Another great video. You did a great job covering the Lumina and the transition from Celebrity to Lumina. I know Impala replaced Lumina in 2000. The Monte Carlo came back in 1995 and ran until 2007 I believe. That is an entire video to itself on the Monte Carlo. Great footage and information about various changes and how the other GM brands fit into the big picture. There was a time no one could touch the Ford Taurus. My friend had a Lumina. It was from the second generation. It was a great car. He only let it go because of rust. He drove that car all over the country for work. He loved it too.
Thanks for watching as always. Yeah we’re going to cover the 1995 Lumina and 1995 Monte Carlo soon. These 1990 Luminas (and W-bodies in general) are near extinction in Florida. I can go years without seeing one on the road.
@@shuruff904 Very familiar with Duval county. Was stationed at NAS JAX back in the day. Still know a few people out on Normandy Blvd and Blanding Blvd.
I fell in love with the W body cars, and cars in general, when my sister brought home an 88 Grand Prix SE coupe in 1990. I was 7, and I instantly fell hard for Grand Prixs. She had the 2.8, and she usually had a break down once a year, but she really loved it. My parents bought a 91 Regal in 94, and every one of us drove that for some amount of time. My parents finally put it to to pasture in 2009 with 350k on the original powertrain. The radio hadn't worked for years, and the AC had stopped working. It also needed new tires and struts by then so dad just drove it to the salvage yard. They pretty much did the same with a 92 Century the next year for the same reasons, that one had 350k on the original power train too. My first car was an 88 Regal. I liked it but I always wanted a sedan, especially a Grand Prix. I finally got a 94 Grand Prix SE sedan which I absolutely loved. I only had it 2.5 years because I let my oil change shop do a transmission backflush (NEVER DO THOSE!) and it ruined my transmission. I planned to go away for college and decided to buy a used 97 Widetrack Grand Grix GT sedan. I know it wasn't a W body, but I lived that car even more than the Ws my family did run. I drove it until the AC busted at 185, and bought a 2002 Camry SE. I HATED that car, and got rid of it within 5 months. I then bought a 2000 GP GT coupe which I drove for 7 years and 165k. I have it to friends that needed a car when it had 215k, and all 3 of their kids drove it through HS and college. They also drove it to the junkyard in 2016 with 350k miles on three original power train. These all were excellent cars minus the 88 GP that started my love affair. Though I don't currently drive GM vehicles, I love their products and believe they still make some of the absolute best cars for the money. Parents also had an 89 and 94 LeSabre. Drove the 89 to the dump and the 94 drove as a HS car for a number of years with 250k on it when they took it over. Then they hit a deer.
My parents were in the market for a new car to replace their Volvo in 1991. My Dad came home one day to a 7 year old me and my newborn sister and asked me to watch her while she took a nap. He made a deal for two 1990 Chevys, a powder blue 4 door Cavalier for himself, and the same powder blue 1990 Lumina 4dr base with the 3.1 V6. Both were ex-Avis rental cars. I was so excited when they brought 2 "new" cars home and couldn't wait to be driven to school in the morning to show off😂. Those Luminas looked like spaceships compared to anything else on the road at the time. I'll never forget the plastic wood paneled dash molding or the clicks of the HVAC controls compared to the typical GM sliders of the Era. Now a 40 year old, it's hilarious to me that I was excited for such a run of the mill car but they were excellent cars and served their purpose well. Years later our family got even bigger, they traded the Lumina for an Astro EXT with Dutch rear doors, the Cavvy finally gave up in 1999 and was replaced with a 2000 Altima, and we had Suburbans all the way until the last child hit college. Now Mom has a 2023 Traverse and Dad has a Kia Telluride. Sorry for the long winded story, but those 2 ex rental cars in 1991 made Mom a GM owner all the way to present day. Proud to say we became a Chevy family.
I had a 92 Chevy Lumina Euro. It was a great car with very few issues. I drove it all through college and traded it in on a 06 silverado that I still drive daily. In retrospect, I should have kept the Lumina after buying the truck. It was still an excellent car with 190K on the clock.
My mom owned 2 92 Torch Red Z34 Luminas and 2 w body Cutless Supreme coupes. I drove one of the Luminas and i absolutely loved that car id buy one if i could find one. Definitely a fun and responsive car for a 90s Chevy.
One of my co workers used to drive a first gen lumina 4 cylinder in two tone sky blue/black. It was rusty and beat to death, sounded like it was falling apart, and did eventually catastrophically fail on her. It was neat though, old "normal" cars like that are a rare sight, and very charming.
I owned a 1990 Lumina Euro 3.1. I thought it was a good car, comfortable, rode pretty nice and the V-6 got decent mpg’s. I also had a 1989 Oldsmobile Cutlas Supreme. This one had the 2.8 and the digital instrument cluster. It was very bright, people teased me they could see my face lit up bright blue when I drove at night. It was also a good car. I really liked the styling of the 2-door Cutlass with the wrap around rear glass. The 2.8 was pretty bullet proof, at least for me it was. All in all, I’ve had every generation of the W Body cars and they never left me stranded. 2001 Lumina, 2004 Impala, 2012 Impala.
I had two first-generation Luminas. Both were Euro sedans, one with a 3.1 and my favorite one with a 3.4 in red. I purchased the 3.4 Euro over a Tauras SHO.
I still have my 1996 Monte Carlo Z34. Torch Red with leather interior, four-wheel disc, 100% Rust free southern car. I'm probably one of the few out there that know how to do a timing belt on one of these engines. 170,000 miles and it's still fun to drive and runs great. In fact the DMV offered me classic plates for it. That's one of those vehicles that you loved them or hated them. Thanks for the informative video. Well done.
