(first posted 5/14/2014) Olds Vista Cruisers and their corresponding twin, the Buick Sportwagons hold a special place in the history of the American station wagon. It was a highly unusual concept (for America): take an intermediate wagon, and enlarge it specifically for station wagon purposes, including a forward-facing third row seat and of course the “Scenicruiser” glass. Was GM trying to make up for the failure of the Greenbrier? And although it was eminently more orthodox than the Greenbrier, the Vista Cruiser’s life span wasn’t much longer. Can’t poor GM catch a break?
I’m enthralled with the view back there
The glassy twins arrived in 1964, which was a bit odd, since both Olds and Buick were also still offering wagons on the traditional full size chassis too; with optional rear-facing third seat. Have it your way….
Obviously, it was a one year head start into a period when Buick and Olds did drop their full-size wagons, starting in 1965, leaving it to the super-mid wagons to be their top offering. A curious strategy; I’m assuming GM knew something about the station wagon market that others didn’t. Even at the time, as a kid, I was a bit perplexed, if deeply enthralled.
3000 miles later, I’m still so enthralled with the view back there that I’m still in the exact same posture
If we couldn’t have a Greenbrier, a Vista Cruiser or Sport Wagon was the Niedermeyer-mobile most desired. To get out of the cramped ’62 Fairlane sedan into the third seat of one of these, especially on our trips to Colorado, was imminently desirable, never mind a genuine “Rocket V8” under the hood. But no; it was a GM product, and my father wouldn’t (then) have given it a thought. So here again are the Not-Niedermeyers on their legendary (and all-too real) family vacation to NYC in 1964, spread out in air-conditioned comfort. Oooh; the views.
The key to these wagons was a full five-inch stretch in their wheelbase, from 115 to 120 inches, all of it in the rear, where it counted. That allowed for the first really properly engineered front-facing third seat, as there was a (modest) footwell just ahead of the rear axle. Combined with the elevated roof, it did make adult seating there theoretically possible, if not in practice. And it still left some decent cargo room behind the last seat, unlike the case in the typical rear-facing third seat wagons. The angle of the second and third seat backs left a nigh-useless and inaccessible cleft between them. Luggage racks were mandatory; as my brother and I remember all too well, being in charge of installing and loading the one on our Coronet wagon in an icy Colorado hail/rainstorm while my father sat in the driver’s seat pretending to study the road map.
Now it wasn’t exactly an original idea; Peugeot had been doing the same thing since 1948 with their series of stretch wagons (full story here), but cribbing is perfectly okay, as long as it’s done for a good reason. And the Peugeot didn’t have the Vista Roof, sadly. That would have been even more useful in scenic Europe.
In 1968, the Vista Cruiser and Sport Wagon went into their second generation, now riding on a 121″ wheelbase. But I strongly suspect that much of the rear area hardware and maybe even the roof glass were carry-overs. Anybody know?
In any case, Buick bailed on the genuine Sportwagon after 1969, moving back to a full-sized wagon. Another GM experiment that didn’t pan out?
But Olds stuck with the Vista through 1972, which meant that for two years Olds had the unique distinction of having two front-facing third-seat wagons, since the all-new 1971 Olds Mega Battleship Cruiser used many of the same ideas: elongated wheelbase, etc. It even has a slight bump in the rear roof section, but no Vista glass. For what it’s worth, I never even bothered to raise any hope for one of these in the Not-Niedermeyer garage. It wouldn’t have fit, for one, and my father wouldn’t even consider full-size cars, five kids or not. But the Vista Cruiser is an intermediate, Dad! (Just remembered the real reason; three of us kids were gone by 1971). Just as well; this was a vehicle to admire from afar; real far, even. You could see it a mile away.
The Vista Cruiser may have had a short life span, but perhaps GM did learn one lesson: the intermediate platform is a versatile one. Instead of lengthening the rear of the frame, GM started stretching it at the front, and created mega-hits with their super-intermediate coupes. Learn, and adapt. Families were getting smaller, and who cares if they have a view from the rear anyway? It was the beginning of the cocooning era.
