The first year of the fourth-generation Toronado blew more than a few collective minds when it hit the market. The last generation cars were much smaller than the historic second-gen cars were and the new small version didn’t go over well with a few buyers. This beautiful example of a 1986 Oldsmobile Toronado can be found here on eBay in Palm Harbor, Florida with a current bid price of just over $3,600 and there is no reserve.
I think these cars are gorgeous, much more so than the second-generation Toronados – you know, the gigantic ones? We saw one recently that had been tweaked by an aftermarket company here on Barn Finds. I like them all, of course, but I’ve always liked the small, tight design of the later Toronados. This generation Toronado is the first one to not have a separate frame and the first one to have hidden headlights since the 1966-1969 cars.
This car has just under 40,000 miles on it which is what I drive every year, so if I would have purchased this 1986 Toronado brand new, it would now have 1,360,000 miles. Hmm… let’s see, at $0.50 a mile, that’s.. hey, why haven’t I been saving my money? This was the era when I got a LeBaron convertible so I was at least one tier below the level of what a Toronado cost in those days. In fact, the price difference between those two cars would have been about $7,000 or $16,500 today.
The interior room is not on par with what the big second-generation Toronados would have been but I’m glad that Oldsmobile hung onto the Toronado as long as it did, ending production in mid-1992. The seats look comfortable both front and rear and the trunk also looks perfect. The automatic shifter looks like it would fit into a Lear Jet and the keypad dash probably didn’t do any better of a job of keeping the driver’s eyes on the road than touchscreens do today. The seller has provided a video here on YouTube and they say that the passenger side window is sometimes hit and/or miss and they think it’s the switch.
Even the engine looks like new in this car. This is not a V8 for the first time, it’s Buick’s 231 cubic-inch V6 which would have had around 140 hp. This car was purchased in Michigan but has been in Florida its whole life, and you’ll notice rust-proofing under the hood, especially in the video. Are any of you fans of the last-generation Toronados?
I never really was a fan of this era of these cars but I do think that they might have been a bit ahead of their time with the touch screen like the buick reatta.
This one is too early for the touch screen. I had a ’92 Trofeo with the VIC (Visual Information Center). It isn’t a touch screen the way we know them today. It was a plain old screen. The magic was in the bezel surrounding the screen. It contained a grid of infrared lights and sensors. Interrupting two intersecting beams was interpreted by the system as pushing a button. If you used a pencil to touch the corner of one of the buttons, nothing would happen because the beams were across the center of the buttons. File this in your “useless trivia” file.
1989 was the first year for the color VIC on the Toronado, its the only year of the 86-89 style cars that had it as an option. On the Trofeo version only I think.
Nice looking car, but similar to its cousin the Buick riviera. I had a friend that only drove them. He was so disgusted with that generation riviera after he bought it, that he gave it to his wife and drove her lesabre.
Compare to “El Toro” below.
Oh, how the mighty have fallen…
I was 23 when these e-bodies came out and I can still hear my childhood friend from GM crying at the sales figures. From sales in 1985 of 65000, to 8600 in 1988 ( and that’s just Buick), these cars were the true beginning of the end for GM. Cars started looking all the same and were significantly smaller. These were also 7th generation cars and you couldn’t give them away. It was a travesty that it took a long time for them to recover. They never really did.
All the naysayers here made me comment. I worked at an Olds dealer from 77 to 1981 while in college. Those 79 to 81 Toros broke down constantly. In 1988, my dad walked into a Cadillac Olds dealer in Westchester NY to buy a new Caddy Brougham. He left instead with the dealers personal car, a brand new dark blue Toronado Trofeo. He loved it. Never gave him trouble with that great 3.8 engine and 440 trans. He sold it to me in 1996 with 100,000 miles. I drove it until 2006, when a giant deer ran in front of me at 70 mph. It was still running perfectly with 210,000 miles. I was sick. One of the most reliable cars ever. Even young kids loved it and always what kind of car it was. I miss my father’s Oldsmobile.
I will never forget car shopping with dad in 1980. I was 9 years old. Had a ’73 Nova 350 at the time. Valves were failing and dad said it was due to the after market muffler from midas. Looking back, I’m guessing dad was using unleaded gas to save a few bucks (I won’t bring it up lol). We looked at the Cutlass and Malibu one day at different dealerships. The sales staff couldn’t even start brand new cars on the lot ! Just as bad we ended up with a new Plymouth Volare. All seemed because of carbs with too many controls. Scrapped the original Carter on the plymouth after the dealer couldn’t get it right and it ran great for 15 years. Bought a Cavalier in 1985 for mom…TBI, cold start/stalling issues were forgotten. 1990 Sedan de Ville for grandpa. Pretty good cars with no major issues. Don’t mean to hijack the thread, rambling on…
Thanks for sharing George. I definitely prefer comments from people who have actually had the car featured and can speak upon it’s pluses and minuses.
