To understand the Olds diesels, one has to understand the era. The national speed limit was 55 mph. Most gasoline engines were still carbureted and even small displacement gas engines didn't get good fuel economy. Also, at the time diesel fuel was 20%-30% cheaper than unleaded regular gasoline. During the 1979 gasoline shortage in the U.S., diesel fuel supplies did not suffer the same supply shortfalls. So, the diesels may have been slow and smoky, but they got much better fuel economy than their gasoline counterparts at the time, and did so using cheaper fuel. What spelled the end of the Olds diesels more than anything was the wide deployment of gasoline fuel injection by the end of the 1980's, combined with the introduction of the GM 3.8 V6 gasoline engine that had tons more power than the diesels and got fuel economy competitive with the Olds diesels.

Those internal door handles with the red "not locked" indicator on the slider bring back memories.

This is my car pictured. I bought this past week. Currently it’s getting new tires, rear brakes and an oil change. The engine bay in your video is not mine that I’m aware of. It drives very smooth. It is a 1983 not an 82 as you mentioned in your video.

As silly as it sounds, this nearly brought tears... My grandparents had a 6000 in this exact spec... Same color, trim level, and 4.3 liter V6 diesel. It treated them well actually, and I remember my grandfather boasting the fuel economy. They lived several hours away from us, and from other family, so they did a lot of road trips in it. I seem to recall them getting over 40mpg in some cases, which was actually better than my dad's gas powered VW Rabbit at the time

Adam, I notice this 'slow, stinky and crazy' Pontiac 6000 Diesel has Minnesota license plates. I would imagine that the vast plumes of toxic exhaust that emerge from the tailpipe would come in very handy this time of year for fogging the emerging mosquitoes🦟 and black flies. 🪰A couple of slow laps of the neighborhood ought to be sufficient to clear out the bugs for a week.😝

Once again, I very much appreciate your excellent work. Your scripting and delivery is top notch; that is NOT all that common on KZfaq. I/we look forward to each of your releases.

A-body the best year 1988 I owned a Olds ciera with FE3 suspension and velour “Pullman” interior with one inch deep carpeting with all options. It was export version Europe sold at then popular dealer in Eindhoven the Netherlands. I was second owner and sold it to my future wife with 278000km on the odo. She drove it until the 3-speed transmission fell a part at 460000km! Only regular maintenance Best car till this day!! We both newer Gina forget the joy we had driving!! The FE3 suspension was excellent choice for this car!! Well probably made in ”Wednesday”!😅

My mom had an '84 with the 2.8 liter V6. These were excellent cars. I remember looking at the owners manual and discovered that they did sell a diesel version, but I've never seen one in person. Great video!

My uncle bought a new grey import 1988 6000 2.8v6 to use as a taxicab here in the Netherlands. Probably converted to LPG. In 1991, when I got my driver's license at age 18, it was the first automatic car I drove. It was 'quite interesting' to experience the lack of engine braking for the first time 😅

One of things I always wondered about the A-body 4.3 V6 diesel is where GM had done any market research - because I worked for a huge GM dealer during this era and we never had any of them in inventory. No customers were asking for them, most had the wonderful 2.8 V6

We had an 86 STE with all the toys was pretty cool to have a 5 band EQ from the factory in those days.

I had a 1980 Ols diesel Delta 88, green over green and green interior with those big cushion seats was like a sofa. I got it very cheap maybe $1,200.00 in 1983, had 25k miles and a blown head gasket. Mechanics both at dealers and private didn't want to touch it under $3,000.00, a lot of money for the time. I replaced the head gasket myself in my garage took about a week as I took polaroid pictures at each step and reassembled in order. I drove that car across country a few times and always got 40-55 mpg. You had to drive like a big rig, slowly off the line and walk into it and never, ever floor it. Change the oil every 2500 miles. I actually loved it. I bought a 2nd one in 1982 a coupe deep maroon stunning. It was gas as I couldn't find a diesel. Great video thanks and keep them coming!

As in typical GM fashion, by the time they discontinued this car around 1989-90 it was really cool, handled and performed well, and was made much better. This early style always looked dumpy and old fashioned to me.

