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(More customer reviews)35 pages long and released by the Oldsmobile division of General Motors in 1985, this sales brochure is one of perhaps three sales brochures released by Olds that year. It does not have information on the entire 1985 Olds line, but does cover a lot of it. The brochure maintains a theme I highly enjoyed- it proclaims itself as a record album, and the cars it lists as songs. My, how times have changed. Not only are cars not sold this way anymore- Oldsmobiles aren't sold at all- but you can bet nobody is using a record album theme for their car sales brochures now.
It is fascinating to look at brochures like this, being enticed to buy cars that can no longer be bought in the form they could be when this book came out, made by a company that no longer exists. It is also interesting to look at this brochure because we now know what became of the cars it contains.
Now, an important note- this 'album' contains four cars- the Ninety-Eight Regency, Delta 88 Royale, Toronado, and Custom Cruiser. There were many variants and trims, but those are the cars at the core. As in, you can have five different Toronados, but at the end of the day they are all Toronados.
The vaunted new Ninety-Eight was nowhere near the all-new wonder Olds made it out to be. I don't know how many they sold, but I know how long they lasted. I saw one on the road two years ago. One, and in very poor condition. I'm sure there are some still intact, and well cared for. But the V6 Ninety-Eight that was new for '85 does not seem to have stood the test of time all that well. The 1985 Ninety-Eight is interesting for another reason- if you bought a particular trim line, you could end up with what is surely the longest name in automotive history, or at least a good runner-up: 1985 Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight Regency Brougham. It is the star of this album, and in its showroom-shape glory is a very attractive car indeed. Rare now, but if you find one or bring one to the way it looked when it rolled off the showroom floor, this new-for-1985 Olds Ninety-Eight can be quite a gorgeous car. If you ask me, that's true of every car in the 1985 Oldsmobile line.
The Delta-88 presented here was a more solid car, safe, durable, and not very fuel-efficient. Boasted to be a fine choice for a family car, I'd say it probably was. Like the Custom Cruiser, it mounted- primarily- the 307 V8, a tough but thirsty motor that Olds and other GM brands used for many years. The Delta 88 was available in a variety of trims, as a four or two-door. You don't see many of those coupe Delta 88's, but they are very good looking. 1985 was its last year in this form- a major downsizing happened in 1986, and it more or less became a whole new car, much as the Ninety-Eight did for the 1985 year.
For the Cruiser and 88, GM's utterly awful- 350, was it?- gas-turned-diesel motor is mentioned. If you happen to find a diesel car from the 1985 line, take good care of it. It's probably going to be worth a lot in time. There cannot be many left, and even the Edsel eventually gained value. The truth about that diesel is that while turning a gas motor to a diesel is not an easy switch to make or even that good of an idea, it simply demands more care and maintainance than a gas-and-go owner will be used to. Now, for a professional mechanic this might not be a problem, but for most owners it certainly was.
The Toronado was also set to be downsized after 1985- that year was its last appearance as a big V8 car. Like many Oldsmobiles, eventually all of them in fact, it was downsized and was really never the same car again. Considering I always seem to see more of the big Oldsmobiles than the smaller ones that replaced them, I have a pretty good idea of which was a better car in the end. "Personal luxury car". Like the station wagon, probably more so, that name is all but dead. The Toronado was certainly one of the best models of that now all-but-extinct breed of car.
Last, but beyond a doubt not least, is the Custom Cruiser. 18 feet long, 6 feet wide, and with an average 15 MPG in the city and 21 on the highway, the Cruiser was the premier family car of its day. My family knew a man- Charlie R., I'll call him, R being the first letter of his last name- who owned more than six GM wagons, all of them huge and loaded inside and out with fake wood. A maroon '85 Cruiser was among his collection, used like the others often as a utility and work car. How I loved that car... anyway, the Cruiser remained basically unchanged through to 1990, when it received a less unique-to-Olds redesigned engine and shape. But even so, it kept its Delta-88 body to 1990, and its V8 heart until the end. Run off the road by the now-almost-extinct minivan and the equally gas-guzzling and far more dangerous SUV, the Custom Cruiser is a monument, in my mind, to a better time. A time when the station wagon, big, safe, and reliable, was good enough for America. Some folks say cars like the Cruiser are obsolete, and perhaps they are right. But some of those people are driving even bigger, even less efficient and safe SUV's, and if big cars are obsolete what are all those Suburbans doing, cluttering up the view on the highway? Gone forever though it is, the Custom Cruiser may have the last laugh yet. Have you seen all those crossovers lately? They look more like, and are talked about as if they are, station wagons more every year. I think I can imagine even slapping fake wood all over some of them. Revenge of the Station Wagons indeed.
This brochure will certainly appeal to owners of the cars featured, to historians and collectors of such books, and anyone with any similarity to the aforementioned types of people. Some of its features- measurements and details on the cars, a full list of the options they offered at the time- can be very useful in restoring a car or simply learning more about what it came with, and what else had been availabl.e It's not too expensive, and a fasinating piece of automotive history. I highly recommend it.
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Published specifically for this model year, this item includes color pictures of exteriors and/or interiors, along with promotional text.
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