It is a nice looking car, rides comfortably. Also has a decent amount of power for a midsize coupe.

I have had to replace the front and rear brakes and rotors every year since I've owned the car. Also had to have the security system replaced because it would activate and shut down the engine at any given time after the vehicle has been shut off.

Paid $13,995. for the car in 1998, if Oldsmobile could solve all there brake problems..I would have no problem recommending it to others, but as it stands I am shopping for a vehicle other than a Oldsmobile.

Similar Products Used:

1993 Olds Cutlass Supreme had similar brake problems, which is why I had researched the 1997 before buying with hopes of not having this happen again.

Tight ride, well equipted,peppy. Nice design.

The plastic trim accross the trunk.

This is the best car I have ever owned. I bought this car use 15k miles. I've put a altranator on at 99,000 miles. All of the rest has been normal maintaince work. If they still made it I would buy another. IT now has 115,000 miles and everything is still tight. I'm looking for a new car, but I can't seem to find on to match what I have. Its the frist car I can say I have been very happy with.

Similar Products Used:

Monte Carlo, Sable

One of the best looking cars on the road when it was new and still one of the best looking cars out there even though it's now 11 years old. Good performance out of the 3.1 liter engine after a few performance add-ons. Fully loaded with all the options, incredibly comfortable full power leather seats, great for just cruising around in summer with windows down and sunroof back. Still in great condidtion and get compliments on it all the time. Interior styling is now somewhat dated, but has a kind of time less appeal to it and has held up great. Love the exhaust note from the twin mufflers. Love front end styling.

Fuel economy could be better, air conditioning is a little on the weak side, brakes aren't as good as I would like them to be(but I'm working on that). Getting up there in age and miles, so parts are wearing out, but not due to any defect in the car. Not too many aftermarket performance parts available for it.

Am hoping to keep this car for as long as I can still drive. Best car I've ever owned. It's a pleasure to drive and look at and I wouldn't trade it for much of anything out there, especially not any of those little high strung whiney imports. Would deffinately have gotten the 3.4 liter if I had the chance though. Well worth the time and money put into keeping it nice. Would buy another one if this one ever happened to be totaled.

Similar Products Used:

Pontiac Grand Prix. The Grand Prix looks and feels cheap inside, but has great exterior styling.

Well equiped, noce ba;ance of power and feul econimy, tight stering smooth ride.

the knobs on the sterio and the a/c controls break verry easily...(Easy fix= go test drive a car from a used car lot..... when the sales man isnot looking, take the knobs off that car and run!)

i love my car and i am extreamly satisfyed with oldsmobile... too bad they won't be around when it is time to purchase a new car. :(

Similar Products Used:

i tested many other cars including the ford t-bird and some ugly buick and even a pontiac or 2, and found the cutlass' style and equipment was by fay the best.

comfortable... pretty quiet... decent power... lots of room

transmission went out at 70,000 miles... windshield has started to leak... battery is horrible to change

Lots of small problems... broken knobs etc. overall good car... built strong on the outside, but inside items are easy to break... sound system is horrible. just an average car.

Similar Products Used:

the only other car i have owned is a 1988 ford aerostar van... not much of a comparison

-nice ride
-decently fast
-easy on gas

-my stereo system rattles it to badly

I bought this car because I needed something dependable so I bought this car. Being a young guy I threw a system in the trunk and theis car took me 4 months to get all the vibrating noises out. I have a deadly cd player with 2 10" rockford xlc with the punch 250a2 running them with pioneer mids and tweets and the system sounds good now but when I first got it it took some time to get the funny noises out. As a car from point a to point b it's good but open the sunroof put the windows down and go driving is what it seems to be better for.

Similar Products Used:

not many

a tank-good if you wreck it. handles okay for a granny car- big backseat(for having some fun)

AWFUL gas milage and it has a 2.5 litre 4 cylinder motor(which are very rare in a 2 door cutlass) THE MOTOR MOUNTS ARE TERRIBLE!!!!!! AND SO ARE GASKETS, IN THE VALVE COVER, AND THE TRANNY PAN!!!

great car for commuting

Similar Products Used:

plymouth gran fury- cutlass is better

I grabbed a loaded special edition coupe last minute. It's got every bell and whistle, and they all work. It's roomy for the average sized person, and depending on how much stuff you want to carry, it has lots of room to hide stuff in the trunk, out of view. It's a great commuter and trip car. The seats can be leaned back and scooted back and it's like sleeping on a recliner. The stock sound is great, although piano tends to crack in certain bands, but it has very good lower bass response, better than the tripped out stock systems in Camaros and Mustangs and other sporty cars. It's sporty also, though conservative. I've tweaked the engine a little, added Rev limit and engine chip, plus new heads and manifolds gave me about 90 more horsepower, and i replaced the 5 spoke alloys with 18 inch Alba's and better tires, newer recalibrated speedometer(the stock went to 115 ) that goes to 140, and new struts make it a decent, though not competitive, racer that runs about 14.9 seconds in a quarter mile. I have the 3.1 V6 still. The car handles on par with a BMW 5 series, but with less roll, but better braking. Repairs are few and far between, and they were due to partial neglect because I was away for long periods and had a moron caretaker ( which i regret ) I have put an extra 6000 above the 21000 purchase price in modifications, but they are worth it and i'm keeping this bad girl for the long haul. The car is very classy, not juvenile, and sporty without the sports car insurance. Chicks dig the car too, and the headlights are still cool. The car can look downright mean at night with the lamps on with the headlights.

