Please excuse the quality, laserdiscs degrade with time and this disc required a gas-laser player to rescue the contents. Digitized from the dealer laserdisc "1980 Oldsmobile Instant Access Disc Library". See playlist for other videos.
This car is an essential part of my childhood. I was 8 years old and had a real a-hole baseball little league coach who was wound too tight and he would essentially bully me for not hitting the ball had one. The next year I got better and played against his team. As I came up he yelled "easy out!". I hit a solid line drive which bounced in the outfield and then hit the hood of his Omega. As I stood on 2nd base (after driving in the leading run) I looked over at him and yelled "sorry about your car Mr. xxxxx" He was not happy. That's when I learned about karma.
@cpellercpeller5463 since then I saw that guy picking up a pizza. He's probably 80 and was trying to bully the foreign workers there asking "where's boss??!!" very condescending as he deserves to see the owner when plunking down his $15 for a pizza. They just kept working and didn't give him a straight answer which I could tell was pissing him off. I just looked at him and started laughing quietly to myself as he walked out into his GMC Acadia. Tough guy. Lol
No comments on that AMAZING yellow colored SX at 1:22? In magazines at the time it looked like something SO experimental and futuristic. And the pale yellow and black accents really put it over the top. Oldsmobile had balls to bring that out and I'm glad they did. Made it look like a trans-am. There are probably zero survivors today.
I purchased my 1980 Omega during the summer of that year. Saying it was a bad experience is putting it mildly. So many problems; many which were never corrected properly while it was still under warranty. It's only saving grace was that'll it looked sharp!
Hi from Rimini Italy. In the early 90s, when I was in the army, I have an American friend Who sold me his Olds Omega 2.8 V6 brougham coupé, Gold and Brown with AFI plate registered. For me was a fantastic car with no rust and well done. The few problems were the lights bulb that were sealed and I replace with lights of fiat 131 (sold in Usa as Fiat Brava) and the front seat with a failure in the latches that doesen't blocked.
@@LearnAboutFlow it’s a shame that the America car companies are like the keystone cops… so many opportunities to succeed and the fact the gm decide that EV1 wouldn’t be a good idea…oh brother
That's because they showed somebody actually driving it off road. Not sure you'd want to take one of today's SUV's off road. It's so out of place there. Like using a luxury Yacht to go fishing in a pond.
Had a used 1983 Omega 2 door - it was roomy in a smaller package - WAS another GM disaster Americans rushed out to buy. In the 4 years I had it, it required the following: new transmission, new struts, 2 new master cylinders, fuse box short out repair and when the steering rack needed replacing, I dumped it.
I've been worried about the fate of surviving Chevrolet Citations for a while, but now I think I should be equally concerned about the Olds Omega, Pontiac Phoenix and Buick Skylark of the same period.
I was an auto mechanic working on the 1980 Oldsmobile Omega back when they were new. These cars were an absolute pile of junk. Words can not describe how bad they were. All the years that they made the Omega were the same. Nothing but problem after problem. Good riddance that I have not seen one of these in years. The best I can say about Oldsmobile and the Omega is R.I.P.(Rust in Peace).
They talk about these cars being "People Engineered" and "The Small Car Just Grew Up". Notice how they talk about the roomines of head and knee, showing only the front and trunk area but not the back area where the adult gentlemen and women were occupying. Those cars were not roomy in the back for a 4 door car and a 2 door car is worse with those front adjustable seats! If you had a family, those cars were only ment for those riding in the front and maybe small children in the back. I remember these cars when I was a child. Maybe to some, the gas milleage was great, but it sucks to have 4 adults riding in those type of cars.
It’s ironic that the film talks about the extensive testing the Omega went through then shows the brakes being locked up when you consider that this “X car” and its other GM cousins the Citation and Skylark all had the highly publicized brake problems. 😂😂
I was just going to mention that! The X-cars were notorious for the brakes locking up easily during panic braking, so you'd think GM wouldn't want to show it happening multiple times in the video!
@@vwestlife Wish you good fortune with your channel. ANYWAY.... This is a sales training tool wasn't for public viewing. If only we DID get to see it !!!
My father had the 1980 Skylark variant with the 2.8 V6. Thing fell apart long before the warranty was up and they would fix anything. Had a rear main seal leak at like 3,000 miles and their bright idea was to caulk the exterior to stem the flow. Not a fix. When growing up I remember it would just die indiscriminately in the middle of an intersection. Was a dangerous car that GM used the pubic to beta test on. Fast forward 8 years, bought a first year LeSabre with the 3800. Could not kill it if you tried. Go figure.
The X body and 1980's FWD LeSabre are 2 entirely different beasts with 8 years in between. Bad as GM is, you're still gonna learn a couple of things in 8 years to pass along to your customers.
Absolutely. Two very different beasts. The X car needed another year or two of proving to be legit IMO but cafe and import pressure was knocking on their door. @@terminallygray
L4 and performance in the same sentence? That gas-laser player used to extract the video sounds interesting. Before I read that I was amazed by the degradation
I've got some old GM laserdiscs that refuse to read in my newer players. I've tried to track down one of the original Helium Neon laser machines... they're hard to get these days!
@Cory Heisterkamp Wow! I never knew they used Laserdiscs at Olds dealerships. I guess now we know why GM bled to death then, went broke; all the while closing Oldsmobile in the process.
@@terminallygrayMost cars don't survive even 20years because they don't have any appeal to collectors. Plenty of poorly made and or underpowered old cars survived because some people liked the way they looked. The GM X body cars were commuter cars that have suffered low survival 40 years on just like all commuter cars - just look at the low survival rate of the so called well made Japanese commuter cars of the same era. Millions of those Japanese commuter cars were made, but you are still more likely to see an X-body car on the road than any of those Japanese commuter cars.
@@Thomas63r2 I suppose so. It really more depends where you live and how much people in the local area regarded the cars that they owned. Or did they trade in for new more often.
I want to find this on a different day with different context because i think then i'd really like it but there's nothing good about today or the person i see in the mirror to relate it to right now.
These small and compact type cars in GM....they should have been built in the Chevrolet & Pontiac divisions only. Olds & Buick and even Cadillac on a few, did not need to have compact car offerings. Who really wanted a compact Olds, Buick, or Cadillac ? These divisions were seen as mid and full size car offerings to me.
Interesting that right when they mention "5 passenger" capability, they show the front seat (with driver) which is a bench seat. Wouldn't that make it 6? Though, I've never seen a bench seat in one.
A bench seat was standard in those. Bucket seats were a "fancy extra" in those days on a regular sedan type car EVEN IF it was a 2 door. Probably not 6 because they have to provide a 3rd seatbelt in front to get 6. They weren't gonna spend extra $$ just to get 6 when 5 is good enough.
X bodies all crap Skylark use to be very special all based off of Nova now these all based off of Citation Omega Phoenix Skylark were all little hot rods if you opted for the famous 350 V 8 what they did in 1980 was just introducing a little grocery short errand commuter unit
Wow, this is hideous compared to the older model. It reminds me of when Chrysler built a little grandma mobile with a four cylinder and slapped "Charger" emblems on it. What a way to take a dump on what used to be a beautiful car.
