William Oliver found this rather pristine Buick Apollo sitting at the curb in Ontario. It looks almost new, except for the Chevy hubcaps on the front wheels and none on the rears. This is a stripper too, as it lacks the bright trim on the window surrounds as on the one I found and wrote up here. Bare bones.
The Apollo and the Olds Omega appeared in 1973, as the second and third Nova clones, the Pontiac Ventura having beaten them by two years. Did GM have advance knowledge that the energy crisis would happen in the fall of 1973?
All four of the NOVA X-Bodies came standard with the Chevy 250 six, and nobody seems to have complained or sued. A genuine Buick 350 V8 was optional, with either a two barrel carb (150 hp) or a four barrel (175 hp). The latter would have made for a reasonably brisk ride for the times. But given the stripper status of this one, the six is the more likely one hiding in there. Update: Oops; I missed the 350 badges on the front fenders.
No hatchback here. The hatchback version did not sell well; only about 20% of ’74 Apollo buyers ponied up for that. Hatchbacks just never caught on in bigger cars, understandably so, as their trunks were pretty long already, and the hatches became rather ponderously large.
Related:
My recollection, from the car of my cousin who had a Nova hatchback, was that removing the rear bulkhead had a pretty detrimental effect on the integrity of the unibody.
I couldn’t prove it, but my gut feeling is that this generation of X-body was not designed/engineered to be a hatchback originally, and that body was a bit of an afterthought.
I remember that it took a lot of rear headroom, too.
I bought a new ’73 Apollo stripper. It DID have tinted glass and a vinyl top, otherwise the 6 cyl. 3 on the tree manual trans, and no power anything. It actually handled well and shifted easily. It was red with a white top and black vinyl interior. It was my first and last brand new car. I came close in 2003 when I bought a 9 month old Mercury Grand Marquis LS, LSE (which I still have.). Fond memories of that Buick Apollo..
Hardly anyone was doing hatchbacks when this would have been designed. Afterthoughts aren’t always bad, if they’re well-implemented..
Looks like a “350” symbol on the front fender…..It’s a quick stripper!
Oops. How did I miss that. Updated now.
I see a “350” on the front fender…Grandma car with some upgrades…
The 350 badging on the front fender is the give-away. The eight cylinder is under the hood of this one, if it’s still there.
This is sitting at the intersection of Kingston Rd and Claremore, in Scarborough, a suburb of Toronto.
The lack of paint chips in the paint on the frontage indicates perhaps a recent respray?
The license plate is a later registration, likely not new to the car. They didn’t get to the first character being an “S” in the second set of characters until into the 1990s. This could be the second owner.
Excellent shots and writeup.
Apollo. Another excellent vehicle name squandered and forgotten.
Rather than use great historical, nice-sounding vehicle names like “Electra”, “Wildcat”, “Apollo”, (and others), Buick adopts names like “Enclave” and “Lucerne”, awful names that undoubtedly cost sales and positive brand recognition.
My understanding is that constant renaming is partially due to corporate marketing “experts” like to bring in new names that bring them personal recognition. This would make in interesting research subject, to me anyhow.
At least they’re bringing “Electra” back.
But, one significant name,
…. for a remarkable Buick,
……….designed by Harley Earl,
………………a name we will not see again:
Y-Job
Only problem with that is back when my Dad was closing in on 70 and nonetheless referring to Buicks as “old fart cars”, maybe reusing the old names had a downside?
In theory there may have been a downside. In practice, new names did nothing.
For example, calling the LeSabre the “Lucerne” brought in no younger customers, confused older ones who wanted a LeSabre, and caused people to think about dairy products.
The “Dairy” connection wasn’t widely known, just an excuse to dismiss the name. I never heard of anyone in real life thinking that. Lucerne is a city in Switzerland known for quality watches.
Main reason Buick Lucerne lost sales was declining interest in Buick sedans. They are all SUV brand now.
Moving LaCrossse from mid to full size, and more expensive, confused buyers.
Oh, the squandering got worse: I present to you the Holden Apollo (re-badged Toyota Oz Camry, under oddball local content rules).
At least the Apollo in the post is a really handsome shape! And from GM…
I find this a very interesting engineering solution to provide this car with wraparound taillamps, the only X-car of this generation to get them. It looks like a little, body-colored end cap was blended into the styling, except for on the rear quarter panel, where it sticks out a little on the side.
This little Apollo is a beauty. I hope it’s not regularly subjected to road salt in winter.
It’s a small thing, but the wraparound taillights definitely lend a little class to the Buick X-body.
