Did you miss out on the Cutlass Decade? Do you wish you could still get one? Well, sadly, that isn’t in the cards, but one thing you CAN do, if you’re so inclined, is snag this burnt orange survivor. Such a deal!
Sometimes I will spy a CC from the road, and for whatever reason, not stop. This has come to bite me on the butt on several occasions, such as the ’86 Volvo 740 Turbo that once belonged to a family friend. It had been parked in the same lot for years, and I saw it only two weeks ago, but didn’t stop. Well, this morning at the junkyard, what did I see, but that very same car, in the new arrivals section. Drat!
So fresh from that experience, this afternoon I finally pulled the Town Car off to the side of the road to get a few shots of this surviving Barney Miller-era Olds. I have been passing it for weeks, so it was about time!
I won’t rehash the downsized A-body and A-Special story, but in a nutshell, these Colonnade replacements may not have been quite as sharp as the 1976-77 model to me, but they did look good–and sold well! With their newly de-flabbed chassis and sheetmetal, they handled better than ever–though most folks in the Cutlass Brigade were more interested in silence and comfort.
This one does not have the Brougham trim level, so no poofy, floating-pillow seats to coddle you, but it did have the optional Landau roof! A Brougham-poster?
This car was not mint, but was not really banged up either. Yes, it had a splitting driver’s seat, the ever-common Multi-Fade interior components, and some rust, but it still looked serviceable. Just hop in and drive away!
The back seat was clean too. For those of you too young to remember, that is a collapsible ashtray in the back of the driver’s seat. Ashtrays were once as important in cars as cupholders are today! It was a different time.
This example earned extra points from me with what appeared to be original paint and pinstriping. And those color-keyed Super Stock wheels are always a plus!
73,000 miles is not bad, if it is original. It would have been nice if the info sheet said whether it had the 231 V6 or 350 Olds. I was too lazy to crawl under the car. Obviously the original asking price was about as firm as warm Jello, as the windshield now proclaims “$800 Firm”.
Other than a little rust in the rear quarters and rear bumper, this looked like a solid driver–driver’s door crease notwithstanding. Not a show car, but a little TLC and compounding could make for a very nice driver. Hope it finds the right caretaker, and not someone who will put chrome Conestoga wheels and pearlescent pink paint with purple polka-dots on it!
Everlasting…
Cash on hand 4148414870
Not perfect, but still looks to be well above average (at least by northern standards).
Assuming it doesn’t have the typical G-body frame rot, I’d be all over it. It would make a nice daily driver in the warm months, given a few evenings in the garage.
Granted, I personally have met my quota – but at that price, I’d be inclined to buy now, and figure out a use for it later 😉
Nice find! I, too, hope it ends up in the hands of someone who’ll appreciate it for what it is.
I wouldn’t pay five cents for that, I’m still mad about G body frame rust.
My other favorite G body rust is the rear drum backing plates. The slave cylinder pulls out of the hole.
I never had that problem, owned a 78 Supreme for 4 years and a 79 Brougham for 7 years. Now I admit I am a bit fastidious about washing and maintenance but I lived in Michigan, also both had Ziebart.The 78 was traded rust free, and the Brougham with extra moldings had only a small amount of surface rust when it was stolen.
The backing plates were thickened from the 1982 model year on up and rear frame rail rot is as easy to keep in check as taking a garden hose and blasting both side access holes out after each Winter. Never had a frame rot or go bad on any of my A/G cars and I live in the horrible Winter/salt climate of Upstate, NY!
$800 is a reasonable deal as long as there’s nothing unreasonably wrong with this car.
Even in burnt orange.
The burnt orange is worth extra! But then I find myself liking odd 70’s colors all too often…
Probably no chance there is an Oldsmobile 350 in there unless someone installed it, could be a 260 though, that was pretty common on these cars, the Olds 350 was only on the 1979 H/O Cutlass, besides some wagons.
Was the 260 more common than the 231? I would have thought most of them got the latter.
The 231 was usually the base motor with the 260 or Chevy 305 optional in the Cutlass, I’ve seen a fair amount with the 260 V8 in them. but I don’t have breakdown as to which was more popular, its probably around 50/50.
