One of the few Detroit car divisions that used six-digit odometers in at least some of its vehicles during the 1980s and early 1990s was Oldsmobile. That means it was possible for me to document an Olds that drove past the magical 300k mark, when I spotted this Cutlass Ciera in a Denver-area car graveyard recently.
This is the second-highest final Oldsmobile odometer reading I’ve found in a junkyard, after a customized 1986 Calais with 363,033 miles.
This car now ranks #12 in the Murilee Martin Junkyard Odometer Standings for vehicles built in the United States by a United States-based company (for American-made vehicles overall, #1 is a Georgetown-built Toyota Avalon with 949,863 Carfax-verified miles on the clock).
Let’s take a look at that list of the top 12 USA! 
USA! USA! discarded vehicles, shall we? Jeep gets a big advantage here, because AMC and then Chrysler used six-digit odometers in the XJ Cherokee from the beginning of that truck’s production:
- 2000 Ford Econoline: 541,324 miles
- 1991 Chevrolet Astro: 425,127 miles
- 1986 Oldsmobile Calais: 363,033 miles
- 1992 Jeep Cherokee: 355,892 miles
- 1992 Jeep Cherokee: 352,943 miles
- 1990 Chevrolet Caprice: 350,664 miles
- 1990 Geo Prizm: 321,981 miles
- 1995 Mercury Tracer: 319,256 miles
- 1994 Chevrolet ChevyVan: 314,837 miles
- 1993 Jeep Grand Cherokee: 314,408 miles
- 1990 Jeep Cherokee: 307,058 miles
- 1993 Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera: 306,842 miles
The auction sticker on the windshield indicates that this Olds was a non-runner at the time it was donated to a veterans’ charity.
Oldsmobile first used the Cutlass name on a concept car in 1954, borrowing it from the not-so-successful-but-cool-looking Vought F7U Cutlass fighter plane (the names of the Convair F-102 Delta Dagger and Lockheed F-94 Starfire were also swiped by the Oldsmobile Division for use on cars).
Due to the Cutlass becoming the best-selling car in America during the middle 1970s, Oldsmobile applied the name to a confusing array of unrelated or distantly-related vehicles in subsequent years. During the early 1990s, Oldsmobile Cutlass shoppers could choose among the N-platform Cutlass Calais, the A-platform Cutlass Ciera and the W-platform Cutlass Supreme.
The front-wheel-drive GM A-Body first appeared for the 1982 model year, with the launch of the Chevrolet Celebrity, Pontiac 6000, Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera and Buick Century. It was based on the troubled X-Body platform but proved more successful.
By 1993, only the Cutlass Ciera and Century remained on the A platform. They would hang on through 1996, though the Cutlass Ciera became just the Ciera for the A’s final year.
This car began life with Medium Garnet Red Metallic paint, which matched the luxurious Bordello Ruby Red quasi-velour upholstery. At some point, it received a thick coat of white paint.
The engine is a 3.3-liter pushrod Buick V6, rated at 160 horsepower and 185 pound-feet. Sure, it’s an early-1960s engine design in a late-1970s chassis design, but GM had all this hardware pretty well-sorted by the time this car was assembled.
The interior looks a bit faded but basically intact. This is typical for high-mile cars. Cars don’t tend to last 300,000 miles if abused, although I have seen a few exceptions.
One of this car’s owners invested in a set of American Racing alloys.
CAP hadn’t yet put this Olds out in their U-Pull inventory at the time I found it.
The Colorado State Parks pass had a 2016 expiration date, so we can assume this car was a driver at that time.
1993 Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera in Colorado junkyard.
1993 Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera in Colorado junkyard.
1993 Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera in Colorado junkyard.
1993 Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera in Colorado junkyard.
1993 Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera in Colorado junkyard.
1993 Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera in Colorado junkyard.
1993 Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera in Colorado junkyard.
1993 Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera in Colorado junkyard.
1993 Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera in Colorado junkyard.
1993 Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera in Colorado junkyard.
1993 Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera in Colorado junkyard.
1993 Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera in Colorado junkyard.
1993 Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera in Colorado junkyard.
1993 Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera in Colorado junkyard.
1993 Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera in Colorado junkyard.
1993 Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera in Colorado junkyard.
[Images: The Author]
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