1:50 The Pontiac variant of the Chevy Chevette was the T1000. Except here in Canada, where it was called the Pontiac Acadian.

I was a Pontiac dealer tech in the 80's and worked on these but never had a 4.3 diesel come in with bad head gaskets BUT the 5.7 did all the time.

My family had the 82 Buick Century version of this car. Diesel. It was the first car in my memory as a kid. My parents moved us and drove us 5 members of my family from Iowa to coastal California in the mid 80s. 5 of us in the 2-door version for 2000+ miles. To this day I have no idea how that thing made it over the Rockies and Sierras with all of us, plus a full trunk of luggage! I was pretty young still, so I don’t have specific memories of it. But I’m still in disbelief we made it the whole way.

Good buddy had a Century 4.3 diesel. He manual-swapped it, did a roller-rocker swap, hotter pump... ran pretty decent. Nothing like a warm gasser even, but better than stock. Why spend all that on it? "Who else has one?" Was one of his normal responses.

Wow that engine bay looks like a mechanic's nightmare! I bought a used 83 LE when i was a young man. The 2.8 V6 had minimal power but it was a comfortable cruiser on the highway. Decent fuel mileage, good stereo for the day. Tons of front end issues shortened its tenure with me. I traded it in on a 5 year old 4 speed Lada Signet, that is another story. Great video glad you talk about vehicles most other KZfaqrs choose to ignore. 🇨🇦

I worked at a Pontiac dealership at the time and we never had a 6000 diesel come in for dealer stock nor was one ever customer ordered or dealer traded for. The 6000 STE was a hell of a good car the 2.8 v6 was outstanding . Never saw them come in for service work, the 2.5 4cyl (4-tech) they were the 6000's that usually had a repair. Remember the first time I saw a wiring harness on a 6000 STE behind the dash it stunned me never seen anything like it up to that point it was huge. Never forgot how good the STE's were.

My parents had a 84 Buick century diesel. Car had every option you could get. Even had a alarm - which my sister and I would set off constantly to Moms dismay. We would get 30-40 mpg with it. Dad had an excavation company so getting fuel wasn’t hard unless mom ran out when she wasn’t doing stuff. She was not a fan of having to fuel up at a truck stop because at the time that was the only place you could get diesel where we lived at the time. I remember when the car threw a rod - dad dropped mom off for appointment and thought something wasn’t right with it and was going to take it to the dealer - it was still under warranty. Well the motor came completely apart as we were rolling into the dealer. They frantically pushed it into the service shop and mopped up the Valdez sized oil spill. I was about 8 -9 years old at the time. If I remember correctly it threw a rod and not only took out the motor the rod went through the transmission. GM refused to fix it - gave may parents some money for it. I know my father wasn’t happy since he was a life long GM customer. Ended up getting a ford Taurus.

I worked Security from 1995-2001 at the University of Nebraska, and one of our backup vehicles was a 1984 Pontiac 6000. If I remember correctly, it had a 4cyl in it? It was a pretty decent car.

"These aren't the diesels of today." Hell, it's not the diesel of Mercedes back then. The 1982 3-liter 5-cylinder non-turbo has 88 HP, with ⅔ the displacement.

My aunt had a 1984 Pontiac 6000 with the 2.8. I remember it being pretty peppy and the Delco GM radio sounded rich and powerful.

My parents had an early 1980's Olds 98 regency with the 350 diesel. It was super slow, but got pretty decent fuel economy if I remember correctly. It had over 300k miles when my parents sold it. I remember it having injector pump problems early on.

One thing you have taught me, Adam, is a much better perspective on what our American car industry was going through after the second oil crisis. I got burned with a MOPAR lemon. I'm sure for your younger viewers that, like the demise of the British car industry, it's very easy with hindsight to see problems that weren't clear then. Though I'm glad I never owned one, I admire GM for trying rather desperately to completely transform the nature of its business in a very short time by car maker standards.

I worked on a few of these when they were new... Great to see one still running....

I was a GM dealership parts guy when these cars hit the showroom floor. I will say that the 4.3L V6 Diesel was more thoroughly engineered and far more reliable than the 5.7L V8 version.

