Junkyard Gem: 1978 Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight Regency Coupe

For most of the 20th century, Oldsmobile occupied a comfortable place in the General Motors status hierarchy: more prestigious than those aspirational Pontiacs yet less show-offy than the snooty Buicks. In 1978, the Ninety-Eight Regency reigned as King of the Oldsmobiles, and Olds shoppers with both money and a bit of gangster-style swagger chose the rakish Ninety-Eight Regency Coupe. Forty-two years of hard use has eroded much of the luster from the crown of today’s Junkyard Gem, but we can still see flashes of Malaise Era opulence in this car, now awaiting the crusher in a Northern California self-service yard.

The door panels combine fuzzy velour with intricately crafted (injection-molded) “wood” trim. In other words, “the traditional qualities you’ve come to expect in a premier luxury Oldsmobile.”

These pillow-top seats were seriously comfy.

Perhaps you wouldn’t want to throw a Ninety-Eight into a corner the way you might a BMW 528i of the same era, but you’d float down the highway in a Ninety-Eight and not even care that gas lines were just around the corner.

The padded landau roof, a $298 option (that’s about $1,230 in 2020 dollars), has held up very well for one that had to survive the California sun.

The MSRP on this 3,767-pound land yacht came to $7,427 in 1978, with interest rates you didn’t want to contemplate too hard. That’s about $30,675 after inflation, the annual rate of which was pushing 8% in 1978.

85 mph speedometers weren’t required by federal law until 1979, but GM got a jump on the rule with the Ninety-Eight.

This car was capable of a top speed well over 85 mph, of course, with the four-barrel-equipped Olds 403 engine under the hood. This was the “6.6 Litre” engine made famous in the Pontiac Trans Ams of the period, rated at a disappointing 185 horsepower and an impressive 320 lb-ft of torque in 1978. Fuel economy was horrid, naturally, but you didn’t buy a Ninety-Eight if you were pinching pennies.

You could tell that a Ninety-Eight owner was nobody to be trifled with, just by observing the futuristic “digital” dash clock. I’ve got a few members of the GM mechanical-digital timepiece family in my collection, as one does.

The “wire wheels” will remain with the car to the end, unless some junkyard shopper purchases them.

You could have bought this car with a 5.7-liter diesel V8, but those engines didn’t work out so well in the real world.