(first posted 1/20/2012) I know this is a Grandma’s car. The give-away is the baby seat in the front. Someone’s grandma or great-aunt kept this Omega garaged for most of its life, and its now been passed on, just like her genes. The baby will grow up remembering riding in great-grandma’s Olds. At the rate this Omega is aging, it might serve another generation yet. The family Olds. Of course, I’m speculating, but then what else can I say about this car.
The X-bodies were the grandaddies of GM’s hard-core badge-engineering efforts, starting with the 1971 Pontiac Ventura (CC here). Olds got in on the action too, in 1973. Now that’s a really rare bird; haven’t seen on of those, yet. Probably because they didn’t sell well. In 1973, everyone was still agog with heavy metal, and Olds was making hay with that gig. I wonder how badly Olds really wanted this very lightly re-decorated Chevy Nova in the family stable at all, at least until the energy crisis hit.
The X-bodies were revamped for 1975, essentially receiving the same treatment the ’71 Camaro got a couple years earlier: a new front subframe with improved suspension and steering, grafted on to a re-skinned rear three-quarters. And like the Camaro, the X cars suddenly became just about the best handling thing in its genre.
Yes, GM really blew the ’75 restyle of these cars, inasmuch as Ford was (once again) more in touch with America’s love of superficiality over substance by dropping the divine ever-so Mercedes-like Granada/Monarch in so many welcoming arms. Never mind that that the Granada sat on the last remnants of the old Falcon chassis, and handled like pretty much all Fords of the seventies. Yes, in comparison to the Granada, the GM X cars really did come off a bit like the BMWs they were presumably trying to emulate. At least they weren’t faking it nearly as much. That was left for Pontiac to take up within a few years.
Granny’s Omega sedan here may not have benefited fully from the X-bodies potential, but with the optional suspension upgrade, it was a remarkably decent handling car, especially on smooth pavement. I speak from Nova experience, but they’re all the same under the badges anyway.
Almost. The Omega and Buick Skylark did have the Buick 231 V6 as their standard engine, with all of 105 hp. But a five-speed stick was optional, with the V6, at least by 1978. More grunt desired? Only one choice, depending on where you lived: the Chevy 305 V8 in the 49 states, and the 350 four-barrel in CA (and high altitude areas).
If Omegas aren’t exactly common in your home town, it may be because they were always the sales laggard of the X-Bunch. Odd, given how well the Olds Cutlass was selling at the time. Between 1975 and 1979, the Omega sold between 40k and 64k per year, pittances in GM-scale. The Buick Skylark was the darling of the the three Nova-clones, with the Pontiac Ventura/Phoenix running number two. No wonder I was so excited to see it. Seriously! I’m not kidding!
I somewhat like this car, and its buddies. Probably because of my Granada-loathing, as well as that Nova with the handling package I drove at a job sometimes. Flat: it just cornered unlike almost every other American car back then. Well, it was a Camaro under the skin.
Space utilization was a perennial sore spot with American rwd cars back then, and the X cars didn’t deviate much from that malady. The front was reasonably adequate; the back so-so. The fwd X cars soon to come would change that equation forever, along with a few other ones.
And this Omega isn’t a bad looking car either, considering the times, as always. The grille is a bit generic, but it carries its proud long hood fairly well, in relation to the rest of the car. It really does have just a bit of BMW-esque stature to it. That and a healthy dash of Opel Kapitan. But that means nothing to Americans. OK, time to quit before I go off the deep end. Grandma’s BMW indeed; sure beats Grandpa’s “Mercedes”.
I always thought these were good-looking (for the time) sedans, far better than the corresponding Granada. By the time I was in college (late 80s) these were common student cars (under all GM makes) because they were cheap and available. One friend had an Omega coupe, another had a Nova coupe, one had the Pontiac. I remember them all as riding harshly and having about all the subtlety and panache of a brick on the road. My friend’s Omega especially seemed to have a very floaty front end; on the highway you could watch it wobble from side to side.
Had a ’78 Skylark that previous owner had gas shocks and Michelins installed. 231 V-6. Drove/tracked straight and handled fairly well. My Skylark was the base sedan. Full stainless steel wheel covers and metal bumpers (boy do I wish cars today had those features). Perhaps this Omega mentioned had worn front end pieces. Featured car by Paul is a peach!
I remember a 1977 newspaper ad where Olds Omega “S” was being compared with a BMW 5 series. Olds ad was citing it’s “4.2 Litre” engine (Chevy 250 6) and it’s “sporty, floor mounted manual shift” (3 on the floor!). Poor man’s Bimmer? OK.
Friends called my white ’78 Skylark the “detective’s special”.
I had a 1976 omega 4 door. Two tone maroon and silver with maroon crushed valuer interior. It had a 260 Aluminum V8 with a Borg Warner 5 speed. GM’s answer to the gas crisis. Best car I ever had
I’m sorry, but I’ve no clue as to how anyone could look at these malaise-mobiles and think..”Damn, looks just like a Beemer!” OK granted, it has 4 doors, a trunk, a hood, fenders and sometimes ..Wow!..The Same Paint Color, sort of!..Oh, yeah, if you squint, now I see it!
Ha ha ha! Seeing that Omega reminds me of my best man’s Nova – our “limousine” that my wife and I rode in from from the church to our wedding reception! Man, that was a long time ago – 1977…
Had some good times in a friend’s two-door one of these in high school. Wiped off off the grandma stigma with “fog lamps,” headers and duals, sway bars…at least we hoped so. Spray painted the grille black too, adding to that BMW effect! (?)
I confess that I’ve never actually seen this generation of Omega in the wild. I’ve seen a few of the FWD Omegas but not a these RWD beauties… and yes I do desire it.
Whould love to sell my father 4door 1978 omega he died and left it to me garage kept if u no some one call me 9255971494 i have no use for it i whould trade it our sell it.whold like to trade for a motor cycle.a 900 katana our something like that
I have a memory of these cars, along with the Cadillac Seville of the same vintage, crabbing down the road to one side. Mainly the 4 door versions IIRC.
They had a tendency to break rear springs.
Most of the X bodies and F bodies I used to run across didn’t break the spring, they just sheared the centering pin that locates the spring on the axle.
“They had a tendency to break rear springs.”
Worse than that. Broken rear leafs were absolutely epidemic. Either the X- or F-bodies HAVE broken leafs, or they’ve been replaced already.
