With the profound success we have realized with the Midwest branch of the CC Sales Lot, we have now opened a second Midwest location. At the rate we are growing, we will soon have a number of outlets rivaling that of Kentucky Fried Chicken.
We were choosy with our location, seeking a place with a nicely amount of tourist traffic so we could more easily gouge entice those with obvious disposable income. I just finished making a deposit into the Swiss bank account of our owner – a tall gentleman who lives somewhere out west – so let’s stroll around.
A fellow just doesn’t see very many 1966 Oldsmobile Toronados, but when you do it is a sight to behold. They were revolutionary but also visionary – how many cars built these days have front wheel drive?
This particular Toronado is quite the blank slate inside, and its obvious there is no flakiness or crispiness on the canvas. You can’t find such desirable traits on many of these Oldsmobiles.
If you see the advertisement for this being a barn find, you’ll know we aren’t blowing smoke.
Speaking of blowing smoke, here’s a Nissan 300ZX. Please excuse the catch pan beneath the tailpipe, but it’s there because the car is, well, blowing smoke. You know how the EPA is so paranoid about having secondary containment for potential oil spills. We’ve got a lot of experience selling seasoned cars but we’ve never seen one that dribbles out the tailpipe quite like this one.
Since that Nissan is kaput, let’s find something that is more worthy of your time and attention. And if a Porsche isn’t worthy of your scrutiny, nothing is. Maybe replacement parts are on the pricey side, but it’s only money – you’ll make more.
However, if you are concerned about the cost of repairs for a water cooled Porsche, might I show you something else? How about a sporty car that can withstand copious abuse for four decades, have replacement parts so plentiful they almost grow on trees, and whose parts have more interchangeability than a bucket of Legos?
May I present to you:
The GM F-body.
Sure, these F-bodies have been used as heavily as a roll of toilet paper during a colonoscopy preparation – but they have longevity unlike anything else we’ve ever sold. Billy Joe Jim Bob down the street is sure eyeing this ’78-ish Formula. It is definitely the pick of our F-body litter.
We have three F-bodies on our lot, all are as solid as an oak tree and have roughly the same life expectancy. Come get yours now because they won’t stay on our lot forever!
This black one should be arriving next week.
Perhaps you are aiming for novelty instead of ubiquity and just can’t quite bring yourself to buy an F-body. We are pleased to offer this AMC Javelin.
Yes, this is the one I taunted you with earlier in the Nissan 300ZX picture, so here she is in all her glory. I guarantee if you buy this you won’t see another one for your entire trip home – especially if you live outside North America.
***Disclaimer*** If you live outside North America, we do not recommend driving it for the entire duration of your return trip. People in Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and various other locales have that pesky water issue to contend with and should plan accordingly. Those in South America are encouraged to take all necessary precautions.
So much talk these days is about space efficiency and utilization. Take a look at the glovebox and you can only conclude AMC was truly ahead of their time. Think of all the storage possibilities being squandered in contemporary console-mobiles. AMC was visionary.
Some people just require a little more room or seek a more sophisticated aura. We seek to satisfy and have this nifty 1977 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme.
While the front wheels are long gone, please don’t think we skimp on safety. This jack has four points of contact in comparison to the two provided by the missing wheels, so this Oldsmobile is as secure as a reinforced concrete bunker.
Even better, since it isn’t a Brougham model, you don’t have to worry about all that extra gingerbread growing stale – or molding, since the window was left down by some irresponsible prankster.
We offer quite the variety of upscale cars for those with more discerning tastes. This 1979 Cadillac Eldorado is the cat’s meow of this generation of Eldo’s. Not afflicted with the V8-6-4 or the HT-4100, this Eldorado is likely as durable as any of our tempting F-bodies.
Just a little air in the tires and you’ll be ready to drive off into the sunset, drinking mint juleps (virgin, of course) and eating bacon sandwiches. Could life get any better?
Yes, it could. Maybe you don’t like the color of our illustrious Eldorado and seek something more refined. This Oldsmobile Toronado should do quite nicely.
Black says class, and a Toronado with a moonroof and devoid of a vinyl scalp reflects you are an independent thinker and a formidable person. This may be my pick of the litter.
If black paint is your thing, let me show you not one,
But two BMW 740iL choices. Yes, we at the CC Sales Lot do love German cars with two Volkswagen’s and a third 740 in this picture.
Here at the CC Sales Lot, we do offer a variety of services. For instance, this Cadillac recently came in riding on some truly hideous 56 inch rims. It was a travesty beyond description and a person needed a six-foot step ladder just to get inside. Thankfully, our expert mechanic gave this wonderful Coupe deVille a donkectomy, so it doesn’t look quite so redonkulous.
Get yourself a Cadillac and put the savings for having purchased pre-owned toward your retirement and a hefty tax dedonktion. It pays to strategically use your money.
The owner is planning an upcoming visit to his newest and most profitable franchisee. For his visit I told him he could partake of this nice Cadillac. He politely demurred.
