One of my favorite cars from the 1980s was the white 1988 Oldsmobile 98 Regency sedan that “Dirty” Harry Callahan drove in the 1988 film The Deadpool. Although the film was subpar compared to the other films in the Dirty Harry franchise, there was a scene in the movie where Harry (played by Clint Eastwood) and his partner are chased after by a remote-controlled car with C4 explosives in their white Regency throughout San Francisco, paying homage (perhaps coincidentally) to Steve McQueen and the cult classic Bullitt. Similar to the Regency but with a touch more sportiness is this 1988 Oldsmobile Touring Sedan, which is still owned by its original owner. Find it here on Hemmings in Carson City, Nevada, with an asking price of $3,800 obo.
Introduced in 1987 to celebrate Oldsmobile’s 90th anniversary and to compete against the large sport sedans from BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Audi and Saab, the Touring Sedan was based off of the Ninety-Eight sedan and used its 3.8L V6. There were no emblems or markings to signify its relationship to the Ninety-Eight model line though. It also offered many luxury features. Add in the dark blue this particular car features and you have yourself a very sporty (and almost sinister-looking) sports sedan. The car does look well overall for its age, with the owner stating that it is in “#3+/2- condition”.
Rated at 165 horsepower, the 3.8L V6 is no barn-burner, but in 1988 it was no slouch, especially considering the previous year’s 442only made 170 horsepower from its 307 V8. Unfortunately, the only transmission available was a four-speed automatic with overdrive. This particular car has really high mileage at 324,528 miles, but the owner does state that the car is “maintained”. Nonetheless, the engine and transmission should be given a thorough inspection and made sure that they are mechanically-sound.
Much like the rest of the car, the interior presents very well, with only minimal wear. The horseshoe shifter looks a bit dated even by 1988’s standards (my dad’s 1968 Camaro RS/SS 396 that he owned in high school had a similar shifter), but does add to the overall sporty nature about the car. Analog gauges are definitely a plus, considering many GM products used futuristic but troublesome digital dash clusters. The dash has a pad on top, which hopefully is not covering any cracks on the original dash pad. I would also make sure that the power windows and switches are in full working order. On the plus side, the carpet and seats feature little to no wear, and the door panels are not tattered or sagging. If everything checks out, this will be an interesting alternative to a BMW 7 Series or a full-size Mercedes-Benz from that era. What are your thoughts, viewers?
Nice Car, but way too many miles to consider.
Did GM raid the parts bin for that shifter? My ’71 Monte had a similar one.
I have a NOS one for that Olds!!!
Too bad its on the other side of the country. If its been a daily driver for 29 years thats only 11,190 miles per year. I had an 86 Olds 88 that i bought used in 1990. It had the 3.0 V6. Had the timing chain let go at about 75,000. I replaced the engine with one with similar miles. That engine developed a rod knock at 120k. Engine died at 125k. I also had a 85 Grand Am with the same 3.0 V6 that i bought new. Junked it at 125k with the same rod knock issue even after oil changes every 3000 miles. I hated junking it. Interior and paint were like new as the car had always been garaged
Who would ever buy a car with over 300k miles???
Raising my hand….ME ME ME. I WOULD… lol
Sinister? With that towel on the back seat?
Well, once you take the towel off of it, yes. If you check the listing on eBay there’s a pic of the back seat without the towel over it.
Seats and shifter were taken from the Toronado Trofeo. Probably a retro touch intended to connect the freeze-dried late-80s Toronado to the original (though the original doesn’t appear to have offered a shifter like that).
That’s a lot of miles but not unheard of for this engine – it’s pretty much bullet-proof. This is a $1000 car tho.. sorry dude but that mileage kills it.
The 3.8 is bulletproof without a doubt but with that many miles it’s gotta be tired! At that price you could do much better.
I take it you two never had a crank sensor go out on one of those 3800 motors. A spendy repair and from what my mechanic said, quite common. I had a dark red/maroon 90 Olds 88, it was a nice car, drove well, and the motor had power (for the time) and got good mileage, but they weren’t trouble free either.
Had a 1995 Silhouette and drove it 325k miles. Did all the needed repairs myself and yes, even the crank sensor once. Pretty much any vehicle will have at least a few things that are a P.I.T.A. to work on, a minivan adds even more challenges. With all that being said, the dependability of the 3.8 is legandary ranking right up there with the slant six and iron duke.
