pteinert

this is my first post and i'm excited about learning more about oldsmobiles. i purchsed the olds referenced in the title and have completed about $1500 in repairs to bring it to a good - excellent condition. it should be worth about $5,000 in its present condition and i am undecided about whether I should sell it and buy a more popular olds cutlass classic, early 70s, or stick with the 1993 convertible. i would appreciate any comments regarding my convertibles potential as a future hot classic, if would be best to sell and buy a 70s classic, etc.

thanks in advance for taking time to read and respond to this post

happy to a part of the classicolds forum!!

Jamesbo

Welcome aboard

Do both you can't own too many Oldsmobiles

pteinert

Thanks Jamesbo - more is better usually, but we live in idaho and the winter weather pushes all resto work inside and i only have room forone resto project at a time. if i could i would encose and heat about 1000 sq ft of space. but its not possible yet.

thanks again - pteinert

Tedd Thompson

Welcome,

Just my humble opinion and take it for what you paid for it, but I consider a 93 Olds convertible a fun used car. I would just use it for the good times it has left in it or sell it for what its worth as a used car. It's going to be years before it will reach classic stadias.Eighty's era cars haven't caught on as classics yet and they are technically old enough to be called classics.But like Jamesbo said you can't have to many Oldsmobile's, use the convertible as a daily driver and get yourself a 50's, 60's or 70's classic.....Lost in the fifties....Tedd

1970cs

Welcome to C.O. I always wanted a maui blue one. I had a 93 Lumina Z34 in that color.

IMO the last series of Cutlass verts will have a small fan base, will it be in the same realm as 68-72 drop tops, no way! Keep it and drive it to get some the money that you put into it.

Pat

pteinert

good advice - to keep and drive. it is fun to drive and pretty easy to maintain. parts are still available at most junk yards, even in idaho. don't drive it much in winter due to winter driving and snow load on the vert top, but there are a few cloudless days even in winter that are fun - drop the top and go up the mountain for a short XC or down hill ski.

Thanks for the comments

tru-blue 442

Welcome to CO. Drive and enjoy.
If you like the verts, take your time
and go on the hunt. That's alot about
what's great about being a car guy.
With regular maintanance, did I spell
that right Joe, and try not to rev it toooo
high, it should last for the hunt.
And you can't go wrong from 63-72 on any
Olds a-body, hardtop or vert. My 2cents.

pteinert

t-b 442 thanks for the response!
63-72 is a great olds era and hardtop is probably best for me in idaho. beleive it or not, there are some great finds in idaho and with some weeknd hunts, i should be able to come up with some nice options.

BTY, i was born and raised in south TX and left just 10 years ago to move to cooler climes. used to fish in Buchanan lake with my grandparents. go back to TX once or twice a year for family visits and a tx mex food fix. drove it from idaho a couple of times and it was a magnificent drive - idaho, to utah, colo, new mex & tx, about 2200 miles one way. will do again next spring!

droptopron

IMO the '93 can be a fun car but will not be a classic.

Valkyrie

I think there's a few 80's cars that are considered collectable/expensive classics. The GNX and it's Pontiac-bodied engine-mate the TTA, are rare cars that a worth a bit of money nowadays. The Corvette ZR1 as well. I think it takes two important things to make a car become a classic: It has to be desirable and rare. I bet as time goes on, T-types, WS6's and Z51's will climb in price too (though not as much as the more desirable rare performance optioned ones). The rarer the car gets, the more it's worth, obviously.

It's a lot like the 55-57 Bel-Air, the 2-door hardtops and convertibles were obviously the most desired ones, so as time has gone on, the only ones you can find at decent prices are the sedans.

As far as 90's cars go, it's a lot harder to pick out what's going to be rare and what's not. It was only 20 years ago. Obviously the GMC Syclone/Typhoon is a notable mention, as is the ZR1 as it was still produced in that decade.

Will your 93 Olds be a collector vehicle someday? Maybe, but that probably would require it to be more desirable than all of it's platform-mates. My guess would be that if it was possible for a 91-92 Cutlass Supreme to be optioned with the 5-speed manual, Quad-4 (which is a Olds-designed engine) and the convertible body, it would likely be the rarest and most desirable of the W-body cars, options wise.

That doesn't take into account it being the most aesthetically desirable, which obviously what drives the value of the 55-57 Bel Air I mentioned above.

Just my opinion.

- Cameron

radioburningchrome

In PA, after 20 years the car is considered a classic! One more year and you got it made.

Welcome aboard.

kartmaster

I say keep it and drive it for now. It's kind of in that no-man's-land that if you went to sell it it's not old enough to be "collectable" it's still just a "used car" to most people.

