I spied this Oldsmobile in a well-hidden valley in Watkins Glen, NY. From over 500 feet away and looking at the rear of the car through brush and such, I thought it was a mid to late-seventies Lincoln. Upon closer inspection, it is not a Dearborn-based product, but one from Lansing. This example looks great with current registration and tags, it also seems to be driven in the fair weather.
This model has the typical “Oldsmobile creases” as I call them in both the front and rear wheel openings. I remember seeing the creased body lines on cutlasses of the era on our used car lot. The “chiseled jawline” of those more common mid-70s cutlasses stayed in my memory from a young age.
This is a Massive Mid-70s American vehicle. It easily swallows the profile of the modern SUV behind it.
The fender skirts look apropos in this example – I don’t think the design would work without them.
From the rear, and far away it looked a lot like a Lincoln.
All of the emblems, glass, vinyl top, and other details seem to be well preserved.
Related CC reading:
Curbside Classic: 1973 Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight Regency – Nice Car, Fabulous Seats
🎵 Come and ride with me, Lucille 🎶 in this gorgeous 🎵OLDSMOBILE! 🎶Those WERE 🎵the 🎶DAYS 🎵 This Regency was the top of the line for 74 It looks to be a bon marche and a throwback to when BIGGER is Better. Love the comparison with that SUV, which likely guzzles gas more than the Regency and is typical of today’s nondescript vehicles. Sadly Oldsmobile, like so many other storied Marques are gone. I always thought that part of Oldsmobiles demise was the OLD in Oldsmobiles. Remember YOUNGMOBILE? Or NOT your father’s Oldsmobile? The growing youth market didn’t value these beautiful behemoths as we did, focusing on sports cars.
A likely turbo 1.5 GMC Terrain guzzling more fuel than this giant Olds? I don’t think so…
Silly billy, no chance that SUV guzzles more. It also likely has more horsepower though much less torque will out brake and and out corner this Olds. Appreciate for what it is, a dead end of gas guzzling barges that have been supplanted by the butt ugly giant pickups that took its place.
Flint? Lansing!
Surely. The typo has been fixed. Thanks.
Thank you for the correction. Maybe I was thinking of Buick? I am less well versed in GM and all things Buick, Oldsmobile, Pontiac, but I will learn.
Wow, nice find! I can’t remember the last time I saw a 74 big GM of any variety. I’ve seen 75-76 and 71-72, but nothing from the middle years of that generation lately. Without looking up production, I would guess 74 had relatively low sales what with the Arab Oil Embargo that year. That was a bad year to buy a huge coupe! But if you did, you got the last year without catalytic converters and with real hardtop styling on the coupe and the first year with massive energy-absorbing bumpers front and rear.
I never noticed how Lincolnesque the rear end is on these. The front is all Olds, though! This looks in really primo condition, with the nice weatherstripping even. I was thinking the side trim stuck over the side marker light was surely not original, but a quick look at the 1973-75 brochures indicates that is indeed how they left the factory and 74 was the only year they did that. 74 also has the most Lincoln-like rear.
It is a shame not to have interior pictures. The inside is what these luxury yachts were all about! Fantastic find on a fantastic car!
Yes I would love to have gotten an interior shot, but I did not have a mask with me for the lens that day. No matter how I futzed around wqith the camera I got awful reflection this time, sorry! It would not have been a good shot anyway.
What color was the “inside”?
Black, Same as the Vinyl Top. It also was very nicely preserved.
What a large and yet very attractive car. It amazes me how big these things always look, but I don’t think they were the largest in that time. Without going to a limo, I think the largest honors goes to the Cadillac Fleetwood (non-limo) and/or the Buick Electra Park Ave sedan.
A 68 Olds 98 ( a favorite) is 223.7″ long while this 74 is 232.4″. To think people called the mid-70’s Imperial (223.25″) a large car, Buick Electra at 231.5″.Yet this Olds beats it. Probably in the bumper guards. All too much. I know trucks drive through the Caldecott tunnel but that car would make me nervous.
Also a great side shot demonstrating why I don’t like these cars in 2 doors. The door looks larger than the front fender, while the rear quarter runs on forever. A four door maybe the same length yet the extra door makes it look shorter.
Folks about “4-5” blocks from our home drove a “1969 Olds 98” coupe well into the early, mid “80’s.
Toward, “78-9” noticed the fender skirts sort a went away.
We figured a clip or two broke so they just stopped using them.
The rear fenders have FINS! Suddenly it’s 1960!
I’ve probably seen less than five of these, in my lifetime. A great representation of 1970’s decadence. As the front and rear, look like two different cars. The tail appearing, quite Lincoln-like.
Lincoln didn’t adopt that rear end styling until 1975 so in 1974 this look was pure Oldsmobile.
A look, ultimately associated with Lincoln. Not Olds. That was my point.
“From the rear, and far away it looked a lot like a Lincoln.”
Also a gangster car.
Except for in 1974.
“Lincoln didn’t adopt that rear end styling until 1975.”
They were starting to claim ownership of the look, well before 1975.
Is that one of those 2-piece aluminum front bumpers?
To Rick W. Miss you on Barn Finds, buddy. What happened to Barn Finds, anyway?
Anyway, had a ’73 LS 4-door hardtop. Bought it in the early 80s. Rust free red/ burgundy with white vinyl roof and red interior. Had it for 2 weeks before I discovered the clock on the front seat back that still worked. Dash clock was dead but found a new one in the box at Iola.
Still had 270 hp out of the 455. Owned it for a couple of years and just loved it until it got into a fight with a Volkswagen. You guys know who won that one! Lol! Couldn’t find a right front fender so sold it.
I bought a 74 98 Regency coupe in 1974 with 3000 miles on it, factory executive vehicle for $5000.00. I still have this car tucked away. It is midnight blue inside and out. This car was a close reminder of a car I once owed, 1962 Olds Starfire midnight blue in and out. I couldn’t bear to sell this one.