The ONLY good thing about this car is the Buick 3.8L V6 installed in it. The 79 – 85 Toronadoes were beautiful. This has no style at all. Just take a cheap car like an N body Calais, stretch it a little bit, put leather seats in it. Yeah! I think I’ll go and spend lots of money to buy that! No wonder sales dropped off a cliff. Unfortunately if you want people to spend a lot of money on a luxury car, it needs to look like a luxury car. 1985 was the last year many GM cars had good styling. A lot of the new for 86 body styles just didn’t have much appeal from a styling perspective. The one I always noticed was the 86 – 90 Seville. It looked almost exactly like a 4 door Grand Am or Calais. Why buy a Cadillac then?
150hp
?
https://www.hemmings.com/stories/2011/03/25/class-of-86-oldsmobile-toronado
https://www.hagerty.com/apps/valuationtools/1986-oldsmobile-toronado-20th_anniversary
https://www.automobile-catalog.com/car/1986/2397215/oldsmobile_toronado_20th_anniversary.html
These were beautiful.
I like it a lot, but those whitewalls and Cadillac-ish wheel covers would have to go. Much preferred the Trofeos.
Never saw one in this color, it’s gorgeous! I’d love to have one of these.
I’ve never seen one with a two-tone paint applied. Quite attractive.
I am not a big fan of them. I just think they look too stubby and way too much like the N-cars of the time (Olds Calais and Buick Somerset). But that’s just my opinion. Apparently they have some fans.
I agree, these are gorgeous cars. I’m keeping my eyes open for an 80’s front wheel drive Oldsmobile or Buick as my first purchase of a classic.
Grew up with grandparents, aunts and uncles driving these. Totally nastalgic for me!
The nadir of look alike cars from GM. The top line Toro, Riv and Eldorado all looked alike and worse, almost the same as the much cheaper Grand Am, Regal Somerset & Cutlass Calais. They weren’t awful drivers but had zero road or showroom presence. GM hubris at it’s worst.
Gms k car. Made all the gm manufacture produce them with different badges. Wounder why oldsmobile went out of bussiness. Deffently not your fathers olds
Though there is actually no exterior sheet metal that exchanges between this and a Riviera or Eldorado.
I usually don’t respond to a car I already have commented on, but this is relative. I owned a 1983 Riv that my wife’s coworker had purchased new. Beautiful car, not a mark on it, Bose stereo, leather, the only option it didn’t have was moonroof and the 350 engine upgrade. 60K on it and had every service done on it with receipts. She bought a1986 Riv and absolutely hated it, much smaller, not as elegant, and these were never performance oriented(except the 60’s versions). I got twice the car she bought new, and I paid 3K for mine. You can like what you want, but sales figures have no need to lie. One of GM’s biggest failures.
No 350 option in 1983, unless you consider the 350 diesel an upgrade, most don’t.
Last year any E/K had a gas engine was 1980.
The only real upgrade on that vintage Riviera would have been the turbocharged 3.8 V6
I had the fe3 package. I recall it had a 3.8 6 cylinder with a sport suspension package and lower fog lights. All in all a beautiful car.
Anything from GM in the 80s sucked. And that includes Cadillac.
I think this was one of only a few cars that the trunk lid was wider at the bottom above the taillights than at the upper 1/4 The trunk opened out then up to keep the corners from hitting the 1/4s when closing. I always thought it was a cool design feature.
The Riviera cousin is the first commercial use of touchscreen technology. I worked at a Cadillac-Buick dealership at the time. GM sent us all sorts of information ahead of time. We were looking forward to it. At the time there was nothing like it on the planet. My Parts Manager boss got one as a demo and I drove it a good bit. It was cool to run all of the functions with a touchscreen. And yes it was distracting. And difficult to use. The future had arrived.
After owning an 80 Toro, I went to look at the 86 models. My local dealer and I couldn’t come to terms so I looked at the 86 Rivs which I considered to be basically the same car and which I finally bought. While I didn’t care for the downsizing, I was amazed at how such a small car had such a smooth ride and I thought that the electronics were very cool. I wouldn’t mind getting another Riv/Toro from this era but I’ve been reading how people had problems with the Riv’s digital dashes even though I had no such problems. I also wonder how easy it would be to get parts for these cars if needed.
SOLD for $5.780.
Someone has a nice, clean daily driver on their hands.
For the money, it will stand out in a crowd of similarly priced cars when you go out for a drive.