I worked with two older mechanical engineers over the years who drove Apollo’s, both white two doors, one perhaps a hatch. And both well configured with handling options … tires, rear sway bars. The first guy moved on to a new Mazda GLC, the first of the FWD versions. He ended up liking it a lot more than the Buick. But I always preferred seeing his white Apollo in the parking lot.
350 badge means not “stripped”, but the base trim.
2 door Apollo was renamed Skylark for ’75, then all Skylarks from ’76 on. Many mature buyers of ’76+ in Chicago, especially with the puffy carriage roof. They easily moved into the FWD X body and then N.
It’s rumored that a few hotrodders would slip a 400 or 455 into the engine bay of the Nova-based Pontiac Ventura (I personally know of a guy who did exactly that).
I wonder if anyone did the same with an Apollo. A Buick 455 in an Apollo would certainly be a sleeper terror. Not to mention that, of the ’73-’74 GM Nova clones, the Buick was one of the better looking.
Apparently it’s been done. Strange the 350 badges are still on this one. Must be they wanted a sleeper. https://barnfinds.com/ready-for-lift-off-1973-buick-apollo-455/
Not a bad looking car, but why does it have a Chevy hub cap on it?
Hey, he must have pinched my hubcaps off of my ’73 Chev P/U. Either that, or there are a lot of ’80’s Astro’s running around without their wheel covers!
Hey, he must have pinched my hubcaps off of my ’73 Chev P/U. Either that, or there are a lot of ’80’s Astro’s running around without their wheel covers!
Great looking pick-up truck Dean!
Are those hubcaps factory for that year or another model of Chevy truck?
The hubcaps look familiar but I can’t place what generation of truck they would have been mounted. S10 perhaps?
They’re for an eighties Astro or S10. The originals were white, with a black gear inset and gold Chevy symbol, but the prior owner painted them over with white paint. I would need to strip off the paint, and have them painted, or try and locate an original set (I’ve been looking at flea markets for years.) Attached is what they looked like before I put on the current caps.
I wonder if there was a consciousness at GM that the Collonades potentially made the intermediate segments a little too big and impractical for some buyers and these X body variants were hastily conceived as companions. It is interesting that the front end styling of all three, especially Buick, are an almost perfect rescaling of the all new 73 Collonade designs.
It’s really rare to see any of these in this good of condition, Novas of this generation are generally loved by hot rodders but you practically never really see the BOP models endured by enthusiasts for whatever reason. They’re obviously badge engineered but they aren’t bad looking
I don’t believe so. Before the X cars, the intermediate line was downsized. The Monte Carlo covered the luxury section for that size class, and the Malibu was an excellent vehicle. Both of those downsizing were planned years in advance. The X-Car was not in reaction to anything GM already offered, but was to address the increasing popularity of imported cars.
The 73 Collonades were bigger in every dimension than the 68-72 intermediates. If fighting off the imports alone was the rationale, shouldn’t that have resulted in BOP Vega variants instead of Nova variants?
I’m only speculating of course, but given that there was a downsizing plan that emerged around this time for what would become the 77 B bodies and 78 A bodies, there may have been a similar internal backlash to the Collonade bloat as there was the 71 full sizer bloat, and these were a cheap course correction to keep buyers in showrooms. These X bodies were not small import sized cars, their near 200” length is comparable to the 68-72 A body coupes, and for Buick and Oldsmobile those intermediates were their “small” car entries, which was already pushing it from their Skylark/F-85 ancestors
There were BOP Vega variants: Skyhawk, Starfire, Astre and Sunbird. H bodies.
Glad there were no Buick/Olds Chevettes!
GM was looking to add more the compacts to try to compete with imports. Mainly as ‘loss leaders’ to bring in compact buyers, then upsell to mid size. “For a little more a month….”. But when OPEC embargo hit in Oct. ’73, Buick dealers were glad to have these and not have to wait.
Also, Apollo was a bridge between Opels and Century in Buick showrooms. Although in 73-75, German Opels were getting more pricey from currency valuations, and dropped for 1976.
Older Buick buyers took to Buick [RWD] X bodies, when gas prices rose. Omega didn’t get as many. We all know about the FWD X stories, but Skylark name lasted til ’98.
I think this was a request by dealers. Back then many if not most of the GM dealers were stand alone dealers, as in only carrying 1 maybe 2 GM brands. This was a way for these dealers to offer a broader range of cars.
The body colored, wraparound taillight surrounds are an interesting upgrade, but in this generation they are cancelled out by the gawky headlight/grille treatment.
About 5 years ago a Skylark 4 door in metallic root beer was for sale on a South Georgia Craigs for what seemed like forever. Apparently, no one wanted a lightly modded, Buick 350…with a 4 barrel carb, in a 4 door sedan.
