In 1972, about 25,000 Oldsmobile customers walked into their local dealership and said something akin to this: “The Vista Cruiser simply isn’t big enough.” And of those 25,000-odd customers, 18,087 of them decided that they might as well get the extra row of seats; after all, it was only an extra $134. What’s $134 when you’re already spending about five grand? This is one of those wagons. At an expansive 227 inches long, and with almost as much DI-NOC vinyl on each side, this Oldsmobile Custom Cruiser is an almost uproariously perfect symbol for what it was like to be living large in 1972. Located in Watertown, New York, and being offered on eBay with an asking price of $12,000 or best offer, this Oldsmobile “is road ready.”

Providing the urge to hit the road is the standard 225-horsepower Rocket 455 four barrel with Turbo Hydra-Matic 400 transmission. The seller says that the wagon “runs, drives, and stops as it should.” Power steering and power disc brakes were standard on the Custom Cruiser (as they should have been), and this one also appears to have air conditioning. Considering that one of the seller’s main points is that “everything works,” it’s a fair assumption to say that it has cold air. Don’t quote me on that, please.

In fact, it would have been interesting to see the out-the-door list price of this well-optioned station wagon, as it also has power windows and door locks that also work, in addition to an 8-track player that has an Earth, Wind, and Fire cassette sticking out of it. (I just heard “Sing a Song” on my commute this morning – great song. I wonder if it’s on the 8-track tape.) Unfortunately, not everything in the interior is a “Shining Star”; the upholstery is clearly torn (front and rear), and “the carpet and headliner are decent but not perfect.”

Making up for those interior blemishes, however, is the undercarriage, which is “super solid,” with “floors, frame, trunk pan, and dog legs” that are “clean, clean.” There are a couple small rust spots in the spare tire well, but there’s little to complain about here.

The electric tail gate and window also work, which is not terribly common in these clamshell wagons, according to the seller. This wagon is certainly not perfect, nor is it being presented as such. Both bumpers, front and rear, appear to have taken a hit a time or two in this wagon’s life, and I can’t imagine that they’d be easy to find. The Pinehurst Green Iridescent (the closest match on the chips I could find) paint appears to have some blemishes, but it’s in decent driver condition. In fact, that’s the best way to sum up this luxurious Oldsmobile, a decent driver. It’s picked up a few bruises since it found a new home back in 1972, but it could still make someone who’s looking for something just a little bigger than a Vista Cruiser very happy in 2025.