2nd Gen Aurora had more traditional styling and interior was kind of plasticky for the time, first Gen Aurora was a sharp looking car inside and out, it was a big deal when it was released because it resembled a concept car. I remember going to a Indy Car race in the late 90's and the only engines they used were the 4.0 blocks from the Aurora or Infiniti engines and they had a Aurora on display at the track saying it used the same engine block. The last Buick Riviera was another GM car that had a concept car like exterior and interior, I really liked them and was excited when my girlfriends dad had one and gave me a ride, I remember I was enamored by the climate controls on the door, even the temp readout was on the door which you never saw, I don't think I have seen a car since that had that. Riviera's in the 80's had high tech interiors with digital readouts for almost everything, it was like a light show sitting in those cars. You have to hand it to US car manufactures, they had the best names(Monaco, Grand Prix, Sebring, Impala, etc) despite them going on some really crappy cars,

 

Yep, I remember the Aurora race cars!

 

I loved those, at least the first gen. I thought they looked great. They had real wood inside, kind of a big deal for an Oldsmobile. Also that shifter. And those C-body cars did drive well with the 3800 and were roomy and comfortable inside.

I was a fan of Oldsmobile, we had several.

We had an ‘88 Toronado which was about the coolest car in the world to me as a 6 year old. All digital, red leather, same shifter I mentioned etc. It from what I remember had good fit and finish and ran to 165k with minimal issues, then my dad sold it. Then we saw it driving around town for years after that.

Then a couple years later we had the dustbuster Silhouette with the 3800 which laid rubber, and a 1997 Bravada that I absolutely ran into the ground off roading as a newly licensed driver. I can’t emphasize enough how hard that truck was abused by me and it never broke a sweat. That AWD (Smartrak) in that with the locking rear diff, I never once got it stuck.

I think the Oldsmobile image worked for some vehicles more than others. Kind of a Cadillac lite. Was sad to see them go but they weren’t doing well.

 

I was an Oldsmobile fan too. Theres a picture of me as maybe a 3 or 4 year old hugging the steering wheel of my Dads Cutlass Calais.

Watch this hilarious Bravada video lol:

 

Hahaha. No pic came through but yeah before the Toronado it was a Cutlass Sierra wagon but I barely remember it. It had the wood on the sides lol.

After the ‘97 they traded for a 2000 Bravada that looked exactly like that one in the video except it was tan inside. It was nicer in every way but I still preferred the old red ‘97 one we had mostly for the looks.

 

Yeah I dont have the pic scanned, its in an album somewhere lol.

 

I misunderstood, lol I wanted to see what that steering wheel looked like on a Calais.

On our Toronado it was the standard pre-airbag flat and up in the middle. Horn button on both sides and above on the pad. I thought the car had three horns. It really was a cool car, especially right then in that time period. In the late 80s digital was definitely in.

 

Oh that I can find for you.

This is what the interior and steering wheel looked like. His had a brown leather/vinyl (not sure which it was) interior, and a light brown exterior (oh the 70s/80s) lol



This was the bodystyle:

 

That was ours, except it was dark grey paint. Identical interior except wheel had a squarish pad.

Nice car inside, it was roomy. We grew up in it for a stretch and never complained. Back when people bought coupes.

 

saw that the other day lmao

OLDSMOBILE BRAVADA... for married men who have a "cheaters never win" poster above their desk and a secretary below it

getting pulled over: "do you know how bland you were going back there!?"

mr. regular is a real wordsmith lol

 

So good lol. He’s great.

 

Three identical shift-levers LOL?

On a truck-based 4X4 Bravada, I can understand one for the regular gears and one for the transfer-case, but THREE?

 

Another thing about the C-Bodies is that they had ample space inside while not being especially large cars. The Cadillac model (SdvL) lost no interior space to the humongous model that preceded it with the introduction of those IIRC.

 

You didn’t have to do anything, it had a good AWD system (Smartrak) with an auto-locking rear diff that I can verify gave it off road capability for pretty much anything that didn’t require low range. Also great in the snow and slick, etc.

That was a big selling point of the Bravada, that system.

 

My mom had a silver Cutlass Supreme coupe like that with a maroon interior when I was a child, really nice car, mom loved it but they had to sell it when we went over seas.