Let’s take a brief look at this Cohort find by nifticus392; a 1973 Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser, from the first year the wagon appeared modeling GM’s new colonnade body. Also, the first year the model appeared without the nifty roof window treatment that had once been its namesake. In other words, there were fewer vistas to enjoy on the new for ’73 Vista Cruiser.
But don’t you worry, a new sunroof Vista-Vent came instead of the old window arrangement. Gotta keep a few vistas on a Vista Cruiser, right?
The original Vista Cruiser was quite the cool setup, and CC has given it much praise before. Its roof echoed the glass domes popularized by ‘Vista Dome’ railroad cars and even GM’s own Scenic Cruiser, all part of a mid-century fascination with glass boxes. As such, the ’64 Vista Cruiser –and its corporate sibling the Buick Sportwagon– arrived to impress a crowded station market.
For those who don’t know its background, the Vista Cruiser/Sportwagon arrived alongside GM’s new for ’64 A-body intermediates. The new glassy wagons added a 5″ stretch on the A-body’s 115″ wheelbase, thus creating room for a forward-facing third seat arrangement. Lengthened doors allowed access, and the raised glassy roof added room for those riding in the third row, which basically sat over the rear axle. It’s all explained in more detail in our previous entries (links below).
Curiously, Oldsmobile dropped its full-size wagons a year after the arrival of the Vista Cruiser. Something about which the company had second thoughts a short time later, when for ’71 the new full-size Custom-Cruiser appeared in a stretched B-body platform. One of those ‘throw everything but the kitchen sink’ GM efforts, with its cool (and convoluted) clamshell gate serving as a show stopper.
With the eyes now on the new Custom-Cruiser, a more modest Vista Cruiser arrived along the new for ’73 colonnade intermediates. This time the model rode on the same 116″ wheelbase as the A-body sedans, while the neat glass dome was thrown into the dustbin of history.
Regardless, the name remained, now related to the model’s standard sunroof Vista-Vent.
Vista-Cruiser, The brand new wagon with a window on top. And that’s GM for you, one window to make up for the old setup of 4 and try to pass it as a gain.
Mind you, GM was still a powerhouse at the time. Whatever your thoughts on the A-body colonnades, the styling for each division was distinctive and filled with character. And in the case of the diminished Vista-Cruiser, while the concept had changed, the model still offered plenty of upscale options to the Oldsmobile faithful.
On the Vista Cruiser that meant; optional Morocceen interiors, standard Di-noc paneling, and a Rocket 350 V8. The model was still available in 2-seat or 3-seat versions, with rear window vents provided on the latter. However, the third row was now a far more conventional rear-facing setup.
Of course, sans glassy roof or stretched wheelbase, there wasn’t much of a case to be made for the Vista Cruiser. Under diminishing sales, the model was quietly dropped at the end of 1977, with Olds midsize wagons fully joining the Cutlass phenomenon.
Related CC reading:
Curbside Classic: 1969 Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser – GM’s Greatest Hit No. 8
Curbside Classic: 1966 Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser – The Kiddie Wagon
With, or sans, roof windows, Oldsmobile wasn’t a station wagon brand. It was positioned as an affordable Cadillac, and its image just didn’t fit a family station wagon. It had some very nice wagons, as did Mercury, however, both brands were personal luxury brands, not family haulers. So the market for these wagons was limited. Anyone wanting the latest hot Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme coupe, was not going to be interested in a Vista Cruiser anymore than a Chrysler Cordoba shopper would have been interested in a Chrysler version of the Satellite wagon.
Chicago was Oldsmobile country, and even there, we didn’t see many of these. Chevy colonnades were everywhere, but if it wasn’t for the Cutlass Supreme coupe, you wouldn’t have seen many Oldsmobile versions of the colonnades. While Cutlass reigned supreme over Olds sales, that market wasn’t shopping for a family.
These were good wagons. This 1973 suffers from the inaugural 5-mph bumper design on the front end – not an enhancement. The high-riding 1973 GM bumpers attempted to make the front end design lean forward. It was a one-year-only look.
No – it wasn’t a Vista Cruiser. It was a marketing move to call it that. Pretty dishonest, but then – GM was never shy about selling to suckers. A lot of new cars in 1973 sucked.
The tail lights were in the bumper. It is a notorious design for anyone behind them in traffic. With the common high long hood with high dash designs back then, these colonnade wagon tail lights disappeared out of sight within 15 feet ahead of you. This is also a design that didn’t last long. Once the intermediates were redesigned, consideration of tail light positioning returned to normal safe height.
It is pretty great to see one of these here at CC. They have alot to offer our conversations.
In Colorado at any rate, while building an inventory, I came across 10 to one Oldsmobile Cutlass wagons as opposed to Chevrolets. Maybe it was Colorado? or the Oldsmobiles outlasted the Chevs? The design lasted 5 years from 1973-1977.
I drove Colorado for years and a Vista Cruiser would be a strongly appealing vehicle there. A frustration of touring Colorado is the inability to see through your car roof. I discovered this by driving Jeeps, and a car with an enormous sun roof.
The ability to see up at the mountains is what is missing while driving around the Rockies. So I definately see Vista Cruisers as great vehicles to have in Colorado.
I found sales numbers for the 1975 model year. About 45,000 Chevelle wagons and about 26,000 Cutlass wagons were sold.