My buddy at Complete Toilet Garage has a Century 4.3L diesel fwd. Acceleration acceptable, mpg high 30s low 40s and not stinky if in good repair

The A-body cars are the only ones I can name, other than the 1981 Rolls Royce Silver Spur, that had self-retracting (using the motor reversal to go all the way down when shut off) wipers which were not hidden by the hood. An "unusual features" video on the various wiper configurations over the years could easily take 30 minutes.

When I moved into my neighborhood in 1983 one of the neighbors who later became a friend had a full size Oldsmobile with the V-8 diesel. Although he liked it his wife really loved it. When it finally went the way of all diesels from GM they went to look for another car. For some reason I don’t remember I went with them to shop. After looking at a few cars they really didn’t like the wife asked the salesman if they had any diesels. The salesman brought out a few year old Cutlass fwd with a six(?) cylinder diesel. They bought it right away. I remember they had it for a few years and then transitioned to Chrysler minivans. Which is another story all on its own.

The fact that this thing survived being a diesel, is amazing. It deserves to be pampered for sure.

My first car was an orange with red interior 6000 2.8 liter V6. I loved that car until I got hit by a drunk driver head on. This car saved my life!

Always enjoy your retrospective videos Adam.

Those Olds diesels within months would stink like crazy making one believe a fuel line had burst under the hood. I owned an ‘84 Suburban with one and you could easily find it in the dark just by following the odor. It was the first vehicle I ever owned that seemingly slowed down when you downshifted to pass.

I remember Car & Driver calling it the “Goolie” 😆

Years ago I had bought an 85 6000 LE wagon with the carbureted 2.8, it's was named Andrew because the ppl I bought it from were in Miami when hurricane Andrew hit and had blown it on its side. Besides the clearcoat being blown off and some scuff marks it ran great. I wouldn't be surprised if it was still on the road somewhere

The 6000 was one of those cars that was there for awhile, then gone and forgotten almost completely. Never saw a diesel version or even knew it was a thing...

The locking fuel fill door was standard on LEs. I also have the center console. I have an 82 6000 Le with 45k original miles. It is Tech 4 powered and runs great. The 13" wheels suck as my tire choices are limited. Also, the "pancake compressor" is really called the R4 and they are pretty good.

We had both a 1983 Pontiac J2000 wagon and a 1985 Pontiac 6000 wagon. The Pontiac 6000, with the 2.8 V6, was more trouble-free and smoother to drive. The 4 cylinder engine in the J2000 seemed to be located by extremely soft engine mounts. The steering rack on our J2000 had to be replaced, I recall.

Old enough to have been there, wife car was 81 Bonneville Brougham, neighbors a 81 Olds Custom Cruiser, his father in law had 84 Olds w/the V-6 diesel, it got head gaskets @ around 90k miles if I remember right. We did our own work so it wasn't much of an issue. The 40 mpg is accurate statement. However there were a bunch of lies about the V-8 getting over 30, never saw over 26 in any honest mpg test. Maybe w/a tailwind @ 55 mph.

Thanks for this one, Adam.. Those early GM diesel engines were an unmitigated disaster all around, which is too bad, really.. A quality diesel engine could have made a real difference.

Dark days back then for all manufactures. The government had plenty of regulations that completely stifled the industry, and it still holds true today! That's why all auto's look the same now a days!!

Thank you Adam. Thank you for sharing the details on the 6000. They kept making changes on this car over time and adding features. The Bonneville and 6000 shared the same seat design in Bonneville SE and LE and 6000 STE and Bonneville SSE trims in the 1980's. The only thing about the 6000 is it never got a powerful engine. I know they want the 3.8 liter V6., but never got it. The STE and SSE really got close for a while in terms of features and content. I appreciated hearing about the Oldsmobile diesel V6. You mentioned other places they use the V6 as well. I was about to say that.

I like those last years of the updated 6000. My grandfather had a 1990 LE.

Having grown up in the sixties and early seventies, as a boy and a car nut I know those cars much better than these newer-generation cars, like the Fiero and this Pontiac, though I had a friend in my thirties with a 6000. Thanks so much for these videos as I'm learning a lot, and best wishes from Texas.