The Nova 6-poppers (inline) also had problems with the front springs, that the V-8 (and V-6???) models seemed to avoid. I don’t know why…but the Novas with six-poppers would drag the crossmember over the hoist arms when we’d bring ’em into the shop, and the V-8s didn’t.
Rear spring from Mom’s ’77 Concours
Called it “dog-tracking”, I believe. Saw it all the time on many GM products. Glad I was into AMC’s and Chryslers at the time. Man, did I hate GM from 1973 – 2004!
Dog-tracking – we used the same terminology too, but I never understood why it was called that.
Sometimes when a dog goes into a trot they’ll start to go a little sideways like their tail is trying to pass their nose.
We have weiner dogs (dachshunds). Most of the time, the back end has no idea what the front end is doing.
Incredibly amusing. Especially when watching them chase a squirrel. 🙂
It just sounds like we should be at the dog (racing) track, i.e., dog-tracking… See what I mean?
I got ya! I never put Dog tracking/Dog track thing together till now. 😀
@Sean: I didn’t always speak English first, like Paul’s family, my family are immigrants, too.
Even though I speak it pretty well now, occasionally words or phrases like that stick out in my mind and I literally translate them or misunderstand them.
Some day I will share the story of dog house and cat house… 😉
Looks like the dog’s oversteering in a straight line, Mine does it quite often.
Our dog always skews to whatever side her leash is on. Pretty funny if you watch them, just like a 70’s GM!
Sometimes they were about 4-5 inches off. Always wondered how something like that could pass a safety inspection.
Also wondered how you wouldn’t be freaked out driving it.
We used to call them “sidewinders”. Or at night, “treelighters”.
I cannot recall whether it was a buick or an olds. When I retired from the Navy we borrowed my nephews 231 equipped nova clone and traveled round trip from Kansas to east coast and back. I had previously owned a 68 Nova.
I was pretty impressed. That thing would move and got good mileage. I saw no down side. You couldn’t make some folks happy if you hung them with a new rope but I liked that car just fine. Needed my Datsun pickup worse or I would have bought one.
I remember these when new. My mom was car shopping in 1974. The first stop was the Olds dealer which was, unfortunately, completely sold out of Cutlass sedans. She briefly considered one of the huge 88s, but decided against it. She did not consider an Omega for even a nanosecond. I don’t think she even looked at one.
A Pontiac Luxury LeMans was the lucky car. I barely remember the Pontiac version, and I think that there was a hatchback version in the showroom. Again, absolutely no interest in my family.
Funny, but when the Granada hit the next year, it flew out of showrooms like crazy. It just looked luxurious. The Omega just looked like a Nova with a nose job and Olds hubcaps. It is amazing, looking back, how GM lost this opportunity to sell smaller luxury. The Omega and Skylark should have been hot sellers during a recession with rising gas prices. But they were not. The Granada/Monarch owned this market, and the LeBaron/Diplomat was the (distant) runner up.
In my large extended family, most people were GM buyers in those years. Nobody bought one of these. There were some Granadas, a Monarch, and at least one LeBaron sprinkled around (along with bigger, more traditional Cutlasses, Regals, etc) but not a single X car. A very good car under the skin, but completely lacking in appeal.
Though in turn, GM did make the Seville, which was the ultimate in smaller luxury, but with a nice big fat $13,000 price tag on it. Lincoln never had a chance with the Versailles, because it suffered from the same snydrome the
N-O-V-A cars had, you could still tell it was a Granada with a Continental hump.
The difference was Cadillac made the Seville look like a Cadillac inside and out with a longer wheelbase. Ford on the other hand took the Granada and slapped on a Mark V grille and tire decklid with minimal investment. If only the Versailles had a 3-4 inch longer wheelbase and more individual styling inside and out to make it worthy of the Lincoln name. Versailles could have been better.
I remember liking the hatchback version of this car. It looked sharp with the Olds rally wheels. I also remember that lower cushion of the back seat in the sedans was very short, probably to increase rear seat legroom.
A big reason the Granada outsold its competitors was because it had a much nicer interior. Ford, taking a page from GM’s book, spent its money where customers could see it. There was a mint, basic 1977 Skylark four-door sedan at the Carlisle Car show a few years ago, and I was surprised at how cheap the interior was. I remember the Granadas of these years as being rather nicely trimmed. Even the base versions were nice for the times.
In the mid-1970s, if people had the choice between a luxurious interior and good handling, most would have gone with the former. Particularly since many buyers of compacts were abandoning their barges in search of better fuel economy in the wake of the Arab Oil Embargo. An LTD-like interior would beat BMW-like handling in the eyes of most buyers in 1975.
The Omega supposedly existed because Olds killed the six-cylinder Cutlass in the early 1970s, and dealers demanded a car that could be advertised for its lower price. I’ll bet that sales were never high because Lansing’s heart really wasn’t into it, and dealers viewed it as bait to lure customers to the store, where they could be “upsold” to a more profitable Cutlass.
WRT luxurious and good handling: I think you’re correct on that regard. Only the motorheads cared if a car went around corners.
Additionally, I would say we’re now in a similar situation as we were in the 70’s, where folks are looking at smaller alternatives to what they’ve been driving for the past 15-20 years.
Using the Granada as an example, it was downsizing presented in a positive manner, much like the Focus (and others) is being pushed as an alternative to mid sized cars. With the recent refresh of the Focus, much more attention has been paid to what were formerly luxury or premium items. Much the same strategy was used for the introduction of the Granada.
Between the upcoming changes to CAFE regs, fuel prices and the general trend in downsizing, any of the more recently refreshed small cars has a good shot at doing what the Granada did back in the 70’s.
It is interesting how current times mirror the 1970s in many ways!
I remember liking this car (along with the other X-body hatchbacks for 1975). The Olds version was the most attractive, in my opinion, followed by the Nova. But I also remember realizing that it was obviously based on a Nova.
For me, the Cutlass was the cheapest “real” Oldsmobile in the line-up, and, judging by the sales figures for the Omega (not to mention the new-for-1975 Starfire), most buyers agreed. If I had the money, I would have gone for a Cutlass S over this car.
Being an Olds fan, I don’t know if it was so much that Lansing wasn’t into selling the smaller cars as was the clientele didn’t comprehend the smaller cars. I think your perception about the Cutlass and above is correct, they were the ‘real’ Oldsmobiles. Anything smaller than a mid size was a Chevy or a Pontiac. Or worse yet – a ‘kid’s car’.
