I watched Fargo recently. The movie features a 1987 Olds Cutlass Ciera.




IMHO, the FWD Cutlass of the 80s is quite possibly the WORST vehicle Olds ever made. They are ugly, anemic and I rarely see people posting about them on our website because they are undesirable.

What do you think? Please post pics of the ugliest AND worst cars Olds made.

 

My dad had one of those, traded in his '83 Omega on it when the Omega died in the middle of a bridge on his way to Florida one year. I remember some co-workers, one had the Olds and the other had the Buick Century, you could NOT tell the two cars apart unless you could either see the badges, grille or tail lamps. The sheet metal was IDENTICAL. Lately, I frequently travel alongside a mid '80s Cutlass Cruiser wagon on the way home from work (the wagon version of the Ciera). I get a chuckle every time I see it.

I never liked the looks of the Achieva, probably because the Cutlass Calais it replaced looked so much better.

 

I always thought the late 70's Salon was ugliest. After seeing a few on this site that were done nice I've warmed up a bit to them.

 

At least you could get real SS wheels on the Cutlass Salon. The FWD SS wheels were sort of a... ba$+ard wheel.

 

1980 Omega My first new car. x-body Bad brake proportional valve. Rear end would always come around on wet, snow or dirty road. It tried killing me a few times. Iron Duke -4 banger. It may have been a half Pontiac V8. Four speed was fun to drive. Consent problems with Carb, emissions. Looked like 20+ tubes and wires coming out of the little carburetor. Oh, could not put a normal radio in the dash, without cutting the vent pipe in the back. Or only a vertical radio could fit.

Thank you so very much!!! Olds64 For reminding me of a car I forgotten. And hope to forget soon!!!

Love my 87 Cutlass Hot Rodded, High Horse-Powered 350, Red Rocket Ship on rails.

 

Might not be a popular opinion here, but I hate the side trim on a '62 Starfire. I think it's just too much

 

For some reason I like that 62 trim now. I would have hated it in the 70s. Same with the 58 chromemobile.

 

Wow, in a Worst/Ugliest thread I think your going to get some heat....


as far as my choice.....I agree with OP that the Ciera's were just soulless people movers. We had the Pontiac 6000 LE same car different grill with the chevy 2.8 V6. My girlfriends parents had the "hot rod" STE which was a little cooler and even offered AWD I believe. All recycled into Camrys now I suppose.

 

62 starfire white convertible. Was one bad *** car. Reverse threads on the lug-nuts on the right side I believe.

 

Yeah, you're probably right. At least the cars that make it into this thread are Oldsmobiles though. So they are going to be better than Chevys, Fords or MOPARS any day of the week.

FWIW, the 62s have grown on me, the side trim does take an acquired taste. The 62s are tied with the 64s and are definitely better than the 61s. None of those can come close to a 60 though. The 63s are just sort of an after thought.

 

The 58 Olds.

 

The FWD Ciera cars were crappy cars (I've driven a boatload as rental cars) but by no means the ugliest Olds. The N-body Calais 2dr is far uglier. Who thought that roofline was a good idea?



And I'm sure you've all forgotten the "Cutlabu" from the late 90s.

 

The 58 long ago transcended ugliness and became cool, like the Edsel.

 

Joe if cool go buy one. Yes they are rare as they were junked out for scrap.
Now they are hard to find.

 

Maybe not a car, but an Olds product.

 

Full disclosure - I learned to drive in my parents '85 Ciera two tone green with green interior and a four banger. When I graduated college in '93 I drove an '87 Calais as a commuter car. It was a two door with some nice options so I didn't think it was so bad. With FE3 it was a good handling little car.
Eventually my Dad stepped up to a '90 Ciera two door with a V6. That was actually a decent little car for its day

 

Agree! For me personally I like most of the early to mid 90s Oldsmobiles. Then the Aurora cam out and then the other models and I hated all of them. The 2000 to 2004 van was somewhat ok.

 

But... BUT... It's the Cadillac of minivans.

Maybe I just have a perverse sense of style, but I always liked the "dustbuster" vans. Keep in mind that the first ones were built like Fieros - steel space frame with plastic panels. One of the "cars I want to build before I die" has been a first gen Silhouette with a mid engine Toro drive.

Of course, that would require me to get over my vow to never own a minivan.

 

We bought a 1995 Pontiac Trans Sport minivan and kept it until 2002. It was a very good vehicle when we had three young kids. It had only one sliding door (having two really hadn't come into vogue yet), but it was a powered door that never gave us any trouble and which played a little tune while the door was closing (so you would know it was closing if you weren't looking at it) which the kids loved. It was also the first vehicle I ever owned that had a remote keyless entry.

