What's your FAVORITE year & make B body wagon?

I like both of my wagons, but must admit I prefer the Roadmaster over the Caprice.
LT1 wagons a MUST, and no "wood" works best for me. Big mirror '95-'96 look best in my opinion.
So, what say you members? Which year, make and configuration tickles your fancy?

I'll play. I've owned a lot of wagons in the past, but only two Whales. I bought my '96 Roady years-back, then had some financial troubles and sold it to a good friend, and after digging out of the hole I bought an awesome super-low-mile '92 Custom Cruiser, but I later sold it and bought my ORIGINAL '96 Roadmaster back! Ha!

So here's my "reviews" of them. Before any replies, understand that I LOVE both of these cars!


1992 Custom Cruiser:

Cons:
My Olds had the optional 5.7 350 and the lower-geared tow-park rear end. In normal driving it was fine, but it never felt quick. Worlds better than the Olds 307 in my boxy wagons, but not "special" at all either. My wife ran-off and left me for dead one day in our GMC Denali...I mean she totally dusted me. That never happened in my Roadmaster. The TBI was also louder and not as smooth-running as the LT1, and in general the Olds was not as quiet nor as smooth as the Buick...but I consider a Buick a fancier car, so the Roady may have more sound-deadening or insulation than Olds used. The Olds had more wind and road noise. In the Olds you could always feel the engine running at idle. Not a shake or a miss, but sitting at a light you knew the car was running, where in the Roady almost feels electric, at a light it runs so smooth that without a tach you'd almost think it had stalled. The Olds only had single exhaust, and it's not as easy as you'd think to add duals to it. I missed the LT1's duals. While I think the quality of the Olds door panels was better, but as someone that likes to drive with the windows down and my arm on the windowsill, the Olds door panel design was not comfortable for that. The upper panels curve toward the glass, which makes the interior feel HUGE and WIDE, but does not give you an elbow ledge. The Buick panels are near-vertical and have a nice flat top for windows-down arm comfort. There were other little things. The seats were nice (leather), but not nearly as comfy as the leather thrones in the Roady. The Buick has both midrange and tweeters in the door panels, the Olds only has speakers down low in the door, so despite a speaker upgrade, the radio never sounds as good. I missed the roof grab handles as well (I did grab some from a Roady but never installed them in the Olds), no center armrest storage (also an easy junkyard part fix), and other small luxuries the Buicks had that the Olds did not. The dash vents on the Olds also sit lower on the dash, and here in Texas, you want the a/c as high-up and strong as possible! Little things like that...but they all added up. The Buick is just a NICER car that feels much more modern, fancier, and...well...special.

Olds Pros:
The Olds was just a SOLID car. I loved looks inside and out, the Cruisers just look so "right" in general, especially the grill and the lower-body ground effects. Smooth styling, not overdone, but not plain either. Classy. I also loved the Olds dash design, the gauges are just SO sharp and the Olds had an actual decent glove box (for the size of the Roady's dash it's glove box is a joke!), and the Olds interior door panels were a much better quality. The TBI 350 is totally reliable, easy and cheap to work on. I think in-general the Olds was a better-built car.

1996 Roadmaster Wagon
Let's get the negatives out of the way first. The door panels are total junk. GM should be ashamed. They LOOK nice, but the quality of the plastics is flat pitiful, I tell everyone that rides with me to NOT slam the doors. Also the half-plastic/half-leather steering wheel is SO cheap, the color wears off (I've re-dyed mine). I had to have the seat-bottoms of my front seats re-padded a few years back, because while the leather still looked good, the foam under it dried out and collapsed...was like stiing on the floor. The factory dash gauges were a downgrade from the TBI cars, with only temp/fuel/speedo (Camaro cluster fixed that). The black trim on the sides falls off, and the quality of a lot of the exterior trim is lower than expected. The size of the glove box is tiny considering how huge the dash is. The LT1 is more expensive for parts and harder and much more complicated to work on as well. The Roady in general feels looser and not as well bolted together.

Roady Pros:
What can I say, I just adore this car. It just feels "special" in both the way it looks and the way it drives. Some folks consider them "overdone", since there is so much trim/chrome/wood on the outside, and they may be, but to me that adds to the "Family Truckster" jokes that makes the car so much fun. As noted above, the Roady feels more-modern, from the sound of the starter to the smoothness of the motor to the sound of the stereo, lack of road noise, it's just a step-up. The biggest plus is that LT1. People hate on LT1's now, but that motor makes this bar-far the most fun wagon I've ever had. It's smooth, has tons of power, the dual exhaust (with added Flowmaters) sounds so good you just want to set a lawn chair behind the car to hear it burbling like a Chris-Craft. The motor makes SUCH a difference to these cars.


