(first posted 6/6/2012) There are some things you just tend to forget about. Appointments to the dentist. Needing to tuck-point the brick on your house. What your wife wore on your last anniversary.
There are other things in which a lack of comment or activity indicates a degree of success. For instance, this past winter were you more likely to telephone your local highway department on snowy days when the road was covered or when the road was clear?
So what explains GM’s N-body? Introduced in 1985 as the Pontiac Grand Am, Buick Somerset, and Oldsmobile Calais, these cars replaced the unfortunate X-bodies that are still discussed today.
The N-bodies are rarely seen anymore, particularly the Oldsmobile and Buick versions which are illustrated here. Production of these cars ceased in 1991. For perspective, that has been enough time for someone born on the last day of Oldsmobile Calais production in April 1991 to now legally purchase alcohol in all fifty states. Thus, rational deduction would conclude the simple passage of time and usage would have eliminated most of these cars. However, as evidenced by the number of similarly aged GM A-body Buick’s and Oldsmobile’s still on the road, might age be an inferior determining factor?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByUvY2aO7bQ
Perhaps it was the audience of these machines. As evidenced by the commercial above, these cars were aimed at the young and upwardly mobile. Or, in ’80’s parlance, yuppies on a budget. A much different demographic than the A-body audience, this would give credence to the idea they were bought, got stale for the owner, and were resold. Many times.
Perhaps another reason is the model names of these cars. When introduced in 1985, the Buick version was the “Regal Somerset”. In then evolved to “Somerset” and then to “Skylark”. The Oldsmobile was initially the “Calais” but was soon re-christened “Cutlass Calais”. Renaming a car every year or two does not assist in name recognition or name retention, thus it being less memorable to people.
It should be noted that GM and Oldsmobile were shamelessly trying to milk the Cutlass name, as in 1988, they had the “Cutlass Supreme”, “Cutlass Calais”, and the “Cutlass Ciera”. Pontiac was at least consistent in calling the “Grand Am” by the same name for its entire production run.
Yet the question remains: Why are they such seemingly forgotten automobiles?
More evidence is needed.
Never having driven, or even ridden in, an N-body GM, your author did some research on these cars. Being as obscure as they now are, a google search revealed little. However, a car owner survey website did give a little insight into these cars.
It was found that these cars were, and can be, highly durable in the mechanical department. The 2.5 liter Iron Duke engine earned many fans for its ruggedness and frugality. The assorted sizes of V6’s were well respected, also.
However, it seems that these cars were prone to rust and paint loss, as evidenced by the Buick seen here. They were also prone to various electrical gremlins at times as well as possessing brittle trim and hardware. Such does not bode well for longevity.
Then there are also the driving patterns and styles. Many of the owner reviews seemed to be written by males between the ages of 16 and 18. That generally does not bode well for longevity.
So what conclusions can be reached about these cars? The two examples here both present evidence toward a hybrid of the theories presented: these vehicles did a good job for their owners despite their often being subjected to less than favorable treatment.
The Buick, due to it being a Skylark, was built toward the end of the 1985 to 1991 production run [ED: It’s an ’88-’91 model as it has the composite headlights]. The paint is retiring and the tin worm has taken hold. Found in Fulton, Missouri, I did a double take upon seeing this car as I had simply forgotten they existed. After snapping a few pictures, and going about my business, I saw it parked elsewhere about 30 minutes later.
The Oldsmobile was found a few days later on a used car lot in Lebanon, Missouri, about 120 miles south of Fulton. When I introduced myself to the lady on the lot, she told me the Calais has only 58,000 miles on it and was either an ’86 or ’87 model. Despite the obvious misalignment of the body panels up front, this car was fairly sound with a great looking interior.
General Motors did not hit a home run with these cars, however, they at least got a base hit. A strike out would still be remembered.
My buddy had a quad-4 powered Grand Am coupe that suffered catastrophic failure in the form of the passenger side front strut tower (at least partially) separating from the rest of the car. It was 10-12 years old at the time and had over 200,000 km on it.
Maybe up north there are less of these around due to the rust, but in the south I still see a bunch of these around. The Buick and Olds version seemed especially popular with the elderly crowd, maybe thats why more of them lasted. The Grand Am has always attracted a younger buyer and therefore tends to get beat up faster.
Back in the day I learned to drive on these cars, the local GM dealer donated a bunch of them to the drivers ed programs at our schools. I of course preferred the Grand Am, I even liked the formal roofline, and the cool Trans Am style wheels didnt hurt either.
On vacation to Orlando in 1988, I rented a Cutlass Ciera. I don’t recall much about the car, but seemed underpowered and cheap. I accidentially cracked the driver’s side sill plate getting into the car. The A/C did not seem to work properly.
That summer was the hottest I can remember, close to 100 degrees in Orlando. Even in Pittsburgh, 90 deg temps were the norm, lawns and golf courses were brown for lack of rain and the heat.
What a terrible vacation. Maybe I unfairly blame the car for the misery. The Horror! The Horror!
On my vacation to Orlando I rented a Somerset. Concur with your recollection. Compared to my Accord back home the Buick was cheap and underpowered. I mistakenly merged onto the Interstate and had to rev the new engine without mercy to keep from becoming roadkill. I’m sure ruined it. With AC the engine floundered at stop signs.
Too much body misalignment. Interior fabrics resembled a cheap terrycloth towel I bought at K-Mart. This is a Buick? Made me sad.
The Sommerset’s window sticker in the glove box shocked me. MSRP was higher than my Accord. That was the moment I knew GM was headed for Chapter 11.
I checked these out when they were new, specifically the Pontiac Grand Am. To me, they seemed to be “chunky” as in un-refined and dated like they were from the 1970’s. Compared to any Nissan, Toyota and Honda, in levels of a comprehensive, well-designed, efficient package…well, all you have to do is look at them. The later versions in the 1990’s were much better. There is a very nice Buick Skylark sedan on our lot at work. I felt the Buicks were the most attractive. The Aleros got some award for “World’s largest tail lights” I think…
The first Grand Ams in this style were snapped up by many of the younger buyers pretending to be Yuppies, as they couldn’t afford the BMW 3-series yet, and with that tiny split grille, at least looked the part!
Finally, these, along with the Tempo/Topaz were just an odd-sized vehicle, too large for a personal coupe but too small for a usable 4 passenger sedan, as the back seats were quite cramped.
Our Plymouth Reliant coupe was much more space-efficient and better designed overall, if not as well executed as to quality, but I don’t know how the GM cousins were for that metric, so I may be wrong. As we owned our Reliant for 7 years, well, I guess Chrysler did something right!
My parents bought a 1987 Plymouth Reliant in 1992 for one of my sisters to learn on; in 2001 it became mine–today it has 101,000 miles on it and I WORSHIP my K-car.
I started restoring it in 2005, and I’ve gone through plenty of cars since; however, NOTHING has stolen my heart as much my Pluggs, my Plymouth Reliant LE coupe. (automatic on the floor–yet to find another one like it).
Gorgeous, comfortable, efficient, reliable. I love the K-car.
Working with the Center for Rehabilitation Technology at Georgia Tech, I designed a “universal car” as one of my Senior Industrial Design projects in 1985-86. The idea was that the rear suspension would articulate so the flat floor became a built-in wheelchair ramp up to the driver’s position. I also designed the wheelchair restraint system shown in the photo.
