1992 Oldsmobile Eighty Eight Royale | Retro Review
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- Опубліковано 5 вер 2024
- I miss luxury 60-40 split front bench seats. Imagine sitting three people up front for an ultra smooth road trip....that's togetherness we'll never get back.
Show 1112 | Original Airdate 12-14-1991
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"Even the plastic wood is better than most" -- that's one of the best backhanded compliments I've ever heard. Bravo, John
It wasn't, though. It truly was an industry competition at the time. Only the truest luxury brands were using genuine wood accents.
@@fp5495 You're totally right, but the tone in John's voice suggests disappointment. He starts the interior review with "We had high hopes for the 88's interior as well" and then places heavy weight on "the instrument cluster, however, is barely sufficient." Within that context, the plastic wood remark sounds very backhanded.
@@fp5495 To get real wood trim, customers had to step up to a Ninety Eight, especially at the Touring trim level.
@japanwatchconnection If you wanted Fisher Price interiors back then you would have to buy an Accord or a Camry. Reliable, yes. Well appointed and comfortable? Decidedly not. Japanese cars were tiny, tinny and underpowered to maximize fuel mileage and reliability. Most didn't have or weren't even available with power windows or power seats.
@@tedunguent156 that’s blatant revisionism. Japanese cars were far better equipped and built. Interior materials were far better too and fit and finish.
I still like watching these old segments. It reminds me of being a kid and watching MotorWeek every Sunday afternoon.
Same with me. My opinion, cars during those time are more pretty looking than the bland boring cars of today.
I wanted a Olds Eighty Eight LSS so bad back in high school in 1998. I wanted it in red with black leather interior and the sunroof and 3.8 Series II Supercharger. Those things were nice.
We are same age, i finish high school in newton kansas in year 1999, last year of millineum. I always though I are little bit special, finish high school last year of millenium.
@@rebelusa6585 I actually graduated I'm 2000. So I'm the 1st class of the Millennium and always thought we was special lol. I wanted a LSS to take on Senior Prom or the then brand new Lincoln LS
I leased a brand new black 1997 LSS, with my MIDNITR license plate!
@@rebelusa6585 you know Car Wizard of "no-muffler" Newton, KS!?
I dont live in newton ks anymore. Newton a small town, nothing important happen. I remember friday and saturday night, high school student drag main street for fun. Car wizard probably newton celebrity now.
The GM 3800 V6 engine is reliable and legendary!
Yes it is !
I'm surprised in 92 they already had it to 170hp and 220tq, that's not bad numbers at all for a 3500-pound car. If GM was a little more aggressive on the tuning, they could easily get that 0-60 under 8 seconds you'd think. Not that people driving this car cared about 0-60.
yes 🏆
It's like the LS engine with the 2 cylinders taken off! Would love to see more of these souped up especially with twincharged combo!
@@mrdaykurutakuchannel I thought it was the 4.3 V6 that was like a 350ci V8 minus two cylinders.
“The optional digital package is not recommended” lol John has never liked digital dashes I love it
They where hard to see under the intense sun light!😂
As a kid I never understood - I always loved the digital dashboards. But now, as an adult, well I feel the same way, I still love the digital dashboards and really love the new LED dashboards. Also, while I can see as a reviewer who has a car for a few days hating all the buttons, in modern cars the biggest issue is the lack of physical buttons. Give me a dash covered in buttons like a Cadillac Allanté over a slow, unresponsive touch screen, anyday (ideally give me a super responsive touchscreen AND buttons for common tasks, doesn't seem that hard).
I love the digital too
No oil pressure gauge, or voltmeter. Always sure to get a poor rating for the dash by John
i know right? the digital package is awesome! 🏆
I will go on record as saying that the C/H-bodies were probably the best cars that GM ever built. Not only they have the secret NAILED on how to produce that classic feeling of big-car ride, smoothness, comfort, & quiet, they were the best in terms of build quality/dependability/reliability, at least the later models were. They truly showed what could happen when an American car manufacturer took their heads out of their collective asses & took their time building a car that could successfully go head-to-head with the imports, rather than just being obsessed with beating them at their own game.
