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Big Brougham: 1977 Oldsmobile Toronado

032316 Barn Finds - 1977 Oldsmobile Toronado 1

This is an incredible car, and an incredible deal! The gorgeous, almost-perfect 1977 Oldsmobile Toronado Brougham shown here on craigslist in Metamora, OH and the seller is asking a scant $2,500 for this gorgeous car! Twenty-five hundred dollars! Sorry for being overly-excited but I think that’s a fantastic bargain. If this isn’t the deal-of-the-day here I’ll eat my hat, if I wore a hat.

032316 Barn Finds - 1977 Oldsmobile Toronado 3

This car is about 19 feet long so your 20 foot long storage unit had better be cleaned out before you put this one in there. Believe it or not, this is only the second generation Toronado, made from 1971 through 1978.

032316 Barn Finds - 1977 Oldsmobile Toronado 4

Whoops-a-daisy, there’s a problem. But, that’s the only thing I see on the exterior of this car that needs help. It’s a true time capsule.

032316 Barn Finds - 1977 Oldsmobile Toronado 2

Well, hello, gorgeous. I like your smile, do you come here often? Man, what a car. Sure, who doesn’t want a ’66 Tornado or another first generation car? But for sheer time-machine’ness, this car is hard to beat.

Oh boy, what a cruiser! You’d have to have your spouse nudge you continuously on road trips so you don’t just fall into a deep, REM sleep when you’re driving this luxury yacht. There are a couple of things to have restored on this car, but you can get these padded bits restored by a number of companies so you’ll be ready for the local car show. This car is almost forty years now and it sure doesn’t look like it is. There are no engine photos but it has a 403 V8 and has been garage-kept its whole, pampered life. The seller says that it’s in “Fair to Good”, but man, they’re really underselling this one from what I can see. The AC will need work, and a couple of cosmetic things will need to be returned to their former glory. But, once you’re done you’ll have a heck of a ride! Are you a first-generation-or-nothing Toronado person or do you like these second generation cars as much as I do?

Comments

  1. Avatar CJay

    gone!!!

    Like 0
  2. Avatar Ohu8one2

    I personally do not like the color’s. Other than that it’s a damn nice car for the money. Same motor as Pontiac used in the Trans Am’s that didn’t get three pedal’s.

    Like 0
    • Avatar Jim

      You just brought up a big screw up by GM by not tweaking the 403 which has potential, I’ve seen quite a few at the dragstrip and not putting a 5speed behind it. It would have been a whole different car.

      Like 0
  3. Avatar Fred

    A lot of “pie in the sky” pricing on old cars these days, on Hemmings, Craigslist, etc. and those stay on the market forever. This one was priced realistically and sold immediately.

    Like 0
  4. Avatar Al8apex

    expect to see the flipper’s ad on eBay soon

    Like 0
  5. Avatar jim s

    i too think this will get flipped. i hope they fix the bumper filler piece that is broken/missing first. great find.

    Like 0
    • Avatar Dan

      If anyone knows of a place that sells those body extension parts, I’d love to know. I have a car just like this.

      Like 0
      • Avatar Jim

        I’ve seen the bumper filler panels advertised in a few places, also in Hemmings in the Cadillac and Oldsmobile parts for sale sections. When I get home I’ll look in the magazine and post later.

        Like 0
  6. Avatar grant

    Not to my personal taste but amazingly well preserved and nice to see something priced realistically for what it is. That interior is pure 70’s pimptastic.

    Like 0
  7. Avatar Franimal007

    Finally reality pricing! Welcome to the real world and a hobby again!

    Like 0
  8. Avatar Jim

    The bumper filler panels are the same I believe as the Cadillac ElDorado and they are being reproduced in a better material that doesn’t turn to stone and crack like the originals. And with modern flexible paint it will age better and still match the car color. The SS Toronado. Big as a cruise liner but rode like you were sitting on your couch, unless you’re allergic to red this would be a nice car to restore and drive.

    Like 0
  9. Avatar Thomas

    Den Wagen würde ich sehr gern kaufen, aber wie bekommt man ihn nach Deutschland?
    (The car I’d love to buy, but how do you get it to Germany?)

    Like 0
  10. Avatar Paul R

    Wow what a car. When the seats in the car are more comfortable than the Lazy-Boy in the Den, that makes a statement! Gotta love the high mounted tail lamps below the rear window at the trunk line.
    Bumper filler panels were a common problem on all GM cars of the era. A local boat builder made fiberglass replacements for me when I did body work. The 403 was an excellent engine also as long as you kept the revs down. It made plenty of torque.
    Absolutely love it!

    Like 0
  11. Avatar Paul R

    Another interesting characteristic or the older cars is a lack of drink holders. It must of been thought eating or drinking was a distraction but smoking sure wasn’t. These old land yachts had enough ashtrays and cigarette lighters to kill the whole family with lung cancer!

