Meant to be!

How’s it going everyone? I’m Norm from central Washington and I’ve finally found myself a longroof! I saw this car on Facebook marketplace a few months ago and immediately wanted it. I’ve always loved wagons and had a couple smaller Honda wagons, but never a b-body. I contacted the seller and tried talking him into trading for my current car (Scion xB). He didn’t go for it so I kept hoping I’d sell my car in a timely matter to get the funds to buy the wagon.

After a few months, I was starting to lose hope that I would be able to get it. I kept in contact with him, I was shocked he still had it. He said people kept flaking on him and nobody, except for me, really showed any interest in buying it.

So, I started getting desperate to sell my car. I decided to post it on Instagram just to see if anyone was interested in it. Sure enough a friend on there was interested in buying the toaster. So much so that he’s been buying parts for it. Long story short, he’s moving near by (3 hours away) beginning of July and is going to take it off my hands for my asking price.

I contacted the seller again and let him know what was going on. He agreed to hold the car for me and took his ad down. He said he could tell that I really wanted it and would take care of it.

I have yet to see it in person since he lives 7 hours away, but I have a few pics from the ad. It’s a 92 Oldsmobile Custom Cruiser. Previously owned by and elderly couple that took very good care of it. Only has 80k miles and is super clean. Current owner has only put 800 miles on it. Only damage is it’s missing the trim on the passenger side, said the previous owner was tapped in a parking lot. Hopefully I’ll be back in here in a few weeks showing off my new wagon!!

Nice! and Welcome. Lmk which piece it is missing. I have alot of OCC cladding both 91 and 92 (they attach differently). Not looking to make a big profit on it, just find a good home for as it's so hard to find....Shipping will be the enemy as I'm in SE FL (could I get any further ha ha?)

I've had 4 Olds wagons (3 91s ) and think they are the best looking of the 3.

That’s awesome! Thanks man. I’ve been looking online for trim pieces and haven’t been too successful. I messaged the seller to see what pieces are missing, I’ll definitely get back to you on this. Appreciate it!

I think I’ll have a few more questions for you in the future seeing as you sound like someone that should know a thing or two about these cars. Mostly wondering if they share suspension parts with the other b-body wagons. I was looking for lowering suspension parts and mostly just finding Impala, Caprice or Roadmaster parts. I’m assuming they’re all the same across the board but never know.

I talked to the seller. He said it’s both door pieces on the passenger side.

Great looking OCC,happy modding...

VERY pretty car! Glad it worked out for you and glad to have you here on the forum!

Best of luck with it!

-Michael

Unfortunately, I don’t think the OCC is gonna work out. So on the look out for another one.

Found this one. It’s a 92 with 225k miles, seller is asking 3400.

I had planned on going to look at the 92 on Saturday until I saw this 95. Owned by an older gentleman that basically just used it to drive back and forth to North Dakota. As far as he knows it has around 100k miles. Very clean leather interior, rear seats never used and has the LT1. Asking 3500. Think I’ll be checking this one out instead.

Well the small mirrors tell me that blue wagon is a 94, not a 95, but still that would be an LT1 car, and would be a lot of fun.
Beyond that, it looks like the blue car has a sunroof! If that's the ASC-style power sliding sunroof, those were dealer-installed and REALLY NICE! Had one in the 1992 Roady Sedan I'd refurbished, and it would be awesome to have a wagon with one! Very rare find if that's what it is!

Good to know! It was advertised as a 95, but the owner is elderly and I’m sure doesn’t know. And yes it does have a sunroof, I forgot to ask if it’s a power sliding one, but I’d assume so. I like having a sunroof, as long as it doesn’t leak. Sounds like a really nice car. He did say it has a light in the dash, something that has to do with the keyless entry remote. He said he never used them and it’s always worked fine so I’m not sure what that’s about but doesn’t sound too major.

