(first posted 1/25/2013) Richard Bennett’s recent ode to his new-to-him 2001 Alero had me waxing nostalgic for Oldsmobile. Due to having several in my family when I was a kid, I especially long for the 1976-77 Cutlass Supreme; in all likelihood, so do a number of people, as they set sales records in the ’70s and early ’80s. Luckily, I spotted a primo example at the annual car show in Geneseo last fall. Let’s take a closer look at these classy coupes…
We’ve all heard the Colonnade story: In 1973, GM unveiled the new A-bodies. While much more modern, they were a love-it-or-hate-it proposition (ask Zackman how he feels!). At any rate, sporty coupes were out, and the world of Brougham was in. The Cutlass coupes, in various S, Salon and Supreme forms, did quite well despite the lack of roll-down rear windows on the two-doors. But in my opinion, they hit their stride in 1976, when an attractive new face lift greeted visitors to Olds showrooms. The smooth sides (sedans retained fender blisters), quad rectangular lights and waterfall grille all looked great.
My Aunt Candy got one about a year after my Uncle Don bought a brand-new 460-powered 1976 Starsky & Hutch Torino.
If I may be allowed to digress from Cutlass Supremes for a moment, Uncle Don’s Starsky & Hutch was a factory-built special edition; like many other Torinos and related Elites, his was built at the Ford plant in Chicago and shipped to Rock Island. Almost immediately after the S&H came in to Bob Neal Ford, Don got rid of the factory Magnum 500 rims and purchased proper slotted mags. He also had to give the car a bit of rake to match the real thing. Despite the combination of giant bumpers, various emissions systems and Ford-O-Matic strangling the Gran Torino, my aunt fondly remembers flying across the I-280 bridge across the Mississippi in it at better than 100 mph.
So, the Gran Torino was a little too fun. A one-year-old ’76 Supreme Brougham, in triple burgundy (much like the CS two photos above, but with the standard full wheel covers) was its replacement.
My Uncle Don was a master mechanic. He could fix anything. When he worked at Bob Neal, my grandparents, who drove Lincoln Marks and T-Birds, demanded that Don–and only Don–work on their cars. This built a little resentment among the other mechanics, but he couldn’t have cared less. It also gave him a degree of freedom when dealing with BS from the dealership and other employees. If somebody ticked him off, he could go to any other dealership in the area and get a new job. One time, Erv Peters, a Ford dealer Don worked for in the early ’80s, asked Candy how to keep Don on staff. It was easy, she told him–just pay him more money!
The Cutlass was a good choice. In the mid-’70s, Oldsmobile was in an enviable position, largely due to the Cutlass line. The coupes in particular flew off dealer lots. Folks of a younger age may not understand just what Oldsmobile meant in the ’70s. It was an aspirational brand, a mini-Cadillac, if you will. Sales were brisk: The Supreme coupe alone sold 186,647 copies during the year. The flossier Brougham coupe, priced about $300 higher, also sold decently, with over 90,000 finding owners.
During the 1976-77 period, Cutlass was number one in sales–no mean feat when you consider that just a few years earlier, Ford, Chevy and Plymouth were the top three brands. Olds turned all that upside-down with just the right combination of comfort, luxury and price. It was a perfect storm.
It certainly didn’t hurt that Cutlasses were nicely styled. For those who didn’t care for the Brougham treatment, a Cutlass S or Salon could be ordered with buckets, console, Super Stock wheels and no full-vinyl or Landau roof. But plenty of buyers went for the top-trim Brougham coupe like the red-and-white example pictured above. The expected Brougham badging, full wheel covers (or the optional Super Stock wheels pictured) and stand-up hood ornament all came standard to set Broughams apart on the outside.
Inside, and unsurprisingly, you found pillow-top seating, in La Mancha crushed velour and Dover knit cloth, with an abstract design (that for some reason resembles bowtie pasta–to me, at least). Fake wood trim also abounded, but power windows still cost extra. There were also plenty of other options to be had by those in the mood for a fully loaded Olds.
As a kid growing up in the mid- to late-’80s, I saw plenty of these. In addition to my aunt’s, there was my cousin;s first car, a ’77 non-Brougham Supreme. It was light metallic blue with a blue interior, white landau top and color-keyed Super Stock wheels with whitewalls. My uncle had found it for her and deemed it mechanically sound. She drove it without incident, until the rear bumper fell off a year or so later. That was a chronic problem with Colonnade Cutlasses, and I remember seeing many of them, sans rear bumper, on the road. My uncle fixed hers, though, by installing a wooden bumper to replace the absent chrome one–and it was no simple 2 x 4, either–he made it fit the contours of the rear deck and even painted it in matching blue!
As for my aunt’s car, she kept it for ten or so years until my uncle found her a nice ’78 T-Bird with the rare buckets and console. It was in nice shape but had faded paint, so he redid it in non-metallic midnight blue, which contrasted nicely with the chamois “comfort-weave” vinyl interior. Curiously, Candy’s Olds never lost its rear bumper despite never being garaged; however, the nearby Blackhawk Foundry wrecked the paint and pitted the glass in no time. EPA violations, anyone? But its interior was still pristine when they sold it!
I was happy to inspect this bright red Brougham at the show. It was in mint condition, and is probably a clean original rather than a restoration. But as nice as this car is, it just doesn’t look right with raised-white letter tires. RWLs are just not right for a Brougham, although they would look good on a Colonnade 442. So of course, I had to alter it digitally with whitewalls. Much better.
The ’77 CS was little changed but sold even better, with total sales of 242,874 Supreme and 124,712 Supreme Brougham coupes. Keep in mind, those figures don’t include sedans and wagons, or 442, “S” and Salon coupes. It was good to be an Olds dealer in the mid-’70s!
In Broughams, the pasta-pattern interior fabric was gone, replaced with striped velour. The waterfall grille was revised, and the “eyeball” HVAC vents in the dash were replaced with rectangular units. I’ve since read that they had to be replaced, as the molds for the earlier dash had worn out! Other than that, things were very familiar.
A-body Oldsmobiles were downsized for 1978, but that didn’t affect sales one bit. If anything, production increased, and the Cutlass Supreme coupe would continue to be a cash cow (and object of desire) for many years to come. Coming from such highs, it was surprising to many when Olds lost the plot in the late ’80s and started its long decline. But in 1976 and 1977, Oldsmobile was King of the Brougham Hill.
Love Cutlasses? The Curbside Classic Complete Cutlass Chronicles are here.
Yeah, the ’76-’77s hit some sort of sweet spot, although I’ve always thought the ultimate 2-door Cutlass was somewhere in the ’68- ’70 range.
My dad’s last car was a ’77 Buick Regal 2-door, near-sister to the featured car (including the vinyl half-roof) and bought used from a single owner who had babied it all its life. There’s a photo of it on the Cohort somewhere. Most of the rest of the family thought it a bloated monstrosity, but I absolutely loved the thing and considered it far superior to the ’78 and later models ( I bought a ’78 Malibu wagon new, and frankly ended up regretting the purchase). I made an epic 10-day round trip from PA to Durango, CO and back in the Buick with my then-girlfriend; the beast never missed a beat and looked good doing it.
Oh, just by way of contrast, here’s my Dad’s Regal.
That is a sharp looking car.
My mother drove a 77 Regal, black with red interior, and my father drove a 78 Skyhawk gold/gold 5 speed.
Those are my first to car memories. Sitting under the large (at the time) rear window of the Skyhawk going down the road, and standing up between the seats on the rear floor hump while driving down the road.
These days you’d get arrested for child abuse for things like that…but I remember it happening back then.
i have a 1976 Cutless Salon its got the bucket seats, the shifter on the floor the interior is i great shape, i drove it as a lowrider and as a sporty looking high rider this car is a looker even more now that it is a classic.
My dad bought a ’76 Regal in the same light blue color at a farm auction in Illinois for $500 some twenty years ago. It was kind of rusty but had immaculate blue velour interior.
I got to drive it a few times and loved the way it drove but was amazed GM would build a car like that with a V6 engine. I remember going up a slight incline on Hwy 78 in Forestdale Alabama about 45 mph and didn’t realize I ended up at WOT until my gradually-increased foot pressure was halted by the accelerator pedal touching the floor.
He sold it to some degenerate in rural Alabama where I spotted it several months later in the same junkyard that poor X-100 Maurauder ended up at.
