It’s not often that I’ll find a subject car with which I’ve had firsthand experience. The discovery of this Cutlass Ciera in the neighborhood adjacent to mine was one such instance, an example of which I realized almost immediately I hadn’t seen for a very long time. When this Driftwood Metallic-finished car was new, the front-drive, A-body Ciera was going into its thirteenth model year, and the sixth of this particular styling refresh. Ninety-four wasn’t even the last year these were available from a new car showroom, with long-amortized production continuing all the way through ’96. With a fifteen-year run, the only other car I can think of at this time (besides the related Buick Century) that was built for this long with only evolutionary changes is the Fox-platform Ford Mustang.
This car gave me flashbacks to the early nineties when my family of origin had moved to southwest Florida following my high school graduation and my dad’s retirement. We had driven our ’87 Chevy Nova from our former home in Flint, Michigan all the way to Fort Myers when that car already had an odometer that read in the six figures. It was Toyota-based, though, so in retrospect, its high miles probably made it the equivalent of a domestically built and engineered car with half as much wear on it. That didn’t register with my parents, which I can understand, as neither were car people. My dad hadn’t driven for years by that point, having surrendered his driver’s license due to his eyesight, so the decision to purchase another car had basically been up to my mom. They had dropped me off at university in the Nova, but when I came back for that first Thanksgiving, there was a silver ’92 Cutlass Ciera in its place.
I was salty, and I really wanted to hate that car. The way I saw it, my parents had their choice of any number of vehicles now that I was away at school and with just my younger brother still living at home. My mom was actually younger than I am now, and they had selected what seemed like the most geriatric machine they could find. Granted, the Cutlass Ciera wasn’t nearly as mortifying as the Reliant K my mom was on the cusp of purchasing only a few years prior, but this was still bad, and my purchase of my own ’88 Mustang was still a year away. One thing’s for sure. In Lee County, Florida, that Cutlass Ciera fit right in amidst what many of the snowbirds were driving in the mid-’90s. At the time, I’m sure some part of me was triggered by the selection of this modest car as an attempt to falsely project the outward appearance of piety simply by looking poor. The car had bench seats, a column shifter, and had been purchased from a rental car agency. Its wire wheel covers notwithstanding, it looked like sackcloth and ashes on wheels.
It actually wasn’t too long after I had gotten behind the wheel, however, before my resistance to this car had started to wear down. This may be saying something about the low bar set by the cars that had previously sat in the Dennis family driveway, but the 3.1L V6 in the Cutlass Ciera with its mighty 160 horsepower seemed like an Olds Rocket V8 in comparison to the four-cylinder-powered cars my parents had owned for years (’84 Ford Tempo, ’85 Renault Encore, ’87 Chevy Nova). The Oldsmobile could actually move, and effortlessly; the air conditioner blew ice-cold; it had ample room inside; and even though I hated that the interior smelled like my mom’s Avon Silicone Glove hand cream, I had even grown to like the column-mounted shifter in a ’90s-ironic sort of way. I didn’t love refueling it, but with me being miles away at school, spending a little extra money to fill up the tank (versus with the Nova) was a relatively insignificant price to pay for getting the keys when visiting.
It was also behind the wheel of my parents’ Oldsmobile that I was involved in my first and, to date, only at-fault collision. The brakes in that car were okay, but there had been a situation on U.S. 41, the main, sometimes six-lane thoroughfare that runs north and south through Fort Myers, where a newish, red Camaro in front of me had braked hard for a yellow light instead of going through the intersection. In turn, I also braked hard, but not before rear-ending the Camaro. His rear bumper cover looked fine (I’m sure there was damage underneath), but I had cracked the grille and broken the header panel of the Oldsmobile. Seeing the replacement panel on our featured car reminded me of this incident. I sometimes think back to this when underwriting an auto insurance policy. Stuff happens, and it’s not always about a young adult deliberately being careless. (Yes, I was probably following too closely.)
For ’94, the year of our featured car, the sole optional engine upgrade and the one in this car (according to a license plate search) was the 3.1 liter V6 unit that was standard in the W-body Cutlass Supreme and also optional in the Achieva that year. Rated at the same 160 horses as the 3.3L it replaced in the Ciera, this represented a 20-hp bump for the 3.1L over the prior year. Just one “SL” trim level of Cutlass Ciera was offered for ’94. With a base price of just under $15,700 (about $33,000 in 2024) as equipped with the standard, 120-horse 2.2L four-cylinder, the four-door SL undercut the entry price of the compact Achieva SL by $1,800, and cost only $1,500 more than the base Achieva. The newer Cutlass Supreme S sedan, which like the Cutlass Ciera was also a front-drive, midsized car, cost $1,800 more to start.
