$12,500 is the asking price. If it’s truly a California car with North Carolina license plates for sale in Virginia, is it worth it?
Amenities listed include AM radio, AC, tilt wheel, power steering, power disc brakes, power rear window and dual exhaust.
Looks pretty clean. I don’t like those wheel wraps, but it looks period correct. All that green! Acres and acres of green vinyl!
I’ve never had a car with leather seats. It’s either been GM or Ford cloth. I did spend a lot of time learning how to drive in my grandmother’s ’79 LeMans. That had various shades of red vinyl, dotted with cigarette burns. My family also owned several VW Bugs (or Putt-Putts, as my mom called them). All had searing black vinyl seats that would shrink your skin and leave huge red welts after sitting in the summer sun. This Vista Cruiser’s cool green looks like it would be less dangerous.
The carpeting looks a little manky, but it may have endured years of children throwing up and spilling juice and dropping Crayons. The vinyl is perfect for wiping up after these little boogers. Today’s fabric makes just spilling a little coffee a nightmare to sop up.
Beautiful gauges, sliders and window controls. I’ve never been at the helm of one of these, but I can hear the shift lever clunking into place right now. You drive one GM, you’ve driven them all.
Here’s the 350 with some aftermarket goodies attached. Looks mighty clean. The ad says the mileage is 62k, and it looks it.
So is this old wagon worth $12,500? It would be fun to take to car shows. It’s the right color combo and the woodgrain trim looks tight. Everyone would bum rides and handing it off to a parking attendant somewhere swanky would be a sight.
But would I buy it? Hell, no.
The aftermarket AC is a little disappointing, but otherwise a very appealing Olds wagon. You could not restore a beater version to this standard for the asking price.
I’d buy it. I passed up a second series body in same colour and similar nick for AUD$7500 and saw it listed a few years later for $25k. I prefer the cleaner looking Olds to the Buick with that sweepspear side, but either would make me quite happy. Nice find Lynne.
The town that I grew up in, Duxbury, MA, had two of these as police cruisers, blue with the wood trim. I’ll leave it at that.
And THAT’S why us Norwell boys called it “Deluxe-bury.” Of course, our police department drove Oldsmobile Cutlass sedans in the late ’70s and early ’80s, so I suppose I should just shut up now. 🙂
The steering column has been switched as evidenced by the color mismatch and the Chevy shift lever.
Good eye. The shift lever should be all bright metal, like this one, although this one is a 3-on-the-tree. Wonder how many of those were built? What scares me even more is thinking of the kind of cornkicker who would order a Cutlass Supreme with buckets and AC and then opt for this.
looks like someone added tilt steering.
Don’t think I’ve ever seen one of these in green.
My dad’s best friend had one in tan over woodgrain. Rode around in the wayback a ton as a kid. Hated the vista panels — the light coming through them was always 20 degrees hotter than the ambient temperature. Had to fight to get a place to sit where I wasn’t under one.
The AC appears to be a FrigiKing unit. Pic of earlier unit attached as reference.
I’m of the school of thought that AC should be factory or nothing. I have heard of people retrofitting it, but on most GMs involves a totally different firewall stamping. Not a project for the faint of heart.
The other peeve I have is that Mickey Mouse air cleaner. Why do people do this?
Otherwise, awesome wagon. The carpet is no biggie.
The air cleaner has to be a restriction. Maybe even when completely clean.
I installed a number of those aftermarket AC units. My personal experience with them was not good. Pretty much a believer in open windows now. YMMV
My guess is that neither carburetor nor the intake is factory, so the OEM air cleaner assembly wouldn’t have worked (even they’d wanted to use it).
This is what happens when cars get old, parts wear out or are too expensive to get fixed properly. Or the guy just had the itch to hotrod his Vista Cruiser.
I would be willing to bet that no factory air cleaner is ever a “restriction” on an engine’s performance. For sure they will always be capable of more CFM than the rest of the engine can draw.
And even if the air cleaner is slightly the “weak link” in the air flow chain, it would only be noticeable at the top end of the rev range. If you are running at say 3000 RPM against a 6000 RPM red line then you are only sucking 50% of the air the intake system is designed for so putting a K&N on there does nothing for you at all.
In other words, replacing a stock air cleaner is a gimmick 99% of the time. IMHO of course.
BTW, same goes for bigger exhaust pipes too.
In most engines the head itself is the weak area for air flow so until that is improved, spending money on other aspects is a waste.
Of course, I could be wrong. No doubt some “fart can” afficionado will set me straight.
One of my grade-school teachers had this model.
Cars back then maybe had too much vinyl, especially for Sunbelt states, but modern cars have too little; cloth is a dirt magnet, & has no business on high-contact areas like headrests & armrests; I constantly worry about grunging these up on my current cars.