Thats a 1976 Regal , not a 77 . I can tell by the grill as the 77 has vertical bars pattern. My parents bought a new 76 Regal, Creme and Beige top just like the Blue one, with crome rims , leather seats ,, it was a great looking car and I got my license with the car in the early 80;s.
Enjoy the pics. This is my 1977 Cutlass Salon.
One more
Another one
That steering wheel. My favorite ever. Seen lost of 3 spokes in that style…but cant recall a 4 spoke. I certainly appreciate all the features of modern wheel-mounted controls, but good grief that is beautiful
Between my Dad and I we had 4 Regal/Century coupes. He bought a new 76 Regal with the odd-fire V6 (not the best engine) and when that got totaled, he bought a 77 Century Custom Coupe (Regal body with the sporty nose) that was fully loaded with a 350 in the same color scheme as the 76 Regal. Then he bought me a 77 Regal as a graduation present from high school. Years later I bought another 77 Custom Coupe and yanked out the V6 and replaced it with a 69 Olds 455 and the red sport interior complete with floor shift from a wrecked Regal S/R, complete with seats, door panels, and sporty dash gauges. Probably one of my favorite cars I ever owned (I also owned a 67 Riviera and a 71 Riviera GS). Years later he bought a 77 Cutlass Supreme in the same color as his first 76 Regal, but he never liked the Olds as much as his beloved Regals. I actually liked the Cutlass with it’s deep-set round gauges.
I agree that the ultimate Cutlass was the ’68-70. My dad owned a ’69 442 convertible, and it set the template in my young mind as to what the standard for a Cutlass should be. We also owned a ’76 Vista Cruiser (Cutlass station wagon), and while the ’76 was neat in its own way, it was no match for the ’69 in so many other ways.
455 FAST EFI
It’s amazing how a car once so plentiful can suddenly disappear from the road. As you said, Tom, these were once plentiful and are so rarely seen today. With their desirability, I’m figuring many of them were simply driven into the ground.
Friends of my parent’s had a ’76 Cutlass Supreme. It was almost as you described your cousin’s first car – blue, with white vinyl top. This Olds, combined with another family friend’s red ’77 Grand Prix, have always been aspirational cars for me.
Since I haven’t seen either in a while, I’ll probably see one of each this weekend!
I spotted a vintage clip of Car & Truck showing a test-drive of a 1973 Cutlass in the 1st year of the Colonnade era then you might like. 😉
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xe9omy_1973-oldsmobile-cutlass-road-test_auto#.UQJ78GeJKBU
I’ve said it before in the comments: I am no fan of the Colonnade GMs. I’ve always thought they were unattractive cars with needlessly cramped interiors. But if someone forced me at gunpoint to own one, I’d want a ’76-’78 Cutlass Supreme coupe. It’s the best looking of the bunch. I just wouldn’t ask anybody to sit in the back seat; it’s a torture chamber.
The coupes were cramped yes… the sedans not so much. I’m 6’2″ and I’ve got the Chevy 4 door version of this car, and I can be just fine in the back seat, even with the front bench all the way back to where I normally keep it. The sedans are about as cramped as a typical 80s or 90s GM FWD A-body, or even a 1st or 2nd gen Explorer. I think even the brand new Malibu is about the same inside, except for hip room since the 73-77 cars are so much wider.
Now a shorter driver in the front, then yes, the front bench seat gets cramped quickly for a long-legged passenger. My GF took over driving duties one trip in it, and she’s 5’4″. Needless to say, I gave serious thought to riding in the back seat, but this was her first time driving it, and in the dark no less, so she wanted me shotgun.
The 4 doors and trucks are on a 116 inch wheelbase.
The Monte Carlo and Grand Prix also are 116 inch wheelbase, but the extra length is in front of the windshield.
Clearly the greatest-looking Colonnade ever built!
A friend bought one of these – a coupe, just like the photo, in that ice-blue/silver color with white interior and vinyl top. A beautiful car – just be sure remind the driver to turn up the A/C when riding in the back seat!
He owned a 1974 Jeep CJ5 and traded it on this in the spring, as he was engaged and would marry two weeks after me, in Sept. 1977!
My folks bought a new ’76 Vista Cruiser, light metallic blue with “wood” paneling (contact paper), 350/350TH, and the rear facing third row seat. After my parents divorced, my mom kept it until the summer of ’86. That Oldsmobile 350 with Quadrajet sounded awesome at WOT, although the catalytic converter muffled the exhaust a bit too much for my tastes as a teen driver.
It’s the car I learned to drive in, got my first driver’s license in, and did donuts in our church parking lot in. There was a sealant on the parking lot that got very slick whenever it rained, so…whenever it rained and I had the car, guess where I went? I lost a couple of hubcaps in it screwing around, so I had to find some replacements at the local junk yard/hub cap shop.
And that leads me to this question – does anything sold new today have traditional hubcaps anymore? Anyone?
Good question about the hubcaps (wheelcovers). I miss them. They were so much easier to keep clean than exposed wheels & they offered so much more variety than today’s stuff.
Replacing a wheelcover after “curbing” a wheel is a lot cheaper than replacing an aluminum rim too.
I dunno. I lost six or seven $80 wheel covers on my old Toyota Matrix before I went out and bought a set of four $80/each alloy wheels and never had to worry about it again.
You bring up a good point. I forgot about the time my dad’s ex-girlfriend lost a wheelcover off her mid 90’s Skylark sedan. The dealer replacement was $80 so she bought a WalMart generic set (yuck!) instead.
My best friend bought a new Subaru Impreza Outback when they came out in 199x. Within six months she lost two wheelcovers and when she brought the car back to Subaru for replacements, they instead gave her four completely different redesigned wheelcovers instead: the dealer told her that the retaining clips were defective on the first design so affected cars got the 2nd-design at no charge. (She kept the car for years).
I guess I’m thinking more of the older stainless steel wheelcovers… the plastic ones of today are junk….when they don’t fall off the paint flakes off over time… I’ve got to redo the ones on my wife’s ’96 Odyssey actually.
I think the last car with metal wheel covers was the 1993 Cadillac Fleetwood; it was still using the 1982-vintage de Ville wheel covers. I am not sure if they lasted all the way to 1996, however.
I test drove a 96 A-body Buick Century that had chromed metal wheel covers and leather interior. I was very close to buying it but decided it was time to buy new with some sort of warranty (actually my wife got sick of watching me spend weekends under the POS’s I was buying every 6 months and loading miles on)…
I know the wheel covers you’re talking about, but I think they were plastic, because I saw the same type painted silver on other Centurys.
By the way, leather in an A-body Century is really rare, especially on a final-year version.
Here’s the type I’m talking about:
I believe that distinction goes to the 96 Olds/Buick A-Bodies too. Those models still had the metal wire wheel covers as an option in 96. As did the Fleetwood,Caprice and Roadmaster of 96. And I think the Skylark used a metal full wheel cover up to it’s fianl destination of 1998.
Last week at NAIAS Fiat showed a 500 with traditional hubcaps, it looked good, in a neat retro kind of way..
Great post, nice car. I always prefered the earlier Colonnade Olds’ though, especially the with the Hurst package. I thought the later ones were too bland and the front end styling never did anything for me. I probably thought the early Buick and Olds front end were the best front end styling of the Colonnade cars, but in my opinion GM never really hit one out of the park when it comes to the front end styling for any of the divisions. It’s too bad, becuase most Colonnade cars had great lines. I also prefered the white letter tires much more so than the white walls. Good cars overall though. The Colonnade’s biggest downfall, like many 1970’s cars, was rust issues.
We have had a 1976 Chevelle Maluibu Classic in the family for many years. Great car, dead reliable and super low operating costs. I thought these Chevy’s had nice lines, but was never crazy about the front end styling. I have been stuck in the back seat before, it’s not great but it’s not that bad (and I am much taller than average). This car is an unrestored original other than a repaint. My brother, who know owns the car, put on the aftermarket wheels.
That’s a clean Malibu. It’s too bad few people fix them up. My favorite collonade Malibu is probably the ’74 model.
A friend had a two tone white brown ’74 Laguna with the plastic (?) front face. Quite a set of wheels for a high school kid in ’76. It was fast, comfortable, quiet and handled very well. Suffered from the cold stalling that was common at the time though.
Thanks, this was my fathers Daily driver until 2007. It was well used for the majority of it’s life, and even pulled a boat. Nothing but oil changes, brakes, shocks and an alternator in the first 100K miles. It was originally equipped with a landau vinyl roof, but that was removed during the repaint. My father hated vinyl roofs. I think it looks better without anyway. These cars had a great roofline.
