Remember the CC on this car? It was one of my earliest writeups. It was a nasty, icy day when I took those pics, and my CC photo skills were not as good as they are today, so I was quite happy when I recently spotted it at an acquaintance’s repair shop. And I finally got pics of those lovely leather thrones the Touring Sedans had. Even better: It’s a burgundy interior, folks!
I hadn’t gotten pics of the inside of this car last year, because the whole street was an ice rink and my camera at the time didn’t have a sufficiently wide angle to show more than, say, 25% of the door panel even with the lens placed against the glass. Since it was an overcast day, I suppose I thought the interior was black or gray.
And how about that back seat? Pretty nice, eh? No doubt that this is not your run-of-the-mill Regency! The buckets were unique to the Touring Sedan, and were no longer available when the model was discontinued after 1993.
Outside, it was harder to tell a Touring Sedan, the primary differences being black overlays on its tail lamps, black trim on the side moldings, bumpers and windows, alloy wheels and a color-keyed grille.
The problem is, starting in ’94 all the Touring Sedan items except the bucket seats, taillights, grille and black trim became available à la carte.
On more than one occasion I have spotted what I thought was a Touring Sedan, only to realize it was a plain old Regency with the alloys. Curses! But this one is legit!
I liked these(no sh*t huh?), they had those great sporty-lay-z-boy seats, real wood on the dash and console too, I think some of these were supercharged too. I liked the alloys the early version of these had, similar to the Trofeo’s alloy wheels.
Indeed they were. I’m pretty sure I was the only 10 year old on earth lusting after these when they were new. But if I recall correctly, the SC 3800 was optional in the Touring for a couple years. The last couple years of production you could get it in the Regency trims as well.
I will say they appear to be far less common than the Ultra version of the Park Avenue. I’m not sure why, but it appears about 3/4’s of all Park Avenues ever made are still running around in nice shape, but I haven’t seen a Ninety Eight like this without duct tape holding it together since probably 2000.
I haven’t seen a Ninety Eight like this without duct tape holding it together since probably 2000.
There is one here in Gallup, NM that is white with a blue interior. I haven’t really stopped to stare into the interior because I always see it parked in front of a local beauty salon and I don’t want any angry old ladies running out waving their purses and telling me to get the hell away from their car.
But the car is immaculate save one little paint chip on the trunk lid.
Dan,
Sorry to hear that you are from Gallup. I’ve been there a bunch of times and can say it’s the only place I’ve been to with human beings sleeping off a drunk in the parking lots of 7-11s. Not in cars, on the pavement.
Sadly, I don’t think the situation would be that much different today.
I hate to generalize, but that’s my observation as well. Buicks of this vintage seem to age much better, and this particular Olds seemed to be particularly fragile/brittle, especially all of its exterior trim. It seems to just want to fall off….
I remember quite clearly that the the Buick versions had much better rankings in various surveys; JDP, or CR, or? Different plants, or?
The Buick Park Avenue and LeSabre of this era were built in Flint at Buick City. BC was well regarded for its quality and dedicated staff. BC actually predated GM and was one of the original Buick locations. The plant remained operational through 1999MY for assembly and for parts through 2010.
You can go to buickcity.blogspot.com and read a lot of first hand accounts.
The Buicks were bought by the elderly. The Oldsmobiles were bought by the middle-aged. Younger age = not as well-taken care of.
There was nothing wrong with this generation 98 mechanically or performance wise, but it just did not inspire the buyers. The old line buyers did not care for it nor did it draw any new buyers in. Oldsmobile uninspired product line is what caused me to switch to Cadillac for MY1993. About 25% of Olds’ staff left around that time as well as well as about 1/3 of the dealers. It was a bad time. There was a point in the fall of 1992 when there was serious talk of pulling the plug on the brand. Then, even 12 years before it eventually died. Two reasons kept Olds alive, the promise of the Aurora and the force of John Rock’s personality.
One of these days I will do a write up on the Aurora, from a behind-the-scenes perspective. It is very fascinating. That car was highly influential in many ways, some not obvious outside of the company.