Oregon’s climate may not provoke rust, but it does play havoc with leaky roofs. There’s lots of evidence of heavy-handed caulking having been done around all those windows.
This is quite obviously a one-owner Vista Cruiser, and I suspect that’s her, in the passenger seat, in a white hat and hunched over rather strongly. That explains why there’s no interior shots. I caught this at the Bi-Mart Pharmacy; what was obviously her middle-aged daughter who got out of the driver’s seat to pick up a prescription (and a tube of caulk), and left old Mom to ruminate on happy Vista Wagon memories at the Oregon Coast. I’m sure there were many.
Related reading: 1969 Buick Special DeLuxe Wagon – Not Very Special In 1969; 1978 Oldsmobile Cutlass Cruiser
“This is a Vista Cruiser. You could literally “cruise the vista”… Red Foreman, That 70s Show
^That was the firs thing that came to my mind too!
I have 1969 sport wagon ..and it floats like a boat
wow such groovy wagons nearly as groovy as the 70s citroen cx wagon all reel cool
I spent alot of time in these – our neighborhood was littered with them. The front facing seat was not necessarily easy to get to. As a kid we just climbed over either the back seat or from the back if the tailgate was open. The second row seat was split one-third/two-thirds, so the one-third side folded forward and you could gain (limited) access the the third row that way. The mechanism for the seat was exposed and had a tendency to attract and jam little fingers, so mostly I remember climbing over the seat.
I was the tail end of the baby boom, born in 1962, By the time the 70’s came around my mother was tired of driving station wagons and was ready to downsize and get better mileage. Out last station wagon, a 1969 Chrysler Town and Country (with a 440) was the first car I drove when I got my license.
loved these wagons. they were ubiquitous in my youth. i am astounded by the backdrop shot of new york from 1964. it was taken from governor’s island and i had a hard time recognizing it. very different skyline these days…
here’s a link to approximately the same view last summer:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/acmace/5798056514/
if you looked today the construction on the world trade center site would be in the background.
That skyline is more likely from the 40’s. I would bet it is certainly not 1964…
In “National Lampoon’s Vacation” (1983), Clark Griswold trades in his Olds Vista Cruiser for the infamous Wagon Queen Family Truckster. He quickly changes his mind, but it’s too late: the Vista Cruiser is being put through the crusher. The destruction of a Vista Cruiser is immortalized in that film, and I recall cringing during that scene when I first saw it as a kid.
Yes! When this article popped up on my reader all I could think of was Ed the salesman’s face when Clark pulled up. Eugene Levy was brilliant in this short role.
“You didn’t order the Metallic Pea?”
I still want to see the the Antarctic Blue Super Sports Wagon (with the CB and optional Rally Fun Pack).
That kid in the back seat of both photos above- maybe he is actually the old lady from the film, after rigor mortise has set in…
It’s in the movie when Clark puts gas in the new wagon.
I have ben looking for one to buy for awile and I finly found one went over last night and got it and was looking at difrent photos on line and came across this website and wow the one in the photo is the one I bought same plate same caulking and all kinda cool
Did you happen to notice Clark arriving at the dealership in a 1970 Vista Cruiser but trying to get back in a crushed 1972 Vista Cruiser after initially turning down the Family Truckster?
The Vista Cruiser’s glassy roof idea seems to have made the trip to Japan and had a good run in the 80’s and 90’s. This Toyota Townace is a good example, but I’ve also seen a significant number of Mitsubishi Delica vans with a similar roof treatment. You could get these vans with thrifty little diesel engines, manual transmissions, and robust 4 wheel drive systems, making them about the most fantastically versatile and wonderful family haulers ever created IMHO.
Michaelfreeman has done many Cars of a Lifetime histories on the Toyota Tarago/Van/Space Cruiser/Townace and shared his personal experiences with them.