    Like 0
  12. Avatar Nessy

    Ah, a car that I always liked. All Toronados are special, the 66, the 77/78 wraparound rear window XS models and the 79s are my top pick. The Firethorn red with matching red and gold pinstriped pillow interior was hard to top, even in a Cadillac from this era. This red was a very hot color offered on most GM cars at the time. If this was only an XS model…. Did you guys know that the XS, with it’s wrap around rear window and power moonroof was first going to be offered with power sliding T Tops? It was to be called the XSR. GM and The American Sunroof Company, ASC, teamed up to try and build this car for production. For many reasons, this just never happened so the XS models were built with the moonroof and not the T Tops. However, one Prototype XSR has been known to exist for all these years in this same Firethorn red, in a private collection. It was believed that another XSR was also built but scrapped long ago after the XSR concept idea was dropped. Nobody could really prove this except from a few old photos GM had on file showing the silver car. It was also said that the silver car and the red car were really the same car with a respray so it would seem as other cars were built. Well, that second silver car was found to still exist, in long term storage a few years back. Rumor has it that it was stored not far from Detroit in one of the old GM buildings. Somehow, the owner of the red prototype made a deal and was able to buy and rescue the silver prototype to be reunited with it’s red sister car. GM records all show only one XSR prototype to have been built but the real truth is that two cars were built. These two Toronado XSR prototypes, the only ones to exist, are now sitting right along side of each other in a private collection. Amazing!

    Like 1
  13. Avatar alabee

    Thomas, Sail it!

    Like 0
  14. Avatar Jim

    That wraparound rear glass looked great, sort of a throw back to ’59-’61 GM flat top sedans rear glass. By the late seventies the big three were losing the uniqueness of the individual car lines and they all started looking exactly the same. That rear glass was a nice change.

    Like 0
  15. Avatar Jim

    I can only imagine how much crap would have been crammed into the roof panel to operate the power t-tops. Holy Crap, remember a normal power sunroof slides back n forth and goes up or down maybe 1/2″ within the last inch of travel. A t-top makes up part of the upper window frame and is part of the roof structure, it would have to move vertically or a twisting motion to retract into the correct position before sliding more than the length of itself. Mind boggling. Probably a great exercise for the engineers but not feasible for production, imagine a dealership technician who had a one hour class trying to repair all the linkages, switches, motors ect. I’ve worked on a bunch of “regular” power sliding Moon n Sun roofs, I can only imagine the Tylenol and alcohol needed after a repair!

    Like 0
    • Avatar Andrew

      power t tops?

      Like 0
    • Avatar Nessy

      Yes Jim, I saw both cars and it’s unreal what they look like from an inside view looking up at the glass roof panels. First off, on a roof that is over 5 feet wide, the t top panels are only about 15 inches wide but they only slide back about 12 inches so you hit your head on them every 20 seconds if you are over 4 feet tall. The rest of the center roof is where they slide in and overlap each other so there is zero headroom in the cars. There are two sunroof like switches overhead that open the tops. You open the driver top first and then the passenger top second so they do not jam up in the roof. All the power motors, wires, ect are stored overhead behind the tops so the back seat passengers also have no headroom. Sitting in the back of the XSR is like being in a small cave, a very small cave! For such a big car with alot of glass, that back seat is tiny and cramped. Add to that the lack of headroom and you get the point. It is not fun and you really feel trapped with the doors closed. You can not move unless someone up front gets out and tilts the seat up since there is no way to unlatch the seatback from the rear. At that point, you want to get the heck out of that back seat and run! If this car ever did go into production, I can say for sure, this would have been in the top 10 list on record of GMs biggest flops, ever. With that said, it’s a wonderful thing to know that both prototypes still exist today and were not scrapped as most concepts cars were. I do have some photos that I would like to post here. Does anyone know how that can be done?

      Like 1
  16. Avatar Nessy

    Oh, I almost forgot, the Power Tops lacked a drain or drip channel so forget driving in the rain and everytime you wash the cars, you need to place heavy towels on the seats and rugs because if you do not, the interior will be soaked in just a few minutes. There are only tiny thin strips of rubber around the tops so water just pours in….The cars should be on display in the GM Heritage Center. The red one was on display there I think but that was long ago.

    Like 0
  17. Avatar Jim

    I can picture a real Rube Goldberg behind the headliner! No offense the Mr Goldberg! I’m 6’6″ and my head hits in some regular cars, I can imagine sitting in that. You’re right, they should be on display with other unique vehicles that were more an engineering or design exercise. They are part of the history of the company. Just for kicks I’d like to see one with the headliner down. No drains or water channels was a good idea, let’s go to the car wash, have your umbrella with you?

    Like 0
  18. Avatar slickimp

    Had a 77 as a winter car back in late 80s it was great car for that. It had those Midas mufflers on it and they were rusted out so the guy had them replaced for free like they did back then. I thought that was nice for him to do because I only paid $350 for it.

    Like 0

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