My first car was a white 90 lumina euro 3.1. It was my parents car they I ended up with for 16th birthday. Ac was broke and I hated the car. wasn’t what I wanted, I wanted the Z34. I later went to get a grand am GT but it got sold before we could make it to the dealer, under an hour! so dad and I came home in a 96 grey Monte Carlo LS. I loved that Monte Carlo, dependable and affordable insurance. About 2 years later I traded it for a bmw e36 325i manual. Loved that old bmw and finally had a car I loved and enjoyed.
Great video and you definitely did your research! Many times, people forget about the Euro 3.4 sedans as they're WAY more rare than the Z34's. I love these cars and know them very well, the entire W body platform actually. I currently own 3 early W body cars. The two worth mentioning is my 1991 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme International Series coupe. Only 1,864 International coupes made for 91. Only 815 with the LQ1 or 3.4 DOHC motor. Only 215 with HUD, (Heads Up Display). Thirteen in White, but mine is the ONLY one made with both the LQ1 and Garnet Red CLOTH interior. 1993 Pontiac Grand Prix STE. Only 834 made for their final year. Only 505 with the LQ1, 100 in White with Graphite cloth interior, and only TWO with HUD, moonroof, CD, and trunk luggage rack. Both cars are undergoing mechanical restoration as their original owners didn't do the PROPER maintenance. The Olds is from Oklahoma and the STE is from California so they're pristine underneath. So more info...ALL W body's made from 91-97 with an X in the 8th place of their VIN denotes the LQ1 motor option. The 88-90 cars used a Getrag 282/5 speed manual, starting in 91, the much stronger 284 took over in order to handle the LQ1's higher output. The last year for the 5 speed was 1993 for both the Lumina and Grand Prix. By the way, only ONE 1993 STE was made with the LQ1/5 speed combo. It was found down in a Texas junkyard about 20 years ago sadly. Nineteen ninety two was the last year for it in the Supremes. The Supremes got the lowest amount of 5 speed allotment so those are the rarest. The 5 speed option could be had in both a sedan and coupe. No Cutlass Supreme convertibles were made with the 5 speed...or any Regals. The Regal SEDAN was the only W body sedan to offer rear bucket seats/console. For 1991-1992 only. Available in blue, red, tan, and gray. RPO code B4B. They are unicorns. The Euro 3.4 sedans were only available from 92-94 in White, Black, and Red. Yes, like you mentioned, all were automatics. All Euro 3.4 sedans will have body colored door handles, specific body trim, dual exhaust outlets, and body colored tail light bezels. No Grand Prix cars were made with the HUD option in 1990 with the EXCEPTION of the 1990 Turbo Grand Prix. All 90-95 Cutlass Supreme convertibles started life out as hardtops and then were converted by a company called ASC or American Sunroof Company. The bodies would be sent to that facility and their roofs cut off and converted. The bodies would be sent back to GM for finishing and final assembly. ASC is also responsible for the body kits for any B4U optioned Grand Prix including the TGP, SE's, and GT's from 89-93. With the update in 94, everything was done at GM and ASC wasn't needed at that point. ASC is responsible for many other makes and models of conversions as well, not just GM. A misconception is that the moonroofs were also done by ASC...that is incorrect. GM has ALWAYS done their own moonroof install at their plants on W body's. Option code CF5. Rare or collectible early W's...any 1990 Supreme convertible. Only 460 made for their first year. Any 1988 Pace Car convertible or coupe. Most convertibles were bought back from dealers and destroyed due to weak points in the body and were a liability if involved in an accident. Very few were spared and only 50 were made to begin with. Also, any convertible made with cloth interior, CD, or base digital cluster or any variation of this. Color combinations and certain options will also determine their rarity. Any 5 speed car. Any Quad 4 car, very few made. This includes the Grand Prix and Cutlass Supremes. Rear seat bucket/console Regal SEDAN from 91-92. Any 92-94 Lumina Euro 3.4 sedan. Any 1995 Cutlass Supreme optioned with HUD. Yes, HUD was still available in 95. Nineteen ninety four was the first year production offering for HUD in a convertible. Only 21 total examples of HUD optioned Supremes were made in 1995. Canadian market cars. These cars were exported and they will have specific codes for that region. They also got different combinations of alloys that the U.S. market didn't get and vice versa. Very low production numbers due to this. Fleet ordered cars with any RPO code determining this, codes for rental fleets and businesses, etc. Also CA emissions cars and odd combinations like convertibles optioned with engine block heaters...that sort of thing. Any 1989-1990 HUD optioned Cutlass Supreme using the first gen Hughes HUD system. Very rare, I've only seen a handful and just found one recently at a junkyard. It will be years before I'll see another, maybe not at all. The Cutlass Supreme was the very first domestic car to get HUD in 1988, production wise...1989. The 2nd GM to get this option would be the Grand Prix Turbo coupe in 1989. The Hughes Electronics system was used from 88-90. GM made their own system in 91 and it was an AC Delco design. Much more common but still rare overall. Both of my cars have this 2nd gen system, option code UV6. Any 1996 Grand Prix with both HUD and DIC. HUD-Heads Up Display and DIC for Driver Information Center. They use a one year only OBD system and are not interchangeable with any other year before or after. Most cars either got HUD or DIC...but not both. Any 94-96 Grand Prix GT SEDAN. These sedans were essentially a 4 door version of the 94-96 GTP's. Very low production numbers and I've only seen about 5 of them so far, never in person. That's all I can remember for now and I'll update this info as I go. Thank you and hope it was helpful to anyone looking for one of these wonderful cars!
Thanks for providing your expertise concerning the W body. I had to read your write-up twice to get all of the information. There will be more W body episodes coming soon.