GM donated a brand-new fire damaged N Body to the program, and my job was to completely take it apart. We used the drivetrain and wiring harness and some other bits, and I believe the rest got scrapped (except for the rear springs, which got cut down and installed in my ’82 Cavalier to tighten up the ride a bit).
I remember it being difficult to break down, and pretty forgettable from the standpoint of any “clever” engineering… just another ho-hum GM sedan.
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Small world! I was at Ga Tech from ’84-’88 working on my BME. Remember the Centennial celebration in the Fall of ’85?
Sure do! I still have a few pieces of Coca-Cola branded flotsam (remember the lunch bags they handed out?) up in the attic. Big doings…
Another GT alum / inmate – there from ’83-’89…
Zackman is right about the packaging. The spongy seats were down on the floor and the gronky doors were a few inches too small all the way around.
“They were also prone to various electrical gremlins…”
Bingo. A couple 20something friends in the late 90s had hand-me-down Buick Whatevers that would occassionally strand them. One of those cars became a Civic and another a Maxima.
Where are the N-bodies? Buried under the Japanese cars that replaced them.
My cousin put a damn big hole in our garage in 1996 when the headlights on the Grand Am he was driving completely shorted out.
One of our neighbors had a ‘drive thru’ garage with a door on either end. I always thought it was cool, so I guess the Grand Am decided to make one for me.
The poor packaging is what I remember about these too–you seemed to sit on the floor with the dash at chin height. For a small car, GM seemed to go out of its way to make the N-bodies feel big and unwieldy.
My family owned a `91 Grand Am from `93 – `06. It would still be with us had someone not ran a red light. Its party piece? The A/C never quit working in all of those years. It still had R12 in it, having never been converted.
I remember these being fairly popular in the early 90s. On the other hand, I was in high school at the time and they were popular in my immediate vicinity because they were already being handed down to the kids.
I actually liked the styling of these cars at the time, and still do. The only thing really wrong was the stance, with the wheels being recessed into the wheel wells to the point of awkwardness. But then all GM cars of the era were like that.
These were all over in the midwest. A former co-worker bought an 85 or 86 Grand Am with the Quad 4. He was of the generation that grew up just KNOWING that GM was the greatest car company in all the world. Massive head gasket failure and multiple unfixable rattles made him swear off of Pontiacs forever. Funny that I could never get through his head that it wasn’t Pontiac, it was the GM platform because they were all built the same way by the same people.
I also had a cousin who bought a Cutlass Calais. It seemed nice, but compared to my 85 GTI, it was just so – well- GM. It seemed built decently enough, but just did not really appeal to me at all.
I always wondered how Oldsmobile wrestled the Calais name from Cadillac. Was there a car in the Olds heirarchy lower than the Calais? I think there was but cannot remember. Poor Calais – such an elegant name always on low-level cars.
In 1978 the Cutlass Salon was renamed the Cutlass Calais (the Salon name was applied to the hunchback A-body Oldsmobile). The Calais was the sporty version of the Cutlass Supreme up through 1983-ish. Every Calias I have ever seen (& stripped) has been a bucket seat/console car & every one of them had the tach cluster in them. I assume these features were standard equipment on that model.
When I was a kid, the older lady up the street had a pristine white ’78 or ’79 Calais with the red/white bucket seat interior & of course the tach cluster. It was gorgeous despite the fact that it was 231 V6 powered.
So if it makes you feel any better, the Calais was a “special” Cutlass Supreme before the name went to the N-car 🙂 If that doesn’t help…think about the Firenza.
I had a `81 Cutlass Calais, and it was basically as described. That car was LOADED; even had the sunroof option. Unfortunately, it was extremely rusty. The P.O. had let it sit for four years because it would not pass E-Check. Its 403(the reason it would not pass) went on to bigger and better things, though.
I believe the Calais was the sporty version of the Supreme up through ’84. When the N-body Calais was introduced, the model became known as the Cutlass Salon once again until the demise of the rwd model after ’87.
OOPS… Thanks for the correction Mr. Bennett — the car I drove was actually an ’88 model, not an ’86. I know it wasn’t an ’89 because it had the “original” vertical grille (thanks Google images). I hate it when I post incorrect info.
Firenza was lower than Calais. Its funny because Oldsmobile picked up Calais right after Cadillac dropped it in 1977. Cadillac dropped the slow selling Calais entry level trim after 1976 and Oldsmobile picked it up as the name for the bucket seat version of the new downsized Cutlass coupe for 1978.
The Cadillac of Cutlasses?
The Cutlass of Cadillacs?
It had to be newer, as the Quad4 didn’t debut until 1988.
They were reasonably quick, but terribly rough. I remember in 1992 my cousin and I pretended to be a young married couple (I was 17, she was 14, but the salesman never questioned us) looking for a car. The Toyota dealer had a 1988 Cutlass Calais sitting on the lot, nicely loaded, looked nice. We hopped in the front, the salesman in the back. We pulled out onto the main road. The car ran rough. When we got to an intersection and had to wait for traffic to move, the car shook, a lot. I put it in neutral and it smoothed out. Back into Drive, and roughness. We started out of town and as soon as we got to the 55 mph zone, I went to speed up and the car…died. I steered it over to the shoulder and tried to restart it, nothing. The salesman began to panic and practically yanked me out of the car and began trying to start it. Still nothing. He said, “I’ll be right back…” He went to call for help (no cell phones in those days). I got back in the car and looked at my cousin, we began laughing!. While we waited we played with the radio (it was very good). After a while the salesman showed up with another salesman in a brand new Corolla to get us. When we got back to the dealership, we all stood there for a second, and he said, “So, um…Could I interest you in something else?” We thanked him and said not today…
The moral of the story? The Quad4 had potential, but it needed a LOT of refinement.
Hilarious! Thanks for the correction, BTW — ’twas an ’88 model G/A I test-drove.
My aunt bought a brand new Quad 4 Calais in 1990. White, 4 door, with burgundy cloth interior that, yes, looked somewhat like a terry cloth towel you could buy at K-Mart (as described above). Chunky, cramped, and a big rattle box! The Quad 4 was peppy enough, but this car had such a rattle to it that it could mix paint in a paint can! And for it to be a “small car”, everything about it just seemed thick and heavy – especially the doors. Oh, and it stayed at the dealership – all of the time. Oil leaks galore… eventually it would have blown a head gasket at a very early age, had it not been totaled when someone ran a stop sign. Luckily no one was hurt, but the Calais was a total loss. At that time it was only 6 years old, with less than 40,000 miles on the clock.
My sister bought a Skylark coupe probably in ’89. Both my uncle and I successfully worked on convincing her that she really wanted the Quad 4 and not the Iron Duke. I remember it as a pretty inoffensive car, although the Quad 4 was another Detroit 4 cylinder desperately in need of balance shafts. It had good power for the time, but was really agricultural sounding.
Anyway, she loved it, and kept it until she and my Mom consolidated to one car (Mom’s ’95 Contour), probably around 2000.Nothing really memorable about the car, but for GM in the 80’s (when memorable usually meant major problems of one sort or another), that was a good thing and a major achievement.
These things were fairly common in rental fleets and I drove a couple on that basis. Entirely forgettable cars to drive, with a sense of vast amounts of unnecessary mass; I distinctly recall my friend Ed saying that they felt ‘heavy’, as though that were a good thing. Despite all the, er, road-hugging weight, they didn’t seem very durable, and I’m wondering how much GM’s Magic Disappearing Paint Job of the era contributed to their rarity today. I mean, it’s purely cosmetic,but it looks horrible, and fairly or not, practically screams “follow me from my trailer park home to my minimum wage job”.
