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Two-onados: 1966 Oldsmobile Toronados

The 1960’s brought about many cultural changes, innovations, and designs. The 1966 Toronado was definitely an interesting car with its styling and humongous front wheel drive V8 heart. This first year car is a relatively solid example that runs and drives but needs a good looking over before hitting the road once more. Owned by the seller for more than 20 years, this Olds has spent some time stored, but unfortunately it would appear the seller can no longer store this classic indoors. Having dropped his price to $2,800, this Toronado seems like a deal as a rusty parts car is included in the sale! Check them out here on craigslist out of Biloxi, Mississippi. Thanks to Barn Finds reader Mark for the great submission!

Rather tidy and clean under the hood, this 425 cubic inch V8 is ready to do business. The seller mentions this car has spent an undisclosed amount of time in storage to which it promptly started after its hibernation. The seller stresses that the car cannot be driven, even after performing maintenance on the brake system. I would assume he means that standard mechanical system checks, fresh gas and oil, and some other general checking should be performed before driving out on the open road.

In the cockpit, the interior does appear aged, but the worst of it appears to be the heavily worn seat bolster and seat bottom. The dash, steering wheel, and door panels look very nice. Adding a carpet kit, and reupholstering the seats would do wonders for this interior.

Although the paint is a bit oxidized, it does appear to be original, or at least a very old repaint. There is some minor rust in this car that should be pointed out. The worst of the exterior rust is contained the lower section of the rear quarters. The driver side has a small rot area, while the passenger simply has surface rust. Beyond the quarters, the trunk floor has a few holes, that are again, small, but the trunk floor is definitely going to need some help in the near future. Looking over the body reveals little in the way of dents or dings, but there are a few heavy scratch type gouges on the lower portion of the passenger side door. Aside from that issue the only other item to make note of is some various paint chipping around the driver headlight, and on the body line of the passenger fender. The chrome and trim work has a nice shine with no real evidence of rust. With a small dent on the passenger side, the rear bumper is in nice shape as well. Included with the sale, the parts car looks complete, and could very well be a source of parts to keep this main car kicking. Stylish and cool, this Toronado combo seems like a no brainer for the price. Would you jump on this big block duo?

Comments

  1. Avatar redwagon

    “$2800! Would trade for a Porsche 928 or 944 in same price range. Or VW Bus.”

    Cannot imagine what a VW bus in the $2800 price range would look like.

    Cool car. Seems to be worth the change.

    Like 0
    • Avatar Joe Nose

      Maybe the three Matchbox toys = $2,800?

      Like 0
  2. Avatar sir mike

    I remember the first one in my town.Come winter they mounted snow tyres on the rear.FWD American car at the time was different.Hope somebody saves this one.

    Like 0
  3. Avatar Fred W.

    “Cannot imagine what a VW bus in the $2800 price range would look like”

    I bought this one a few months ago for $3000. Needed seat covers , door cards a lot of attention to the fuel injection and brake work. Paint and body is decent driver quality.

    Like 0
    • Avatar BMW4RunninTundra

      Wow!!! Even though it’s not the old style that is bringing stupid money, it appears to still be a very nice bus that should have gone for a lot more than $3000!!!!!!! Sounds like you got a killer deal!!!!! I had one, of your vintage, in college. Fraternity rigged up a keg cooler over the engine hump!! I’ll leave it to the imagination where things went from there………….. (hint: full keg, full of frat brothers = slow trips = lots of time to work on lowering the weight of the keg…..)

      Like 0
  4. Avatar Ken Carney

    If there ever were a car from Hell, the ’66
    Olds Toronado would be it. It still leaves
    me scratching my head as to why GM would use this POS platform for the Cadillac Eldorado the following year.
    I bought mine in 1971 as a used car with
    12K miles showing. First thing I noticed
    was the excessive slippage of the transmission– even though I had it serviced twice in one month. I also recall
    the driveshafts falling out of the car while
    towing a small johnboat to the lake with my friends along for the ride. The final
    straw came when my Mom borrowed my
    car to do some shopping in a nearby town. The car overheated going up a small hill leaving her stranded while she
    waited for me and my friends to go and get her. It was a good thing that my friends humg around to follow us home, as the headlight doors suddenly slammed shut and couldn,’t be reopened.
    And that’s not even counting the 2 NEW
    SETS OF TIRES that I put on it in the 8 or
    so months I owned it. The whole experiance has left me soured on FWD
    vehicles to this day. When my mother in
    law bought a Hyundai Santa Fe last year,
    alk I could do was cringe in terror. We
    should never allowed the auto makers here in the states to build these dangerous and troublesome vehicles.

