driver article about diesel beater challenge, there were 3 cars, a diesel RWD Maxima, a early ’80s diesel Benz, and an 82 or 83 Olds Delta 88 diesel…
I think the Olds won the challenge, but none of those cars could outrun a Geo Metro.
I remember that article, the Oldsmobile was a very, very nice Delta 88 Royale Brougham coupe they bought for peanuts, it won the challenge, the Oldmobile diesels, due to their big displacement, were probably some of the quicker diesels from the 70’s
*Irony Mode OFF*
Times have changed. The typical German Autobahn -oil burner- Burner has a 250 km/h (156 mph) speed limiter these days.
Really refined state-of-the-art and high-performance car diesels come from Germany, France or Italy. The US and Japan make damn good diesels, for trucks, not for cars. Euro-Toyotas get BMW diesels next year, that about wraps it up.
Nice! A family friend was so impressed with our ’78 Olds Diesel that he found a used ’84 Cadillac DeVille with the 350 diesel for sale. He daily-drove that for about 5 years until it blew a head gasket. Prior to that, I believe my dad had warned him that there was something wrong with the timing, but he didn’t do anything about it, which would have been a contributing factor. My brother was going to help him fix it, but he sold it in the classifieds instead. Aside from ours, I believe that was the last 350 diesel powered car I’ve seen personally.
Neat vehicle though I wonder about rear seat leg room. Could not help but notice the passenger door and fender do not match the rest of the vehicle. Even if a vehicle comes in a rainbow of colors (2013 Dodge Dart) you hardly ever one painted in a bright color so good luck finding a yellow Caddy of this vintage. So, was this Cadillac photographed on a dealer’s lot?
Depends on the popularity of the color at the time, that yellow chamois type color was big in the late 70’s and into the early 80’s, it’s not that hard to find a Cadillac that color believe it or not
Perhaps because nobody under 70 bought the cars in that color combo, and that demographic creates more garage-kept creampuffs than any other. I have some photos in my stash of the ultimate yellow/yellow 80s Cadillac that I will have to get around to writing up some time.
My dad’s last car, a ’77 Coupe de Ville, was that colonial yellow, with a yellow vinyl cabriolet roof, and he special ordered it with a yellow plaid flannel-like upholstery. It seemed like acres of yellow, my brother and I always referred to it as “the banana boat.” After he passed away in 1980, my mother continued to drive it until 1994, still looked pretty good after all those years. And you are right, it was a relatively popular color, you would see a lot of these yellow submarines around L.A. back then.
I remember someone using the term “jew canoe” to refer to these big pastel colored sleds that used to cruise all over Miami Beach, with their tiny occupants barely visible inside.
For Carmine… (didn’t look factory, but I didn’t look too closely). I love these yellows also.
Nice, my cousins dad had a Celebrity company car in that color.
I just saw a Ciera in that color a couple weeks ago:
No, it was parked in a lot behind a restaurant. And I have found a triple yellow Eldo, there is a link to its CC in this post.
Nothing wrong with this car that can’t be fixed with an LS1 conversion.
Boo! Hiss!
Modified Duramax! with a smokestack, so you can “roll coal” while you pimp.
My brother-in-law was in the air force in Europe most of the ’80s and early ’90s. When he came back to the U.S. with his Spanish wife, they settled in Phoenix and picked up a very clean early ’80s Sedan DeVille diesel. I joked that he’d missed the memo while in Europe.
The car gave them endless trouble, beyond just the drive train. It was gone in probably under 24 months.
But, I was surprised to learn that his Madrid born wife absolutely loved the car itself when it was operating properly. Big, roomy, isolated, total opposite of her experience with typical European cars. Even appreciated the go-for-baroque styling.
Who’d a thunk?
I carried a lot of groceries to cars during the ’80s. I did see the occasional aluminum road wheels on these Eldo’s. The ware a nice break from the far to common wire covers.
Road wheels, that’s something I’d like to see make a comeback.
European Fords have been using PSA diesels for 10 years in a joint venture Ford chose the technology leaders in the field to invest in. Toyota for its passenger car diesels licensed Bosch injection tech in the 80s they will use BMW motors to reduce costs on meeting euro emissions no other reason.
ScaniaBryce, PSA diesels were all over the place, even in Toyotas.
Their current HDI diesels, both the 4 and 6 cylinders, are sublime.
The PSA-Ford joint venture resulted, among others, in some smooth V6 diesels. They are, of course, in PSA cars but also in Jaguars, Land Rovers and Range Rovers.
My next door “garage” neighbors (we lived on a corner) growing up had an ’80 Seville diesel, same color. The husband Ray taught me all about small engine mechanics and used to let me go in his garage whenever I wanted to borrow tools. In fact, I was still borrowing tools from him on visits home until my mom sold the house 4 years ago.
I remember him wrenching on that Seville constantly, but it lasted with them until the late 80s when they traded it for a white downsized SDV with the 4.5, so it couldn’t have been THAT bad. From then on it was only white caddies. The aforementioned first gen FWD SDV, a second gen SDV, a second gen SLS and a couple of CTS’s. Imagine my surprise when I drove past the house a couple months ago and saw a white Camry there instead. The heresy!
I remember test driving one of these with my father.
It was the end of the model year. The Eldo in question was white with a lime green vinyl roof & lime green interior. And it had the diesel. Shockingly, the dealer was ready to unload it at a rock-bottom price.
The Cadillac name still meant something in those days — or at the very least it still did to my father. So he seriously considered the purchase, weighing the pros & cons with me all afternoon.
I think Dad was more turned off by the color than the engine. So we didn’t take it home. No regrets about that decision later.
