1982 Oldsmobile Firenza Hatchback from North America - Comments

Practically everything went wrong with this car from the 1st day my parents owned it.

The transmission was okay, but the engine consistently refused to start, the carburetor was so finicky. It often spilled gas out onto the engine and resulted in engine fires. One day it started smoking on my Dad on the freeway and his first thought upon pulling over to the side was "how much insurance would I get if it burned up" but as was typical it just burnt off the gas and kept going. Then one day it happened to me outside a friends house too. We just shut the car off and took hers.

This was a pretty stylish car, and had an upgraded interior to look like a sporty luxury version of a more expensive Olds. But it rattled and buzzed it's way to become known as the "putt-banger". That is when it ran. I got it as a handmedown for my 1st car. The car had A/C, but didn't have enough power to run it, so using A/C caused it to stall. It reminded me of the song "there ain't nothin' wrong with the radio" since there wasn't. And thankfully the transmission shifted easily from D to N, needed for keeping it running at stoplights. Just don't pull up beside a civic, you won't have nearly the power to race even if keeping your foot to the floor at stoplights makes it sound like you do. And the heater/defrost didn't work. A real pain in Canadian winters, which poor visibility finally caused this car's death one morning as I rearended a chevy 1/2 ton. It got me around when it ran, and when I killed it, I missed having a car more than I missed this car specifically.

The 1.8L engine used in the early 1980s Firenzas did not have a carburetor; it was throttle-body injection. This little engine was of Brazilian manufacture imported by GM. The 5-speed manual transmission was the best fit in my opinion; we drove one for 21 years and it was much more peppy than the automatic. I measured the gas mileage as 27 city/37 hwy. No serious problems until the clutch finally wore out at 132,000 miles while climbing a mountain in North Georgia and it went to the junkyard. I never would have thought this car would have given so much service for so long, but it did; it was actually an amazing little car for the money. It went off-road and on-road, hauling camping gear and groceries equally well.

The Oldsmobile Firenza was probably the best built of the 5 GM J-cars. The only one that would keep going no matter what. Even if it had problems. I've had 3 of the 5. A Buick Skyhawk, a Pontiac Sunbird, And a Chevrolet Cavalier. The Cavalier was a 1989 instead of 1984, so it ran much better. The other two had similar problems to what you had.