My first car was a 1991 Euro Coupe Lumina in Torch Red. I loved that car so dearly. My best friend had a Z 34 manual and I would’ve killed for that car, but my parents would only let me settle for the euro. :-) Got it with 127,000 miles on it in 1996. It lasted me seven years with very minor problems. Horrible brakes! The crankshaft position sensor randomly went out, one of the cranks for the windows (I didn’t have power anything in that car) stopped working about the same time that the AC went out. That was a miserable summer in Kansas. :-) Anyway, I think I also replaced out the blower motor, spark plugs, motor mounts, etc. The highbeam switch got stuck on one night and I was driving around with people really pissed at me. :-) That was a more expensive repair than it needed to be. And my friend and I would always laugh so hard because every now and then a random little puff of smoke would come up from the top of the steering wheel of both my car and his Z 23. Had such great times in that car. It was reliable, and in my opinion, at least for the coupe version, was aggressive in design for its time. I think my favorite feature on the coupe version was the high mounted vertical doorhandles. Seemed very space age. And the key lock would light up with a green ring for night visibility. It was gorgeous. :-) Would love to have the opportunity to drive one again.
My mom once owned a bright red 1990 Lumina Euro sedan with a spoiler and grey interior, a 1992 Lumina Z34 sedan (same color scheme as previous car), a white 1994 Lumina Euro coupe with a spoiler and red interior, and a bright red 1996 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme coupe with black leather.
@@MotorMaster_Stunticon It was! I miss that car. One time my dad found a 1994 convertible version of the 1996 coupe in question but unfortunately it had too many issues and wasn’t as nice in person as it looked in the eBay listing so we had to take a rental car back home instead lol
I had a 1990 euro coupe, great car, got close to 30mpg and did not use any oil when I sold it to a friend with 70K miles. He drove it to 110K still used no oil!
owned a 3.1 lumina sedan that was very reliable and sporty enough for a good entertaining daily driver.only issue with this car was the brake calipers..gm made a kit ton fix the issue..and i still own my z34 w/5 speed the z34 had performance brakes and no issues there..3.4 motor just service the timing belt and dont overheat it and your good
I worked at a Chevy dealer in 1993. I drove all the configurations of the first gen. They drove very sold and handled well. The styling inside and out was outdated from the start , so they didn't fare well against the compete.
I can't say anything bad about a Lumina, they were comfortable, very nice looking at the time, and they had plenty of pep for what they were. My friend had a really nice red euro and we made so many good memories in that car.
Excellent video, but one thing I don’t recall you mentioning is the fact GM spent more than a billion dollars on the Lumina project only to end up with a rounded off Celebrity. This was the butt of many jokes at the time.
I owned a 91 Z34 and man was that car a money pit! No mechanic wanted to work on it because of the engine, I was always forced to take it to the dealer whenever it needed to get serviced. The manager said that the engine was nicknamed the "X" motor. And only 1 service tech was trained to work on the engine since you needed special training for that engine. The pricing difference for repairs was horrible. One instance my repair would have been under $100 if I was fixing the same issue on a 3.1 motor but because the repair was on the 3.4 motor that repair came out to $800! It was a fun car but it just hurt your wallet!
It was called the "X" motor because the eighth VIN character, which denotes the engine on GM cars, was 'X' for the 3.4L DOHC. If it had been equipped with the 3.1L, it would have been "T". The 3.4L used many of the same parts as the 3.1L and in fact, was based on the 3.1L. They essentially had the same block, bored larger for the 3.4L. I think they even shared the same crankshaft and connecting rods. They both suffered from the same oil pump drive seal oil leak. This is the same place the distributor would have been on the older 2.8L carbureted V6 (all the same engine architecture). For the 3.1L all that was required was to remove the throttle body and access the oil pump drive. On the 3.4L, the oil pump drive was captured by the rear cylinder head. The head was supposed to be removed to replace the seal, but a scarf-cut 350 V8 distributor gasket and some liquid teflon sealant could be employed to fix the leak without removing the head or the oil pump drive. Also, the alternator moved from the top of the engine on the 3.1L to the bottom rear near the CV axle on the 3.4L. That and the 3.4L had a timing belt which required maintenance regularly (every 60,000 miles if I remember correctly). Aside from those issues, there was nothing terribly expensive about them and they were generally reliable.
@@MotorMaster_Stunticon beware of it has digital gauges, I replaced mine with mine because they didn't work, I replaced them with three more reliable 80s digital ones, the job was fun for me but a nightmare for most, I repinned the connectors and replaced the switches with sensors
I always wonder, exactly what did GM do with the seven billion dollars it spent to develop the W body platform? They didn't spend it on modernizing power trains because these cars got the same tired pushrod engines that GM used pretty much in all of its cars going back 30+ years. The imports all had smooth, powerful multi-valve DOHC engines. GM also didn't spend much of the seven billion on the W body interiors, which were cut-rate cheap and had bizarre ergonomics, to say the least. So where did all the money actually go? I don't know, but it seems that very little of it was used to try to make the cars competitive in the marketplace. And, to top off the whole disastrous development of the W's, GM in all its wisdom chose to release the coupe versions 2+ years before the sedan versions. Right when the market for coupes was increasingly dead and the family sedan market was exploding. And to make it worse, GM saddled the cars with long out-of-vogue names like Cutlass Supreme, Grand Prix, and Regal, among others. People wanted crisp, modern, fuel efficient sedans with very high levels of build quality, not personal luxury coupes harkening back to the 1970s. What a debacle.