I upgraded the suspension for my brother with stiffer springs, good shocks and a larger front and rear sway bar. My brother added the dual exhaust and the wheels. It handles very well and has an excellent ride.
I’ve got your car but in sedan form. It’s a 77 dressed up in the slightly less fussy 76 grill and taillights.
I think the 73 Laguna front end was the best looking of the bunch, but by the time the end of the run came, GM was just throwing anything out there with the new quad rectangle lights.
My earlier comment didn’t go through, so let’s try again…
I agree that the early Colonnade Oldsmobiles look much better, at least in coupe form. (The side sculpting seems kind of contrived on four-door sedans.) The ’76-’77 cars are very generic: Except for the grille, they could just as easily be a Regal or a Malibu. The later cars also look very sedanish, enough to make me wonder how much that had to do with the declining popularity of coupes in the ’80s — if the coupe just looks like a two-door sedan with a slightly different roofline, why not just take the more practical four-door sedan?
I think one of the reasons the Cutlass became so popular is that it really wasn’t much more expensive than a Malibu and had more content and a bigger engine. Even discounting the more prestigious badge, the Olds was a good value compared to the other A-bodies.
I recall those Cutlasses everywhere. The plant manager of the factory I worked at in 76 had a triple grey version. A striking beautiful car. Another guy I knew had a silver blue one. Those cars exemplfied the Brougham era.
As far as hubcaps go, I doubt any new car comes with actual traditional hubcaps or wheel covers. Just center caps, maybe.
Paul wrote previously about the Malibu being a deadliest sin. Nice to see these getting some credit for being what people wanted at the time.
I always thought the collonades were decent cars. Not great, but solid and good looking for their day. And just to point out the obvious: If you want a roomy back seat, don’t buy a two door coupe. These weren’t meant to be family cars.
+1
Amen!
My buddy’s 71 Malibu ‘vertible is horrible for back seat room, where my ’77 Malibu sedan is limo-like in comparison. Both have about the same front seat room. Although I don’t have to duck my head to see out the windshield on my ’77 like I do for his 71
Tom, thanks for writing up my all time favorite Brougham ever! The ’76 and ’77 Cutlass Supreme & Cutlass Supreme Broughams represent the ultimate Cutlass in my eyes. These (and the ’76-7 Buick A-body coupes) were such sharp rides & their four square headlights looked so good wrapped in their respective header panels.
I always thought the base wheelcovers on these were ugly though. The N95 covers are my favorite and look great on these as do the Super Stock III wheels the subject car sports. I am with you and prefer the white wall tires to the white-letter tires.
Production was amazing:
1976 Cutlass Supreme 2-door: 186,647
1976 Cutlass Supreme Brougham 2-door: 91,312(!)
1977 Cutlass Supreme 2-door: 242,874
1977 Cutlass Supreme Brougham 2-door: 124,712(!)
It’s interesting to note that a 4-door Brougham was offered in ’77 only & only 16,738 were built.
I love the green interior on the ’77 and have never seen one so-equipped. My choice would be a white ’77 Brougham with green interior and the 403.
My bucket list Cutlass would have to be either a Lime ’76 Cutlass Supreme with 455 and white bucket seat interior or a 455-equipped Brougham with anything but Camel-colored interior.
Comparatively speaking, the Rallye 350s/pre’73 442 W-30s are “meh” to me.
Just before I got my license I got a job cutting grass for an elderly gentleman who had one of these – cream colored – beautiful inside and out.
I remember it having an HL or H/L badge on it – I always assumed it meant “High Luxury” or “High Lux” or something like that.
Anyone have any insight? Am I remembering this correctly or is my memory fogged by all the years?
Could have been a reigonal thing, some Oldsmobile sales districts created special edtions for their own sales district, I think Chicago area Olds dealers had one.
I’ve only seen the regional packages on the Cutlass S models personally. The Chicagoland version was called the ‘GMO’ which stood for the “Gallant Men of Oldsmobile”. I remember hearing that on TV/radio commercials when I was a kid. These cars had a stainless steel band that ran between the two B-pillars and I think they also got a single chromed LH sport mirror.
Chicagoland and NW Indiana Olds dealers ad campaign was “See your Galant Men of Olds”. So, there were special “GMO” trimmed Cutlass S fastbacks. The rear quarter windows were ‘opera’ style and a T top roof.
I do remember a Northern California/Bay Area Olds Delta 88 Royale coupe. It was in ’72 and they were all yellow with a black vinyl top, Rallye wheels that were yellow and whitewalls. Not sure on how many were built, but in newspaper ads it was referred to as a “Bay Area Metro Special”. . . .
The ’76-’77 Cutlass was one of the few shining stars of the domestic manufacturers in the mid-to-late seventies. Quality was no better than anything else, but at least it had nice styling, and fit in well during the heyday of the brougham years.
And you could still get a 455 in a Cutlass in 1976. It was the last hurrah for the musclecar. One of those in decent shape might be a good choice as a future investment.
But as others have pointed out, for the best of the Cutlass years, like so many other marques, it was the ’68-’72 versions, particularly the hottest 1970 W-series cars.
As I remember it, Oldsmobile workmanship and reliability were a cut above the competition in those days (except for Buick).That was one reason these cars were so popular.
While the Cutlass Supreme was the big seller, the Delta 88 and Ninety-Eight were extremely popular in the 1970s and early 1980s, too. Oldsmobile had a very good reputation in the 1970s. The Oldsmobile Diesel started to ruin it, the front-wheel-drive Omega and increased badge engineering in the early 1980s accelerated the fall, and teething problems with the front-wheel-drive Ninety-Eight and Delta 88 kicked it into overdrive.
The ’77-’79 Olds 403 motor was same power level, maybe better, as the choked ’76 455.
I had a ’76 Salon in silver blue. It’s unusual feature was it was equipped with T-top roof. The T-tops were a pain to open…the factory supplied some cases for the T-tops when they were stowed in the trunk. No problems with T-top leaks – I kept the rubber seals lubricated. I drove it for several years and then my brother drove it for many years until it died. A very classy car for its day.
I like the Monte and the Grand Prix from the same years a little bit better but this it’s a really cool car, red with white vinyl just can’t go wrong !
The CC example is one sharp automobile from a distance, but the repaint evident in the Clue looked atrocious and badly in need of wet sanding. Did the rest of the car look better up close, Tom?
It looked very nice in person. It was only upon looking at my close-up shots that I saw the orange peel, et al. The pinstriping was spot-on too, which made me think it was indifferently-applied factory paint.
I will (mostly) join in on the Oldsmobile love-fest. My stepmom had a 74 Cutlass Supreme coupe, white with a blue landau roof and white interior with blue dash & carpet. It was an excellent car that gave very little trouble. You are right that this was then what a Honda Accord became in the 80s and what a Toyota Camry became in the 90s. I drove stepmom’s by myself once when I was in high school or college, and remember thinking “so this is what it feels like to grow up.”
My gripes with the car were about what I saw as a cheapening of the bodies. The 1973 A body lacked the solid “Body by Fisher” feel of the ones up through 1972. The door straps were always coming loose as well. The molded plastic one-piece lower door panels always bothered me. I did like the dash with the round a/c vents.
Mechanically, though, these were the top. Oldsmobile seemed to have slightly more open exhaust systems than everyone else, and that distinctive Oldsmobile sound always came through loud and clear. A 4 bbl 350 and a THM transmission would make for years of largely trouble-free service.
I considered the coupes a bit bland after the 1976 restyle. Also, this car looks interesting in bright red. I do not remember seeing many in that color back then. I also agree that this looks right with whitewalls.
All CC readers are aware of the instant recall to a particular emotion in one’s life, brought on by the sight of a car long out of one’s consciousness. . .
My friend’s mother owned a ’76, white with red interior as shown. She was “a black-haired beauty with big dark eyes,” in her mid-thirties, and a MILF before anyone had defined the concept, although my hormones (I was 16 or so) had it figured out pretty well.
I would do anything for her at the asking, and soon I got my chance!
So, I had the privilege to install Jensen Coax 6 x 9’s in the rear shelf of the Cutlass. They barely fit in the short deck, and there was more metal than in the Novas and Mustangs I had previously done, so some annoying and awkward metal cutting, adolescent cursing, and blood-letting was involved.
