Photos from the Cohort by William Oliver.
Look! A weird-looking Nova!
My apologies; there’s no other way I can look at any of these and think otherwise. But then again, I guess that would be a natural reaction for most. After all, for ’73 these Omegas sold a low 60K units against the Nova’s 370K in that same year. Understandably, there’s no way to see this silhouette and not think in Nova-esque terms.
As some may remember, these mostly badge-engineered X-bodies have been labeled a GM Deadly Sin here at CC. And quite appropriately. While GM brands had always shared bodies and plenty of styling cues, the X-Body sibling era marked a serious step down in differentiation between them. Yes, X marked the beginning of that slippery slope. And as we all know, there’s nothing like having your ‘upscale’ Olds compact forever associated with a lowly Chevy.
Still, the Olds version moved more units than Buick’s Apollo, the other X-body. Buick’s dealers sold all of 32K Apollos for ’73, a sign that Buick buyers had more X-body resistance than Olds’ or Pontiac’s.
On the positive, these were reasonable transport for the time and fairly reliable for a Detroit product. I mean, how could you go wrong by ’73? Whatever quirks the Nova may have had back at its launch in ’68 had to be sorted out by the early ’70s. Screwing and assembling millions helps to achieve that. And if you liked your Novas with some upper trim and a slightly different face, an Omega, Ventura, or Apollo was the ticket.
Still, even if these were mostly badge-engineered, rock bottom was a few years away. In these early days, should you choose to opt out of the base Chevy 250 6-cyl., you could indeed upgrade to a real Olds Rocket 350CID V-8. So, who said you couldn’t taste a bit of real Olds at discount prices?
And considering the love this surviving one has found, I suspect this clean-looking Omega has a true Lansing heart under the hood.
Related CC reading:
Curbside Classic: 1973 Oldsmobile Omega – “The Compact Olds”
I had forgotten how big the back bumpers were on the 73. Were they practicing for the 1974 bumper standard?
I remember one of these in the showroom when my mother was shopping for a new car in 1974. When an Omega or a Ventura, these were the only cars in their respective showrooms which gave that old fashioned solid door slam I had grown up with on GM cars. The newer designs on A and B bodies were far less impressive on this score.
I had the same thought. The federal standard was 2.5 mph for the rear. I looked up some ’74s and theirs are bigger.
Framed glass made a difference in the way the door closed, as did the semi-unibody. In the 70s, GM made their bigger cars more flexible to absorb bumps.
I don’t think the rear bumpers on the ’74s were actually any bigger, but they were mounted out further from the body to meet the tougher 5 MPH 1974 standard.
I do really like this car, and the color, as well. I’m torn about the taillights. They’re interesting too, but there’s something about the businesslike simplicity of the Nova lamps that I think I prefer. Or maybe it’s just that the Nova design is so much more familiar.
Regarding the production figures, I believe the Omega was available for the full 1973 model year while the Apollo wasn’t introduced until early in 1973. The Apollo doesn’t appear in the Buick full-line brochures, and its own brochure is dated 3/73.
“Chevy 225 6-cyl”. It might be a typo, I think it was a 230 or 250, the 225 was Chrysler’s slant six.
Still, imagine what if someone dropped the Olds 455 engine under the hood of the Omega to create a mini-442?
Yes, absolute typo. Kind of a numbers dyslexia I often have on my part. It’s fixed now.
The base engine was the 250 cubic inch Chevy six, the author being perhaps confused with the Chrysler 225. One note in favor of the Omega and Apollo over the Nova; with the six you could get the th350. The Nova retained Powerglide through 1973 as the automatic six cylinder combo. This alone may have persuaded me look at the Oldsmobile over a Nova in 1973, if only I weren’t in Kindergarten at the time, and short of funds.
This green ’73 is a darn good looking car! Very sporty to me. I also like the ’73 Pontiac Ventura edition of the Nova.
Like the look. it definitely has Oldsmobile presence in a nova body. the slightly longer front presents a better balance in profile. One thing I don’t care for is the obvious overlay that wraps around the nova rear to give a different taillight look. But what else could be done outside of pressing new rear fender ends and panel between. Pontiac just slipped in their by then known “slit” taillights.
I like it, too. And as far as the rear overlay and taillamps go, I think this was integrated slightly better than on the Buick Apollo, which had the wraparound taillights. The Olds twin-“waterfall” grille does add character.
The Omega appeared at the beginning of the 1973 model year and the Apollo was a /731/2. I would certainly call these a deadly sin; having four virtually identical models with the only difference being the front clip-and slightly different tail lights if you want to get technical is not exactly great product planning. Looking at the side profile of the Omega, it looks identical to the Nova. And don’t get me started on the interior-except for some minor trim, it’s Chevy Nova. My father had a /73 Ventura, the dashboard and instrument cluster was absolutely identical to the Nova. well the bright headlight indicator was in the shape of the Pontiac indian chief. How exciting (sarcasm).
