1990 Oldsmobile 88 review from North America

One ball joint wore out. I could steer the car with the throttle! It cost $250 dollars to fix.

The car was incorrectly aligned by the previous owner. The front tires quickly wore out and had to be replaced.

The ignition module failed causing the car to run on only 4 cylinders. It cost 125 dollars to fix.

The factory CD player only worked when it was extremely hot inside the car.

The shocks were completely worn out and provided no dampening whatsoever. The rear shocks were air leveling and the ride height sensor didn't work. It was too expensive to fix.

The exhaust system started to droop down until it was 1 inch from the road. The muffler guy said I had to replace the catalytic converter as well. He also found a leaky rear brake cylinder. The cost of repair would be over 500 dollars. I already spent too much money on the car and decided to junk it instead.

Despite all the problems I liked the car and wish it could of lasted longer. The engine and transmission of this car will last over 200,000 miles if treated well. The engine lost much of its pep, but it still ran well.

The bad shocks made the car a bit dangerous to drive. If I was driving on a curve and I hit a bumpy patch of road the car would suddenly go straight because the front tires were bouncing so much.

Surprisinglyt he air conditioning worked perfectly for both of the summers I owned the car. That was nice since getting freon for old cars is incredibly expensive. The automatic climate control was pretty accurate and easy to use.

All of the power options still worked, even the power antenna. All the controls were well laid out. In my opinion, the layout of the controls of the redesigned post 1990 88's was very poorly executed.

The brakes were fine and the while still technically functional didn't pulse the brakes as fast or as hard as it would in a brand new car.

The car was pretty comfortable to drive, the bad shocks made for a bumpy ride.

Rust was starting to take hold, especially on the fenders. I the end I knew that I would lose the car to rust and making further repairs would be a waste of money. I was pretty curious if the drive train would have lasted beyond 250,000 miles. If road salt was never used in Michigan I could have found the answer.