My First Car

I just bought a 1989 Oldsmobile Custom Cruiser this past September. This thing is huge. GM did a good job building these things. It's only the 307 but it runs great.

 

where ya from there 98?
welcome

 

thats a righteous ride man,,i got a 84 oldsboatmobile ,,,woodgrain and all my wife hates the woodgrain and my comrades at work are always bustin my chops you know,,,, where,d you anchor the yacht,,,,you drove the total goober special today,,,,,how many parking spots did you take????,, ,,etc, etc ,etc,, i just love it and it,s really great to show up at my daughters school functions in it, in a sea of mini-vans and suv,s:2_thumbs_up_-_anima :2_thumbs_up_-_anima

 

They're all jealous. Wagons are great. My 82 Cougar wagon is my third wagon. I had a 73 Ford Gran Torino and a 73 Pinto Squire back in the day.

The folks at my work, who almost all drive SUVs and big diesel pickups, are always making fun of my wagon. But, even at 19 mpg my wagon beats all theirs. And it always gets more attention. I just have to get off my butt and get it fixed up. I can't stop driving it. It's comfortable and drives great and has miles of chrome.

Steve

 

Welcome aboard ....

euhhhh........... sailor
In terms of Oldsmobile it doesn't really matter "Ninety-Eight"or 89

 

ya knowthe thing i like about my oldmoboat is when ya put both of the rear seats down it looks like a hearse ,,,just kidding,,,i had a 10 by 12 foot steel storage shed i took down and after the sawzall was done i very carefully got the whole thing in the back in one trip,,,i looked like sanford and son in woodgrain truckin it to work to put in the scrap metal bin,,and yea t bird you are right those folks dont know class transportation,,i pity them poor fools

 

Ya they are nice for that. I am afraid of putting the rear window down to much. It has a hard time coming back up. Does anyone know were to order weatherstripping for the tailgate? Mine is leaking into the car because it is cracked.

Thanks

 

i,ve had a handful of power window cars that were slow,,,,,take off the inside door and or tailgate panels and lube up the regulator mechanism,s and the the last time i called the gm dealership here close to me they said they only went back to 84 for gm parts,,, that means that they might very well carry it for your 89 ,,,there is quite a few outfits that specialize in that stuff,,, t bird just mentioned an outfit in a earlier post that might carry it

 

Oh come on... the 77-90, B-Body wagons like your custom cruiser aren't that big... Try try driving a wagon from the 71-76 era, those things have almost 2 feet of length on your wagon.

The 77-newer wagons are so easy to drive and manuver too.. I had a 79 Buick Electra Estate, 89 Electra, 90 LeSabre Estate, and 85 Pontiac Parisienne Safari, and I never had any parking or manuvering problems... I actually have more trouble driving smaller cars than the big ones.

 

You are very right! It is just big to me because my family all drives small cars. Its 225.9 inches. When I started driving we had a Focus, Aerostar and Venture, both vans being the short version. So getting behind the well of a 18 foot vehicle was pretty nice. I want one of those Cadillac 75s that are like 245 inches or a 98 thats about the same.

 

Your Custom Cruiser is actually not 225.9 inches. You're thinking of the C-body cars like the Buick Electra-225 and Olds 98-Regency that had a 118" wheelbase. The Buick/Olds B-Body wagons of our era were 220.5 inches long, while the Chevy/Pontiac version were only 215.5 long. The 116" wheelbase and body/frame lenths remained the same, but the 5 inches difference in length can be found in the front fenders.
The 71-76 clamshell wagons were the bggest with a 231.8" length, and a 127" wheelbase.

I grew up and learned to drive with big cars, like a 75 Ford LTD, 78 Merc Marquis wagon, 77 Caprice, 71 Impala, and all that, and like I said, I've owned 3 big ones myself, but now we've all gone to small cars. The biggest one we have is the Chevy Astro van, and we also have a Geo Metro, Suzuki Grand Vitara, and a Chevy Lumina. And let me tell you... I want my old wagons back.

 

Oh, thanks for the info. The manual said it was 225.9. Thats what I though it was. Oh well. Doesn't matter its big enough. I was disapointed to find out it only was a 307. I bought it know that but its been rebuilt 40,000 ago. It has 122,000 and runs great. It does hesitate sometimes after running at highway speeds once you slow down. When you try to gain speed it shutters the first couple of take offs. Sometimes if you go to get on the highway it doesn't want to go. So I push it to the floor and it wakes up. That stupid electronic carberator.

 

The 307 in my old 89 Electra wagon ran like a dream. It had 98,000 kms when I got it, and ran extremly well. Unlike your 307, mine didn't want to stop.. Poured in some 94 octane gas to bump the power up, and it got near 20 mpg city too...

The 307 was the only available engine in all B-Body wagons from 86-90. From 80-85 you had a choice of an Olds 350-D or an Olds 307 in the Olds/Buick wagons, and a Chev 305 or Olds 350-D for the Chevy/Pontiac wagons. There was Chev 350 made in those times, but they were strictly reserved for fleet cars like cop cars or taxi-cabs. The only way to get a Chev 350 in a 80-90 wagon was if you bought a retired taxi, or if swapped from an older pre-79 GM, Which is what happened to my old 85 Parisienne Safari. It had 305/TH-700-R4 originally, but the guy I bought it from swapped in a hopped up Chev 350/TH-350 from a 76 Caprice for heavy duty towing purposes. Gas mileage was a bit of an issue, but it sure was one hell of a fun car to drive. 1/4 mile in 15 sec, and 205+ km/h?? No problem! Man, I wish I didn't sell it.. I'm such an idiot!