I drove a new 1983 Olds version of the car with this diesel a couple times. Yeah, it was slow, and quite noticeably nose heavy. It would be interesting to know what its front/rear weight distribution was. Generally it was fairly smooth at higher RPM, but there is a noticeable amount of vibration, especially just above idle, due to its compression ratio of around 22:1. It was an even-fire engine, it had split crank throws (and thus broken crankshafts were a problem). Generally even the early 4.3L diesels escaped many of the V8 diesel’s maladies, since it had 6 head bolts surrounding each cylinder versus just 4 on the V8s, and they generally had stronger bottom ends.

Since the A bodies hung in there for so long this one seems surprisingly modern (in its appearance) for a 1982 model.

Saw this baby back then, I beg to differ because at the time that engine was the largest available as well as the most powerful, even though it produced less horsepower than the V8 engine but it was the torquest V6 engine which was a first back then, I would have preferred this engine, because the 2.5 /4 and the 2.8 V6 weren't perfect either from memory, besides both engines had durability problems due to lack of proper maintenance which I noticed that in 1978 I guess as well as right now nobody has ever came forth and mentioned how did he/she took care of the car, and the fact that I am a mechanic I paid particular attention to the car/s I saw the same thing until 1985, engines ruined simply because of very low oil pressure, and another thing no diesel can run without water in fuel separators,face it you people ain't kids, grown ups are supposed to able to make decisions on your own,if following the manufacturer instructions is causing more problems than it solves then as an adult you should've had sense enough to follow your own mind.

Adam -- another great video on a forgotten classic. The "A"-bodies were very successful for GM. A friend's parents had one of these in the form of a Cutlass Ciera. Peak torque was at 1,200 RPM, I think? We had no trouble getting off the line. The best was giving a "James Bond" to tailgaters, namely, putting the car in neutral on a flat stretch of road and flooring the accelerator pedal -- the cloud of smoke was straight out of "Goldfinger" and would have made Q proud. And yes, all of our parents should have killed all of us; we thankfully survived to get tortured by kids of our own now. -Bobo KC

My parents had one, power steering was incredibly stiff by 25k miles. Our veteran mechanic said it was a known issue at GM, he tried lighter PS fluid but it didn't do much. Cool to see a rare bird like this diesel example.

Great candidate for a restomod with a modern GM Diesel. There are a fair number of low-mileage vehicles like the Cruz and Equinox up north that have had their bodies destroyed by corrosion but the engines are still good.

Talked my Dad into a 6000 STE. It was a great car.

Haven’t seen these in decades. Thank God.

Price of gas???? 4:07 Here in CA it's getting close to $6 but in the community of Mendocino CA it's almost $10. Locking gas caps must be a hot item up there. lol

Customer, “What’s the 0-60?” Salesman, “Yes….”

Having the beltline lower than the hood line was not a GM-specific thing. It was a quite pronounced characteristic on the Chrysler Laser and Dodge Daytona, and was still present to some extent on the first-gen DSMs. The LeBaron GTS is another example.

I had an 1982 6000 4 cylinder. for 141,000 miles. Front axle boots tore, suspension struts wore out and AC compressor blew up within 3 years, otherwise it was reliable. But I was driving 48,000 miles a year at the time and needed to find the best durability the auto industry could offer. I started reading Toyota high mileage owner testimonials, so for my next car I decided to get a Corolla in 1986. I learned first hand that Toyota engines, transmissions and even items like axle boots, suspension struts and AC compressors were far more durable than those found in American cars. I miss the rich, thickly padded velour interiors the American cars had in the 1970's and 80's as those can't be found in any mainstream cars nowadays including GM.

Adam you have a lot patience and (undeserved ? 🤔) appreciation for these cars from an era of GM that most of us would dismiss. Who’s right? Who’s wrong? Who cares?

8:00 that's something that did happen but won't be a thing anymore.. crank windows in a 6000 are extremely uncommon as crank windows have been pretty much the last 25 years. I had an 86 in this color.. i actually really liked the car

GM never misses a chance to miss a chance and I am a GM fan.

Pontiac 6000, J2000, and (who could forget) the T1000, the Pontiac version of the Chevette.