Back when I was still living in the states the Buick version was indeed rare, but the Olds version are quite common. And the Grand Am was even more so. It was the only one I had the opportunity to drive also (Loaner from dealer). It was in awful, seriously well worn condition. The seatbacks can’t even be set straight enough for my taste, its highest setting still left me in slouching/lounging position. The steering wheel was askew and feel squirmy to grip. It has the Iron Duke, I think.
Funny how they were once everywhere, and now they’re hardly ever seen. I guess they were forgettable cars, cars that don’t encourage its owner to have any feeling towards them. Just a basic point A to point B transportation, nothing more. Thus whatever memory people still have towards these cars, most likely it was the bad one.
That GM habit of putting a steering wheel in front of you at a slight toward-the-door angle really irritated me. My 84 Olds 98 was that way. It probably was not noticed by 99% of GM’s customers, but it bothered the bejabbers out of me.
I’ve always wondered why they did that. The angle is ever-so-slight…it makes you wonder how hard it would have been to make it straight. My old S-10 is like this also.
You’ve got me curious now…I’ll be checking the entire fleet…oldest year is ’67..newest year is ’95…hmm…
My 85 LeSabre Coupe is like that. I always thought it was an optical illusion with regard to the angle of the dash pad relative to the steering column.
I remember the offset in the Saab 99. I don’t remember the offset in these things. Maybe a safety feature, where if you the column hopefully bypass the driver to the side in case of an accident?
So it’s a design “feature”? They’re all like that? I thought the car I drove migth’ve been in an accident or something, given its terribly well worn condition… GM sure makes the weirdest decision. Remember the seatbelts mounted on the door? Lots of fertile minds in that company, it’s just that their ideas are often bizzare at best and just plain bad at worst. And those ideas make it into production!
I rarely noticed that in my ’82 Olds 88, but 1% of the time it looked like everything was misaligned.
Having spent plenty of time in the downsized B and C Oldsmobiles, the dashboard pieces aren’t square to each other.
This was VERY noticeable in the 91-96 Buick Roadmaster! Test drove one once and the whole time I caught myself wanting to slide closer to the driver’s door so as to align myself better with the steering wheel column.
Greetings from 2016… The Vauxhall Nova I learned to drive in had this feature too… and the wheel was not centred on the driver either. The difference in feel with the Ford Fiesta (mk1and a half model with slopy front)I occasionally drove, though essentially an older design, was massive
We saw a lot of these things in our repair shop, right out of warranty. They were typically GM of the era; weak brakes, poor electrics, engine failures. The Quad 4 was a great thing on paper but the actual installation was very poor, they were were rough and just didn’t last very long. Head gaskets were like a wear item on the things. GM didn’t make the Quad 4 for long and it was supposed to be a whole new engine family. Must have cost them a fair bit.
These things were about the worst of the worst. All they were was a gussied up Cavalier and that is what they drove like, too. A friend of mine had the Pontiac version and he loved it. That is he loved it until the warranty expired and the problems began. I drove it a lot and it seemed like, well, we Cavalier with more power. They were, like all GM stuff, not cheap, either. The cars didn’t last more that ten years max which is the reason they are all gone now.
As for the panel gaps and misalignments, that is normal for these things; they more often than not left the factory that way.
Though the Quad 4 name was gone, they made the engine, with some changes through like 2002, so from 87-02, which is pretty long, though for GM, its relatively short, ahem…3800.
Its shame, there were some cool versions like the 190hp HO Quad 4’s. Olds had some racing prototype Quads making 1000hp, crazy.
I test-drove a ragged out ’86ish Grand Am with Quad4/5-speed after we put a water pump on it (water pumps are HELLISH jobs on these cars!). I stomped the gas while the car was around 2K and into second gear & the front tires broke loose — the car just went wild. I could not believe how much power that 2.3L engine had.
The Quad 4 may be an unreliable POS, but engine in the car I drove had more balls than a lot of V8’s I’ve field tested.
BTW, the earlier GrandAms had really weird/cool instrument clusters. The rear styling was such a disappointment to me though…as I thought the rest of the car was very sharp.
The good old boat anchor 3800 was practically indestructible. It is what GM did best, iron block and heads. Never had the intake manifold gasket problems, either.
The block of the Quad 4 was extremely strong. The real issues were head and intake gaskets, as well as cracked heads in the first five years. That and the motor was very rough and noisy. It did make surprising power, though. The final iterations with balance shafts were hugely better but it typically GM style, the canned it just as they got it right.
And yes, doing the water pump on a Quad 4 was a nightmare. The techs at my place used to disconnect the front motor mount and raise it up. Any way you do it, you are looking at three hours’ labour.
Dont get me wrong, I’m not knocking the 3800, I love it, I’ve had like 4 cars with it.
They did get it right towards the end, but it was replaced by the ECOtec series of 4 cylinders, which as far as I have heard, have had little issues over their run.
The Ecotec was and is a fine powerplant, if slightly on the rough side. The cartridge oil filter is a great feature. The Ecotec was designed by Opel in Europe in 1990 so it is getting a bit long in the tooth now but it is still a good option for many applications.
I’m no GM fan, but I can honestly say the Ecotec seemed to be a very good engine during the brief time I owned a 2004 Grand Am. It wasn’t Honda-smooth or especially powerful, but it had character and was a lot of fun with a 5-speed. GM apparently learned… something… from the failed Quad-4 experiment.
Our Holdens had ECOtech Buick 3800 engines in the mid 90s since replaced with the alloy tech that came from Opel via Saab and Suzuki for refining
A little late, Canucklehead, but GM just used the name Ecotec for a new family of engines starting with the 2.2 introduced with the Saturn L in 2000. It wasn’t an Opel engine but a combined effort with GM NA, Opel, Saab and Lotus engineering.
Maybe I was one of those “wanna-be yuppies” as I purchased the 1990 Grand Am sedan with the Quad4 engine new in May of ’90. It was pretty well equipped at $15,000, and it was my first brand new car. Electrical gremlins? Damn straight! There was something draining the battery which, after 4 trips to the dealership and being stranded at least 3 times, they FINALLY fixed after a meeting with a BBB arbitrater. When the hell did the “Lemon Law” kick in?
Anyway, 3 years later, another new Grand Am. Another black/gray sedan. $18,000 this time. No gremlins, but something happened, and 3 years later it was gone.
I remember when these came out in 1985. I thought it was hilarious that the Olds and Buick versions were available with the Delco/Bose cassette stereo systems. The same one available on the Toro/Riv/98/Eldo/Seville, and it was the SAME price: $895! A $900 stereo system on what was basically a $10,000 car-10% of the price! I thought it was funny.
I believe the Olds may have been wrecked at some point and poorly fixed. If you look at the last picture, it appears the driver’s side fender was repainted a slightly different color than the rest of the car. That is not to say that these were well assembled.
I bought an 85 Grand Am in 87 as a replacement to my 81 Mazda GLC.
I liked To think of my LE as a poor man’s El Dorado. It was No standard of the world though. Said SE on the passenger side I later learned…
P.window switches were cheap..
The Hockey stick speedometer was hard to read. If You could see it Thru the wheel.
I remember having To push it out of an intersection after stalling while making a left turn.
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I wound up Making an Even Trade for an 84 Cavalier Convertible I had seen Adv for $4995. from Felix Chevrolet.