@LAB3 Yes the 3800 is a venerable motor, but there are quite a few other GM motors that run that distance. When I went shopping for a different truck, I saw numerous full size trucks with 350 V8s in them that had 200 & 300k miles on them. And while you were able to do the repairs yourself, not everyone has that option. I didn’t have a garage to do the work in, and the cost was about 1/5 of what the car cost to repair. But, in reality most of the costs of these vehicles weren’t the drivetrain, but pretty much everything else. My brother had the worst luck with them. He had a ’93 Bonneville where the entire undercarriage was rusting away and ready to essentially fall apart. He had a ’98 Olds 88 that had the crank sensor, intake manifold, and transmission go out in the first 2 years he owned it (100k miles on it when he got it). My point was, they’re better than average, but hardly bulletproof. And really, any motor can run for 300k+ miles so long as the block doesn’t get cracked, it just depends on how much you want to spend on it.
In Australia we run a tightly controlled speedway division using a rwd version of this engine. No internal balancing is allowed, heads must be oem standard, cam must be standard and compression is limited to 9.4 to 1. Even so, with a bit of careful tuning and after-market injectors and air cleaners we extract 200 hp from these engines, and they’ll rev to 6000 all day. A lot of competitors run engines that they pull from wrecked cars and run them without touching the internals. I have seen engines with 200, 000 miles racing reliably. They’re a good engine, so if it’s been looked after, it will nearly run forever. I’ve attached a pic of my race car for those that are interested.
I owned the 1989 version of this same car. The only difference I see is that my car had the 16″ Turbine wheels also found on the later Toronado Trofeos. The 3800 is indeed bulletproof, not so with the transmission. Other than that, it was solid, smooth, semi-sporty luxury car. I’ve had Mercedes and BMW also, and I honestly can’t say it’s on that level (too much cheap plastic), but still very nice and unique. I’d drive it if I still had it!
That mileage tho….wow. Still 300K miles any way you slice it.
I too owned this same car, white over burgundy. I was able to get mine from the original owner and it came with all the records and promo material. Folks may not realize that the Oldsmobile embroidered seats were made by Lear. Mine had a power sunroof. Documents said ASC did these modifications. Speakers were Bose . Still have the tool pouch (with Olds logo metal tire gauge) as well as both hard plastic Oldsmobile logo fog light covers. Great riding car.
Downsized garbage…they didn’t make em like they used to…
Yes, but climb a hill with that 307! I think I can, I think I can, I think I can………
Even with 300k on it the engine compartment looks very nice.
Those 3800’s last a long, long time. I had several of the engine/trans combination in Bonnevilles. At 55 MPH with the OD trans the engine was only cranking 1,100 RPMs.
I was thinking the seats looked wonderful for that many miles, but looked again and it appears the back seats are all leather, while the front seats have leather with cloth inserts. Are is the front seat picture just a little out of focus in the Hemmings ad? I’m thinking the front seats have been replaced, but checking out the Touring Sedan brochure makes no mention of the seats available with cloth inserts. Checking the Toronado brochure shows the same seats available in the Trofeo with Trofeo stitched on the seats instead of Oldsmobile.
I really have to assume and believe, that the engine has most likely been rebuilt at least once, right?
Not necessarily Charles H. Apart from the crank sensor, these engines really only seem to have two weaknesses. They can start to wear valve seats occasionally, and if you rev them to death I have seen them break rod bolts. When a rod bolt breaks I’ve seen them not poke a conrod out, but split the block from end to end due to torsional stress. However, you truly have to abuse them for this to happen.
As I put in my post further up the page, I’ve raced these engines in speedway, where we keep the revs between 5000-6000 for full races. My last engine is still going strong after 3 seasons of this sort of treatment.
This is the car that the spicy Golden Girl, Blanche, would have driven back then.
I owned a white 1988 Touring Sedan with blue leather interior. There was no cloth in the seats. There was a nameplate from ASC on the car. They were ’98 Oldsmobile’s taken off the assembly line and modified by ASC. Seats were very comfortable on long drives. 8-way adjustable both sides. Even the headrest was electrically adjustable. It was a great highway cruiser. The Touring Suspension included self-leveling suspension, stiffer shocks and springs, etc. Bought it used with 100,000 miles and put another 100,000 miles on it with only minor repairs (brakes, alternator).