@@MotorMaster_Stunticon what sucks I live in upstate New York shirt rusted out pretty good I have to have someone while the strut house in back in and do some framework underneath and well that back together I replace the floorboards Nexus the rocker panels because someone styrofoam sprayed the rockers and it sucked they also did it to the frame underneath and have you ever heard of it to buy for being shoved in the behind the fender and stuff and both in the fender to it I never heard of that that's what this person did who sold me the car the directional switch does not work trying to track down a new steering column because someone put a huge boat where the directorship thing was and the car don't have no wipers I got the headlights working I paid 800 for it and it has a hundred 98000 miles on it I did a video on it on my RUclips channel update on Chevy lumina the video is because I tried to put a directional switch in it but unfortunately it won't stay in because they stripped where it hooks into so I have to get the whole mechanism for it with the emergency lights and everything the whole piece that goes on a steam account and nobody has that anymore
I own a 1990 lumina base model coupe with a 3.1 and a 1992 Z34. I used to own a 1990 Pontiac Grand Prix but I stole the motor out of it for my lumina base model
I like how you say "attempted". The Lumina was a better and more reliable car in every way. The Ford 2.5L I4, 3.0L and 3.8L V6 were straight garbage and so were the transmissions. The Taurus is one of the main reasons Ford cars were notoriously known for their unreliability in the 80's and 90's.
I agree with you fully. It’s just the fact the early Lumina could not match the Taurus in terms of popularity/sales despite it being better and more reliable in every way.
@@ElricX I had a 93' Tarus but I also had friends that had older and newer and they all had the same issues. I had a 91' Lumina that did have transmission torque converter leak but it still ran really well and once I fixed the leak I never had a problem again. I sold it with over 230,000 miles.
Whoever signed off on the second gen Lumina must have been blind. That thing took W's for most drastically hideous redesign and most boring looking GM sedan of it's time. I remember far more first gen Luminas on the road long after the 2nd gens mostly used as govt or company fleets. The 2nd gen interiors were in the running for "worst looking and feeling car interior ever". I curiously explored inside of one on a used lot once. The Euro/Z-34 Lumina is one of my favorite cars ever, and NASCAR body legends
Please do the C230 Kompressor.....people need to know lol (I know this is the 3rd time asking, but you'd literally be the first to do a documentary on the older C classes... also, I don't have Mello Yellow on hand, but.....I do have some Mr. Pibb somewhere)
Can someone please explain to me why the Beretta z26 is one of my favorite 80s coupes and why I absolutely hate the lumina. It's just hard for me to believe that a car so similar is so ugly. The z34 is the only version that I can even stand to look at, but I really don't like it.
The lumina was 4 years late in production. And Chrysler K car was the 1st front wheel drive car Also they were mainly fleet cars. Also They were the official car of Disney World And the dust buster vans were ugly
front wheel drive GM cars weren't built to last, 2000 models are pretty much extinct in 2022. same goes for most pre 2000 front wheel drive American cars. I still see old 80's and 90's Toyota and Honda vehicles daily...
I guess it depends on location. I still see TONS of 2000, 01, 02 etc. Impalas/Montes. I still see plenty of Century/Regals a few of my folks personally own a few and they have the 3800 engine. But yeah also no shortage of 80s 90s Toyotas and Hondas.
samuel lopes All mechanical things aren't made to last, things will fail. I personally know of very many older W's now hitting the 250-300,000 mile mark, are daily driven, and enjoyed. My daily driver is a 96 Cutlass SL sedan. It has low mileage and runs great. In my area, I see many older brands and models still running around. It's all about maintenance. Older vehicles get junked due to accidents or the costs of repairs in regards to the value of the car at the time of said repair. In most cases, the repair cost exceeds the value so they get junked.
Another great video. You did a great job covering the Lumina and the transition from Celebrity to Lumina. I know Impala replaced Lumina in 2000. The Monte Carlo came back in 1995 and ran until 2007 I believe. That is an entire video to itself on the Monte Carlo. Great footage and information about various changes and how the other GM brands fit into the big picture. There was a time no one could touch the Ford Taurus. My friend had a Lumina. It was from the second generation. It was a great car. He only let it go because of rust. He drove that car all over the country for work. He loved it too.
Thanks for watching as always. Yeah we’re going to cover the 1995 Lumina and 1995 Monte Carlo soon. These 1990 Luminas (and W-bodies in general) are near extinction in Florida. I can go years without seeing one on the road.
@@MotorMaster_Stunticon damn, I'm in Jacksonville lol
@@shuruff904 Very familiar with Duval county. Was stationed at NAS JAX back in the day. Still know a few people out on Normandy Blvd and Blanding Blvd.
@@MotorMaster_Stunticon You are most welcome. I look forward to your 1995 Lumina and 1995 Monte Carlo video soon. I see W Bodies all the time.
I fell in love with the W body cars, and cars in general, when my sister brought home an 88 Grand Prix SE coupe in 1990. I was 7, and I instantly fell hard for Grand Prixs. She had the 2.8, and she usually had a break down once a year, but she really loved it. My parents bought a 91 Regal in 94, and every one of us drove that for some amount of time. My parents finally put it to to pasture in 2009 with 350k on the original powertrain. The radio hadn't worked for years, and the AC had stopped working. It also needed new tires and struts by then so dad just drove it to the salvage yard. They pretty much did the same with a 92 Century the next year for the same reasons, that one had 350k on the original power train too. My first car was an 88 Regal. I liked it but I always wanted a sedan, especially a Grand Prix. I finally got a 94 Grand Prix SE sedan which I absolutely loved. I only had it 2.5 years because I let my oil change shop do a transmission backflush (NEVER DO THOSE!) and it ruined my transmission. I planned to go away for college and decided to buy a used 97 Widetrack Grand Grix GT sedan. I know it wasn't a W body, but I lived that car even more than the Ws my family did run. I drove it until the AC busted at 185, and bought a 2002 Camry SE. I HATED that car, and got rid of it within 5 months. I then bought a 2000 GP GT coupe which I drove for 7 years and 165k. I have it to friends that needed a car when it had 215k, and all 3 of their kids drove it through HS and college. They also drove it to the junkyard in 2016 with 350k miles on three original power train. These all were excellent cars minus the 88 GP that started my love affair. Though I don't currently drive GM vehicles, I love their products and believe they still make some of the absolute best cars for the money. Parents also had an 89 and 94 LeSabre. Drove the 89 to the dump and the 94 drove as a HS car for a number of years with 250k on it when they took it over. Then they hit a deer.