Yeah, they’re great pieces. On the Canadian West Coast where I grew up, rust has eaten away a good number of the North American-spec Van LE’s. JDM imports into Canada are relatively easy if they’re at least 15 years old, so there’s been a wave of imports of these vans from Japan itself over the last decade or so. They were also relatively common high-status vehicles in Uganda when I travelled there in 2006.
Must have one for 21st century van adventures!
Strangely and ironically enough, today, while on the I-75, I saw the Vista Cruiser’s modern, Buick-branded spiritual successor, a final-generation Roadmaster woody wagon in white.
During high school one of my best friend’s dad had a green ’70 Olds VC with a 455, and we’d often take it out late at night on weekends and hoon around. In fact, in was our preferred ride for such illicit activities until his dad traded it.
Anyway, one night of hooning my buddy outran / outfoxed the cops, pulling into a driveway and then the side-facing garage of a newly constructed house in a new subdivision. Fortunately nobody had moved into the house yet, and we sat there and waited for probably 30 minutes before sneaking back out, but we ditched the cops that night.
I learned the next day at school from my friend that his dad, who had a police scanner, had heard the dispatch on “a dark green late model station wagon” being chased. My friend, of course, played dumb… phew! Anyway, my mom always had Ford wagons, but I preferred these VCs, especially with the serious grunt from that 455 under the hood. Fun times!
Hey, the woman in the front passenger seat moved (look at photos 1 and 2). I bet she lost her job. Looks like everyone else was able to maintain the same pose.
“A curious strategy; I’m assuming GM knew something about the station wagon market that others didn’t.” RE: Dropping big Buick/Olds wagons in ’65.
My Grandad had a ’63 Buick LeSabre wagon, but didnt want a ‘little wagon’ in 1966. So, he got a ’66 and then a ’69 Chrysler T&C. But, Gram still got [61, 65, 69] Electra 225’s and she hated the Mopars, said ‘hard to start’ and ‘drifty on the highway’. She asked him “Why don’t you get a Chevy wagon?” “No way, I want a luxury make”
So, Buick lost two big wagon sales then.
I rode all over new england in one of these Olds wagons. Wish I could critique it for you, however, I seem to recall that most of the time it was after a mind altering experience with the King of beers. It is was pretty comfortable though. Easy to fall asleep in any seat. Probably that includes the drivers seat but I didn’t occupy that one.
In all seriousnessness I have pretty favorable impressions. Have to remember though that I was driving a 66 vw at the time.
I recall showing my dad pictures of one of these and asking why our new Holden wagon couldnt have windows in the roof it looked like a great idea to a 9 year old but no we continued to have steel top wagons. Reguarding the leaks a common misstake lots of people make is using silicone to seal car windows it sets and keeps leaking proper windscreen sealant remains pliable and works.
I’ve always wonder that too. The only real fix is to have the glass removed and the butyl replaced. Those early butyl-ed GM windows were notorious for leaking.
Those “Vista Windows” could give the middle/back seat riders a serious case of sunburn, even with the factory tinting, if the road trip was long enough.
Here in the deep South (New Orleans) it was not unusual to see duct tape or aluminum foil taped to the inside of these windows to block the sun & heat.
A buddy of mine in high school had a ’68 or ’69 sportwagon, or at least the frequent use of his mother’s. I never drove it but it was always the ride of choice for weekend excursions because it held lots of people and stuff. It always got us there and home despite some pretty abusive treatment. Not a good drive-in car though. A little too “public” with all that glass.
I haven’t seen one in years, but at one time it seemed like there was one on every block. When “that 70s show” came out my wife and I both had a good laugh at thier choice of vehicle for the characters. Maybe everyone’s buddy (or thier mother) had one?
There was but one in my neighborhood growing up, a medium blue metallic ’72 that I got to ride in more than a few times as it belonged to our Cub Scout den mother.
My first car was a 1965 Vista Cruiser. It was 1972, I was 16, and it was a gift from my father.