I was quite tempted, but having owned a 2 door Nova, I couldn’t quite talk myself into a second run in an X-body.
The color seems odd, slightly off.
There was a bright yellow premium color, a sand color standard, and a special gold, but nothing quite like that. Not a bad color, probably what was available at the shop that came closest to the original.
My cousin had a red Apollo with a black vinyl roof and interior. Pretty unremarkable except for the fact that it was a Buick with porthole-ish trim, and those special rear tail lights. Interior was not in a Buick league common just a few years later.
The N.O.V.A. vehicles predated the 1974 gas crisis by quite a few years, so no one but Ford was ready for the demand for luxury compacts like their Granada/Monarch was in 1974. GM had a good product, but having the luxury interiors the Fords popularized in compact car wasn’t in GM’s plans. The GM offerings weren’t formally styled like the Granada, (didn’t look like a Mercedes – LOL), and the Valiant/Dart was not updated, so it had the formal upright lights suddenly fashionable in the compact car market.
The sudden demand for luxury compacts was met by the wildly successful Granada and Chrysler found themselves lucky in that they didn’t screw up the Valiant with a redesign a couple years earlier like they did with the Satellite/RRunner/Charger design, or AMC did with the Hornet/Matador. 1974 the market zigged, while a lot of Detroit, zagged, except for Ford with the Granada/Monarch and the Mustang II – (lucky Iacocca!).
GM, caught flatfooted, responded with a formalized NOVA design with more competitive interiors, dropped the Ventura name and the Apollo name, added “Concours” to the Nova line and kept the Omega as the Olds offering. Yet the market still saw these compacts for what they had been a decade or so earlier – basic transportation. GM couldn’t create a formalized compact car fast enough for the 1974 demand for luxury compacts their competition won over.
By 1978, GM dropped the Concours line for Nova and they seemed to have lost interest in the line as the new X-cars were getting readied, (they were never ready, btw). So GM lost out of the luxury compact craze, but lets recall that GM was already working on downsizing their cars.
What were the notable differences between the N ova, O mega, V entura and A pollo? What was the build quality? Could I have optioned a Nova with broughamy options to make it as nice as this Apollo for less?
Omega, Ventura and Apollo satisfied the demand for a smaller Oldsmobile, Pontiac and Buick. They were all the same cars. Brougham interiors for these cars weren’t planned. When the market shifted in favor of the new Granada/Monarch, GM refreshed the line, dropped the Ventura and Apollo names, and then added Concours to the Nova line – along with a hatch option. GM was caught flat-footed regarding the shift to luxury compacts.
The Apollo had nicer looking bench seats, but I don’t think any of them had center armrests, consoles, or other luxury features for the time. It may have had more sound insulation than was available on the Nova.
It’s probably best to let Buick tell you why the Apollo version of that old body shell you’ve seen before is the smart way to spend your money.
http://oldcarbrochures.com/static/NA/Buick/1973_Buick/1973_Buick_Apollo_Folder/dirindex.html
$3,200 for a Buick with a 350 and TH350 isn’t bad for the time, but adding A/C, AM radio, power windows and locks & cruise will make that price rise considerably!
And the Canadian version.
http://oldcarbrochures.com/static/NA/Buick/1973_Buick/1973_Buick_Apollo_Brochure-Cdn/1973%20Buick%20Apollo%20%20Cdn%20-08.html
The “broughamy” Nova trim wasn’t available until 1975 and then was more so with ’76 Concours.
But, as stated, Nova was associated with ‘basic car’ image, so Lux versions didn’t sell as well as Granada.
Pontiac brought out a more plush Phoenix X body in mid 1977. But, but added a cheaper base Phoenix to replace Ventura for 78-79. Same thing, didn’t catch on.
The Pontiac Phoenix was to Ventura as the Chevrolet Concours sic Nova Concours was to the Nova.
I went back to your gas price chart to confirm, but I don’t remember any adults in my world talking about gas mileage until the middle of 1972, and then it was all over the news and in regular conversations. When the 1973 models debuted, there was a broad backlash about the horrible mileage cars were getting, a side effect of universal bloat and hamfisted emissions compliance.
It is also my recall that these were not introduced with the rest of the 1973 lineup, but came late, like maybe January of 1973 or so. They were certainly in place for the 1974 recession. My mother was car shopping in 1974 and did not give these a glance. They seemed like phoned-in efforts to me at the time, pretty grim for a Buick or Oldsmobile showroom.