My parents were in the market for a new car to replace their Volvo in 1991. My Dad came home one day to a 7 year old me and my newborn sister and asked me to watch her while she took a nap. He made a deal for two 1990 Chevys, a powder blue 4 door Cavalier for himself, and the same powder blue 1990 Lumina 4dr base with the 3.1 V6. Both were ex-Avis rental cars. I was so excited when they brought 2 "new" cars home and couldn't wait to be driven to school in the morning to show off😂. Those Luminas looked like spaceships compared to anything else on the road at the time. I'll never forget the plastic wood paneled dash molding or the clicks of the HVAC controls compared to the typical GM sliders of the Era. Now a 40 year old, it's hilarious to me that I was excited for such a run of the mill car but they were excellent cars and served their purpose well. Years later our family got even bigger, they traded the Lumina for an Astro EXT with Dutch rear doors, the Cavvy finally gave up in 1999 and was replaced with a 2000 Altima, and we had Suburbans all the way until the last child hit college. Now Mom has a 2023 Traverse and Dad has a Kia Telluride. Sorry for the long winded story, but those 2 ex rental cars in 1991 made Mom a GM owner all the way to present day. Proud to say we became a Chevy family.
General Motors Trucks (GMT’s) made me a living for many years as work trucks
I had a '92 Lumina Euro Sedan and loved it. It was fun to drive, comfortable and a good looking car
I had a 92 Chevy Lumina Euro. It was a great car with very few issues. I drove it all through college and traded it in on a 06 silverado that I still drive daily. In retrospect, I should have kept the Lumina after buying the truck. It was still an excellent car with 190K on the clock.
Glad to hear it was reliable at 190k!
My mom owned 2 92 Torch Red Z34 Luminas and 2 w body Cutless Supreme coupes. I drove one of the Luminas and i absolutely loved that car id buy one if i could find one. Definitely a fun and responsive car for a 90s Chevy.
One of my co workers used to drive a first gen lumina 4 cylinder in two tone sky blue/black.
It was rusty and beat to death, sounded like it was falling apart, and did eventually catastrophically fail on her.
It was neat though, old "normal" cars like that are a rare sight, and very charming.
I owned a 1990 Lumina Euro 3.1. I thought it was a good car, comfortable, rode pretty nice and the V-6 got decent mpg’s. I also had a 1989 Oldsmobile Cutlas Supreme. This one had the 2.8 and the digital instrument cluster. It was very bright, people teased me they could see my face lit up bright blue when I drove at night. It was also a good car. I really liked the styling of the 2-door Cutlass with the wrap around rear glass. The 2.8 was pretty bullet proof, at least for me it was.
All in all, I’ve had every generation of the W Body cars and they never left me stranded. 2001 Lumina, 2004 Impala, 2012 Impala.
Awesome. Yeah I like the W-body Cutlass Supreme Coupes also. Especially the ‘92 and up models. To bad you seldom see W-body’s of that era on the road.
I had two first-generation Luminas. Both were Euro sedans, one with a 3.1 and my favorite one with a 3.4 in red. I purchased the 3.4 Euro over a Tauras SHO.
I still have my 1996 Monte Carlo Z34. Torch Red with leather interior, four-wheel disc, 100% Rust free southern car. I'm probably one of the few out there that know how to do a timing belt on one of these engines. 170,000 miles and it's still fun to drive and runs great. In fact the DMV offered me classic plates for it. That's one of those vehicles that you loved them or hated them. Thanks for the informative video. Well done.
I've up in vancouver Canada I have a 92 z34 .have collector plate my summer drive
My mom had 2 92 lumina z34 in torch red loved these cars.
My first car was a white 90 lumina euro 3.1. It was my parents car they I ended up with for 16th birthday. Ac was broke and I hated the car. wasn’t what I wanted, I wanted the Z34. I later went to get a grand am GT but it got sold before we could make it to the dealer, under an hour! so dad and I came home in a 96 grey Monte Carlo LS. I loved that Monte Carlo, dependable and affordable insurance. About 2 years later I traded it for a bmw e36 325i manual. Loved that old bmw and finally had a car I loved and enjoyed.
I had a 92 and 93 Eurosport great car to drive hard to work on
Great video and you definitely did your research! Many times, people forget about the Euro 3.4 sedans as they're WAY more rare than the Z34's. I love these cars and know them very well, the entire W body platform actually.
I currently own 3 early W body cars. The two worth mentioning is my 1991 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme International Series coupe. Only 1,864 International coupes made for 91. Only 815 with the LQ1 or 3.4 DOHC motor. Only 215 with HUD, (Heads Up Display). Thirteen in White, but mine is the ONLY one made with both the LQ1 and Garnet Red CLOTH interior.
1993 Pontiac Grand Prix STE. Only 834 made for their final year. Only 505 with the LQ1, 100 in White with Graphite cloth interior, and only TWO with HUD, moonroof, CD, and trunk luggage rack.
Both cars are undergoing mechanical restoration as their original owners didn't do the PROPER maintenance. The Olds is from Oklahoma and the STE is from California so they're pristine underneath.
So more info...ALL W body's made from 91-97 with an X in the 8th place of their VIN denotes the LQ1 motor option. The 88-90 cars used a Getrag 282/5 speed manual, starting in 91, the much stronger 284 took over in order to handle the LQ1's higher output. The last year for the 5 speed was 1993 for both the Lumina and Grand Prix. By the way, only ONE 1993 STE was made with the LQ1/5 speed combo. It was found down in a Texas junkyard about 20 years ago sadly. Nineteen ninety two was the last year for it in the Supremes. The Supremes got the lowest amount of 5 speed allotment so those are the rarest. The 5 speed option could be had in both a sedan and coupe. No Cutlass Supreme convertibles were made with the 5 speed...or any Regals.
