While hunting for Touring Sedan parts today, I came upon this odd sight: an ’89 sporting dark blue leather buckets with white centers and piping. At first, I was torn on their authenticity – they did appear to have the proper Oldsmobile logotype stitching in the backrests, but… that color combo? Nah, couldn’t be.
It was only when I found the factory tags underneath the backseat that I was convinced.
A Touring Sedan is, of course, a sported-up 98 that was designed to be Oldsmobile’s German import fighter of the late eighties (related CC here). As such, the standard equipment list was lengthy. Each one came with the vaunted FE3 performance suspension, leather interior with special power buckets and a console, real wood accents, a “horseshoe” style floor shifter, charcoal colored body trim, full instrumentation, foglights, and a variety of other options.
This particular car must have had some stories to tell. It was originally blue (Dark Sapphire Metallic?) before being repainted white, and having the trunk lock shaved for reasons unknown. At some later point, a youthful owner (college aged, judging by the contents) got his hands on it and repainted all the charcoal accents and brightwork in a blue similar to the car’s original color. Then its tranny died, and it unceremoniously entered the scrap metal foodchain.
I would love to have bought the buckets, as they were nice not so long ago. But open doors and a few months of rain did them in. Never fear, though – at minimum, I can say that its backseat, console lid, and genuine wood dash bezel will live on.
So, what’s the strangest factory interior color combo you’ve seen lately?
Gee, with those seats I would have guessed that this was a Touring Sedan with the navy blue fake convertible top. Oh well.
Actually, those seats look kind of comfy.
That’s definitely not factory. The leather is of different texture than stock on the Touring Sedan. The seats in the brochure picture also have perforated inserts. The seats themselves are probably original, so explains the tags and their identical shapes, but this is an aftermarket upholstery job. I feel like most 25 year old GM leather is usually much more worn too.
I don’t know. The tags I found were stitched in with the leather, and looked similar to those I’ve seen on other similar cars, so I figured they could be legit.
In my hand I hold one of the backseat headrests. It, too, has a tag stitched to it. Maybe not the most informative tag in the world, but it was one that I had handy.
Take a look and see what you think. (I’m not sure what it all means – if anyone does, and I’m wrong, let me know so the record can be set straight.)
Those tags actually look legit. Maybe they did come from the factory. I’m certain navy on white wasn’t a standard factory option though. My guess now is that it was a special order.
Unlike today where options are limited and often grouped to cut down on production costs, I’m sure it was much easier to specify exactly what you wanted on a car in 1989, in addition to unlisted options. Maybe Bill Blass himself ordered this one. Oh well, I guess it will remain a mystery.
Regardless, great find. I love all Oldsmobiles, especially the Touring Sedan Ninety-Eights.
To answer your question, one of the strangest factory interior combo today I’ve seen has been the “Wine” interior color (burgundy-purplish) on the Hyundai Sonata.
You can get a similar wine color on the 2014 Lacrosse, I think Buick calls it Sangria, yummy.
There is a Morello Red on the ATS and CTS too.
On the subject of the seats, what I think they are is factory dark blue seats that had had white inserts and piping added somewhere along the way, I think Touring Sedans only had 2 color options on the interior, dark blue and gray.
I always loved these seats, they look soooooo comfortable!
Factory blue seats with the inserts reupholstered white. How can I tell? Wrong type of leather used for the white. The factory stuff was perforated. Here’s a pic of a OTS seat. See what I mean.
Next time grab a pic of the SPID(ServicePartsInDentifaction) label in the trunk. That’s the only sure way of telling right from wrong.
Damn site! Here’s the pic of the seat.
I’ll post the pic later when this site is cooperating with my browser.
*
After looking at them more, I began to wonder the same thing (comparing old pics, the stitching on the white centers looked a little off). Sadly, the spare cover was missing from this car, so I may never know what it is/was.
Also, I can say with certainty that maroon was another interior color choice for these. Seen one in the tin (an ’87) as recently as last Friday.