It had cost Me about 8300 18 months earlier.
For a 3.0 V6 it was not very powerful, got maybe 17 MPG IIRC.
We had one of these new, a 91 Calais with the Iron Duke, bought to replace an 85 Accord which had the transmission go at 89K miles. It was a really nice car in my recollection, fairly plushy and classy feeling. To me the quality of interior materials used was very high- the door vinyls and velour, and it was very space efficient thanks to the formal roofline. I think it was under 9K. I infinitely preferred the restrained styling and quality looks of this car to its Corsica based replacement, particularly the Grand Am.
GM’s projections for this car were way off when it was introduced in 85. They expected the Buick and Olds versions to do as well as the X car Buick and Olds versions had done and the Pontiac version to do as poorly as the Phoenix had done; instead, the Grand Am turned into a pseudo- yuppie hit.
These are gross, like all GM cars from this era…
“It should be noted that GM and Oldsmobile were shamelessly trying to milk the Cutlass name, as in 1988, they had the “Cutlass Supreme”, “Cutlass Calais”, and the “Cutlass Ciera”.”
IINM, there were actually four different Cutlasses in ’88, for that one year only. The fourth was the Cutlass Supreme Classic, a G-body coupe formerly known as the just plain Cutlass Supreme, which was kept in production for one more year (along with the similar Chevy Monte Carlo) alongside its W-body Olds replacement.
5 if you count the Cutlass Ciera Cruiser wagon.
The Cutlass Cruiser was just that, not a Ciera. I still have one lingering around. Not my daily driver, but still going at 200k+ miles and refuses to die. It came in handy when I needed it last summer-to drive car shopping when my main ride was down.
Granted, I can’t comment on the 1980s, but in the 1990s and 2000s, every N-Body owner I knew was either a woman at least in her 50s or a high school/community college student (mostly male). I guess the cars got handed down.
I knew one person who owned an N-body – he bought a brand-new Calais sedan. He said it was the worst car he had ever owned, and he has never owned another GM car.
What I remember about these cars is that the coupe versions looked so much like GM’s 1986 downsized E-bodies (Eldorado, Riviera and Toronado). Which was a big reason as to why the 1986 E-bodies were a huge flop in the market.
Didn’t these N-Bodied Compacts carried on through its identical cousins the L-Bodied Chevrolet Corsica and Beretta duo at least through 1996? The L & N Bodied Cars were basically based from the same chassis as the shorter but much more popular J-Bodies aka the Chevrolet Cavalier much in the same fashion as the FWD X-Bodied Chevrolet Citation were to the A-Bodied Chevrolet Celebrity since the A-Bodies have a longer chassis inserts after the rear compartment to accommodate their conservative longer sedan body styles compared to the X-Bodied shorter compact chassis which were geared more for sporty performance package ala Citation X-11.
The original N bodies were not necessarily a bad car in and of itself. I think that GM had too many similar cars at the time. If you think back to the introduction of the N’s, the X’s were just finishing up their run, the J’s were in full 1st gen bloom, the FWD A’s were still flying, the RWD G’s and RWD A’s were still available, too. By the time the N’s were a couple of years out, the W’s would start their ascent, too. There were a lot of similarly sized, priced and featured cars available all at the same time. Considering GM and Olds insisted on everything smaller than a FWD H body name contained the word “Cutlass” in it, it’s no wonder these cars are forgotten. Or at a minimum confused with something else.
FWIW, two close relatives had these cars. My one brother bought a first year Grand Am (IIRC) with the Iron Duke. He only had it a few years, as the car had some issues, but I don’t remember what they were. It WAS a nice looking car, I thought the Pontiacs were the most coherent looking of the N’s. The Buick and the Olds N’s looked too much (or tried to) like the contemporary shorty Rivs and Toros that were available at the same time. To me, that styling didn’t work on the Rivs or Toros, it REALLY didn’t work on the N’s.
My one nephew had a 4 door Calais, a car he’d gotten after wrecking FOUR other cars; my sister and her husband were quite literally afraid to see him in another car, but at the age of 19 he was legally responsible for his actions. He hated the car, but it was six years old when he’d gotten it and was pretty well used. Strangely, that was one car he did not destroy before selling it off. It was so slow and weak (compared to his other cars) I don’t think it inspired him to drive fast or do stupid things with it. It was just a car, not a four wheeled rocket. It probably saved his life. How often do you hear that?
WRT Quad 4’s: The later ones, after 1992 were much better than the ones released in the mid-80s. In fact, some of the 1992’s could be outfitted with a different head and cams to produce 190 HP in the Olds Calais 442s or whatever they called them. I think the same motor was used in the Chevy Beretta GTU also. They were paired with a Getrag 5 speed trans, too. This is the hot setup for late model N’s and swapped into some J’s, too.
My own Sunfire GT has the 1995 version which had a slightly different head, power steering pump, balance shafts and couple of other differences that escape me right at the moment for a HP output of 150. Unfortunately, it is mated to an Isuzu 5 speed. The car is quick enough for it’s purpose, but the Isuzu trans can be problematic. I grenaded one several years ago, and it’s very hard to find replacements for them, as the manual J’s were outsold by automatics by a factor of 15:1 (IIRC). I treat this replacement trans very gently. No more holeshots and burnout contests…
I’ve had the car for six years, bought it off of the much younger version of my nephew. I’ve had to replace the coils on the engine, but really little else on the engine. The clutch and trans, different story. No issues with the head gasket (when I got the car it still had Dex-Cool in it. Brown as used motor oil, too.), but the car is showing signs of age. I get piston slap when it warms up, and the day the engine gives out, I’m sure it will be because of the #3 crank bearing going bad, these engines usually die this way. FWIW, I still rev the 17-year old engine to 5500 RPM when merging into traffic, and the sound is glorious.
There’s quite an aftermarket for these engines, and there’s even an outfit that sells you the parts to convert them for longitudinal duty. Apparently hot rodders and even some British sports car enthusiasts like the motor for their rides. I wouldn’t have imagined it myself. Apparently, they’re powerful enough and light enough to work well in those applications. Whoda thunk it?
Quad 4 powered Miata, anyone? 😛
Imagine if GM offered this engine in the Fiero.
I’ve thought about that more than once. The Q4 would have fit in there, I’m pretty sure.
Had the Fiero continued to 1990, it was to get the HO 190 hp Quad 4.
I drove a Quad 442 with the HO engine. It was a hoot, like a crude version of the Integra Type R. I would have purchased it but during the test drive I noticed the odometer didn’t work, so I had no idea how many miles were on it.
The Quad4 gets all the press, but you could also get the Grand Am with a 2.0l turbo for a few years.
I owned two of these early N’s. They were kind of fun to drive, but neither of mine were too good for build integrity or reliability. They were both sent to the junkyard long ago.
The quality and durability differences between my H-bodies, my W-bodies, and my N-bodies was quite stark.
Those were real odd birds.. I think the earliest ones had Turbo’d 1.8 engines in them. The 2.0T output was in the 130hp range from what I recall.
I almost bought a fairly clean 2.0 litre turbo 87 Grand Am GT coupe about 6 months ago, it looked cleaner on Craigslist that it seemed in real life, I arrived after a mild rainstorm and found that carpet under the passenger floormat soaked, it had about 80K on the clock, she was a one owner car until the knucklehead that was selling had gotten his hands on it, she was pretty loaded to burgandy on burgandy with the matching monochrome wheels….in…you guessed it, burgandy.
