Holy crap! Picking out a GM car in the 80s is like picking out a cup of coffee in Starbucks. How many variations can you make on a latte? Never mind that, how many variations could GM make on a family sedan? On the other hand, gotta love that velvety red plush interior. Like driving in a Lazyboy. Ahhhhh...
Bro, as a nineties kid, I still saw these out in the street through out the 90s and the begging of the 2000s. These cars were interesting and loved the attention to detail. Nowadays they look like metallic blobs, however I love the technology, so I guess it evens out. Still, miss these cars.
abracing199 Yes, back then GM was ahead of its time, too far ahead. The system was not very good and a year later they added some push buttons to scroll thru the menus. Those six buttons around the perimeter got more conventional. GM was weird, way ahead on ideas but the execution was horrible.
I was a kid back in the 80's and I sure do miss seeing all of these cars on the road when they were new. A lot more fun to look at back then compared to what GM has to offer now in todays time.
I was born in 78...I feel ya. Today's car designers are either lazy or incompetent because they all copy each other. GM has actually done a decent job and making their own looks, but give me a 90's and down car anyday!
I used to have an 86' 6000 STE. It was my second car, I bought it in October 2009 when I was a senior in high school with only 119,000 miles. Didn't have a single spot of rust on it! I sold it 2 years ago with 150,000 miles on it and I now drive a 99' Chevy Tahoe LT. I loved that car and I miss it!!!
ActuallyHB You might want to go back and look at how many times Ford almost went under and needed a huge loan (they put their company up a couple of times) from the government. Hell, Ford hadn't paid off their first loan when they asked for another one shortly after the others asked for money.
AZDuffman there's 2 loans they took, I'm sure I can find more. Ford seen a possible problem before the other companies did and got their "bail out" early. I don't even have anything against Ford, but they're no better then the other 2.
But they did not take the loans from the feds, that is my point. Yes, they saw hard times and they took loans early. By luck they got them before the credit markets froze up. But Ford famously said no thanks when they were summoned to DC for the hearings,
I miss them too. Look much better than the cars now dsys which now days getting more & more computerized. I rather have some of these old school cars especially Cadillac than the new cars we have today.
@@jimmycline4778 The G body’s and Full Size pickups are still around. Not even the s10 and blazer jimmy are common as they used to be. I remember seeing a lot more of the smaller body gm cars and but they’ve disappeared like crazy especially after the 2008 cash for clunkers program took a lot of these cars off the road for good. Shame some of these cars were great like the Buick gran national and somebody actually junked a Buick gnx. Some gm cars were worthy of the road while a lot of them weren’t like the fwd compact cars and hatchbacks.
I had an '84 Monte Carlo SS convertible - yes, you could order from the dealer as a convertible, it would then go to a custom chop shop and be delivered that way. But I'd have never been caught playing Bon Jovi - ugh, embarrassing.
I have a 86 buick Le Sabre I've had it for 8 years now and I love it. Best seats I've ever sat on in a car feels like a caddy with those shocks lots of space and I get asked all the time how much I want for it...
It's strangely satisfying watching softly sprung, under dampened, flex-y "unibody" american sedans wallow around a tight handling course. Sure, they get it done but it's hilarious how much they struggle. Love these videos! Keep 'em coming! Motor Week is a genius for releasing these every week. I'm hooked ha ha.
Yeah since we all drive on GT tracks we ned our cars to handle like a sports roadster? Who cares if it struggles, how often do you really drive like that?? Any modern car cannot compare to the comfort of an American car from the heyday.
LOL! You must not be driving in a major American city lately. You HAVE to have a good handling car with descent acceleration or risk getting run off the road by hostile psychos in large pickup trucks and SUVs!
I'm more concerned with the lack of any bolstering on those plush bench seats. What the heck was keeping that guy from sliding all the way over to the passenger door?
@@Hamburgler6.9 You hold onto the steering wheel, dodo. These cars aren't designed to do high-g maneuvering, my friend. Usually there was a thick armrest that folded down to separate the driver/passenger; that might hold you in place, sort of.
The first car my parents had while I was growing up was an Olds Delta 88'. I remember it being comfortable and reliable.. When I was 4 I thought the a/c vents were coin slots at which point I thought it would be a good idea to put loose change in the vents lol... Miss my dad and that car. Man this video puts a lot into perspective
3:19 Back when you needed 2 keys for your car. Now you need none! I actually owned an 86 Chevy Sprint. It had an intermittent problem with it's 3 speed automatic transmission where it's like to shift in to 3rd while sitting at lights, I'd have to manually put it in to 1st if I wanted to pull away from the light before it changed again. I also owned a 88 Nova, great car that didn't really match the history of the name.
