In terms of looks alone, this era of the venerable Oldsmobile Cutlass is one of the best-looking ever made – in my humble opinion. Sure, you’ve got the classic Cutlass, and there’s no denying the style and brawn of the 1960s and 1970s generations. But when it comes to 1990s GM products, the Cutlass is one of the better-looking cars to come out of the era of front-wheel-drive products. The convertible, especially, pulled off the top-down appearance particularly well, which is not a given when it comes to soft-top varieties. The Oldsmobile is listed here on eBay with bids to just under $4,000 with no reserve.
The W-Body Cutlass was a solid performed by the time it rolled off the assembly line in 1994, with a dual overhead cam 3.4L V6 that revved nicely and made a respectable 210 horsepower. That’s still damn respectable today, and likely a good part of the reason why we still see these convertibles appear as clearly someone’s weekend car for many years. When you consider how many front-drive GM products are rotting in scrap heaps these days, it tells me that many owners kept their Cutlass convertibles as sunny day drivers given we still see them pop up in respectable condition, such as this car.
The Cutlass has a tick under 80,000 miles and the interior certainly bears out as being from a car that hasn’t been overly used. The seller confirms in the listing tha the Olds was “…seasonally used”, which fits my hypothesis to a T. The black leather is really a treat; in general, I don’t often see W bodies with black leather, so this is a pleasant surprise. The door panels even got the leather treatment and still appear to be in good shape, and the carpets are clean along with no obvious cracks in the dash. My guess is that the back seat was hardly ever used.
The engine bay is surprisingly clean. I say “surprisingly” because very few GM engine bays of non-collector cars look this clean, and because while the mileage is low, it isn’t crazy low. The previous caretaker of this Cutlass convertible clearly loved the car, and while it appears the soft top itself may need some love (or replacement), this looks like it very close to being a turnkey driver. When it comes to summer cars, the price of admission can be disappointingly steep. This clean Cutlass goes to show otherwise, and it looks like an absolute steal at the current bid price.
I don’t know what it is, but I kinda liked the looks of a lot of these late ’80s/early ’90s GM cars too – at time when most GM enthusiasts were bemoaning the slow death of the classic nameplates.
I do know that I’m more interested in that Cougar in the background though.
Heck yeah! The Early Grand Prix GTP’s, Lumina Z34’s, heck I saw a SUPER clean LeBaron Convertible turbo the other day.
Haven’t seen one for quite some time, but they usually had much higher miles and higher buy it now price than this one.
I always thought these were goofy looking cars, especially with the top down. Not GM’S best effort.
I was in high school when Olds started putting the Cutlass name on front wheel drive plastic clad vehicles. My first car was a 79 Cutlass Calais w/ T-Tops, and I had friends that owned a 72 Cutlass Supreme and a 69 442 Convertible. We were all dejected to see the Cutlass name on FWD compacts like the Ciera and Calais. In 79, Calais was the Cutlass trim level that came with bucket seats, floor shifter and console, and the sport suspension – the base model for the Hurst Olds of that year. The later Cutlass Supreme was similarly a disappointment to us that remembered the muscle car heritage of the Cutlass. Decent looking car, yeah, but I viewed it much like Ford guys view an electric Mustang. Just ain’t right.
Not sure why, but the photographer has a gun in his waist band in one of the pictures (photo 19) on the eBay site 🤷🏻♂️ best not mess with them?
On another note, my high school crush had one of these and I have admired this model ever since.
So,if you go and look at it & the seller says
“MAKE ME AN OFFER!”,you’d bette r make an offe r.
car sold for a little over $5900.00 We had a 91 Cutlass International Series 4 door. WE put 260K on it before giving to our daughter after about 7 years. International Series was unique model. Had the F41 tighter suspension, among other things, but only had the 3.1 V-6 motor. GM got hit with a lawsuit about the sliding brake calipers, as these, like the ragtop, had 4-wheel disc brakes. Basically, GM had to reimburse owners for brake jobs.
FE3 suspension. F41 was Chevy’s designation. My first new car was an ’88 Calais International Series. Quad-4, 5-speed, red leather interior. I was in heaven. Still wish I had it.
I had the 89’ Grand Prix SE which in that year was like a GTP which came a couple years later. It was extremely better looking than the cutlass but not available in a convertible. This cutlass here even with the low miles for the age is a little undesirable. The top is stretched which means it was used plenty and the bolsters on the seats are cracked. But someone may get a really good deal on this.