Having recently described my plan to take a 1986 Oldsmobile Custom Cruiser and boldly go where no GM B Body wagon has gone before, I thought that it would be a good time to describe the presence of these vehicles in one place overseas: Sweden, that European hotbed of the classic American car hobby.
Caprices, Roadmasters and other 1977-96 B Bodies are everyday sights in Stockholm, with numerous sedans and wagons on the streets regularly driven. The more glamorous 1950s and 1960s American cars receive all of the attention from observers of the classic American car scene in Sweden, but the workhorse B Bodies are an important part of it as well, providing everyday transportation exactly as they do in the U.S.
Some Caprices arrived in Europe as officially imported new cars. Amber rear turn signal lenses are the most obvious element of the export model. Also visible on the front bumper in the first photo is a headlight washer system, required on all cars sold new in Sweden.
The vast flow of classic American cars imported into Sweden has included numerous B Body wagons, including this white Caprice. Red taillight lenses identify it as a U.S.-market car originally.
The 1977-90 Caprice is clearly the most popular B Body sedan and wagon in Sweden, but the aerodynamic 1990s cars have a following there as well. This Buick Roadmaster Estate is one of several regularly seen on the street in Stockholm, along with Caprice wagons, Impala SS and “Shamu the whale” Caprice sedans, and Roadmaster sedans.
Why are these cars popular in Sweden and other foreign countries, when many (perhaps most) Americans regard them as oversized dinosaurs, and few regard them as classics yet? Part of their appeal is their spaciousness and comfort, utility in wagon form, and ease of maintenance and repair, and part comes from being foreign and somewhat exotic – the exact opposite of the image of these cars in the U.S.
Their owners are part of the club of American car owners, and everyone likes to be part of a special club. Even that most unpleasant of classic car experiences, being stranded by a mechanical breakdown, can be entertaining when you are rescued by a fellow American car enthusiast in a Mustang GT. On top of that, the driver of an American wagon has a car “just like in National Lampoon’s Vacation,” as the gentleman in the red shirt told me. Utility, exclusivity, and a Hollywood connection are a winning combination anywhere, and in Europe, a B Body wagon has all three.
Ahhh. Nudie Jeans Co. Seems like a Swedish oxymoron.
I’m pretty sure the top two pictures are my car. Haven’t seen it since I sold it but Texas to Sweden is a long haul. One of a couple that I miss.
That car was an everyday sight in the neighborhood in Stockholm where I was staying. I assumed that it was an official import, since it had amber taillights and a headlight washer system, but I may have been wrong; maybe they were retrofits prior to individual importation. What makes you think that it was your car? The color scheme, the bright metal trim around the rear windows, anything else?
If you are certain that the car was yours, I will be happy to leave a note for the owner under the wipers for you, when I return to Stockholm. 🙂
These things really hit a sweet spot in size, performance, comfort, utility and some other things I’m probably not thinking of. They were well built, fairly simple and may have been the last really, really good design (for both appeal and durability) that GM put out.
I love wagons anyhow, and if a really nice one of these plunked itself into my path, I would have to consider it. I would really rather have a Buick, though.
I loved a nice B. Good compromise between an A and a C.
Oh wait you’re talking about cars, aren’t you?
Your mind must have read “Swedish Bikini Team” instead of “Swedish B-Body Team.” Which I figured would happen with most American males between the ages of 30 and 50.
Not a good selection for Scandinavia where gas prices range from six to eight dollars a gallon.
But gas prices are not the only thing to consider. I’m from Europe (not Scandinavia though) and while most people here obsess about fuel efficiency, those who like American cars usually do not. In part this is because many of them do not drive that many miles a year (or if they do, they also have a ‘normal’ diesel and drive the American beast on weekends) so fuel costs for a gas-guzzling American car do not affect them that much.
And there is the second consideration: if you are in Europe and want to drive a car with a big powerful engine, American or not, you will usually face huge registration costs for this ‘luxury’* – except for older cars that qualify for some sort of “oldtimer” status which will usually mean considerably lower registration costs. I don’t know if this is the case in Sweden, but it certainly is where I live – basic obligatory insurance and registration costs for anything with a V8 engine will be at least 1000 Euros (or much more) every year. But for cars with an “oldtimer” certificate, you pay only about 10% of that number.
This way you can have the pleasure of driving a huge car with a powerful V8 and pay less registration and insurance than for a normal small European car with 1.0-liter engine…
And if you have to drive 100 kilometers to work everyday, you normally would not do it in a 30-year old fullsize GM wagon.