That was cool to see! I love me some F body, and the Monte SS has held up well too, I still really like those cars. And I had never seen one, but those J Body hatches are cool looking too, esp the Z24. I remember a lot of those cars as a kid in the 80's, my friends mom had a Buick Somerset, my uncle had a Parissienne wagon, my aunt had a Grand Am, and my parent's had a '85 and '87 Celebrity wagon. And in the late 90's I had an 88 Trans Am GTA. I miss that car a lot. And the pickups, Suburbans, and Blazers of that era are some of my favorite trucks ever.
Full touch screen in 86... absolutely amazing and cars today think they're being the first to come out with all this technology BUICK WAS DOING IT WAY BEFORE ANYONE FUCKERS
Thank you for this GM video Motorweek. Thank you for the recent ones as well! It is appreciated. I hope to see more. I look forward to many more GM models. It helps to show these videos for those that remember the cars and for those who are just now learning about them. To some of the comments: 1. The 3.8 liter V6 became the 3800 V6 and was reworked over the years. It had 205 hp starting in 1995. I know because my Ninety Eight uses 1995 version of that engine. 2. Yes, touch screens. GM was a step ahead and never followed through to stay with the technologies and improve them. The Riviera lost what you see in the video in 1990. The Toronado got a touch screen called VIC in 1989. It was an option until Toronado was dropped in 1992. It is funny they are in most new cars now. 3. GM had those brands before Saturn existed. GM should have kept all the brands in this video and moved them forward without Saturn. 4. GM admitted they made those cars too small. They assumed fuel prices would reach 3 to 4 dollars a gallon and that we would have a fuel crisis. The government asked GM to lead the way and downsize it cars. As we all know it failed, and gas prices did not get that high until many years later. Starting in 1989, GM started up sizing all those cars they downsized. My Ninety Eight is wider and longer than the one in the video. My Toronado went back up size in 1990. What came out in 1989-1992 at GM is what should have come out in 1985-1986. GM is still paying for this downsizing to this day. This was the early days of the downfall at GM.
And yet a lot of idiots bitch and complain because gm had too many divisions. I personally liked all 6 of the original GM divisions. Not everyone likes the same thing, that's why it's called variety
Had the cars been better quality, GM wouldn't have lost core brands despite the similarity between divisions. Ford and Chrysler have done the same thing, only Chrysler has not learned as it has a foot in the grave.
I'm an Australian who has never set foot in the United States and the gem among these rocks for more was the Pontiac Parisienne Wagon. What a grand looking bus!!
Love the Blazer / Jimmy line up! Wish they still made those boxy suv's! I would buy one tomarrow! Shure did take a long time to have touch screens in a vehicle again.
My friends mom had a olds ninety eight brougham, every portion available including moonroof. Midnight blue, with blue interior, and it was a sharp car, and pretty darn quick with the 3.8, and overdrive back then. It was probably an 88-89 model but I liked it a lot.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Buick Skyhawk with hide away headlights. I always loved the clam shell hood on the LeSabre and all that glass made the interior so open and airy
+attcenter I'm a fan of the multiple flavors of common platforms. I think GM could use another brand or 2 now. How awful were those downsized FWD so-called full-size cars tho???
+attcenter I get why the did it, and it makes sense to a degree, especially when you sell as many cars as GM does, but I do think they totally overdid it at times, especially when the sister models don't look different enough.
The Grand National was faster than the Corvette back then!i remember test driving a brand new Monti Carlo SS back then as a young man, even then I thought damn this car has no power but I loved how it looked, it only had a 305 pushing out probably 140 HP! 😂 but I loved all these cars! In Mexico you could get a factory new 454 Monti Carlo SS! Google it! They are very rare in U.S.!
You "kids" wax romantically about this junk, but I grew up in the 1980s and GM and Fords were junk in the early to mid 80s. My parents had three cars just so they could guarantee one would be on the road. One was in the shop pretty much all the time and sometimes two were in the shop. Parts just fell off the inside of cars of this era. And they had no power at all. A corvette had less than 200 hp. Japanese cars were rust buckets and American cars were built the cheapest they hoped they could get away with.