What a day! So, yesterday after talking to the owner of the 94 again on the phone, I decided that would be the one to buy. Since it was three hours away from us, in the Seattle area, we decided to drive over there Friday night. Got up this morning, got the kids ready and went to check it out. When we pulled up, the car looked good from the street. As I got closer I started seeing flaws that I wasn’t expecting. I talked to the owner for awhile, got his whole life story, and got to looking at the car. Car fired right up and sounded good, then he starts telling me about how the fans haven’t been coming on and a few other things. Checked out the interior where I noticed large screws with washers holding the door panels and arm rests to the doors. The back seats were folded down so I tried putting them up and they didn’t want to lock in place either. The dealer installed sunroof did work but was missing the trim. There were also some other miscellaneous trim pieces either missing or broken. At this point I wasn’t completely sold on it but figured I’d at least go drive it. On the short trip around the block I realized the odometer he thought was broken definitely was not and the car had 189000 miles on it. After he had told me it had around 100k. We got back to his house and parked the car, he talked my ear off some more and I told him we were going to go eat and think about it. Not a chance I was going to buy it.

I talked to my wife and she agreed we should drive down to Vancouver to look at the red one. Vancouver is three hours south of Seattle, in a perfect world, which today was not lol. We left Seattle around 12:30 and got to Vancouver after 5:00. Kids screaming, wife steaming, all of us drained from the drive and sitting in traffic for two hours.

The red car was super clean for its age. Some minor cosmetic stuff here and there but nothing that was a deal breaker. Went for a cruise with the owner, got a few thumbs up and head nods on our short drive. Best part of the drive, the owner tells me “if you look in the windows of this building coming up, you can see how it looks going down the road”. Hahaha, total car guy move! So anyways, I now own a 92 Caprice wagon. Finally a Longroof owner!!

As luck would have it, I came out to find this this morning leaving the hotel. No note or anything, of course. The hotel has a camera facing the parking lot, but not where I was parked. Luckily I did put full coverage insurance on it, so should only cost the deductible to get it fixed. Not how I wanted to start off our relationship haha.

Wow that's really REALLY annoying - and quite a hell of a whack too. I've wrecked these cars enough to know LOL

Sucks to see that...

Heard back from the insurance today. They said my car is only worth $2k and with a repair estimate of over $1600 they wanted to total out my car. So, I ended up canceling my claim and I’ll have to get it fixed out of pocket. Super annoying but not worth having a salvage title.

Unpopular opinioN: a salvage title isn't going to change much on a 25 year old car.

Take the money, fix it, and enjoy it.

You got me thinking about it now. They’ll give me close to $1600 if I keep it. I could get the tailgate and AC fixed. Hmmm

Norm wrote:

You got me thinking about it now. They’ll give me close to $1600 if I keep it. I could get the tailgate and AC fixed. Hmmm

Yeah if you can get the 1600 and be able to drive the car, take it. No one cares about a salvage title. In FL unfortunately when the total it, they issue a certificate of destruction and you can't register it again But it varies from state to state and with a salvage title you can even register it in FL....

GLad you got one you like. I had a 92 that color and loved it.

Yeah exactly. See what the laws in your state are and if you can keep it on the road, take the money and run.

negotiate with your insurance rep. When my old wagon maybe an 85ish, got hit the first round with the insurance went: totaled, minus 2000 from book value for a total repaint to reach book value (due to a small patch of primer on a door not involved in the impact), turn over the title and keys, here is $1600. Final conversation: Here is $2400 fix it yourself. It was still my daily driver through the 3 months of negotiations with the insurance company.

The "good hands" are probably in your pocket

Norm wrote:

Heard back from the insurance today. They said my car is only worth $2k and with a repair estimate of over $1600 they wanted to total out my car. So, I ended up canceling my claim and I’ll have to get it fixed out of pocket. Super annoying but not worth having a salvage title.

I worried about this too when a kid backed into my driver door. The agent was sure it would total the car, but the value held and they spent 2700 to replace the door. I would have done the same. Salvage title, even for a car you can't sell is an insurance and registration nightmare.

My only regret. Not saving the door plate from the bad door.

from the pictures I would have said that the car fell into the 20 footer category which would put it in the average range on the price scales which at least in my area according to NADAguides is $3,650.

I think the insurance just wants to low ball so they don't have to pay as much money on it.