The Regal SEDAN was the only W body sedan to offer rear bucket seats/console. For 1991-1992 only. Available in blue, red, tan, and gray. RPO code B4B. They are unicorns.
The Euro 3.4 sedans were only available from 92-94 in White, Black, and Red. Yes, like you mentioned, all were automatics. All Euro 3.4 sedans will have body colored door handles, specific body trim, dual exhaust outlets, and body colored tail light bezels.
No Grand Prix cars were made with the HUD option in 1990 with the EXCEPTION of the 1990 Turbo Grand Prix.
All 90-95 Cutlass Supreme convertibles started life out as hardtops and then were converted by a company called ASC or American Sunroof Company. The bodies would be sent to that facility and their roofs cut off and converted. The bodies would be sent back to GM for finishing and final assembly. ASC is also responsible for the body kits for any B4U optioned Grand Prix including the TGP, SE's, and GT's from 89-93. With the update in 94, everything was done at GM and ASC wasn't needed at that point. ASC is responsible for many other makes and models of conversions as well, not just GM. A misconception is that the moonroofs were also done by ASC...that is incorrect. GM has ALWAYS done their own moonroof install at their plants on W body's. Option code CF5.
Rare or collectible early W's...any 1990 Supreme convertible. Only 460 made for their first year. Any 1988 Pace Car convertible or coupe. Most convertibles were bought back from dealers and destroyed due to weak points in the body and were a liability if involved in an accident. Very few were spared and only 50 were made to begin with. Also, any convertible made with cloth interior, CD, or base digital cluster or any variation of this. Color combinations and certain options will also determine their rarity.
Any 5 speed car.
Any Quad 4 car, very few made. This includes the Grand Prix and Cutlass Supremes.
Rear seat bucket/console Regal SEDAN from 91-92.
Any 92-94 Lumina Euro 3.4 sedan.
Any 1995 Cutlass Supreme optioned with HUD. Yes, HUD was still available in 95. Nineteen ninety four was the first year production offering for HUD in a convertible. Only 21 total examples of HUD optioned Supremes were made in 1995.
Canadian market cars. These cars were exported and they will have specific codes for that region. They also got different combinations of alloys that the U.S. market didn't get and vice versa. Very low production numbers due to this.
Fleet ordered cars with any RPO code determining this, codes for rental fleets and businesses, etc. Also CA emissions cars and odd combinations like convertibles optioned with engine block heaters...that sort of thing.
Any 1989-1990 HUD optioned Cutlass Supreme using the first gen Hughes HUD system. Very rare, I've only seen a handful and just found one recently at a junkyard. It will be years before I'll see another, maybe not at all. The Cutlass Supreme was the very first domestic car to get HUD in 1988, production wise...1989. The 2nd GM to get this option would be the Grand Prix Turbo coupe in 1989. The Hughes Electronics system was used from 88-90. GM made their own system in 91 and it was an AC Delco design. Much more common but still rare overall. Both of my cars have this 2nd gen system, option code UV6.
Any 1996 Grand Prix with both HUD and DIC. HUD-Heads Up Display and DIC for Driver Information Center. They use a one year only OBD system and are not interchangeable with any other year before or after. Most cars either got HUD or DIC...but not both.
Any 94-96 Grand Prix GT SEDAN. These sedans were essentially a 4 door version of the 94-96 GTP's. Very low production numbers and I've only seen about 5 of them so far, never in person.
That's all I can remember for now and I'll update this info as I go. Thank you and hope it was helpful to anyone looking for one of these wonderful cars!
Thanks for providing your expertise concerning the W body. I had to read your write-up twice to get all of the information. There will be more W body episodes coming soon.
We had a bright red lumina euro growing up. My step-dad was so proud of that old car. Lol
My first car was a 1991 Euro Coupe Lumina in Torch Red. I loved that car so dearly. My best friend had a Z 34 manual and I would’ve killed for that car, but my parents would only let me settle for the euro. :-) Got it with 127,000 miles on it in 1996. It lasted me seven years with very minor problems. Horrible brakes! The crankshaft position sensor randomly went out, one of the cranks for the windows (I didn’t have power anything in that car) stopped working about the same time that the AC went out. That was a miserable summer in Kansas. :-) Anyway, I think I also replaced out the blower motor, spark plugs, motor mounts, etc. The highbeam switch got stuck on one night and I was driving around with people really pissed at me. :-) That was a more expensive repair than it needed to be. And my friend and I would always laugh so hard because every now and then a random little puff of smoke would come up from the top of the steering wheel of both my car and his Z 23. Had such great times in that car. It was reliable, and in my opinion, at least for the coupe version, was aggressive in design for its time. I think my favorite feature on the coupe version was the high mounted vertical doorhandles. Seemed very space age. And the key lock would light up with a green ring for night visibility. It was gorgeous. :-) Would love to have the opportunity to drive one again.
Thanks for sharing that info. Torch Red is a beautiful color whether it’s on a Corvette or a Lumina Euro!
My mom once owned a bright red 1990 Lumina Euro sedan with a spoiler and grey interior, a 1992 Lumina Z34 sedan (same color scheme as previous car), a white 1994 Lumina Euro coupe with a spoiler and red interior, and a bright red 1996 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme coupe with black leather.
That bright red 1996 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme coupe with black leather sounds real nice!
@@MotorMaster_Stunticon It was! I miss that car. One time my dad found a 1994 convertible version of the 1996 coupe in question but unfortunately it had too many issues and wasn’t as nice in person as it looked in the eBay listing so we had to take a rental car back home instead lol
Haha that’s a funny story about the rental car. Thanks for watching.
