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I have a question about the 1988-97 W-body cars (Buick Regal, Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme and Pontiac Grand Prix), were they buy any chance good vehicles to own back in the day?
They were basic transportation with varying degrees of decoration/amenities that were relatively reliable (though the 3.1 apparently had some some issues with intake manifold gasket leaks), but IMO they were chintzy and had miserable driving dynamics.
I have a question about the 1988-97 W-body cars (Buick Regal, Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme and Pontiac Grand Prix), were they buy any chance good vehicles to own back in the day?
I had a '90 Cutlass Supreme, with the 3.1 V6. Maintenance only, got at least 30 mpg on the highway, had very good power, handled & rode great, and I ran it up well over 300,000 miles.
It was probably the best car I've ever owned.
There were, however, some specific glitches with those cars - including rear disc brake problems - but if you fixed it right the first time, you had no more problems.
I had a teal green '94 Cutlass Supreme w/ the 3100 V6. The car drove very good and I never did have any engine problems, but the transmission started slipping at 90k miles. It made it to 100k before it finally failed, then I had a rebuilt one installed and it too started slipping at 125k miles. At 130k miles someone pulled out in front of me and it was totalled. It worked out for the best because I got $3600 for a car with a slipping tranny.
Another thing, it used to overheat on the highway during the summer. I never could figure out what caused it then, but looking back now I'm pretty sure it was because the front air dam was missing.
I had a 1994 Chevrolet Lumina 4dr sedan (base model) (same basic car as the ones you mentioned) with the 3.1L V6 that had 189K and still ran like new - engine and transmission were flawless.
Mom and others in the family are die hard GM folks. She's had 3 3.1's, and only her '02 Century gave up its intake gasket. Dealer raped her on that one, then when they screwed up the repair they charged her more money to fix it right See ya later, GM.
Mom's '95 Grand Prix literally started falling apart at 50K, and a few mechanics couldn't figure out why the motor had serious oil burning issues, which kept plugging up the very expensive EGR her specific sequence of 3.1 had. Well, after some internet research I did around the time she donated the car to charity (at 70K), I discovered there were several thousand 3.1's which had the same issue as hers. Turns out GM had a worker at the engine plant in Tonawanda who was putting the valve stem seals on UPSIDE DOWN, allowing oil to be pulled into the chambers on the intake stroke. Despite the fact my mother knows very little about cars, he's always been a stickler about maintenance, and has never had major stuff happen due to any lack of maintenance. How modern cars could fall apart at 50K miles is beyond me. Hers was going through a quart every 500 miles.
Every mid sized GM she had in the 90's had the usual brake problems associated with those models, and the rear disc brakes were terribly expensive, and went at around 25K on her Grand Prix. Fit an finish sucked, various switches started going at 40K. Car was a mess by 70K, despite being lovingly maintained and detailed by either myself or real pros.
I'm sure some have had better luck, overall, but statistics are statistics. The failure rates for these cars was downright criminal.
Turns out GM had a worker at the engine plant in Tonawanda who was putting the valve stem seals on UPSIDE DOWN, allowing oil to be pulled into the chambers on the intake stroke.
How horrible... thankfully my '94 Lumina 3.1L wasnt one of them. It had an excellent drivetrain... it was the body that was the reason I was sold it... the undercarriage was eat up with rust... it was an originally from Cleveland Ohio!
IMO they were crap. When they did away with the RWD platforms and went FEW is when they tarnished their names.
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See ya later, GM. 