Uninspired? really? I thought these had more charisma than the 1985-1990 style, which look too much like their Cadillac and Buick counterparts, by the early 90’s GM was getting some styling mojo back and they were breaking out of the big box, medium box and little box car cookie cutter design school.
By this vintage you could tell a Bonneville from a LeSabre and and a Park Avenue from a Sedan deVille.
I do like these cars. But what always bothered me was the rear fender skirts and the droopy shape of the headlights. Here’s what it would look like with round rear wheel openings, for comparison:
The “frenched” rear wheel opening was done purposely to differentiate it from the Eighty Eight since the Ninety Eight buyer was ostensibly more conservative.
Hey look, thats one of the cars I modeled for a personal project. I prefer the covered rear wheels though.
I gotta say I really like the last gen 98s. It might not be as desirable as a larger RWD V8 sedan (or even the fwd Aurora) for most people including me. But its an interesting, comfortable luxury sedan that deserves more attention then it usually got from its owners. Its obviously getting rarer every day so I hope there are still a couple of nice examples out there in the future, should I ever have the money to get all those cars on my wishlist…
A lot of it was personal preference. When the 1991/92 models were being prepped, the division switched from “blue collar luxury” to this sort of proto-international import fighting theme. The cars themselves were not bad at all, the Eighty Eights were pretty slick, but many did not care for direction the division was going, I among them. I originally wanted to go over to Buick but Cadillac called and away I went. The Northstar program was exciting then plus the new Eldorados and Sevilles attracted a lot of attention. The Aurora was a good deal, but between the production delays and uncertain future of Oldsmobile division entirely, a lot of people left.
I agree the styling improved from the small medium and bigger box which I have my opinions on but it was more than that. IMO, they should have made the J Chevrolet and Pontiac only, the Ns Pontiac Buick only, and left Oldsmobile just big cars. Going with the radical FWD Cutlass and the redesigned 91/92 Olds tried to push a international sports sedan theme but it was a dud and the old Ciera provided 1/2 the division’s sales for a while. I personally think the Aurora should have been introduced as a Cadillac and it would have been a killer halo model. Oldsmobile’s declining imagine at the time IMO affected Aurora sales.
There was a meeting in the fall of 1992 when the decision was made to drop the rocket emblem from the Aurora and adopt the O with a slash for the Aurora and subsequent cars.
I lusted after an Aurora until I owned a 1994 Cadillac STS. What a piece of dog shit that was. Need to replace the starter motor? OK, let’s disassemble the engine. God, I was so glad to get rid of that piece of crap just to not have to go to Caddy dealers anymore. When you drove up to service you could see the look in their eyes-“Aha, another dummy with bucks that we can anally violate!”
I liked the STS, but didn’t like having to maintain it. Does the fact that I now drive a Subaru say anything about Cadillac ownership?
Depends on what year and model of Subaru! There are an ominous few things in common between Subarus and Northstar-powered Caddies, such as oil leaks and head gasket problems. And you typically drop the motor to do head gaskets on both as well!
I prefer the starter in the valley pan. It made changing it out much easier and you could do it without pulling car into shop and racking it. It paid 2.1 hrs but a good tech could get one switched out in 45 minutes without even getting hands dirty. You loosen 8 bolts on the plenum 2 on the starter plus the hot and ground and voila. I wish all cars were like that.
I prefer the earlier generation C/H-bodies, but I wouldn’t turn down this version either.
I do an occasional Craigslist and Autotrader check for these, but they are quite rare.
The last four Touring Sedans I’ve seen have been in the junkyard. I pulled all the suspension stuff off a junked TS and put the parts on my Electra shortly after I bought it.
“The last four Touring Sedans I’ve seen have been in the junkyard. I pulled all the suspension stuff off a junked TS and put the parts on my Electra shortly after I bought it.”
I hope you didn’t wait just for a TS to show up to get those parts. They’re the same as Bonneville SSEI. 10 times as many of them in the yards compared to any other FE3 equipped C-Bodies.(Or H-Body).
