(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.
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.