I had a ’74 Apollo as a used car, with the 250 I-6, 3 on the tree, manual steering. Did have an AM radio. I’m not sure, but it might’ve had more sound deadening and it definitely had a Buick horn. That sucker was LOUD.
If I had to guess which was the lowest seller, I would have said Ventura. But it was a long time ago. Nevertheless, big bumpers and all, this car looks good for a 50 year old. A handsome shade of green.
I was working for Dueck on Broadway [Vancouver] and had a couple of these as demos. A blue coupe with a 250 – 6 cyl and later had a yellow hatchback with the sweet sounding Oldsmobile 350. Handling was very similar to the Nova, of course. Good memories there!
I had 77 omega with real olds v8 & a 75 Ventura with a Buick 350 don’t know why it was stock
My scant memory of these is some family had a Ventura sedan. It had rust holes, and this must have been well before the 70s were even over, and we didn’t even live in the rust belt.
I remember the Buick Apollo, I thought it looked nice as does this Olds .
Knowing I could get a TH350 instead of a PowerGlide 2 speed would have had me singing the dotted line had I that kind of $ in 1973 .
-Nate
Maybe the problem with the low selling Apollo was that it was and ugly duck compared to the Chevy and Olds. That front end! The three port holes? You’re kidding?
Novas I have seen, this nope never, Blatant badge engineering eventually sank Rootes and BMC/BL out of the car game, GM is lucky its rich uncle opened his purse to bail them out, too many brands on the same platform seems to be a method to bankruptcy,
Nice car all the same and nice colour.
Interesting fact
All 4 cars were under the NOVA banner
Meaning this:
N ova Chevy
O mega Olds
V entura Pontiac
A ppolo Buick
I find the insistence on offering obvious Nova clones through the mid-price divisions understandable but unfortunately, but basing it on the ugliest Nova (and one of the ugliest American cars from an aesthetically infelicitous period) is truly a deadly sin. I know people liked these Novas because they were a cheaper and marginally more practical vessel for Camaro parts, but man, they look awful, and slapping different grilles on them doesn’t help.
I like the color, though.
Late reply.
In the early 70’s, my Dad taught me how to identify cars from about the age of 4 to 5. I got quite good at it and it became our game.
His friend came to pick us up to take us somewhere in an Omega. When I saw it I gleefully identified it as a Nova, Dad said- “Close, but that’s an Oldsmobile Onega.” I waa truly confused as to how that Nova could be an Oldmobile to the point I thought my Dad was just pulling my leg as I knew in my heart that silly car was a Nova. I even thought his friend was in on the joke by having glued on Oldsmobile badges to the car.
Was the 1973-74 X-body really a Deadly Sin? Probably. It was the first time all of the divisions (save Cadillac) got a car that, quite obviously, used the exact same sheetmetal with only different grille and taillight treatments. But the X-body did have one thing going for it: all the new compacts still used their own division’s V8 engines.
Of course, that one remaining stalwart of GM division autonomy went away with the 1975 H-body (Monza/Sunbird/Starfire/Skyhawk). So, yeah, since the X-body led directly to that…
Has anyone but me noticed those little slits in the rear bumper above each tailpipe? Those are actually for a corresponding part of the bumper jack to fit into. This actually seems rather unsafe to me as that does not offer much surface area between the jack and bumper to hold up 1/4 of the car. No wonder you were always warned to never get under a car supported only by a bumper jack.
Yes, I’ve used a jack like that myself, though now I forget which car it was…could be my Dad’s 1973 Country Sedan, or maybe I’m off, though that car had the Firestone 500 radials that delaminated very quickly (car was months old) but I didn’t jack it up then, it was found at the dealer, and I don’t recall any reason I’d have otherwise used a jack on that car. I remember the slots gave some side to side stability to the jack.
My 1974 Datsun had a scissors jack rather than a bumper jack. Least secure I think was the jack that cam with my ’78 Scirocco, it was kind of a scissors jack but very narrow with a small pad on the pavement and hooked into a slot on the pinch mold under the car…just looking at it made you nervous. The Scirocco was light, but I wouldn’t want to be anywhere near underneath it with that tenuous jack.
Never had an Olds Omega (my Uncle had the X car version) but rode in one back in 1975 when my Cousin drove us to Kings Dominion (first and only time I was ever there) before our move from Virginia to Vermont (for the 2nd time).
I had a 77 Omega, it went well with my 79 Cutlass. Both were excellent autos. 260 in the Cutlass, 350 in the Omega. Put alot of miles on both. Always have been an Olds fan!!