I was about to say plus you can get functionally equivalent models in the aftermarket. You could pull the load leveling. I know it was a minor popular thing to pull load leveling off of the C cars and install them on the H cars since everything was the same.
No, the TS was in the yard already, and it was just too period correct to pass it up. I’ve still got the original steering rack on the Buick though.
I actually own a ’92 SSEi right now too.
I’ve heard that adding Cadillac core supports or a 34mm front bar to either car can make an improvement, but I’m not sure exactly what to look for. Any guidance you folks have would be appreciated.
What are you trying to achieve? Loading it up with the biggest of everything is going to make it ride like a truck. I’m currently building a 90 Riviera in a autocross/sunday show car combo(yes call me stupid,it’s what I do) and I’m ditching the rear transverse leaf and front suspension and subframe in favor of a mix of C-Body FE3 and Cadillac K-Body stuff. If it was me I’d stay with the FE3 parts and go with the biggest wheel and tire that will fit under the sheet metal. With a little bit of extra power these cars start to get a neutral feel when you start to push them a little in the corners.
A tasty ride…obviously, because someone took a bite out of the front.
At the time these came out I thought they took some nice design cues from the 1965 98, which I always thought was a particularly good looking big car. In these pictures, though, it looks like a slightly stretched version of GM’s ugly later “N” platform cars. (I had to google that…)
At the time I was 18, and Oldsmobile lovers who hadn’t been disabused of their faith were much older, so my main view was probably the front third, gradually receding…
If a comfy and attractive interior is the subject, I by far prefer the ’95-’99 vintage Riviera that is parked next to the Oldsmobile.
– constellation –
That was another really nice car that missed the mark.
I love those big Rivs. They can be had cheap, but at this point most of them have already been through their abusive second owner.
The Riviera was a two door version of the Olds Aurora. IMO a Buick or Cadillac version of the Aurora would have better served GM probably would have been well received and continued to this day.
I never knew that the Riviera was from that platform. I looked it up, and you are, of course, correct. I just always assumed it shared the C body of the Park Avenue, etc, just because they shared engine options.
Imagine how many more 1st Gen Aurora’s would still be on the road if they were offered with the 3800…
It probably wouldn’t have made a difference. The baby Northstar in the Aurora did not have a bad service life. The 3800 was considered but it was thought that for a halo car like this a V8 would be most appropriate. Considering it was a 4.0 V8, smaller than the original Cadillac V8, it gave some prestige without guzzling gas. Since it was developed from the Northstar tooling was lower and it made it work.
If you read closer, and I am sure that you did, that the 97 Park Avenue was based off of the Aurora along other many other cars.
I liked the Aurora and the crew that did it should be very proud it set the stage for most of the premium GM models that followed and a lot was learned. The structural integrity of the car was only surpassed by the CTS.
Hmm, I didn’t know that. I actually looked at a first gen Aurora a few years ago when I ended up getting my Lincoln Continental, but fear of it having issues like the Cadillac Northstars kept me away.
I always thought they were great looking cars. A friend’s mother got a maroon one right after they came out, I remember thinking it was a different world in the interior from any American sedan I’d ever been in. Plus it was the best looking family sedan at my school, right behind a black 929…
You do know that the 2000+ Cadillac K-Body uses most if not all of the same chassis parts as the 95-02 Buick/Olds G-Body. So in reality a 00-05 DHS/DTS or 98-04 STS was the Cadillac Aurora.
Sorry. I’m not into that Greek alphabet BS. I wouldn’t know my alpha from an omega if it kick my in the butt.
It does but the deVille was already an existing model and had an established customer base and image in the marketplace. A super premium model might have done well I think especially with a new name. I thought that the Aurora was an outstanding car one of the best GM had produced at the time. I just feel that it was hampered somewhat by being an Oldsmobile.
The Aurora did spawn many models and formed the basis of most of the luxury models at GM until recently. Hence why I made the comment about it being highly influential but sometimes unnoticed.
