1975 Oldsmobile Omega 250 L6 from North America

Summary:

Born To Be Beat on

Faults:

Seat support broke, causing me to wedge an old jack stand base in the back of the seat as a support. Ball joins fell off at 30 miles an hour. Electrical problems caused me to blow fusible link. Vacuum problem with the carburetor. Car ran rough when air cleaner top was on correct. When top was reversed (round side toward carb), car ran smooth as silk. Wiper motor also died.

General Comments:

Picked up car from a college classmate for $200 when previous car died. Car was a brown hardtop. 250 automatic was a smog motor, so acceleration was next to poor. Car performed well, and was perfect for going to school, and to work. Inline 6 was easy to work on. Changed valve cover gasket and gapped spark plugs in a snap. Only oil leak came from valve cover gasket, which was fixed. Catalytic converter went, then the rest of exhaust system went. Drove the car with broken exhaust for over a year. Then the driver side ball joints blew sending me to the pavement. Fixed suspension with junk yard parts, left exhaust alone. Continued to drive car until engine could no longer stand the beating. Engine died on the way home from work.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 15th July, 2004

1976 Oldsmobile Omega from North America

Summary:

Good dependable transportation

Faults:

Nothing that couldn't be expected. Almost exclusively routine maintenance.

General Comments:

This was my first car. I bought it before I even had my drivers license. It was very dependable. Like most teenage boys I drove it hard and spent way too much money in trying to make it look good. For example, I drove it in a part of the country where the vehicles rust because of all the salt used to melt snow off the roads in winter. So I was always doing body work to get rid of the rust as well as marks/dents from my careless driving.

It was much better to me than I was to it! Lots of fond memories!

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? No

Review Date: 1st May, 2004

1978 Oldsmobile Omega asthmatic V8 from North America

Summary:

Exemplifies everything bad about US cars

Faults:

Carburettor jammed regularly. Rebuilt at 75000 miles.

Instruments never worked properly, except the speedometer.

Auto transmision failed completely at 110000 miles, with careful driving and proper servicing.

General Comments:

I bought this car at an auto wholesale yard in Tulsa.

I didn't care about the awful looks of it then, because I desperately needed a car when my Saab was stolen.

It was in very good condition, but never drove tidily or had any usable performance.

It was a typical American late-70's piece of crap.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Don't Know

Review Date: 13th March, 2004

16th Apr 2004, 19:33

"Asthmatic V8"...I guess that you had the 260 2bbl.

Positively the worst engine Olds ever made.

4th Aug 2008, 12:33

The 260 was, nevertheless, one of the most durable engines ever made.

5th Aug 2008, 15:00

I would take exception to the broad brush approach of the "typical late '70s American crap" line. Maybe GM was making crap then, I don't know. But I do know that the Plymouth Volarè and Dodge Aspen were good cars, as was the Dodge Charger/Magnum and Dodge Ramcharger/Plymouth Trailduster. The Chrysler New Yorker and Newport were still also good. Surely there are some other good late '70s American cars out there as well, enough that they can't ALL be branded as "typical crap."

16th Jan 2009, 14:14

I had the V8-260 2bbl in a '75 Omega Salon, which I owned from '79 to '87. Horrible HP (110 IIRC) and acceleration and yet still managed horrible MPGs (13.5 suburban driving, everything tuned up).

Yet, with the Olds equivalent of the F-41 suspension (front and rear sway bars, firmer shocks and springs) it was one of the best handling domestic cars of the era.

The engine survived w/o damage being driven a 1/2 mile to a garage, gushing oil from the torn off oil filter due to my hamfisted use of a cheap filter wrench.

I sold her after 125k miles- too many things were worn out, and the rear quarters were rusting bad. But over 20 years later, I still miss her. Had she had the 350 4bbl, well, I'd miss her even more!

19th Aug 2009, 20:39

Oldsmobile was and always will be one of the greatest car manufactures that ever existed. Pioneering many technological advancements in the automotive industry though the years. For instance Oldsmobile was the first car company to have the first fully automatic transmission. They were also the first to have a front wheel drive car, which was the Toronado in 1966. One other major invention which was created by Oldsmobile was the air pillow in the 70`s which later became air bags in the 1980`s.

My family has owned three Oldsmobiles all of which were excellent running cars with very few mechanical problems. Two of which we still have and they still provide trouble free transportation despite their age; one is an Omega 31 years old, and the other is a Cutlass 13 years old.