Pinehurst Green! Same color (in and out) as the 72 Cutlass Supreme 2 door hardtop my mother took delivery of in summer of 1972. Good catch on the column/shift lever. I would have missed that, as ours had a console and a floor shifter for the automatic.
As much as I love wagons, the GM A body wagons from 1968-72 had disappointing lines. The Vista roof helps, but these don’t really float my boat.
That dash looks really plain without the factory a/c vents.
I found a (slightly) later model Olds wagon just this weekend on the Orlando Craigslist….can’t remember if it was a Vista Cruiser, though. That one was a medium blue inside and out with wood like this one. No mention of miles in the ad, but the price was several thousand cheaper than this. Besides, that one had factory A/C and pretty much every other power option.
I never have been a big fan of this shade of green.
A Vista Cruiser any later than a ’72 like this one makes it nothing more than a Colonnade wagon with a pop-up glass sunroof, no wonder it’s much cheaper, it’s in no way desirable.
Wait for it…
Almost there……
HA!
What was wrong with those speakers? Those were genuine GM parts!
You beat me to it! I was going to comment on how I can’t not think of That ’70s Show when seeing a Vista Cruiser!
Perhaps spending all my life in the Heat & Humidity capital of the country AKA New Orleans, LA has biased me on the subject of automotive air conditioning…..
I’ve owned several cars retro-fitted with what appeared to be competent, attractive “In Dash A/C” kits. All EPIC FAILS!!
NOTHING copes with this sink hole’s 10 months of summer like a factory Air Conditioning system.
WHY would anyone buy an Oldsmobile of this time period WITHOUT factory Air Conditioning????
Mark – in the mountain west factory a/c was not common in the early ’70s and is rarely needed now.
I doubt one can get a new car without air any longer but on a summer drive I did last summer that included Casper, Sheridan, Bozeman and Idaho Falls I doubt we ever had the a/c on in a new Explorer. Simply didn’t need or want it; windows down a bit was just fine. It is different in the mountain west and if this car spent summers in the bay area of northern California it may also not have needed a/c.
The new Jeep Renegade can be (theoretically) had without a/c. That’s how they can advertise the $17,999 base price. If you want air, add a $1600 options package.
Say goodby to the ‘Ole gas guzzler Russ……..
LOL
The vinyl interior is pretty nice. It ain`t Corinthian leather or “panty cloth”, but at least it isn`t “mouse fur”. Looks like it wore like iron. As far as the aftermarket air conditioning is concerned,…………….
I’m wondering if someone reupholstered the top of the front seat- it does not have the buttons to match the rear seat. Our ’70 Cutlass had matching front and rear seat backs with a button pattern, while the lower seat just had the pleats. Regardless, it is all a uniform shade of avocado green that looks very attractive.
“Today’s fabric makes just spilling a little coffee a nightmare to sop up.”
Tell me about it, the fabric on my F-150 stains if you spill water on it. And I’m not exaggerating.
Vinyl does seem to be making a comeback today under the guise of imitation leather. On some new vans I looked at they called it “leatherette” and “leather-trimmed”. Which is fine by me, I’ve lever liked real leather.
I have thrown all of my money at the screen.
It didn’t work.
I think its worth it….this car is AWESOME. Sweet green paint, classic lines shared with a legit muscle car, and its already got dual exhausts. Id say score some Cragar mags and put a pair of loud ass cherry bombs on it and go have fun!
It’s nice, but for the price I would want it with factory AC and completely original. Still a interesting find.
If you can get the price down a bit, sure, buy it. Just be aware of an over-40-year-old car and all that comes with it or doesn’t! Sure is pretty, though. So many cars in green back then. This car wears it well.
I’ve always been fond of the Vista Cruiser. After all, it’s an Olds.
This sounds like a perfect wagon for Principal Dan!
That looks like a GM A6 compressor. They consumed a lot of power, but worked and held up well. It was an axial design and could sometimes be noisy. But they were a lot better than those Harrison pancake compressors that broke on the way home from the dealer.
If that car is rust free and accident free, and I had the spare change laying around, I’d probably buy it. Money isn’t worth what it used to be. A new Smart car costs about $3000 more, plus sales tax, title and registration, and a sky high doc fee. That engine would never pass emissions in AZ like that. But I would do the same thing I did with the Pinto, insure and register it as a collector car. I like wagons, I like old wagons with no computers, I like woodgrain wagons, and it being a VistaCruiser is even better. This thing would be a piece of cake to work on. Engine, transmission, steering, suspension, brakes, all ’70s GM. Zillions of parts everywhere.