I had a '93 Euro. I loved that car.
I First sense a White Z34 Lumina in 1989 on the Intro FOX Show Booker
I had a 1990 euro coupe, great car, got close to 30mpg and did not use any oil when I sold it to a friend with 70K miles. He drove it to 110K still used no oil!
I had a blue coupe with the red accent lines. I think it was a 93. It was a fantastic car!
Sounds like it!
Very fast very fun car to drive currently owned one now very Rusty but trusty love my car a lot nothing's like dirt roads with the car
owned a 3.1 lumina sedan that was very reliable and sporty enough for a good entertaining daily driver.only issue with this car was the brake calipers..gm made a kit ton fix the issue..and i still own my z34 w/5 speed the z34 had performance brakes and no issues there..3.4 motor just service the timing belt and dont overheat it and your good
Nice. Glad you still own the z34. Can’t recall when I last saw a gen 1 on the road.
4yules What year, color, and options? Very cool!
@@jiggity76 red ..5 speed...bose
Great video as always!!
Hey thanks for stopping by again bro.
I worked at a Chevy dealer in 1993. I drove all the configurations of the first gen. They drove very sold and handled well. The styling inside and out was outdated from the start , so they didn't fare well against the compete.
I can't say anything bad about a Lumina, they were comfortable, very nice looking at the time, and they had plenty of pep for what they were. My friend had a really nice red euro and we made so many good memories in that car.
Yep they were great for what they were intended for-comfy, cruising daily driver.
I remember in high school I had a friend who used to drive his dads 90s Corsica. We tried to modify it not knowing what the hell we were doing
Yep, those were the days!
We had that 2.8 that was in the Celebrity in a Corsica LTZ and it was quite quick and handled well, the quality was the only problem
Yeah I heard about the quality/reliability on those cars.
I just realised how much the red z34 looks like a Thunderbird Super coupe.
Yeah I guess from certain angles and if you squint a little.
Excellent video, but one thing I don’t recall you mentioning is the fact GM spent more than a billion dollars on the Lumina project only to end up with a rounded off Celebrity. This was the butt of many jokes at the time.
Nice video! Very informative!
Glad you enjoyed it.
Interestingly, being the successor to the Celebrity, it was suppose to retain the same name.
I owned a 91 Z34 and man was that car a money pit! No mechanic wanted to work on it because of the engine, I was always forced to take it to the dealer whenever it needed to get serviced. The manager said that the engine was nicknamed the "X" motor. And only 1 service tech was trained to work on the engine since you needed special training for that engine. The pricing difference for repairs was horrible. One instance my repair would have been under $100 if I was fixing the same issue on a 3.1 motor but because the repair was on the 3.4 motor that repair came out to $800!
It was a fun car but it just hurt your wallet!
I heard that 3.4 was problematic and expensive to run too. I like the car, but yes that 3.4 was a money pit for sure.
It was called the "X" motor because the eighth VIN character, which denotes the engine on GM cars, was 'X' for the 3.4L DOHC. If it had been equipped with the 3.1L, it would have been "T".
The 3.4L used many of the same parts as the 3.1L and in fact, was based on the 3.1L. They essentially had the same block, bored larger for the 3.4L. I think they even shared the same crankshaft and connecting rods. They both suffered from the same oil pump drive seal oil leak. This is the same place the distributor would have been on the older 2.8L carbureted V6 (all the same engine architecture). For the 3.1L all that was required was to remove the throttle body and access the oil pump drive. On the 3.4L, the oil pump drive was captured by the rear cylinder head. The head was supposed to be removed to replace the seal, but a scarf-cut 350 V8 distributor gasket and some liquid teflon sealant could be employed to fix the leak without removing the head or the oil pump drive. Also, the alternator moved from the top of the engine on the 3.1L to the bottom rear near the CV axle on the 3.4L. That and the 3.4L had a timing belt which required maintenance regularly (every 60,000 miles if I remember correctly). Aside from those issues, there was nothing terribly expensive about them and they were generally reliable.
This video is great
More to come!
I driven the z 34 it was guick for it's time
Yeah I drove a buddy of mine’s ‘92 Z34 back in the day. Definitely quick for it’s time.
@@MotorMaster_Stunticon I remember I test drove a black z 34 and I have driven and rode in the Ford sho the z34 is a little quicker
Do a vid of the 90-97 thunderbird and cougar!!
Yeah I plan on doing the 89 T-bird.
i've owned a 90 regal, 93 cutlass, 91 lumina, 92 lumina
Nice. I’m looking at purchasing a ‘93 Cutlass Supreme Convertible w/ 50k right now.
@@MotorMaster_Stunticon beware of it has digital gauges, I replaced mine with mine because they didn't work, I replaced them with three more reliable 80s digital ones, the job was fun for me but a nightmare for most, I repinned the connectors and replaced the switches with sensors
Ok, thanks for the tip.
@@kylinmcdevitt1181 GM actually made 3 different styles of digital clusters for the 88-93 years. I love mine!
@@jiggity76 oh wow didn't know that, maybe at the time I was going for the more options one, that was 10 years ago lol
Cool 🥰
I always wonder, exactly what did GM do with the seven billion dollars it spent to develop the W body platform? They didn't spend it on modernizing power trains because these cars got the same tired pushrod engines that GM used pretty much in all of its cars going back 30+ years. The imports all had smooth, powerful multi-valve DOHC engines. GM also didn't spend much of the seven billion on the W body interiors, which were cut-rate cheap and had bizarre ergonomics, to say the least. So where did all the money actually go? I don't know, but it seems that very little of it was used to try to make the cars competitive in the marketplace. And, to top off the whole disastrous development of the W's, GM in all its wisdom chose to release the coupe versions 2+ years before the sedan versions. Right when the market for coupes was increasingly dead and the family sedan market was exploding. And to make it worse, GM saddled the cars with long out-of-vogue names like Cutlass Supreme, Grand Prix, and Regal, among others. People wanted crisp, modern, fuel efficient sedans with very high levels of build quality, not personal luxury coupes harkening back to the 1970s. What a debacle.