It seemed to drive alright at first, the boost on those 2 litres is impressive for the, you stomp on the gas and you will haul ass right into a mailbox or a ditch or whatever happens to be on the side of the road when you do it, The check engine light was blinking during boost and then the engine management would kick in and shut down the party by dumping all the pressure, I could sense that there would be problems to resolve that I really wasn’t willing to get into, that plus the water on the floor, plus having to explain to my car friends why I bought it made me pass.
I had a new ’87 Pontiac Grand Am with a Quad 4. I thought it was a fine car until it started having some issues about 2 years out. Things like occasional random acceleration on the highway, stalling, and not starting.
I took it back to the dealer numerous times for them to fix the problem(s) as the car was still under warranty. At one point the car stalled out as I started to leave the dealership after they had allegedly “fixed” the problem, after that they kept the car for about two weeks trying to find the problem.
After many attempts the dealer could not fix the car and started making noises that further work would not be covered under warranty. Instead of continuing to hassle with them I decided to trade the car in for a new ’90 Nissan Stanza. I left all of the paperwork related to the problem and dealer’s alleged fixes in the glove compartment when I turned the Grand Am in to the Nissan dealer.
About two months after I traded the car the new owner called me and asked for details about the issues (he was experiencing the same problems).
Ultimately, about 9 months after I traded the car, I got a recall notice from GM stating that small cracks in the coil assembly allowing some moisture intrusion “could” cause problems like I experienced. Too little, too late as far as I was concerned and I haven’t bought another GM vehicle since (unless you count the ’65 Corvair convertible bought for a restoration attempt).
I had a new 1990 Grand Am sedan w/Q4 engine. Nice looking in black w/grey int., but electrical gremlin left me stranded at least 3 times. Finally, after BBB involvement, they tried it a 4th time and it was miraculously “cured”. I thought the Lemon Law kicked in after 3 attempts? Well, 3 years later, I said goodbye to it.
I think the coolest thing I remember about these is that the Buick and the Olds were available with the Delco/Bose stereo cassette system at $895. A $900 stereo system in a car that sold for around $12,000 loaded in 1985. I have a feeling you can count on one hand how many of them rolled out the door with a $900 factory stereo.
My dad bought a 1985 Calais (Supreme) 2-door (with an Iron Duke) brand new in late 1985. The car was a great car, no problems. The “Supreme” trim level had plush seats, nice door cards, and the really nice Delco stereo. It was the car I learned how to drive in starting in 1993. Even at that point it was still running strong (with the only major repair in the 8 years being a replaced head gasket, caused by my father’s inattention IIRC). I drove this car for 2 years before purchasing my first car, and I certainly put this car through its paces (like any aspiring teenage boy would)!!!
In this car, I performed:
my first jump (chassis held up wonderfully)
my first reverse 180 from a standstill (did it on the first try)
my first drift with counter steer (FF I know, but it happened)
my first…well, you get the idea.
In hindsight, the car held up very well mechanically and went on to be the car the my two younger sisters learned to drive in as well. The car lasted until 1999 or 2000, when my sister put the right front and side into a solid wall reinforced by earth. She drove it (in shock) for another 4 miles after that! I was not happy, because I was prepared to buy the car from my father and make a project out of it (I had seen some pictures of N-body race prepped cars in some magazines).
In my (certainly biased) opinion, the Olds version was a very handsome car, especially in the steely blue color that was popular back then.
Thank you for bringing back many memories!
I always found the early versions of these cars to be quite attractive. When my parents were car shopping in the fall of 1984, we looked at one of these. They almost bought it, but they decided that the back seat was too tight, so we ended up with the 1985 Skylark instead.
Oddly enough, in late 1991 we looked at a leftover 1991 Cutlass Calais SL. We drove it back to back with a new 1992 Achieva. I personally liked the Calais better. After it was all said and done, we ended up with…a 1992 Civic LX.
These cars are quite rare anymore. There is an older lady in my town that has a 1986 Calais sedan.It was wrecked a few years ago, and when it was fixed it ended up with a front end from a newer Calais, undoubtedly because 1985 and 1986 front ends are now non-existent. It’s too bad, they were the best looking.
As evidenced by the commercial above, these cars were aimed at the young and upwardly mobile.
Dont laugh, the daughter of our across the street neighbors bought a brand new blue 1985 Somerset Regal Limited, she was just the type of customer that they were aiming for with these, single, mid 20’s college educated, upwardly mobile.
I recall liking the Buick version of the N-cars because of the standard digital dash, and in the 80’s I was enthralled with anything that had a digital dash. It seemed pretty reliable, though it did quit on here one time while she was pulling into the driveway and it had to be pushed in, she had it for a while then she got married and moved away. I remember riding bike alongside the car at night as she pulled into the neighborhood just to get a glimpse at those cool digital gauges.
This is probably the nicest one of these ever left, its always for sale on some site or another, its a super low mile 85 Calais that was sold from the GM collection a few years ago when they were thining out the “less interesting” cars from the archives(anyone intersted in Saturn number one million and one….no? me neither)
Anyways, its a loaded up Calais with the TechIV and even has the snazzy Oldsmobile Auto-Calculator trip computer.
85 Calais with 975miles
Now thats a RED interior.
No joke, I would LOVE to have this in my garage!!!!
love those alloy wheels!!!
Wow, I haven’t seen this one before, but I have seen the VIN #000001 Calais (also formerly part of the GM collection) for sale on ebay a number of times. That one is white with a gray interior and wire wheels and the Iron Duke 2.5 under the hood.
Yeah, I’ve seen that one too, this one had a pretty low VIN too, not super low, but it was an early Calais. There were a few cars like this that GM sold at the BJ auction.
I imagine that they were display/press cars that never were sold, I remember talking to someone who retired from GM’s Linden NJ plant and he told me that there was a brand new 84 or so Eldorado in the plants “lobby” (the 79-85 E-cars were made in Linden) for years after they stopped making those cars.
Interesting, I never knew about the Eldo. I think I once read that the first Cadillacs made anywhere other than the Clark Avenue plant in Detroit came from Linden.
I’m from NJ and took a tour of the Linden plant back in September of 1983 when it was open to the public for GM’s 75th anniversary. The E bodies were still being produced there and my friend swiped a Riviera emblem as a “souvenir.” After the E cars run, the plant produced Chevy Corsicas and Berettas and after those, the Chevy Blazer and GMC Jimmy. Unfortunately, the plant was closed for good in April of 2005.
Mmmmmm…..Delco 2000 series.
Ah, the legendary Delco UX1! The sound quality these produced was every bit as good as anything you can get today, and in some cases, better!
One of these is hooked up to a power supply in my shop — it came from a ’87ish Deville and is powering four Delco 6×9’s mounted far away from each other in aftermarket Truck speaker boxes.
It’s like a concert hall in there! The cassette deck itself still works well — I particularly like the search feature & the fact that the tape pops out when the power is turned off.
I like the UM6 stereos too though — for some reason they seem to put out more bass without distorting — at least that’s been my experience from having both types of stereos in Fieros & 3rd-gen F-cars I’ve owned.
Regardless of style, very few Delco units (‘cept the U63 AM jobs) escape my screwdriver when I’m at the scrapyard — coincidentally another Cadillac UX1 came home with me this morning. I wish I knew how to fix the amps in these things… running them with blown speakers burns them out.
What an ugly interior!