Yet overall they were still junk. Saying that they were the best from GM doesn't say much, especially during this period. Their interiors and seats were horrible.
@@MercOne Yep, my grandmother had two of these heaps when I was growing up. Mechanically they were sound for the most part, their interiors may as well have been assembled by Mattel, flimsy cheap plastic that creaked and groaned even when the cars were brand new. Best thing about those cars was their ride quality.
I owned 3 Buicks built on this platform, they were all great. I have no idea what you two are bitching about.
@@MrTaxiRob A flimsy car made during of one GMs worst era, that's what.
@@MrTaxiRob It’s ok to like junk.
I had a 97 Eighty-Eight LSS and I absolutely LOVED THAT CAR
I love Oldsmobile Eighty-Eight Royale, beautifull car. R.I.P Oldsmobile😥😥😥 1897-2004
I can really picture John Davis daily driving an Oldsmobile like this back in the early 90's. Does anyone agree?
Absolutely hahah. I think it's his son who runs the channel, surely he can let us know! I know John had a brown 82-ish Corvette, it pops up in a few videos on this channel surrounding the release of the '84
@@RobJaskula he had a '78, not sure about the '82
@@dp63abc that's right, my mistake
Yup. I can tell this particular car was a car the middle upper and high class people drove. Hell I'd rather drive this car over a new/newer car nowadays.
My grandparents bought one brand new in 1991, first automotive memories were in that car. Eighty Eight Royale, Light Sapphire Metallic, dark blue cloth interior, optioned with the wire spoke wheel covers. Beautiful car.
2:21 Wow...definitely would not expected that kind of nimble steering with such a large car, almost as wide as the road lol. I can see why these cars were so popular: big, powerful, and easy to change lanes on the highway with.
I always rather liked the design. It just goes to show how subjective styling can be.
They gave it a hit in styling, and back in 92, these were pretty stylish. I think the issue, in retrospect, is as you get to the late 90s and they're just tacking stuff onto the design, it looked pretty silly. Also a bigger issue is that you haven't seen one of these in good condition for probably 20-years, the only ones you still see around are driven by people smoking meth and the car is completely ragged out. But in the video, that car new, looks pretty nice.
And now nearly every new car has a digital gauge cluster that ironically mimicks analog gauges. Never understood that one .
@@captainchaos0666 Since everything is digital, I don't get why they don't have app stores where you can download new UI's, no reason they couldn't offer that and make a few extra dollars on top of it. The digital dashes that really make no sense are the ones that are designed with physical parts around the screen to make it look like analog gauges, so even if you wanted to do a different design, you really can't since the physical parts limit what you can do, and they serve no real purpose. I think BMW did this for years, until now going to nothing but screens.
@@captainchaos0666 Fancy is fancy.
97 LSS I just sold was probably the most reliable car I've owned.
This is what I am talking about! Thank you for this video. It is greatly appreciated. I still look forward to the posting of the 1994 or 1995 road test of the Oldsmobile LSS. I saw it one of the marathon weekends a while back. I appreciate you sharing this review.
yes finally more oldsmobiles!
These were good cars, they had a stylish, classic, formal appearance but I like the stately, regal, luxurious design of the upscale Ninety Eight better.
I know. These cars were built better performed better than most these new cars made today. These old cars also had very little to no flaws and required less maintenance than the new/newer cars
@deanfarr3249 man, if I could find one in good condition that was affordable, I'd scoop it right up for the reasons you mentioned.
My grandmother had one of these growing up in the 90s. It was burgundy over burgundy. I remember how cool it was on the rare occasions that I got to sit in the front middle bench seat. In retrospect I now understand why my mom didn't want me sitting there since my head would have smashed into the radio in an accident.
My grandma had a 1990 Mercury Grand Marquis, and as the youngest of the grandkids, I often got stuffed into either the front or rear middle seat, much to my chagrin. I never gave any thought to the safety aspect, but you're right, we would have ended up with all those buttons John disliked mashed into our face.
