1986 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme - What Everyone Wanted

Back in the 1980's, everyone I knew wanted a car just like this 1986 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme. This one's for sale down near Columbus, Ohio with an asking price of, he swallows hard, $10,500. 

Good thing it doesn't have t-tops. buckets, console and floor shifter. Otherwise, I might be tempted to take the two-hour drive south and kick its tires. A 4-4-2 in this shape for this asking price? That's a different story but as this is, I think I'll stay home.

Despite just 56,000-miles on it's analog ticker, I think this bought well at $6,000. NADA pegs it average retail at $3,000, high retail $4,000 so I believe I'm being more than fair. Along with that faded interior are a number of exterior ouchies that'll have friends and family looking at you sideways if you dropped five figures on this. 

Cars like this run counter to today's do-everything-well, including looking great, crossovers as they make no sense. Too big and too small, while they handled relatively well for the times, by today's standards they handle like a bathtub full of water, ergonomics are terrible, they're not particularly good on gas and are pretty slow despite having a fairly healthy sized V-8 engine (no pictures of the engine in the online ad). 

Back in my day, those that didn't like these types of cars were generally not "car people" anyway. They weren't slaves to fashion or image and usually made much better vehicular decisions choosing wholly unsexy Honda Accords and Toyota Camrys. Cars that might not have looked great, I know, that's subjective, but performed well and, more importantly, stayed bolted together long after their initial payment books were completed.  

I, of course, wanted nothing to do with anything remotely practical, the thought of driving anything that wasn't domestic was literally and figuratively foreign to me too. And I repeatedly paid dearly for my  loyalty. Given the chance, I'd do it all over again not changing a thing too.