I’m guessing the Apollo is the first one to catch your eye, followed by the Eldorado. This Apollo has some history with me; I first shot four or five years ago when it belonged to an elderly lady (natch), and it rarely came out of its hiding place in the garage.
She passed away a couple of years ago, and ever since, there’s been a youngish guy driving this thing all over town. It’s now his daily driver. I’m guessing he was her grandson; this thing is pristine, and who wouldn’t be thrilled to get grandma’s Apollo? I just hope he takes good care of it; these cars have become rather rare.
I’ll do a full CC on it one of these days; consider this a preview.
Nice ! .
Does it have the i6 engine ? .
-Nate
After my late Aunt’s Opel Kadett Wagon burned to the ground, thanks to that fine German engineered wiring at the fuse box, a brand-new Buick Apollo is what she next turned to. It gave her many, many years of trouble free service.
It was in the exact shade of color as this one. This photo helped rekindle some fond memories of her and that car.
Yes indeed! If this was taken in MA, the Saturn would probably be the only one without body panel rust.
The Apollo name only lasted 2.5 model years. 1973 and a 1/2, 74, and 4 door only in ’75. I’m betting lots of 64-72 Skylark owners, wanting a new version, came into dealers in 73-74 asking ‘where is it?’ Brought back for the RWD X, FWD X, and N bodies.
These are indeed rare birds. Have only seen a couple at car shows over the years.
I think I’ve seen a Buick Apollo at local car shows. The really rare bird is the Oldsmobile Omega from 1973-74. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen one at a car show.
I’ve never seen an Omega at a car show either, but I did catch one motoring down the street when I was out for a walk one day a few years ago:
And let’s actually include the photo this time!
Thank you! That’s a rare car, at least around here.
That is a gorgeous car. From the side it looks just like a Nova. Everything is as it should be, not a single line out of place. Chevy did by far the best job with the front end and tail lights on the Nova than any of the others did. Which leads me to believe that BOP simply drew up something in a hurry, through it on the Nova body, and rushed it into production.
I slightly disagree–while the ’68-’72 Nova was nearly perfect, I wasn’t as fond of the nose job that came along with the ’73 big-bumper restyle. I actually like the front end styilng of the Oldsmobile best of the ’73-’74 cars. Nova second best, with Ventura third and Apollo last (the mini-Century nose just didn’t flow with the rest of the car).
By far the least stylistically successful of the NOVA cars (perhaps a reason for the name change to Apollo as NOVS doesn’t work?). The grille area seems rather halfhearted compared to the others. Nonetheless, it’s still not a bad-looking car overall, and it’s great to see such an original one in fine shape!
The trail of rust on the Eldorado is just a hint of big trouble. Thick padded roof has quite delay in showing the rust underneath until way way late. Can’t imagine how terrified it would be
My trick to slow down the problem is spraying clear coat on the seal of vinyl roof in best hopes to seal up preventing seeping water. But rust is still inevitable
“… who wouldn’t be thrilled to get grandma’s Apollo?”
Did I just read that? Not a car for me…. heavy, clunky, uninspiring and retrograde.
Nor a Ventura, nor an Omega, nor the model it was based on, the Nova. ‘Yeech’, as would’ve been said in Mad Magazine.
(now that Plymouth Sebring in the previous post is another story, especially as it’s in front of my old place of employment! Nice view of the Federal Center!)
But also simple and cheap to fix, and mechanically very robust. In other words, the perfect ride for a fiscally challenged young man.
Emmm, not sure about that.
I maintained my now-wife’s 1975 Nova 250-6/T350 auto for several years (1997 – 2004). Compared to modern cars, it always needed work. Granted the powertrain is pretty much bulletproof, but I darn near replaced every single seal on the entire car (except for engine rear main and rear axle pinion seal) not to mention replacing or rebuilding everything attached to the engine at least once. That’s a lot of work. And you’re repacking front hubs every 20-25K miles or you’ll be buying new bearings (that was about how long it took for her to burn through a set of cheapo front brake pads so that worked out OK).
Anything built since the mid-1980s is a LOT lower maintenance!
I would enjoy the heck out of a ’79 Nova coupe with I6 and 3 spd on the floor!
I had a ’73 Nova coupe with a 350/4 speed combo for a couple of years in the mid-seventies. It was a very entertaining car to drive; it was easy to overload the ER78-14 tires and get wheel spin. I wouldn’t necessarily want one today as a daily driver but I would love to be able to take one out and blast up and down thru the gears on a sunny Sunday afternoon.
The Eldorado represents what GM did best–big, opulent, and powerful, yet reliable and relatively cheap to build. THAT Eldo also marks the end of the era when RCA, Zenith, and GM were corporate powerhouses.
The Apollo is GM’s grudging attempt to change with the times. A sop to the need for more mpg and to compete with the ‘furrin’ cars. A rebadged Nova, only uglier.
