SammyChevelleTypeS3
$50 site donor 2023
I liked them too along with Buick's Regals and the Pontiac Lemans / Gran Prix.
Buick vs Oldsmobile
- Thread starter Carlostrece
- Start date
I heard that GMC had thicker body panels! LOL. It's the sort of salesmanship you want to believe. "We are professional grade."
I like the 73 Delta 88 because it's in a bunch of Sam Raimi movies. But I would want one all blacked out instead of that sick yellow color.
I forgot they were different way back then. 73+ is where the differences became very minimal and guess that lasted through until one of the more recent generations. Probably 2019+
Grandpa was an olds dealer till around 70, he said once - everything was turning into or would be a chevy, and it was no longer interesting and fun.
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While Buick had traditionally been a more premium division than Oldsmobile, I think the case can be made that GM was trying to boost Oldsmobile higher than Buick in the 90s. The Oldsmobile 88 had a supercharger as an option. The LeSabre didn't. Aurora had a V8 standard in the first generation (optional in the second generation) vs. The Park Avenue only has a supercharged 3800 as an option (yes. I know the supercharged 3800 was more reliable in the long run and more tunable but if Cadillac was supposed to be the highest tier of luxury for the company the Oldsmobile was only one step down in this case being allowed to share it's Northstar V8 that Buick wouldn't get until 2006). The Intrigue was given the exclusive and higher tech (though slower and less reliable) short star 3.5l V6 optional then eventually standard vs the Regal having the s/c 3800. The interiors of all were more modern style of luxury than what Buick had.
In the end, I'm not sure if it was the styling of the Aurora, the problems with the North Star engine family, The packaging or what, but Oldsmobile's popularity flatline. My strongest theory was it was all of the above. I think the type of people they were trying to chase after were The people that were buying European and Japanese luxury cars of the revised Oldsmobile badge, The styling cues, and the 32 valve V8. I think the most important detail that Oldsmobile missed about these people was they wanted rear wheel drive, They wanted a higher build quality, and they wanted more reliability. The end result was the alienated their customers Who were happy to buy a Buick instead who would build a very similar vehicle with a proven engine That was nearly as fast if not faster when supercharged, with a good gas mileage, tons of space, great in bad weather.
As for the question about what was with the XLR and XLRV? I think they were trying to compete against the Mercedes SL. The main problems that I can see with it was with the interior. It suffered from the same plastic fantastic problems that plagued GM of that time. It lacked the wow factor in the styling of the interior. Another factor was why would you buy the XLR instead of an SL outside of a sense of "buy American"? The Cadillac had a less powerful engine that had a tarnished reputation due to the weak head bolts resulting in head gasket problems (Even though those years had been fixed, the damage had been done) and the XLRV while fast didn't stand out compared to Mercedes. In terms of bragging rights, the Mercedes had a V12 optional versus Cadillac best offering was a supercharged 4.4 l V8 once again from a series that had earned a bad reputation. Add to this that the Cadillac being the newcomer in the segment, needed to do something that was hands down superior to long established Mercedes. Add to this, after the failure that was the allante, the pressure was on since they had previously attempted to do this and failed. The bottom line is they failed to do it again. They made a phoned in effort and charged too much for it. For less money, you could get a Corvette on a newer platform featuring a superior engine and have a better styled yet still plastic fantastic interior under an established name. Frankly they would been better off to have just used the C6 platform, used the LS engines, spend the extra money on making an interior superior to Mercedes. They wouldn't win on the V12 game, but they would have had a much stronger offering having Not only more powerful engines, but more proven engines with a better interior to justify the price tag.
Carlostrece
$100 Site Donor 2025
If so, that explains why I thought Olds was higher than Buick. I got interested and started paying attention to Buicks and Olds in the 1990s. I'm familiar with 90s Olds Ninety Eights (love em) and 90s Buick Park Ave (like/love em). I also like early 2000s Park Ave.
