Welcome back! In what has become a week of cars in the “where are they now?” file, today’s choices are both from the good old US of A. But first, let’s take a look at yesterday’s results:
Well, that’s pretty decisive. Personally, I’d take either of them, with a slight advantage given to the Mazda just for the low mileage. But they’re both good little cars.
Today we’ve got a sedan and a wagon, both V6s, both American, both coincidentally dead nameplates. But both cars are still very much alive and kicking. Let’s see which one you prefer.
1988 Olds Cutlass Cruiser – $2,400
Engine/drivetrain: 3.8 liter OHV V6, 4 speed automatic, FWD
Location: Lafayette, CO
Odometer reading: 219,000 miles
Runs/drives? Yep
The front-wheel-drive A body, introduced in 1982, was kind of the beginning of the “GM cars run like crap forever” myth. Its predecessor, the X body, was still in production, and had a terrible reputation for quality and reliability. But the larger A and smaller J body cars somehow ended up being decent reliabile cars, and were sold for years in various bodystyles.
This station wagon bodystyle had a different name for each GM division, being sold as the 6000 Safari at Pontiac dealerships, Century Estate by Buick, the specatularly imaginatively-named Celebrity Wagon by Chevy, and the Cutlass Cruiser, like this one, for Oldsmobile. Even though it was a mid-sized wagon, the Cruiser offered a backwards-facing third row of seats – the fabled and often fought-over “way back.”
This Cruiser has covered a lot of miles – 219,000 – but it’s powered by the legendary Buick 3.8 liter V6. It didn’t put out a lot of power in 1988, but it was still a rock-solid engine capable of piling on the miles. This one just passed a smog test, too, which is indicative of a clean bill of health.
The rest of this old wagon is in good shape as well, with some wear and cracks in the interior, but no obvious signs of abuse or damage, and no rust or damage outside. Considering the hard life that most family-type vehicles lead, its condition is even more remarkable.
1995 Mercury Sable GS – $2,500
Engine/drivetrain: 3.0 liter OHV V6, 4 speed automatic, FWD
Location: Denver, CO
Odometer reading: 151,000 miles
Runs/drives? Sure does
The old square-jawed Cutlass, however, looked instantly ancient in 1986 when Ford introduced the Taurus and its Mercury twin, the Sable. The two were fraternal twins, with some different sheetmetal and window shapes, and more importantly, a light bar across the front, sort of a front heckblende – noseblende, maybe? Whatever you want to call it, it sure looked like crap when one of the lights was burned out.
This Sable, like so many Sables and Tauruses, is powered by Ford’s 3.0 liter “Vulcan” V6, backed by a four speed automatic. Hey, it works. This one only has 151,000 miles on it, so it should have some life left. It’s being sold by a dealership, so of course nothing is known about its service history, but it’s a simple car.
It’s an awfully clean-looking car for being twenty-seven years old.The seats are clean and inviting, and Fords of this era had simple, easy-to-decipher controls. Nary a touchscreen in sight. Outside, it looks damage- and rust-free. It’s not a good looking car, exactly, but it’s more interesting than its Taurus sister. And it’s not white. For some reason in my mind all Mercury Sables are white.
And look! It has a tiny heckblende in the back as well, right above the license plate. Cool, huh?
Well, that’s that. Have a great Thanksgiving, everyone, and we’ll be back on Friday (I think) to pit this weeks winners against each other in the automotive Thunderdome of thought experiment known as “Track, Daily, Burn.” See you then!
(Image credits: Craigslist sellers)
I’m guessing the Olds was optioned with the towing package, hence 3800 and actual gauges. I had a friend whose father bought one of those wagons in the Buick variety I think. It was a dreadful riding car, and when you’re in your early teens you shouldn’t notice that. Then it was passed down to my friend and I got to drive it, and it was as dreadful driving as it was riding in. It didn’t have the 3800, and I’m sure it didn’t have the diesel, so it was either the 2.5l or the 3.0 V6. Peak malaise horsepower.
This car is the exception that proves the Brown Wagon rule. I’m going with the Sable.
I’m going Olds for nostalgic reasons. My pops had a Chevy Celebrity (and yea the name was absolutely hilarious) of the same vintage that I weirdly loved even though it did nothing but break down on us.
I went with the Sable for sentimental reasons – my father had one, but in maroon. I drove it a few times and remember it as a good car. The Olds is an interesting choice, too, being a wagon.
I’ll take the Brown Longroof – nice choice!
I had a Sable with that damned lightbar – every other car flashed high beams at me at night – I’d put my high beams on and leave them, just to make the point. In NJ, that’s what we do!
Front lightbar = feckblende? For some reason I thought it was only a heckblende if it didn’t light up, but rereading that old article it seems inconclusive.
Surprised the Olds is edging ahead here – I know, “because wagon”, but the lower miles and the general modernity of the Sable I thought would give it the edge. But, I didn’t really think about it from a radwood-type perspective and the Olds is certainly very clean.
I think it’s more likely the Olds was an older person’s car too, not a family hauler. The equipment spec is pretty high, power features and the gauge package like someone else pointed out. Actually seems like more Cieras of the day had full gauges than might be expected – but maybe it’s just in contrast to the lack of instrumentation on most other A-bodies – Cieras with digital dash is probably much much rarer.
The Vulcan V6 on the Sable should be fine, transmission tbd. If the Sable were the common green or teal, it probably would be a closer race. And came with a few more things that an equivalent Taurus GL wouldn’t have.
My write-in candidate is “monthly bus pass”
Both of those are in WAY nicer shape than I’d ever expect for cars that are old enough to rent their own cars.
Either one would be a decent “for now” car until what you really want becomes available (whether you have something on order or if you’re just waiting for the market to cool a bit more).
