1986 Oldsmobile 98 gets no respect at Mecum Dallas

There are some who argue, and I subscribe to this argument as well, that it was this late '80s redesign of the full-size Olds cars that began the demise of the Oldsmobile brand. Why Oldsmobile and GM ever thought that reducing the flagship Oldsmobile model to something pretty much indistinguishable from a Pontiac 6000 was a good idea is beyond comprehension.

Anyway, this car, which, despite having 152,000 miles, looks pretty nice (especially the interior), could garner no more than $2,475 at the current Mecum auction in Dallas. It sold for this price, so the seller obviously wasn't expecting much, and you kind of wonder why he went through the trouble of having it sold at Mecum at all. There's costs involved, and he can't have netted much money at that selling price.

What's kind of funny is the final selling price. If you watch Mecum auctions at all, you'll note that they usually work in thousand dollar increments. When the bidding is nearing an end, they'll sometimes start accepting $500 increases in the bid price, but it's very rare for them to go to increments smaller than that. For them to have gone down to the $25 increment level, which they would have had to do to arrive at a final price of $2,475 (and not simply $2,500!) on a car shows just how much hustling they had to do to get any bidding at all on the car.

At that price, someone got a very nice daily driver.

 

Agreed. For that mileage he was really well taken care of.

 

I agree, with todays used car market that was a bargain.

But did they ever sort out the transaxle issues with these? It closer to a Bonneville than a 6000 IMO. But that doesn't matter. I know that the earlier Full size FWD cars would expect a transaxle rebuild around 70,000-80,000 miles.

This example is in very good condition. And would make a nice if uninspiring driver.

 

I would LOVE to own a 'Touring Sedan' version of one of these.......

 

It is pretty nice for what it is - nice color combo and all. I don't know if any of these GM(or Ford) 80s front-drivers will ever become collectible. About 2 years ago, there was one of these in our local u-pull (It was an '85 though) maroon with matching leather interior. The car was spotless, gorgeous interior and like 48K on the clock - good paint even. only like 48K original. I really don't like these things, but this one was pretty nice. The only thing I can figure is that it suffered some catastrophic failure and whomever it was, didn't want to fix it. Was kind of a shame. It seems like these have some good interior room - but I don't know, I've never been in one....

 

My Mom drove a 90 Olds 98 Regency Brougham for years, starting in 1998. I remember that specifically because when I told my friends my Mom was driving an Olds 98 they thought I meant a brand new 1998 Olds.
It was a great car. I never cared for the styling, but it was the car that convinced my Dad that the GM 3800 was the greatest engine of the era.
After my Mom drove it for almost a decade she got a newer Buick LeSabre and my Dad started driving the Olds as his work car. He was in construction, so he had all of his tools in the trunk of the car (he figured it got better fuel economy than his truck )
I think the thing had almost 300K miles on it when he finally sold it. Some local farm laborer bought it for $500 and drove it away.

 

I remember a Lincoln Town Car TV commercial from the late 1980s. The joke was that owners of the FWD Olds 98, Buick Electra and Cadillac De Ville kept confusing their cars in parking lots. The idea being the Town Car was still distinctive - some truth to that.

 

And here it is.

1985 Lincoln Commercial - YouTube

 

I remember that commercial!

 

I thought it got the point across!

 

I have a ‘94 Regency in that garnet red with matching leather interior. I don’t drive it enough, 57,000 miles, but it is roomy and it gets pretty good mileage. I so much more enjoy driving the painter body Grand Marquis.

 

I loved that commercial!

 

Great commercial. I had never seen it before, but it perfectly makes my point.

 

I predict no, at least for the GM cars. I was at the 2021 OCA Nationals in Tennessee last month, and I've been able attend every nationals since 2017. There was none in 2020, but that's four consecutive recent nationals, and at none of them were there any Oldsmobile full-size cars from this era. At least, none that I saw. These cars have no styling to speak of, they're small (or, at least, small-looking), and I doubt they will ever be seriously collected. The OCA will have in an upcoming issue of JWO a full list of cars in attendance, and I'll check and see if anything from this era was, in fact, there.

 

I remember the advertising campaign for these cars when they came out. "Not your father's Oldsmobile" and they sure weren't. Such a boring car, the only reason we drove them in high school was because they were cheap and no one wanted them. The 3800 ran forever as long as the fuel pump didn't die but the transmissions were somewhat problematic. I just don't have that much love for these cars...