The Cutlass Ciera’s value proposition was strong, and with almost 132,400 sales, the Ciera four-door was far and away Oldsmobile’s biggest-selling individual model and configuration that year. Across the entire Olds range, the number two seller was the Supreme four-door, with 77,900 sales, followed by the base-model Eighty-Eight, with 60,400 units. I can’t remember what my parents had paid for their ’92 Ciera on the secondhand market, but it couldn’t have been much. It’s odd to think of my parents’ thrift, which had been something of a sore spot with me when I was growing up, as one of the very qualities to which I adhere today… within reason. Stated another way, I don’t spend money just to spend it or because I want to be seen a certain way, but usually when it’s for something I actually need or want that’s also within my means.
As for this car’s styling, I think that aside from a slightly generic face, it’s an attractive sedan as it appears in 2024. It looks fine now, but it would be hard for me to explain to someone who wasn’t aware of these cars in the ’90s just how dated they looked and ubiquitous they were at that time. I would compare them to the B-body Plymouth Furys and Dodge Monacos of the mid-to-late ’70s which were routinely thrashed as taxi cabs and police cars in so many movies and TV shows of the period. There was nothing really offensive about them, and their mechanicals were rock-solid, but they were definitely not first-choice as personal transportation. When I see one of these latter-day Cutlass Cieras today, I first think of two things: a.) bumping into that Camaro in Fort Myers; and b.) how my parents’ Cutlass Ciera made a believer out of me just by being a roomy, dependable, V6-powered car that wasn’t an econobox.
Edgewater Glen, Chicago, Illinois.
Wednesday, May 15, 2024.
Brochure pages were sourced from www.oldcarbrochures.org.
I remember the FWD A body’s debut in 1982 was when I first started having doubts about GM. They basically took the 1980 X body and stretched the front overhang (ostensibly to make room for a 4.3L diesel V6 that hardly anyone bought and was quickly discontinued), but also made the car longer so it could sell at a higher price, even it it hurt its proportions. The rear overhang was extended too, but trunk space was still lower than in the more practical X body hatchbacks. And the interiors didn’t look as luxurious and nicely styled as I’d come to expect in GM cars. They already looked a bit dated even in 1982, and especially after the Taurus and Sable were launched in 1986, as well as a new Accord and Camry every four years. The curvy rear window that was added at some point didn’t help much, and those fake black C pillar non-windows just made it obvious this car wasn’t originally designed with a curved rear window in mind.
By the ’90s these were ubiquitous rental fleet cars, and I drove and rode in several Cieras and Centurys. Besides looking dated, rear legroom was a bit tight, trunk liftover was high, and the rear seats lacked headrests and couldn’t be folded down. But they sold on their value proposition. For less than the real-world price for a base (DX) Accord or Camry with a four-cylinder, stick shift, no A/C, and crank windows, you could have a Ciera or Century with a smooth, torquey V6, automatic, power windows/locks/seat, stereo with cassette or CD, tilt wheel, cruise control, GM’s always awesome air conditioning, and other comforts. And they’d developed a rep for good reliability and longevity by the mid-’90s.
This era was when GM was heavily into “brand management”, figuring that different marketing campaigns for each division would overcome not having any real mechanical differences. They even hired a bunch of Proctor & Gamble consumer-product marketing guys to create a “brand” for each individual car, not merely each marque. The irony was, keeping the Ciera and Century around for this long, and selling them to value-oriented customers and fleets, constituted terrible brand management and was destroying GM’s efforts at buffing their brands’ images. Olds had hoped the new Aurora (starting in early ’94 as a ’95 model) would reshape Oldsmobile’s image, but with the Ciera being Olds’ most popular car by far, how could it? Every time I rented a Ciera, I thought to myself “this IS my father’s Oldsmobile”. Skilled “brand managers” would have realized high-value, low-priced fleet-friendly cars like the Ciera and Century should be Chevys, not Oldsmobiles and Buicks which were supposed to be upscale, aspirational brands. But GM couldn’t give up on these cash cows so they largely defined Olds’ image and rendered their efforts at wooing Honda and Toyota owners (much less Lexus and M-B owners) to consider an Aurora or Intrigue futile. Meanwhile, the buyers that hoarded 88s, 98s, and especially Cutlasses in the ’70s and early ’80s moved on to Japanese or German brands (or maybe Tauruses) and Olds was toast.
Great points, all. When I was writing this and got to the part where the Ciera was Olds’ best seller, all I could think about was what it would have taken to change the course of Olds’ ship by then. The Aurora was one attempt. The Alero, another.
The only thing I have a different opinion about is the proportions of the A-bodies versus the X-cars. The Cutlass Ciera has a correct balance to its overall look that the FWD Omega never had. I realize the X cars were wonders of efficiency and packaging when they first came out, but they always looked foreshortened to me.
Just to be clear, I thought the proportions of the X body notchbacks were a bit off too and rather toy-like, but the FWD A bodies still didn’t look as “right” as the RWD A/G body notchbacks like the Cutlass Supreme in either coupe or (1980-later) sedan form did.