As with all cars, it has its goofs. A mirror squek developed after 45000 miles due to a heavyweight leaning on it. Easily fixed. But the stock radiator, while efficient, was flimsy and a rock put a huge hole in it, letting all of the coolant out and the car overheated, warping the cylinder heads, which were the stock aluminum. But, this was an extreme case of the aforementioned moron driving my vehicle and not paying attention to what was happening. She drove the car for 20 minutes after the engine started smoking, then sprayed the heads with water. So, this usually doesn't have to be worried about by normal people. For taller people, above about 6' 3", having a sunroof can crowd you, because its presence reduces headroom by about 2 inches. The automatic transmission puts a hamper on speed too, the ratios are commuter ratios, not performance ratios, so it's not necessarily bad nor is it necessarliy good. The paint on the nose will chip too, though not bad, a few chips might appear, but they won't grow or peel. Turning on the AC also produces a noticeable drop in power also. The stock alternator doesn't produce very many amps, causing the headlights to dim if your running all the accessories and the radio full blast. They dim a little, not a problem, but noticeable. Some of the interior pieces are cheap plastic, but this is characteristic of GM vehicles and they should clean up their act, because they do it even in the top of the line caddies and vettes. Retards. The stock sound is great, but it's hard to upgrade. I have the Smart Wheel controls, so a new head unit is out of the question, and line out ocnverters are hard to add because of the lack of room behind the radio. The speakers (8) are all on 8 separate, crossed-over,sound-field processed channels, making upgrades very time consuming in both the planning and installing. Engine repairs are the same way. Every item takes forever to remove and replace. And, everything costs 1000 bucks. That's just the standard price. Flat tire? 1000 bucks. warped heads? 1000 bucks. J/K. But repairs are time consuming if you have to make them. The car doesn't just fall apart though. At 69000 miles, i've done about 1500 in repairs and 6000 of my own mods, so they don't really even count, normal people would not have let their idiot cousin take care of their car while on a trip for 9 weeks.

It's a great car. absolutely one of the best ever made, it has the best value i've ever seen, because it behaves like a foreign performer without raping your wallet. It has a contemporary style that will always be slick and classy, so I'll probably keep it forever, even after i get my porsche.
If you can get a loaded one used in good condition, do it, because there were only a few made anyway, and spend the money to tweak it, and baby it to keep it top notch. It isn't the perfect car, but it's the best one for under 25 grand you can get, period.

Similar Products Used:

Drove better than most cars i test drove, it drove way better than all the cars that were even NEAR the price. A BMW 330ci kicked the Cutlass's ass, but was 40 grand, i could buy a cutlass and trip it all the way out to supercar levels for that.

Hauls ass. Handles like a dream. Very fun to drive. The 305 is cheap to fix. Passing power is incredible.

Weak tranny. Too high geared for city use (308 rear end. Gas guzzler. constant problems with drive train (getting old-189000 km.) Severe rust problem.

Fun to drive, but getting very expensive to keep on the road, put about $2500 into it in the last 6 months. Too many problems. Car is for sale, probably won't sell.

Similar Products Used:

'81 olds cutlass 5.7 diesel, no comparison. The 305 is much better in everything but fuel economy. Kicks the crap out of all the little civics and other Jap crap on the road that think they're fast. Even beat RX-7's off the line.

This is a pretty reliable car. GM really built this thing like a tank. This car has been wrapped around a telephone pole and after repairs you would never know if I didn't say so. Very comfortable interior, back seat reminds me of a sofa. This car rides smooth, especially on the highway.

This car is gas-hungry!!!! I fill up at leats twice a week. The factory 231 under the hood is not very powerful at all, it jerks when I shift gears, the motor mounts are shot, and I need a radiator because when I run the A/C the car runs hot and as soon as I cut the A/C off everything is fine. This is the middle of summer and it's too hot for all that!!!

This is my first car and I am very pleased with it. The weaknesses I talked about can all be repaired and I plan on doing so. They don't make many cars that will last as long as this one did, 17+ years, I'd like to see a 2001 Malibu in 17 yrs.

Similar Products Used:

1997 Dodge Intrepid...lets just say that at least I still have a transmission. My friend has an Intrepid, paid near $20,000 for it in '98 and the car doesn't even run. As far as Dodges go, you better but GM.