Junkyard Find: 1994 Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight Regency Elite

Murilee Martin
by Murilee Martin
junkyard find 1994 oldsmobile ninety eight regency elite

The very last generation of Olds 98 was the most distinctive-looking of any of the 98s built since the early 1970s. Though it was related to a number of Buicks and Cadillacs of the era, the 1991-96 Ninety-Eight had the kind of Oldsmobility that traditional (i.e., those who remembered the Lindbergh Kidnapping) Olds buyers weren’t going to find in those weird-looking Auroras.

The Ninety-Eight Touring got the supercharged engine, while the Ninety-Eight Regency got seating for six passengers and extra-cushy Detroit luxury. The Regency Elite was, well, elite.

One glance tells you that this car would be an excellent machine for a 2,500-mile road trip.

I suspect that these door-mounted seat controls suffered from more than their share of electrical glitches, but they look cool.

Yes, rear drum brakes just six years before the dawn of the 21st century.

Front-wheel drive was actually a good idea for this sort of luxury machine, due to all the extra interior space you get, but it’s too bad GM didn’t see fit to make a version of this car with the Aurora-ized Northstar engine instead of the not-so-smooth Buick V6.







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  • Chicagoland Chicagoland on Sep 17, 2012

    "Cash for Clunkers killed a lot of these off." Mostly old SUV's, dealers here had them lined up and a local bone yard had them with "CFC" spray painted. Not a lot of actual cars. These are disappearing from Chicago low income areas, as the sands pass through the hourglass and younger generations looks at them as old fartmobiles. Chrysler LX cars and old Altimas, Galants, and Camrys at BHPH and Currancy Exchanges getting temps.

  • Mynameisjonas Mynameisjonas on May 11, 2014

    I remember this car clearly. My grandma had one; a '91 Regency Elite in brown that she bought new. That thing was the most comfortable machine I'd ever ridden in. And bulletproof, the only time she took it to a repair shop was when some dickhead in a Contour smashed it up. I recall she made it to 210k before selling it last year for a DTS. Wish I could have taken it, it was running brilliantly. Still see it floating around occasionly. They seem to hold up really well where I live.

  • John When you are driving to your own house, you are usually on residential roads at 25 mph for the last mile. If you drive at 25 mph, you cover that last mile in 2 minutes and 24 seconds. If you drive at 30 mph, you cover it in 2 minutes even. If you drive it at 45 mph, you cover the distance in 1 minute and 20 seconds. So, you can drive like a bat out of hell to save yourself 64 seconds, or you can drive the speed limit, and preserve the life and safety on the streets where your own children play and ride their bikes.
  • Zipper69 Thank goodness none of our US manufacturers, supplying vehicles powered by internal combustion engines EVER have to issue recalls...
  • MKizzy Looks kinda good from the front and sides but I suspect its because of the darker colors featured in the photos. The rear however, is gruesome with the cliched rear fascia and ill proportioned tailights which appear grafted on from a smaller vehicle. Speaking of the "other site," most of the reader comments were negative towards the Taurus (I don't know when sedans became associated with Boomers, but okay) and many disagreed with the writer's overblown praise for what is merely a slightly attractive sedan.
  • SCE to AUX "Dmitry Medvedev recently took a trip to China and praised the country’s cars as being on par with Mercedes-Benz"Tassos, help us out here!
  • Bugo There is some incorrect information here. First of all, the Z code 300 horsepower 390 4bbl had the Thunderbird valve covers. Source: I have owned a Z code 1962 Galaxie 500 2 door hardtop for almost 35 years. Also, the 340 horsepower 390 was a Police Interceptor engine and was quite rare. Confusingly, it was also given the Z code. The vast majority of 390 engines in 1962 were 300 horsepower engines. And the 352 is a fine engine, not "scrap metal". The 1962 352 only put out 220 horsepower, but in 1960, there was a 360 horsepower 352 that was Ford's first high performance engine since the 1957 supercharged 312 Fairlanes and Customs. That engine was anything but "scrap metal".
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