Being a devoted fan of the GREAT AMERICAN LAND YACHT, I could never SEE this ERA 😉. My first car was a 66 Dynamic 88 red convert that had previously BEEN My Father’s Oldsmobile 🏆. Next, 69 Delta in gold metallic with black roof and luxurious brocade interior. 🏆 People often refer to the 70s and 80s as The Malaise Era. IMO cars like this are beyond Malaise. Of all the GMS of this size, the Buick Century was the best, though far from my taste. In an effort to attract younger buyers, Oldsmobile started using YOUNGMOBILE. I have always believed that the biggest problem for Oldsmobile was having OLD as part of the name in an increasingly young sales target. The 98 Especially Regency was IMO the last of the GREAT Oldsmobiles 👍
I don’t know that, as a youth, I ever took the “old” part of the “Oldsmobile” name too literally, as there were so many great ones I admired. My first barber, Clint had a gorgeous, blue ’72 Supreme coupe with matching Super Stock wheels. It was a cool car, and an Oldsmobile. I respected the name. I think that by the ’80s in the Roger Smith era, a lot of the former “special feel in an Oldsmobile” was watered down.
A 94 Ciera SL was what I grew up with after my parents bought it brand new in 94. It was a beauty too in midnight blue. It was also the car I learned to drive on and drove in high school and college. After 200000+km, the 3.1L still pulled strong and was quick enough to keep up with any of the random assortment of cars my friends had (plus despite being 10+ years old at the time it held up against the little bit of abuse 18 year old me would give). It drove really well and was super comfortable. I also just appreciated the room. I remember when I was a kid my mom driving me, my brother and 2 friends to a hockey day camp and the car fit all 5 of us comfortably with the trunk holding our equipment bags (one was a goalie as well) and sticks. Loved that. It was also tough – I remember trying to turn into a parking lot and oversteering it a bit while straightening it out and hitting a parked Ford Taurus (a new at the time 2002/03ish model). Hitting it at 10-15km/hr cause the bumper to fall off to the point where it was held on at the one corner. Meanwhile the Oldsmobile had the slightest scratch on the bumper. Still blows me away.
I hated that we had to eventually scrap it when the frame got slightly bent pulling it out of a dirt parking lot mud hole (long story) and while I enjoyed the 05 Impala I got to drive afterwards, it never truly replaced the Ciera and I have never owned a car that was as comfortable to drive and that well balanced since.
AJ, thank you for this, and I always enjoy reading about positive associations with the featured car. I can just see your Cutlass Ciera just “shrugging” after hitting that Taurus like it was no big whoop.
I think most of us always remember our first love affair with the car we learned to drive on ( for me, a 55 DeSoto) and our first car (mine a 66 Olds Dynamic 88 convert). Wishing you many more miles of great memories driving whatever takes your fancy.
Great write up, Joe! In the personally tumultuous ’90s for me, I remember coming home and hearing my aunt and uncle (dedicated Buick people) had bought a NEW Buick (this was unusual for them – they were used car people, with the exception of a new Datsun 210 in 1980 as my uncle’s commuter car). Alas I was disappointed to find out it was a Century, not the new sexy Regal. Probably a wise choice on their part, but I must add that after my uncle passed away, my aunt replaced the Century with a 2000 Camry because of the myriad of constant small but annoying problems they had with the Buick. I knew in my heart if my dedicated Buick aunt (and her generation) could give up and head to Toyota, there wasn’t much chance for US companies to keep them in the fold. I have to add in the last 25 years, the last Impala and the Fusion hybrid are about the only US sedans I’d have considered if I needed that type of vehicle.
Thanks, Dave! I could see this generation of Century / Ciera appealing to buyers who would ordinarily shop for only used cars. At their low price point when new, I could see the whole thought process behind “Why not just get a new one of these instead of a used one of those?”
AMC Hornet/Concord/Eagle, 1970-1987, 18 years
Great example. And the later ones were more highly contented than the early ones.
Jeep XJ Cherokee, 1984 – 2001. And more visible on the roads today than the A Bodies, but fading fast. As for A Bodies, there are still a few Centuries and Cieras cruising around my area, but I haven’t seen a Celebrity in years. And other than the one non-op Pontiac 6000 around the corner from my house, the Pontiac’s extinct here too. I’m pretty sure I have drive a Ciera rental, but honestly it wasn’t memorable. It was probably Driftwood Metallic too, weren’t they all?
More memorable for me was the fact that that the Fremont GM plant was closed for a long time to retool from building the RWD A/G bodies, to make the FWD cars, then shut down in a year. Only to open up again as NUMMI, to make those Corolla Nova’s like your family had. I drove by the plant just a few days ago and truckloads of new Tesla’s were streaming out.
After posting the above comment, I took the dog for her morning walk and experienced a CC effect, though sadly not The CC Effect; the neighborhood Pontiac 6000 was gone. In its place in the driveway was a gray Toyota crossover. 😢
I didn’t realize the same Fremont plant became the NUMMI plant (which later became Tesla property). I haven’t seen a 6000 in years… those are the real A-body unicorns, to me! And Celebrities are also super rare these days, nos that you mention it.