You could get the Oldsmobile and impress all the hipsters at Cars & Coffee who pretend to like ugly brown wagons, but I feel like the Mercury would be nicer to live with as it’s newer with more amenities. I particularly like the front light bar. I wonder if anyone has ever done anything fun with those lights like making them go all “Knight Rider”. Even if they keep the white color (flashing red lights on the front may be less than road-legal), it seems like there are some fun things that could be done there.
I’ll take the brown wagon please!
Give me that Wagon with what we used to call as kids, the Back Back. Jumping to Friday, this is my daily choice
Wagon with a 3800? Is this really a contest?
For me nostalgia is winning this battle. My grandpa got a new Cutlass Ciera every two years without fail, and I can work on that Buick V6 blindfolded.
I grew up with an RWD A-body Cutlass Cruiser, and it still amazes me how much sheer bulk they saved by switching to a FWD platform. The FWD ones look so dainty in comparison.
The Olds, extra set of wheels is just a bonus.
Gotta be honest…this one was a tough one. I’d take both, happily. I chose the Sable because I think the Vulcan V6 is massively underrated but both would be awesome.
These are both in my neck of the woods and I almost want to go check out the wagon. I don’t need it, and I don’t necessarily want it since I drive a big SUV, but damn that’s in good shape.
I would say neither when this Sable wagon exists for under 500 more. https://www.cars.com/vehicledetail/3b0564c0-9748-4fe1-bba5-2e37745a3406/
In that it doesn’t exist for close to $500 more than _both_ of today’s car put together… which one would you pick?
The Sable is the smarter buy, but I can’t say no to a brown boxy wagon with wire wheel covers.
I have lots of experience with both of these. As a young child my parents owned an almost exact match for the olds here, I remember it being a good car. My parents eventually sold it to an older cousin of mine and I remember taking her for a tour of the car and showed her how everything worked. I also owned a 95 sable as my first car. It was roomy and comfortable, unfortunately 16 year old me was uninterested in either of those things.
I will never forget when I was frequently going to the local salvage yard to get stuff for my 55 Mercury and seeing the two LONG rows of that period of Taurus/ Sable with their engine bays sprayed with white foam as the result of blown head gaskets. A former housemate had a similar vintage Sable and it too blew its head gasket and after he had that fixed, the transmission went out. And the brakes required some weird tool to loosen the calipers. The only remarkable thing about the one featured here is that it still runs. Olds all day long.
Ford “Quality” – My Sable ate a piston at 60 k miles. My daughter’s Taurus ate the transmission at around 80k. The only Ford I ever liked was my Town Car. Of my many GM vehicles, only a few were shitty, none as shitty as the Fords.
The Olds all day. We had a white one when I was in high school. Great highway cruiser and could haul a ton of stuff. Engine had plenty of power and we had no issues with reliability despite racking up the miles and the stupid crap a teenage boy will do driving any car..
I have never personally seen one of those Olds with that gauge package, so I am picking it based on that alone. Little things like that make the difference between a meh beater and a special beater.
glad I ‘m not the only one who noticed this 😀
Yeah, me too.
I once owned the Chevy Celebrity version of this guy, and its gauge package was 1960s econo-horrible – the long horizontal speedo and…that’s it. A ton of lights. If the law allowed a light instead of a fuel gauge, I’m sure GM would have done it.
Pontiac had the best one in the A-cars. The 6000 had a horizontal speedo and a horizontal tach! (Of course, there was also a digital dash available)
OMG I love that! It’s like an oldschool race car functional row of gauges, just done in the most not-too-distant-future way possible. And buttons everywhere.
I still have a total soft spot for that era’s faux-tech car diagram warning, like they were trying to replicate some sort of scifi starship readout. “Port shields are down!” became “yeah, driver’s door is open in case you didn’t realize it.”
Despite the Sable being ostensibly newer, for some reason that generation of Ford vehicles feels infinitely more dated to me. The Sable feels old, the Olds feels timeless.
Not to mention – good condition, apparently well maintained wagon + tan-on-tan + 3800? Yes please. Would legitimately daily that any day.
See I go Sable for that very reason.
The 1st gen Taurus body still looks futuristic to me (and pleasingly so, unlike say the 3rd or 5th), while the Olds couldn’t be anything but 1980s.
Both of these cars are ugly (I know, I know, brown wagon, but who are we kidding?), so I’m coming at this from needing a cheap DD, and in that the Sable wins hands down. I had a ’93 sable with what I’m pretty sure is this engine and transmission. It was my mom’s car handed down to me in high school. When I finally sold it at the end of undergrad (2007), it had 320,000 miles on it and had only had one major repair – a transmission rebuild around 250k. An 80’s GM product? Might as well play Russian Roulette in terms of reliability.
I will say, don’t buy it cause the light bar is cool – there’s no chance that most of the bulbs aren’t burned out and even if you replace them all they’ll just burn out again in short order.
See, I’d kinda like that about the light bar. I enjoy weird attempts to get ahead of regs or consumer preferences (or whatever Ford was going for here), and they’re even better when they start to break down but you do your best to keep them going as intended.
Like I wonder how many 1980s Corvettes are running around with that passenger side foam impact absorber still in place, just faded and pitting?
Brown wagon? Sure, why not?
The extra utility of the wagon form factor would have swung my vote, but I fell asleep before I could reach the vote button. Every time I would try to vote, I would end up taking a nap instead. I’m starting to think these cars induce narcolepsy! Maybe I could take a nap in the back seat of that Sable…
:yawn:
You were saying something, and I think it made sense I just…. couldn’t keep… my eyes…. ope….
ZZZZZZZ
Best to save your energy for the Matlock/Murder She Wrote Thanksgiving marathon.
How can you vote against a brown(ish) wagon with a way back?