Dad told me he bought the Vista Cruiser because it was the only car that the family dog could stand up in. Spot was the dog’s name. He was a samoyed/malamute mix, and he was an important member of the family. Dad took the dog down to the Oldsmobile dealer’s lot and made sure the dog would fit in it before he bought the car. I guess he was tired of hauling the dog, and my brother and I around in the Rambler wagon he owned at the time.
I only had the car for a year before I swapped it back with my father for his 1968 Volvo 122. (A car I still have.)
Dad kept the car until 1982, when it’s parking brake failed and it rolled 100′ down the hill and ran into a parked car. No one was hurt but the car was pretty smashed up. ( The auto trans linkage was out of adjustment so the parking pawl was not engaged.) He sent it to the junkyard rather than pay the money to repair it.
I remember that it was great having a Vista Cruiser, but the damn thing sure was big. When I was driving it around all by myself I sometimes felt like I was sitting in my living room. I still remember one time when I put 50 cents worth of gas in the tank and the fuel gauge needle moved up more than you would think.
I miss my dad, I miss the dog, and I miss the car. But life goes on.
My parents bought a new ’76 Vista Cruiser based on the Colonnaide Cutlass. It had a 350 4BBL TH350 and a catcon. It did not have the roof glass and I remember thinking that the square headlights looked weird at first. My mom kept it until ’86 when she traded it in for a Dodge Omni (!?). I got both my learner’s permit in ’81 and my license in ’82 in that thing. Not the coolest car to drive at high school in the early 80s, but the irony is that today it probably would be cool. The fake wooden contact paper actually looked somewhat classy with the light blue paint – at first. After 4 years, the paint started to peel and fade.
My aunt had a ’77 Vista Cruiser, loaded to the hilt. White, with the fake wood, the color-keyed Rallye wheels, and a beige vinyl roof! She had no kids, but did dog shows with her Shelties.
1972 was the last year the Vista Cruiser was a distinct model from the Cutlass with the extended wheelbase and raised roof with glass. From 1973-77 it was a Cutlass subseries and was the top trim level of regular 116″ wb Cutlass wagon.
My dad’s best friend had one. It was f’in hot under the forward Vista Roof glass, so I never wanted to sit in the back seat. Dad’s friend was always too lazy to lift up the third seat, so we kids just rolled around in the wayback. You know, before the country went all safety-crazy.
Don’t I remember that the forward Vista Roof glass panels had sun visors? But maybe that wasn’t enough to block out the heat. I must admit I’ve never had the pleasure of riding in one of these, although they were plentiful in SoCal.
Somehow I always seemed to have the impression that these Vista Cruisers had their design genesis in the vista domeliner railroad cars that were so common in the U.S. in the ’50s and ’60s, but that may be a misconception on my part. Maybe it was just that they resembled the domeliners in my mind.
A friend of mine used to have a 1970 Vista Cruiser that he’d fitted with basically full 4-4-2 equipment except the rear anti-roll bar. (On purpose — the wagon was tail heavy to begin with, and while the idea of deliberately power sliding a Vista Cruiser is amusing, it would have been awfully hard to explain to the insurance company.)
He sold it before I met him, but he was very fond of it. It was completely innocuous looking, but with 455/THM, it had freight train torque and could haul all manner of junk, and he said it handled better than anyone would believe. The only downside was appalling gas mileage.
We had a 65 Sport Wagon when I was young, I thought it was the coolest wagon around back then and when I was 15 and it was long gone I really wanted to buy one in the neighborhood that was for sale. Of course paper route money didn’t make for enough money to buy it, not that I would have likely been able to talk my dad into it.
I often see a first gen Sport Wagon still roaming the roads around here usually on my way home from lunch while the owner is presumably on the way home from work.
We had a ’67 VC, which took us on at least one trip to CO. The VC is still my Mother’s all time favorite car. I wasn’t old enough to drive it but I liked the car as a passenger.
Can’t get too excited about the “Vista” glass though. It just made the sky dark, and there was usually nothing much worth looking at in the sky. The view was better out to side windows. We didn’t visit big cities much.