The clash of eras wasn’t quite as bad on wagons which, nose piece apart, kept their big-windowed ’80s angularity to the very end in ’96. They also emphasize what really stands out about these cars in modern context which is their lowness.
I’ll tell you what – I love a low beltline, like the ones on these cars. I suppose GM really couldn’t do too much to freshen the great of the wagons, especially given their low numbers relative to the four-doors. They kept that ’84 thing going for a loooong time.
When I see one of these, it’s hard for me to think of anything besides “rental car”, as la673’s comment and your parents’ experience underscores. I also believe that they were the “nice” fleet cars at several of the state universities I worked in during the mid-1990s. I’ve always thought that these fit the bill for what a rental or fleet car requires…acceptable power, a trunk, and an ok experience (comfortable if nothing else) from behind the wheel for a day or two. Whether front or rear seat passengers are comfortable is not really that important, neither are lots of little things that you might not notice if you didn’t have to live longterm with the vehicle (like how hard it is to load things in the trunk, trim quality, etc.).
The later ones, for sure, scream “rental car” to me, as well. The earlier ones, and as Paulson alluded to below, definitely seemed like upscale cars to me.
The thing that irks me just a little bit about rental car agencies is their size classifications. They always seem to assign size classifications one (or two) up from what a car actually is. For example, a Corolla is considered a “midsize” to the local rental agency I use. My question is if they’d consider a Cutlass Ciera to be “full size” by that scale. Probably, yes. I mean, with its bench seats, and all.
We had one in the family. It was my Grandfather’s 93 or 94 I believe. . I remember being profoundly horrified that he had traded in his beautiful Cadillac rivaling 1982 Olds Delta 98 for a plusher version of a Chevy Celebrity.
As he gave me the news, he insisted it was the only model he liked at the Olds dealer. I was trying to get him interested in a Camry XLE but that was unlikely and of course he never went to look at one. Olds man to the core, and he declared it was quite modern (to him) and his favorite Olds yet as I cringed.
But like you, after getting to know it I found it handled quite well, felt solid and was a true sleeper with that butter smooth V6. And truthfully that 98 was tedious to drive on faster highways with the malaise era 305. And most of all, my Grandfather was quite pleased with the Ciera and kept driving it until 2010 when he passed away at 95. It had low miles but an absolutely problem free history unlike the 98 that ate a few transmissions. Only thing I disliked was the cheaper updated dashboard.
LOL, this is not your father’s Oldsmobile; it is your grandfather’s Oldsmobile…
Kenny, I like that your grandfather liked his Ciera, and that it probably felt comfortable and familiar to him. A Cadillac replacement it wasn’t, but on the plus-side, I’m sure repairs and parts were much cheaper. I hope its next owner got good use out of it.
I remember after a long period where my family only rented from Hertz, we switched over to renting from National. At the time and still to this day, I enjoyed picking the car off the Emerald Aisle. My mother and I were visiting my Grandmother and we flew into Hartford, CT and we rented a 1996 Ciera in white with the old green and white Massachusetts license plates. The car was fairly new with the ubiquitous maroon GM cloth interior but I remember thinking at the age of 11 what an anachronism this car was with the old fashioned GM metal seatbelt buckles that just said GM and the fact that it still had an ignition key and a door key. My mother felt the same way as she was currently driving a Mercury Mystique. However, it seemed fitting as my grandfather had died recently and he was a big fan of late 70s to late 80s GM cars so it reminded me of him. I hadn’t thought about a Ciera in a long time. Thanks for reminding me.
When you mentioned the metal seatbelt buckles, my mind’s ear immediately heard that “click” sound. And the rectangular release button in the center of the buckle with the old, classic “GM” logo. I love details like this.
I remember having the same impression of these. They were what people of my parents’ generation (who would always buy GM cars) would pick. A realtor neighbor bought one about 1986 or 87 and I wondered what might possess a 40 year old guy to make such a choice.
I never got real wheel time in one of these, but eventually came to respect them for how long they stayed in circulation, even decades after they had been built.
Your comment has me thinking about what cars were out when I was in my early / mid thirties that if they were still in production fifteen years later, what I might think of them. I could see one of the ’80s ones being purchased by a successful 40 year old, but by ’92, definitely not. In a way, it’s like the longevity of the A-body was almost like redemption for the X-car on which it was based.
To this day, I think these cars (for me, especially the Century) were some of the best for the money. I was selling them from 1988 till 1995 and again from 2007 to 2011 and I always liked them. My wife and I had ordered a brand new 1994 Buick Skylark Custom that we liked very well. However, due to several heavy snow storms, she had two separate single car accidents with it. The second one was the worst and I decided the bigger and wider tires could have something to do with it. This was in 1996 now and I was not working at the Buick dealership but still had my guys to take care of me. So instead of having the Skylark fixed and waiting, I traded it in “as-is” with the damage and they got me a very clean 1996 used Century (program/off lease car) that only had about 9,000 miles and was a gorgeous dark cherry color. We purchased it and she really liked driving it and it was much better in the snow with the more narrow tires.