Olds was still an aspirational brand throughout the 70’s; I can remember my mother pestering my father for a Buick or an Olds when it came time to get a new car. My father stuck to Ford products for his whole life.
Remember how the Cutlass went from strength to strength in the 70’s? Regular or downsized, it didn’t matter. It’s almost hard to believe that they owned so much of the market. Just one maker, one model.
Ah well, times change.
I remember Oldsmobile being an aspirational brand in the 1970s, too. Interestingly, in the late 1960s, when I was REALLY young, my mother, who was from Germany, loved the wide-track Pontiacs. They drove a used 1965 Chevrolet Bel Air wagon, which wasn’t one of GM’s finest products.
By 1972, the Chevrolet was basically shot, so they bought a neighbor’s cherry 1967 Oldsmobile Delmont 88 Holiday sedan with only 19,000 miles on the odometer. That car was terrific, and was traded for a year-old 1976 Delta 88 Royale Holiday sedan in the spring of 1977. When the Delmont 88 was traded, it had over 110,000 miles on the odometer, and was still running, although it felt a bit tired.
After the Delmont 88, my mother loved Oldsmobiles, and always wanted my father to look at the latest Delta 88s and Ninety-Eights when they debuted. They drove 88s right up until Oldsmobile phased them out in an attempt to attract younger buyers.
The Omega, though, was never on their radar.
I remember someone with work with a Granada. Only a couple of years old and the paint was coming off of it.
About the interior. Didn’t the Granada have a dash panel that looked like soft tufted vynl but was really hard plastic with molded in stiching?
I think the Seville was part of the reason that the Omega and Skylark were so cheaply trimmed out. GM really, really didn’t want Cadillac buyers to notice that the first-gen Seville was based on the X platform — in fact they tried at the time to deny it. Having the Olds or Buick get too close to Cadillac style would serve as an uncomfortable reminder, and would make it harder to justify the ultra-premium pricing of the Seville, which stickered $2000 higher than the Fleetwood Brougham.
Well, the Seville was changed enough in the development process that it became a K body instead of an X body, Sevilles were built at Cadillac main in Detroit where all the other Cadillacs were built too.
I don’t know, the interior on the ’78 Omega Brougham looks pretty plush to me.
That’s a lovely interior, but that exterior? Unless the neighbours are car nuts, they’ll still think you bought a Nova.
I just picked up a 75 Omega the other day. Blue with white bucket seats inline 6 with a three speed in the floor and the dog dish caps with matching color rims.
I seem to remember Chevy carrying a LN luxury Nova for 1975 and Omega offered a Brougham with a nicer upgraded interior. I’m sure Buick had a nicer trim level available too. If given the choice between an Omega like this or a Granada it would be the Old every time in Brougham trim with bucket seats, a V8 and suspension upgrade finished off in Olds rally wheels.
Take the feature car, paint it brown, add a beige vinyl roof and a beige interior, et voila! My best buddy’s father’s (really!) Oldsmobile from 1978. It had the 305 (4bbl I think) with autobox and the skinny FR78-14 tires. And those exact wheel covers.
The car was a little beast, especially at the height of the malaise era. With the relatively skinny tires on it, any mildly damp or wet smooth surface was an excuse to get sideways. And we did, frequently!
My buddy drove the car most of the time, but occasionally I would take the wheel, and IIRC, it was a pretty pleasant cruiser, with power to spare and enough springs and sway bars to handle any of the curvy roads in Northeast Ohio with aplomb.
After us kids moved out of the house (respectively), his dad drove the car for a number of years after. He probably didn’t have to replace the rear tires as much after my buddy Joe moved out…
One of these late RWD X cars is in my MM Garage. The Olds Omega 2 door version for sure.
PS: I forgot about the Opel Kapitan styling similarities. Good call, Paul!
My grandfather had the exact same car, brown with the beige top, when I was a kid. I think his was a V6, but I’m not 100% sure of that. He traded it when I was about 10, circa 1987, for a Dodge Ares. As I recall, when he traded it, it didn’t look a whole lot different that it did in 1978. About the only blemish on it was a tiny ding in one of those pointy hubcaps, put there when I crashed one of those old school, all-metal kiddie cars into it. Oops.
Wow – is it legal in Oregon to put a Britax in a front seat (unless it’s a 2-seater)? I assume this car only had lap belts in the rear which makes it pretty much impossible to securely install the seat in the back if you want it front facing, but still… And no, I’m not a safety nanny, I recall perfectly well playing in the back seat and on the parcel shelf with my little brother while barrelling down the Autobahn at top speed in my family’s Audi Super 90 back in the early 70’s…It’s just these days I assume that would get you pulled over pretty quick.
I think it’s perfectly OK to put a child seat in the front as long as there’s no passenger side airbag, or the airbag is switched off.
I inherited a 77 Skylark from my grandmother that had the 305. Rust belt winters were not kind to it either. The body was decent but the front subframe started separating from the body after I started driving it regularly.
“Probably because they didn’t sell well. In 1973,”
Here in Chicago, 73-74 Omega sold fairly well, since this used to be a big B-O-P market. These were a popular ‘hot rod’ if it had an Olds 350 4 bbl carb combo.
Don’t remember very many Omegas in ’73 or ’74 in my Bay Area youth when new. I know when Olds launched the Omega it was aimed at the (then) youth market as most ads featured the hatchback coupe. Unique among it’s “X” cousins in ’73-’74 was the “wet look” vinyl bolstered seats with houndstooth patterned seats and the optional four-spoke Cutlass S/442 steering wheel. The Omega did seem to be in it’s RWD days, the “sportiest” of the X’s. A four barrel Rocket 350, I’m sure, made it a damn good performer.
In reality, any of the RWD Omegas I ever saw in the flesh were Chevy Sixes and a Chevy 305 2-bbl, which in ’77-’78, would’ve been the only California smog-certified V-8 choice as the “real” Olds rockets were going in Cutlasses, Sevilles and 98’s (shortages of Rocket V-8’s caused Olds to start putting Chevy 350’s in 88’s causing the big stink of ’77 and ’78).
They did try to sell it as a youth car at first, Olds had been kinda pissed since they also wanted an F-body car in 1967 and they tried to make something out of the Omega.
How did those crazy youngsters in the advertisement get their car there? And why??