I remember quite a few of these Olds wagons on the roads – I wonder if it was a demographic difference between Chicago and Fort Wayne. The ones I hardly ever saw were the Buicks or Pontiacs. It seemed like Olds was the sweet spot where prestige met modesty, something that might have appealed to middle-class people of German background who seemed to predominate in the Fort Wayne of my youth.
Low turn signal only on the bumper is a common problem even today on SUVs of all sizes . Hood of the following pickup or suv which tailgates you is too high for it to know where you are going. But the real problem is all these hoods too high for nothing. We open them and there would be space to put a vintage oil bath air filter.
Chicago was certainly Oldsmobile country in the 1970s, but I disagree about the scarcity of Cutlass wagons. In our northwest suburb, the next-door neighbors on either side of us both owned Colonnade Vista Cruiser wagons, one a 1975 model in that weird, non-metallic light blue with the wood-grain, and the other a 1973 version similar to the one above, but in metallic emerald green. Several other Cutlass wagon owners also lived in the vicinity. Of course, Custom Cruisers were more abundant in the next town over, which was highly affluent.
O: Once the intermediates were redesigned, consideration of taillight positioning returned to normal safe height.” No. In the 78 downsizing of the GM midsizers, taillights remained in the bumpers of the wagon versions.
Even the downsized cutlass wagons kept the lights in the bumpers
Ferrari, Lamborghini and Maserati are not SUV brands either, but if there’s money in it, they’ll build it. Oldsmobile made a profit for GM in the station wagon market when they were around as an automaker, especially with their intermediate line.
I don’t know if Olds was supposed to be an affordable Cadillac or an upscale Chevy. In essence, it was trying to be its own brand but was trapped in the General’s captivity. In any event, I agree with VanillaDude that it was not a marque intended for workhorse stations wagons.
I’m guessing that the taillights being in the bumper was because the rear half of the car was shared across BOPC platforms. Throwing the side character lines along the bottom was just a dumb look on a wagon, except that they just reused the same doors on the assembly line at the regular Supreme. Which was a much nicer car than this.
Neighbors , back in historic days, had a good looking “76”V/C. Rusted big time in the early “80’s”.
They were rather had on it though.
That’s a 1974, not a 1973
1974 had front side markers behind the bumpers on each front fender. This one doesn’t. Also the 1974 bumpers were fuller and each of the grilles had openings in the lower half of the new bumper design. The 1973 didn’t.
I see this wagon as a 1973.
It’s a 73. The grille was more upright in 74.
I remember finding the liftgates on these interesting, being among the few who had grown up around the 1961-63 Y body wagons that used a similar setup. Otherwise, I felt that these were dumbed down a little from the 1964-72 cars. But I didn’t care because if I was going to get an Oldsmobile wagon (a remote prospect, admittedly) it would have been one of those big Custom Cruisers.
Good point about the bumper-mounted taillights. I was never a fan of that on the wagons, or the El Camino. It is frustrating to see them starting to return on SUVs and cars lately. I am not looking that low for an indicator light. Having a reflector there is ok (but not practical as they are prone to damage).
a true vista Cruiser would be a fun ride to go to the beach or the coast in these days.
The 1964 is by far the most appealing if the 3 wagons shown.
The “60’s” wagons were so damn noisy on the highway!
Despite all their many design flaws and sloppy assembly, the Colonnades were definitely the best of the Big Three intermediate offerings of the 1970s. Torinos and Montegos were porky, outdated, and bloated vehicles that quickly became outdated caricatures and suffered poor driveability to boot, while Satellites and Coronets suffered from outdated fuselage styling, barebones interiors, and lousy workmanship. By the time the Colonnades were introduced, Matadors were virtually irrelevant in the market.
With the wagons, however, the Colonnades were not quite as dominant, being smaller than the competition and lacking the all-important three-way tailgate, thus ceding some ground in the still-important station wagon market to the FoMoCo and Mopar offerings.
Even with the first generation of downsized A bodies introduced in 1978, GM still didn’t get the wagons quite right, introducing a two-piece tailgate that rattled incessantly as the car aged, and kept the tailights mounted low in the rear bumper. The Ford and Chrysler offerings in contrast had one-piece flip up tailgates, high-mounted tailights, and, for backseat passengers, roll-down windows.
Personally, the fold down tailgate would have been a feature, and not a bug for me. I like having a tailgate surface to sit on or work on.
The faux bodyside wood panelling, seriously discouraged do-it-yourself bodywork, or rust repair. I’ve done most of my own bodywork, and why I’ve never owned a car with faux wood.
Took this a few days ago.
The ’90s full-size GM wagons again offered a vista roof above and behind the 2nd row, in a similar position as pre-1973 Vista Cruisers, though these didn’t have the long side glass above the 3rd row/cargo area rear side windows. And unfortunately these also had (optionally) a rear-facing third row, so those passengers couldn’t really look out the skyroof as with the originals with a forward-facing third row. The “clamshell” big 71-76 wagons had forward-facing third row seating, but no skylights of any kind in the rear compartments.
Great representative car of American/Canadian suburbia, circa 1973.
Wheel arch design is very similar to the lowly Vega.
My parents bought a used copy of the Buick variant (Century?) around 1978; it might have lasted a year. God, what a rolling blanc mange. The gas tank rusting through was the final straw.