Who had a “crush” on the 1977 Oldsmobile Cutlass back in the day? If you were in high school in the late 1970s or early 1980s, you probably had a car like this, or one of your friends did. Oldsmobile knocked it out of the park with great styling, comfort, and reliability. This car is listed for sale here on eBay with 3 days remaining in the auction. The car is bid to $7,620 but the reserve has not been met. The car is located in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina. The seller states that the car has 80,623 miles but has only owned the car for a year. He purchased the car from the previous owner that had the car since 1987.
The interior shows some wear and sun fading. The door panels, seats, dash, and carpet are all different. Some of that is by design. It looks like the dash is cracked and the seats look soiled but can probably be cleaned up. The iconic Oldsmobile shifter is nestled in the console between the bucket seats. My buddy, Russell, had a 1977 442 with the same shifter. I can remember him downshifting into first and smoking the tires as we pulled out of the school parking lot. With only a 350 engine, that took a lot of talent.
The base engine was Buick’s 231 cubic inch V6 engine that only produced 105 horsepower. It was standard on all Cutlass’ except the Salon and station wagon. You could opt for a 260 cubic inch V8 engine rated at 125 horsepower, a 350 cubic inch V8 engine rated at 170 horsepower or a 403 cubic inch V8 engine rated at 185 horsepower. All 8 cylinder Cutlasses came with the GM 3 speed automatic transmission except if you ordered the 260 cubic inch V8. You could actually order a 5-speed manual transmission with the small V8. I have never seen a 5-speed manual Cutlass in person. Have you?
This car is painted in Code 78 Mandarin Orange. I think that silver, white and blue were the most popular colors for the 1977 Cutlass. This car is riding on Uniroyal tires and is said to run and drive great. The seller states that it is original but it has been repainted recently.
No site link for fleabay?
Disregard. Reloaded.
A neighbor owned an exact copy of this car! Unfortunately, it was in nowhere as near nice a condition, even though he was the sole owner. This one’s a beauty! GLWTA!! :-)
My brother had a 77 Salon in dark blue with light blue vinyl half. Was a gorgeous car. Timeless. Not sure why he got rid of it. Rust?
Nice color! When I used to detail cars,I did a (1971)
in a similar color,with a black vinyl color.It was a great-
looking car with lots of power.
It looks like this one has the 350. Back in the day I had one friend that had one with this engine, and another that had one with the v6. The difference was not subtle!
I think I’ve seen this car on here once before.
IIRC, the 5-speed was only available with the 260. It was glass-jawed too.
Disregard. That’s what I get for scanning the article and replying before seeing the ad.
When I was in high school my dad was driving a car like that. His was midnight blue. Going from memory, I think it had a 401. It was loaded.
High school kids drove Camaros, Chevelles, Mustangs an occasional Monte Carlo or Cougar and Beetles were given a pass. Not too many Mopars in my school, but I do remember seeing a new Superbird while waiting for the bus when I was 10. We thought most guys with Firebirds were a bit strange. Not the whole school, just us motor heads.
Today I appreciate Oldsmobile. Dad and Grandpa each drive them. I have a 66 Toronado that’s one of my faves. In a moment of weakness I listed it for sale. BarnFinds posted it and that’s how I found this site. My taste in cars today is much more diverse but in high school Chevrolet was our religeon.
Right on about appreciating all make as you get older….I bled chevy orange an still do to this day but there are not many, say, 45 plus yr old cars that I wouldnt enjoy now….30 yrs ago I wouldn’t even sit in a ford now they’re are several models I wouldn’t mind owning….
Nice, not a gem from the 60’s, but nice. If it was a 69 I’d make offer that wouldn’t be refused. Nice ride though
Great color. “Malaise” or not, this thing looks like a muscle car next to almost any modern vehicle.
How did Oldsmobile go from the number 1 seller in the US too out of business.
They shared in GM’s decline. The Olds Diesel fiasco hurt badly, as did the X-cars. By the mid-80s, they were becoming redundant. They were sharing the unremarkable GM engines and mostly FWD platforms of the time with other GM divisions, and they looked pretty much the same too.