Of all the cars we’ve had over the years, that is one that I often wish I had back.
I hadn’t even thought about with width or narrowness of tires having an effect on the ease of driving in snowy conditions. I might have assumed that wider tires would mean better traction, but it has been a while since I’ve spent any significant amount of time driving in snow. I have seen that dark cherry color on those Centurys and it is a good one. I’ve seen some of those in nice condition in recent years – undoubtedly owned by older owners who kept them up nicely before selling them, or an estate sale.
Your parents weren’t the only non-elderly people who bought a new Cutlass Ciera in the 1990s. I knew a couple who actually bought two of them in about 1994-95. She drove a Driftwood beige wagon, and he had a light blue sedan. They were very practical and frugal people – both of them drove quite a long distance to work, and they had two little kids at the time. They liked the simplicity and value of the Cieras, and were actually eager to buy their cars before the Ciera was discontinued.
Unfortunately, I lost touch with them, so I don’t know what they eventually bought to replace the Cieras.
There is something really good to be said of the kind of pragmatic thinking that this couple demonstrated. There is a place for that. I wonder how my younger brother felt when taking the Oldsmobile out to pick up his friends. Or maybe he had his own car by then. I honestly can’t remember.
My family actually had two of these, both 1988 models and both purchased as former fleet vehicles from our insurance company.
One was a brown base model with the 2.8 v6. Dad traded it in with over 250,000 miles on the clock (the odometer was a 5 digit, but we’d been around the horn twice). We spotted it at a used dealership a week later advertised with only 50,000(ish) miles. Dad reported them and I believe that dealership closed shortly after.
I learned to drive and had assigned as ‘my car’ the nicer and lower-mileage of the two. It was a blue 1988 model with the 3.8 v6, big pleated-cushion seats and extra chrome to accompany the Brougham badge.
That car was my first real taste of vehicular freedom. I spent as much time waxing it and keeping the white walls on point as I did actually driving it.
The 3.8 was torquey and left many strips of rubber at stop lights. It could even chirp the tires going into the automatic’s 2nd.
By the time I began driving, this car had been through a steering rack, a water pump, alternator and possibly a timing issue which lead to scorched cylinder walls and a lengthy stay at the shop. All that by 140,000ish miles.
For Christmas, my parents gifted a new steering wheel to replace the cracked and falling apart resin OE. The car threw a rod (surely not related to leaving rubber at a stop light) a few weeks later and I cried as it was hauled off.
It was an extremely common car in the 90s and has zero intrinsic interest or collector value today, but if I ever see one running for sale it’d be difficult to resist. I’ve often imagined walking through a car show as an old man, thumbs in the waistband of some pleated plaid pants, explaining to a hypothetical grand kid ‘that’s what cars looked like when I was your age.’
Thanks for the trip down memory lane! I didn’t know anyone else ever thought of that car!
Geoff, thanks for this. I don’t really have a frame of reference in terms of what kinds of repairs or parts replacements would be expected after 140,000, but the items you listed sounds like a lot – cumulatively. Maybe that was just par for the course and no more and no less than other cars like it.
I will also be that mature gentleman wearing whatever the equivalent of Sansabelt slacks, pointing to cars with the ignition switch on the steering column, and waxing nostalgic to anyone who will listen.
I believe both of my parents’ Cieras needed steering rack replacements. The 2.8l car was much more reliable for us – maybe our 3.8 was a dud. As I understand, that engine model (3800 LG2?) generally held up well.
We encountered the smell of spilled antifreeze from leaking water pumps and of leaking fuel injectors multiple times in the garage with those two.
At the imaginary car show: yes, children, that in the back seat is called an ash tray and it was for storing over-chewed bubble gum among other things. No, there were no cup holders before the 90s – everyone just held their coffee between their legs and accepted that risk as a part of life.
OH and I remember the brake pedal embossed with “DISC BRAKES” – on the front only, but what a statement.
So many good memories! Joseph, I always enjoy the CC blog and thanks in particular for this article!
I had a 1990 Ciera SL, on which I did a COAL. I paid $700 for it, which at the time (2004) was all I could afford. While the car mags hated the Ciera, buyers loved them. They were comfortable and roomy enough for my then young family.
Mine had the 3.3 litre motor and I really liked it. The Buick V-6 pulled very well off the line and worked very well with the smooth GM automatic transmission. The maroon interior was really nice, with high quality materials and the optional full instrument panel is still the best I have ever seen.
I had that car about a year and a half, when I had enough money for a new car. I that time I did the front brakes myself. I remember the pads being $13 a set and the rotors $20 each and rebuilt calipers $50 for both sides. That was a big, fat $83 to do a complete brake job. Now try that in any modern car!