Bash minivans all you want, but we owned two (we traded the Pontiac on an '02 Silhouette, which we kept until 2005), and they are very practical and useful for what they do, and it's no wonder they spelled the death of station wagons. No one buys them for styling, but for hauling kids, having plenty of space for stuff, ease of getting in and out, and being able to give every kid a window seat, they can't be beat.

 

I guess I have one of those ugly vehicles in my collection... A 5500 mile original Cutlass Ciera... I purchased it with 246 miles as a total loss salvage vehicle...




I guess I have one of those ugly vehicles in my collection... A 5500 mile original Cutlass Ciera... I purchased it with 246 miles as a total loss salvage vehicle...

 

What made it a total loss?

 

Anyone I knew with one of those Ciera/Century cars loved them and had years of reliability.

I do admit that changing a water pump on an 84 ciera v6 3.0 litre was a huge and unnecessary pain in the neck, due to poor design.

 

Fargo was entertaining; won or close to won best pic if I recall.

The Ciera was fully boring inside and out but I disagree with the worst Olds made. GM must have made huge profits from it as they sold tons of them; you can still find 80s and early 90s versions of them today in the SY.

It is interesting to note that this is the first era that the computer generated cars were spawned from; significant point? Heavens yes; can anyone remember the UNIX station or . . . . crap I already forgot the name of the earliest software we used then.

The Ciera GT was kinda cool in its day (can anyone remember how little we had to choose from then?), and the two doors were produced into the 90s in limited numbers which were the most interesting of the body run.

The N body had a long run:

Ciera
Calais
Achieva
'97 - '99 Cutlass (surely a candidate for most boring Oldsmobile produced)
Alero, and the last Oldsmobile produced (and in Lansing MI).

 

I'll second the salon of the late seventies! And the dustbuster minivans were a close second. IMO the Ciera was not any where near ugly! And again have to disagree with the calais the two door pictured above is quite stylish! I even had one for drivers ed.

This comes in a strong third IMO.


Pat

 

I agree with B964, I have always thought those late 70's cars of any brand were double Ugly, including the Olds. All brands got boxy, square and Ugly!

 

The wheel lip on the rear killed this. It's reminiscent of the '68-'69 Skylark, which IMO is the ugliest of the A-Bodies from 68-72

 

Yup, my thoughts exactly.

 

X2

Same with the "98"

The cars had lots of great refinements over the 11th gen cars, but the over all potato shape combined with the slashed wheel opening was really awful.

 

Well, nobody's picked on my Olds yet.

Look left.

If you had any given car and it was a money pit always letting you down I guess you might look at it through mud tinted glasses, rose tinted glasses would be worn for a car that met all your requirements without troubling you with unexpected repair bills.

Roger.

 

No one has picked on the 42s yet, either.

Actually saw this one at Hershey.

 

Joe, I wonder how many people here have actually seen a 1942 model of any car. When I was a kid a long long time ago, there was an old guy at our church that actually had a 42 Ford. This was in the mid 50's. That 42 Olds does have one ugly grill.

 

That rear wheel well almost looks as if it was designed for a skirt, then someone said no and left it off.

 

Most of the Oldsmobiles y'all have called fugly can't shoulder ALL the blame... They were a product of GM's lowest times and the objective was to amortize the most costs out of a platform as possible. Hence, badge engineered cookie cutter cars that didn't really inspire anyone. And the bean counters had the nerve to be surprised- Mr Sloan knew exactly what he was doing when he established the Hierarchy, and as long as GM stuck to that every Division did pretty well for itself.

FWIW when the 1991 Ninety Eight appeared I though it LOOKED more like a Ninety Eight than one had in years. 85-90 just didn't cut it for me. Not to mention the supercharged versions were pretty spunky.

 

Front and rear body damage exceeding the vehicle value at the time... The original owner only got to drive it 246 miles... Maybe he realized right away it was going to be classified as an ugly car...

 

Did Colonel Klink just get out of that car - I know it was a Mercedes 260 I believe but that's the first thing it reminded me of.

 

What ever it is it shouldn't have the name Oldsmobile on it.

 

I don't think your car is necessarily an ugly car but more of a plain car. There is a difference. You notice ugly cars and plain cars just kind of blend in.

 

With polished paintwork and clean chrome, not forgetting a clean engine bay on show with a hood supported correctly and not a length of timber it would look much better.

How many cars were built in 1942?. I understood all production was halted shortly after the USA entered WW2, and factories were turned over to military production. I know it didn't happen overnight.

Roger.

 

Would have to leave the ultra rare gravity feed fuel system.

 

Not that rare. There were what, 20-something million Model Ts built with gravity feed fuel system?