Classic 80's GM FWD Comparison and Buyer's Guide: What To Know When Buying a Classic GM FWD Car

40 thoughts on “Classic 80's GM FWD Comparison and Buyer's Guide: What To Know When Buying a Classic GM FWD Car”

• I’ve started watching a lot of your videos lately…really good stuff!

  Also incredibly jealous of whatever your storage situation is 😅

• Loving the 80’s GM content. Some pretty cool cars you got there. The Buicks from this era are some of my favorites.

• Another AWESOME Video Adam. Thanks so much. !!! I Love these Cars. 🙂 Also Man you live in a Beautiful Neighborhood. !!!!

• You need a GM G-Body 77-88 Pontiac Grand Prix, Olds Cutlass, Monte Carlo or Buick Regal in your stable. Back in the mid 80s, everybody had one. My 87 Buick Century was total JUNK. The paint on all GM cars in the 80s was horrible. Dark colors was worse for cracking than lighter colors but light colors would crack too.

• Would have loved to have seen a Honda Accord thrown in to compare these to, from the same time period.

• My 1987 Z24 with 2.8 V6 and a 5-speed was such a fun car! It was my very 1st brand new car!

• I had an 86 Pontiac 6,000 SE with the 2.8, it was completely shot when I got it, but boy did that thing run. Then, I got an 87 Celebrity Euro-Rust, she was an awesome car, but it got stolen and stripped my Senior year of high school. Your channel brings back so many great memories. I love your collection of cars! The Iron Duke is very common in the marine world, and is known for being pretty much bullet proof. They are crude though! I’ve owned a few.

• The older I get the more nostalgic I become! That’s why I enjoy watching these videos 👍🏻

• The Cadillac 4.9 in the later front drive DeVille is an excellent and reliable engine.

• I find that little Omega – your burgundy one here – charming. I can't quite explain why, but I like it.

• Would love if you would do a ride and drive comparison of your 72 Lincoln Coupe and your Mark III !!

• Good video 😀

• It's very odd how a switch from one, large headlight to two smaller square lights instantly makes a car look twice as expensive and 10 times as good.
  Makes you wonder why they even bothered to ever use the single lights; the $3 saved could easily be added to the sticker without notice.

  I think this is why the Celebrity always seemed much more of a "mid priced, largish mid-sized" car, almost LeSabre in looks and status, instead of being compared to the Citation and J cars which it was much closer in size to.

  The Celebrity/Century/Ciera were a rare case of GM compact design done very well.

  The huge mystery is, since the Celebrity-class cars were SO well styled, engineered and received, why a 4th "C" car, a Cadillac Calais was never produced; it would have taken very well to the basic design, had enough size and presence to appeal to traditional buyers , without bumping into the Seville's pricier, higher tech market segment.

  But they did make the Cimmarron… a much bigger leap down that we all know didn't work.

  A "Caddy Celebrity" absolutely would have.

• Very good Adam. It would be good if you were able to share details re how to get the 3D printed Cimarron bumper fillers. I need some for my 85 25,000 mile V6 one.

• Nothing wrong with the J car it was a European design the Opel and the Vauxhall versions made in Germany and the UK had fuel injected sohc engines in them and 5 speed transmissions it's only the American versions that mucked all this up with the crappy 1.8 litre ohv engines that where 20 years behind the times from the moment they were designed the reason for this is because the American public and particularly American mechanics didn't fully understand the concept of the ohc

• Two words, QUAD FOUR! ,coil pack failures , timing chain stretch,power steering leaks and fuel pump failures, what's not to love about them.

• An AMAZING Comparison of these Different-Bodied Cars, Adam😊👏

• I think he needs a calais international series

• I could not stand these cars. GM was making real trash with these cars. I will say they were good at being people movers but there was zero thrill in any of these. Mostly due to the front drive platforms. No chance I would ever look to buy one of these. Last good GM car was the Whale Caprice. Even today I am not a GM fan and I loved the 60s and 70s GM cars and trucks.