He claimed cruising the area in such a Cadillac would be sending more mixed messages than a ratty Mercedes parked next to a recycle dumpster. Luckily, I have ascertained he loves white cars and six cylinder engines.
Aha! I think I’ve found just the ticket!
I hope he likes it. It’s hard to go wrong with a Chrysler and this is an Imperial way for him to scan his used car empire.
Very nice offerings! The first Toronado has not seats to showcase its flat floor. I think I’d be comfortable in that 7-Series though, my favorite generation. Takes me back to Tomorrow Never Dies.
That has to be the flattest floor of any production passenger car.
Probably, though the BMW i3 comes close.
As Automobile Magazine put it in an article a few years back, “Look Ma, no hump!”
Yeah, I was impressed by how flat the Toronado floor is.
I knew it was flat and they touted it in the literature, but seeing it without any carpet and seats drives home the point.
Even that i3 has a mini-hump, and it’s not even a gasoline car, so no exhaust or anything really needing routing to the back like the Toronado.
The 7-Series sedans used in Tomorrow Never Dies, full-sized and miniature versions, were part of the museum exhibit of Bond movie cars in London last year. Really enjoyed it. Excuse the poor photo quality; flash was prohibited and lighting was not best quality.
The 928 looks like a pre-S model without the side bump strips, but yet it has the rubber spoiler at the rear. Never seen that before. Hmmmm… Toro, Javelin or Porsche. Can I get them in a meal combo?
Could that 928 be a gray market car?
The R107 SLs that were gray market in the early ’80s often also had a black plastic little spoiler on the trunk (in addition to better looking and smaller bumpers).
A very nice selection. The flat floor in that first Toronado would easily accommodate an inexpensive futon, allowing the Management the versatility of something to drive and somewhere to stay all in one vehicle, and something a lot better looking than that Chinook camper.
With so many F bodies, how long until a lot of used mobile homes appears next door. One stop shopping?
Seriously, I am really digging that Javelin.
I only accept fender flares like that if there are counterweighted drivers underneath.
That 1979 Cadillac Eldorado…nicely styled, and as you said, no V8-6-4 or HT4100. But what is the little badge below and to the right of “Eldorado?”
Does it say, “DIESEL?”
It actually read “Electronic Fuel Injection.”
Ah, the first gen Seville’s Oldsmobile 350 V8 with analog electronic port fuel injection.
I cannot make out any engine badges on that at this resolution.
This is the Biarritz, and it was possible to get the diesel in the Biarritz in 1979.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/that_chrysler_guy/5501637939/
AFAIK, could have the 368, 350 gas, or 350 diesel, but don’t know more than that.
And here’s what it’s supposed to look like:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/that_chrysler_guy/8174880652/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/that_chrysler_guy/8174844913/
For me, that Javelin is where this peanut gallery of beaters begins and ends. the ‘4 TV screens’ tail lite treatment and the lack of the insert-t tops-here roof stampings peg this as a ’73 or ’74. Ive always wanted a ’74 (my birth year) big bad orange AMX with a big bad blue 304 powered CJ-5 renegade together. Its tough to tell if this is too far gone for a restoration, but its too complete to part out. Maybe the happy medium would be to build the Mad Max/zombie removal Ive always wanted. Even I dont have the heart to sacrifice a pristine example to such awesome nonsense.
I want that Toronado…….not sure why without the seats, but it would be a start!
Great, interesting post!
Too far gone for me(as are most of them),I took the easy way out and bought good running cars with decent paint and bodywork and kept on top of them.Nice selection though.
Jason, you’re on a roll out there in the Middle West. I just knew that sending you truckloads of cars from Eugene that nobody gives a hoot about anymore would be a gold mine. And were doing the citizens of Eugene a favor, ridding them of all this curbside detritus. Brilliant idea of yours to put on new plates from nearby states; I’d prefer folks not to know where these are from,as they might to start wondering what happened to their old cars. Serves them right for leaving them sit out at the curb for years on end.
Now about that white Imperial….you know I’m a dyed-in-the-wool Blue Oval guy…..
Paul, despite my affinity for large(r) cars, I am a huge advocate for recycling and this endeavor is going like a house afire.
In addition to the cars you have been sending me (I am in the final stages of getting us a rail car so we can increase inventory) I have also been scouring the southern part of Missouri for more cars. Rust down there is negligible and nobody throws anything away.
So, to honor your white, six cylinder, and Ford preferences, here is a Ford product from your favorite model year of 1971.
And complete with an unbroken Bunkie Beak!
From my junkyard hunting back in the 1980s when these were plentiful, it was rare to find any Bunkie-beak car that didn’t have some level of nose damage on it.
And the optional front bumper ‘protectors’ were a complete joke since they mounted on the flat portion of the bumper. Even the protectors on our 1971 LTD failed to protect the tip (which was much more subdued that on this car or on the T-Bird).