While she was greatly appreciative of my effort, it was in a very motherly way, to the great disappointment of my fantasy. To add further pain, Jensen came out with the 4 x 10’s shortly afterward.
Me thinks you are mistaken, as 6x9s fit right in the factory holes… no cutting involved. I’ve added rear speakers to two 73-77 cars and the factory holes are longitudinal and fit any ol 6×9 you can find. Now the fronts on a Chevelle are a PITA because GM never created a stereo dash pad for them, and two 4x6s fit on a mount that goes in the center where the mono speaker goes.
The 68-72 cars were not setup for rear stereo speakers, and require cutting. the 78-88 cars require an oddball 4×10 size for the rear.
My parents had a 1980 Buick Century sedan with the very narrow rear shelf , and I can confirm that the 4x10s were the right size for a rear shelf install. Remember the Crutchfeld catalog with the major speaker sizes and dash unit configuration charts.
No, I clearly remember that she was smokin’ hot, and I choose to remember it the way I told it.
I just about remember these cars. I always wondered why the coupes were so sharp but the sedans were so dull…??
1977 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme sedan:
And, as someone stated earlier, I think the Grand Prix wore it best…
1977 Pontiac Grand Prix:
Yes! I agree! ^
+10
I like Colonades, but the Grand Prix had “it”.
The 77 GP had the best face. By moving the parking lamps inbetween the headlamps they perfected the 76 redesign that inclued the quad rectangular lamps.
My father had an early colonnade Cutlass coupe (with pontoon fenders) and a 1987 Cutlass sedan, he loved them both.
FWIW I HATE whitewalls on Oldsmoblie rally wheels. Gimme RWL on rally wheels, if you want whitewalls, get wire wheel covers or go buy a Cadillac or Lincoln.
I’m with you on the whitewalls. I like “rally” wheels best with RBLs or just blackwalls. For me the biggest style offenders on the red subject car are the front mud flaps. Why oh why are they there?
Ugh. If you have to do a Colonnade Cutlass, Stick with the ’73. At least that one seemed to maintain SOME of the elegance of the 1960’s…..
Having grown up in a ’75 Cutlass Salon thankfully free of Broughamage, and it being my first car, I have to say I couldn’t be happier that cars like the first Accord became what Americans came to like. About the only desirable things about these were the Olds Rocket (350 in my case), The Turbo-Hydramatics smooth shifts and, well, some semblance of handling for it to be such a big beast.
Good Riddance Colonnade (and the A/G’s that followed), They’re a shadow of the classy cars that came before, and stifled true innovation that came later.
No doubt Laurence, a Connell Oldsmobile, a Van Ness Oldsmobile or Scripture Oldsmobile !!
Paddleford all the way. Still trips me out, where my Uncle used to stock fan belts, there’s now organic produce, since it’s a Whole Foods now…
The last car in my neighborhood that was bought there was Mrs. Foster’s 1987 Ninety Eight Regency. She got it so early that it still had the blue and yellow plates.
Paddleford closed shortly after (February ’87 I think). My Uncle transferred to Pearson in Sunnyvale after 25 years at Paddleford.
My friend has a super clean low mile burgundy 73 with a 350 and it is a factory 4 speed! I couldn’t believe it the first time I saw it, probably not too many manual trans 73’s running around.
I owned a 1976 CS coupe, which, like JPCavanaugh’s, was white with a blue landau roof and white interior with blue dash and carpet. It had over 100k when I got it, and nothing slowed it down. I think the AC still worked, too, and drove it for three years in Florida, in addition to two years in steamy Missouri.
My only issue with these cars — other than horrible fuel economy — was doors that weighed a ton and were very difficult to open and close. And, yes, the back seat was cramped.
It’s amazing that the 77 Cutlass Supreme Coupe could sell nearly 400,000 units in the last year of its lifecycle, in one of the most style-conscious segments of all time, when up against the likes of a brand new T-bird (also a huge seller).
It was the masterful combination of four square headlights and Bill Mitchell’s “sheer look” that sent this baby through the roof.
People say that the Seville got the look first. I would argue the Cutlass Supreme and Seville were first. There’s nothing more sheer than a waterfall grille!
The lights, while new and interesting back then, tended to ruin the looks of cars that got them mid cycle. Think Cordoba and Gran Torino. Not with the Cutlass because they made the shape of the sheet metal match the lights. Heck it was still a fresh look six years later on the Volvo 740!
Square headlights were a style hit with buyers, and the 76 Cutlass looked 5 years younger than the round eyed older ones.
They hit the sweet spot, not too big, but V8 power, and smooth ride. Also many color cominations. The fastback sold well as Cutlass S and had 442 package available.
When the 78’s were coming, Olds dealers wanted to keep the big Colonnades in production.
We know all about how the Aeroback Cutlass Salon’s bombed, but the formal Supreme did well, as buyers ‘got used to’ the downsized body. By 1981, with swoopier sheetmetal, Supremes sold well for the recession era. The size was not an issue anymore. Some older folks thought were same as 77’s.
Many traded their old full sized cars for Cutlasses, one reason for decline of biggies. Buyers wanted slightly smaller cars, and the mid size market is still huge and competitive!
Don’t forget the “sheer look” Cutlass sedans with the formal roof that replaced the Aeroback Cutlass Salon in 1980. They were more popular than the Aeroback predecessors. And Oldsmobile built them all the way through 1987.
A nice example, but dorked out with those Western Auto clumsy looking mudflaps. I know they serve a purpose, but it seems that these things are very “midwestern” much like bug deflectors and the faux-convertible phaeton tops. In ’70’s/80’s California, these Cutlasses were everywhere and a majority of them had the Olds Rallye wheels with either whitewalls or RSWs. And no mud flaps! ’76 and ’77 Pontiac Grand Prixs were equally as popular, so it seemed.
On another side note, certain officers in the Honolulu Police Department were allowed to use a personal car for police use. They would be given an allowance to defray maintenance costs and fuel usage, etc. The HPD cop car of choice if not blue and white was an Olds Cutlass. Most were driven into the ground, but there are a few (nice) surviving examples running around Oahu. Most were black or bronze. All came from the (then) Aloha Motors.
A good friend asked me store his ’77 double black on burgandy Cutlass Supreme for a while. That stretched to four years. I was sorely tempted to take it out for a spin many times, but never once did to my regret. Finally, he stopped by with a fresh battery, fired it up and drove it away. His was a 403 (I think?) with swivel buckets, the works, a truly beautiful car to look at and cruise at speed.
403 for ’77 would be correct as the 455 made it’s swan song after ’76 MY. The 403 was “clean” enough for California and it found it’s way into many B-O-P applications in the Golden State. My buddy’s ’79 Pontiac Trans Am had the Olds 403. Still had oodles of torque and enough acceleration to swing the ass end around sideways. Automatic only, of course!
I find it weird that I can connect with a lot of guys posting on this site. Anyway, that red feature coupe was almost indentical to the one my step mom owned. She bought it used when it was a year or two old. It had a little over 35K on it back around 1988 when my dad divorced her. Hers had power windows but with that same white landau roof and red cloth interior. Oh and it was a 77. Anyway I asked her why she didn’t drive the wheels off of it and the explanation was that when she was younger and on her first marriage she had to drive a 67 Delta or Delmont with 3 on the tree(?!) and no factory air. She said it was “hell on wheels” as she was lugging around three toddlers with her most of the time. Anyway after the 3 kids got a little older and she was making a little money on the side she bought the red Cutlass as a reward for the crap she went through. An even longer story on how that car met its demise. From what I have read on this site it appears that step mom was the target demographic for personal luxury coupes sold in the 70’s.
I hope in the future to post a pic of a certain 76-77 442,also red with white 442 graphics, that I have spotted sitting at the local strip malls with a for sale sign on it. I never have my camera with me when I see it but I believe the asking price will keep it migrating for some time to come.
My all time favorite Cutlass was a 77 coupe that was raced by the famous Herb Adams back around 78-80. I cant remember the exact series it raced but it was some SCCA/IMSA road race series. The car looked like a NASCAR stocker. Black in color with chrome mylar applied to the slab sides between the upper and lower body lines. It looked like it was chrome plated. I’ve searched for years to find a decent pic of it but no luck. The only time I saw it race was in 78 at BlackHawk farms just outside of Chicago.
A teacher at my high school had a blue Cultass Supreme coupe of the same vintage back when I was there in the late ’70’s. Great cars. They were always my favorite among the Colonnades, and they were the last cars with the Cutlass name that I would want to own for myself. Our ’78 Salon 4-door with the V6 didn’t deserve the Cutlass name. I’d be very happy to give that red coupe a home.