I hear you on the nomenclature but its the best way to identify things. When you start thinking about it regularly its not so bad. Epsilon II is an excellent platform.
I was mildly surprised to see a Rivvy 3.8 parked in the HC slot at the local ABC today (yes, Utah!). I have always been conflicted on these units-every bit as big as my ’88 Touring Sedan but with less utility. Never could work up any hots for these things.
On January 1, 1992, I went car shopping and I remember trying to make up my mind between a ’92 Park Avenue or a ’92 Ninety-Eight. I went with the Park Avenue because I liked the looks a little bit better, especially in profile.
Now what I really like is the Riviera parked next to the subject car for this article. I have always felt the ’95-’99 Rivs were the best looking things!
There are tons of those Rivs around here; I’ll have to track one down for a proper CC.
I liked the looks of those Oldsmobiles. The squared profile makes it looks stately especially the way the rear overhangs. That said, the car was a victim of GM’s half assed approach to car making in the 1980’s- 1990’s. It is all nice and good to design plastic fenders to save weight and bump up the gas MPG’s BUT those plastic fenders cracked if you looked at them too hard. Most cracked under cold or hot temps. I can only imagine what they would look like in a real crash. It is so much more sad when you realize that by the time GM was making that Olds, they had already made the Fiero and were making plastic bodied Saturns both of which could take more of a beating.
Around my way there are a lot of those era regencys still roaming around and all have cracks in the front fenders and on most that is the only damage on the cars (sigh) two steps forward and one step back as always with GM
I worked in the car rental industry back in this era, and never once did I ride in one of these where the window seals didn’t leak, allowing a nice little whistle to enter the cabin near the corner over the faux vent window. Could’ve been a nice car if it weren’t so…. GM. (The cousin Bonnevilles did the same exact thing)
And then we look at the interior. Some type of technical degree was required to run the radio, major distraction when driving. Other controls were the same, all housed in a cheaply made dashboard. It’s not so much uninspiring, but so much better could be had in this price bracket. Great engines hooked up to a transmission that never knew what gear to be in, spoiled what could’ve been a terrific drivetrain. In 92, I’d have gone for the New Yorker. Better built car, just as comfy, just as quick. Even the Crown Vic, newly restyled for 92, was cheaper and a better car.
Just last night I had a mint condition blue Regency of this vintage pull up next to me at a red light on my way home from work. The young driver did not look very enthused about driving that car, and when he pulled away he chirped the tires which made me cringe! That car was probably a hand me down from his grandparents and will suffer the fate of a lot of older well-maintained cars that don’t deserve such a fate. My grandmother’s 1987 Fleetwood d’Elegance suffered such fate. That car was immaculate when she stopped driving in her 90’s. It only had 60,000 miles, and for 16 years old was preserved in her garage every day. She kept blankets on the seats and had 3 different sets of floor mats. There was never a mark on that car! It was rare too – the FWD Fleetwood d’Elegance was not that common, and with cloth interior it was even more of a rarity. It was 2 years old when she got it, with 14k miles on the clock. It originally came from California, had no rear defroster (unheard of in New England, especially on a Cadillac) and the non-vinyl top roof looked so great on that car. When my uncle sold it to a neighbor for next to nothing I was so mad. I would have preserved that car forever. To see it get beat up in less than a year was disgusting.
Yes and it had REAL wood in it…
Funny how the interior stayed more or less the same between the 1st gen OTS and the last generation. Heres a pic of an 87 OTS I found in the boneyard. Other than the horseshoe shifter(sorry Craig, it dont look like a paddle) and door panels and maybe the dash they’re almost the same. Interesting fact. The 87-90 OTS was converted by ASC. The 91-93 OTS was done in house by GM.
OK we will call it horseshoe. 😉
I have since forgotten what it was labeled in engineering.
If I am not mistaken the 1st gen Camaro was the first with this type of shifter?
I never called it anything but a gear selector. No biggie. It just pissed me off that when I switched off from my car (a Touring Sedan), my wife’s 98 and my son’s 98 I had to remember that the shifter wasn’t on the floor but on the steering column. Major effing adjustment.