Most of those cars are one flatbed ride to the closest Pull-A-Part.
Does this dealership accept bitcoin? If so, I’ll take the Javelin! I prefer to have the most unique car in the trailer park, too many GM F bodies. Gotta love its (cheap) dashboard, I never noticed the glovebox before. Looks like it’s a long stretch for the passenger to grab the grab bars, it might make a better footrest.
I’m not normally one for early 80’s E-bodies but that black Toro is speaking to me. Can I get a package deal on that and the ’66 together? That black Seville is already looking fairly incomplete, maybe I can borrow its interior…
Are they all on the same lot, or is this a composite?
(BTW–Quincy, IL–as per the dumpster–or somewhere else? It really looks Downstate Illinois to me.)
All but the Mercedes were on two lots across the street from each other in Hannibal, Missouri.
Wow! So much classic iron and so much junk, all in one location! Wow, just wow!
Love the whole lot of cars! I’ll take them all! The black Toronado and then the Eldorado are my two favorites, followed by the brown Cutlass. That particular Cutlass is a 1976 – the front grille has Oldsmobile in script and the dash has the round air vents, the only real difference between the years.
Oh, that last shot. The bungee cord on the rear-lock-cover-housing is a work of genius. Hey, Cadillacs have automatic trunk closers, now you can too!
Sure speaks of the rock solid reliability of Oldsmobiles seeing the 1974 plates and relative lack of rust on that one, heee, heeee, heee. Sure is a scrappy bunch of cars in that lot and it would be fun to try get some of them running again or hoon the crap out of some since they are already knees deep in the grave. I really want to see how long I can drive one of those 7-Series before it dies. So in this photo of the Seville which I cannot believe you did not try to sell what is the jack using to lift the car up?
I earnestly feel, despite the tough competition for the title, that the 66-67 Toronado is the most beautiful American car ever made. It’s one of my most desired classic cars (right up there with a 73-75 Pontiac Grand Am), but although the FWD layout is intriguing, I would still say the same if it was RWD. I feel like most buyers felt the same, and didn’t give a hoot about FWD.
The rest of the cars are rough but desirable, except that Imperial. I do not see the appeal at all, and this is coming from someone who doesn’t mind the early K-Car New Yorker Turbos.
Those Imperial’s were simply unfortunate. Too long, too narrow, and too overwrought. I don’t see much appeal in them either.
I found this car (and the rest) last Saturday and it was the second Imperial I found within a half-hour in a town of 17,000 people. The other one was blue and made this white one look pristine. For as few as there were sold, finding two in such short order was weird.
I do have a soft spot for anything with hideaway lights, though.
I’m not sure that one can put the tag “most beautiful American car ever made” on any one car. From my point of view for the 1960’s the 1963 (plus 64 & 65) Riviera’s were very nice, with the 66-67 Toronado equally nice (but different). For GM these two are probably the best, with the Eldorado running third (and not necessarily the 67 Eldorado).
As for the owners of the Toronado, I suspect that most of them were well aware that it was FWD when the bought the car.
I want that Javelin so bad. I always thought the second generation looked better with the quad taillights than it did with the light bar. Alas, it came right at the end so it’s the emasculated oil crisis version of the car, but given the choice between that and any other Javelin I’d take that one.
Man, that Coupe de Ville was a 77. Just like my old one. It looked to be in pretty good shape. I wonder how much they wanted for that, I have seen a few pretty clean runners on my local CL for around 3,500 bucks. You know that saying that the most expensive car can be a free one. I remember going to see a 67 Eldo a few years back. The bumpers were completely rusty, the body was straight but with surface rust.The interior was a mess. The stock seats had been replaced by some non stock type of bucket seats and the entire interior was poorly reupholstered in purple crushed velvet. The dash had been butchered to install a stereo and equalizers. The motor ran but the trans was shot. The mufflers had rusted and fallen off. The lady was asking a grand for it and told me to make an offer. i thought to myself that even if she gave it to me for free, I would have to spend thousands to bring it up to a decent driver level, It would be much cheaper and less work to find a better starting point.
That is an “interesting” collection. Something for everyone (as long as they have a current tetnus shot)
I think I’d take the black Toronado, just hope its not a ’79 as I really don’t care for that grill.
Very entertaining – “used as heavily as a roll of toilet paper during a colonoscopy preparation” – that had me laughing……
And I was enjoying the satire until I got down to the black Toronado – then I thought, hey that thing looks in pretty good shape……and it’s one of the few of that era that didn’t have the vinyl top – looks much better that way
Great article.
Good stuff. I bet that Toronado is unstoppable with those Goodyear Wrangler RT/S tires up front.
I’ll gladly take that burnt copper Eldo or that black Coupe De Ville.
Finest quality used up cars. Ask about our optional tire air.
Easily the saddest CC yet.
Not for me. This one still takes the cake:
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/cc-outake-ccs-heading-to-the-scrapyard-how-many-can-you-id/