My Grandpa had a “Creme Gold” 77 Cutlass Supreme. Tan landau top and tan vinyl interior. It had a 260 v8 which was much to small in my opinion for the car. I only have found memories of the car…the interior had a pleasant 70’s vinyl smell which was similar to my first car (79 Camaro)…the clicking/tinkling of the loose trim pieces on the rally wheels when Grandpa drove slow…the distinctive sound of the Oldsmobile engine and its starter…the cool buzzer sound when you put the key in with the door open…the rich rotten egg smell when it was first started…probably the best feeling in that car for me was falling asleep laying down on the backseat heading to their house for a sleepover. Thanks for bringing this back for me. I will have to dig up a picture of it.
When my wife and were first dating, she wrecked her 1975 Toronado and replaced it with a 1977 Olds Delta 88 Holiday Coupe.
With a 403 and the FE3 (IIRC) suspension, it was a great running and driving car. It had the Super Stock wheels on it with the big snap on bullet centers (rather than the smaller screw in centers shown on this car) and the trim rings that encircled the holes in the wheels.
I can still remember some of those lazy summer evenings when we were first together, cruising up to the lake and rumbling down the two tracks to the lakeside with the car idling along, hearing the click-tink-click from the wheels…
It’s one of my favorite memories of that car. Traveling at all of 5 MPH…
Boy, this takes me back a ways. My folks bought a ’76 Cutlass S four-door new – silver/blue plaid interior. As everyone has said so ably up above, these things were once everywhere. Their car had the angled waterfall grille, and looked pretty sinister to this then-16 year-old kid. There were a couple of other Cutlasses in our rural area that I paid attention to, back then, and I watched them for a number of years. One was a Black/gold 442, with the angled grille, which I picked up for $500.00, in good clean shape, after I’d watched it sit in the same place for far too long. The other is an emerald green ’73 coupe, black interior/with buckets and console, a neighbor’s car, which popped up in their front yard one day, years later, with a for sale sign on the dash. They’re in my Dad’s barn to this day – I’ve still never seen another emerald green ’73 coupe anywhere. These cars are now thin on the ground. Thanks for this article, and all the memories!
I will add to the chorus of folks noting the passing of these cars once as common as crows in the cornfield (how do you like that midwestern alliteration?).
I graduated high school in 1980, and I lived in an area near a GM plant, so we had these cars everywhere. Oddly, I owned one of the generation before the Colonnades, a 1972 442, but never one of these. It wasn’t like I could have had about 100 of them at my disposal.
Friends of mine owned or more versions of these Cutlasses, (not to mention Regals, Malibus and Grand Prix) so I’ve had plenty of seat time in them. For the times, they were THE car to have; growing up in equivalent mid sized Ford products, it seemed to me the GM mid sizers did everything better. As much as I “love me some” late model fuselage Mopar, they were even behind the Torino/Montego/Cougar/Elites.
Even here in old-car crazy Western Michigan, I hardly see Colonnades of any description. I ran across a guy at a car show who’d owned his 1977 442 since new, but I rarely see any of these cars. I guess we’ve all moved on…
Owned two of them. The 76 Supreme Broughams had the 350 4 barrel. A sharp looking, comfortable car with a very smooth and powerful drivetrain for the time. I do miss the sound of the 4 barrel. The V-8 did make it nose heavy consequently the car would swap ends if you were hard on the brakes. This was long before ABS. Details were not GM’s strong point in the 70’s. The lower parts of the doors were tucked in allowing the tires to sandblast the paint off. This did not matter much as GM paint jobs of that era were awful. Due to the new EPA regulations and GM’s penny pinching, the paint would literally peel like latex off an old house. The Hurst T-tops opened the cabin up but dumped water in your lap every time you paid a toll in the rain. A small rain gutter would have fixed this but it didn’t matter in the end as they leaked after a few years anyway. My girlfriend owned a 77 Cutlass with the 231 V6. While this car was not as much fun to drive, it gave you a few mpg’s & was not nearly as nose heavy. I believe there was a class action suit as the transmission was not designed to handle a car this size. She ended up replacing it at about 65,000. While I liked the cars, despite paints jobs and rebuilt transmissions, I have not bought a GM product since
AFIK the first non- Chevette to get the THM-200 was the ’77 B-body(especially Chevys). The lawsuit you speak of concerned these transmissions. I guess A-bodies got them too.
Out of the hundreds of colonnade cars I’ve been through over the years, I’ve never come across any with the THM200 transmission — the build sheets I have for some of the ’77 model 231 V6 cars all specified the M38 THM350.
I thought it strange that a lot of ’77 Deltas got the metric job but that may have had to do with the fact that the metric transmissions were bolted up to the Chevrolet engines (?) I owned a ’77 Delta sedan with Chevrolet 350-4bbl engine (L) and it indeed was equipped with the THM200 transmission.
Junqueboi, good point on the absence of “200s” in Colonades.
As strange, many of ’em were equipped with way over the top heavy duty “400s” for no obvious reason considering the engine or body type.
Maybe the production of the lighter duty HMs was running at capacity so the then less-in-demand 400s picked up the slack?
For the times, between this, the Monte Carlo, and the Trans Am, it seemed GM owned the world in my college world. These and Regals were everywhere. If you didn’t have the scratch you went for the restyled Skylark.
And as we got out into the working world, we all wanted to make statements and purchases beyond what our parents wanted to make. While their overlords certainly made multiple, egregious mistakes, Oldsmobile, Mercury, Pontiac et al were destined for the dustbin. Toyotas, Hondas and Datsuns were the future.
Beautiful cars, these. What a long fall it’s been.
I don’t know what more I can add to this that hasn’t already been said.
Such beautiful cars in their day…
This was a fabulous find Tom.
Truly a Supreme Cutlass 🙂
Supreme Brougham For Life!!!
My mom had a ’77 Cutlass Supreme Brougham 2-door in Buckskin (tan) with matching velour, rallye wheels and raised white letter tires. It was a sharp car back in the day! She kept it until late 1985 when she traded it for an ’86 Cutlass Supreme, Gray with (hideous) maroon interior.
Here is a current (taken this past week) picture of a 1977 Olds Cutlass Supreme that I own.
As of today, the mileage is 20,283 miles. A 350 V8, TH350, A/C, cruise control, bucket seats, and an AM radio.
The first owner sold it in 2002 with 5,500 miles on the speedometer and I bought it in October 2008 from the second owner with just under 17,000 miles.
I have had to do some things to it but it runs great; doesn’t ride quite as smooth as the ’76 CS Brougham .
If any of you are in the Springfield, IL area this coming week (July 23 – 27), the 2013 Oldsmobile Nationals (361 cars) will be held on the grounds of the Crowne Plaza.
Come see us.
I remember these cars were commonly seen on the road well into the 90’s and this was always one of my favorite vehicles built during the mid to late 70’s era, I can see why these cars were a huge success in sales, I also loved the soft velour seats in these cars and the blue interiors, I also preferred the squared headlights on these cars over the rounded headlights, I always felt the squared headlights gave the car a more upscale look.
The season finale of Better Call Saul had this car. Formerly owned by Jimmy/Saul, given to his friend Marco when he left Chicago for Albuquerque. He tells Marco when he returned to Chicago that with body work and a paint job, it can be a classic.
hi Guys
For you.. réalised by myself.
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I loved that era Oldsmobile brochure, it was given a Leonardo Da Vinci motif for a couple of years. As if Leonardo sketched out the original Cutlass in one of his notebooks.
I grew up in the Midwest during the 70’s, and can agree these were once everywhere, but rarely seen today (mostly the “dad’s last car that we continued taking care of” is what I see now) Several of my neighbors had them, in all the different GM “flavors”. When me and my friends got to be old enough for our first cars, these were more desirable than the equivalent-age imports, if only because there would be more of it left, after our salty winters got thru with them. The heaters (and AC, if it still worked) were always better, too. The first thing we checked was how well the back bumper was attached. I remember LOTS of these sporting wooden (or NO back bumpers). Also seeing the door bottoms and rear fenders flapping, because of rust was common. These were good if you wanted a V8-powered coupe, and couldn’t afford the insurance on a Camaro/Mustang. I wanted a Cutlass like this, and the insurance guy flat out refused to insure me on the Firebird I wanted, but would do it on the Cutlass (which the “Bank of Dad” denied the loan application for, ha ha)
Short version-my peer group still wanted these well into the 80’s, but they seemed to rust almost as bad as the imports we had. Teenage boys and road salt took most of these off the roads by me, at least,
Daan, amen on the breakaway rear bumper.