Photo add fail
I don’t suppose you would have any larger versions of these pics would you???
I think I might.
That’s a pretty amazing interior, thanks for the pics! So rare and so fun in that color. I totally see collector potential even in these (possibly) low point GM cars!
Any chance the Somerset looked like this in its brief life? I’m loving that interior.
Test comment. Please ignore.
Another Test comment. Please continue to ignore.
Ignore what? 😛
The Grand Ams are more memorable, since the name lasted til 2005. 85-87 had V6 option, then for ’88 only four bangers. But, V6 was brought back maybe 1990?
‘Ams were all over Chicago for 20 years, and now are fading into scrap. 80’s Skylarks sold to older folk and Calais never really caught on. Olds actually added a column shifter option in 1988 for the oldies, but the went 180 degrees with the Quad 442.
And, to be precise, the N’s were originally meant to replace the RWD G bodies. Prototypes shown in C&D had Grand Prix, Cutlass Supreme, and Regal names on them. Planned for the 1980 predicted $5.00 a gallon gas for fall 1984.
“And, to be precise, the N’s were originally meant to replace the RWD G bodies. Prototypes shown in C&D had Grand Prix, Cutlass Supreme, and Regal names on them. Planned for the 1980 predicted $5.00 a gallon gas for fall 1984.”
Huh — I never knew that. It does make sense, and would explain why the design initially came only as a 2-door. I wonder what they were planning to do with the Monte Carlo?
Had an ’89 Pontiac Grand Am 2-door LE. Had the 150 hp Quad 4 (not the H.O. which wasn’t offered until ’90), 5-speed manual. Man, I loved that car, but Oh, the things that went wrong with it…
• Blew a power steering hose on the way home from Vegas (to So. Cal) with ~ 3,000 miles on it (warranty)
• Entire car was repainted due to faulty paint (warranty/recall)
• Main Computer lost it’s mind (After Warranty – as with all the following repairs/maladies)
• Blew a head gasket ~60,000 miles
• Steering wheel started to come loose
• Front seat broke
• Catalytic Converter ate itself
• Head gasket started leaking again ~ 90,000
Shortly after that I got rid of the car…why did I love this car so much?
I grew up in one of these a 90 model former rental bought by my parents in 91 with 15k on it. It was blue like the one above, No luggage Rack, had power windows but manual locks. Radio only. The A/C failed in 96, Alternator failed shortly after purchase and again in 98 I believe, Paint started peeling by 93 the holes showed up in the doors around 98/99 as well as the knocking with around 70k on it. Various plastic trim pieces broke too. It was really disappointing looking back. My parents went to the Dealership looking for a Century or Ciera and got suckered into this one. I really believe the A body would have lasted them at least 3-4 years longer. They traded in the Skylark in 2000 out of need it was shot. not want, For a LeSabre. Now, predictably, they are Driving a 2005 Camry bought new that had only needed tires in the 7 years they have owned it.
Has ANYONE ever driven a Somerset?!?!
I desperately want to find one.
I’m pretty sure I rented one on a business trip to Colorado in ’85 or ’86. Nothing memorable. Here in California, Grand Ams were popular all the way through the G6 (?) replacement, but other GM stuff of the late ’80’s and beyond was pretty rare except in the rental fleets. I’m not sure I’ve ever known anyone who owned a GM passenger car (other than Vette, Camaro/Firebird or truck/SUV) after about 1980.
Why?
Too late for a reply obviously, but my family had two 1987 Somersets: a V6 automatic Limited, and an Iron Duke stick Custom (which became my first car). They were generally good cars, reliable and nicely appointed interiors. The Custom rusted badly, the Limited fared better. Both had poor quality clips holding the interior together, which caused trim pieces to separate and the dash to rattle over bumps. Power was low enough on both to make for a pretty forgettable driving experience.
Rob, I’m reading this in 2016 as fresh replies had been added. My sister bought an ’85 Somerset/Regal new as she graduated nursing school. I had, at the time an ’82 Toronado so for me it was like driving a roller skate. For a ‘GM cheapie’ it seemed reasonably well put together but I thought the car was a bit unrefined on the whole. Someone else mentioned the ’86 and up E-bodies. I replaced the Olds with an ’87 Riv and was immediately beset with buyer’s remorse. Not only did it look like the Somerset on steroids, it drove and handled much the same! It is no wonder whatsoever that these cars tanked. The Somerset’s gauge package was also a ‘mini me’ version of the Riv’s winking digit dash.
We used to sell a ton of these at our former use dealership in Upstate, NY during the good ‘ol days on the 90’s. You could go behind any one of 4 GM dealerships, fetch the used car sales manager, make an offer on 4-5 60-80K mile N-bodies and purchase all of them for 2-3 grand. A little clean up, oil changes and some minor cosmetic cleanup and they would be sitting out front for $2995 a piece for a profit of close to 8 grand when all was said and done! Yes those were the days. The cash for clunkers and before that the huge influx of SUV’s and Asian imports that cost a pretty penny to purchase at who-sale leaving little profit margin has pretty much screwed the typical used car lot owner today. Yes 199-1998 was a great time to have a used car lot in my area.
When I was in high school in the late 80s/early 90s, man EVERYONE had these cars! They were popular as hell around TN where I grew up. Burgundy or white Grand Ams, or charcoal or dark blue Sommersets were the thing if you were a typical girl between 16-21, with big teased out hair and long nails. Every last one had a tassle from the rearview mirror, butt rock tape in the deck, Marlboro lites on the console. How many 1st dates were JUST like that?
The iron duke engines in these made for a cutesy girls car with no guts, but one buddy of mine had his dad’s 4-door Calais with a crinkled front fender…ugly car with body damage and it ran rough as hell but damn that quad 4 would SCOOT for those days!
Junk. My dad had a grand am. Brand new n I slammed the door and the window winder handle fell iFF. Car blew head gasket. Quad 4 was noisy and shaky and no room in back seat. An awful little car. An abomination
Those cars are forgettable, as are all 80’s cars, for obvious reasons, with the exception of some of the brilliant imports that cast a ray of light in that dark, dark, dark, dark time. With the birth of Lexus, Acura and Infiniti, the automobile was reinvented. The American’s failed miserably trying to build a good car back then ( even the famed Ford Tarurs in 1986 was wrought with problems and a laundry list of safety recalls), yet the Japanese makes were going into orbit with phenomenal automobiles. Mercedes and BMW couldn’t even compete with the early Lexus’ and Infiniti’s. Mercedes and BMW have gotten their act together within the last couple of years and are now building the world’s best automobiles. GM has greatly improved over the years, but their products are still of a much lesser quality with minimal desirability.
My favourite N-car is the 1988 Pontiac Grand Am. It has the flat-face front end with flush headlamps. Here is an advertisement for it.
I know the N was developed by Olds and the L [Corsica Beretta] by Chevrolet. But how much of the N and L was derived from the J Body ?
Was it as much as the A car used from the X, or very little ?
Was the N for “Not Needed?” This car was the poster child for the era when GM had too many platforms for look alike and nearly sized alike cars.
“There are some things you just tend to forget about. Appointments to the dentist. Needing to tuck-point the brick on your house. What your wife wore on your last anniversary.”
Thanks. Now I need to go put new insulation on my AC refrigerant line.