I had a white 94 regency a few years back, blue leather interior with the buick 3.8, man I miss that car. Quiet, comfortable and peppy enough to pass a semi or two on the interstate. Sadly like a lot of 90s cars electrical problems eventually got to it and I sold it to someone who needed a beater with somewhat good fuel economy. I got a lot of slow nods and thumbs up from old guys while driving it though.
Had a 93 royale sedan for almost 5 years, after the first year of ownership I replaced the original L27/3800, with a 2001 series 2L36/3800 from a Buick LeSabre donor car, drove it 3 years until it was confiscated 6 years ago,I❤ that old car.
My mom had the 92 88 LSS pkg that was so popular that became a stand alone model the next year's. A definite sleeper!
Not even close you know a 1992 Acura Legend will do 0-60 in 7.4 seconds in the coupe and 7.8 in the sedan. That's a sleeper.
@@peterbennett4124 I meant to say when the LSS became supercharged 🙌
Gm had a real obsession with biscuit interiors in the 90s and the steering whhels all looked puffy.
4:07 John: Our biggest problems with this dash layout is the confusing array of buttons that operate the climate controls and stereo. There are too many! LOL
Wow, that's a lot of buttons! I think if I got an aftermarket stereo for the 1992 Oldsmobile Eighty Eight, a professional car audio installer would probably be confused with the arrangement of buttons.
I just want a car that is not a computer on wheels. This would be perfect for me given I was 12yrs old when this came out. Just a great old school car.
This car still had atleast 2 or 3 computers.
I don't like anything new... GRRRR!!! This gosh dang technology... GRRRR!!! I'm so angry! GRRRR!!!!!
@@jshch1415 computers as in touch screen and other things. The computer was mainly on the engine.
In The nineties my father had a cutlass..
When it was new it rode really nice and had pretty good acceleration for back then. Remember taking it out on I- 75 Buried the needle at 110.
I was a Chevy / Geo / Olds salesman in the mid 90s and my favorite Olds product was the LSS - this car with the nutjob supercharged 3.8 V6. I sold one in 96 that was light blue with a mouse-fur bench seat....
My grandfather loved Oldsmobiles, especially the 88. He owned several of this final generation 88. Great cars!
The wind in the background makes this video so comfy
I had the facelifted cousin of this in the form of a 1997 Buick LeSabre during my college years. Very solid and smooth car. The 3800 is a torquey V6. All that weight over the front axle, though, made for a lot of plowing and understeer in the corners.
all that torque and weight over the front end gives it unstoppable traction in reverse. You can win a tug war with a 4wd pickup truck with the 88 just put it on reverse lol
One of the last true Olds luxury cars... this and the Ninety Eight... sure, they had the Aurora, but the Eighty Eight and Ninety Eight just had that classic American style.
This car is the reason I fell in love with BMW 535i.
I remember when these were some of the biggest cars on the road. Now they're dwarfed by Pickups and SUVs the size of Abrams tanks.
Yet. Neither ride as smooth as these babies.
Having a '97 Bonneville SSEi from the H-Bodies, those cars were so underrated! I really thought I was big time! LOL! The supercharged 3.8s were indestructible and pretty potent for the day(I believe only GMs LT1/LS1 and Northstar were faster).
I wish Oldsmobile all the best in its attempt to find itself.
My grandmother owned a 1993 when I was growing up, I miss that car
A lot of these are still on the road. Thanks in part to the 3800’ series 2 V6.
I always loved this design. It was definitely a hit for Oldsmobile.
I saw one of these at the post office few weeks ago it was green believed be a '99 version. I sure miss Oldsmobile used love these cars though around that time the Lesabre did look better as sister Bonneville looked sporty, did have the Q45 rear style. Still love these 88s they looked like had smoothest rides and comfortable seats wasn't fond of front end from '92 and '93 did look better for '94 and '95. Rest in peace Oldsmobile glad MW did a review of the beloved 88 this was my favorite style also past year when was replacement of the Aurora around 2001.
I find it funny that he compared the rear style to the Infinity Q45 of that era, because I used to always mix those two cars up when I was a kid.