Unfortunately I need to spend my car money for a dull boring transportation car right now, instead of another toy.
What’s not to like about a car called the Vista-Cruiser?
I’d buy it, possibly….
Growing up my Uncle Al had this identical wagon, color and all, except his had factory air, power windows and locks, tilt wheel and cruise control, which I thought was rare for a Cutlass wagon back in those days. He owned that car for what seemed like forever. I can still hear the Oldsmobile Rocket 350 as he pulled up my Mom’s driveway – it had the most distinctive sound to it. I can’t tell you how many times I rode in the back of that wagon. I can still remember the sun coming through the vista windows. He would always say the name of his car loud and clear as the “VISTA CRUISER” because of those cool windows – which weren’t so cool on hot summer days! He sold that wagon with well over 100k miles on it and missed that car greatly.
Buy it? As is? No. Lower the price to around 10K then maybe unless all the original parts are available. Taking them off in lieu of other dress parts always lowers the value in my opinion. On top of that the pictures are nice but I have seen pictures lie before.
Pass- a Vista Cruiser without a 3rd row seat?
These have to be among the best-looking wagons from the golden age of large station wagons. The wood grain placement down low adds distinction, as does the Vista roof.
My neighbors car when I was a kid!
I don’t know what magic was involved, but they owned it in Michigan from ’72 until sometime in the mid ’80s and it still looked good.
Price seems a little high, but if I was getting a Vista Cruiser it would be that year and that color.
My parents bought a ’68 Cruiser in the summer of ’69 from National Car Rental. It was the first year of this body style. We were (are) a 4 kid family so it got well used. It had the forward facing third seat, which was unusual for the time. It was in the family for about 5 years, when they traded it for a year old ’73 Cutlass Supreme coupe. This was my teenage years, so the Cruiser and a ’65 Belvedere were my learning to drive cars. Even with the basic 350 and 2 barrel it would push right up to 120 mph.
As far as the featured car goes, like many others have said it has too many breaches of originality for me to be interested, plus it just doesn’t do much for me. Maybe because I am too familiar with one very similar to it. It does appear to be very clean. Now if it was an all original, full power with a 455, that would be a different story.
Neighbor across the street had an identical model, except was blue with a roof rack. In the south (NOLA), a car will lose value without A/C, and after market A/C is a distraction because of parts supply issues.
Nice car, but too many modifications (after market A/C, modified shifter, modified intake, buttons missing on front seat, carpet, tow hitch, no roof rack, etc). Price is too high.
P.S. Dad had a ’64 Chevy Impala wagon with the same type of vinyl seats. They withstood 6 kids for 10 years and still looked great when dad sold the wagon. Same color as below.
One of the most desirable wagons ever, one of the best years, the absolute perfect color for that car. Tempting. Very tempting. But, if I was going to spend $12k on a 43 year old wagon, I think I’d be inclined to hold out for factory A/C. And the missing third row seat is curious.
That being said, I’m not a total stickler for originality, so if the price were to come down…maybe. What cost effective versus marginal A/C?
It still blows my mind that an (almost) upscale Oldsmobile of this era was ordered without Factory Air Conditioning. A Ford or Chevy or some European import, perhaps….but an OLDSMOBILE? This era Olds reeked of (almost) upward middle class mobility.
There are HUGE issues with a 1972 A/C system. They use R12, which is no longer available. These systems cannot use 134A. I know some say it can be done, but it can’t. I have tried it. 134A has completely different operating temperatures and pressures that R12, and it is not close enough to work.
If you really want one of these cars, to drive, not collect dust, and that is all that is wrong with this one, I’d go for it. There are very few of these left in that condition. Even with factory A/C, cars like this do not appreciate very much. Show me where you can get a ’72 Camaro in that condition for that price. This is a driver, for that rare person who hates new cars as much as I do (if there is such a person)
I have worked on a lot of vintage cars and trucks. Most of the ones this old have aftermarket A/C, even if they originally came with factory A/C. ’70s A/C systems did not hold up well, and can no longer be repaired without the refrigerant they were designed to use.
Vintage Air makes some very nice systems and components, some of which can be pretty much hidden from view inside the car. You see these setups all the time at car shows.
While there would be emissions issues with that car in AZ, if you live in CA or OR, it would not be a problem, they do not test ’72 models.
Nice car .I lived in Duxbury and yes the Police cars 1968 – 1972 where blue and woodgrain Vista Cruisers without AC . The towns Police cars did not have airconditioning until about 10 years later. After the 1973 redesign wheelbase went from 121 inchs to 116 the same as the prior generations more plain-Jane Cutlass wagons. So no longer considered full size, the town went to The tank like GM B-body .