Were GM's efforts, like this beefed up Calais, too little too late to compete with already very sporty Prelude and Celica? Episode 711. Original Airdate: 12/10/1987
Hands down the most annoying feature found on cars of that era! On the cars that are still around, I wonder how many of these systems are even operable (much less repairable) on these vehicles....??!!!
I wish there was a DVD set for each year. I love the 80s episodes. Also would be great if they would put full episodes on here. 30 min of 80s motorweek is outstanding
You are showing your age, but it's not only that. NO ONE views anything on DVD today. Why would they? I've been streaming or downloading everything since 2006. That's over a decade of not relying on DVDs. Where were you in the year 2004? You could download entire high quality movies off Limewire and Napster and Soulseek and WinMX. You were 15 years younger then, how did you entirely miss this digital revolution?
Miami SWL Radio Some people prefer physical media. I like having my movies and TV shows displayed on a shelf and readily accessible like books in a library
Had my license of one week. My buddies mom said I could take their car to the ski hill. We ended up doing 3 full 360 spins while passing cars on ice roads. Landed in the opposite ditch, no damage. Great car.
@@familyfirst7027 agreed. I believe it had an iron block. My wife had the quad 4 in her 99 z24 cavalier. That car ate ball joints and the water pump blew. Paled in comparison to my 97 Maxima se 5 speed.
Our 89 was the same we had a miss and it started losing water at 76 k, dealer looked at it and the warranty card and said it's a head gasket, better to do it now before warranty is up but our neighbor had a le barron turbo hatchback that cracked heads and gaskets twice as much and said we did good. It was good in snow and quick....power was amazing...but it lost a fuse every time you turned the radio on or went over a bump, turned out it was cigarette lighter housing burned a ground wire and got loose, after dealer had the interior was apart they asked us if we wanted to upgrade to the international gauge dash, warranty would cover all but parts and once the heads got hot it washed up and motor was wasted and that olds and buick should have never let the base car leave the factory with only a warning light...[Pontiac got that part of the right] we said no and lost the head gasket a year later but added an aftermarket one in the console. It was good until 180k on original transmission, the neighbors' turbo le barron had gone thru a transmission and another round of replacement heads and valves and electronic dash repair so given car quality at the time, we did ok but we did lose the brake lights due to a bad headlight switch later one night and it almost got us rear-ended. Dealer knew about this too looked and had two other ones with same issue. When it was good it was great but when it went bad it was really bad. It was a car you kept for 50-100k or as long as warranty was active then replace it and fun while you had it running good... It kept up with a 85 t-type regal until 45 mph and then it lost but not by as much as many would think. It looked nice too and great stereo in it. Great memories with it.
Nice. My parents had an 86' Calais with the regular four that was pretty slow (obviously!), then an '85 v6 that while not scalded cat fast, was maybe surprised cat fast. Both were frequently in the shop for repairs and it was a little surprising that they got either considering how so-so they were with reliability.
Back in the early 90s my 4th grade teacher had one just like this except it was silver. Plus I remember seeing these all over the road when the were brand new. I really miss those days.
@@davidp8627 A friend threw a rod in his due to extreme lack of maintenance. Huge hole in the block with the rod poking out. It still ran. 3800s are fantastic engines.
Probably very similar to the Buick line. Mercury cars were just dressed up Fords. Those brands did have unique designs in the early days but that was before the larger companies acquired them.
Everyone does. But one look at the aurora sedan and youd see we would be so much farther ahead in design had that brand been around in the last 15 years.
@@harrycallahan9733 It was to make them a "passive" step- through design, as required by law. It was that, or put in costly airbags. Super annoying and useless. I used to just operate it like a normal belt.
Rented a new 2020 Chevy cargo van the other week, its still the same dot matrix type thing in that truck. Tells you a bit more like tire pressure now days though.
4:17 I like how the tester slid under those horrid seat belts like he’d just practiced doing so 20 times before they filmed this, so it wouldn’t look horribly awkward.
Thank you for another GM/ Oldsmobile review. It is much appreciated. I enjoyed watching this video. The Quad 442 came later with more power. I hope there are more to come. Someone was asking for that Quad 8 video from Motorweek too. I think Beth Nardone did the segment too. It was a Quad 8. I know that other Quad four segment has been posted.
The irony of it being named international when it wasn't sold outside the USA isn't lost on me..... But I guess its more to do with where the parts came from 😊
Thank you for posting these throwback reviews of cars we once saw as a common place but now just a figment of our memories. Or perhaps scrap yards by 92’ like in this case haha. When I first moved to America with my family,’first vehicle was a green on green with poverty caps Oldsmobile 86’ calais. It was fairly clean and rust free owned by elderly couple bought in 96’. We drove it daily by 2001 it was scrapped. Honestly held together fairly solid motor wise, only broke down once but the car its-self was falling apart. I definitely watch these videos to see the reviews at the time for as how we have huge hindsight to wince or nod our heads.