MT should have reviewed the LSS, sportier, better instruments cluster, better handling, I bought the Bonneville instead in 92
No one bought the LSS, that's why Motorweek was great, they normally tested the cars that people actually bought. It does the public zero good to review limited edition models that have very little sales that give off a completely different impression than the ones people actually go down to the dealer and drive home with.
With all the elaborate electronics direct injection and all the other complicated stuff on the new cars, they still cant do much better than 28 mpg today even on a smaller car.
I love the subtle dig about "towing capacity". Lol, hilarious!😂😂😂
I always preferred the look of the 98 with the vertical strip taillights and the more upright rear window. The bulbous look of this 88 looked too much like the Bonneville
Now I see all these auto journalists complaining that IPad-style screens have eliminated buttons and here they say there are too many….
I had an H-Body Bonneville in my early post-grad years and loved it. The Eighty Eight might be fun as a bonus car.
I had one. It was a boat. Super charged with what I believe to be 240 horsepower. I loved that car.
Ahh… the good old days, when you didn’t have to take out a mortgage to buy a car!
Oh i rally like this!!!! My girlfriend has a 1984 delta 88 coupe and i love that, its my baseline for post-1980 Olds, but this is a great car! Reminds me of my '92 DeVille a little bit, and looks a bit like my '93 LeSabre Limited. I'd be glad to have one in my fleet.
Our family had the 4 door '84 throughout the 90s. 307 v8 with a smooth quiet cushy ride and great ac Delco stereo. Got stolen one night not long after I started driving it to work at the mall. Good memories (otherwise lol)
The true last great Oldsmobiles, these and the Auroras. We had this car in silver color, loved it, it was like a cloud in wheels but one you could handle well, torquey and quick enough, unlike they stated here, they would run to 60 in 8.5 secs all day long. The only ever downside of these beauties were the crappy transmissions. My dad owned the car until the transmission gave up, then sold it to a shop and year later I saw an old guy driving it.
1:55 the keys made a ratcheting noise just as the person was shifting the column mounted gearshift into *PARK* lol
The viewer is steered away from the digital dash but they give no explanation as to why, quite a miss on their part.
This car is very good looking in that trim, the rims look great too💯
always with the jacket on. "cars are like life, you get nothing for free. immmm john davis! thissss, is motor week!
Ah the Vericom 2000 performance computer. My father had one when they came out. Used it on almost all of my cars :) Fun times
Motor week é sensacional carros clássico da década de 90 são muito bonito 👍👍
The 88 was oldsmobile,s definitive model, after it's demise no more oldsmobile!
I like this car.
I never knew gm made an Oldsmobile 88 LSS till I seen one recently a few years ago. Looked good too.
Man. These and the 98s were so underappreciated. They should have sold more than the LeSabre and the Lumina.
I agree with the too many button part of this video.
Great video, keep them coming!
Actually not a bad looking car but just proof General Motors is always 3-5 years behind with its launch of a car to market
Oh, don’t usually see a car with the window sticker still in place. The opening car with John still had the window sticker in the left rear window haha.
These were really good lookers. GM received the 90’s assignment and executed it perfectly in almost every situation.
Iirc they got loaner vehicles from local dealers for some of the segments. Not for the road tests, but for showing prices and such. I know in their 93 trans am test, the car they used for testing was a pre production car with a different dash top than the production version. It was also a hardtop. When they showed the one they used for pricing, it was a t-top.
@@pdennis93 yeah, I have noticed that when John does the opening shot it’s almost always a different car for the actual test.
4:00 oh, good old days of NFG GM interior design 😂
Great car, wish more people would have bought it back when they were new on the showroom floor
I never understood Oldsmobiles status. I thought they were a step under Caddy but apparently Buick is which I thought was a cheaper blander brand.
Is it just me or did that shifter sound like trash going up?
I thought the same😬 and it definitely was a carryover of the previous generation, unlike the 98’s shifter.
my late maternal grandmother had 2 of these in the 1970s a 72 and a 78 and later traded the later for a used 1979 Cadillac Coupe Deville
I strongly dislike the downsized GM midsize cars from the 80s and up, with the exception of the full size RWD boats. Yet the 88/Bonneville strike a great balance between luxury, comfort, style and quality, definitely a worth while contender to the Japanese models. Such underrated cars.