I’m the oldest child, so I didn’t have to ride in the “way back”, but I did get back there once or twice just to see what it was like. Didn’t care for front facing 3rd seat. The view is of the back of people’s heads. Better to face backwards and make faces at the cars behind you. Still it was better than the facing seats on each side that our later LTD had – fighting for legroom, banging knees, etc.
I never knew they stretched the wheelbase. That explains why it seemed as roomy as some full sized wagons we’d had.
Forgot all about the Buick version.
The Vista Cruisers (not so much the Buicks) were everywhere when I was a kid. We had at least two neighbors with them, (65 amd 66) one of the dads in my scout troop (70) and an aunt and uncle in Pennsylvania (66). One year in college I woke up every morning to a neighbor trying to start his elderly VC – a laborious process that would (after about 3 minutes of cranking) result in the distinctive throaty roar of the Oldsmobile V8 (with bad mufflers).
I had never realized that the wheelbases were stretched on these until I read it on CC. Although I like these now, I will admit that I was so sick of Oldsmobiles (far and away the most common car in my extended family) in those days, that the VC held no attraction to me then.
Thinking back, my aunt and uncle’s 66 had some child safety locks in the back doors so that we kids could not unlock the doors. They were designed with slits in the lock posts so that the driver could stick a key into the slot and pull the lock up. Aunt Peg must have figured that it was too much work because they kept a table knife or two in the back seat so that we kids could unlock our own doors. So much for child safety.
Now here is an article that I can really relate to. I currently own a 1968 Buick Sportwagon, it is in my avatar. I bought in from the original owner, my father in law, and it is really fine shape for a 44 year old gm product. That 121 wheelbase does supply a comfortable ride and the 400 cubic inch V8 provides lots of motivation. I try to drive it at least once a month and it puts a smile on my face every time. Yes, it is a ridiculous car for today’s politically correct green world. I still love it.
Paul, my father in law currently lives in Bend. If we decide to be irrational and drive it to our next visit I will stop in Eugene and you can photograph it to your heart’s content. Ah fantasies, where we be without them?
I’ve been to Bend, a beautiful little down. Drove down in the late summer of 1990 from Tacoma WA for a job interview at a TV station there, hit Eugene/Salem and hit the highway that cuts across the northern edge of the Deschutes National Park before hitting the town of Sisters and then on into Bend.
A pretty drive but with construction on much of the road to Sisters, it was a lot of stop and go traffic on a very warm day, in the 70’s in the mountains in a non air conditioned ’78 Ford Fairmont with a very hot catalytic converter.
I need one
i have one 1969 vista need to sale my shop burn down 1s of feb. need to try to build back.it has a strong 350 motor 400 trans and has some primer on it . the bad is the 2 front fenders /back bumper got burn up . if u are inst, call me il send pics 256 668 0136
I’ve got a quite original 71 with just over 50K orig miles. 350 2bbl does just fine. To answer a question, the forward roof glass was not carried over from 67 to 68. Early models had a split forward glass area, later models had one piece. I have never compared the side roof glass but believe this to differ in size and shape also. p.s. people call me red, but I still feel more like eric…
here she be…
pic
I had no idea Rob and Laura Petrie owned one!
I don’t remember the Buick variants at all, but DO remember the Olds VC wagons. Good church friends had a silver gray ’69 for a bunch of years through the 70’s, I think they finally got rid of it late in that decade. I know they also had a 64 clapped out VW Beetle, later it was replaced with a ’72 and I think it was replaced with the ’78 Mazda GLC.
But they had that VC for a long time though. I remember riding in it on several occasions, including I think in the way back area at least once many, many years ago as a kid.
Lincoln City Bi-Mart?
I’ll bet that lady in the passenger seat wishes she was in something other than a gold fish bowl.
Pretty darn hard to hide from the West coast’s premier mad photographer.
My family had a 1971 VC bought new just as I started high school. Great car, held my Dad’s title of “Best damn car I ever owned.” (Tied with our ’64 Olds F-85 Deluxe.)
(Edit: Okay, so that was supposed to be my avatar below. Sorry.)