I remember these from a slightly different take, mainly that folks were buying these for economy, instead of a Regal or Century in 1973 and onward. Reality was a bit different in that they only obtained a couple of MPG better than their larger siblings, mainly in suburban driving. We tested many of these back in the day as a potential family car, and they were tight in the back and slow with the 6 cylinder. The 350 provided effortless cruising at speed, with little difference in gas mileage. A Century with a 350 was a much nicer drive for most folks.
I’m impressed!
Now that you mention it, yes – they came during the model year, not at the beginning!
I went back to your gas price chart to confirm, but I don’t remember any adults in my world talking about gas mileage until the middle of 1972,
Is this supposed to somehow contradict or correct something I wrote? It seems that way, and it’s certainly a common thread with your comments, but I don’t know what it’s in response to. Maybe you could clarify that.
No contradiction at all, I used your graphic from yesterday to check my memory. After hitting a low in 1972 gas started a rise, which I recalled as getting started the second half of 72, before it really jumped in 73. Whether it was gas prices themselves or me just getting old enough to pay attention, it wasn’t until around fall of 72 and the introduction of the 1973 cars when I remember gas mileage becoming a common topic in my world.
I was only trying to think through the time-line of gas prices (real or perceived) and the introduction of these cars.
I dashed off the comment in a rush and agree it could have been expressed better. Your chart was a good and helpful reference.
” When 1973 models debuted …. broad backlash about the horrible mileage cars were getting”
1973 model year was a sales record, so big cars were still selling. Until “the party was over” in fall 1973, just in time for the new ’74 models. Then, all the ‘MPG hysteria’ was in full bloom.
Again, Apollo/Omega were meant to entice compact buyers, then upsell to bigger cars, which Buick and Olds did in record numbers. Cutlass line was #1 in ’76. Regal/Century got lots of former big car owners to trade in.
BTW: GM was mid size sales leader, while Ford and Mopar compacts were selling well. Which brought in more profit?
To add insult to injury, in October 1973, when the gas crisis hit, the typical US car was thirstier than ever, except for Pintos and Vegas.
More cars than ever:
were automatic, had power steering, power brakes, A/C, power window, and needed a bigger engine for all that stuff, and that bigger engine had to deal with power robbing pre-catalyst emissions controls, and 5-mph bumpers, increasing fuel consumption even more.
A perfect storm for anyone not driving stick shift Pinto, Toyota, Datsun, Capri, or Opel.
And with car prices rising, and the 85% of the cars sold being domestics….well, that was breeding ground of discontent.
As for subject car, my aunt had a 74 Pontiac Ventura version, her husband told me it got 16mpg with the six-cylinder. Not great, but it was hilly Beaver PA, and a mid-size V8 would probably get 12 to 13mpg…
(I left out Vega and Fiats because they tended to be in the shop as much as on the road)
Yes – my Valiant also got 16 mpg and that was considered economy. Beetles didn’t do as well as we think they did mpg-wise, right?
I can’t talk to US Beetles.
If your Valiant was a Slant Six, 16mpg would seem low–but maybe a lot of stop and go–or a lot of hilly driving, or worst, hilly stop and go. Then 16 mpg is decent for the six, great for a V8.
“Your mileage will vary depending on driving conditions”
Depends on where you live and drive. Northern winters vs. Florida.
Compared to my father in 1970s Long Island, both early 1990s Norfolk/Newport News and also metro Detroit today, my commute has less stop and go, more highway, but also, higher speeds. Other than trips to NYC, we didn’t use freeways, so 2-mile bursts of 55 to 65 on selected highways with traffic signals were as fast as it got then. Now, on the freeway 70-75mph is common, and “local” could be 10 miles on the freeway, which improves mpg, even at 75mph.
So, it’s hard to compare.
Most people don’t top off their tank and record. I always have, virtually every fill-up of every car I’ve ever put fuel in.
Now, with trip computers, my inner geek can also note the “average mph” of the tankful. Under 20mph means low mpg, over 30mph means high mpg.
The color reminded me of this one (from the 1975-78 generation) that stopped JUST short of falling off the partially collapsed Sunshine Skyway Bridge in Tampa after a freighter struck one of the piers in 1980.
Was this the prettiest of the NOVA cars? Certainly looks nicer than a Chevy.
It almost seems like this face was supposed to be the ’73 Nova facelift and was somehow yoinked away by Buick leaving Chevy to go back to the drawing board.
“The Apollo and the Olds Omega appeared in 1973, as the second and third Nova clones, the Pontiac Ventura having beaten them by two years. Did GM have advance knowledge that the energy crisis would happen in the fall of 1973?”
Maybe. OPEC didn’t form out of nowhere in the fall of ’73, it had been originally formed in 1960.