I remember walking through an Olds dealer lot in 1978 when a friend of my mother’s was looking for a new car. Almost every Cutlass I saw had the 260. I had forgotten about the V6 in these.
No 307 yet in ’78? That’s what a good number of the later ones had.
The 307 doesn’t come out until 1980-81 or so.
That’s right, I forgot. Didn’t certain A-body wagons and the El Camino/Caballero have the 350 as an option, or was that an urban legend?
The Malibu wagon did, I’m pretty sure. Not sure about the Elky though.
Certain wagons, the Malibu Estate and El Caminos could have had the Chevrolet 350, so could Pontiac wagons, maybe, Oldsmobile Cutlass Cruiser and Hurst Olds Cutlass Supreme could have had the Oldsmobile 350, I think that Buick also may have had the Olds 350 available on Century Estates, that’s the best I can recall without consulting “the archives.”
Thanks Carmine.
Could you tell me what state this cutlass is in ??
Illinois.
Thank you!!
My grandma had a 79 with the 260 V-8. It was fast enough, comfortable, good looking and strong enough to withstand the Puerto Rican roads of the 1980s.
I never really cared for the 78 bodies. The 81 had had an all round better look. That being said, you might fetch a $1000 from the right buyer.
I’d want to get up on a hoist, and check that frame out real close.
Agree. Especially after the graceful, flowing, stylish, darn-near-beautiful ’76 & ’77 models, the downsized ’78 was a butt-ugly turd-on-wheels.
The 231V6 & 3 speed automatic tranny made the car as slow as it was ungainly.
The ’81 made the best of what was there.
My grandfather had one just like this that he bought new and kept until 1984 (it was blue with almost no options), I do remember the large switch for the rear defroster that I would turn on by curiosity while sitting on the passenger side! Later, a friend of mine had a loaded 1980 Cutlass Supreme Brougham with a glass sunroof, Tempmatic a/c and all power options in the early nineties. When it was 11-12 years old, the 1980 had it’s rear bumper at angle just like this one and on the left, it was held to the trunk floor with a large bolt as the frame was completely gone there! It was also badly rotten from the rear to where the rear control arms attached to the frame! It’s owner knew about and he didn’t carry anything heavy in the trunk! He used the rear seat for that!
Here’s the one my grandfather had just a few months before he traded it. His car was in good condition but it’s Buick V6 started to knock so he replaced it with a loaded 1984 Cutlass Ciera Brougham coupe that was worse… The nice feature I remember from his Ciera was the trip calculator that was integrated to the center console, my grandfather also liked that feature but he didn’t like the car! He replaced it with an Accord and never bought another american car!
Really like the early 80’s Jetta and Supra in the driveway. I would like to have both of those.
The 1983 Celica is a GT, not a Supra, it was one year old on this picture from 1984. It was my uncle’s car. When he traded it in 1987, it was a rust bucket but I still liked it! (my uncle previously had a 1976 Celica ST that I liked even more).
The Jetta L Diesel was my father’s car. He replaced it’s Rabbit L Diesel with this one in December of 1983.
The ’78 Cutlass Supreme, while still very clean, was having a tired engine by that time. My grandfather replaced it just a few months after.
I remember me, my parents and my sister were waiting for him at his home when he arrived with the brand new 1984 Cutlass Ciera Brougham coupe he got earlier that that day and I noticed he had an almost flat on the right rear rear tire of his brand new car. We had to figure how to unlock the wire wheelcover, get the small spare on and drive back to the dealership and when we arrived there, I spotted a couple leaving with his knocking Cutlass Supreme that he had just traded. It was sold about two hours after he traded it as the dealership was half an hour from his home!
I just realized that this happened 30 years ago! I was 7 then but I remember it like it was yesterday!
Thanks for the correction, still would like to have it in it’s pictured great condition. I hope the couple that bought your grandfather’s Buick got more than a ‘tail light warranty’.
Phil you had to mention you were 7? After reading this I came to the ungodly realization that by 1984 it had been more than a decade since I was 7!! Darn you LOL!! Love the celica!! Those were great cars!