I think this is a pretty good layout for a wagon, and the roof windows are as good a way as any to style the extra height required. Note that Peugeot 403 wagon is 4.61m long – that is 181″.
When I was in High School there were a couple of 455 SportWagons that frequented the test-and-tune nights at Sears Point where I occasionally dragged my Chevelle. I ended up getting a RoadMaster Estate (one of the LT1-powered Caprice-based ones) after realizing how little useable passenger and cargo space most SUV’s had when the kids were born. I love it.
I’d still like a ’68 or ’69 with the 455, but feel that with $4.00/gallon gas, the fuel consumption would put me in the poorhouse.
You’ll have to customize your ’68 or ’69. The 455 wasn’t available in the Vista Cruiser until 1970. The top engine in the ’68 and ’69 was the Rocket 400, which came from the factory with a 10.5:1 compression ratio!
See my third ’69 Vista since 1982 below.
Bill Stephens
Moderator East – GM Skywagon Club
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vistacruiser
near Hershey, PA
7 years later, I still have the ’69 Vista Cruiser, and recently purchased a 1992 Buick Roadmaster Estate Wagon as a daily driver. The GM Skywagon Club is now on Facebook as well.
I’ve never had the full Vista Cruiser experience but have spent considerable time in two of these 90’s B-body wagons with the single panel “vista” roof–a high school friend’s ’91 Custom Cruiser and an uncle’s ’95 Roadmaster Estate. It definitely made a long, low cabin feel less “closed in”. I can only imagine it would have been even better with the full 3-window VC treatment; maybe if Olds had called their big wagon Vista Cruiser and given it the triple windows in ’91, it would have stuck around for more than the 2 model years the Custom Cruiser lasted.
Great looking Roadmaster! What kind of wheels/tires are you running on it?
When I saw the pics of the ’69 Vista Cruiser I almost jumped, I had one in 1977-78 for a while after foolishly selling my gorgeous ’69 442, thinking I would fix the wagon up like a 442. The one in the pics looked like mine after I sold it to my parents and it went another 150,000 miles beyond the 60+ thousand it had when I bought it. It did end up witha few dings but not like this one and mine had the roof rack.I was going to swap the 400 out of the 442 into it and put a 455 in the 442 but my ideas were bigger than my wallet. It was a cool car though, hauled my diving gear and skiis for a while which is why I got it. Should have kept both and over time done what I intended but that’s life, I learned a painful lesson.
I still have my Olds Vista Cruiser 1969 400 engine, it was my dads car and I have had it since 1969. The body is gone and we put this engine in my brothers 1966 GTO when we were HS, the GTO body is gone and I have the engine in my garage. It a nice engine
I passed on a clean 2nd body Buick for $9k. Two years later I saw it for sale again at $24k. These are super magical US exotics, I kinda wish they did the same with the 71-73 fullsize. Now that would be the bomb. Or maybe gilding the lily.
I love these,whats not to like about a V8 RWD woody with that amazing roof?
Love the ads 3000 miles apart with the same frozen family!
That made my day
The scenery through the rear window behind the person in the third row appears to be the same grass embankment. For the New York scene the piece of guardrail was brushed out and the surface darkened a bit.
Great article about a really cool car. I wonder if worries about roof leaks held sales back.
Brought to you by the Harrison A/C division of General Motors Corporation! 😉
The company owner of a mid-size garbage-hauling company I once worked for kept one of these in the yard behind the mechanics’ garage, right next to the gas tanks. He was using the work yard as free project car storage until he got the free time to restore it – which likely never happened because he still personally worked after-hours, late into the night, as a mechanic on the trucks. I suppose keeping it around was one of the perks of being the Big Boss and was undoubtedly a good way to keep his house’s yard clear and the wife happy.
His Olds look a lot the featured CC: same color, patina, and bad caulk even. It was always fun to stare at it as I filled up the truck’s big diesel tank and imagine that one day, I too might have the time and wherewithal to keep around a busted-out basket-case vehicle with dubiously open-ended restoration plans. He never did talk much to us throwers, so I didn’t ever learn the story of how it got there, but it had to have been interesting.
