Good morning! We’re looking at all domestic cars this week, and you may recall yesterday that I said I was going decade-by-decade. Yeah, forget that. I have skipped 1980s cars because the good ones have just gotten too damn expensive, and I skipped the 1970s because I wanted to show the best Detroit had to offer, and, well…
We looked at a couple of 1960s trucks yesterday, and I thought they were fairly comparable. Most of you disagreed, and the vote came out much more lopsided than I expected. The basic six-cylinder GMC was the winner by a country mile. The mention of Bondo on the Dodge scared off a lot of you, but the general consensus seemed to be that Mopar was just outclassed by GM here.
I tend to agree. I’m a Chrysler fan (just in case you’re new here), but when it comes to pickups, I go for GM every time. The Action Line trucks are great looking, just enough more modern to drive than earlier trucks, and always guaranteed to get attention these days. And a six with a three-on-the-tree is the definitive old truck drivetrain.
The 1970s were brutal on the car industry here in the US. The combination of two gas crunches, a bunch of new regulations, and near-constant labor issues made for a bunch of slow, poorly-made, ungainly cars. We romanticize them sometimes, but the truth is they were awful. The 1980s got better, eventually, but that decade started out with new technologies that took a long time to perfect.
Today’s competitors come from the early 1990s, a time when the designs of the ’80s had gotten as refined as they were going to get, and the build quality problems were more or less ironed out. No one is going to call either of these cars exciting, but they’re reasonably nice, reasonably well put together, and they both have a nice comfy red velour bench seat across the front. That has to count for something, right? Let’s check them out.
1993 Oldsmobile Cutlass Cruiser S – $4,500
Engine/drivetrain: 3.3-liter OHV V6, four-speed automatic, FWD
Location: Fayetteville, NC
Odometer reading: 45,000 miles
Operational status: Runs and drives well
GM’s second foray into front-wheel-drive (after the Olds Toronado and its derivatives) got off to a rocky start. The X-body was a rushed design, poorly built, and it spent more time being recalled than it did racking up miles. The A-body which followed a couple of years later fared much better, and stayed in production for fourteen years. This Oldsmobile Cutlass Cruiser is from towards the end of the run, when the A-body was down to just Oldsmobile and Buick variants, and just four-door sedans and station wagons.
Several different engines were offered in the Cutlass Ciera and Cruiser over the years. This one has a 3.3 liter V6, commonly known as the 3300, which is a smaller-displacement, simplified version of the revered 3800. It drives the front wheels through a four-speed automatic. It’s not an exciting combination, but it should last a long time with proper maintenance. This one has only 45,000 miles on it, all from one elderly owner. The seller’s mechanic says some gaskets and seals need to be replaced, just because of the low mileage, but it does run and drive just fine.
Even in 1993, this interior was outdated. But I think that’s part of the reason the Ciera and Cruiser stayed in production so long. The newer W-body Cutlass Supreme was advertised as “Not Your Father’s Oldsmobile,” but this one definitely was, and that appealed to a certain segment of buyers. Outdated or not, it does look comfy, and it’s in great condition inside. There’s no photo with the tailgate open, so I can’t tell you if this wagon has the third-row “wayback seat” or not. But we can hope.
The dominant characteristic of its exterior is the fake woodgrain trim, which is also a throwback. I’m not particularly a fan of it, but I know some people are. It’s generally in good condition, but there is some faded and thin paint on the front bumper. The rest of the paint looks fine, and there isn’t any rust on it.
1991 Dodge Dynasty – $3,500
Engine/drivetrain: 3.3-liter OHV V6, four-speed automatic, FWD
Location: Rockwall, TX
Odometer reading: 109,000 miles
Operational status: Runs and drives well
While GM was learning hard lessons with the X-body and applying them to the A-body, Chrysler was busy putting its business back together with the K-car. It spent the next decade creating endless variations on the same theme, including the longer-wheelbase C (later AC) cars like this Dodge Dynasty. Though it was introduced in 1988, it looks much older; this car was intended for a demographic that wasn’t ready for the future, too.
One aspect of its drivetrain was thoroughly modern for 1991: the A604 Ultradrive transmission. It’s a computer-controlled four-speed overdrive unit that gained a bad reputation early on, but any problems this one might have had have long since been fixed. Its engine is a Chrysler-designed 3.3-liter V6, not the Mitsubishi 3.0-liter engine of earlier cars. It runs and drives well, but that’s about all the seller has to say.
This one looks older inside than it is too, though it wears its vast expanses of fake woodgrain on the inside. It has a bench seat, making this a full six-passenger car. But did anybody ever actually put someone in the middle front seat? This one hardly looks sat in at all; it’s in great shape. And the seller says the air conditioning is nice and cold.
