1990 Oldsmobile 88 Royale review from North America

I had to replace the water pump at around 280,000 km. Ended up breaking two bolts - the pump was the original and the bolts were 13 years old, so no big surprise. It sat for 3 months while I tried a bunch of methods of removing the broken stubs, ended up putting the pump on minus the two bolts (which were next to (each other ) and haven't had a leak yet.

I replaced the radiator at around 170K km. Normal maintenance in my book.

The weld that held the left arm of the bracket that held back of the seat to the base broke on the drivers side seat, not unexpected considering... I won't go there.

The front inner fenders rotted out, but the guys the put the undercoating on missed them for some reason, couple that with Northern Ontario winters, and it was bound to happen.

I suspect that the EGR valve is dead, as it has started acting up. It won't idle properly and is running a bit rough, I'll be checking it next week with a Tech 2 when I get back to work.

This car is the most reliable vehicle I have ever seen, and the engine & transmission are the most reliable I have ever seen (I'm a mechanic, and from personal experience the 3800 Series II is even better than the Series I).

This car can survive without regular maintenance, it's not advisable, but it can still do without for a while.

The complete surprise that is this car's power is a treat as well . This car can haul 4800lbs safely and in my books could also classify as a "sleeper". People look at it and think "Grampa & Grama", which is somewhat true in the fact that it is amazingly comfortable, but I have also surprised quite a few "tuners" out there.

It has decent gas mileage too, if you drive it right. Even acceleration and avoiding the accelerate-coast-accelerate method improves gas mileage immensely, but this car can also coast at highways speeds for some distance!