Wow an American Holden Kingwood they were also built on Camaro platforms and gained a handling package in the late 70s but no V6, l6 red motor out here. I do see Opel/Holden cues in the rear doors of that Olds the front is sorts HJ-HZ Holden but hey its all the same company so not surprising. Nice find.
I had to look that up. WOW! It’s like the Love child of a 70 Monte Carlo and 75 Nova.
New front guards and front panel on the previouly attractive HQ easy to see where the styling or lack there of came from
While I find the front of the HX Holden attractive to look at, I’ve never found the rear end of the car very attractive. I think they should’ve kept the taillamps the same as with the HQ.
But not the whole platform just the front clip brakes wheel bolt pattern and sundry other bin parts
I didn’t drive an Omega but I did have a 1975 Nova for a short while, like three weeks, before I flipped it. It was 350 2 bbl with the handling package. I came across it about 1985 and it really had been a Grandpa car in Victoria. It was yellow with, I think, plaid interior. It had an AM radio and nothing else. The car was spotless and, had 50,000 miles on it and I paid $2200 at the auction, which was top dollar. People knew about these cars.
And by the standards of 1985, it went like snot. I timed it at eight seconds 0-60, mighty swift for day and being a big V-8, it had bulldozer torque in a car that was not very heavy. The handling was head above anything I had driven at that point of my life. In fact, when these cars were new, Car and Driver raved about them, calling them the “Q-Ship.” I had one good trip in the mountains with it before I sold it and it was very, very good, except for the fact it used gas like a five ton truck.
As I have stated many times before, I am an idiot when it comes to cars. I am the world’s authority at coming across great cars and being unable to keep them. I always talk myself out of great cars. In fact, at this very moment I am trying to talk myself into selling my 2000 Acura TL, which only has 85,000 km on it, has never been in an accident and is flawless in every way. But I digress, I had a cherry 1978 Buick LeSabre at the time and it was even more cool than the Nova, so it was the Nova that had to go. I sold for $3500, a handy profit. These cars had a well deserved reputation as being sleepers. In many ways I see my TL as very similar as it is also a sleeper, Q-Ship kind car. In fact, it is comical having kids in 4-bangers trying to race me in my TL!
“…before I flipped it. It was 350 2 bbl with the handling package.”
Now THAT’S funny! Ha ha ha!
“Flipped,” car business slang for “resell quickly for profit.”
One reason Granada sold well, while the ’75 Nova got overshadowed, was Ford kept the Maverick for bargain shoppers. No ‘old cheaper Nova’ still for sale. And, people were willing to pay more for a ‘new’ luxury compact**.
For the new 1975 Nova, Chevy was promoting the restyle as ‘luxurious’ to compete with the LN trim. But, sticker shock hurt sales at first. “$5000 for a Nova!*” was heard all over the MidWest. As a result, Chevy and B-O-P brought out stripper ‘S’ models of X and H body compacts for Spring ’75.
For ’76, the LN became the Concours, but it never sold as well as Granada or plain Novas, and reverted back to ‘Nova Custom’ for 78-79. Nova sales improved as traditional Nova customers got used to the styling and prices.
* For 1975 model year, car prices took a big jump, nearly $1000 average.
** One reason why Chrysler rushed the Aspen/Volare.
IIRC, The Concours reverted back to “Custom” in 1978 was so as not to compete with the newly downsized Malibu Classic. At least that was what Motor Trend said.
The Buick Skylark S/R was the poshest of them all, with those reclining velour buckets. Those seats were gorgeous.
I’ve always had a fascination with Buick and Oldmobile versions of cheap Chevrolets. This particular Omega is the best looking of 1975-79 X-bodies.
I sometimes find myself daydreaming about my 1987 Chevrolet S-10 as a Buick, an Oldmobile, or even a Cadillac!
The first gen Olds Bravada is pretty close to being an Olds S-10. 😉
Yeah! Just hang the front clip and doors on, and the dash and nametags…a creative graphics painter could have put the Olds Rocket on the tailgate…
…Olds Pickup!
Another thing I remember about these cars is that they quickly became dated (as did their contemporaries). The downsized 1978 GM intermediates were about the same overall size, but looked much trimmer and neater. It made these look ancient.
When the front-wheel-drive X-cars debuted in the spring of 1979, I wondered how people felt who bought one of the 1978 versions felt. Of course, by the spring of 1981, we began to realize that the people who had snapped up a final “old school” X-car weren’t so dumb after all…
“More grunt desired? Only one choice, depending on where you lived: the Chevy 305 V8 in the 49 states, and the 350 four-barrel in CA (and high altitude areas).”
Actually, depending on the year, the Oldsmobile 260 V8 was an option, at least for the Omega and Ventura.
Interesting to note Oldsmobile, for the stripped version of the Omega in the 1976 model year, revived the F-85 nameplate. But it didn’t seems to work.
With the aborted GTO proposal then Pontiac planned for ’75, just imagine some other “what if?” like a Omega 442 with the 403 Olds under the hood. 😉
Our “Grandma” hand-me-down was a ’77 Nova, straight six. My dad inherited it on her passing – he lived in Texas at the time. It eventually passed through all of my siblings and myself before I (as the last owner in the family) sold it. We all called it “The Electric Blue Star Car.”
Here’s the ad copy I posted in the windshield:
1977 Chevrolet Nova
$950.00
(Yes, it runs!)
Now’s your chance to own a piece of the Groovy ‘70’s, Baby!
With ‘Mod’ features like a “Straight Six” Engine, you’ll experience the power of a “Four” with the fuel economy of an “Eight!” Stomp your foot to the floor, and feel the power shiver it’s way down the drivetrain through a state-of-the-art (for the ‘70’s, anyway) three-speed automatic transmission!
High-school Kids – This is a car your Mom can say “Yes!” to… Bought new by my grandmother, it spent a number of years in Texas before recently returning to Georgia. There’s minimal rust, and with a few upgrades (like dropping a 350 c.i. V8 up front), this could be a ‘fly’ ride!
Buy it today, before Y2K!
What makes this car so attactive to me is the long distance from the back of the front wheel well to the leading edge of the door. Makes the wheelbase look long. I like the original Seville for the same reason, which was a closely-related car with an even longer dimension between the wheel and the front doors, because…uh, why not? 1969 Grand Prix, same deal. And a Rolls Phantom….