I sold it for $700, not a bad return for a beater.
Inexpensive to purchase, own, and fix – honestly, what’s not to like for a beater? I will have to look for your COAL.
In line with the previous comments, I thought the introduction of the original Taurus in late 1985 instantly aged these GM offerings and I regarded the various permutations of the A-bodies with a deep dislike. However, I began to develop a grudging respect after renting these countless times, as they seemed to be the default “intermediate or equivalent” to which I was relegated at the National or Alamo lots from the mid ’80s through the mid ’90s. I trolled the Emerald Aisle, desperately looking for something different, and then resigned myself to choosing the Ciera or Century that looked the newest and cleanest and had a power driver’s seat.
The Ciera and Century delivered a mostly meh driving experience, but they were adequate in most respects, with no glaring faults, except for a really uncomfortable bench seat in base models. Morever, they were far better than the contemporary J- and N-body derivatives that were typically the alternative at the rental counter, some of which truly scraped the bottom of the barrel in terms of their inherent craptitude.
I can empathize with those on a tight budget for choosing one of these, but beyond that, the Ciera and Century had completely outlived their reason for being with the 1989 introduction of the W-body successors, themselves deeply flawed designs from the days when GM could do nothing right.
I’m sure it might have been seen as a slap in the face to the developers and engineers on the GM10 / W-body replacements when these A-bodies kept right on in production and selling well.
We ordered 1984 olds cruise wagon At that time the V-6 was 3.0 engine and had some problems. We didn’t order A/C because we lived in the Thousand Islands in NY and didn’t need it. We did order power seats, am/fm cassette auto, PS,PB, and electric cord block heater 😊
If I’m not mistaken, ’84 was the first model year for the wagon (the Cruiser). Yours must have been a really nice example when new.
Ah yes, US41 in Fort Myers. You can find many ways to avoid traveling on that very congested road and make better time, but when to want to cross it going east (and you WILL at some point in your journey), they are very loooong traffic lights. The only place worse than 41 in Fort Myers is 41 in Punta Gorda. Don’t miss it at all.
I don’t think I’ve ever driven in Punta Gorda, though I have been to Charlotte and Sarasota counties. I don’t remember lights in Fort Myers being particularly long, but there’s often the inevitable horn-honk in the left turn lanes when someone’s not paying attention when the green arrow turns on.
The generic automobile. Slap any brand on it and call it good. The ultimate rental car. And there’s still a goodly number of these coackroaches of the road around here. All undoubtedly were former rental cars too, as this was not the kind of car that folks here bought new. They are a testament to GM, both laudable and dubious.
I remember Budget selling them off for $8995, or half the new car price. There were tons of them on the road here as they were a great deal for the money charged. The last ones were in 1996 but I still see a few around. The newest ones are now eighteen years old, which is about the life of any GM car in my experience.
They’re twenty-eight years old. When they entered production, people from solidly middle class to the highest reaches of upper middle class bought new midsized GM cars, all over the country. When they left production, driving one on the coasts suggested that you were over 65, on a budget, and probably didn’t care much about cars. A new 1984 Cutlass Ciera with a high trim level and lots of options was a car to impress anyone who rode in it. By 1994, a new Cutlass Ciera was like a trip back in time to a 1983 rental car for anyone who rode in it. The engines were better, but the rest of the car had been costed down to nothing and barely seemed road worthy in places with hills and curves. In 1984, they were probably cross shopped with any sedan beneath a 528e. In 1996, they were a bigger alternative to an econobox. It’s pretty remarkable that GM managed to go another dozen years before declaring bankruptcy.
Canucknucklehead, I do that thing with the math more times than I should admit, so don’t feel bad. I can’t believe 1996 was twenty-eight years ago either.
And Paulson, great points about how this car’s buying demographic shifted so dramatically over the course of its long, long life.
The car from around this era (about five years earlier) that had the most drastic buyer demographic shift in a single generation car must be the ’77-’89 Dodge Diplomat. When introduced in mid-1977, it was an upscale mid-sized car designed to compete with the likes of the Ford Granada and upcoming downsized ’78 GM A bodies. It was obviously based on the Aspen but looked more upscale inside and out. In addition to the sedan there was a coupe whose rear half was distinct from the sedan to make it look like a personal-luxury coupe and not a two-door sedan. A wagon joined the lineup in 1978. These were fairly popular choices for middle-class suburban buyers of the sort that made Cutlasses and Cordobas popular.
By the mid ’80s, the coupes and wagons were long gone and hardly any private buyers were buying Diplomats (save for some mostly older drivers with very conservative tastes in cars, who wouldn’t buy a Ciera because it was FWD and didn’t have a V8). Nope, this was a fleet car, a taxi, or especially, a cop car. Seeing a Diplomat in my rear-view mirror elicited the same response as seeing a Crown Vic in the 2000s and ’10s did. But cops didn’t go near the Diplomat in its first five years. If police departments wanted a Mopar they got a larger C, B, or R body. Those were all gone by 1982 leaving the Dip as Chrysler’s biggest car, so they marketed it quite successfully to cops and fleets, while newer K-based front-drivers (and the Broughamed-out Fifth Avenue variant of those Diplomat cop cars) were pitched to consumers.
