When Common Motors created the first-ever front-wheel-drive Chevrolet, the 1980 Quotation, the stage appeared set for gross sales domination of the brand new decade with an import-crushing compact that appeared and drove like a correct slab of real Detroit Iron. Alongside the Quotation got here three different fashions on the identical X Platform: the Buick Skylark, Pontiac Phoenix and Oldsmobile Omega. All 4 bought properly at first, however well-publicized high quality issues and recollects took their toll, and the ultimate mannequin yr for the X-Physique Omega was 1984. Here is a kind of vehicles, present in a Northern California boneyard lately.
Parked with its hatch going through the Omega’s trunk is one other fascinating piece of mid-Nineteen Eighties GM historical past: a 1987 Chevrolet Dash ER, the Suzuki-built fuel-economy champion of America in its day.
The Omega identify had been used on the Oldsmobile-badged sibling of the Chevrolet Nova for the 1973 by way of 1979 mannequin years. Because the Quotation changed the Nova, it made sense to maintain the Omega identify alive on the Oldsmobized Quotation. The identical factor occurred with the Nova-sibling Phoenix and Skylark names.
Apart from the status of the Oldsmobile identify, there wasn’t a lot distinction between this automobile and its cheaper Chevrolet and Pontiac twins.
The most cost effective 1984 Omega was the bottom two-door, which listed at $7,625 (about $23,031 in 2023 {dollars}). This automobile is the top-of-the-range Brougham Sedan, which had an MSRP of $8,095 ($24,451 after inflation). In the meantime, a brand new 1984 Chevy Quotation four-door value $7,037 ($21,255 now).
The Omega, like its siblings, might be bought with an non-obligatory 2.8-liter V6 engine. This one has the bottom engine, nevertheless: an Iron Duke 2.5-liter pushrod straight-four and its 92 horsepower. The Duke (referred to as the Tech IV when outfitted with gas injection, as is the case right here) held collectively properly however was a hilariously outdated rough-runner.
This one is noteworthy as a result of it is a substitute crate motor swapped in lengthy after the automobile was out of guarantee. Because the sticker on the valve cowl reads “Goodwrench” as an alternative of the sooner “Mr. Goodwrench,” we all know that this engine was bought after 1997. GM ditched the whole Goodwrench model for good in 2010.
The column shifter is gone, however this automobile was constructed with the three-speed computerized transmission. That added $425 to the underside line ($1,284 in right this moment’s cash).
This automobile additionally has air-con ($730, or $2,205 right this moment) and the AM/FM/cassette four-speaker audio system you see right here added a staggering $469 ($1,417 in 2023 bucks) to the out-the-door worth. Options we take without any consideration within the vehicles of the 2020s had been brutally costly through the Nineteen Eighties.
I believe that La Virgen de Guadalupe wouldn’t be terribly impressed with a very inventory ’84 Omega, Goodwrench crate Iron Duke or no. Let’s hope the previous proprietor of this automobile now has not less than a ’54 Plymouth Savoy.
At each angle, the Chevrolet Oldsmobile styling heritage exhibits by way of.
Why accept a featureless white field, when you would have an Olds Omega?
Really, the Dependable Males of Olds™ understood The Future™.