For some reason, we end up seeing a lot of 4 door General Motors full-size cars from 1977 to 1985 on Barn Finds, and a lot of those cars end up being called “Grandma” cars while we rarely find ourselves calling the large 4 doors from Ford and Chrysler that. But this car really is a Grandma car. Here is a 1982 Oldsmobile Delta 88 Royale 4 door sedan for sale here on Craigslist in Greeley, Colorado. A tip of the hat to Barn Finds reader Ikey H. for letting us know about this one.
The seller’s grandmother has passed away, so is wanting to pass on her car to someone else. The Oldsmobile has wire wheel covers with a new set of tires. Although many cars of this era had vinyl roofs, this one has the standard steel roof. It is literally a “little old lady” owned car from Texas. It has some minor dings and scratches over the body, with bodyside molding missing in some places and wavy in others. It also appears to have quite a bit of paint fading on the upper portion of the driver’s side rear fender. It was garaged most of its life but stored under a carport more recently.
The ad does not have any good pictures of the seats but does show several of the dash, which appears to be in good condition. The car has the standard manual crank windows but does have air conditioning. We are not told if it works. The tan carpeting and floor mats appear to be in good condition and not terribly dirty.
The engine is a 307 cubic inch V-8. It has new spark plugs, new muffler, new belts, and new windshield wipers. It comes with some original documentation including the owner’s manual and warranty book. The car could use some new rear shocks. This Delta 88 Royale has a low 37,000 miles and the seller is asking $4,500 or any reasonable offers. Have you been looking for an eighties full-sized General Motors vehicle with plenty of miles left?
Around here grandmas gravitate towards Grand Marquis,always thought it was because of the similar title-name association. Since Mercury bit the dirt anything with Buick on it will do,maybe oldest surviving name recognition holds sway with this age group.Used to see cars like these scooped up by drillers on rotary rigs,cheap transportation to get yourself and three rough necks to work,they called em rig rockets,this one looks to nice for that kind of ending.
The only real flaw here is the sunbaked paint!
If you can apply color yourself, this could be a really clean period cruiser.
Shocks are usually one of the easiest things to change out on a car.
What’s up with the warped front radiator support, looks like it was majorly damaged and corroded.
Beautiful car. Love these big GM luxo boxes of the 80s. Good price, too. Hopefully that radiator support isn’t a sign that Gramms gave this Olds a serious shellacking at some point. I’d prefer having the [much maligned] diesel under the hood. Yeah, I’m weird that way!
I just flipped a 87 Caprice with 24,000 miles. Unfortunately it sat in a driveway with no protection for at least 20 years, and the paint was completely roasted on it. Basically a new, super ugly car. Sold it to a kid as a driver, because there’s really nothing else to do with it.
What we have here is a Mexican standoff. On one hand you have a car that is clean, low miles, and can take 4-5 people and their luggage comfortably. On the other hand it’s a 4500.00 36 year old car with bad paint, possible crash damage, and questionable ac. I think I would punt.
Hmmm, not to be a negative Nellie, but why a muffler? At 37k miles the interior should look amazing, and I think it looks a little dirty, for what you can see. I think it looks like 137k to me, but who knows.
That being said, even at high miles, the price seems good, and at low miles, what a bargain. Crank windows… wow surprising, never would have thought that, in a cruiser like this.
The brake pedal doesn’t appear to have much wear.
I see some old men with nostalgia that buy up these, Liquidated a few in estates. I dotn see the attraction myself, But these make GREAT Donor cars for ratrods. The 307 is not a great motor (The 350 is a much better choice) but if picked up cheap enough, its still a SBC V8. But where it shines is power steering, Disc brakes and nice wiper system and other bits that sure add up on a rat rod bought one by one. Buy one of these cheap and you have everything on one car for a fraction of the cost. (Fuel tank and lines, decent radiator, EFI ignition, strip out and salvage what you want on the electrical, good heater and defrost) Even swap in the electric windows on some models.
I think this is grossly over priced, but what the hey… I bought my last grandma car was a 79 malibu (Full frame, albeit spindly)
for $500 with a running motor but flat cam. Im beefing up the frame and setting a 39 Coupe body on it. (Same wheel base) I sold so far,, $1200 in parts off the 79 malibu and continue to be amazed who the hell will pay shipping for parts off a 4 door 79 Malibu but they do!
Heres another nice thing on them…. Sheetmetal. Acres of good clean metal, mostiwhtout compound curves and styling ridges and ribs. I do a lot of welding fab, patch panels and rust repair. That roof?? The Hood? The rear deck lid?? Thats gold right there. Nice big sheets of donor material and welds nice. I get people all the time emailing on my CL ads wanting the same thing,,, Hood, roof and rear deck. Same reasons!
So, IMHO its a great donor car for parts but I think the price is insane, But clearly people like these.
** This WOULD be a prime DONK Car donor as well, Not into that scene but in the dirty south that style is HUGE!**
I love this car. Brings back my high school memories of the early 2000s