1982 Oldsmobile Omega - Paralell Park THIS

  

I was listening to the '80's channel on Sirius XM the other day and one of the recordings between songs referred to the '80's as the "Decade of Excess". Made me laugh. Really? The 1980's? Well, if you're not of that decade and everything you've gleamed about the '80's is from movies you could come to the conclusion that back then everyone was wealthy, drove DeLoreans and was pushing some crap up their nose. Reality check - the early '80s were a continuation of the miserable '70's as the country struggled to recover from one recession after another. The economy recovered somewhat after 1982 into a half assed party that led, ultimately to another recession at the end of the decade that lasted well into the first half of the Clinton administration. If you're looking for one automobile that summed up that very up and down decade you're looking at it here. Domestically anyway. "Decade of Excess". Ha. The only thing excessive about this 1982 Oldsmobile Omega is that it was excessively bad.

Good times. General Motors massive downsizing started out generally successful in 1977. It's shrunken full size B and C body cars were heralded as being nothing short of marvels of engineering. However, honestly, they were more like redesigned 1973 A bodies than anything that was truly revolutionary. Same for the 1978 A bodies which borrowed heavily from the rear drive X bodies. It was the new, front wheel drive X bodies introduced in 1980 that were truly "revolutionary" since GM didn't have a template, so to speak, to work from. Sadly, revolutionary doesn't guarantee that the execution of the plan will be as sounds as the ideas behind it.

The X-body Omega, like its sister vehicles Chevrolet Citation, Pontiac Phoenix and Buick Skylark were some of the most trouble-prone vehicles that GM ever produced necessitating an astounding number of government-mandated recalls for braking problems (there was no rear proportioning valve installed), fluid leaks, suspension issues and who knows what else.

Ironies of ironies, my first experience with one of these was actually quite pleasant. I learned to drive in a white on red Oldsmobile Omega and found it handled, braked and responded far better than my father's shuddering mess of a 1972 Cadillac. In fairness I believe my Daddy's Caddy was a terrible example of a mediocre car (it may have been in a very bad accident and rebuilt) so that reference point is biased but my impression, nonetheless, was positive.

Except for the  mechanical oddity of the car stalling when the steering was pushed past its limits making parallel parking interesting if not outright dangerous, I really enjoyed driving it. I thought the styling homely but not nearly as gruesome as the hatchback Chevrolet Citation and Pontiac Phoenix. By the way, when was the last time you paralleled parked anyway?

While the Oldsmobile Omega was the only one of the four X-cars to sell better in 1981 than in 1980 (147,918 versus 134,323), starting in 1982, production fell dramatically. Only 77,469 Omegas were built in '82, with 53,926 in 1983 and 52,986 in swan-song 1984. That drop off in sales no doubt coming on the heels of the recalls. The "Decade of Excess" soldiered on with this car's somewhat better replacement, the 1985 vintage N-body Olds Calais.