As witness to how bad these 1986 cars were, just ask yourself how many are still on the road today. Not very many. Most found their way to the scrap heap and the crusher long before 2006 (twenty years later). Only a few Cutlass Supremes, Buick Regals and of course Cadillacs and Corvettes were thought worthy enough to make it into the hands of low riders, customizers and car collectors.
Alot of these cars looked pretty sharp when new-- I love the 2-door LeSabre. But the materials were not the best quality and they didn't hold up at all. I haven't seen one in at least 15 years.
I remember as a kid getting in mail promotion brochures for these cars. My father owned an 84' Olds ninety eight regency. That thing was a boat on wheels and the hub cap attracted thieves leaving you with a donut. Too bad these cars are extinct.
My grandmother had a 90 Lesabre she bought brand new that was in my family till earlier this year with 88k miles on it but, she let my 19 year old cuz use it and he hit a damn pole actin a fool so it was totaled. It road so smooth, we loved it.
SUV Man Tell me about it... All the car ever needed was (2 sets) of tires, 1 new battery and (1 set) of brakes, normal things... Now my cousin has a 14 Focus and want let anyone drive it... Punk azz
A 1990 car that after 25 years only had 88K miles on it. That's less than 300 miles a month. Of course it never needed any maintenance, it was never fucking driven. This thing we never used never wore out, such quality.
Wow what an amazing look back. Loved some of those cars back then. I was 17 so I hated most of them lol. Tha t IROC was nice and the TransAm. Had an 86 Trans Am then a 85 one. Loved them both.Silly me as a kid like the Monte Carlo SS more than the Buick. Ive always hated crappy made Buicks..but if I could Id own that GN.
I can't believe just how many cars GM offered back in the day, and they all look so much alike! No wonder they've been losing money/shutting down brands over the years.
They had too many poorly differentiated brands as it was. GM considered killing off Pontiac in the 50s when it had no clear identity and no substantial following. It got some distinct offerings in the 60s, but since they kept the Corvette with Chevy and launched their pony car with the Camaro, it was a half assed effort. Instead of just using Pontiac as their dedicated flashy motorsport division, they mostly left it as a tarted up hand me down.
As someone born in the 90s its amazing to see this. They had way more cars than they do now. What really shocks me though is how you don't see any of these cars driving around today. You see lots of 90s cars but none from the 80s. I guess they were all sold for scrap. They didn't have the appeal or collectability of the earlier cars being from the "malaise" era but were still too old to keep. I think the reason the 90s cars are still around is because by the late 2000s the cars became too complicated and expensive for many people forcing them to hold onto their older cars. People never anticipated this in the 90s and therefore they sold off their 80s cars for scrap.
I love the 85 Lesabre and 84 Park Avenues especially the mid 80 cars as Olds, Buick, Firebird and Camaro all were nice cars though lived without the Cimarron others were nice.
Despite what some say, my favorite riviera was the 1986-1992 models, I loved the CRT touch screen, so much tech and that was a good 27+ years ago before infotainment systems became popular
They have a fan following that deem them worthy of keeping. 1980-something Crown Vics and Dodge Diplomats were about as good, but I haven't seen those on the road in years. Cars built by the hundreds of thousands are meant to last about 10 years so that you'll buy a new one. Unless you invest a part time job's worth of time and/or money to track down parts and keep them rolling. GM built a lot of different B body models across 5 different makes for almost 20 years, so you can find replacement parts.
When GM downsized the Riv, Toronado, and Eldorado, they sucked all the class out of them as well and made them look too much like lesser GMs like the Grand Am and Buick Somerset.
I disagree. Each of the GM E bodies had their ups and downs. But the Oldsmobile was the only one to stand out. When they finally got the Toronado right in 1990 with its beautiful and full body lines, they kicked it to the curb just 2 years later. And that's just typical GM. They do that with literally everything. Even "new GM" finally gets things almost right, then shit cans it. Its been a pattern since the 50's. The Toronado literally had everything going for it. GM just didnt care enough about it to really give it the extra touches it needed to make it the best car on the market.(that and the plastic material they used at the time was just awful.) The Eldarado lived on for quite some time after that though. As for the Grand Am/buick, they look nothing alike. A Grand Am had its own styling, body lines, and interior work, and got the much more exciting Quad 4 later on. This style of N body did pretty well throughout the 80s and 90s.
Sort of what GM is doing again with Cadillac. They kill the CTS for CT5 which looks exactly like a Chevy for twice the cost. Just amazingly dumb to kill, by far, the most popular car to replace it with a dud.