Minor nit-the Touring Sedan did not come with fog lights as standard equipment. My ’88 did not have them. In addition the the FE3 (or its equivalent-the rear deck did not have FE3 badging) suspension, the rear end had self-leveling air bags that worked even when the ignition was off.
Did you buy it new? I’ve never seen one without fog lights, and it is listed as standard equipment.
It didn’t have air bags instead of springs, it had pneumatic shocks, which were a regular option on everything from a lowly x-body to the top trim Caddy. It just happened to be standard on cars like the TS, STE, SSE and so on.
I was the third owner, my father was the second. No fog lights. The shocks were not pneumatic. I replaced the rear shocks with Monroe units and the self-levelling feature continued to work.
First owner wrecked it.
Did the Monroe shocks have air lines going to them? If not, how did the rear leveling suspension work then?
My 1988 Electra T-Type (Buick’s slightly tamer version) had the self-leveling suspension which, like most other GM cars, used the rear shocks with the integral air bladders on them. I’m 99% sure that the Touring Sedan was likewise equipped as I cross-shopped it before buying my T-Type (was $5K less, even on the used market).
The only other way that the system could have still worked if the shocks didn’t have the air bladders would be if their were airbags inside of the rear springs.
Maybe you were just hearing the compressor still running.
I’d put a years salary on the fog lights being smashed and removed and that you either don’t remember correctly or it didn’t have the factory rear leveling system still in it. GM never used air bags in the rear suspension on these, it was all done by the shocks….of course you could buy replacement Monroe units (still can) that hooked up to the air lines and leveled the rear end.
I owned an 86 STE. can confirm that the rear end contained air shocks and conventional steel springs, I replaced both on it. When it worked, it worked pretty good, though mine had an issue where it’d blow the fuse if it tried to start the compressor with the car loaded down-after it had already pumped it back up to level.
All the H-bodies had were air-struts in the rear with steel springs if they were so equipped, much like the later H-bodies were.
I got good at replacing the courtesy light fuse, or loosening an air line on the shocks themselves to bleed off air before taking off.
That system got a lot of use moving in and out of dorms in college. First time I got it working, it wouldn’t release air, so it’d just pump higher and higher, my friends found that out and would go outside and sit on the back to make it have a stink-bug stance.
I’ve been looking for a seat to convert to an office chair, those look like they would work great.
Yeah I’m surprised we don’t see more people doing that. If my office chair ever goes to heck and the mechanism is still good I’d love to give that a try.
It’s a Four Door Trofeo ! It’s been out there all along,. It’s the answer TO my Trofeo obsession. Besides Its got 2 extra Doors and windows that go down for fresh air back there once you slide in. I’m just old enough to appreciate that over two door styling now.
And yes , Those seats were almost too comfy.
Four door Trofeo? Pretty much. Or at least, they have more than a passing similarity.
Toronado buckets are a great fit in a 98/TS… guess how I know? (ha ha)
Might have to do a COAL on my latest project in a few weeks once it’s finished. Until then, here’s a little teaser:
Okay, THERE we go. Quick interior pic of my current work in progress. It didn’t want to upload – and then I couldn’t edit or remove the comments above. Something funny going on…?
Nice, you need to find the full gauge cluster to complete the package.
That – and several other things – are either waiting to go in right now or have been installed since the pic was taken (yesterday). I’ll let the rest be a surprise for a future article.
In a nutshell: super well-kept 98 meets with an unfortunate incident, nearly gets scrapped, goes home with me, and gets repaired/restored using leftover TS and Trofeo bits. Should make for an interesting subject!
With the Y67 voice reminder option too!
That’s a lot of work swapping out the harness just to add that gauge package!
I like where this is going. I hope you are able to get the stirrup shifter & 120mph tach cluster fitted: The Ninety-Eight Touring Sedan is one very special car. I’d love to find one NOT in a junkyard.
