It was named Fenchurch and beeped incessantly. I bought it for basically nothing with 45k on the odometer in 1997.

Pros of this: engine was in great shape

Cons of this: everything else was shot to hell. It needed a gas tank and brake lines before it was drivable; later on, the coolant system exploded, the oil pan developed some lovely holes, the suspension broke in half, and the power booster for the brakes failed in traffic. Once the coolant system started to go, the car also beeped incessantly--the sad part of this wasn't the beeping itself, it was that out of my friends, I had the largest car by a big margin, but no one would ride in it so we'd always end up caravan-styling to everything. Lame.

I still miss that car.

 Reply

Great mileage, slow as molasses, and for some reason the original owner had ordered posi, so it could actually be hucked around on dirt roads. In the sense you can 'huck' anything that weighs 4500 lb around.

 Reply

It had two-finger steering, which was something like 30 turns lock to lock...going around a corner entailed sticking two fingers on the spoke and cranking around and around. The vinyl seats were sticky in the summer and slippery in the winter, the 8 track sounded like garbage and the power locks worked on some doors sometimes, other doors other times (quality!).

It had great brakes...discs in front that would lock at the drop of a hat...terrible tires, though. Positraction and studded snows made it unstoppable in the snow, no ABS (of course) helped keep it unstoppable in the snow. Spinning the tires on dry pavement made pretty sparks. The thing was a torque-monster, and I would blow away Mustang GT's (this was '88-90) in the first 60ft. This lasted until the 3spd auto (TH350) started slipping badly...too many neutral-drops, I guess.

Getting that thing sideways was always interesting...you had to really plan ahead, as it was ridiculously long (18ft or so) and could take out hedges and mailboxes if not careful. Then again, I was 17...I was invincible.

Oh, and when your car is a combination of faded light metallic blue paint, peeling woodgrain and rust, people actually back off when you drive like an a-hole. God I miss that car!

 Reply

It never started all that well, mainly because it was the kids' beater car, so if it moved, that was good enough, so she'd crank it for minutes at a time, then, when it did start, she'd keep the accelerator floored for a solid 30 seconds.

At least it had oil pressure built up from three minutes of starter-spinning.

The first time I saw her do this, my head almost exploded, and I knew we were not going to have a life together. So it goes...the woman I married enjoys going to the junkyard with me.

 Reply

That wagon was the only non-Buick that I ever knew him to own. A lone Oldsmobile in a line of Electras, Regals, Roadmasters, and LeSabres.

 Reply

Maroon interior. Velour seats. Not exactly a great car.

He traded up to a base '01 Sable wagon and was thrilled. But he was thrilled by the Olds, too, having replaced a white-on-blue Corsica with it.

Whatever.

 Reply

It wasn't a bad car but this was after the 2nd gas crisis and I was embarrassed that it wasn't an efficient four cylinder. I was somewhat insufferable as a teen.

 Reply

My aunt also had a fudge brown '79 Cutlass Supreme. Between the the leather interior and the residual effects of hundreds of cigarettes, it smelled like a Vegas VIP lounge (not that I've ever been in one).

 Reply

My grandparents had an brown '85 Ninety Eight Regency followed by a white '91 Eighty Eight Royale with a red interior. I always thought those were pretty nice cars, as fars as '80s GMs go.

I've never had or driven an Olds, but I'll get my hands on one eventually, whether it's a '60s Cutlass or '80s hunk of junk.

 Reply

Apparently its most memorable feature was a 4 mile per gallon consumption rate, ostensibly because something was wrong with it. I didn't believe him at first, but after calculating that a 283-powered '65 Studebaker will pull at least 12 mpg in the city, maybe he was right.

 Reply