Even if you got $5k for it to buy something older, it's going to need a lot more work than the car you have now, which sounds like it's in pretty great shape.

brown7373

I think the biggest challenge for your 93 will be parts availability in the future. Most 80s and 90s and newer cars have lots of plastic parts. When they go, and when the supply of junk yard parts dries up, it will be a lot more difficult. Will someone start making those parts? Only time will tell. People had a love affair with their cars before the mid to late 70s. As a kid before driving age, I can remember going to the Armory in Pittsburgh to see all the new cars on display. We got to sit in 442s and GTOs and Hemi Chargers, plus any of the other makes and models. My friends and I did that every year. People lost interest in those kinds of new car shows, probably because the cars became less exciting and most people just didn't care about new cars like they used to.

I've been active in the antique car hobby for over 30 years, and although the interest has moved to newer cars, there is not a whole lot of interest and action for much made past the mid 70s. Classes at car shows swelled with 50s cars, then 60s cars and then early 70s cars, but in the past 10 to 15 years, very few cars show up at shows I am involved with or attend that are newer than mis 70s. That's not to say there aren't some newer customs and mods and tuners, but as far as original or restored close to original, I wonder if our part of the hobby may decline in future years.

So I agree with everyone who says drive it, improve it and enjoy it. And if I'm wrong, and in 10 or 15 years it become collectable, and you still own it, you'll have a bonus.

rustyroger

Bring it to the UK!, last show I went to an '07 Chrysler 300 won the "best modern" trophy, your car should clean up over here.

Roger.

Fred Kiehl

FWIW, if you ever have stalling problems when the secondary cooling fan comes on, it is the fan relay energizer coil. The computer reads the current through the coil, and if it is not in spec, the computer will shut the engine down. It is the same as the Lumina that year. Been there, done that, have the T shirt.

tru-blue 442

Small world.
My daughter and son in law live on Lake Buchanan.
When you get by this way we'll have to go fishing!
BTW, it was 104* yesterday down here, uggg..
Got out this morning, wind blowing out of the North,
and only 75* NICE!
I know my brothers in Olds from TX can relate.
We will have to meet up at the Bluebonnet Cafe!

pteinert

A monster thanks to all of the responders!

The information you've provided has been very beneficial and helps me determine what options are best for for me and my 93 cutlass vert. For now i really enjoy working on and driving it. There is a lot of plastic in the car and it is true that parts will be more and more difficult to find. Eventually it will become more difficult to maintain

i'm hooked on classicolds. my next challenge after i spend some time researching what is available is to find the best olds classsic for me in this part of the world. that will be a blast and i enjoy meeting and getting to know everyone that i come in contact with going down the information gathering pathway.

pteinert

rustyroger

[QUOTE=tru-blue 442;450941
I know my brothers in Olds from TX can relate.
We will have to meet up at the Bluebonnet Cafe![/QUOTE]

How about seeing if some more Olds fans from the Austin area fancy meeting up at the bluebonnet?.
My fiance and I will be on vacation based in Llano from 09/28-10/09, we would be happy to meet up with other forum users while we are over.

Roger.

tru-blue 442

Roger, that sounds cool.
I don't trust the 70 more than about 20 miles
at the moment. But the Blubonnet is only 2 miles
from the house, lol.
I am not good at organizing, 'You should see my shop.'
but I think meeting up would be great, Adam.

455man

I had a 94 Cutlass Supreme with the 3.4 DOHC. It was a fun car. That's an awesome motor but problems I had were it's timing belt had to be replaced twice in 100k miles. Also the alternator was at the bottom and back of the motor so it got hot and would go out. Hot Rod featured that motor. It had to be detuned because at the time no transmission would hold up to the power. It still ran good though. I agree with the rest though it's no 70's classic.

Olds Dad

I have a 92 that is off the road for "the future"

I bought it in 96 (after they had already discontinued) -

In my opinion, if the top goes down, there will be a value someday - with the possible exception of the Dodge 600 convertibles from the late 80s

These were rare cars in the 90s - expensive for the class they were in, with very low production numbers - even now, I rarely see them (and I look).

If you have the capacity to keep it, do so. I parted one out a few years back and kept all the convertible-specific stuff because even now it's impossible to find, never mind in 15 years.

Drive it and enjoy it -

Aron Nance

A total of just under 26,000 90-96 Cutlass Supreme convertibles built, so they are in fact, rare. We have a '94, purchased after a BMW driver totaled the '68 Cutlass convertible last year. Both were/are my wife's car. She absolutely loves this one (teal blue), drives it all the time. Has the 3.1 motor; not as fast as the 3.4, but easier to maintain. Parts availability are mostly non-existent. That being said, there is a Wbody site that sure offers advice on how to improvise. For instance, the "rubber sliders" on the rear windows that go up/down. You call on what to do. Best case: keep it, and get a '60's-'70's for the restoration. Good luck on your choice. Will be at the Bluebonnet Cafe around 1'ish on Friday, November 16th (15 of us caravaning down to Fredericksburg for the weekend in our Merry Oldsmobiles; others coming from Austin/San Antonio/Houston areas). We always catch lunch there, outstanding fare.

oldbiker

I have a 93 vert with the 3.4 motor and I think it will be a classic as there were only a little over 4000 made in 93 but I also have 65 jetstar.