A co-worker had a similar car in the early-mid 80s. His was a Brougham, I believe, as it had velour seats….that I seem to remember as being of the “loose pillow” style, and I think it was a 79. A nice car, dark blue with a slightly lighter blue vinyl half roof. The engine? I never asked and the co-worker never said.
If this car was near me, I’d scoop it up.
I feel old because I see a car like this and assume they’re still everywhere. Also, I’m a big Barney Miller fan. I could see Harris driving a new Cutlass in ’78, while Barn might have picked up a used one a few years later. (Fish would get a ride from Bernice in her Rambler, if they even owned a car.)
But what would Wojo, Yemana, Dietrich, and Little Levitt drive?
Wojo: Volare
Yemana: Olds 88
Dietrich: Volvo or VW
Levitt: Used Cadillac
I always thought of Fish as a black 61 Plymouth kind of guy.
Ha – I would have said Wojo didn’t drive anything, Dietrich in a Saab, but I also put Yamana in an older Olds! I could see him driving to the track, smoking with the windows up, the form shoved into his jacket.
A really cheap Plymouth too.
I worked at Natzel Oldsmobile for a few months right when this car was new ~ during the 350 Diesel time .
This car looks nice for the price but having grown up in New England , I’d want it up on a hoist before paying over $200 for it ~ you can get a REALLY nasty and _dangerous_ surprise in good looking rust buckets .
-Nate
“Runs and Drives” I am pretty sure that the needs work is because the car does not go in reverse thanks to that crap THM-200c. Of course most folks switched them out for THM-350 transmissions when the THM-200c crapped out.
Late response from 2014 you posted.
My first hand experience: Ordered a 1978 Olds Cutlass Supreme new from factory, now closed.
produced in Framingham, Mass. I went light on options 231 v/6 auto. so
I waiting for quite a while longer than expected. I called the dealer they said, surprise.. it the arrived with a 260 v/8 did I want it, went to Summit N.J. to pick it up…no upcharge.
everything was just as ordered, except engine.
So glad I accepted that car back then, great engine.. good on gas, and most of all…
it lasted for I thinks over 250,000 miles or more, not sure… mileage gauge stopped at 230k.
Never…had a rusted frame, rinsed out wheel wells often.
your right about the THM-200c transmission, even though it had about 80k on it when it gave up the ghost… replaced with a Turbo Hydro Matic THM-350.
got trans. from a junked Olds 98.
I guess..General Motors, Olds and everyone, also repair people knew the problem with the transmission…as was it was designed for a compact sized car …but used it in the mid-sized Olds anyway and with a small v/8… no less.
So, most likely was the cause of the delay from ordering it…
Looks to be a good project car. Parts for A-bodies are readily available (and super cheap) compared to an AUDI or BMW!! Any mechanic worth his weight in salt should be able to fix. Body rot and the condition of the frame are key. Only big issue is old style Freon 12 which is no longer available. A/C makes a big difference in NOLA humidity.
I had an ’83 Cutlass Supreme Coupe with bucket seats and 231 V6. Car was bullet proof!! Finally gave it up due to the Freon issue. By this time, cars had moved to 134a.
R12 is still available and for a lot less than just after manufacturing and importing new R12 was outlawed. At one point I was paying $1200 for a 30lb tank and the last summer it was under $400. Converting it to R134A is also possible and not that expensive to do correctly.
That’s a lot of clams for a piece of Shiii. I remember these GM cars from that era with their self disintegrating plastic door panels, less than 10 years old they turned to dust on your hands, must have been the very first ever corn starch plastic ever made.The Buick 232 engine with its great cost cutting plastic parts too, the camshaft gear, the intake manifold. No wonder GM went downhill fast in a bobsled in the 80’s and 90’s.
I’d like to troll this seller offering a penny less than the asked for price. If they said yes, I’ll say, sorry you said you would not consider a penny less than the asked price 🙂
$800? Doesn’t seem bad at all to me, depending on what the “needs work” is. If the body and frame are solid, and given that it’s complete…I’d be severely tempted to take it home. I quite like the burnt orange, actually, though I’d prefer it with a white vinyl roof!