Ownership and maintenance is quite cheap. It’s the gas that costs. And it costs a lot. But people in Sweden doesn’t buy into the americana thing because it’s cheap, but because it’s a hobby. And most of the time, a hobby that can be combined with everyday living. Owning an american car is seen as an indulgence, and treated as such. It’s no difference in owning a gas guzzling speed boat. Because nobody in their right mind would buy into such a thing and not be aware of the cost of gas. So, there’s no whining about the money pits, quite the opposite in fact. They put the pedal to the metal and grin like motherfuckers…
I know that grin. So well put Ingvar 🙂
Well, the gas costs, but I have to mention that here in Norway we usually make a lot more money a year than in US. But everything is also more expensive here, but for us a gasprice around 15 NKR pr liter, or 2,5 USD pr. liter, or 9,4 USD each gallon is not so expensive as it looks for you americans.
So I drive med 1977 Cadillac Coupe DeVille about 12.000 km or 7500 miles a year, and around 5000 miles in my 67 Riviera a year. The fuel cost will be about 10.000 USD a year. The other costs with an old american car is next to nothing, and the parts are dirt cheap. Then these cars are very reliable and solid, even today. So it’s way cheaper than buy a new car, that’s for sure.
“Well, the gas costs, but I have to mention that here in Norway we usually make a lot more money a year than in US.”
More than in Sweden as well. Some Swedish friends called Norway “the Kuwait of Scandinavia,” with obvious envy!
While the Finns say that you have to take a ladder with you on the ferry to Sweden, because the prices over there are so high!
Well, we make some more money here in Norway than in Sweden or Denmark, but everything is also more expensive. Cars are maybe the most expensive in the whole world?
Did the facts that B-bodies and other American cars were big gas guzzlers, subject to import costs, and less common then Benzes, BMWs, Jaguars and other European “luxury” cars mean that they were considered symbols of wealth when new and perhaps now too?
Well, not exactly. I’d say there still is a kind of social stigma around american cars in Sweden. The old money wouldn’t touch one with a ten foot pole. Though, they were very popular in the blue collar crowd, self employed contractors, and so on. I’d say they appeal to certain kinds of free spirited independent souls, Easy Rider-style. They were certainly seen as some kind of statement. Also, some people just want to be different. I’d say a Caprice Wagon was comparable in price to a loaded 740 Turbo wagon in the late 80’s, so the choice wasn’t really that odd. And as everybody had a Volvo wagon, why not be different? But of course, the cost of gas was not for everybody, while some people obviously could stomach the trade offs…
it is interesting that Swedes “get” the majesty of big American iron…they also like heavy metal music.
Yeah, sure. They also love their ABBA, the American vehicle equivalent of which would be…..?
Given ABBA’s current image, and thanks to Top Gear:
would be interesting to find out if the big car Swedes are the metalheads also….:)
I am curious if the Ford offering (LTD, Crown Vic) is also popular?
The Panther platform cars appear to be surprisingly rare there. Final generation Town Cars are the standard stretch limo of Sweden, just as they are in the US; in fact, I used one as a wedding car this summer. (There is an ex-Swedish royal family 1938 Cadillac 75 four door convertible available for hire, but it was booked months in advance!) Otherwise, I saw a few 2000s Crown Vic Police Interceptors and 1990s Town Cars, but they are vastly outnumbered by their GM B Body competitors. I saw no box Panthers at all.
I read somewhere that B-bodies were popular in Sweden even when they were new. The Swedes considered them a more robust alternative to the Volvo 200/700 series.
Considering their high interest in American classics it’s no wonder the Bs are so popular in Sweden. You get the classic American look without the huge size, poor fuel economy and driving characteristics, and questionable workmanship of other makes/models. What’s there not to like?
Though popular at CC I feel the B/C/Ds are a bit under-appreciated in the US and that clean ones will become more valuable. They’re like a best kept secret, at least for now.
A 77 Caprice wagon gave me grey hair,I worked part time at a garage in 1983 delivering cars and picking them up for repair.The owner was a fan of big Yanks and had a blue Caprice wagon.We went from Blackpool to Birmingham to tow back a Renault 18 which had blown it’s engine.I was in the Renault and had the most frightening journey of my life being towed at 90+ sometimes seeing over 100.Non running engine means non working servo!Good solid workhorses the sort of car America built for such a long time.