The Seville did have a longer wheelbase, but the extra length was in the passenger compartment area, not forward of the firewall; it was added to provide more rear seat room. The stretch became a sticking point with corporate management during its development because it meant the Seville needed longer doors that couldn’t share inner stampings with the Nova sedan, but they eventually went for it anyway.
The ’69 Grand Prix and the Chevy Monte Carlo, however, did put the extra inches of wheelbase ahead of the firewall, as did the ’68 Lincoln Mark III, which used the long wheelbase of the four-door Thunderbird. There, the main rationale was styling, but there were also some manufacturing economy reasons — maintaining the same relationship of engine and passenger compartment to rear axle made it easier to use off-the-shelf driveshafts, doors, and so forth.
It wasn’t just a coupe thing, though. Going back to at least the early thirties, there was a whole bunch of sedans that added their extra length to either the nose or the tail (e.g., early Pontiac Star Chief), so as to offer a bigger-looking car while minimizing the tooling changes involved in building it.
I had a 1976 2-door Omega bought from the fanatic original owner in fall 1980. He wanted an SX, but didn’t like the lower body graphics. He ended up ordering all the SX items a-la-carte, including the Rally III wheels, the handling package , the 4-spoke wheel, et al, and got it in black with a white vinyl bucket interior. It had AC and the 260 V8-5-speed drivetrain. This proved to be the undoing of the car. While the overdrive 5th got great highway mileage ( 29 MPG if careful ) the transmission began to whine. It turns out that as early as 1982, there were no new parts available for the Borg-Warner T-50.
Subsequent research revealed that the trans was designed primarily for 4-bangers like the Cosworth-Vega, or certain V6 H body cars. The torque rating was very low, and even the weak little 260 V8 overtaxed it’s ability to deal with the twist.
Yes, the car handled amazingly well, at least until the idler arm started to loosen around 60,000 miles. Replacement didn’t restore the former feel.
The denouement came when the incompetent and dishonest transmission shop could replace it’s clutch with neither one that slipped or shook. After about 4 tries, they finally got one that worked alright, and I got while the gittin’ was good and traded it for a new Rabbit.
I really liked the car, and it made me sad to see it go. I really hated the Rabbit, and developed even more bile towards it when the GTI came out that fall, and I was stuck with a vanilla version.
When the steering goes wonky in a GM car of the era, the only real remedy is a new steering box. That and replacing every other part of the front end at the same time, too. It’s only like $2000 parts and labour if you know the right guy.
We used to tightened up the gearbox for free and it helped quite a bit. Of course the rest of the suspension had to be in good shape too.
I had the ’78 version of the Nova and wished it was better equipped and the hatchback too but instead, it was the base 2 door with a few options such as the sport mirrors, AM/8-track stereo, and rally wheels along with the 305CI V8 but had the vinyl clad bench seat and 3spd column automatic and not much else outside off factory AC.
I bought it in 1985 with supposedly 50K miles on it and while it was a decent enough car, I was driving for Domino’s Pizza as a delivery driver at the time (still with the 30 minute delivery guarantee) and thus trashed it. I never got to see how it would actually handle and the V8 promptly ate its camshaft which I was told was common to have happen about every 50K miles or so due to a lack of oil up there. The car I think never was terribly good after the repair as the valves were impacted somewhat due to the bum camshaft.
Never the less, I would’ve loved to have had the hatchback version and with buckets and something other than a column mounted automatic or preferably the manual. To be honest, I’ve always liked that general body style the best of this series of Novas.
Before the ’78, I had a base 74 4 door Nova with the 250 inline 6 and automatic that was a good car but man, it was a plain Jane at its best though.
I WILL say that the both cars did well in the snow, they both tracked VERY well for RWD cars of the day and that says something for the Detroit 4 at that time. I know as I got to drive both in the snow and learned how to drive in the snow with the ’74 and my BIL Bob who grew up in Milwaukee WI and today, just finished driving in the snow in my ’92 Ford Ranger with all season radials this past week as Seattle got hit with up to 8 inches of the white stuff. It’s melting now as I type this.
Love it! I too delivered for Dominos, but in 1981-82 with my 71 Scamp. Didn’t you love the way your car smelled like pizza every morning? Maybe you and I will have to do a piece together: The Pizza Delivery Chronicles.
Yep, was a delivery driver from spring ’84 to March of ’86 before being let go. it was a franchise and one accident too many caused me to be relieved though they would’ve kept me had there been a pizza maker position open (It was a franchise I worked for).
Anyway, glad I was rid of that job.
I also drove the ’74 Nova for about a year before getting the ’78.
We had the cages that carried the cups of coke (regular ol’ coke, no other choices at that time and was included with the pizza) and they’d spill and I got coke all over the rubber mat of the ’74 and I think the carpet in the ’78 a few times.
Ah youth and that first job…
I did it my senior year of college and quit when I graduated. My only car disaster was when I broke the reverse band in my Torqueflite while trying to rock the car out of a snowbank. While the tranny was getting rebuilt, I got to drive one of the “shop cars” – a 70 Coronet wagon with a 383. Everyone called it the rocket sled.
During cold weather, I had to put cardboard in front of the radiator because even with a hot thermostat, that slant 6 was really cold-blooded. I finally started leaving the car running and keeping a separate key so I could lock it when I got out of the car.
The variety of cars was interesting. One guy had a 75 or 76 Cutlass, which was practically new to me. Otherwise, there was a motley assortment of cars like a Maverick, a VW bug, an early 60s Econoline, a late 60s Chevy pickup, and even a guy with a TR6!. It was a college town, so most of the drivers were students. We got paid a low wage plus a percentage of our deliveries. I delivered during the last Super Bowl played during the day. I made a LOT of money that day.
My store was in the south end of Tacoma, a blue collar town and this was in a working class area with businesses all along S. Tacoma Way and the guys kind of reflected that blue collar/working class mentality.
Of the cars we had were a ’76 Datsun 210 hatchback, at least one Pinto, a fella had a bright yellow sedan that had minor body damage where the rear taillight panel was shoved in, right in the middle but straight otherwise, a ’76 Honda Civic wagon, a ’68 Buick Electra 225 if I remember right, who’s original metallic paint (green I think) had weathered to virtually nothing on the hood, roof and trunk so it was rattle canned primer gray. a Mustang, not stock from either ’67 or 68, I forget which, a ’79 Plymouth Arrow hatchback in dark brown with an automatic and slow as a slug (the owner was fixing up a 69 Mustang) and I forget what all else we had there.