They made a good try with the Aurora. But by then, we were into the SUV craze so it failed to make much of a mark. They then tried the Bravada. But that didn’t work out either because people saw it as just a more expensive Chevy Blazer, which it was. So off into the great automotive graveyard it went.
Bick….for a cool oldsmobile have you seen the guy who built the late 80s 442. W the bravada awd system. It has the lightening rod shifters and all. Plus its around 700-900hp or so if i recall .. totally wicked machine. Some good driving videos of it also 👌
Sorry I forgot about the Quad 4 and the Calais IS and Calais 442. I mean yeah, those were pretty decent, but not big sellers. And the Quad 4 was immediately dispersed to Pontiac and later to Chevrolet, so it didn’t create any real distinction for Oldsmobile like the ’60s Olds’ motors did.
@Stan – No but that sounds interesting. At one time, Oldsmobiles were feared on the street and at the strip. Mondello Performance used to build tons of performance parts for them, and they could be wicked fast.
But GM’s standardization took its toll. The Olds 455 vanished after ’76 and the replacement 403 wasn’t as good and only lasted a couple of years through ’79. Then the 350 disappeared after ’81 (it was only available in the FWD Toronado by then).
The 307 did live on in various applications through 1990, but did not have any performance rep. So over time, the Olds mojo was just forgotten. GM V-8 guys now focus on the small block Chevy, big block Chevy, and LS motors. Only a few build Olds V8’s now. It’s not even very easy to get parts for them anymore.
I worked for Oldsmobile. We were No. 3 at one point, never Number 1! We rested on our laurels and at the end, we had some of the best cars we had ever produced. However, GM felt that they could not justify a division that only built and sold 350,000 units a year. Bet they wish we were there now!
I highly doubt it. Buick does everything that Oldsmobile did, and even that brand is in jeopardy – in the United States anyway. GM is perfectly content making Chevrolet branded trucks and crossovers, with Cadillac there for upscale EVs, and Corvette as the sports car.
I wiil bet that Buick disappears in the U.S. in the not too distant future, And I would not be surprised to see Corvette become its own stand alone brand without the Chevrolet label. They might even make variations of the Corvette, kind of like Ford is doing with the Mustang. Times change.
The GM Division cutbacks weren’t because of lack of appealing products at each Division, it was coming up with the right mix that made sense.
Cadillac for the high end luxury.
Oldsmobile lost out to Buick because of strong sales in China.
Pontiac lost out the Chevrolet because the lack of need for a separate sporty Division.
By putting profit ahead of quality.
I enjoy seeing n interior that’s not black or dark grey. Tan, orange and white looks good. There wasn’t a lot of love for this body style until recently when 60’s cars started drying up. But having owned several Pontiacs and a couple Chevys of the same era, I would say these stand up better as a daily driver than a 60’s model. Sure it’s not a new car, and you would get tired of reaching across the seat to put the window up, but I think they are a nice way to get into the hobby.
No kids in my high school were driving anything like this in the late 70’s, unless it was dads car. Neighbor raced go carts, he was mid 20’s, we thought he was cool. Then he bought one of these. Nice car but we all would have bought a new Z28. That’s what the rich kids had, while we had whatever 60’s car we could afford.
We had 4 1973 Olds Cutlass’s for Drivers Ed.2 were 4 door, 2 were 2 doors. All were 350’s The one two door was just like this. Bucket Seats, Auto on the floor. Made for some fun times when we got out on the interstate and MERGED into traffic. For some of us this was as good as it got. We were even showed how to check everything under the hood. Love the Olds after that.
The model year before this, in 1976, this was the best selling car in America. In 1977 and 1978, Oldsmobile sold over 1 million cars per year and was the #3 selling brand. And now – the entire brand is gone. There’s a lot to like about this Cutlass Supreme. The only thing I don’t like are the cracks in the dash. Otherwise, nice paint, nice seats, like the Oldsmobile sport wheels, too!
Nice looking car…LOL at the h.p. numbers…105 to 185…My 2012, camry 4 banger has 178 H.P. although TQ. is pretty low…
Nice looking car…LOL at the H.P. numbers…My 2012 camry, w/ a 4 banger has 178 H.P. although the TQ. is normally lower :(:(
THIS was the car that caused me the ultimate confusion about the GM hierarchy. It was only later that I learned that Buick was supposed to be “fancier” than Oldsmobile.