There were some imports of americana in the 80’s and 90’s, both from official channels, and from some large importers. I think the company Klintberg & Way, mentioned in a post earlier about their Chevy Van a while ago, was responsible for some of it, especially the Chevy cars.
They imported the Caprice and Camaro and Corvette. I think they were responsible for Pontiac and their Fiero and Firebird as well. There were some Buick Estates, but not any Buick or Oldsmobile Sedans. And of course, they imported the Vans, the C/K pickups, and the Blazer.
I think the “official” imports started in the early 90’s. GM pushed heavily for the ’92 Buick Park Avenue and the ’92 Cadillac Seville. Incidentally, my landlord in the late 90’s had one of those Park Avenues. They imported the Pontiac Trans Sport, labeled “Chevrolet Trans Sport”. The Oldsmobile Alero was also sold as the Chevrolet Alero. Like nobody had ever heard of Pontiac or Oldsmobile…
Ford had never the same presence as GM in Sweden. There were some imports of Broncos and pickups and such. Curiously enough, they imported the Mercury Sable wagon as a captive import to fill a hole in the European line-up, as their was no Ford Scorpio wagon until the mid-90’s. And of course, there was the Explorer from the mid-90’s and up.
But the largest presence was Chrysler, with their minivans, and Jeep, with their Wrangler and Cherokee. The LeBaron convertible was also a large seller. I’d guess Chrysler had at least ten to twenty times the exports than all of the others together.
From the 90’s and up, we had the Tahoe and Escalade. The Explorer, as mentioned earlier, but the Navigator was only your odd personal import. There will always be people prepared to import a car not sold through the regular channels, so there always will be the odd choice in Sweden. But those I mentioned was those that sold more or less officially in (for Sweden) large numbers.
I’d guess there was never more than a couple of hundreds a year for the B-bodies and Camaros and the other odd choices, while Chrysler was in the thousands per year for the minivans alone…
Also, in the 2000’s, Saab was responisble for Cadillac. And they imported some CTS, XLR; and SRX’s…
In Norway you have companys that importes old classic american cars as their only business. The cars have to be older than 30 years old because of the tax-system.
In the 90s it was sold a lot of Tahoes, Suburbans, pickups and some S-10 Blazers, explorers and a lot of Cherokee and Grand Cherokee. The reason?
In Norway you have to pay taxes when you buy a new car. The taxes are based on engine horsepower, the weight of the car and CO2-emissions (eralyer it was displacement insted of the emissions)
But The americans Trucks/SUV’s was so heavy that they could be registered as a car over 3500 kg (around 8000 pound) and then you don’t have to payt taxes. Of course the government has changed this rule now, but for about 10 years the Chevrolet was the most sold truck i Norway. About 75% with a Diesel engine.
As an example, (in US Dollars) a brand new Chevrolet Camaro, that you can buy for USD 40.000, cost in Norway over 200.000 USD .
Ingvar, like you I’m a foreigner, but I too find American cars interesting. Growing up in Australia in the sixties, American cars were everywhere – that was until they started getting too big, and our local industry started making cars in a variety of sizes, some almost as big as the big Americans. But Ford is closing here in 2016, and GM Holden in 2017.
The information about American cars popularity in your country was absolutely fascinating to read. How different to here! Chevrolet and Pontiac only sold full-size sedans here until 1968, with Ford and Dodge giving up after 1972 IIRC. American Ford and GM then forgot about us as far as car exports went, leaving sales to their local products and European and Asian imports with tiny numbers of Mustangs, Camaros, Firebirds, trucks and the occasional Corvette as private imports in limited numbers. Chrysler left Australia in 1981, when they were taken over here by Mitsubishi. They re-established themselves as an importer with the Neon, Jeeps and vans in 1994, but still only sell in small numbers, as their dealer network is not strong. Still, that’s more than Ford and GM send us from America!
Ingvar,
My street observations during this summer correspond exactly to your far more informed knowledge. I saw each model that you mentioned, in quantities corresponding to the popularity that you described. The only details that I would add are that the Chevrolet Avalanche appears to have been another popular import, along with the Tahoe and Escalade, and that Dodge Ram full size pickup trucks appear to be a popular work vehicle.
Yes, forgot about the Ram pickups. I can’t remember them all. Also, there has been a large private import of Ford Mustangs lately. In the mid-2000’s, you could see them in every town. Also Hummers, H2s and H3s, and your odd H1 as well.