A big reason for the shift in the Diplomat’s fortunes was the ever-higher CAFE target during that period. Chrysler really wanted their mainstream customers to pick something like a Lebaron K or a Dodge 600 instead of a 14 mpg Diplomat. It was paired with an Aspen-based Lebaron when it was new, but Chrysler moved the Lebaron to the K platform for fuel economy reasons and moved their Aspen-based car upmarket as the New Yorker Fifth Avenue, where high margins would make up for the CAFE hit. The Diplomat really was just kept around to have something to offer conservative fleet buyers. I doubt they marketed it or the near-identical Plymouth Grand Fury to private buyers.
The Diplomat had astonishingly low fuel economy for a car of its size and power. EPA fuel economy estimates were no better than the much larger R body St. Regis that was discontinued after 1981. I’ve long thought that many Diplomat buyers (and also New Yorker/Fifth Avenue buyers) would have preferred the larger, more modern-looking R bodies had they still been available if they knew their larger size wouldn’t result in a fuel-economy hit. The R body, whose platform was an update of the 1962 B body, could have been even more profitable cash cows for Chrysler than the Crown Vic was for Ford well into the 2010s.
R-bodies had some cool weight-saving methods, like stamped-aluminum wheel rims and aluminum bumpers. Unfortunately, they acquired very poor reputations with fleet operators. It is possible that fleet buyers trusted the Volare-decendents more after struggling to keep St. Regis and Gran Fury R-bodies in service. It was probably cheaper to make an M-body, which didn’t hurt their CAFE score any more than an R-body would have.
Paul, I’d be curious to know the percentage of sales – say, in ’94, the year of the featured car – that went to private owners versus fleets. If I had to guess, my guess would be 70% fleet / 30% private owners?
There’s no ready stats, but the percentage got higher and higher. I wouldn’t be surprised if it topped 80% in its final year. GM wasn’t really pushing these on retail clients anymore, but they offered very low prices to fleets, in order to keep the factories running. This was part of GM’s strategy then, to keep workers at work instead of having to pay them not to work, even if there was little or no profit in the cars that they built.
“Sack cloth and ashes on wheels”! I literally LOL’d at that one!! 🙂
Haha! Success!
Things the General built with I4’s in the 1980’s almost uniformly were terrible, no matter how hard they tried (Quad-4, I’m looking at you).
Things the General made with V6’s were often pretty good, as long as you weren’t lookingf for cutting edge styling or road dynamics. The Cutlass Ciera presented here. The Buick Century, the Buick LeSabre, the Buick Regal are obvious examples, but even the GM10 were nice cars if you could get past the terrible styling and strange coupe packaging.
The things the General made with V8’s were often terrible too – almost all the Cadillacs of that era, most of those things made with the Oldmobile 307 or Chevy 305.
You had to not settle for too little, and not want too much.
Hot-and-cold syndrome, it sounds like, with GM’s engines with different numbers of cylinders. I don’t recall having driven anything with a Quad IV. What I do remember from my high school days, when the Quad IV was supposed to be GMs great thing in four cylinders, was that the engine got good press at the time. Or maybe it was just in the GM-centric things I read in Flint? I was sad to later learn this engine wasn’t as great as my initial I lessions from whatever I had read.
I recall the Quad 4 being praised for its power, but criticized for being peaky and noisy. Similar engines were popular in Honda’s sportier models, for drivers who liked the rush to the 7,000rpm redline in each gear, but seemed all wrong for the rather conservative Cutlass Calais it was first used in, whose buyers would likely prefer a low-revving but torquey engine like the Buick V6.
I could never get my head around the apparent stratification of American society (according to GM) in the olden days. Five layers of cars, from bargain basement to top-shelf – and just before the depression, even more. Gosh, today that seems unthinkable. You might have basic, medium and luxury brands; where would you position another two? Meaningfully, I mean.
I think the fabled Sloan ladder was on shaky ground right from the start. Surely the writing was on the wall when Henry Ford’s Model T price was continually reduced – to $260 a hundred years ago. It showed people how little a car could be sold for and still make a profit. Sure the T was basic and crude, and by the end of its run a real throwback, and it was worth paying more to another company to get a better product. But it gave all who cared to think a pretty good idea of manufacturing costs of a basic car – and how fat the dealer and company profits likely were on the one you might be considering.
Once GM was building all their cars on the same platform with the same engine choice, it came down to which styling you preferred and/or who would give you the best deal. There was no valid reason for Brand A to cost more then Brand B. The whole ‘brand management’ thing was the kind of nonsense you’d think surely nobody would be stupid enough to fall for – and yet GM’s high-ups paid to bring in these folk to achieve the obvious: nothing. A salutary lesson as to why only car guys should be allowed in the top positions of car companies.