I own one right now it's a very rough body but it's very
Cool. Hard to find nowadays.
@@MotorMaster_Stunticon what sucks I live in upstate New York shirt rusted out pretty good I have to have someone while the strut house in back in and do some framework underneath and well that back together I replace the floorboards Nexus the rocker panels because someone styrofoam sprayed the rockers and it sucked they also did it to the frame underneath and have you ever heard of it to buy for being shoved in the behind the fender and stuff and both in the fender to it I never heard of that that's what this person did who sold me the car the directional switch does not work trying to track down a new steering column because someone put a huge boat where the directorship thing was and the car don't have no wipers I got the headlights working I paid 800 for it and it has a hundred 98000 miles on it I did a video on it on my RUclips channel update on Chevy lumina the video is because I tried to put a directional switch in it but unfortunately it won't stay in because they stripped where it hooks into so I have to get the whole mechanism for it with the emergency lights and everything the whole piece that goes on a steam account and nobody has that anymore
If thay were a early 2000 chevy celebrity would the chevy lumina that was owned by holden be it
3.4 DOHC is awesome
Yes it is
A 1990 base with the 3.1
Awesome!
I had a lumina z34 from 1992 color white hurricane Maria destroyed it😢
Really? Dang.
I own a 1990 lumina base model coupe with a 3.1 and a 1992 Z34. I used to own a 1990 Pontiac Grand Prix but I stole the motor out of it for my lumina base model
Cool, thanks for sharing that with us. I’m all about hearing about these cool throwback cars. Glad you still own the two Luminas.
THE SECOND GENERATION LUMINA LOOKS BETTER GENERAL MOTORS DID A GOOD JOB WITH THE LUMINA 😮😮😮😮
Keep a timing belt in the maintenence department on time
For the 3.4
I like how you say "attempted". The Lumina was a better and more reliable car in every way. The Ford 2.5L I4, 3.0L and 3.8L V6 were straight garbage and so were the transmissions. The Taurus is one of the main reasons Ford cars were notoriously known for their unreliability in the 80's and 90's.
I agree with you fully. It’s just the fact the early Lumina could not match the Taurus in terms of popularity/sales despite it being better and more reliable in every way.
I had one of each over the years. The Lumina was a far better car! I consider the Taurus to be the worst car I've ever owned.
@@ElricX I had a 93' Tarus but I also had friends that had older and newer and they all had the same issues. I had a 91' Lumina that did have transmission torque converter leak but it still ran really well and once I fixed the leak I never had a problem again. I sold it with over 230,000 miles.
Whoever signed off on the second gen Lumina must have been blind. That thing took W's for most drastically hideous redesign and most boring looking GM sedan of it's time. I remember far more first gen Luminas on the road long after the 2nd gens mostly used as govt or company fleets. The 2nd gen interiors were in the running for "worst looking and feeling car interior ever". I curiously explored inside of one on a used lot once. The Euro/Z-34 Lumina is one of my favorite cars ever, and NASCAR body legends
Please do the C230 Kompressor.....people need to know lol
(I know this is the 3rd time asking, but you'd literally be the first to do a documentary on the older C classes... also, I don't have Mello Yellow on hand, but.....I do have some Mr. Pibb somewhere)
Haha yeah Mr. Pibb is a great choice too. Yeah the W203 C-class is a neat little car, we’ll see what we can do.
@@MotorMaster_Stunticon w202 also (AMG Hammer would be a nice vid🙂) love your thumbnail theme btw...very eye catching and original
These classic automobiles deserves a worthy thumbnail haha. Thanks for watching and thanks for the video suggestions.
DRINK SOME WATER!!!!
😉
Can someone please explain to me why the Beretta z26 is one of my favorite 80s coupes and why I absolutely hate the lumina. It's just hard for me to believe that a car so similar is so ugly. The z34 is the only version that I can even stand to look at, but I really don't like it.
The lumina was 4 years late in production.
And Chrysler K car was the 1st front wheel drive car
Also they were mainly fleet cars.
Also They were the official car of Disney World
And the dust buster vans were ugly
We mentioned Chevy was the first “GM” division to make the transition. This has nothing to do with the Chrysler K car.
@@MotorMaster_Stunticon
The lumina was a late design anyway it was supposed to be the answer to the Ford Taurus.
You have q lots of incorrect facts. Lumina and w body never had 4 cylinder 2.5
I think you should improve your grammar skills.
front wheel drive GM cars weren't built to last, 2000 models are pretty much extinct in 2022. same goes for most pre 2000 front wheel drive American cars. I still see old 80's and 90's Toyota and Honda vehicles daily...
I guess it depends on location. I still see TONS of 2000, 01, 02 etc. Impalas/Montes. I still see plenty of Century/Regals a few of my folks personally own a few and they have the 3800 engine. But yeah also no shortage of 80s 90s Toyotas and Hondas.
samuel lopes All mechanical things aren't made to last, things will fail. I personally know of very many older W's now hitting the 250-300,000 mile mark, are daily driven, and enjoyed. My daily driver is a 96 Cutlass SL sedan. It has low mileage and runs great. In my area, I see many older brands and models still running around. It's all about maintenance. Older vehicles get junked due to accidents or the costs of repairs in regards to the value of the car at the time of said repair. In most cases, the repair cost exceeds the value so they get junked.
I have a 2000 impala with the 3400 still going strong after 23 years
Bench seat, good RH car :).