A 350/350 will solve that engine/trans issue quickly. If it’s the 231 they’re gutless but reasonably solid…I don’t have much personal experience with the 260 but if it’s anything like they Chevy 267, it’s a V8 that feels like a V6. “Enough” torque to get out of its own way, and faster than the leisurely 231, but you’re still only dealing with somewhere in the 120 to 140 horsepower range.
If only. Sadly the little Olds 260 made but 110 Hp in 1978 and only 105 for 1979-1981. For 1982 it was dropped to 100 even. Fortunately the 140 HP Olds 307 replaced it starting in 1983 as the top V8 option. The 307 was offered for 1981 and 82 in the A-body line but only for wagon buyers.
Still has the rear bumper! Though it looks like it might fall off soon.
Heck…all the plastic “bumper fillers” are in place, that makes this a pretty special car right there.
It seems like Oldsmobiel used better plastic in the bumper fillers as I have never seen one rot unlike the Buick and Caddy products.
Maybe not just Olds. The bumper fillers on my Malibu are still present and accounted for. Misaligned, yes, and with bad paint (just like the license plate frame, hard to get cheap repaints to stick to that flexi-plastic for any length of time) but not cracked or missing. This may be an odd example where Cadillac had, for whatever reason, the poorer-quality material.
Case in point, there is an early 80’s Caddy that lives near me, and while it is generally in very good shape, one of the bumper filler pieces on the driver’s side is cracked and the other is missing.
The Buick stuff was quite durable, it was only the stuff used on the Caddys that just doesn’t stand the test of time.
Neat find Tom. I think you are right about the original paint and stripes, such a big plus.
A very handsome car and probably the last where GM was true to its roots, instead of trying to be something it was not. There’s a lesson here for Cadillac.
Nope, nope,nope. My last GM car, a ’79 Monte Carlo, was such a POS that I haven’t bought anything else from GM for 35 years. I hope the company survives, but they’re going to have to build good cars for a long time before I’ll consider buying one. They built crap for a long time to get me to stop.
I went looking for one of these in 94 in college, I wanted a DD with some old car flair. I couldn’t find any A bodies of that generation for sale in the Phoenix area, surprisingly. I ended up buying a clean 76 Lemans coupe with the 260 for about $1800, IIRC. It was a pretty good car but severely under powered and very space inefficient. I wish I would have found a nice 78. I’ll bet this one was really sweet then!
I wonder how many ’78 Thunderbirds & Cougars this “downsized” Cutlass sold for FoMoCo?
Probably not that many, these were massively popular cars.
Interesting sales were up for T-Birds in 1978 which was the same year the smaller A- bodies debuted. In 1977 the T-Bird sold 318,140 and in 1978 the T-Bird sold 352,751, which was a increase of almost 35,000 more T-Birds sold in 78 then in 77 and it was the same body style. it could be the T-Bird did steal some sales from the new Cutlass due to folks apprehension regarding the downsizing of one of America’s best selling name plates. In 1979 sales of the T-Bird dropped to 284,141 sold causing a drop of 68,610 over the 1978 sales. So perhaps by 1979, folks got used to the smaller A Bodies and started buying them again or they were waiting to see the 1980 T-Birds which sucked.
The 1977 Thunderbird was a big hit for Ford for those couple of years because they dropped the price to Torino levels and made the 302 the base motor, as opposed to the expensive 1976 and down Thunderbirds, which were essentially Mark IV’s without hidden headlights, they were usually loaded to the hilt, heavy, massive, expensive and they all came with standard 460’s, the 1977-1979 Thunderbirds followed the Monte Carlos successful formula of offering a “fancy personal luxury” intermediate car priced like a regular mid size car.
Massively popular then and now Carmine. These rather basic mid-sized sedans spawned two of the most collectible cars from the 1980s, the Buick GNX and Chevy El Camino.
A condition #1 GNX goes for $100,000 these days. An ’89 Taurus SHO fetches $8,000 in same condition. Not a fair comparison? OK let’s move up to Ferrari and check again. An ’87 Testarossa is close but you’ll need a #1 car and about $10,000 to get into a mint GNX.
Someone might say the GNX is an anomaly and I’m making apple and orange comparisons. Fine let’s take a look at an ’87 El Camino 305 V8 which is easily a $25,000 car in tip top condition. The only ’69 El Camino that does significantly better is the low volume SS 396 and it’s not that much more.