I had no idea that Pontiac made a GoooLE diesel... all I can say is... thank you!

The original concept for Pontiac was to identify all models by platform type and a number. Thus, the Chevette equivalent was the T1000; the Cavalier equivalent, the J2000; and the Celebrity equivalent was to have been the A6000. The Bonneville became the Bonneville G when swapped off of the Impala's B platform to the Malibu's G platform.

We had a white 6000 with the 3.1l v6. Such a nice car but I can't remember the year. Between 86 and 88. It was a ripper too. Torque steer for days. The dash and engine wiring all went up in smoke. No idea why. I do remember the car was totally stock. I was only about 13 at the time. Was a shame. Wasn't cost effective to keep \ fix it at the time, but being mid 40s now, I sure wish I had it.

My piano teacher had a brown diesel Buick Century. The car actually drove really well, very fuel efficient, but as you might imagine it was plug slow. I believe she bought the car new. Her next car was a new Buick Park Avenue.

I’ve ridden in a number of these a-bodies, all were either early 80’s, early 90’s or mid 90’s variations of 6000, Cutlass Ciera and Century!

The 6000 LE diesel not to be confused with the 6000 SUX from RoboCop fame

I always associated diesels with stinky, smoky, noisy until I had a customer bring in a VW diesel. What a difference! Too bad they cheated on fuel efficiency ratings.

I enjoyed this blog on the 1982 Pontiac 6000 diesel. It was a tie between this blog and the blog on the 1977 AMC Matador sedan😊😊😊

85 horsepower from a 4.3 liter engine the day it rolled off the line, oof. 0 to 60...only if it falls off a cliff.

I have a family member who had a Oldsmobile Cutless with the 4.3L diesel. The engine was replaced 3 times under warranty.

my parents bought an 82 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme brand new off the lot. leather seats and power everything. they went with the diesel because diesel was so cheap back then. They ended up getting GM to replace the engine three or four times under warranty. the final engine worked out and we ran that fine auto into the ground.

In 2.8 gas V6 form, these were good cars. I hated the exposed wipers, but probably most people didn't care. At the time I regretted they had not given it a couple more inches of wheelbase vs the X-cars, enlarging the rear seat area in the process.

This is a good video summarizing the good and bad traits of the front drive Pontiacs and GM cousins. I didn’t even remember that GM offered diesel options for those cars. I was fortunate to have been high school and later a poor college student during a fair part of the 80s and completely missed out on those cars. Wasn’t paying much attention anyway. I’d driven the 90s versions of those front drivers, and while they fulfilled the requirement of being transportation, I was not overly impressed.

I could almost hear those noisy wire spoke hubcaps. We kept plenty of duct tape on hand at the Buick dealership I worked for at the time.

We had a 90 6000 SE wagon. A great car that I learned to drive in. Bought it used in 94 and kept it till mid 2000s. My dad always told me that if there was a wagon version of that vehicle it would be more practical than the Sedan which was what why I got a 06 Malibu maxx hatch back for practically.

Apparently, no one at Oldsmobile knew that the General owned a little company called Detroit Diesel-Allison... Oh, and the inset photo @ 7:07 is the futuristic and luxo interior of the 6000 STE, which also had more power and a sportier suspension.

My in-laws owned an ‘83 model with the Iron Duke 4, and an ‘86 STE in a beautiful maroon color. The interior of this diesel was almost identical…including the crank windows. They were both solid reliable daily drivers…the only notable repair was the “morning sickness” of the steering rack on the ‘83. I only was able to drive the ‘83 once…sadly the STE was totaled in a bad wreck before I had the opportunity to drive it.

Wasn't the Pontiac 6000 initially advertised as the A6000 along with Pontiac's other alpha-numeric designations of that era?

I had a 1988 Pontiac 6000LE in the same color as this car in this video that I bought new. It would be the last GM car I would ever own. It's list of problems stared with the Burgandy paint peeling off less than a few months after I had it. After GM agreed to repaint the car, I then began having all kinds of issues with the 2.8 MFI V6 ranging from computer issues causing it to stall at low idle that they could never quite fix to it having the power radio antenna fail after a year or so. Ended up trading it in for one of the new Chrysler LH cars in 1993 and never regretted doing so.

