1986 Pontiac Parisienne review from North America

Engine always pinged until I floored the gas, then it would run normally. Replaced EGR valve, sort of cured problem for about 100 miles, then it was back.

Lock up feature on the torque converter almost never worked.

(I'm 99.9% certain that the above issues were caused by one or more bad sensors; I was never able to determine which ones).

Transmission sometimes shuddered between third and fourth gear.

One brake line rusted through.

Tilt steering column broke, so the steering wheel flopped around a little bit.

Engine had a bad oil leak at the oil pan gasket; had it replaced and it still leaked as bad as ever. Just before I got rid of it, it started gushing oil from somewhere else on the engine.

Engine would sometimes overheat a little; replaced thermostat which cured the problem.

Just before I got rid of it, something happened that caused the engine to have hardly any power. Had to accelerate very slowly, otherwise too much gas would make it quit. I couldn't get the car to do more than 50 MPH. Not sure what happened.

The tires wouldn't hold air, and it wasn't the tires. It was the rims-they wouldn't seal against the tires. I had to have them specially sealed. The rims also wouldn't hold wheel covers very well. It had wire wheel covers and they were constantly "creeping" around the rims. One even fell off when the center locking hub broke. Tried regular wheel covers (OEM, not aftermarket), they wouldn't stay on either.

Tail pipe completely rusted away.

A/C quit working.

The frame rusted through severely on the driver's side, just in front of the rear wheel. It was becoming unsafe to drive, at which point I traded it in.

I liked this car but hated the issues I had with it. Yes, it was an old car, so I wasn't expecting perfection, but I've owned other cars as old as or older than this one was (and with far more miles) that were less troublesome. I can say that in spite of the issues, it never left me stranded anywhere. And in fairness, some of the problems were typical old car issues that are bound to come up on almost any old car.

I like big American cars, and in that way I liked the car very much. It was comfortable, roomy and had a nice ride. It was good looking, too. It was great for road trips, provided that I kept a case of oil in the trunk and stopped every 100 miles to add a quart.

The engine was underpowered. One hundred forty horsepower moving a 3700-3800 pound car resulted in rather tepid acceleration. Gas mileage was horrible at around 13-15 MPG, but as I stated above, it never ran quite right which very likely affected the gas mileage.

My Parisienne was very unusual because it was equipped with a 307 cubic inch Oldsmobile V8 engine. It was the original engine, too, according to the code in the VIN and the emissions specification sticker under the hood. The Chevrolet 262 cid V6 and Chevrolet 305 cid V8 were the "official" engines supplied for the 1986 Parisienne, and GM literature and everything else I can find makes no mention of the Oldsmobile engine being offered for this car. Perhaps I had something really rare and should've fixed it up and kept it...

Nice car overall, just wish it had been a little more reliable. Looking back on it though, I guess it could've been much worse.