The Ciera? There’s nothing wrong with keeping a car in production for over a decade if it’s a good one. Interesting that Honda and Toyota seemed to keep to four or five year cycles right through this period.
A brilliant summary, Peter. What content in a Chevy Celebrity would make it a lesser car than a Buick Century of the ’80s? I had also come to think of a cycle of four (or sometimes five) years for a product cycle to be the industry standard.
Well, as with BMC and later British Leyland, a big part of the object became maintaining the dealer network, more than really the brand identity or, eventually even brand loyalty. How many cars an automaker can sell depends on how many dealers it has, even if all those dealers are selling more or less the same products, like supermarkets selling the same white-label goods. Shedding brands without shedding dealers in the process can be difficult, particularly in the States, where state franchise laws give car dealers a fair amount of legal leverage. So, for quite a while, it made more business sense to just do a bit of minor styling variation and badge engineering if it kept the sales network intact.
A corollary point was that model proliferation, combined with dealer determination to not be left out of anything they think they can sell. Having substantively different products for the different brands is one thing when each has one or two basic cars offered in various trim levels, but once you have a compact, an intermediate, a full-size car, a subcompact, and a personal luxury coupe, of which many or all of the divisional sales organizations and their franchise holders want their own version, maintaining meaningful differences between them becomes difficult, expensive, and arguably a bit silly.
The Japanese managed this in the home market for quite a while by setting up different dealer chains that mostly didn’t have distinct brands. I don’t think there was ever any pretense that a Toyota Sprinter or Chaser was qualitatively superior or even meaningfully different from a Corolla or Mark II, they were just sold through different channels.
You might well ask the same question of Volkswagen now: they have five brands (Audi, VW, Skoda, SEAT and Cupra) that all share platforms (on certain models) and without looking it up, undoubtedly overlap considerably in price. It seems to be working for them.
And then there’s Hyundai and Kia. Same cars, different styling. It’s working for them too.
It’s not unlike going to the supermarket and being confronted with 27 varieties of Crest toothpaste. What’s your preferred flavor, or color?
I have the basic stats for an indepth look at the Sloan ladder and how quickly it collapsed. I just need to find some time…
And Stellantis in Europe even more so – fourteen brands!
I can understand the Japanese model of different dealer chains selling different but not quite equal product. But when a company puts different names on the same thing with minimal content difference (as GM used to), yet charges more because of ‘brand heritage’ or whatever – from a consumer’s point of view that’s downright insulting.
Yeah, I find buying toothpaste confusing too! I’ve never counted varieties or tried to work out any difference there might be; I just grab whatever variety’s cheapest; it’s only a tiny proportion of the household budget. Unlike, say, a car.
A well-tempered no nonsense car. An American Volvo 740, so to speak. If it would have been Japanese, the buffs from the motor press would have gone head over heels crazy with enthusiasm.
My first car. How cool is a high school student with a sky blue Cutlass Ciera in 1998? Cool enough when your friends don’t yet have a car. It could jackrabbit off the line well enough to earn a 16 year-old’s respect as well. The 3.3 liter was a torquey engine and the Ciera didn’t weigh that much.
Good memories and I’m fond of these, but this car was absolutely archaic next to anything Japan produced by the late 80s, and if you compared it to a 1992 Camry the only possible reason Oldsmobile ever sold another was price and loyalty. It’s been a long time, but I remember the Ciera wallowing and shimmying and flexing in a way that made it feel 3 sizes larger than it actually was. Selling these new clear into the mid-90s was incredibly lazy, but at least those who bit on the line took something generally long-lived and durable home.
Great write up, Joe. The mid-90s were tumultuous for me; any family member getting a new car was a silver lining. I greatly looked forward to visiting home and checking out my aunt and uncle’s “brand new Buick”. They were Buick people, but always bought used; the only exception prior to this one was a little stripper Datsun 210 my uncle bought new as a commuter in 1980. Anyway, I was fully excited to check out their new Buick, thinking it was the sexy new Regal sedan. Alas, no…it was a Century, which was by then all over the place for many years. It served them well for a few years; my uncle passed away in the late ’90s, and a few years later my aunt ditched the Century because of a myriad of continuing, niggling problems. She bought a new Camry, and that’s when I realized her generation crossed the Rubicon regarding domestic brands. My uncle and one of her brothers both fought in WWII in the Pacific theater and must have been spinning in their graves….
I will say the wagon version was a sharp looking car and appears highly useful. Imagine if GM wanted to extend the chassis shelf life even further by giving it a slight lift and black trim pieces to “Outback” it….
These later model cars were very nice as I remember. I drove the Buick equivalent for quite a while as a rent car and it handled very well. And my cousin had the two door sport version of the Cutlass Ciera and it was also a nice car. For their times, these were good cars.