I spent way too much time in the backseats of these in high school c.1993. Seemed everyone had one handed down. Like a Pinto it felt like I was sitting on the floor. Great stereo though. I heard Beck’s “Loser” in the backseat of an 87 Skylark for the first time on the radio, and I was in another N-body the day 92.3 K-Rock (WXRK) in nyc covert red to an “alternative” station in 1995; sad day for a lot of us.
I always kind of liked these, especially the Grand Am. Almost bought a used Calais once, it drove nice enough. Probably for the best that I didn’t.
Can’t remember the last time I saw a Grand Am/Calais of that vintage but I did spot a 90 Skylark coupe in a McDonalds parking lot 2 months ago. The next generation is also quite rare, Achievas moreso than Grand Ams/Skylarks.
The Buick taillight treatment I find very off putting for whatever reason. They seemed to be the cockroach N-Body in the Chicago area when I was growing up, The Grand Am was the best looking, which isn’t saying much, the wraparound taillights help the proportions somehow, while the Buick’s boxy Kamm tail looks dumpy. All look way better in coupe form too, kind of the opposite effect of the A-Bodies
Perhaps the earliest versions of the N-bodies are forgotten (1985-1991 models), but this platform went on until the last Grand Am rolled off the assembly line in 2005, and there are still a ton of Grand Ams & Aleros of the 1999-2005 variety cruising the streets. I still see a fair number of 1992-1998 N-bodies around these parts as well (Grand Am, Achieva, Skylark).
I was always fond of the Calais Internation coupe & sedan… I would say those were my favorite of the earlier generation, for sure!
The grey Calais pictured in the comments above, minus the red interior is a dead ringer for the one I bought and that my brother still owns and drives.
I started selling cars at the end of 1985 at the Buick-Olds-Jeep dealer in Rolla, MO. The first new car I ever sold was a gold colored 1985 Buick Somerset Regal (Skylark) 2 door. My first demo was a gray 1986 Olds Calais 2 door. That was my first experience with a front wheel drive car. I couldn’t believe how well it got around in the snow. The Pontiac-Cadillac-GMC dealer was just down the road about a mile. We’d have customers come and test drive our Calais and Skylark but they couldn’t decide anything until they looked at the Grand Am first. Lots (and lots) of times we would see the customer we just had, driving home their new Grand Am. The BMW style grille and sporty appearance of the Grand Am got them almost every time.
My mother was looking at a Buick Somerset as a car for her to use while she was wintering in Florida, to keep at her house there. It was in great shape, I admit it, but I told her “no way”. It was a 4-cylinder and sounded like a wounded moose on acceleration (that was with her driving it too, not me).
We found an 89 Corolla nearby that had more miles but was in excellent shape also. I said – this is the one. She agreed, bought that car, and it served her well for many years with zero problems. That was right around Peak Toyota also, even the interior has held up well, still have the car and even the AC is ice cold without having ever needing a recharge. Every time I drive it I get offers to buy it, people know it’s a good car.
The N-cars were certainly a part of GM’s demise. At least a Citation has that Pinto-like vibe going for it – it’s really bad, but that makes it cool in a weird way. You can drive it and think – GM actually thought this was a good product to fight the Japanese. Incredible. The N-cars were not a big improvement at all.
They were unloved and will not be missed.
There is a very well-preserved Calais of this generation that I see around town frequently. It’s the next nose treatment though, with composite lamps and the mail-slot grille reminiscent of the early 80’s Toronado. It’s been so long since I’d seen a Calais with this original sealed-beam nose that I had forgotten what it looked like.
Definitely quite a few of these N-bodies in the student parking lot when I was in high school (’94-’98) but they started to thin out fast after that. My girlfriend senior year of college had one though, a thoroughly beat ’87 Grand Am sedan. It had the iron duke with an absurd number of miles on it (over 250,000), so I’ll give it credit for longevity, but that was probably the most unpleasant car to drive that I’ve ever experienced. It shook, rattled, creaked, groaned, bucked, didn’t track straight, bucked, and buzzed. Everything about the car suggested that its useful life had ended at least five years earlier. But it refused to die, I’ll give it that. Just refused to die.
I also have a LOT of experience with a much later N-body, my wife’s ’00 Alero, but that story has already been told.
This is my 1987 Grand AM LE V 3.0l, I own this car for 6 years now.
One of the very very few in the netherlands…
Get a lot of attention many people do not know what kind of car it is and some want to know more about it.
I am still very happy with my Granny…….It has125000 miles on it. Power seat,power windows, power door locks, power mirrors, remote trunk realese, adjustable leather wrapped steering wheel, original entertainment system with cassette player,6 speakers and some other features.
The a/c,cruise control do not working anymore.
My Grand Am and my 1978 buick riviera……..
Old but still good!
Love it !!
A truly awful . My dad had one as his last Pontiac or gm car. It was cramped and eared in plastic and had a quad 4 the 4 with as many parts as a v8. First time I rode in it the window. crank fell off. I guess I slammed it too hard being used to a Ltd coupe. The plastic cracked and fell off it, the head gasket, water pump, axles, rack all failed at low miles. It was rough and noisy and just horrible like a modernized sunbird. Paint.fell off too. This was a lightly driven maintained car. It was the car that made him a Toyota driver. I also did not like the car names.
Somerset what did that mean?
Calais a place in France a country where one should not buy anything made there with moving parts,
Grand am you could rearrange the letters and spell grandma.
I guess Chevy got lucky being spared,
My cousin had an 87 Somerset, it was a deep blue, digital dash, sunroof, ice cold air conditioning. I liked the car a lot but he hated it from day one & he bought it brand new. I was driving a 82 Nissan Stanza 5 sp that he loved so he would sometime switch cars with me. I must admit though that I could tell the Nissan was a much better engineered vehicle than the Somerset. He sold the Somerset to another cousin, he eventually bought the Stanza from me with 250k miles, sold it to someone who drive it 3 years before it died.
I had a red on red 1990 Calais 4 door with the Olds built 3.3L V-6 (a version of the 3.8L Buick). Great car, aside from a grounded knock sensor wire (which resulted in retarded timing) the car was trouble free. At 12 years of age the clear coat started to go in places, but the interior held up very well. The car is still on the road.
GM’s timing was always retarded.
My two sisters each had a Buick Somerset 2-dr.! Both with V6 engines so they were peppy. The radio with their tiny pushbuttons was indecipherable while driving, and I recall that their pod-configuration made it virtually impossible to upgrade. One had electrical gremlins, the other blew up after a cooling system failure. I can’t recall which was which, but one was replaced by a 1994 Honda Accord, the other by a 1998 Chrysler Cirrus LXi…that one actually had a rather long life.
My impression…they were appliances, with about as much personality as a refrigerator. Average ride, average noise level, average seating. They seemed to be made to appeal to younger, upscale customers with their close-coupled sporty coupe styling but once you were inside and driving them, the “family car” Ford Taurus outdid them in every way.
Considering this was the substitute for the X-car disaster; it should be considered decent.
These cars appealed to loyal GM buyers who never had much exposure to the competition. Once that happened, that was pretty much it for their loyalty to GM.
These were, according to GM Marketing at the time and reported in the rags, aimed at “New Values Customers”, BMW intenders and new monied yuppies. The BS machine was running full throttle at GM then.
The 86 Calais I owned [and as I mentioned above, little brother still drives] handled well, the best of the GM small cars I have owned [including the 95 SL1], the ride was rather plush on good roads, but every bump was not only heard, but felt.
