Another hens-teeth obscure model. http://www.ebay.com/itm/1990-Oldsmobile-Toronado-/262937318972?_trksid=p2141725.m3641.l6368
The Trofeo was offered beginning in 1988 and running until the last year of the Toronado, 1992, so five model years. In each of those years, the Trofeo outsold the base Toronado coupe, but production was never very high. 1988 Toro coupe: 7,698 1988 Toro Trofeo : 8,798 1989 coupe: 3,734 1989 Trofeo: 6,143 1990 coupe; 5,596 1990 Trofeo: 9,426 1991 coupe: 2,705 (ouch, that's low) 1991 Trofeo: 5,348 1992 coupe: 1,239 (ouch, even lower) 1992 Trofeo: 5,197 Total Trofeo production was 34,912. Total Toronado production over these five years was 55,884. Olds sold more Delta 88 sedans in 1990 alone (65,800).
I always wondered if the Trofeo was supposed to have been a Toro replacement, but with the highest single-year production at 9000+, the Olds Division head decided it was time to drop the Toro nameplate altogether.
What was supposed to be the next generation Toronado turned into the Oldsmobile Aurora. Olds went with a premium four-door luxury sedan as buyers had soured on big 2-door coupes. This was confirmed as the Riviera, Lincoln Mark and eventually Eldorado were all finally canceled.
The Toronado was always a niche car. It's original claim to fame was front-wheel drive. By the mid-1980s, FWD was becoming common, and by the '90s it was pretty much standard. It also tried to be a personal luxury car like the Riviera, and it succeeded to a reasonable extent given the fact that it was in production for 27 years. But by its latter years, it ceased to have any real reason for being, and it certainly didn't contribute much to Olds's bottom line as its production was such a small percentage of total Olds production, especially in the final years. Toronado production, 1966-1992 1966: 40,963 (7% of total Olds production) 1967: 21,790 (4% of total Olds production). This is such a huge drop-off after the first year that I wonder if Olds or GM didn't briefly consider dropping the model after two model years. 1968: 26,454 (4%) 1969: 28,494 (4%) 1970: 25,433 (4%) 1971: 28,980 (5.2%) First year of the second-generation Toronado. 1972: 48,900 (6.4%) 1973: 55,921 (6%) 1974: 29,398 (4.7%) First Arab oil embargo cuts into the sales of large cars with big V-8 engines. 1975: 25,075 (4%) 1976: 24,444 (2.7%) 1977: 34,261 (3%) Milestone year for Oldsmobile as it's the first year Olds sold 1 million or more cars. More than half were various flavors of Cutlass. 1978: 26,491 (2.6%) 1979: 53,339 (4.9%) First year of the third-generation Toronado. 1980: 47,018 (5%) 1981: 46,003 (4.7%) 1982: 35,032 (4.3%) 1983: 40,747 (4.3%) 1984: 49,772 (4.1%) Beginning of three-year stretch when Olds sold about 1.2 million cars each year. High water mark in Olds history was 1984 with total production of 1,203,843. 1985 and 1986 would each be just under 1.2 million. Thereafter, production fell steadily until the end. 1985: 43,960 (3.7%) 1986: 16,788 (1.4%) First year of the fourth-generation Toronado. The models were not well received judging by the large fall-off in production. 1987: 15,833 (1.9%) 1988: 16,923 (2.2%) 1989: 10,171 (1.5%) 1990: 15,566 (2.7%) 1991: 8,053 (1.8%) Total Olds production falls below 500,000 for the first time since the 1963 model year. 1992: 6,732 (1.3%) Olds production rebounds slightly to 511,000. All subsequent years would be less than 500,000. Some observations: 1. The high-water mark for Toronado production was 1973 with almost 56,000 sold. The only other year with more than 50,000 produced was 1979. 2. The high-water mark for Toronado production as a percentage of total Olds production was the very first year, 1966, with Toro production 7% of the total. 3. The overall best-selling generation of Toronado was the third one (1979 to 1985), with production pretty much consistently in the 40,000 to 50,000 range (1982 being the exception, but it was a recession year). 4. The totals above for 1988 to 1992 don't necessarily agree with the numbers I posted earlier (if you add them together) because the numbers here include Toronados built for "export." No breakdown is given for how many export models were Trofeos versus Coupes or, in earlier years, Hardtops versus Broughams. 5. As noted, the final generation of Toronado was poorly received by the buying public. But this was a problem across the Oldsmobile line as the cars' styling was very uninspired, and this coincided with the infamous "not your father's Oldsmobile" advertising campaign, which fell flat.