You mean this one? 🙂
Also serves as proof that you could get a TS with maroon interior.
Ahh, yes, how could I forget, blue, gray and the ever popular bordello red!
That is beautiful. Glad to see you have brought one back.
I remember a full boat loaded late 80s Park Avenue that had some fancy seats from the factory, the center console had a huge control pad for all the functions. It must have been a 30 way power seat, never saw one since.
I found a picture of one, I guess two people ordered that option.
This would be the incredible 1989-90 Park Avenue Ultra!
I saw seats just like this one, on a circa 1990 Park Avenue Ultra that got traded in at a dealership I worked at back in 1993. Sadly, although a superbly loaded vehicle, it had been very badly treated. A damn shame…
They made more than a few, I remember the Buick dealer that my grandmother used to service her LeSabre at had a bunch on the lot when they came out, all the colors too, the dark blue, dark red, champagne, black, they were nice. They were expensive to, like $31-32K when loaded up.
GM offered up a few thousand way seat options on they big cars circa 1987-1990, the already mentioned 98 Touring Sedan, Park Avenue Ultra and the even rarer Fleetwood Sixty Special, which had 32 way power seats designed by Giguaro or someone?
Those were pretty rare, I only saw one in person at the Auto Show.
It’s hard to believe that the same people who offered up those leather seats also offered this on the ’77 Toronado. I can’t even describe it
I see way too many Touring Sedans in the junkyard and not nearly enough in my driveway.
I always thought that the cloth seats (front bench or rear) from my ’85 98 Regency Brougham would make an amazing sofa. They worked in that regard very well when I was in high school…
As a hard-core Oldsmobile fan, I am looking forward to seeing your car once you get it done!
I love those seats and the picture of the TS interiors. I’ve stayed away from GM FWD cars ever since my experience with a 1989 Pontiac 6000LE. The car was purchased new by my father and he despised it so much that after four years he bought a Mercury GM. I recall him saying “next time you come to Florida buy a one way ticket because I am giving you the Pontiac”. Sure enough within the next year I flew down to Florida and picked up the Pontiac. On the trip home it ran great and was getting 30mpg. I did have a few problems in the few years I owned it but the killer was when a $5 plastic part in the transmission broke that would allow all the tranny fluid to leak out. Every mechanic I talked to said the tranny had to come out and be disassembled to do the repair and it would cost over $1k. That episode soured me on any FWD GM car to this day. It seems many of you have had a much better experience with GM FWD cars than I did.
As to odd interior colors I would have to say my ’77 Versailles, Midnight blue paint, medium blue vinyl roof, and a tan/gold cloth interior.
I’d definitely go with the piping and centers being changed on those buckets. The sloppy piping around the headrests and bright white are the giveaways to me.
I agree…not sure if it bears mentioning, but the “leather” in the photo that shows the tag is actually vinyl (however, it’s not uncommon for only the seat centers to actually be leather).
One thing I noticed is the side control pod does not look at all like the one on my 1990 Reatta with 16 way drivers seat. That one looks almost homemade. Just my 2 cents worth, or less.
These had the majority of the seat controls on the center console with a left/right toggle, similar to what the SSE Bonneville had. The Buick E-car 16 way you would see on Riviera/Reatta seats had several controls on the side of the seat.
You are correct, I had forgotten about my girlfriends 1992 Bonneville ssei with the seat controls on the console with the left right switch at top. Car was bought a week before hurricane Andrew to0k it away along with my home, girlfriend, about all that survived was my 91 Mazda miata, cracked glass, small holes in top, dents but driveable.
PS Even with all those controls the ssei was never a comfortable car.
Can’t wait to see the finished product, did you snag the cluster? I’m looking for one…
I did – two, in fact. Bought both while I could. Planning on using the ’89 one, once I get my hands on the correct wiring schematics to confirm that my plans are feasible.
The ’87 one that I don’t foresee using (along with any other duplicate parts worth passing on) will likely end up on eBay once I’m done with the project.