I bought it at 8 years old and 21,000 miles and the things I replaced on it, whether due to garage rot and inactivity, or bad QC, over the next 30,000 miles was appalling: heater core, brakes every 20,000 miles, AC system, torque converter switch went, causing the car to come to a stop as if it was a manual left in 4th gear, dashboard separating from the instrument cluster [came that way], two alternators, and the sagging headliner had to be replaced.
Gave it to my parents, who had few problems with it, as I had not only replaced what needed it, but had it repainted for them as well. Several years later they gave it to my brother and his wife, who have been driving it for 10 years or more.
The upholstery is still unworn after 30 years, it still handles well, they had to replace the head gasket [common with Iron Dukes/Tech 4s], but very few problems for them.
Plus there is the vintage charm and character of the Iron Duke grumbling away under the hood. What’s not to like ?
Whenever I see one around town, it’s usually my brother, though I have seen a handful of Grand Ams and later model Calais.
Head gaskets common on tech IV’s. I don’t think we ever had one go bad in the 20 years of selling cars. It was always the valve cover gaskets that went bad leaking oil all over the place. Ditto K-cars. These engines were all iron so head gaskets shouldn’t have been a problem. This was usually an issue more with 80’s Honda’s and other foreign cars with iron blocks and alloy heads.
Yes, Two were replaced on my parent’s Ciera: once when they had it and once when my older brother had it. OB and family had it trashed within a couple of years. Criminal.
Back in 87 my friend Chris traded in his 81 1500 DX Civic on a 1 year old Grand Am. We called it the Damned Am. However, he had no troubles with it while he was in Wichita Falls. It was the Duke/auto combo. I remember one trip we took to Dallas one afternoon to retrieve something for his boss. It was a OK car, but yeah, pretty generic in it’s behavior. We timed it to 60 one night with three skinny 20 year old kids on board. It took 20 seconds. However when he went to San Antonio to live with his grandparents in 88 it started falling apart ( cooling issues) so after a few months he got rid of it. But I remember it well,
I remember as young kid, maybe around 1994, my aunt traded her 1984-ish Escort 4 door hatch for a dark blue 87 Somerset coupe. My favorite feature? The dash bounced up and down like a can in a paint shaker every time she hit the gas with the AC on. I always giggled when it happened, and she did too.
Both sides of my family are loyal GM and Ford people, and it was funny to grow up during such a dark time for the American auto industry, seeing the mental gymnastics my family would do to justify continued purchases of such compromised vehicles. They’re all quietly thankful that they’re making decent product again.
I had a 89 Grand Am early 90’s, Blue inside and out. It had a lot of options and the 2.5. I wish I could write how terrible it was but it was a fine–it just needed parts replaced that wear out on every car. I only sold it because it was a 2 door and getting an infant seat in and out was a pain.
These were initially meant to replace the old G-body coupes and sedans starting in 1985. They all started out as 2 door coupes with 2.5 Tech IV std and 3.0 PFI V6 optional. The Iron Duke came with a 5 speed stick and optional 125C 3 speed and that was the only choice with the V6. For 1986 4 door sedan variants were introduced on all 3 lines. The Grand AM lost the Buick V6 after 1987 and the Quad 4 was substituted. The Olds and Buick carried on with the 3.0 until 1988. For 1989 the more powerful 160 Hp 3300 V6 replaced the 3.0 and the Grand Am was selling in decent numbers. They never got the 4 speed overdrive trans-axle like the larger A and W-body cars.
We sold a boat load of Grand Am’s with many 1985-88 models coming up for sale. Many were Tech IV Iron Dukes. Rust was for sure an issue on the earlier examples in Upstate, NY and the occasional gremlin would surface but these seemed like reliable enough little cars and many examples had well over 100K and were on there 3rd or 4th owners by the time they reached out sales lot. These sold like hot cakes to the younger set or as a perfect college commuter special. They aren’t seen much today but going to the Southern parts like PA still sees them on the road occasionally, especially at auctions.
These cars were everywhere back in the day. My sister bought a year old 1986 Grand Am LE sedan from the original owner with only 9,000 miles on it. The woman had lost her job and needed to sell the Grand Am fast. I thought that car was the coolest! It had the Trans Am rims with the wide Eagle GT tires. It was loaded with options, too. She loved that car and kept it for about five years.
A high school friend of mine’s Mom bought a brand new Somerset in 1985. It was a silver coupe with the bright red cloth interior. I thought the digital dash was the coolest thing ever. That car had a very upscale look to it. As I was looking around her dashboard, what did I notice? What? No A/C?? Yes, she special ordered it without A/C!
I don’t know if I would agree that GM did not hit a home run with these cars. These cars were everywhere and considering the foreign competition was only getting better and better, I’d say GM did a great job with selling these, especially the Grand Am.
Here’s an interesting one in Coalgate OK.
When you were coming from a 1986 Pontiac 6000, a 1987 Iron Duke Grand Am WAS a step up, especially if you upsized to the 60-series tires on the SE.
Paul Niedermeyer talks about how some cars are honest – these cars were dishonest.
After the X car fiasco, GM didn’t rank highly in this sized market. These frumpy cream puffs were popular Pontiacs, but as Oldsmobiles or Buicks? Sorry, no. The quality of the interior parts was abysmal GM plastic. The mousefur interiors covered seats that couldn’t hold your tush upright after a few hours of driving long distances. I remember my thighs dropping into the center of the seat cushion like they were in a hammock. I wasn’t even 200 pounds. As a tall fellow, I didn’t like the low seating either. The back seat was not very usable for adults.
We rented these cars and they didn’t help us attract new business. Our Mercury Cougars were much better and the Topaz was cheaper, but more practical. I didn’t like either the Topaz or the Calais, but when I had to drive one of the, I went with the Mercury because you sat higher and more comfortably.
These were forgettable cars.
I don’t think I’ve seen one of these in Northern California in quite some time.
Whereas the X-Cars were a step forwards, even if highly flawed, these seemed a step backwards. The beginning of when GM just started to give up. The extraordinarily generic nature of the Oldsmobile versions of these laid the groundwork for the death of Oldsmobile, and very nearly killed Buick at the same time.
I don’t remember the last time I’ve seen a first gen N body. My buddy had an 87 Calais 4 door with a 2.5. It was a great car and he would plow snowdrifts and never got it stuck. Very comfortable, smooth, quiet. Had a surprise feature where the chime would go off if the turn signal was left on more than 3/4 mile or so. He would take it to the oil change place for the sheer amusement of the techs swearing up a storm trying to get at the oil filter. (GM changed the design a year or two later.) But sadly he hit a deer with it and totaled it.
I had a 86 Olds Calais as a company car.
It was a memorable vehicle.
In fact, it was unforgettable.
Excessive driving excitement interspersed with moments of stark vehicular terror.
Last case in point. It was raining cats and dogs, in the passing lane unable to move to the slow lane (and doing 70+ to keep from being run over). For some reason the right and left wipers decided to kiss and get lip locked in the center of the windshield.
Fortunately the speed was enough to keep the windshield barely clear enough to make it to the shoulder.
When I returned to the office I told the boss that I’ve had it with the car. He traded it in for a Delta. Nice boss.
I had a 1988 skylark as my first car. Had about 80k when I bought it. Quad 4 engine was damn fast for its time. I got rid of it a year after high school with about 160k on the clock. Not sure if the previous owners had fixed all the issues but it was a reliable car and I drove the piss out of it. A couple mufflers, alternator, and general maintenance was all I ever did to it. I thought it was a great little grocery getter lol.