Another weak link was the floor-shift and its column backdrive contraption.
The floor above the cat was quick to “dissolve” turning the carpet pad into a fire starter wick.
Olds engines of the era would regularly burn up the rocker arm stands.
The radiators seemed to be manufactured of an even lower grade of green cheese, and so the fins were quick to fly away.
Door pull strap? Forget it, better develop a good large presidential-like claw grip and grab the trim panel for door operation. Oh yeah, the door hinges wore quickly and allowed for a half inch or so of door drop.
Try not to mess with it, but if the glass must be raised or lowered use an octopus-like grab to guide it, because the track and roller arrangement was wholly inadequate.
Tail lamp socket and ground connections were a problem from day #1.
But other than the irritating petty things, overall they seemed to keep ticking well enough.
Nope, count me as not a fan of Colonnades, per the COAL of my ’74 Malibu. Big on the outside, small on the inside. Under-specced steering/suspension bits, Low power, combined with low MPG.
My buddy’s dad had a ’77 Cutlass Supreme coupe, with the ridiculously underpowered 260 V8. A total dog, and you had to beat on it so hard that it wasn’t good on gas, either.
The next generation of A/G-bodies were much better cars. IMO.
during the mid 80s in Missouri City (also in Sunnyside, South Park, Acres Homes, or H-town’s Wards) the 73-77 GM A-bodies (Cutlass, Grand Prix, Regal, Monte Carlo) was the entry level choice 4 thumpin bass from the trunk – as a child who grew up in the mid 80s in an African American exurb these cutlass coupes were fitted with wire rims (esp. the Cragar Star Wires originally optioned with the Cadillac Eldorado) and the JBL house speakers stuffed in the trunk long b4 the Slow Loud and Bangin culture (SLAB) evolved which is usually associated with 79-85 Eldorados and Sevilles (during the recent Art Car Weekend 2016 someone surfaced with a 78 Cutlass Calais t-top coupe with the Texan Wire Wheels 84z
Ha, home stereo speakers in the back! I did it, most of my friends did it, too. I haven’t thought about that in years…
The right car at the right time. An Olds Cutlass was a nice car that people admired and you were satisfied to own. Hard to find a car like that now, at least for me.
Like the Chevy tri-fives, these were just right for the times. Not too big, not too small, stylish and affordable. Quality and reliability were so-so, but no worse than the competition. Most seemed to have the 350, which gave ample performance. The importance of the Cutlass to Oldsmobile cannot be underestimated. After it ended it’s run in 1997 the division foundered, unable to come up with a suitable replacement. Then, in 2004, not that long after having the best selling car in America, Olds was gone. Sad.
The division was on death row by 1990. Camry, Accord, minivans, trucks, and SUVs took the young buyers who used to buy Cutlasses out of Olds showrooms.
A Colonnade I like. I’ve never been a fan, but they are growing on me. Especially when they got the smoothed out flanks.
And did anyone ever do wheels as well as GM in the 1960s? Rally 1 & 2s from Pontiac, Chev Rallies, Olds Super Stock and the Buick chrome wheels. Lookers then and now.
I have always found it interesting that the coupes got all new sheetmetal front to rear in 1976 but the sedans and wagons only got new front fenders, hood and bumpers while keeping the 1974 and 1975 doors and rear quarters. I think a similar situation took place with the 1969 to 1970 El Camino. In regards to the rear bumper falling off I totally agree. I owned a 1977 Grand Prix and it just about lost its rear bumper before I replaced the energy absorbers, reinforcing bar and bumper. The entire assembly was totally rusted together and ready to fall off.
Coupes were huge volume sellers and the sedans/wagons were tag-along models back then.
At same time, with new 1977 B bodies coming, GM didn’t want to upstage those models. [my opinion]
I was a huge fan of true hardtops. The absence of the B pillar made even full size four door cars appear sportier. I found the intermediate coupes very attractive, especially the mid sixties Olds Cutlass and Buick Skylark. But, by the time I was ready for one, the colonnades had arrived. I saw a slightly used 1975 Buick Century on a car lot one day and went to check it out right after work. It was deep red, had a black landau top. 350, auto, AM/FM, tilt and red vinyl interior. I made the deal and picked it up on Friday. I loved that car. I wrecked it a year later, and went shopping for another car. I didn’t care for the restyled Century coupe. I wanted to test drive a Cutlass Supreme which I thought was the best looking of the colonnades. The salesman would only let me take out a stripped S model. I protested, but he insisted it would be the same. What poor salesmanship. I want to drive the very car I’m interested in. I relented, and he insisted on going with me. I drove around the block, then went to my car and left. In the end, my Buick was fixed and I kept it for several more years. I still think these were good cars for the time, even though performance had been stripped from them.
The Cutlass did a lot for Olds. They were a best seller and because of that, allowed Olds to displace Plymouth as third in the industry behind Chevrolet and Ford for a number of years.
I own two Oldsmobiles. My ’64 88 is now parked, but it was a joy to drive. I read a little bit of Oldsmobile’s history written by people who worked there. I feel bad that Olds is gone, especially for the folks who built them, They were proud of the brand.
Plymouth dropped from 3rd place for many reasons too, notably the ’74 C body Fury was a huge flop and never recovered. Volare replaced Duster/Valient, etc…
Cutlass sold well being a well trimmed car for same price as a ‘plain’ Impala.
Buyers at that time didn’t load up their cars with “stuff” and didn’t care about rear seat room. Usually was just two people in the car going someplace.
I don’t know a lot about Plymouths. I was never too fond of them, so I didn’t pay much attention to them. My father bought a Volare Premiere Wagon in 1976. It was an attractive car. It had a nice interior with bucket seats which were very comfortable. It had the slant six. Initially, both of my parents really liked the car. Dad told me that there was a recall for a carburetor issue to correct wildly fluctuating gas mileage. That was minor. But, the need to replace the starter three times, and finally, the recall to replace the rusted front fenders soured them on that car and it was traded in for a Mercury at only 23,000 miles. It’s really too bad that it didn’t turn out to be a good car. In my opinion, it was the right size, had a great engine and good styling.
I rode to high school occasionally with a friend who had a ’65 Fury with a 318. That was a nice car. Another friend’s parents had a ’76 Valiant 4 door with a six which I also liked. I wouldn’t mind owning either of those cars today.
I went back and looked at some production information. Olds moved to third place at the end of the 1972 production year. Pontiac had actually held third place, not Plymouth. The numbers I saw showed that Olds produced 623,442 cars and bested Pontiac by only 129 cars. Plymouth moved to 5th place with 615,256 cars. Now, these numbers came from Olds. I am not presenting them as verified production figures.
I got strange looks from sales people more than once when I climbed into the rear seat of a car I was thinking of buying. When I commented one time that it was too cramped, the saleswoman asked me why I cared. I told her that I often had people riding with me and I wanted them to be comfortable as well. Not everyone cares, but I do. That is why, after owning a few two door cars, I moved to four door sedans and wagons. And, I haven’t been without a pickup in over thirty years. More than once, I was told that, for a young guy, I had strange taste in cars. Now, that was a while ago.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sUqBF0n30o
Brings to mind a sweet little story about a Cutlass, a Gibson and the conversations many of us have had about a first car, guitar or whatever it is we love.
Certainly not the worst car I’ve ever owned, my 1976 Cutlass. I remember driving it off the lot of V.J. Neu in Davenport Iowa brand new, then driving just a few miles to Northpark Mall. When I turned the key to off , you could hear metal parts falling loose from somewhere, and the key lock jammed. Ended up towed back to V.J. Neu. After that awful beginning the car never had another problem. Loved those Oldsmobile Rally style wheels. The car seemed to have a real presence that so many cars lack today.
“What happened [killed] to Oldsmobile?”
Divisional rivalry, recessions, changing tastes, poor management from top.
But, IMHO, the diesel motor flopping badly tarnished the name. And all the “not your dad’s sporty/Euro’ cars [W body Cutlass/Aurora/Intrigue/Alero] were too late to the party.
I agree. The diesel was a horrible thing. Olds didn’t want to build it. GM made them.