It’s really clean outside, but there is a little weirdness I feel compelled to mention. The passenger’s side has the original wheel covers, but the driver’s side has terrible aftermarket covers that I think are supposed to look like ’70s mags, but don’t. The muffler is also hanging at a funny angle, making me think there’s a hanger missing from the back. That’s an easy fix, but it should be taken care of before the muffler decides to part ways with the rest of the car.
If you’re looking for excitement, look elsewhere. But if you want comfort, durability, low maintenance, and cheap insurance, these are your rides. And if you’re anything like me, you appreciate a nice red velour interior. Which one would you take home?
Both of these cars seem to have a mysterious extra digit in front of the price I would pay for either.
Definitely the wagon. Those A-bodies were kinda crap cars, but they looked good. Remember when cars had clean simple lines? I do. I could do without the fake bark, but it doesn’t offend me either on this car.
That bench seat makes my back hurt just contemplating spending any time in it though. Mine would have to be a Chevy Eurosport wagon with the less terrible buckets, in the Iron Blue color they came in. And NOT an interior that looks like a hooker’s bedroom.
Some folks I used to know had a Ciera wagon (I’m not actually sure what year it was, but it wore Ciera badges despite my memory suggesting that it had the same 3300) – same red three-row interior, cranberry without the woodgrain on the outside – with well over 200k on the clock.
Sure, it had some power windows that didn’t work, it had a CEL on and seemed to be in a primitive ‘limp mode’ (or else just ran like shit if you gave it too much beans), the Panhard rod rusted through so it shook its ass like it was in a rap video on the way up to the repair shop, and a brake line went out while I was driving it in a snowstorm, but it survived and was handed down to some friends of theirs who were more hard-up.
For context, that Oldsmobile and the cars alongside and following it got very little love beyond a visit to the mechanic when something *really* broke. The Ciera kept running fine and just doing its thing, within its limits, and it survived until I lost track of it. It outlived a four-cylinder ’98 Camry!
It’s not entirely positive nostalgia, but I’m taking the Olds.
Besides, I’ve owned several Volvos and I think the Dynasty’s too square. I remember someone on Turbobricks fitting Dynasty headlights on a Volvo 740 or 760, though, so there’s that, at least.
I really, really like that Olds. I have nothing against the Dodge, but I know that platform and what it can survive for very little money. Plus, wagon.
I’ve had neighbors waiting months for parts on newer Jeep/Dodge/ Ram vehicles. Can’t image how bad getting parts on a 35 year old Chrysler is (probably not good).
Today would be a good “neither” button day. Buuuuut, the Oldsmobile gets my fake internet dollary-doos. The 3300/440T4 or maybe 4T60 by this point is a solid drivetrain. Not exciting but solid. The car itself has the structural integrity of cooked spaghetti. I know from having years of experience with an older Olds A-body wagon. The hood will dent at the prop rod, the doors won’t open when it’s lifted off the ground and the outboard rear seat folding hinges are bolted straight into the rear wheel wells. Plus if the window frames ever get misaligned, it’s possible to bend them back by hand. That said, all that floppiness means it’ll shrug off small impacts as the tolerances are taken up. But, don’t get into a big crash because it will fold up like tin foil.
That Ciera is *mint*, and I really like A-body wagons.
I’m not sure about this, but I think that the opening vent windows in the rear quarter glass mean it was optioned with the third-row seat.
Oldsmobile for me. The FWD A-bodies with the 3.3L V6 and 4 speed auto is probably the best version of A-body. It also made a bit more power than the Chrysler 3.3L V6.
Plus, with it being a wagon just further seals the deal for me.
Woody wagon by a country mile.
The Dynasty was the definitive Grandpa’s car of the late ’80s and early’ ’90s. I mean literally, my Grandpa had a beige ’89.
Mark, you wouldn’t secretly be prowling the TriangleRAD group in FB, would you? We tend to share a lot of RAD-era Marketplace listings from NC there, and that Olds was shared just yesterday.
It’s not the first time this has happened, either.
Underappreciated Survivors, actually. Nothing anywhere says I have to do all the legwork myself. Even Sherlock Holmes had the Baker Street Irregulars.
The Oldsmobile, as it has half the mileage on it. It should be good for another fifty thousand.
Neither would be my choice, if I had to pay for it, and if someone offered them for free, I would say to offer them to someone who really needs a free car. That purple/pink/faded Grandpa and Grandma interior would make me drive straight to the upholstery shop. I could be a grandfather at my age, but much still much too young to be an old fogey.
Gimme the low-mileage woody.
And Hey – What’s going on with that Mercury Cougar XR7 behind it?