If you were shopping for a mid-size/intermediate car in the 70s, The Cutlass was the car you wanted. I’m guessing these sold *way* better than the Buick A-bodies of the Colonnade period. That led me to believe that Olds was *above* Buick in the pecking order.
I had a ’77 Buick Regal with a 455, basically the same car, but that thing could melt the tires without even budging. Loved that car.
You had a real rare one there John. Buick didn’t manufacture the 455 after 1976.
https://www.drivingline.com/articles/a-history-of-the-buick-455-v8-gms-overlooked-big-block-v8/
These cars were hugely popular in the Mid 1970’s.
The 1976 Olds Cutlass was the best selling car in America selling over 500,000 1976 Cutlass’s.
I had 77 with the V-6 and a 5 speed and a tee top.
The car seemed to have plenty of power.
Grand parents drove new oldsmobile’s when they made enough money to do so. They had a maroon 76 4door with the 260 auto. Got passed to my dad when they got a new one. Ma and dad drove it out. Decent family car. Affordable mileage.
Oldsmobile styling lost me in the 1970s. The front split grill just does not flatter the car in any way. That was the main problem. If you can overcome that then enjoy it. The 1960 Oldsmobile’s had more class, yet sporty sophistication when it came to the styling than anything they did in the 1970s or beyond. It’s a shame they never figured that out.
First car in 1980 was a 1974 Cutlass Salon, white with a dark red cloth interior and the dark red landau roof. Also had a moonroof. I wanted a Trans Am, but was allowed the Cutlass. Back then I thought it was a grandpa car. Now? I think if I ever found one I’d bust into the 401K to put it in my garage.
I used to work on a 77 Salon with a 260 5-speed. Did the owners tune-ups for years. I also did some jet and rod work on his carb. To get better mileage you actually had to richen them because they were lean as hell from the factory. He swore he would get 28 mpg on Florida trips. Car was ball-less compared to my breathed on 77 Cutlass S that ran 15.0 in the 1/4.
This is a nice looking Cutlass but those bumpers are just ugly. If you could Foosefify those bumpers it would look great. But it’s just a Cutlass in the end.
I too worked inside the division – from it’s pinnacle to shortly before it’s demise. I was on the sales and marketing staff, and served on the Aurora launch team as one of my final assignments there. I love to read the reasons people think led to the decline of the division. Some comments may even seem logical, but the eventual collapse had very little to do with whats been stated. The story is fairly complex in what unfolded to create a perfect storm. Maybe someday someone will write a book? Hope it’s soon because many that were there have already passed and the rest of us will be joining them sooner rather than later.
l’d love to hear your comments jimmyx.
The path GM eventually took started in the Roger B. Smith era. It was a long and winding road as Oldsmobile’s decline was gradual, so the story is a long one and not easily translated into a few comments. The five most significant factors were:
1. Budget allocations relative to new product development.
2. Marketing/Demographic issues.
3. Internal politics.
4. Leadership team interlopers.
5. Unimaginable levels of negative cash flow.
Each is a story unto itself, but all are interrelated. Many were on the inside during the 20 year decline, but the group of people that were privy to much of the internal turmoil was fairly small, and as stated earlier, some have passed, and the rest have kept silent.
Me too
I’ve been an auto industry enthusiast since I was a teenager in the early 80s. The changes in this industry are absolutely fascinating. Thanks for the comments Jimmyx. Super interesting. You should write a book about it. I’ve read a few books over the years by Steven rat5ner, bob lutz’s book and some others yet I still yearn how and why the US absolute dominance of the industry waned over time. It truly saddens me.
I think we all need to learn this kind of history if we are going to protect and grow our other industries where we still hold a leadership position. I’m on another auto related website a lot too, and one comment thread went in this direction and the number of questions and comments exploded. Everyone was interested and had his or her opinion. From my perspective please feel encouraged to share your thoughts.
Do you know of any books that you feel have accurately covered this subject?
THE best looking Oldsmobile body they ever produced IMHO. The new owner hasn’t gone wrong bidding on this beauty. This car has a lot of life left in it and looking good in the process! $10,100 now with a day to go.