There was way too much overlap in models between the divisions. Alfred P. Sloan’s hierarchy was gone. In the late nineties, when GM told Oldsmobile to reinvent itself, they tried to with the Aurora, Intrigue and Alero. But, as you said, It was too late. I also liked their restyle of the Bravada. I think they did a good job with it. In my opinion, it no longer looked like a rebranded Blazer.
I was surprised when GM killed Pontiac, too. I sometimes wonder though, if GMC trucks didn’t have General Motors in it’s name, would it have been killed off, as well?
I like the sedans too. They were very distinctive among other intermediates of that era.
Thanks for the great writeup about one of my favorite ’70s cars, and in my favorite version too to boot (’76 Brougham coupe with the awesome crushed velour upholstery). Say what you will about red velour loose-cushion Detroit interiors, but they sure hold up well – I see late-’70s or ’80s Broughams (Cutlass or otherwise) in junkyards whose seats look almost new while the outsides are rusted through. The same junkyards won’t have a single ’80s Honda without torn cloth on the driver’s seat, and even in the back seat sometimes.
Thanks also for the insight about the redesigned vents on the ’77. I long wondered why they bothered changing it for what they knew was the last year on the market. Of course while they were at it, they had to add some plastiwood between the vents too. (I prefer the eyeball vents as well). ’76 was also the last year the cursive “Oldsmobile” badge was used. The block lettering logo replaced it across the line for ’77 right through to the end with only slight change. Of course I liked the old version better; and let’s not even discuss what they did to the logo.
I think it may be a bit oversimplifying to say for ’73, sporty coupes were out and Broughams were in. I think GM made a good-faith effort to move sporty-car buyers from muscle cars that emphasized brute power to a more European notion of sportiness, one that balanced power with good handling, supportive bucket seats, luxury and sometimes four doors. The new Cutlass Salon, Grand Am, and the Laguna were heavily advertised in their first year, but the buyers spoke with their wallets and bought Broughams rather than the Euro-inspired models. It should also be noted that of the GM divisions, only Olds really went full-tilt with the Brougham treatment (tufted velour loose-cushion seats), and then only in ’76 and ’77.
My favorite of that era of Cutlass is the 1973 models, affected the least by the 5mph bumpers, and simply the most beautiful of that model.
The big bumpers to come were hard to get used to, but, for me, rectangular headlights just looked wrong. It took me a long time to get used to them. I preferred the round ones then, and I still do.
IMO, the ’73’s were beautiful cars. If this one is yours, you should post more pictures.
One correction about the 1976 Ford Torino’s transmission, it was a Cruise-O-Matic, not Ford-O-Matic. The COM was a 3-speed unit while the FOM was a 2-speed last offered in 1964. In 1976, there were 3 versions of the Cruise-O-Matic offered by Ford including 2 used in the Torino – the C6 and FMX, equivalents of GM’s Turbo-Hydramatic 400 and 350. There was also a smaller C4 version offered with 4- and 6-cylinder engines and small V8s; this tranny was used in Ford’s smaller cars (Maverick, Granada, Pinto and Mustang II along with Mercury’s Comet, Monarch, Bobcat and Capri II).
You are correct on the Cruise-O-Matic. Ford liked to give several transmissions the same name, as you note with the C6, the FMX and the C4 all being called Cruise-O-Matic. They did the same thing with the Ford-O-Matic. Most folks today remember the little 2 speed autobox that served in the Falcon, Fairlane and some of the cheaper big Fords from 1960-64. But there was also the original Ford automatic from 1951 that was a 3 speed with a second gear start (that many folks thought was a 2 speed) that was common through the 50s. Confusing? You bet!
I had a 76 Cutlass Supreme Brougham, full white vinyl top, dark blue metallic paint , with that beautiful blue interior, T Tops and …that 455 engine, rare combo, like a fool I traded it…and I’m still looking for it, 40 years later…
I have to agree that the ’73 Cutlass Supreme was the purist of design, especially in the rear, but when the ’76 Supreme and Regal came out, I fell in love! I am fickle, though. I had bought a new ’73 Regal, triple chocolate brown with a 455. Lost it in an accident in ’75. Heard there was going to be a freshened design in ’76. When they came out, I wasn’t disappointed and bought a triple buckskin S/R model with a white pinstripe powered by Buick’s 4brrl 350. 455 was no longer available. And I ordered the wire wheel covers; yikes! I was very pleased with it until it was stolen in ’78 along with a bag of weed and a case of fireworks in the trunk while at a Disco club. Ah, to be young. Some here state they think the Monte Carlo or Grand Prix pulled the look off better but you must remember that they were working with the longer 116″ wheelbase vs 112″ for Olds & Buick. I sense that most of this gain showed up in the longer front ends. At any rate, I thought Old & Buick got it right in size and execution. They didn’t look bloated. And in spite of sharing nearly identical bodies except for front and rear fascias they seemed to reflect their family heritage and be different enough from each other. It helped that they still carried their own division engines and separate dash and interiors. That being said, it puzzles me as to how easily the Cutlass outsold the Regal. I think maybe since the Cutlass Supreme formal roof was available since the last generation A body and sold well so then that sales snowballed from there. Oldsmobile was on a roll! As a side note, I’m very torn as to which of my Regals I preferred more.
• That bright-red-and-white combo really looks terrific.
• Annoying place for the power window switches—you have to reach awkwardly for them, nullifying half the benefit—but putting them there in the crank location saved GM paying for different armrests or door cards, and that’s what really matters.
• Eyeball-type HVAC outlets are, in principle, better than the kind they changed to. I’m sure it’s possible to eff up the eyeball type. I’m sure it’s even easy for the likes of GM. I’m less sure of that oft-repeated story about the redesign being on account of worn-out tooling. Maybe, but I don’t think the one necessarily follows from the other; it sounds to me like {{reliable citation required}}.
• I get it, I do: rectangular headlamps were GM’s hula-hoop thing of the time. But boy, do the bezels on this car look industrial, like they belong on a transit bus or a garbage truck.
• In accord with Scripture, I’m attaching this pic of one of these cars in Japan.
I usually saw faces in the fronts of cars as a kid.
This one seemed like it was wearing glasses and a serious but confident expression.
Intellectual. (Before I knew the word)
I don’t see the face anymore but I still remember the feeling when I look at it:
“We are in good hands. There is a responsible adult in charge.”
Faces in the fronts of cars: Me too, and yep, I share your assessment of this one.
I saw faces too! In front ends AND hubcaps/wheels. How interesting. I didn’t know the word for “spinners” on hubcaps and wheels, so I made up my own name “chebbords”. I have no idea why. I remember seeing a Chevelle with spinner hubcaps, so maybe that had something to do with it. And the oval holes on the wheels of my dad’s 1965 Volvo 122s were “axles”, probably because they reminded me of “capsules”, (like the Contac cold medicine capusules that I saw advertised on TV. They were the same shape, but I couldn’t remember “capsule”, so I called them “axles” because I knew axle was a “car” word. Weird! I was born in the mid-sixties, so I was really interested in car styling from that era and the early 70’s as a kid. Every car had a personality, and just by changing hubcaps on my mother’s 73 Hornet, I could give it a new “personality”. I also had a hubcap collection…..
I wouldn’t be blown into the weeds if I did find out that these headlamp assemblies and trim eventually ended up on transit buses and garbage trucks. As a kid, I noticed that the generic C.M. Hall quad round headlamps that were used on numerous Kenworths, Peterbilts, motorhomes, and other municipal type vehicles from the 1960’s forward, looked almost exactly like what was used on the 1959 Chevy… the only difference was the detail stamping on the outer bezels (in the triangular areas formed between the inner and outer lamps). C.M. Hall purchased sealed beams from Guide at least on occasion… the 1973 Condor II motorhome featured here recently has Guide Power Beam lamps, and a 1971 Barth motorhome I checked out a few years ago had Guide T-3’s in all positions.
My Scripture flashes amber as well, but that tailpipe looks like it’s trying harder to blow exhaust fumes into the face of the driver behind, than the spit-it-at-the-ground setup on the US market cars.
I think Japan required rear-discharge tailpipes for quite a few years, just as some European countries did. I can’t think of any Japanese cars that came with down-; side-, or corner/angle-discharge tailspouts until…ummmmmm…the ’98 Honda Accord, I guess; can you?
Agree on the quad round headlamps, but to be fair, unless you’re Virgil Exner there’s not a whole lot you can do with them except side-by-each*; stacked, or canted, and yeah, the bezels are all gonna look pretty much more or less all alike. See also ’60-’62 Valiant, et cetera in maxima.
