Photo: Cherokee Auto Group
In terms of telling the story of the American auto industry, the late 1970s might as well have been a black hole. Almost nothing of style, substance, or even remotely agreeable performance figures came out of Detroit factories in the wake of the Oil Crisis of the 1970s. But that doesn't mean there's nothing from this time built in America that's worth preserving or celebrating. Just look at this 1978 Oldsmobile Cutlass Salon Brougham. Just on first impressions alone, there's a lot to intrigue us by what we find.
By the time of the fifth-generation Oldsmobile Cutlass, very little remained of the same DNA that made the second and third generations so special and memorable. The platform was downsized to a form factor by American standards of the day, which would have been a mid-sized vehicle. Now sharing the same GM A-body platform as the Chevy Malibu, Pontiac LeMans, and Buick Regal, the whole A-body lineup of the day looked pretty worse for wear compared to what the same nameplates were like in the late 60s.
Gone was the Cuttlas' lineup to Oldsmobile-specific V8s that defined the car previously. In its place was a slew of different engines from across the spectrum of General Motors vehicles that, for the first time ever, included diesel V8s. If you didn't know how that turned out, let's just say the Oldsmobile Diesel V8 put Americans off the idea of diesel-powered passenger cars for the next 45 years. Or, at least, it's often attributed to Oldsmobile diesels for comedic effect. In any case, this particular Cutlass Salon Brougham Coupe doesn't sport the LF7 or LF9 diesel V8, but rather a 305-cubic inch (5.0-l) Chevy V8 ubiquitous throughout GM's lineup at the time.
The special Brougham package famously offered a higher-quality interior trim package complete with a plushier-softer suspension and more sound-deadening for a more refined and luxurious time behind the wheel. Though the Cutlass Coupe weighed only 3,300 lbs, pretty light on its feet for an American car, performance-choking and primitive emissions equipment meant this thumping great V8 jetted just 160 horsepower from the factory. Yeah, not the kind of car you'd want to bring to the autocross or the drag strip, or really any kind of race track on planet Earth.
On sheer numbers alone, this one-owner, Billings, Montana-resident for the last four-plus decades is nothing to write home about. But come on, numbers aren't everything outside of blatant anatomy-waving contests. Besides, we dare anyone to find the same vehicle with only 36,000 miles and change on the odometer anywhere else in America. Call it slow, call it ugly, heck, even call it useless if you want. But there is a certain set of people out there who'd see the virtues of a car like this. A machine you're liable to never see in this good of shape again.
That's why the asking price for this classic Cutlass of $17,890 isn't exactly outrageous. Its rarity and low mileage are just enough to inflate its price just a bit but not enough to bring it into outer space. For this reason, this is the kind of classic car that people can actually afford. You can't say that about a late 60s Cutlass.
Gone was the Cuttlas' lineup to Oldsmobile-specific V8s that defined the car previously. In its place was a slew of different engines from across the spectrum of General Motors vehicles that, for the first time ever, included diesel V8s. If you didn't know how that turned out, let's just say the Oldsmobile Diesel V8 put Americans off the idea of diesel-powered passenger cars for the next 45 years. Or, at least, it's often attributed to Oldsmobile diesels for comedic effect. In any case, this particular Cutlass Salon Brougham Coupe doesn't sport the LF7 or LF9 diesel V8, but rather a 305-cubic inch (5.0-l) Chevy V8 ubiquitous throughout GM's lineup at the time.
The special Brougham package famously offered a higher-quality interior trim package complete with a plushier-softer suspension and more sound-deadening for a more refined and luxurious time behind the wheel. Though the Cutlass Coupe weighed only 3,300 lbs, pretty light on its feet for an American car, performance-choking and primitive emissions equipment meant this thumping great V8 jetted just 160 horsepower from the factory. Yeah, not the kind of car you'd want to bring to the autocross or the drag strip, or really any kind of race track on planet Earth.
On sheer numbers alone, this one-owner, Billings, Montana-resident for the last four-plus decades is nothing to write home about. But come on, numbers aren't everything outside of blatant anatomy-waving contests. Besides, we dare anyone to find the same vehicle with only 36,000 miles and change on the odometer anywhere else in America. Call it slow, call it ugly, heck, even call it useless if you want. But there is a certain set of people out there who'd see the virtues of a car like this. A machine you're liable to never see in this good of shape again.
That's why the asking price for this classic Cutlass of $17,890 isn't exactly outrageous. Its rarity and low mileage are just enough to inflate its price just a bit but not enough to bring it into outer space. For this reason, this is the kind of classic car that people can actually afford. You can't say that about a late 60s Cutlass.
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