Had one with a 3,0 v6 ( basically a 3.8 with a shorter stroke ) it would fly . I ran it hard over 170 miles a day working a delivery service. It was a great little car!
I always thought GM’s premium compacts (the Calais, Skylark/Somerset and Grand Am) were some of the best looking small cars on the road when I was a kid although I preferred the front end appearance of the 85-86 models (before GM switched to composite headlamp modules).
I feel the same way. I prefer the composite style lights more myself but i always thought they were handsome cars. They had nice lines and weren't like all the other round bubble machines on the road.
mcqueenfanman The Cavalier/Cimarron/Skyhawk/Firenza/Sunbird were older and meant to slot in below the Skylark/Calais/Grand Am although dimensionally they were similar. As such, Chevrolet did not get its own model on GM’s premium platform (different from the J car platform) but, ironically, neither did Cadillac which retained the Cimarron until finally exiting the compact car business (widely considered a huge mistake since the ‘marron’s introduction in ‘82) by the close of the decade. Yes, the Calais was a “premium” small car and definitely felt like it when it was introduced in 1985. Rather than a gussied up version of a cheap small car, it drove and rode like a scaled down version of a Detroit large car (think soft and comfortable). Unfortunately, GM priced these cars as though they were LeSabres and Delta 88s and when fuel prices began dropping, most Americans ran back to cars that didn’t just have the big car feel and style but actually WERE big.
The second car I ever owned. Black with black interior, V6 and 5 speed. Bought it with around 45k miles and sold it with 170k, even delivered pizzas in it for a couple years. It was a good reliable fun car.
Yeah my '87 Grand am had the 3.0 which is basically the same as the 3300 (batch fire mpi and no balance shaft) it had 147k when I bought it and around 180k when I sold it to my pot dealer. He was still driving it 2 years after I sold it to him before I moved away, I had no engine/trans problems whatsoever and neither did he
4:10 it's nice to see that a new calais had the same tachometer float up as mine did. I always thought it was odd that the needle would go up when the car was shut off.
@@klwthe3rd yes. This cluster is from '85 itself, just updated in '88 to read an 8000rpm reading (Quad 4.) The Iron Lung stopped at 6000 (5k redline), the V6 stopped at 7000 (5500rpm redline.)
Repaired these cars back then , timing chains would stretch and wear causing lots of noise , piston slap was another issue and the quad coil packs would short out csusing missfires and I saw many backfire and break the timing chains.
I remember the Quad 4 engine well. At the time it was a huge development for GM and it produced much more horsepower and torque than the competition. That's why i never understood why it didn't sell well. Most people opted for the optional 3.0 V6 instead. By today's standards, the Quad 4 is a great engine. I wish US manufacters would produce engines like that instead of this tiny 4 cylinders with turbo chargers. The Quad 4 is a much more durable engine, not blowing head gaskets like modern engines.
Amethyst Deceiver that was a rumor spread by bad mechanics. The good mechanics realized that it was a TSB about the pancake batter issue, fixed it with a genuine GM part, and sent it out the door.
These were nice cars. Especially equipped in early 90's with the smoother 3.3 Ltr V6. In 1991 you could get a Calais equipped with the quad 4 with ABS.
Yes I had one too,very quick for the time,after a while gave it to my sis,and bought 4 misubishi's,cordia turbo,1991 eagle talon TSI,a Plymouth laser,and finally leased another eagle talon!
Hey if you’re serious. There happens to be one in upstate NY at the moment. Obv I have no clue where you’re located, but I figured since your comment isn’t that old I’d throw it out there. The listing I came across is what brought me here. Cus I myself am currently looking for a new fun/older ride so I wanted to learn more about this. Anyway, it’s an ‘89 (red) & looks like it’s in excellent condition. Super clean w only 62k. I’m sure you’ll see the listing if you search for it on Marketplace. If u actually see this reply go check it out!
@@deescott4810 Wow, thanks for the tip. I'm actually in central PA, so even the farthest point in upstate NY is still pretty reasonable. I'll definitely check it out. Has to be a manual, though, since Oldsmobile + manual is the main thing that gets me all excited about this thing.
Years ago, I had a chance to rent a Calais with an automatic transmission for the weekend, it was fun to drive. Power was good, visibility was good from the driver seat, and if I remember, the gauges were lit up in blue. Body style was nice too.
Got a 1988 Olds Calais from my parents at 17 after my 84 Ciera died, had about 50k miles on it. 1. It did get up and go from a stop and could jump from 50 to 75 pretty good for a pass, but it made a lot of noise. 2. Leaky sunroof, no matter what I did. Always dripped on your lap. 3. Loved that it had intermittent wipers! 4. I am 6-3 and there was just enough room for 2 of us in the back so I gave that a thumbs up. 5. I NEVER got 30 mpg even if I did all highway driving at a steady speed, most I got was 27. 6. At 80-90k miles it started to fall apart. Door handles, wiper blades stopped working, radio knobs fell off, etc. I was so proud when I rebuilt the electric window myself, the only thing that was wrong was the button worked backwards. 7. Oh yeah, head gaskets. I went through at least 5 of them. Every time you hit the gas you were afraid one would go. Since I started typing, another has gone. I traded it in for $500 when I bought a Nissan 200SX in 1997, and the Calais had 105k miles. Only $500? Trade in inspection revealed - you guessed it - a cracked head gasket.