Even decades-old and decrepit, it was still a pretty slick-looking machine and seemed like it would be at right home effortlessly flying down the interstate while pushing 80. Bet these things ride nice and smooth when they’re actually up and running.
Thanks for the great article and glad the CC passenger is still getting her money’s worth out of that Vista Cruiser.
Now THAT’S a station wagon! The greatest one of all, no matter what year.
Police Dept. of Duxbury MA, had two of these as police cruisers in blue with “wood” around 1970-72. You knew when you were being followed by them at night, because of the layout of the lights.
The ” Bar Car ” for the late , great ‘ No Frills Iron Bottom Motoring Tour ‘ ! .
I especially loved the grape leaves tied to the factory roof rack .
-Nate
When I look at the two pictures of the yellow and white wagon, the rear seat passenger staring at the sky makes me think of “Weekend at Bernie’s” and Grandma in “Vacation”. In 1981 some good friends moved into the house next to mine with their infant son and toddler daughter in a clapped out 70 Vista Cruiser. They didn’t have it long, it was on it’s last legs. This was in California. Today the “toddler” and her husband, daughter and son live in my parent’s house that they recently bought from the estate. And her Mom and Dad live a mile away from me and my parent’s old house. Today we all live in Washington State. My folks helped her parents buy the house they got in 1988. Friends still 33 years later. I remember this article the first time, nice job, Paul.
The 1972 Custom Cruiser didn’t have an elongated wheelbase. Like all of the 1971-1976 full sized GM station wagons they shared their chassis with the Electra and Ninety-Eight…127″
The 1971-76 Chevrolet full-size wagons utilized a 125-inch wheelbase vs. the 121.5-inch wheelbase on regular sedans and coupes. As mentioned previously, “Glide-Away” tailgate wagons were conceptually similar to the Vista Cruisers (with stretched wheelbase and raised roof to accommodate the folding, forward-facing third seat). These wagons also had rear leaf springs instead of coils used on other models.
I think the intended meaning was that the 1971-76 Custom Cruiser used a longer wheelbase than the Olds B-body sedans (by contrast, pre-1965 and post-1976 Olds full-size wagons were built off the B-body platform). ‘bufguy’ is however correct that this was simply the standard C-body wheelbase and was not unique to the wagons.
Buick and Pontiac used the same wheelbase for their 1971-76 full-size wagons. In Pontiac’s case, it was the only car they built off of that long of a wheelbase, since they didn’t have a C-body sedan like the Ninety-Eight and Electra. As TH already noted, 1971-76 full-size Chevrolet wagons had their own unique wheelbase that wasn’t shared wih any other models.
Pontiac did get the C body for the 1971-75 Grand Ville [’76 Bonne Brougham], with the same roofline. Can see the similarity in rear window.
Found this out in Collectible Automobile’s article on 71-76 big Pontiacs. The wheel base was shorter then Electra/98, though, with shorter front end.
I enjoyed reading the article and comments. I recall this wagon from “That 70’s Show” and reading about them online and seeing them in person in real life. These cars were very popular and still carry a strong heritage and history with GM and Oldsmobile. It was interesting when the B Bodies were redesigned for the 1990’s how the vista roof returned. The 1971-1976 Oldsmobile Custom Cruisers shared heavily with the Ninety Eights of that era. They just were equipped like Eighty Eights. I was a fan of the wagons. My favorite was the 1980-1990 Oldsmobile Custom Cruiser. I really liked them when they got dressed up a little in the 1986-1990 time frame.
The Vista Cruiser roof sometimes also got grafted onto other vehicles — frequently full-size vans. Sometimes even two VC roofs.
Because upward visibility is very important!
The 73-77 Colonnade era Olds Vista Cruisers only had a ‘pop-up’ sunroof over front seat.
and so do the 1977-’90 GM B-body wagons. Can you imagine a Caprice Estate Vista…?