Our managers drove a variety of cars, one had a 68 Fairlane (or was it a Galaxy?) and a motorcycle, Ray had his restored 69 Camaro and Alan had his somewhat beat 66 VW Squareback and of course, me with my 2 Novas and of course, there were the company cars, all Plymouth or Dodge Dart/Valiants and Dusters and all in very, very sorry shape. Some had doors that flung open when going around corners, brakes that were marginal, one car’s frame broke and I forget what all else but they had that /blue/orange/white color scheme thing going on. The cars got so bad that after I left, they were finally grounded when the state police found then very much unsafe to drive. Don’t know what the owner of the franchise did after that. I’ve heard rumors that the mechanic had the same type of car and would buy the parts for the company cars, put then on his and take his off and put them on the company cars so no wonder they were such bad shape. They were essentially clapped out but more than likely had the slant six in them and thus kept soldiering on despite the lack of maintenance.
Most of us were young adults in our twenties, many immature, some married early but all had low paying jobs to get by. Pay then was $3.50Hr, plus mileage and tips so the pay was more like $5Hr in reality. Other than the 30 minute delivery guarantee and the insistence of driving with that guarantee during the big snow of 1985, it was a good place to start one’s working career, whatever it is.
The 305’s during the 70’s were notorious for soft cams and valve guides. We used to upgrade to a better cam and improved valve guides and never had any issues with them thereafter. In fact if you upgraded to a higher performance cam like the one used in the L69 engine and installed a 4 BBL intake and carb they would burn rubber by the pound
In the book, “On a Clear Day You Can See General Motors,” John De Lorean maintains that the redesign of the 1975 Nova was intended to upgrade the X-body to European levels of handling and ride refinement, but that GM missed the mark with the styling, by making the bodies too similar in appearance to the previous ones. He seemed to feel that the vast improvements were ignored by buyers, because the car didn’t look particularly new. A bit surprising from an engineer, but then again, it’s also fairly well accepted that De Lorean had a good handle on what would sell.
On the other hand, when you look at the pseudo-luxury crap that the competition was building, the styling of the 1975-79 X-bodies has aged much better. And as Paul, roger628 and others pointed out, if you chose the right options (and there were a plethora of them) you could equip these to where they’d compare favorably with some European sedans of the day. The only problem is, few were built that way…it simply wasn’t what the mass-market was looking for at the time.
A Nova X was my Driver’s Ed car.
I hated that car; I’m not sure why. Perhaps because the handling was so foreign…it was a 1974, with over-assisted steering…but since my other experiences up to that time were a Maverick, a Torino, and a Wagoneer with Saginaw power steering, that’s probably not the reason.
Nor is it bad memories: While waiting my turn at the wheel in that car, I was often sharing a back-seat with Leslie, moderately attractive and given to short-short skirts. That added a little fillip to the experience…but driving that car, with the steering, the suspension, the oil-can-bottom floors…and the crusty old Native American instructor given to saying EXACTLY what he thought…
…I’ll pass on the Xs. Good cars? Probably. Value? Absolutely. Object of lust? No WAY, baby….
For what it’s worth, the ’74 was a substantially different car than the ’75 and later X bodies. As I pointed out in the article, the ’75 had a completely new front end, which it shared with the newer Camaro. As well as a lot of attention paid to its handling prowess. The ’74 was the last year of the version that goes back to 1968, and was never considered to have much to offer in the handling department.
Oh man, another repressed memory. My driver’s ed class had a new 1979 Nova four door sedan. Unfortunately for me, my folks wanted me to take driver’s ed for a lower insurance rate.
Really unfortunate for me, the instructor was also the defensive coordinator coach on my HS football team. I had been caught making fun of him, so he took it out on me until I graduated high school. I always got stuck doing extra monkey rolls or laps around the field. Or extra time in detention for the slightest infractions.
That and the fact we had no girls in our car made for a miserable experience. Imagine five football players or wrestlers in one of those cars. Not. Fun.
IIRC, the car performed well, even with all of those ham fisted learners figuring everything out. It was the six cylinder version, so there was no way in Hell any kind of hooning was going to take place.
I mostly remember being thrilled that I was done with driver’s ed so I could claim the credit for the insurance.
I spotted a ’74 Omega two-door hatch in the “Cars For Sale” section of Ecology Auto Wrecking in Wilmington, Ca. a while back, for $1750. Rocket 350 two-barrel with a Turbo 350 trans. The paint was garbage but overall the car was straight and rust-free.
One of the security staff said it got snapped up within a week.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1979-OLDSMOBILE-OMEGA-BROUGHAM-V8-13K-ACTUAL-MILES-BUILD-SHEET-/320833579845?pt=US_Cars_Trucks&hash=item4ab32beb45
Hey GUYS, look what I found?
That’s SWEET!
Wow, that’s a sharp car. And although those aftermarket wheels don’t look bad, I’d have to switch them out for Olds Super Stock wheels!
Edit: Anybody else notice the Corvair Rampside in the background?
I’ve seen this one for sale on ebay a bunch of times. It actually has the Olds wire wheels, the dealer must’ve swapped them out.
my family went for the granada. we were basically gm folks but times were tight an d ford was cutting deals (have you driven a ford lately). it was a gutless wonder made out of the cheapest possible materials but surprisingly reliable. the nova and clones were much better. it’s true. however, all you had to do was get one ride in an accord and it was game over for the big three…
The Granada, pseudo-euro styling notwithstanding, was a “institutional” car. Motor pools; government fleets…I never saw one as a cop car, but probably only because they were slow as steam off…never mind.
I had one, because it was a $100 runner with a bad charging circuit. Fixed that (jerry-rigged it, actually) and got six months out of it before I got the vibes it was time to dump it. When you run a rusty beater like that, you listen to that inner voice.
I drove many; as taxicabs. With the 250 six, they’d put on over 500,000 miles before the cab company would scrap them…usually not due to driveline failure, either. The lack of cold starts, running them around the clock with two shifts, probably contributed to the long life…but still.
Here’s a picture of the ’78 Omega SX from my 1978 Olds brochure. I think it may be my favorite of the ’75-’79 X-bodies. I agree that these cars have aged better than the Granada/Monarch, they look sleeker and more modern to me.
The Granada/Monarch are fairly good looking in Ghia trim, especially if they also have the “lacy spoke” aluminum wheels.
I had a 1977 Omega Brougham in the same color as the curbside classic but, mine was a coupe with a padded vinyl roof in the same color.