With quad rectangulars, the options are even less because we can’t cant ’em, can we?
*A weird Canadian regionalism meaning side-by-side
Daniel, since you brought up side exhausts, I’m going to add to your comment. As a kid, I was acutely aware of the side exhausts that ended right behind the rear of GM’s rwd x-body cars like the Chevy Nova and Buick Apollo. My step-mom had a 73 Apollo 350 with DUAL side discharge exhausts and I thought that was so cool, because it looked like the exhaust on a pickup truck. I always wondered WHY GM went with an exhaust that ended just behind the rear wheels on these cars. They did something similar with the downsized 78 A bodies, but it wasn’t as pronounced as it was on the earlier Nova-based X-bodies. You could usually tell if it was a V8 or a Six by whether or not it had a single tailpipe behind the right rear wheel (6 Cyl) or a pipe behind each wheel (V8). Same goes for the early Mustangs and “small” Fords. 4 Lugs for a six, 5 lugs for an 8.
See previous discussion of those GM side-discharge exhausts here.
I’ve always admired the colonade Cutlass. Oldsmobile certainly had a winner on their hands then.
As someone who finds car design fascinating, I’m continually amazed at what I had overlooked on many models. For the longest time, the only difference I could ascertain between a ‘76 and a ‘77 CS, was the Oldsmobile script changed to print in ‘77, versus the preceding cursive. That may have been for the benefit of the all-new for ‘77 full-size models. Recently I had noticed the minor difference in te grille, and never noticed the HVAC vents or upholstery changes.
However, one change I noticed only a decade or two ago, was the changes in the bodyside sheet metal on ONLY the Cutlass coupes in ‘76 and ‘77. The S, as well as all Supreme and Salon sedans and wagons did not change.
Colonade Cutlasses had a sharp upswept crease behind the front wheel well, and forward of the rear wheel well. I really liked that character line, it projectedted an image of “movement” to me. For some reason the ‘76 and ‘77 Cutlass coupes had a plainer, smoother side, sans those creases. I have include a pic of a ‘76 Cutlass S sedan to illustrate.
I’ve never quite understood this change.
I found a pic if a ‘75 Cutlass Supreme coupe, which illustrates those creases even better.
The Cutlass S coupe got the same new fenders and doors in ’76 that the Supreme and Supreme Brougham did, though with a sportier front clip and a more sloped rear window. The ’77 Cutlass S changed to the same clip used on the Supreme, with only a different grille texture to distinguish it.
I have two theories about why the coupes were restyled in 1976. One is that by that year, the mid-sized, somewhat affordable personal luxury coupes (as opposed to longer-running more expensive full-size PLCs like the Toronado) had become huge sellers, and Olds was concerned that the Cutass coupe looked too much like a Cutlass sedan. This wasn’t a problem for Chevy or Pontiac which had distinct PLCs with the Monte Carlo and Grand Prix respectively using the A-Special body, which used the longer sedan wheelbase for a longer hood than standard Colonade A bodies like the Chevelle or LeMans. But Olds had to settle for a more “formal” roofline on a standard Cutlass rather than a separate PLC like Chevy, Pontiac, Ford, and Mercury had. Restyling the coupe helped position it as a true personal luxury coupe and not just a 2-door intermediate like a Malibu or Torino coupe. The restyled rear fenders lost the lower Olds crease, but gained another distinct Oldsmobile styling cue of the era, that small vertical crease under the rear quarter window.
The second reason for the restyle is that the Buick Century and Regal coupes also got a facelift that separated them from the sedans in 1976, and these went even further than the Olds in that the Buick coupes also got distinct front and rear styling from the sedans. And it appears that unlike the 73-75 Olds and Buick coupes, the 76-77 doors were the same for both brands for cost savings.
“… more “formal” roofline on a standard Cutlass …”
If by ‘standard’ you mean ‘base model’, then the Cutlass S was it, with similar fastback as the Malibu, LeMans, & Century. For 1974, there was a plain Cutlass [non S] fastback, with turn signals in the front bumper, also.
IMHO, the ’76-’77 models looked cleaner and modern than the 2 bug eyed round headlights, which looked dated. Even the ‘classic’ 1968-72 looked more modern, with 4 headlights.
I really like your summation of the changes to the 76’s over the earlier models, and I’m glad you too know that the M.C and GP were built on the longer frame. I was never quite sure where the extra length came in, but I always thought it was ahead of the firewall, thus giving the Chevy and Pontiac longer hoods.
“I’ve never quite understood this change.”
Reason? Cost savings.
The coupes were the big sellers, and the sedans/wagons were “tag along” models. Cheaper to re-tool just for coupes, which sold through the roof, then. Another cost saving was Regal and Supreme sharing door skins.
Ford did similar thing in MY 2000, restyling the sedan, but keeping the ’96 ‘oval’ look on the wagons.
There are other times where the volume seller got fresh styling, while the ‘back lot’ stuck with other sheet metal.
What I always found odd was that the Monte Carlo and G.P. used a slightly longer wheelbase than the Cutlass and Regal Coupes. You’d think the two “premium brands” would have used the longer frame, but it was the other way around. Chevy and Pontiac had the bigger (not by much) coupes.
More discussion and pics (including of a mystery kinda nonexistent version in a Cutlass brochure) of the minor(?) grille differences here.
I absolutely bristle when I read about Buick’s latest “waterfall grille”. The term may have originated in the 1930’s with certain Buick models, but in my opinion, there is NO current Buick with a waterfall grille, and there hasn’t been one for decades. The 76/77 Cutlasses, especially the Supremes were THE epitome of what a “waterfall grille” is. They could have called it the Niagra Falls Grille…it was a bold design element that made a Cutlass instantly recognizable. What they call a waterfall grille on Buicks today isn’t even close…..https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:New_Buick_Waterfall_Grille.jpg
The ’76-77 Cutlass waterfall grille was very attractive, but I always thought it was sort of ripped off from the ’74-75 Imperial grille (which was also used on the ’76-78 Chrysler New Yorker Brougham).
I never thought about that, but you’re right. I never made the connection between the Chrysler and the Olds, even though my uncle had a beautiful green 77 New Yorker Brougham at the same time my grandmother bought her 77 Cutlass Supreme. I really liked the face of the Chrysler, also with it’s waterfall grille and hidden headlamps.
Only the 1976 MY Cutlass was #1, not “several years”*. The ’77 was #2, when full size Chevy returned to top. And, both Impala and Caprice, which were one model lineup. Also, the sporty S coupe helped it get to top spot.
Some forget that the S was the ‘fastback’ version [442 optional], and assume “all 70’s Cutlasses were the formal Supreme coupes”. And many others forget, or “don’t know” there were Cutlass sedans and wagons.
If Chevy had counted Malibu and Monte Carlo as “one car”, it may have been #1 for ’76, or more.
*Other websites/You Tube channels claim this “several years at #1” thing, even the 80’s versions. While Olds was successful brand, only one MY was a top spot.
“… just a few years earlier, Ford, Chevy and Plymouth were the top three brands.”
Plymouth was #3 with Duster’s help in 1970 [’71?], but was after getting pushed out of #3 by Pontiac during the 60’s. Then, Olds pushed Plymouth out of #3 for good by late ’72 and began its long decline.
So, reality was not really a “surprise” that Olds [brand, not just Cutlass] hit #3 in the mid/late 70’s, with Plymouth’s decline.
This is my 1976 Cutlass Supreme. One HOT summer day a few years ago the driver side window exploded in a thousand small chunks. I’ve been looking for that glass since. I bought one, (at a not so cheap price) but it doesn’t fit, doesn’t line up with tract. So if anyone can help me I’d sure appreciate it. I am the 2nd owner, bought it from the best man in my wedding in 1984. Btw, it was his high school graduation present. It came with factory Hurst T-tops & now has 99,000+ miles on it. It still is the original paint, interior & motor so if not for a missing window, it would be in great shape. Also has black interior, bucket seats, ac & a 350 in it. Automatic on the console. I love it so HELP ME!!! Email is warrenatk21@icloud.com & im in southern Indiana near Bedford.
I had a fully loaded 76 Brougham with the 455 and T tops. It was the dealer’s demo. Dark blue over a full white vinyl top. Had the 4 spoke steering wheel , LSD with a 3.08. Like a fool I sold it. Rare car with that engine and the T tops. What I would give if I could fine it , but it probably met an untimely death.