1979 Oldsmobile Delta 88 Reviews

If you posted the review of this car on 9/4/03, it had 108K miles.

Now it has 107K miles (?)

An approximation of mileage. Not exact. Probably mistaken in previous estimate. Should be more precise.

Unfortunately GM, like many companies, discontinues great products. It is sad not everyone shares our taste! I had 2 Buick Park Avenues that I loved, and would have gladly shelled out over $40K for another brand new one. At least I can still buy Buicks, which isn't the case for Olds, however none of the new ones are as appealing to me as my Park Avenues.

Considering that was 9 years ago, I'd say the mileage was way off - unless you don't drive it.

My main driver is, and has been the Oldsmobile, which as I've said repeatedly, is an excellent car, but I should add that I was clearly mistaken about the previous mileage estimate, probably owing to either a senior moment, or the fact that I had two other cars at the time, and probably didn't remember the mileage on the Olds correctly. Certainly not any attempt to mislead anyone.

My other two cars were a '67 Chevrolet that belonged to my dad, which is currently undergoing restoration, and a BMW, which proved costly to maintain, and so I sold it. Had I been able to afford it at the time, I would probably have bought a BMW 3.0 CSI, which has since become a classic, but the price tag was out of my ballpark at the time. The Bavarias were also nice cars, but common sense finally prevailed and I reverted to the cars with which I had grown up, G.M. products.

The low mileage on the Olds is due to the fact of rotating it among three cars I was driving at the time, and as I've grown older, I find I only put two or three thousand miles a year on it. So it should take me to the end of the line.

Thanks for your interest, and for pointing out my error. My opinion of the Olds stands. Wish they still made them; I might buy another one just for kicks.

Wow. A diesel Oldsmobile. It's hard to believe one of those somehow made it to Ireland, because those are some pretty rare cars. You hardly ever see them in the US. I only know one person that had one. He had an '84 Delta 88 with a diesel. It was OK. Pretty sluggish, decent fuel economy, nice interior. Back then diesel was extremely cheap, so it cost nothing to drive. So - how did that thing get over there?

The problem with the early 350 diesels were that the head bolts would stretch from the high compression, which caused blown head gaskets. Back then, even dealership mechanics would complete the repair, reinstalling the old head bolts, not knowing this was the problem in the first place, until it happened again 20,000 miles later.

When this problem was resolved by late 1984, the engines were proven reliable, but by then, the reputation was already tarnished, and they were discontinued after 1985. Even today, if you rebuild one using the new high strength head bolts, you will have a good, reliable, fuel efficient engine. Also a water separator (which was not available back then) and better quality diesel fuel help out a lot too.

The car was in England, not Ireland.

It came from Belgium into this country, I don't know if it was sold new in Belgium though, I bought it from someone else in England.

Most older American cars were either imported by enthusiasts or sold by American servicemen stationed in England, returning to the USA.

I understand Uncle Sam would bring a car over for their servicemen, but not take them back.

Most of them were young men's cars, Camaros/Firebirds, Mustangs, Mopar muscle and similar.

However no doubt some senior servicemen ran family cars such as mine.