The Chrysler 300C was fairly popular, Chrysler had a factory in Austria putting those together for the European market. No Dodge Magnum, but the odd European-only Chrysler 300 Tourer, which is a Chrysler 300 with the Magnum rear estate body. The 300C has been fairly popular as taxis, equipped with the Mercedes-sourced diesels, most likely.
In the 90’s, the Viper was imported officially. Marketed as the Chrysler Viper, curiously enough. Like we’ve never heard of Dodge? The minivans were the Dodge Caravans in the 80’s, and Chrysler Voyagers in the 90’s. I don’t know if the Voyager was the Dodge or Plymouth version, but they were all labeled Chrysler anyway. No Town & Countries though, the only T&C:s I’ve seen belonged to the US embassy in Stockholm. I’d guess they have their own import channels.
In they 90’s there was also the Stratus and Cirrus cars. And the Neon. And the Europe-oriented 300M. We didn’t get any of the other LH-cars. Ford is curiously absent, I think the Mustang and Thunderbird was the only US-sourced cars that were imported regularely.
When I first got into the auto repair business, this family left their Saab for repairs. They used our loaner car, it was a late 80s caprice. When they came back to pick up their car a few days later, they said they were going to trade in their saab for a caprice. It must have made an impression on them.
Simply amazing to see such love and care for the American lead sleds. I am 34 and the bulk of 28 cars I have owned are the American full size car. Everything from a 1975 Lincoln to my daily driver a 1995 Buick Roadmaster sedan. Here in the states my generation and the one after mine are avoiding the big car like a bad smell, to not look like they hate the environment or to be a part of the status quo. Funny thing is, I work as a Mercedes/Volvo auto tech. Both cars have treated me well as a tech and I enjoy the car lines but will always be a American big car owner at heart.
If you do a google or youtube search for “pilsnerbil” you will see that there is a trend in Sweden of people who drive 40s-80’s US (mostly) cars, including B-bodies with a decidedly beaten appearance while their passengers drink. Some just look like regular beaters, some have slogans or hastily applied customizations on them, and some have a cartoonisly battered look possibly inspired Trailer Park Boys’ shitmobile. This seems like a confusing Swedish take on rat rods with a hint of bozosoku added.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15osR9igjZY
Is gasoline really cheap in Sweden for people driving those old huge exotic POS’s around? Even in ghetto LA the people who live there think those are piece of S’s!
Many full-size american wagons here in Finland too.
Tried to upload a pic of a pristine LTD Crown Vic Wagon found here in Riihimäki but somehow it is not working. I’ll try again:
And front view:
This post reminded me of an article a few months back on US cars in Britain, headlined by a fabulously fabulous ’49 Cadillac. Did they really look that good originally? Maybe it’s the wire wheels.
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2013/09/22/automobiles/collectibles/v-8-expats-roll-into-england.html?from=automobiles
There’s always been a strong American car scene in the UK,plenty modern Chrysler 300s,PT Cruisers and some Mustangs and Cadillacs can be seen most days.The classic scene is very big with tri 5 Chevys and early Mustangs being most common and a strong Mopar folllowing especially B bodies,E bodies and some A bodies.GM F bodies are very popular and there’s a thriving import,repair and restoration industry.Unless you’ve got something very rare or bad there’s someone who can fix it.Both pairs of my Grandparents lived near a large USAF base so I saw plenty Yanks in daily use in the 60s, my parents were American car fans but considered them too big and thirsty until the compacts were available,we had 2 Falcons an Australian Valiant and a Dodge Dart all 6 cylinder misers special 4 door sedans
I was always intrigued to why Swedes loved old American sleds so much, especially with high fuel prices. I asked a Swedish friend and he echoed much of what other powers stated: the cars were tough as nails and easy to fix. They suited the country well, to which Swedes are very attached.
I’ve been to Sweden. It may be a Socialist hell but it’s a pretty nice one. There are lots of people in Sweden who can afford a car like this. All the Scandinavian countries have built very cool societies.
If you think Sweden is a socialist hell, you should try Norway 🙂
Some people like to call Norway the “last Soviet-state”
Sweden is a pretty nice country, but it’s not near as socialistic as Norway in many ways.
Did you know that we(in Norway) have at least 5 weeks of vacation every year? With salary..
Or that the hospital is free? So is Education of ten years, plus 6 or more years if you want.
If we get sick we have full salary from day one, If you loose your job, you have full salary over 1 year, and then some less. And so on.
It’s pretty nice here too, but it costs a lot of money, and Norway is a much more expensive country too live in than Sweden. And Sweden has better roads, no new car taxes and food and houses are cheaper.