OK, it wasn't in a barn, and a car this new can't really be considered a "find." But I still thought it was cool.

A local school was having one of those student-run car washes you see every weekend once the weather gets warm, and I took my '67 Delta to be washed for the fun of it because I knew some of the students.

Well, when I pull up, what are they in the middle of washing but a beautiful condition 1996 98 Regency Elite. It was owned by one of the students who bought it last fall from the original owner who had kept all the service records and gave them all to her. She paid $2,800 for it.

I talked with her about the car quite a bit, giving her the benefit of my deep knowledge of all things Oldsmobile, including the origin of the name "98." She said every time someone see the "Ninety-Eight" written on the side, they ask if that's the year of the car. We both just rolled our eyes.

Anyway, the car has 114,000 miles on it, and everything works except one minor annoyance. The windshield washers don't work and the place she takes it for service told her the button on the dash needs to be replaced. But she said it would cost her about $200 because they would have to take apart the dash, and she didn't want to spend that kind of money. If I knew anything about servicing these cars or had the service manual, I would have offered to replace it for her if she could get the part.

Here's a couple of photos. I told her that if she ever thinks of selling to let me know. Not that I have a spot for it at the moment, but I'd be tempted. Even the color is spectacular.









By the way, here's the freshly-washed Delta. They were even able to do it with the top down, and I made sure they dried every one of the wheelcover spokes individually.

The 98 is in the background.

 

looks good. did she have anything to say about yours. it may be a little big for someone that young.

 

Haven't seen one that nice in years, Around here they are all "ghetto fab"

 

The 91-96 were some of the nicest Ninety Eights ever built, in spite of their GM Corporate powertrains. To me they finally looked like a Ninety Eight again- way more so than the 85-90 "boxes" they replaced.

Never understood why they didn't sell better. They had style, performance, gadgetry- all the hallmarks of a top-line Oldsmobile. But by then the American car-buying public was convinced "domestic bad, foreign walks on water".

 

She didn't react to it much differently than anyone else. She owns a neat Oldsmobile, but she's not really an Oldsmobile person. I'm trying to turn her into one!