In Conclusion:
I like to go to the local cruise-ins and Cars and Coffee meets, and between the wood, the chrome, the LT1 under the hood, and the general outrageous "overdone" styling it seems EVERYONE loves the Roadmaster. The Custom Cruiser always got positive comments, but people did not fall-all-over themselves looking at the Olds like they do with the Buick. Folks actually take pictures with the Roady, ha! I think a lot of it for general folks has to do with the woodgrain, and with the car folks it's the LT1, despite some hating from the LS folks, that does it.

Anyway that's my long-winded review. I always love to hear what others say!

-Mike

I guess I like the '92 Olds Custom Cruiser best. And not just because I own one. I specifically went and looked for that model and year. I like the look of the cladding on the OCC. IMO, it gives it a touch of a modern look (well, modern in the 1990s when I first saw it). I love the Vista roof glass and I also like the continuous C-pillar trim and glass lines of the '92 OCC and Caprices. The C-pillar trim and glass lines of the RMW and '91 OCC look really formal to me. Next on my list I guess would be the Caprice. I like it's casual, clean, informal but imposing look. The RMW with all it's formalness and chrome, and especially with wood, gives an elegant, classic retro look -I remember thinking that even when the RMW came out. It's a beautiful, dignified looking wagon, but it's not quite my first choice when talking '91 to '96 wagons. That said, I do own a woody RMW, lol.

My '92 Olds:






My '96 Roady:






Loved them both. NEVER selling the Roadmaster!

-Mike

96 Roadmaster Estate Wagon!
Got the big mirrors, LT1 with better camshaft, great interior, climate control, etc.

I love my 95 Caprice wagon, but the interior is so lame. It looks like its from the 70's and the factory seats are horrible, I have Roadmaster leather sedan seats coming for it this week!

I love my 92 OCC as well. When I was looking for a wagon I was looking at Caprices mostly, the Roadmaster with it's almost gaudy stainless trim did not appeal to me. So when I came across the Custom Cruiser, it was just the ticket! With the Vista roof and the extra standard options over the Caprice, (Sungate) and the exterior trim is appealing, not overdone. Only thing I'd add is the 95-96 big mirrors, and of course at some point I'm going to dump the TBI engine and automatic trans. Another reason I was looking for TBI cars is the factory tach dash and interior overall is more appealing to me.

I like my 1996 Caprice: one of 638.  I wish it had the electronic climate control of my former 1996 Roadmaster wagon.

My favorite is the 1995 Buick Roadmaster with a red or blue interior.

I love the buick roadmaster wagon . It seems to be the perfect car to me , it has everything I like . The only thing I hate is that Gm stopped making wagons . I have a 93 roadmaster wagon and I had a lt1 put in it . I bought her as a shell and the only thing I wish she had would be the big mirrors . But besides that I can't really find any real cons cause I know she is a old gal anyway lol .

My favorite would be the 1992 Oldsmobile Custom Cruiser, clean exterior, comfortable interior when optioned right.

Now If I was building a wagon from parts, I'd go with a Caprice body TBI Roadmaster Limited interior, Olds grille with a 6.0 6L80 combo and 3.73 rear.

Having owned 13 of them, of every possible variant just about...

I love the Olds interior, exterior, dash.
I like the Caprice side glass (cleaner look and no 'sail' panels to replace) so think 92 OCC is a winner.

Well hold on, I also surf and kayak and while I can stuff both in the back, sometimes a long trip the roof racks come in handy. The Caprice roof racks are far better for me as both my surfboard and kayak are over 9 feet long and the Olds/RMW roof rack is not good for much over 4 feet long.

For a stock interior, a 92 Caprice with the luxury cloth seats. Even more comfy than the RMW seats, although the Caprice rear bench seems too short under my legs.

LT1 hands down for power and popping the hood at car shows (although a LS swap into an Olds is a good way to go too).

Of the specific one's I've owned, the 91 OCC I bought from Brokecello has been my favorite one despite the 305, although my LT1 soon to be T-56 will replace it when I'm through in the 'that's my baby' category.

Well if we're talking color combos, I'd say my fav RMW would be a LAB wood delete with the lighter blue cloth or leather interior. Funny thing, I owned a woodless LAB Caprice and hated the way it looked, go figure. A DGGM wood delete RMW with tan CLOTH interior would be a close second (which I've owned).
My favorite Caprice wagon would be a 1995+ DGGM non-woody with a gray "premium" interior (the nicer seats and all the wood trim). A Medium Garnet Red with gray interior would be a close second (which I have also owned).
My favorite OCC would be a '92 in white, with a tan, or red leather interior.

