1988 Oldsmobile 98 Regency Brougham review from North America

Almost nothing that REQUIRED repairs other than general maintenance. One odd thing happened - it burned an exhaust valve and that needed repair. The engine would miss when in 4th gear. I bought the car this way and repaired it myself.

I've never seen that occur before on a 3800 "C" and I've seen lots of these engines. They are the best engine General Motors has ever made - including the small block Chevrolet's. I used to own an automotive shop and I used to work at an Oldsmobile dealership when these cars were new - I'm fluent in them and they are great. It's important to get one with the 3800 C code engine NOT the 3800 3 Code motor. The 3 code motor was not very good. GM refers to the 3 code motor as a 3.8 and the C code motor as the 3800.

I bought this car as the third owner with 252,000 K on it. It needed some work and I was looking for a car that would be worth repairing. It's a beauty and I began to restore it over the last year. It's now like new with all new OEM GM parts. All options work and it's got new Michelin's and struts to boot :-)

I've gone through every aspect of this car to the tune of roughly $5000.00 in parts as part of a restoration. Even though the car books at roughly 1000.00 in value it's worth making like new (to me anyway). I plan to drive it for at least another 300,000 K and I suspect the motor will make it no problem.

Common issues on these cars are;

Coil Pack Failure causing misses.

Ignition Module Failure

Rear Load Leveling Strut replacement being expensive.

and that's about it. The car has a great engine management system and is incredibly reliable and smooth. Mine burns .5 of a litre of oil every 5,000K. That's a half litre between oil changes with more than 300,000 K on the car. Not bad at all.