The Saturn was a decent car, but immensely costly–a massive misallocation of corporate resources, where more prudent, and more intelligent use would’ve created better, more credible products. Like what Toyota offered.
Just like Gone with the Wind…Eldorado = 1861, Saturn = 1865…for the South.
Does anyone know how much less a similarly-equipped Nova or Ventura would have listed for then?
Don’t have a 73 price, but the 1974 Apollo based (w V8) @$2873
Nova V8 $2635 ___ custom $2809
Ventura V8 $2720 ___ custom $2879
Options are similar in price
Thanks, SOTWWW–I would have guessed they were farther apart (though I know it’s easy to say “only a couple hundred bucks” when comparing prices, forgetting how much that amounted to back then).
BTW, Another period write-up I found (newspaper) said “the smallest car ever to wear the Buick nameplate,” which I guess was a positive way to promote it as that first Energy Crisis was kicking in.
Perhaps someone is interested in the Omega (Olds version):
v8 coupe is $2927 a bit more than the Apollo. Not sure why.
But I do have 1973 prices for all but Apollo:
Omega $2749
Ventura $2544 — custom $2699
Nova __ $2441 — custom $2598
turbohydramatic (3 spd) $200, A/C $380, PS $100 PB $50 (depending on drum or disc/drum)
There is a lot of misc options including an SS for the Nova. A number of radio options from under $100 to over $200 but not sure if all were available with these.
Here’s a little ’73 price info.
My Uncle Ed’s 1st wife was a bit of an “independent thinker”(she owned a foreign car DECADES before anyone else in our extended family did) but in the mid 70s she bought one of these Apollos…a 2 door this same color combo.
I like the later Skylarks that were NOVA-based, even the 4 door models, but these early models look so slap-dash, style wise.
Love these Eldorados, unfortunately, many that have “survived” are pretty beat up looking.
What is the little modern car between the oldies?
Saturn SL, late 90’s.
Easy to spot (or overlook) that car isn’t it. It’s the one nobody cares about. A piece of modern junk between two American icons.
My mother was car shopping at GM dealers in 1974, and I remember the Apollo and Omega in showrooms. It seemed a bit of a shock, as I was not used to cars that small in Buick and Olds lots. My one memory of these is that they were the only cars in the showroom that, by 1974, maintained that classic GM Body-By-Fisher solid door slam. The 71 big cars and the 73 Colonnades lacked the feel of quality that GM had been known for for eons.
Had a 95 Saturn SL2 5 speed it lasted to 257k miles, not a bad car. Except it liked drinking oil too much. A 68-72 Nova with a Pontiac OHC in line 6 with 4BBl carb and modern 5 speed overdrive trans is on my wish list.
I would be all over that Apollo, because it is basically a Nova with a different front end and tail lights. A Nova front clip could easily fix the front. That generation Nova has always been one of my favorite cars.
I like the look of that generation El Dorado, The only turn off to me was the FWD. I would still be happy to drive one if I could afford the gas. It was the 7th generation El Dorado that I absolutely hated. It was a pimpmobile right off the lot.
I could live with the FWD on the Eldo. It was the weak sauce 135 HP Hook and Tow 4100 that would bug me most.
While in college, one of my car pool friends used her dad’s 4 door Olds Omega when it was her turn to drive. I remember it being a very solid car, more so than my friends Nova of the same year. It also road very well and had a lot of room for 5 of us 20 year olds.
The Omega was brown with a brownish- vinyl roof and vinyl interior. It was not the brougham model, so it was pretty basic. I forget what year it was, but it did look like the Apollo in the above photo.
I thought the next generation of these X cars had more modern styling. I liked the larger rear windows on the 2 door sedan, and the more upright styling of the 4 door sedan.
One of my neighbors had the Skylark 2 door, probably a 1976 or 1977. It was very nice except for the factory installed “Landau” roof, which was so heavily padded it made the car look top heavy. It was a beautiful color combination, a medium blue with a tan interior and tan Landau. Oh yeah.. it had Buick Road Wheels !!!!
I don’t recall the Apollo being particularly popular at the time, but things got better after ’75 when they put a Camaro-type front suspension under them. I once owned a used ’78 Skylark (same car) and except for the V6 being somewhat tired, the car rode nice, handled very well and was, over all, a pleasant vehicle. Perhaps the four-door that I had with NO vinyl roof and in a deep blue, helped that impression.
My grandmother had an Apollo hatchback, red/black vinyl top, Buick chrome rims and 350 engine for a bit. I admired that car as a small child!
It looks like I’m in the minority here–The Apollo is my favorite Nova clone, and I’d probably take one over a Nova itself. I believe they were offered with a 350 Buick four-barrel, so that would be my engine, and I actually like the front end styling.
Just another car on my celestial lottery list that I’ll probably never own but can admire from afar.
My favourite NOVA too! I think they look great:)