Oh, and I like the look of the small mirrors on the RMW and OCC, but not on the Caprice (looks too fancy!). I also have to add that the small mirrors are worthless as far as seeing things in them goes.

[quote="Lynol"]Well if we're talking color combos, I'd say my fav RMW would be a LAB wood delete with the lighter blue cloth or leather interior.

Just so happens, I currently own a '96 Roadmaster Estate Limited in Light Adriatic Blue with the blue cloth interior After customizing my Caprice , I get back to working on the Buick. Hope to do a full body and paint plus perhaps some other goodies. She might be for sale when finished. Should I contact you with pics and a price?

Steve Smith wrote:

Lynol wrote:

Well if we're talking color combos, I'd say my fav RMW would be a LAB wood delete with the lighter blue cloth or leather interior.

Just so happens, I currently own a '96 Roadmaster Estate Limited in Light Adriatic Blue with the blue cloth interior  After customizing my Caprice , I get back to working on the Buick. Hope to do a full body and paint plus perhaps some other goodies. She might be for sale when finished. Should I contact you with pics and a price?

Yeah, why not. Keep me posted.

oh for color PPM with grey. Only have seen pics but oh boy did it look nice

[quote="Sprocket"]oh for color PPM with grey.   Only have seen pics but oh boy did it look nice

My former father-in-law was a big Caddy fan and I remember him showing up at my house for a Sunday visit and handing me the keys to his new purple pearl Fleetwood. Sweet color!

81X11 wrote:

Loved them both.  NEVER selling the Roadmaster again!

fixed

Having driven my '92 Olds with TBI 5.7 for 13 years every day until last November, I would agree with everything that Texas Mike has stated above with the only exception being the awareness that the vehicle is running..  I have never felt the engine running and often glance across the tacho just to verify before touching the starter.  The '92 Roadmaster that I replaced my Olds with is essentially a carbon copy of the Olds with minor upgraded differences.  The door panels are interchangeable minus center inserts and are therefore the same quality.  The seats in the Buick are more plush than the Olds, but that said I liked my CC seats just fine.  I have acquired a taste for my inner Clark Griswold and learned to appreciate the woodgrain and lavish stainless trim associated with the Buick wagon.  I liked what Olds did in '92 with the deletion of the sail panels on the rear quarter windows, it made for a very long, clean back half of the car and to my knowledge is the only car to have these windows.  Although I love the idea of and extra 80 horsepower in my wagon, I can appreciate the longevity and die hard reliability/ ease of maintenance of the TBI examples.  I drive one hour to work every day and the reliability of my TBI car was incredible.  I am a mechanic by trade and do regular maintenance and look/listen for problems when I am driving the car.  Maybe that has something to do with my good fortune on the road.  It is my opinion that if I were to go to the expense and trouble to increase the power of the car, I would look into an LS swap with an iron block.  But why would I do that when I now have a perfectly good 85000 mile TBI ready for daily use?  I have other weekend cars that Id prefer to dump the recreational money into.  As mentioned the Buick is equipped a little nicer than the Olds, I've never cared for the map pouch on the dash of the Olds, and never used it for concerns of tearing then gentle vinyl.  Another thing I prefer with the TBI cars is a full gauge cluster.  Of these examples I thought that Oldsmobile had the best looking cluster, and I've even wondered if I could simply swap the cluster in on my Buick.  What were they thinking when they dumbed down the cluster with the LT1 cars??!!  I also like the manually controlled 4L60 transmission over the electronic version as well as the low profile roof luggage rack and R12 refrigerant in the cooling system throwing pop cycles at you.  On average, I've found that low mile examples of LT1 cars cost around $2000 more than TBI examples in equal condition.. I see this as $2000 toward the previously mentioned LS swap.  With all of this said, I'll add that the LT1 cars are just cool!  I like the '95-'96 mirrors much better, I like the addition of external oil and transmission coolers, dual exhaust, dual airbag, factory optioned touring suspension.  I will admit that all of these girls are big, although not as big as most of the general public perceives.  Being as big as they are, I prefer mine in a sleek dark dress rather than a big white wedding gown which limits my options drastically but again this is only my opinion.  I like lots of amenities including the roof glass and find that most of the Caprice wagons are sparse for my taste.  With all of these considerations, I'd say I like the '92-'93 Buick wagon first followed VERY closely by the '92 Olds Custom Cruiser.

I've had '93 and '94 RMW's. Both are great cars. I prefer the dash of the '93. The '94 has an understated elegance, but I like the wide expanses of wood-colored plastic of the earlier model. Full instrumentation was a plus, as well. The front bow of the '93's roof rack was better integrated into the roofline. I like added power of the '94, but with me 2.93 rear, it feels best when it's up to speed and cruising down the road. Would be happy to buy another one of each.