It appears that the US government had been trying to negotiate the status quo of cheap oil since the late 1960s, and already had plans in action by Spring 1973 to mitigate possible price / production risk. Too little, too late. Apparently the 1973 Arab – Israeli War was just the final straw, not the sole origin of the embargo.
GM undoubtedly had some intel, and it seems some larger downsizing plans were already in place. How seriously GM had taken something that probably seemed unimaginable to most Americans is another question.
The US State Department’s take on the situation makes the entire county look rather flat-footed…..
https://history.state.gov/milestones/1969-1976/oil-embargo
The ’73 coupe roofline is a real improvement over the ’68-72 but the thing I always thought was weird is how much worse the sedans fared in the restyle, with a rounded but upright rear door shut clashing with the semi-fastback roofline in a way they hadn’t before. Given the sales numbers it’s surprising they didn’t keep things as they were until the ’75 reskin brought the 4-doors a Hofmeister kink which set things right.
Except it’s too bad the ’75-79s were still stuck with the long hood/short deck proportions that had been so fashionable back in 1968 but left it less space-efficient than clean-sheet designs like the Mopar F-bodies and thorough facelifts like the Granada. Even reverting to the 1962-67 inner tooling and fully reskinning that might’ve been an improvement (especially if that meant reviving a wagon).
Everyone complains about the impact bumpers now, but before this most car bumpers were just for decoration. If someone backed into your car while parking it would affect the alignment at best and bend the bumper brackets at worst. Same thing if you backed into something like a steel parking lot pole. You didn’t have to hit them very hard to damage them.The big impact bumpers really saved the front sheet metal. I had a ’77 Datsun 280Z with the big bumpers and it kept the front of the hood from being dented by careless parkers. The first plastic bumpers had an impact strip which prevented the paint from being scraped up. Now the bumpers are just a smooth painted plastic skin that is easily damaged and of course the paint is scarred after bumping something. They do blend in well with the design and they are lighter, but a little more protection would be nice.
This is just my memory, but middle aged car buyers of the time seemed to like the bigger bumpers, as more ‘protection’ and chrome. Looked like the big 50’s bumpers.
But, in long run added weight, and smaller designs came about. And then reg was repealed.
I seem to recall a discussion on this site about the cost of collision damage on these bumpers. They all used rather complex systems to absorb impact (shock absorbers, rubber blocks, Oldsmobile used spring loaded grills). But at speeds higher than the 5 mph that they had to meet resulted in more expensive damage than older cars without these bumper systems.
Now cars have a 2.5 mph impact standard to meet (in the US). Bumpers now used reinforced bumper bars with Styrofoam or EPP foam and a urethane skin covering them.
I remember back in 1974 I couldn’t turn the TV on without seeing a commercial about the “new” Buick Apollo-Buick was really buying airtime to advertise them. By comparison, I recall seeing a commercial for the Oldsmobile Omega once.
It appears the Apollo got its own distinctive real bumper as opposed to the Nova, Ventura and Omega which shared the same rear bumper. I assume that was to make the Apollo resemble its full sized brethern a little more.
The NOVA clones made my Dodge Dart Demon 340 look (and run) all the more better by comparison.
Those are the type of hubcaps from my 1990 S10 (EL”economy leader” base) pickup.
They looked good on the black truck on silver wheels with RWL Radial T/As. I never wanted to upgrade rims I liked the look so much.
Where are You Kojak?
Driving his 1973 Buick Century
My grandmother, born and raised in Flint, and daughter of a career master mechanic for Buick, bought an Apollo in this very color upon becoming sober in 1973. Shes been gone for 39 years now — the cigarettes killed her even if the booze couldn’t — and I always think of her when seeing one of these, a rarity.
Some Buick dealers may have recognized a type of frugal older buyer and kept some basic optioned cars to meet demand. The buyer was still wearing a hat in the hair days of the 70s.
On this Buick Ad or Sales Brochure Flyer, what had become of the elusive 1975 Buick Apollo Coupe let alone Hatchback with vinyl roof (such an unusual feature for a Hatchback) and NOT the Skylark Coupe as it was known as from that same year?
They called these not hatchbacks but “liftbacks”, because that’s a very important and totally real difference and stuff; it’s certainly not a made-up piece of promospeak.
I seem to recall Toyota used that same term at times. To me “hatchback” and “liftback” are interchangeable. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kj_XL32ZcUQ
Me too (that was the point of my snark about very important urgent differences).
I’m thinking the naked rear wheels are due to the fitment of the winter snow tires/wheels. Where I grew up, it was pretty common to see that in winter, as owners were too lazy to put the hubcaps on their snow tires, and too cheap to buy extra hubcaps for them.