I believe the diesel A bodies had aluminum hoods and fenders to try and help the weight balance.

Good video. Sounds like this diesel engine was better than the earlier ones. I knew two people who owned the early GM diesels, both engines failed around 45000 miles. As to the manual windows, I wish these would return. Not only is it irritating to have to turn your car on to change your window position, manual windows are safer in a crash, especially a crash into water. Power windows may or may not work after a crash, but it is almost a given that at least some of the manual windows would. I now see ads about tools you can buy go help you break the car windows and escape after a crash. These tools are not necessary if manual windows would return. I am surprised that there have not been lawsuits because of this.

I had a J2000 2 door hatchback in high school. I liked the orange gauges but I had a lot of things break on it and eventually totalled it when someone turned out in front of me.

I rented many Cierras and the problem with rear seat passenger room was the low roofline. Had GM raised the belt to be even with the cowl and an equal increase in roof and seat height they would have had better interior room.

My dad had a 1982 Pontiac 6000 LE with the Iron Duke engine. Underpowered? Yes. Still better than his 1976 Audi 100 LS? Absolutely.

That entire platform was really durable! Honestly, the Big 3 offered some great choices, really: the Tempo, the K-Cars this body...all really durable vehicles, all things considered. My buddy's dad had an '85 (just a guess on the year) Tempo that was a mid-40's mpg car... Great video as always!

My cousin had a salvage yard in the early 80's. A GM Frigidaire compressor never sold because they never went bad. Every yard had piles of them. When GM came out with the pancake compressor, they all went bad. Calls would come in everyday for one.

I miss my 86 J6000 2.5 ! it ran and drove great ! was a size bigger than most imports of the time and reliable ! I got the car free at that and all i did to it was replace the phenolic cam gear !

My Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera had a 16 gallon fuel tank. Quite large for the fuel mileage I got on the freeway of the mid 30's, with the 3300 V6 gasoline powered with 3 speed auto transmission. I got upper mid 20's around town. The car was not as heavy as current cars of the same size.

Amazing that such a "pedestrian" car such as this was preserved.

I don't care what kind of diesel it is I love them because if it wasn't for diesel engines we wouldn't have what we have today

I miss these cars with the upright front n rear glass and large side windows....airy inside with good visibility out......unlike today's vehicles which feel as if you are sitting in a tank turret with terrible rearward and front quarter visibility due to low rooflines,,,,and those rooflines necessitating a low seating position making it harder for ingress n egress...is it any wonder why the public has gravitated to cuvs and suvs?

Great video. This car is before my time but I have lots of Pontiac driving experience. My practice car was a 1995 Bonnyville, Sunfire was for my course and license, I have had my 2007 G5 SE 2 Door since 2007 and just had it rebuilt (now 17 years). A G8 is one of dream cars. A shit diesel in a Pontiac...... Burn it all!!! lol

The GM 2 spoke steering wheels of the 80's are my favorite. Especially the one design that was used in the Celebrity and a lot of other cars. I don't know if it's because it's that good looking. Or if I've been in so many cars with that wheel that I've grown to love it. But it just looks and feels right to have that steering wheel in front of me. The thin wheel is nice in the hand, and the spokes are placed perfectly to rest your hands on them. And it was safe to do that because there wasn't an airbag to worry about

We sold a few of these at the dealer I worked at, but really didn't have engine problems, the 125 transmissions seemed to be the biggest issue. We had a customer pull up in the lane for an oil change, the lube tech got in the car to move it in and the transmission let go right there with the customer and service manager watching!

Very cool never seen one and I've had lots of off the wall diesels Ford Tempo,a Chevette and a Ford Escort all diesels

The official car of the 'Leader of the Third Party' (NDP) in Canada. (Ed Broadbent).

85 h.p. and 0-60 in 15.9

Pontiac 6000 diesel Safari Wagon was a beauty

Its funny that you mention the split front grille, i have a 2006 Pontiac G6 sedan and it still retains the split grill with the Pontiac emblem in the middle. And GM did finally end the pontiac line with the numbered models, the "G" series G4, G5, G6, and G8.