It had velour seats in that same light blue.
I believe it was the last year for the Olds 260 V8.
I really thought I was special with all that luxurius velour because a friend bought a new Nova and it had plaid upholstery that I thought looked cheap and ridiculous.
The velour looked less special when somebody burned a hole in the back seat with a cigarette.
I had test-driven the Granada because I thought it was a real looker but, the test drive was a definite turn-off. Very wallowy compared to the ’74 VW Dasher that was my car at that time.
I really don’t have much memory of the car – good or bad – except that it was decent in snow with snow tires. I traded it on a Cutlass Supreme coupe in 1979.
My mother bought a new one in 1979 from an Oldsmobile dealer in downtown New Orleans. Around 1984 she had it Fact-O-Bake-d! Seeing it here brings back a flood of memories as it was my “learners’ permit” car. The first car I ever drove. At the end of its life, I would drop Mom off at work so i could abuse, I mean use, the car all day. I vividly remember keeping a hammer on the floorboard so I could whack the starter (or something that I thought was the starter motor) from under the engine to get it to start. I tried my best to hone drifting skills before drifting was known in this old 4-door version…
My Mom bought a Pontiac Phoenix brand new 1979 model in 1978. It was a dark brown 2 door sedan, 231 six, automatic, fairly basic, sport mirrors,am 8 track stereo with rear speaker option and not much else. She drove that car until 1987 when she traded it in on a Grand Am. The car was very reliable and lasted through the harsh Canadian winters with minimal rust around the rear wheel wells and saggy rear leaf springs. The car did not hit the lot, one of the salesman bought it for himself did the repairs and drove it as a summer car for many years later. She still says that was the best car she ever had.
Just as shown here, I guess the reason why the identical sized Oldsmobile Cutlass Salon with the conservative 4 Door Sedan ala pseudo-Cadillac Seville roof line were not brought into the 1978 model year was because Oldsmobile on that matter GM was afraid that it would steal significant sales away from the Omega and its Corporate Identical Twin Cousins. Since Omega was due for Downsizing a year and a half later, the redesigned Cutlass Salon 4 Door Sedan was put off until the 1980 Model Year. Remember that the coupe for 1980 retained the 1978 Fastback Styling until this basic body style was discontinued and instead the coupe version of the Cutlass Salon was based on the redesigned 1981 Cutlass Supreme but a stripped down bare bones version of course much in a similar fashion when the Chevrolet Vega was discontinued after the 1977 Model Year and Chevrolet brought back a small number of those with the Vega 3 Door Hatchback Body Style and renamed them Monza. Same can be said with the Vega bodied Wagons but they were a bit more successful though.
The goofy Cutlass fastback was just a mistake, not some elaborate plot to avoid copying the Seville roof.
GM was afraid that it would steal significant sales away from the Omega…”
No way, since the Malibu sat in same showroom as Nova, with conventional roofs. Aerobacks were a “whim”, thinking it was Euro looking, but flopped. Omega was a “bait and switch” car, to get showroom traffic and then the upsell to larger car. Cutlass whole line sales were huge 1973-77, then went down with Aeros. But, the ’78 Supreme coupe sold well, which had them bring out the 1980 formal sedans.
I bought a nova in 1978 I ordered it black outside and black outside but just before it was delivered I found out it would come in with a tan interior , So I cancelled it and the dealer talked me into ordering an Oldsmobile omega , said if I didn;t like it don.t take it .
Well I .ve owned it now for 38 eight years and it only has 30k
During the Oldsmobile Omega final year as a RWD X-Bodied Mid-Sized Car, Oldsmobile had a crowded similar sized Intermediates for 1979 which included the last swan song for the RWD Omega, the Cutlass Salon and Cutlass Supreme series and the newly downsized Toronado which wasn’t really that significantly large to the departing RWD Omega (205.6″ for the Toronado vs. 199.6″ for the Omega) as shown on this photo compilation to their exact scaling if viewed in real life.
1979 RWD X bodies were sold for only 6 months from fall intro, then replaced by the infamous FWD X’s in spring ’79. So, short overlap of similar exterior sizes.
“Can you tell its looks from a $20,000 Mercedes-Benz?”
Um, yes. Yes I can.
That is probably one of the most pathetic car ads I’ve ever seen. “If you’re a complete idiot, we have the car for YOU!”
Well, having lived back then, you may be right, but you may not be, either. First and foremost, in 1980, not many people had seen many Mercedes on the road, much less drove one or even rode in one. Second, most car buyers are not car enthusiasts, like you are. They don’t know a Kia Amanti from a Jaguar S or Mercedes. Guess whose famous grill got copied by who in that case? Third, advertising does tell you that you are a complete idiot, and you (not meaning you personally) are stupid enough not to understand that fact. That is how advertising works.
Where I live right now I see a guy driving around town in a Kia exactly like the one in your picture. He has a personalized license plate that says “I DO TRY”…every time I see that car with that plate I keep thinking to myself “you don’t try hard enough”.
IIRC, the bottom cushions of the back seat was very short for the ’75 thru ’79 X-cars (NOVA). No thigh support at all. This was an old trick in order to give the illusion of plenty back seat leg room.
I have never seen a car with so many bolts holding the bumper on, 14 on the front, maybe a couple more hiding behind the number plate?
I always liked the looks of the 1975 GM restyle of its Nova and siblings. Light, airy greenhouse and low beltline…nice proportions. Forty years later its profile still looks right. In fact it makes the BMW it’s compared with appear dumpy.
Until I started reading here, I never connected the BMW to the X bodies. Lots of other design things I’m learning here as well. I NEVER confused a Granada for a MB though. I did get a chuckle out of it even as a 10 yr old.
I did like the restyle at the time. Still okay with it and would own one if the opportunity presented itself.
Wonder how this car is holding up now, 5 years later? If it was cheap transportation and nothing more, I have my doubts as to whether it’s still with us–if it was kept around due to good memories/family connections and just happened to also be daily transport, maybe the picture is far brighter.
Also, apparently this is where Chevy picked up the idea for the ’79 Malibu’s tails. Wraparound, block red/white red, though the Malibu’s had beveled edges within each segment.
As a child I took advertising quite literally and was always confused and determined to point out how much a Granada did not look anything like a Mercedes.
You would have to be using a white cane AND suffering from recent blunt object head trauma to think that dreary car looks like a Mercedes. And what a loser approach to selling anything: “We’ve polished a turd up for you, so you can drive something that almost looks like what you would have bought if you had made better life choices.”