My dads 93 Olds Ninety Eight had the most comfortable car seats and ride quality I've ever experienced and acceptable performance too. My 97 Buick Park Ave (with Ultra seats) is comfortable, but not like the Olds Ninety Eight was. My dad also had a 77 Caddillac Eldorado and a mid 90s Lincoln Towncar.
The Olds Ninety Eight was the most comfortable of them all, and looked fancier (though much more dated styling) than my Park Ave of similar era. My nature aspir PA has best handling though, followed by Olds. Those other luxury cars I mentioned had the handing of a boat rolling side to side on the water.
From 2010-2015 I tried repeatedly to find a 1990s low miles Olds Ninety Eight, but it was already unobtanium.
A 1990-1996 Olds Ninety Eight is more comfortable than my recliner chair at my home.
I always thought it was:
Cadillac - ultimate luxury
Oldsmobile - just slightly less luxurious and a bit cheaper than Cadillac; Oldsmobiles still had very ‘plush’ insides.
Buick - affordable luxury; less flashy looking, more conservative.
Pontiac - the ‘sporty’ division; handled better and were more ‘muscle car’
Chevrolet - the economic choice, bargain cars that could be dressed up if needed.
Dad bought a ‘78 Malibu wagon with a 305 in the summer of 78. Was offered that, or a 1979 Oldsmobile Cutlass wagon with the 231 V-6 for the same price. He went with the V-8 because he thought a V-6 was too ‘weak’ for a station wagon…regretted that choice until he got rid of the Malibu, says the Olds would have been the better choice.
Cadillac - ultimate luxury
Oldsmobile - just slightly less luxurious and a bit cheaper than Cadillac; Oldsmobiles still had very ‘plush’ insides.
Buick - affordable luxury; less flashy looking, more conservative.
Pontiac - the ‘sporty’ division; handled better and were more ‘muscle car’
Chevrolet - the economic choice, bargain cars that could be dressed up if needed.
Dad bought a ‘78 Malibu wagon with a 305 in the summer of 78. Was offered that, or a 1979 Oldsmobile Cutlass wagon with the 231 V-6 for the same price. He went with the V-8 because he thought a V-6 was too ‘weak’ for a station wagon…regretted that choice until he got rid of the Malibu, says the Olds would have been the better choice.
I always thought Buicks were a notch up in the GM hierarchy from Olds, but really there was a lot of overlap. Never seemed like much to differentiate a Lesabre from an 88.
I attribute my love for both Olds and Buicks to my grandfather who was an Oldsmobile man who later started buying Buicks. Delta 88s were his go-to for a long time. Here's just three of them. This one is a 70s model, along with an Olds wagon.
Here's another he had, 1984-ish I wanna say. Looks like it may have had the F41 handling package because you can see a rear sway bar in the second picture. The other car was an Accord he bought for my aunt, and if you look really carefully in the second picture you can just barely see part of my mom's old 1990 Camry.
I attribute my love for both Olds and Buicks to my grandfather who was an Oldsmobile man who later started buying Buicks. Delta 88s were his go-to for a long time. Here's just three of them. This one is a 70s model, along with an Olds wagon.
Here's another he had, 1984-ish I wanna say. Looks like it may have had the F41 handling package because you can see a rear sway bar in the second picture. The other car was an Accord he bought for my aunt, and if you look really carefully in the second picture you can just barely see part of my mom's old 1990 Camry.
My friend still has an 84 Delta in a similar color. He switched the tail lights to the all red ones from an 83.
He might be driving it for a bit shortly as his 2005 winter beater hit a deer and will be getting some body work done.
Saturn was kind of the "Experimental" division of GM.
It was to be the "Petri dish" to develop best practices to beat the import scourge.
The cars were supposed to be unique and were supposed to provide GM product to compete Honda, Toyota, etc. offerings.
I always thought the one price strategy hurt them.
But what really did them in was just recycling product from the other divisions and sticking a Saturn badge on them.
If I wanted an Uplander van, the Chevy dealer had plenty. Or if I wanted a two seater convertible, GM was offering them at the Pontiac dealership.
Carlostrece
$100 Site Donor 2025
You perfectly described my thoughts. At least regarding 90s cars.
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