Junkyard Find: 1989 Oldsmobile 98 Regency, Old Glory Edition

I love the wrecking yards in my adopted state of Colorado, but you can’t beat the high-inventory-turnover big chain yards in urban California when it comes to weird Junkyard Finds with enjoyably incomprehensible backstories. Today’s San Jose find, an extremely patriotic 11th-gen Olds 98 sedan, must have a fascinating tale behind it… if only we could puzzle it out.

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Hammer Time: Cash For Sandy

During the next several weeks you are going to be exposed to a lot of pointless hysteria about used cars prices in the Northeast.

Journalists will point out the extremes and the outliers to a media audience that is always easily attracted to the extremes and outliers of our society.

But it won’t be the truth. The real bump in traffic related to Hurricane Sandy won’t be with used cars at all.

It will be with new cars.

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  • Wjtinfwb Malibu will be the Ford Panther of this decade. We won't miss it until its gone. GM will tell you there's no market for sedans anymore. Honda, Toyota, Nissan, Hyundai, Kia, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, VW, Audi and others will challenge you on that. GM gave up on Malibu as soon as it was introduced in 2017, no development, only de-contenting and relegation to "Fleet" status. I've had a lot of Malibu rentals, they were fine. Not as nice as an Accord or Camry, but preferable to an Altima, Sentra, Sonata or Jetta in my mind. A little development in the powertrain, refinement of the suspension and clean up on the styling would have done wonders. But that's not the GM way. Replace it with something else equally mediocre or worse but charge more because it sits higher. It's a shame GM has been relegated to such a back of the class manufacturer when spectacular cars like the C8 Corvette show what they can do when someone really gives a damn.
  • SCE to AUX This has been a topic for at least four decades.In a world filled with carcinogens, you'd need an enormous study to isolate the effects of seat foam compared to every other exposure we have.Besides, do people really drive around without any fresh air purging the cabin?
  • Rna65689660 This is NOT new information. They’ve known this for decades.
  • Wjtinfwb Had an E38, loved it dearly. I thought nothing could make me love the subsequent "Bangle" 7 series, but this latest version did. Apparently the psychotic drug epidemic plaguing North America has made its way to Munich and filtered into the design studios. This car is just grotesque.
  • Wjtinfwb Any Focus with a manual is a great car. The automatics... beware. I've had two, both manuals, a Gen 1 SVT and a Gen 2 ST, bulletproof, super low maintenance costs, reasonably entertaining to drive and very comfortable for long drives. Unfortunately, manuals are very scarce, this one, if decently maintained and not thrashed, would be a helluva deal at 4k and under 100k miles.