BONG…..BONG….BONG…….CHWAAAAAA…….CRAH..CRAH..CRAH…CRAH..CRAH..CRAH….CRAH..CRAH..CRAH
Thats what these sounded like when you started one of them…..
Though this vintage Eldorado was my Brougham gateway drug as a child since my old man had a triple brown 79 with the Oldsmobile gas V8, I remember the back seat seemed like a leather upholstered cave, you slid down into the big soft leather pillow top seats, some other friends of my parents had a 78-79 Coupe deVille that was triple silver with a Astroroof, I remember that mesmerized me as a kid, they let me stick my head out of it one time going down the road, ahhhh the good ol’ unsafe old days.
My aunt had a 1980 Eldorado diesel, Dark Mulberry with the matching top and leather interior. I drove that car on many occasions. It was always fun to smoke out the people behind you with just a little tap of the accelerator. It really didn’t have great acceleration at all, but it was a very nice car to drive. At the time my Mom had a 1979 Riviera with the 350 V-8, which felt so smooth and fast after driving my aunt’s diesel. Truthfully, I thought the diesel was so out of place in such a nice car. Carmine’s sound effects are right on the money!!! How strange was this – my uncle had a 1979 Sedan deVille with a power astroroof, my Mom’s Riviera had a power astroroof, and my aunt’s Eldorado had a power astroroof. Three siblings all owned GM cars at the same time and all were equipped with factory power astroroofs! I bet Carmine would probably know the odds and statistics of three siblings owning a GM car at the same time with a power moonroof!! It had to be pretty rare, as astroroofs weren’t all that popular because of the cost back then – I think they were at least a $1000 option – almost a 10% increase to the cost of the car.
Hope their astro roofs were trouble free, my grandmother’s ate electric motors every 30,000 miles like clockwork for the entire 100,000 miles that she owned her 1979 Oldsmobile 98 sedan.
My Mom never had an issue with the astroroof in her Riv; I know my aunt’s Eldo had a crack in hers and it would have been huge $$ to replace it so she left it like that (she didn’t take the best care of that car – she had so many problems with the diesel she often called that car “CHRISTINE” lol!!) The astroroof on my uncle’s deVille stopped working at around 80k so he just left it closed all the time.
The odds are in millions…….it couldn’t happen, it was a set up…….
LMAO!!!!!
I read somewhere that the real downfall with these were the head bolts. They would stretch, and dealer mechanics back in the day would reuse them after the first head gasket failure. This of course would lead to a short-lived repair. Put some good head bolts like ARPs in them, and they were fine.
Head bolts, no water separator, poor quality diesel fuel at the time(see: lack of water separator), lack of appropriate maintenance, i.e use of wrong oil and wrong quantity, there were several issues.
I had an ’81 Cutlass with the 350 diesel that I’ve mentioned in other posts served me well during an Air Force tour in upstate NY in early 80s – lots of trips down Interstate 87, over to 90, then down 71 to home (Ohio). It was a very good highway car – fairly stable, smooth ride, not a lot of passing grunt but it held 65-70 well. I did think the 3 speed auto was a little under-geared, as anything over 70 sent the revs a little too high.
First car I ever got a rebate on ($750)……. Surprisingly, never had an engine problem – I had heard they were pretty well sorted by ’81.
A couple assignments later I spent a year in Korea (’85) and drove quite a few M1008/9 Commercial Utility Cargo Vehicles (CUCV) – GM 3/4 ton 4 wheel drive pickups which had the 6.2 liter diesel – they drove and sounded almost exactly like the 350 diesel in my Cutlass.
“When’s the last time you saw a Diesel Caddy?”
When I drove off in the used Ford Taurus wagon I traded it on. It was a 1979 Cadillac Eldo, in the same silver metallic Firemist paint that is shown in one of the photos. But that paint was barely adhering to the primer by 1994, and the vinyl roof fabric was shrinking. It had actually pulled away from the moulding that ran over the roof, and I concealed that gap with aluminum roof flashing. Inside, the headliner sagged and was held up to the hardboard liner with staples. The engine would run roughly every few thousand miles when the $50 fuel filter would clog (and this one had a water separator from brand new). For some reason the day I went shopping and found the Taurus wagon, it ran smoothly.
Actually I saw that diesel 1979 Eldo once more. I was driving past the car dealer and saw it. I stopped to take a look. The thing had started to run rough again; the dealer was waiting for his parts guy to bring back a new fuel filter. And almost all the silver Firemist paint had flaked off to grey primer. I don’t know whether the Eldo wound up getting repainted, but if the dealer was willing to but $50 into a fuel filter, he wasn’t going to just junk the car.
I was one of the unfortunate souls who owned one of those GM diesel bombs. It was an ’81 Olds 98 Regency. Aside from a grossly anemic, mechanically horrific power plant, so many other bits broke on that Olds. There were the interior trim pieces that would fall off in warm temperatures, a sunroof that leaked and the rear footwells would get awfully soggy in rainy weather. The Olds’ diesel was replaced under warranty with a Goodwrench diesel. It really was no better than the one my 98 came with from the factory. When it did run it got good mileage and was pretty quiet. That diesel was a filthy burning motor, and with passengers in the car the poor Olds was barely capable of ascending moderate grades! The bean counters at GM pulled the giant flush handle and down went a corporation that was once capable of producing legendary automobiles. GM’s newly designed products beginning in the late ’70s and throughout the ’90s were JUNK, JUNK and MORE CUT RATE JUNK! It seems that only until recently that GM has made a bit of a positive turnaround with their products. I’ve been a Toyota and Lexus owner for the last 25 years and I’ve never suffered a bad product with any Toyota or Lexus.