If it makes you feel better I’d call the 1st gen Aurora shifter a paddle. That shifter reminds me of a canoe paddle. Yes, I think you are correct on the 67 Camaro/Firebird. It was also used on 68-72 Chevelle and 68-76 Buick A-Bodies as well. Last Camaro to use it was in 73.(Maybe 72?).
Staple shifter.
I always thought the square-ish body with the aero-styled greenhouse plopped on top of the body was odd-looking. At a Buick dealer when these came out, I had difficulty making sense of the car.
Now, on the other hand, the 88 was inspiringly beautiful. A friend had an 88 shortly after we moved to Ohio and it was gorgeous – bluish-green and silver with saddle tan leather interior.
I loved that car, but this one? Nope.
+1. The side view of the back fender/skirt reminds me of my mother’s 1952 Nash and that is not a good thing. Actually the Nash looked better. I loathed this car when it was introduced and continue to do so today.
Oops – I said BUICK dealer – I meant OLDS!
Nothing says “old man” like fender shirts or whitewalls and it was odd that the B-body Pontiac had skirts but not the Electra or DeVille/Brougham. Wasn’t Pontiac supposed to be the sporty division?
Over at Olds the same thing was going on. After about ’92 it was rare to see whitewalls on a Park Avenue or Seville but not on an Olds Ninety-Eight. That fossil rolled only on whitewalls and had a flat-top rear wheel opening, like a shirt, to boot.
I mean why waste your time on an ad campaign like “Not your father’s Oldsmobile” and then remind everyone one that’s exactly what you are with a car like the ’92 Ninety-Eight?
At least Pontiac had a clue. Around the same time they tried like heck to go sporty again but killed themselves with that over-cladded look. One brand became a caricature for “old” the other for “tacky” and that was it.
Buick had Big Mo and Cadillac was starting a nice comeback. Along with Chevy both brands were still relevant and managed to avoid poor direction and/or execution.
That 95+ Riv was a ballsy effort that ultimately failed, though I always admired the car for looking like a concept vehicle. I do feel that the Aurora team cheated on the body structure with the tiny trunk opening, to aid rigidity and their claim of 25 Hz. Couldn’t have helped the Riv.
Park Avenues had white-walls standard until the 1997 redesign.
Didn’t say it was impossible to see a Park Avenue with whitewalls, said it was rare. I believe wheelcovers were also standard but most PAs I remember seeing had alloys and blackwalls after about ’92.
Except for the Touring Sedan I don’t think I saw any new Ninety-Eights with blackwalls. Odd that would be the case eight years after the Lincoln Mark VII LSC showed the world that a car with American style lines could look better with blackwalls than whitewalls.
It ended up handily outselling the non-LSC and was a wake up call for most American manufacturers regarding tire type.
Those are really nice-looking seats – I wonder how they were for comfort. The styling of the car itself, not so much. I’m with Zackman here.
I had these seats in my ’88 TS. 900 miles/day was my norm.
How ? I can drive about 500 miles in 8 hours after that I get too tired.
3800 pride!
Although I’ve never owned one, I’ve both ridden in and have driven one of these on more than a few occasions. Most memorable was a trip to Florida and back. And, it had a burgundy or maroon exterior, similar to the interior. A nice comfy interior. Certainly a rather sedate exterior, but I would’t mind having one of these in good condition merely for the great interior. It is a great, comfortable cruiser for a road trip.
My orthodontist had one of these growing up. He lived in a nice house in a beautiful area of town by the beach, but drove one of these, as I recall it was silver. It was sort of an “aha” moment for 11 year old me…”so that’s what ‘understatement’ means”
I think I’d rather have the Park Avenue, only because I like the design better (especially the last few years when they brought back the Venti-Ports last seen on my Electra), but it’s in the same camp.
I liked these better than the 85-90 98’s if for no other reason than they were large cars on the outside. They had much better road presence than the previous generation 98s.