That is the sound of the window rattling in it's track because it's down and he slammed the door. The doors fit so nicely on these cars. They will shut with the push of 2 fingers. My Dad has had 2 Calais for 24+ years. Extremely fun and well built cars.
Agree, we had one for 20 years. Slow accelerating 2.5 but it always ran, never used oil, the car was smooth and quiet and everything worked. Took it on a trip out west and had it well over 100 mph for over an hour. Rode like a dream. Wife slept through it all.
My first ever new from the showroom car was a Cutlass Calais (can't recall if it was '89 or '90). I wanted a Grand Am, but the insurance was WAY lower on the Oldsmobile clone, and I had a spotty driving record. I still have a lot of nostalgia for that car.
This was such a great car back in the day that I would have (honestly) bought one new if I could have afforded it. My brother had the great good fortune of driving the Quad 4 show car, and I was totally sold on this tame production version.
I think I am the only one that loved the Quad 4 engine. I put 230,000 miles on my 89 Calais and never had any problems with it. Back then I thought it was so fast!!
The Calais/GrandAM/Somerset was some cool cars around that era, the Somerset had cool digital dash as the Grand AM looked sportier even the Calais was a cool car all had of them looked nice back in the day now these cars just don't exist anymore.
Owned an 89 Calais with the quad 4 engine. Have to say that even tho the rear shock towers rusted out and the head cracked causing coolant to mix with the oil, it was a quick and fun little car.
I remember having to replace that part he removed from the top of the engine, I believe, 3 separate times with my old 1997 Sunfire GT. Quad 4 had some punch but lacked reliability. Those passive seatbelts were a giant pain in the neck - literally - back then, too.
Of all the US brands at that time, GM seemed to try the hardest in going after the younger buyers that were attracted to what was coming out of Germany and Japan. They would deliver stuff like this that although had nice style and hit many of the performance benchmarks, it just did not have fit finish, feel and reliability of their competition. At the time this car came out I owned an 88 Honda Prelude which was just a much better feeling and better designed car. There was no comparison on the reliability side, where in the Prelude all you ever had to do was replace basic items like oil and brake pads to keep the car going for 200,000 miles and it would still look brand new if you took care of it. I wonder how many of these made it that many miles without having a phone book of GM repair orders. I'm speaking only to this era as I think they have finally gotten it right over the years as for the last 6 years I have owned a Cadillac ATS and can say that it is an awesome car, overall, the best car I have had.
That part that they took off of with the cam cover needed replaced 3 times in 3 years on my old Sunfire GT. I know that Quad 4 had good output but from my experience at least, it was a maintenance problem.
Yes. There were two versions of the Quad442: '90/'91 W40 (regular High Output Quad 4) and the '91 W41 (W41 High Output Quad 4.) The regular W40 made 180hp, just like the regular High Output Quad 4s. There were 2,629 '90 W40s and 1,364 '91 W40s. The W41 added 10hp (racing camshafts and intake) and saw 204 '91 models built. The Quad442 was replaced by the Achieva SC/SCX in '92, before the W41 version disappeared entirely after '93 and the High Output Quad 4 disappeared entirely after '94.
I see a few reviews of the QUAD 4 motor lately. What’s the final opinion on that motor? Before it’s time sleeper rocket or Pancake Batter bomb? Had a 90 Grand Am with a QUAD 4. Got a few tickets w it!!
I owned a used, Olds Cutlass Calais 2 door, Quad 4 auto. Not sure which year it was, but it was around this test car - though not quite as loaded (though close). Just about everything they said here was exactly what I experienced owning the car. It was nice, reasonably comfortable, peppy and good value. But there was lots of torque steer and the motor got buzzy if you revved it up. ☮
Back in the early 90's i had two friends with Pontiac Grand Ams they got roughly around the same time. One had a quad four, and the other had a V6. Take a wild guess at who was getting a new car a year later?
I had the 1998 Pontiac Sunfire GT with the 2.4 Liter Quad 4. I still have a Early 90's Cavalier, both the the 2.2L and the 3.1L. The 3.1L Cavalier Still Runs very well, although body needs new paint job and some rust spots repaired. For the 2.2L Cavalier, I am going to put in the early 2000's Grand Am GT 3400 engine in it.
Had one. 88 5 speed manual. This car hammered. I bought it with 80000 miles and put 35000 more on it before selling it. I did end up putting a new clutch in at 100000 miles. I miss that car.