(first posted 11/30/2016) Detroit’s infatuation with Euro-style sedans got their start in a big way in 1975. The Ford Granada was a cynical riff on the Mercedes, mainly having to do with crowing about its boxy design, Mercedes-look wheelcovers and a prominent grille. We posted Road and Track’s review of it here, titled “The Perfect Car For Mother To Buy”. Chevrolet’s redesigned Nova also arrived in 1975, and it too paid homage to a German sport sedan, but this time the BMW. Unlike the Granada, the Nova had some handling chops to go along with the Hoffmeister kink. But that hardly made it a genuine Euro-sedan. What Detroit still hadn’t gotten is that it takes more than good smooth-road handling to compete with Europe’s better sedans. Things like all-wheel independent suspension, steering with genuine road feel, and a body that is genuinely space-efficient.
The Nova LN was effectively a four-door Camaro, including all of its pros and cons. It was no BMW, but if Mom was going to be happy in her Granada, Dad would probably appreciate the Nova quite a bit more.
The poor interior space utilization is the result of having a body that was designed back in the mid-60s, at a time when that was just not a priority for the compact class. The 1968 Nova, which shared its platform with the ’67 Camaro, prioritized a long hood and a very coupe-like body, regardless if it had four doors or two. This 1975 update was still stuck with that same basic body architecture, now grafted to the new front subframe, suspension and steering that the 1970 Camaro and Firebird ushered in.
Ford blessed the Granada with an all-new body, with relatively better interior space utilization, even if it did still use aspects of the increasingly archaic “Falcon platform”. The results speak directly to the outcomes. And of course the Granada had the blingy Iaccoca look that buyers gravitated to much more strongly.
Pretty solid performance for 1975, but abysmal fuel economy (13.5 mpg) for a “compact” sedan that couldn’t even sit full-grown adults on its rear seat with adequate comfort.
The Buick Skylark’s uneven-fire 90° V6 comes in for the usual drubbing, given its persistent low frequency “rumble”. It did yield a much more respectable 21 mpg, but R&T wonders of the engine sound and very leisurely performance was worth it.
That greenhouse “C” pillar design element more properly ought to be called the “Darrin” kink, as Dutch Darrin designed the 1951 Kaiser which featured that particular and distinctive “C” pillar look well over a decade before BMW ever had it. Credit where it is due.
There’s a lot of that going around. But yes, BMW’s famed stylist didn’t invent it. And did Darrin himself even ‘invent’ it, for that matter? Some coachbuilt European sporting saloons and coupes of the Thirties show evidence of such a kink, sometimes dropping the beltline down with it. This 1934 Humber Twelve Vogue springs to mind, designed by a Captain Molyneux.
But IIRC Darrin had been active in car design since the Twenties, so he may well have invented it back then, and dusted off his back-catalogue for the Kaiser.
Interesting, I’d never seen this custom Humber, though Darrin’s version had it’s forward thrust strictly at the bottom after mostly coming down at a “normal” rearward angle, as did BMW’s, thus I don’t really see it as cribbing from this obscure Molyneux Humber.
I was attracted to the body-color wheel covers, something Cadillac put on their Eldos and Fleetwoods in ’77-8. The ’76 Eldo had black centers, but an image search shows many people switched them to body color. I can’t think of many luxury features that went in that direction, Chevy to Cadillac. They didn’t last long because fake wire wheels took over. Of course, the style was cribbed from Mercedes, though Cadillac had used body paint in their early 60s vaned and dished wheel covers (I’d like to know how they painted those, and how so many survived intact).
The colonnade Olds Cutlass Salon and the Ford Granada also had body colored wheel covers, all cribbed from Mercedes as well.
I should have added Ford Granada ESS
Now that I think about it the Dodge Dart SE and Plymouth Valiant also came with body colored wheel covers. As well as the Euro luxury versions of the Ford Maverick and Mercury Comet. That was quite a fad back then.
A friend of mine’s mother had a 75 Nova with a 350 V8 in it. As soon as I got in and she took off, I knew it had been “worked on”. It was downright quick. She loved that car and was very sad when my friend, after a terribly painful motorcycle wreck, decided, while high on painkillers, get into a pursuit with the Las Vegas Metro PD in 1980, and wrecked it. He survived only to die of an overdose about 18 months later, but the Nova was a total loss. He was never the same after that bike crash. She ended up getting a used ’78 Trans Am that she didn’t like, mostly due to the leaking T-Tops that made the rainy periods in Vegas a cold water shower on wheels. I warned her not to get a T-Top car. The T/A was soon replaced with a Ford Courier, which she liked for some reason.
My first car was actually a 1976 Pontiac Ventura sedan in dark green metallic with tan interior. It was special ordered by an elderly banker neighbor. It was equipped with a 260 V8, bucket seats, and four speed transmission with AM/FM stereo and AC. Not a bad first car and it was decent on gas.
I’m really puzzled by the BMW 2002 comparisons. It was closest in size to the top of the line 3.0Si which had a big back seat, 4 doors, and a large trunk, but still shorter and much lighter than the Nova. A 2002 would have been closer to a Vega size wise.
R&T really seemed to like the Nova, I guess in that era of slim pickin’s it wasn’t that bad, at least when new.
1975 model year was ‘sticker shock’, combined with required unleaded gas, thus resistant shoppers. “Luxury Nova” flopped since badge had ‘economy’ image since 1962. Chevy quickly brought out stripped ‘S’ models mid ’75. Nova coupes also had following with hot rodders, modified in many tunes, far from a lux car.
So, 1976 Concours name badge was applied. Still, Ford sold more ‘lux compacts’ then. But Chavy stripped down the Novas and sold more for 76-77, then pushed them in the back row when new Malibu arrived in ’78. [We all know about the Citation replacement, almost called “1980 Nova”.]
These can be brilliant cars given a bit of aftermarket.
A few bucks worth of Camaro handling stuff and more motor. Year ago I drove a four door, 4 speed, 350, handling package 75-79, and remember how decent it could have been with a decent V8.
I’d buy one now except that the collector car insanity has worked it’s way down to the bottom and now even a four door 6 cyl car will fetch $7k+. Crazy.