YACT: '91 Oldsmobile Cutlass Calais

[Scouzer]

I've been looking for a replacement for my rather decrepid old '88 Corsica with 272,000km.

I've found this '91 Oldsmobile Cutlass Calais, rebuilt with 50k on rebuild, 215k total km. It has the Quad 4 engine...which is basically all I'm worried about.

I know these engines can be problematic, and I was somewhat alarmed when I asked 'When was the last oil change?' 'Oh, it needs one right away' <DING!> neglected! It had bald ass tires. It was owned by a guy around 18 years old. This indicates poor maintinence and probably driven hard.

However, I can probably get it cheap as dirt. They want $2500, but with the problems I'm going to shoot for $1500 or even $1000. Its been sitting for 5 months unsold now. Is it worth that kind of money, or even for dirt cheap should I avoid this ticking time bomb?

 

[slag]

The engine is prone to head gasket failure.

that being said, I owned a cutlass calais with the quad 4 engine and i loved the car. I never had a lick of problems with mine except for a lot of shaking at idle, but the car had tons of pep and was a good runner.

 

[MrBond]

Is that canadian dollars? I sold my 89 cutlass ciera with the 4cylander engine, 289,000 miles (30K on the new engine) for $250US. The paint was shiney and the car itself was very clean.

I didn't have any real trouble with the engine (other than at 259K the car developed a strange vibration that was only fixed by an engine swap). I maintained it very well, so that was part of it I'm sure.

 

[Vette73]

The price seems high for that car and year+miles. If the engine has been rebuilt then that means they probable did not take care of it. I have seen quad 4's go a LONG time, juts like 3.1L's and 3.8L's.

Try and find a mid-size GM car with a 3.8L or 3.1L that has been taken care of. The Quad 4 was at first a performance motor that GM tried to tame down for economy cars. By the late 90's they had some good all round quad 4's but the ones before that were kinda loud and shook a lot as they were not built for that type of driving.

 

[Scouzer]

Wow guys, great replies. I'm impressed, I was expecting 10 useless replies for every constructive one.

Yeah, the price they want is definitely high. I'm hoping to talk them down really low, factoring in all the maintinence I'll have to do. New tires, oil change, a couple dents and dings, paint is being typical GM paint and beginning to show its age, interior is a little man handled, etc.

The head gasket is what I was thinking as well. I'm going to ask if it was replaced in the rebuild. But they probably won't know.

I've been trying to find GM 3.8s or 3.1s but the 3.1s tend to be in cars way too heavy for them, and the 3.8s are in cars frankly too big for what I'm looking for. I'm looking for a midsize sports coupe with some pep, which seems like a pretty rare thing.

I've been looking for 3.1 Beretta's, but they aren't very common. I've also been looking at 91-94 Cavalier Z-24's, but they tend to have owners who ask for way too much for them ($4500 for one with 190,000km).

 

[Vette73]

OK, so you want a smaller-MidSize car. Then a Quad 4 does do OK in those. Look for a Olds Achevia. The SC (or the rare SCX) has a high output Quad 4 and is quite peppy without any real tuning. They still have weak factory headgaskets, but if it does blow juts gives you reason to upgrade to a good fel-pro gasket and also port and polish the head.

 

[slag]

I'd suggest a 94-95 GP SE with the B4U appearance package.

Get the coupe, it comes with minor ground effects, spoiler, and is a relatively nice ride. Get the SE model only and skip the GTP. The SE has the 3100 (not to be confused with the earlier 3.1 liter). the 3100 has sequential port fuel injection and is a pretty reliable power plant. The pre97 gtp has the 3.4 liter dohc motor that is unreliable.

If you wanted to go with the 3.8, it gets about 2-4 mpg less than the 3100, but has about 50-60 more hp and is more bulletproof. It can be found in the grand prix starting in 1997 (it was an option in the SE and came stock in the gt.

 

[VTEC01EX]

You might even want to find an N-body car with the Buick 3.3L V6 in it. That would be the 92 and 93 years of the Grand Am/Achieva/Skylark. That was a great motor in my 92 Grand Am SE, lots of torque, pretty good mileage, and ran 150K without a single problem (other than an alternator replaced at 120K) before I sold it. I wasn't babying it either. The only thing I DIDN'T like about the setup was that it only came with a 3 speed automatic.

That said, I'd still LOVE to find one of the 92-95 Grand Am GT's with the high output Quad4 and a 5 speed. Assuming that the headgasket was replaced properly, there's no reason it can't be a reliable motor. I had a 98 GT with the 3100 SFI and I didn't like it at all. After 25K miles on the ticker, I liked it so much I drove it right to the Honda dealer and traded it on the spot. Not enough torque, so-so mileage, and a ton of fuel delivery issues. I believe mine I was a lemon, but still, even when it ran well I didn't think it was very well suited to the car. I can't even imagine one in a bigger car like a Grand Prix.

 

[WinkOsmosis]

I would look for another car.

 

[dxkj]

Originally posted by: Scouzer
Wow guys, great replies. I'm impressed, I was expecting 10 useless replies for every constructive one.

Yeah, the price they want is definitely high. I'm hoping to talk them down really low, factoring in all the maintinence I'll have to do. New tires, oil change, a couple dents and dings, paint is being typical GM paint and beginning to show its age, interior is a little man handled, etc.

The head gasket is what I was thinking as well. I'm going to ask if it was replaced in the rebuild. But they probably won't know.

I've been trying to find GM 3.8s or 3.1s but the 3.1s tend to be in cars way too heavy for them, and the 3.8s are in cars frankly too big for what I'm looking for. I'm looking for a midsize sports coupe with some pep, which seems like a pretty rare thing.

I've been looking for 3.1 Beretta's, but they aren't very common. I've also been looking at 91-94 Cavalier Z-24's, but they tend to have owners who ask for way too much for them ($4500 for one with 190,000km).

You can have my 91 Cavalier with 75k miles on it for $3k

 

[Scouzer]

All of your guys suggestions, while I appreciate them, are out of my price range. I topout at $3500 CDN, preferably $3000, and none of those are within price range.

The guy refused to take $2499. I will not be buying this car. I'm disapointed in his stupidity.

92-93 Grand Am will definitely be in mind though, I was looking at Grand Ams beforehand as well.