Rust is usually repairable if the rest of the car is ok a little rust is no real object, however this could be too far gone
Ahh, the rare pillarless version.Also floor & rocker less too.
Since when have “clams” become part of our currency system?
Since the mid 1930’s that I know of….
-Nate
About the same time men discovered that women had nice gams.
23 Skidoo! 🙂
Most of the G bodies in my family had interior last as long as expected, not “disintrgrate”. And lasting 10 years then, was 20 today.
Also, these are not “Colonnades”, those were 1973-77 bodies. Though GM stopped using the term in ads around ’75 or so.
And, taste is personal, but these were not “butt ugly” to many people, and the Cutlass notchbacks [not counting the Aerobacks] sold well into the 1980’s.
I referred to it as the “Colonnade replacement,” meaning they succeeded the 1973-77 Colonnade midsizers.
The “Colonnade replacement” phrase seemed obvious to me; IDK how anyone could have taken it differently that what was intended by the article’s author.
LOVE the color – but then again I went to school at UT Austin. Our family had one just like it in maroon (no landau) with the same white pinstripes.
I’d love to own that car but getting it to pass CA smog would be a nightmare.
It can’t be a Curbside Classic article unless Carmine replies on it several times, challenging anyone who doesn’t agree with him.
Carmine apparently has never recognized any other opinion than his own to be correct.
Lighten up Francis.
🙂
The first family car that I can remember was a burgundy 1978 Cutlass Supreme coupe with the V6, in all of it’s standing hood ornament and fake wire wheel covered glory! It was only in the family for a year or so, then replaced with a 1982 Dodge Aries Wagon.
Based on what we can see here this car is in incredible condition for what appears to be an original car. Of course we can’t see what is underneath. As long as rust isn’t a problem on the underside this car could be a great start for a project car.
Rumor has it that there are many 1978 Cutlass Supremes buried in the sand at Cloghaven Beach.
My ’78 Cutlass Supreme Brougham purchased in Milwaukee from Krause Oldsmobile. Last V8 car I have owned – a 260 V8. When selecting the car, the lot seemed to have mostly 260 V8 equipped vehicles. I drove it for about 100k miles.
That was a pretty Cutlass, its just about the exact car that comes to mind whenever I think of this generation of Cutlass, a Supreme Brougham with the color keyed Super Stock II wheels.
A buddy of mine in college had one just like this. He was “the man” on campus and was very popular on sorority row!!
When he married, he traded it in for a Mercury Marquis station wagon!!!
When he divorced, he ended up buying a pickup truck!!!
I remember these in brown, not much else color wise. But I do remember a girl in a class behind me having hers painted in a bright yellow leaving the wheels brown. Don’t remember what they did with the top but did think it looked like a mess at the time.
I had a beautiful 1979 light yellow Calais version of the Supreme coupe and it also had the 260 Olds V8. Those Calais models were stiffer, better riding and sprung A-bodies at the time and a front and rear sway bar came std. So did rally gauges cluster and bucket seats.
Even with 112K miles on the clock it went down the road like a new car and still felt very tight and solid. When I first got her back in 2006 the engine was really slow and it could hardly get out of it’s own way but ran fairly well. A full tune up, vacuum line replacement, EGR valve cleaning along with the passages in the intake, base timing set to 20 degrees and properly setup timing advance of 45 degrees along with carb rebuild gave me what felt like a different engine under the hood. It was never a powerhouse but now could easily break the rear tire loose and effortlessly kept up with traffic going 75-80 on the highway.
Swapping the lame power robbing 2.29 rear gear out for a 3.08 made a huge difference too. Sadly being layed off from work for a while forced it’s sale to keep a roof over my head and food on the table until they hired me back thankfully for good now.
Nice car, always liked the 1978-80 Oldsmobile Cutlass’s (the none fastback models) a lot, I always thought GM’s personal luxury coupes looked better in the 1978-80 design than the 1981-up design except for Buick.
Many of you have commented about the G-Body frame rust on these. My Dad has a 78 cutlass supreme with frame rust/erosion behind the back passenger tire. Is this repairable? What is a rough price estimate on repairing frame damage?