    Like 0
    • Avatar Corey Wadley

      I’ve owned any number of classics over the years, and currently am in possession of 7, 2 of them FWD. Frankly, all the items that you mentioned could happen to any car of age. It’s sound like that transmission needed a rebuild and the cooling system needed an overhaul. Welcome to old car life.

      And as to the Hyundai, if she services it regularly, your MIL could probably get 300,000 miles out of it.

      Like 0
    • Avatar Bruce Best

      Yea when they were bad they were really bad but I have seen a couple that have gone over 250K from new and one was a single owner car he had purchased from new. I have seen the same problems with some Caddys, Chevy’s Ford’s and Chrysler products. A lemon is just a lemon.

      I have owned a car that many consider to be a complete lemon a Renault Fuego and had over 125K on that car with only the fuse block being a problem in the end. Otherwise it never failed over the 6 years we owned it. It all comes down to quality of assembly and how you care for what you have.

      Sorry about your bad luck but I bet you would like to have Jay Lenno’s version of this car. But then so would I.

      Like 0
    • Avatar Tom

      Must have been a lemon…I’ve owned 5 of these and never had the problems you mention.

      Like 0
      • Avatar Bradley Clark

        Is that a ’69 ?

        Like 0
      • Avatar Tom

        ’70 gt

        Like 0
  5. Avatar Jim Morris

    The reason the trunk floor is rusty is that the drain tubes under the rear window plugged and flooded the trunk area. There is corrosion visible under the lower rear window trim, the channel under it is also probably gone.
    The next area is the lower A-pillars, notorious for going bad, taking the lower windshield channel and front toeboard with them, terrible to fix.
    The car has Comfortron, not GM’s best idea, the control head and master switch usually take a dump, parts don’t really exist.
    KenKarney, as stated, some cars are just lemons. Toros were generally very robust right from the git-go, I’ve owned and have known many high-milers that had nearly nothing done to them and they functioned solidly. Yea, tires and brakes were (and still are) an issue. The only real mechanical issue is finding quality front CV joints.
    Still, if the underside is not too rusty, could be a fun low budget build for cruisin’.

    Like 0
  6. Avatar Brakeservo

    Given the location, you gotta wonder – where was it in Katrina??

    Like 0
  7. Avatar Ken Carney

    Yeah Corey, I finally traded it in for a very
    nice ,’62 Buick ragtop that gave me much
    better service than the Toronado did. But
    before I traded cars. Dad and I went down to the lical Olds dealer and did a VIN check on that car as it originally was
    sold new in my home town. Turns out that this car gave THEM and the first owner so much trpuble that the dealership dumped it off at the car lot that I bought it from. A salesman from
    the Olds dealership showed us a large
    folder filled with complaints about the car that were made by the original owner
    about the car from the day he bpught it.
    To make sure that mo one else got burned on this car, he let me trade straight across for the Buick ragtop I
    mentioned earlier. The dealer sold the
    Toronado to an out of stste auction house where it became some one else’s
    priblem not ours.

    Like 0
  8. Avatar Bradley Clark

    This is my favorite year for the Toronado. A great body style. I wonder if one could have been ordered with bucket seats, and a floor mounted shifter ? My parents had a ’71. The 455 would just boil the front tires. I only got to drive it 3 or 4 times, being 17 @ that time. After 1977, the last of the long wheel base, they just went to pot. I feel really bad that Ken had such a poor report with his experience with the lemon Toro. All manufactures can toss a turn in the punch bowl from time to time.

    Like 0
  9. Avatar Tom

    Bradley, you could get bucket seats in ’66 and’67 but no floor shift (just a storage box). ’68-’70 buckets were a no cost option, and floor shift was an additional option…I posted a pic above of the ’70 with buckets/console…I think it really works considering the sporty nature of these cars.
    Tom

    Like 0
  10. Avatar Foster Member

    Don’t know if you guys remember, but there was a Toronado drag car in the late 60’s w/4WD–a 455 in the back seat as well as the one in front!!

    Like 0
  11. Avatar Barry

    Yes, Foster the car was called the terrifying Toronado , I saw it at a local oval track when the car was new ,they put the car on the backstraight so everyone in the stands could see it do a burnout , the car went down the tra k sideways at least that was what the rubber trail showed after the smoke cleared. Yes Terrifying!

    Like 0

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