1994 Oldsmobile Bravada Reviews

Intake manifold gasket leaked at 141,000.

We bought the Bravada in Montana when our Dodge Caravan blew up on vacation.

The Bravada was an executive car so we were the first registered owners.

The car is amazing; no major repairs until very recently (intake manifold gasket), drives well, pulls trailer and boat without much effort and has almost 95,000 on Michelin tires.

Although it has very little retail value today, there is no reason to trade it off. We'll keep driving it for as long as possible.

The Bravada went through front brakes three times in the first 60,000 miles, but only one set of front brakes in the last 70,000 miles - go figure. We replaced the EGR valve once, the electronic dash once. In the 12 years we've owned the Bravada, repairs have totaled about $4,000 (outside of normal maintenance) but most of those charges were in the first 5-6 years.

The driver's seat is NOT comfortable for my 6'0" frame but my 5'6" wife loves it.

The paint is terrible. The hood and top of the car developed "checking" early on. Spent a lot of time rubbing and polishing/waxing, but the original paint job was just crappy. But now I'm too cheap to spend $2,500 for a good repaint on a car worth a little over $2,000 (on a good day).

Our 84 Dodge Caravan expired just outside of Missoula, MT in August 1995. We rolled into the GM dealer and drove out with an "executive car" with about 11,000 miles on it. Beautiful car, strong engine, good looks (although it was BLACK and I'll never own another black car). The car has towed 1,500 lb trailers hundreds of miles, over 4,500 ft passes with no trouble. It has started every morning, even in sub freezing weather - very reliable. When we replaced the original Goodyear Eagles with Michelin at 48,000 miles, we picked the best. The tires have over 85,000 miles and they still look good.

We can buy a newer car, but this thing just keeps on performing (but my wife drives it only about 6,000 miles a year now). Gas mileage is still about 17 mpg so we'll probably keep it until something major happens.

The only problem I had with my Bravada was the alternator went at like 54k miles.

I had to buy all new window motors for all 4 windows.

My display for my dash went out. I had to get that fixed.

Other than those problems, this car is awesome.

I am 20 years old, and you know how young drivers are. I totally abused this car; burnouts, drifting, neutral drops, street racing; you name it, I did it with this car.

After all that, this car is still running strong. No mechanical problems at all. A very trustworthy car. I would definitely recommend it to anybody.

I have now sold it, and I purchased a 2001 Ford Focus ZX3; a little more my type of a car if you know what I mean.

If you are looking to buy a 94 Bravada, do it, you won't be sorry.