When Olds went fwd, Buick started crushing it in sales. Olds had poorer quality control then Buick in those days. Similar cars, different build quality.
Thanks John.
Those things can go 500k miles..
No joke.
We have a few of the Olds on the street today. I saw a tan 1995 Olds 88 LSS with an auto shift on the floor. And I wanna say it have a 3800 series 1 supercharged engine. But I don't know.
I see that the cute testers Nike Air Tech Challenge sneakers are getting worked in nicely.
Beautiful Olds design.
Almost got a gold champagne one years ago but chose my first buick roadmaster instead
John, why didn't you complain about the lack of a volt meter?!
Miss 1992
I seriously don't get why these 88's aren't considered shadow classics yet.
I had a 93 royale, was as good as a 76.
I was expecting that to be all over the place through the cones. How wrong was I
My rocket 88,till the bitter end.
I never liked the movie to front wheel drive. I've always wondered what a redesigned version of 1985's car would like on the B-body.
Cool car!
yep, back when GM was still into buttons and digital displays, guess they thought they were being futuristic. however, 'Futuristic' may still be 100 yrs or more down the road. i mean as far as technological advancement, Earth is so still in it's infancy. humans may have stopped evolving, but tech has centuries to go
Nice lid Ben!
Ready For Blast Off
Many of these are still on the road
The Oldsmobile 88 and the Buick Le Sabre would have been better with the Pontiac Bonneville-style mirrors. The GM factory ones were too small from 1992 to 1999. All three cars were produced at the same plant, Lake Orion, Michigan.
Wasn’t this an early Aurora ?
It's sad to see how close Olds came to a truly appealing car here (a la the 1st Gen Q45) - if this one had a supercharged 3800 V6, an all-wheel drive system, and a console mount shifter (instead of the column mount shifter on this one) - it would have been an appealing alternative to the Infiniti.
Imagine an LT-1 powered "Rocket" Eighty Eight
A strange place to put the seat controls but once you get it where you want it does it matter after that?
I always thought that too. It's not like your'e constantly adjusting the seat, like the radio or climate controls
Olds took two highly popular models, the 98 and 88, and turned them both into two very unpopular models when these redesigns came out. The only car that improved was the Toronado, and by then, people started to give up on American cars and were flocking to the Japanese at this point. The Euro brands were still out of most people's reach, since they still catered to elite customers and didn't come up with their own affordable luxury formula that propelled the Asian lux brands at this point in time, but it wasn't far off.
Those side view mirrors are tiny!!
Just a nice simple ( in a good way ) car !
A HINT of Infiniti Q45! Better fake plastic wood than most ! And , if you really look good at the hoods paint finish near the beginning of the video , it was not as glossy ( read orange peel and some fade) as the rest of the car ! That said, it was a fairly good effort for it's day .Good motor , good suspension, upscale styling and decent overall mechanicals. If GM could have put its vast resources , marketing budgets, spent developing this, the Bonneville SSE, and others into one model they could have given the Japanese a run for their money , and wiped the floor with Ford and Chrysler. But the fact that GM had several divisions to support with different styling , and interiors, and suspension tuning meant most of these h body's weren't so great . The 1992 Bonneville SSEi was close to greatness though . For a couple years .
I miss 90s cars. Comfy and decent fuel economy. Build quality wasnt the best though
Great car. 🏆
"The optional digital instruments are not recommended". Very nice
Throw some Kraft singles in the console and have a Royale with cheese.
Que sensacional amigo 👍👏👏👏
I had an 04 Alero I know why Oldsmobile did not survive.
Twenty years too late, I find myself crushing on the Oldsmobile Eighty-eight and LSS but the later version with updated fascia. They used to be everywhere but now I can't find a single one here in Canada. GM cars haven't been the same since they killed the 3800, sorry to say. No new sedans appeal to me today, there's no inspiration, everything just looks like an amalgamation of all the crap soccer moms said in focus groups; I hate it.