+BalzyMcGEE The front-drive full-size 'H' cars were very good cars, the Buick 3.8 that powered the vast majority is long-lived with good performance and good highway economy.
I owned an '86 Oldsmobile Delta 88. That 3.8L V6 engine was fantastic -- powerful (for the day) yet still got great fuel economy. Unfortunately the transaxle was a horrible piece of shit. It went through 3 transaxles in 120,000 miles before I finally sold it. I heard that the 1989 model finally got a modified transaxle that actually wouldn't fall apart under the load from the 3.8L engine. Wish they had done that in ''86.
The Best Night of My Life. Losing / dumping my man goo while in a 1986 Buick Electra. God, she was SMOKING HOT and that Hilton Interior!! Oh baby!! The memories.! I Gotta go. All the blood's rushing to my head. Peace!
Always loved those g bodies. The Monte Carlo and the cutlass supreme were the coolest of the four. Shame they were very underpowered especially for giant v8's.
13:43.....................I have to confess that I have always had an "It's Complicated" relationship with the Astro/Safari. I LOVED how roomy & comfortable they were, how smoothly they rode, & how quiet they were.........& that 4.3-liter V6 is a TORQUE MONSTER, but fit & finish left A LOT to be desired. I will NEVER forget that it was an Astro which brought me to see Home Alone for the first time, however. I will NEVER forget cruising to Showcase Cinema in Woburn, MA in a blue 1986 Chevy Astro full of kids, BLASTING C&C Music Factory's "Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)".........ON THE CASSETTE PLAYER (Man, I'm old!!!!!)!!!!!!!
Don’t forget their Chevy Trucks either, look up what a 86 dodge truck looks like, or a ford truck! They sold more trucks than any car line! Don’t forget their Cadillac’s either, Everyone loved these cars back then but the geeks and nerds! 😂😂🤣🤣 dumb comment!
I have a rare 84 Celebrity conv I switched out the carb engine for a multi port fi 2.8 from an 86 great engine gets almost 30 mpg highway and is very smooth
Do a RU-vid video of the Celebrity. Would love to see it! My Dad had a grey on grey 86 was a basic model but was still very nice back then. Unfortunately it got rusty yet he took care of it was garage kept but lasted us 8 years.
My paternal grandmother used to have a Buick Park Avenue similar to the one shown in the video and it helped my father to get his driver's license back in the day!!
There are so many cars from this era that I want back. I miss my Chevette. And my Caprice Classic Brougham. And my Impala. And my Buick Electra. And my Olds Delta 88. I've never had a G-Body but I've always wanted one. I even miss my mom's Celebrity wagon and my Grand Am and Olds Ciera. I'm kind of a GM guy
My mom has a 1984 Ford tempo she bought brand new. Only has 76,000 miles on it and in immaculate condition. Would love to see a review on the 84, 85, 86 Tempo.
Wayne L. maintenance was key to these cars staying in good running order. My uncle had a buick from around this year and a 89 taurus and they all still run perfectly fine with maintenance
Definitely a lot of nice products here, with the exception of Chevette of course. I also wish that you guys would still dol the full model line reviews these days. :)
I forgot about the first wave of digital instrument gauge packages on mid to late 80s cars. They look so quaint now in our current high tech age. It reminds me of KITT on Knight Rider except without the wisecracking voice of William Daniels.
1ST new car i bought 86 pontiac std touring edition with that powerful 2.8 v6 and onboard air compressor in trunk for that extra element of luxury and performance !
Wow cars were really underpowered. Most cars today have more horsepower and lower body weight and we complain about anything that gets 0-06 in 8.0 seconds lol
chris Hello, when these cars were made we were into a second oil embargo from OPEC the first occurred in 1973 and the government lowered and capped the National Maximum Speed Limit at 55 Miles Per Hour which not only was indicated on speedometers but inspired the song "Can't Drive 55" by Sammy Hagar. Cars of the period were limited on horsepower and speed to conserve gasoline and squeak out as many miles per gallon as possible and to curb hydrocarbon emissions in California to combat their smog pollution problem. In 1993 the cap on the National Maximum Speed Limit was lifted and most areas raised the limit to 65 Miles Per Hour whereas before 1973 the National Maximum Speed Limit was 75 Miles Per Hour. Having grown up during that period and drove the cars of that era, having no antilock brakes and skid control especially when brakes were notorious for locking up during a panic stop having the cars governed at a lower speed wasn't such a bad thing.