Gee, thanks.
Forgive my roundabout story leading up to the ’78 X Body. Interesting how the “Cars of Our Lives” unspool in unique curlycue timelines. My mother (82 years old and a grandmother of 4 herself) now DOES drive a Mercedes. Her timeline? ’56 Dodge; ’63 Chevy II Wagon; a couple of Pontiac Wagons; a ’78 Camaro; a couple of Mazda 626s; a ’92 Mercedes 190; and now a 2002 full size Mercedes Sedan. My father? A ’57 Ford Fairlane 500 Convertible; a ’63 Chevy Impala; a ’69 Datsun 1600 Two Seater (mid-life crisis car); a ’73 Ford LTD; a ’75 Ford Granada; a ’78 Chevy Malibu 4-Door; an ’84 Cadillac Cimarron; and a couple of Lexus Sedans. Now to the X Body… MY maternal grandfather gave me his ’71 Nova, when he bought a new first year Chevy Citation. I drove grandpa’s Nova for a few years, and then, many cars later, in the early 2000s, got a ’79 Pontiac Phoenix as a daily driver until I replaced it with a 1986 Caprice. So with the ’71 Nova and the ’79 Phoenix, I had sort of had1970s X Body Bookends. Moral of story? The Nova & the Phoenix were the ideal mid-sized, solid, bullet-proof reliable, V8 powered cars I’ve ever driven and had the pleasure to own. What are the American equivalents today? If you can tell me, maybe I’ll unload my 2002 Dodge Stratus and pick one up today!
I used to see these cars when I was a boy. A friend of my dad’s had a 1977-78 Chevy Nova. I thought the Oldsmobile Omega was the best looking of the two.
Sweet looking car. I used to see cars like this when I was a boy. A friend of my dads had a Chevy Nova. I don’t know how reliable it was, since I never owned or driven one. But she seemed to like driving it. I find these cars way better looking than cars produced today.
While I’ve always liked American cars of the 1970s, the problem I’m told these cars suffered were indifferent quality control. I could be wrong of course, since I’ve never owned anything of the 70s that had an American name attached to it.
My step-mom got a new a ’74 Omega coupe she got when she traded in her ’69 Mustang convertible from her single days, after marrying my Dad following my Mom’s death. She deemed that she needed a more practical car to ferry the remaining 3 kids at home (I was long gone to college by Fall of ’68). While hardly practical – it was a coupe with buckets, console, and a big 350 4bbl Rocket V8 – I drove it several times and despite ’74 specs, that car would MOVE! It also got about 11 mpg. When they moved to FL in ’83 I was offered it at a minimal prce, and it was mint (it was her baby): always garaged and with all of 38,000 miles. With 2 kids and 1 on the way, I passed. But it would be pretty desirable as a collector car now.
While I like the cars of the 70s, I must say that I disagree with the advertising. The ad compares the Olds Omega to that of the BMW and the Ford Granada to the Mercedes-Benz. What was it about the two cars that compared them to the two German cars?
It didn’t end in the ’70s.
That looks like a luxury Chrysler K-Car.
Yes; embiggen the pic and read the ad copy.
Although I was still too young at the time to drive a car, I remember cars like this. I thought this was the best looking K-Car.
“… (Omegas) were always the sales laggard of the X-Bunch. Odd, given how well the Olds Cutlass was selling at the time.”
Omega was Olds dealers’ “bait and switch” car to get people in showroom and “for a few bucks more…” upsell. Although most were looking for a Cutlass, anyway.
BOP X bodies got beat in sales by ‘mid-price’ rivals Dart/Aspen and Comet/Zephyr/Monarch. Though Skylark did fairly well, with name lasting until 1998.
These may have been decent handling cars for the times, but I could never get past the design of the rear door/window/wheel well, and C pillar. Just something awkward about that entire area. The coupes pulled it off better than the 4-doors, but even they just looked odd to me.
Our last RWD X body (4th one) was a brand new ’79 2 door, 3 on the tree, 250 ci 6 that I purchased after moving to Indiana………what could be more reliable?? Uhhhh The car went back twice and new camshafts had to be installed! On the third redo they finally figured out the bore holes for the cam were NOT aligned properly; solution: new short block. GM quality, again. I had traded my horrible (bought new in CA.) ’76 Chuvette.
After that I had a durable Nova stripper for @ 60,000 miles before trading it in. Minor detail that the all vinyl Lt. Saddle (?) interior was 6 different shades in a few years. I did buy a AM radio for it out of another Nova……..luxury!!! Plus it had full hubcaps, and the gas mileage was good for the time with a car of that size. Handling, ride and brakes never felt much different on the base ’79 Nova than on my 3 previous ones.
The visual update of Harry Bradley’s ’68 Nova design, I thought was quite good, although numerous exterior panels DID carry over on the Nova. The “clones” I personally never much cared for. DFO
Back in the late 70’s the Omega seemed to be the slowest seller of the group. I recall seeing lots of Novas and Apollos/Skylarks but the Omegas were about as common as hens’ teeth. In 1974 it seemed like everytime I turned on the television there was a commercial about the Buick Apollo; Buick was really buying a lot of ad time pushing it; Oldsmobile not much apparently. I remember seeing one commercial on television-and I saw it only once- touting that when the 5-mph bumper was pushed back the front grill retracted and the fender mounted radio antenna for better reception. I assume Olds was trying to show off their engineering chops on the Omega-as much as the bean counters would allow, which apparently wasn’t much.
I got the impression Oldsmobile was using the Omega for a version of the old bait-and-switch; (“you can drive an Olds for only XXX a month!”} and then try and move them into something larger-and more profitable.
In late 1979 after the X-cars had been released, I visited the local Oldsmobile dealer and inquired if they had an Omega. The salesman said they did not have one and immediately started trying to move me to a Cutless. He said it had a much better ride. I said thanks and moved on.
Our 45-ish neighbor bought one of these new…may have been a 77. Dark blue with the chrome, luxury looking shiny hubcaps, and white walls. I thought it looked quite stately and respectable, if a bit old man-ish (to a 16 year old). The simple lines and propostions are nice for the era, but they were defintely lost in a world of over the top broughams like the Granada. Could defintely see one with the right equipment being thought of as a poor man’s Mercedes…at least in the right owners mind. (At least until it starts dog tracking),