• Had a 1980 Citation V6 and 1984 Cavalier four-cylinder. The Citation was a fun car but a nightmare. Rolled it up over 100,000 miles, but there were many repairs. The Cavalier was like a refrigerator. Plug it in forget it drive it very reliable. Very nice car. Replaced it with an Astro van due to Family.

• There's only one thing to know about buying these cars. DON'T!

• We had an '87 Cutlass Ciera Brougham, bought new in So. Cal in '86. The were some problems including two transmissions but we had it for 17 years and over 260,000 miles. The interior held up remarkably well and overall it was a very classy car, never had issues with any power accessories and the 3.8 engine was flawless. I think it was at least as good as anything else made at the time.

• The C bodies were awesome cars with the 3800

• Junk

• Buyers Guide? How many J & A cars are still on the road? Practically none even in non rust belt states In the late 80's / early 90's GM ruined the reputations of some of its best engines like the Chevy 4.3 V6 by doing foolish things like substituting plastic cam gears in place of metal.

• I had a J-body 3.1L and it was fairly reliable, even in -30C weather. Over 300,000KM it needed a starter, intake gasket, ignition module and a couple sets of plugs wires, all in all not bad. I followed that with a Malibu Maxx which wasn't built nearly as wellas my Sunbird. Sold the Maxx for a used Lexus, will never buy anything but Japanese cars from now on.

• I hate that these cars seem so old nowadays. Makes me feel old. I love a lot of brands and models and have been thinking about getting possibly a gm 3800 engined car at some point. Right now, I have some old dodges. Daytona shelby, etc, and Although I won't be getting rid of the ones I have, I have had my eyes out for some possible early 2000's to 90s gm cars. I'm just barely 40, and it just seems like these cars are a hundred years old. Man, where did time go?

• Beyond checking the outlets temperatures, seeing if a GM CCOT air con system is properly charged is quite easy: Look at the accumulator when the system is running. If it's properly charged, some liquid refrigerant should be reaching it, enough to fill it at least 1/3 up. So, the accumulator should be quite cold, and you might even be able to see the "frost line" if it's humid out.
  If the car cools OK at idle, but not as well when on the highway it's low on charge – more liquid will be in the condenser because of the extra airflow, leaving less liquid for the evaporator to cool the car.
  davida1hiwaaynet has a bunch of GM air con repair videos on his channel – I recommend anyone wanting to learn how to properly fix the AC on one of these vehicles check them out.

• The right rear bumper filler on the 1985 Caprice broke off this spring. I was lucky enough to find some on E-Bay. I was able to get all 4 corners. Just have to get the ambition to paint it and install it. Now I havent found ones for the 1981 Bonneville and the left front one on that one is cracking. I taped it for now so I hopefully dont lose it. LOL.

• I always wondered why the Cimmaron wasn't at least an A-body, I mean they used their cheapest platform for a Cadillac!

• My 1988 olds 98 regency brougham certainly had its issues, but man was it comfortable, drove it from St. Louis to Maryland a dozen times and it sure loved the highway.

• one of the rarest of the group, was the 3800 corsica sedan. a generic rentabox. a legit 15 second car. capable of humbling pretty much EVERYTHING except turbo buicks.

• They all did have similar features, they were CRAP! Sorry, but they were. Compare them to Japanese or German of the day, absolutely nothing redeeming. Fit/finish/NVH/interior materials. Ugg. Handling, forget it. Just thinking about that dark blue with light blue vinyl topped Skylark we owned in the '80's makes me queasy.

• Thank you. Good advice!

• Great tips. I was thinking about checking the smell of the transmission fluid on the dipstick right before you mentioned it.

• We had an 84 Cimarron that we loved even though had quite a few repairs including two steering racks. Still have fond memories after nearly 40 years

• This was a great comparison video, Adam. Lots of good information for potential buyers to consider.

• I can’t believe people are interested in these cars. GM made total junk during this time period. My dad was a salesman and his company bought him a new GM car every two years and they were unbelievable garbage with ridiculous warranty issues.

• I liked the T-Types throughout the Buick lineup but the color options were limited as I recall.

• You need a Pontiac 6000 STE!

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