As a child of the 80’s I absolutely hated these cars of this era as a kid. I was ready for round corners and wedge shapes and digital baby! Things like all these straight lines, ornate grills, landau tops, wire wheels, etc, were just laughable and stodgy to me. Until I started watching your videos. You have single-handedly changed my opinion about cars from this era, you have revealed a beauty I never saw in my youth with your commentary. Thank you!
I think it was big, but had power with a 455v8. We had two wagons while I was still in school. Dad ordered a '1970 Olds Vista Cruiser (sherwood green color) with the wood grain vinyl on the side. Dad had to order it special because we had a travel trailer towing. Then in 1975 we traded that in for a '75 Custom Cruiser. It was HUGE, but dad got it with the towing group and the 455V8 again. In high school my friends and I all called it "The boat. The clamshell back on that wagon... was very unique system. The MSRP for the Vista Cruiser was 4800 and the Custom Cruiser had a MSRP of 8500. We loved it. Good review. I enjoyed this.
I was a passenger in a show-off run in these once--120 mph and the speedo was pegged, so faster than 120--but to look out or listen, you'd swear you were poking along at 75. A beautiful tank!
I just love these clamshell wagons! My dad had two of them, a 71 Pontiac Safari with a 455 and a 73 Grand Safari also with a 455. My dad was an engineering supervisor for food service construction projects all over the midwest and would put well over 50K miles a year on these company cars. Those were two of his best ones that he had over the years, they just would eat up the miles cruising down the highway!
I love woodgrain wagons, and have owned several. I was able to have the woodgrain vinyl replaced on a couple of them at a sign shop that did vinyl body wraps.
I enjoyed working on these cars at our Chevrolet , Cadillac , Oldsmobile dealership for many years . Learned so much from the older technicians . Thanks for helping my life men ! Bob , Florida . Ended my automotive career working with medium & heavy duty trucks . I am thankful .
My favorite aunt had a Pontiac Grand Safari 455, very similar to the Custom Cruiser. These were extremely large vehicles. I recall driving it shortly after getting my learner's permit. It seemed wider than the lane on narrow two lane country roads :) Thanks for the memories!
Dad debated getting one of those in '76, but the size put him off. He ended up with the smaller Lemans Safari with the 400. The Grand Safari looked better, I thought, but yeah, huge. That Lemans rusted like crazy though. It had holes through the door skins by the time '78 rolled around. It had two extensive body jobs on it by the time it was replaced with a Plymouth Voyager in '84.
Yep, one of my neighbors, who was definitely in the little old lady category, drove a huge Safari wagon around town for her regular shopping. In retrospect, the old woman-driver jokes were not really accurate. Just off the top of my head, our mothers were all driving (and parallel parking) huge pre-downsized wagons, Town Cars, Eldorados & T-Birds.
Who doesn't love a Rocket Oldsmobile from 1968 through 1976? To a car fanatic, there is not a more beautiful sound than the fabulous and famous "metallic rumble" of an Olds 350 or 455 Rocket V8. This was as American as it could get. My family had three Oldsmobiles: 1968 Cutlass Supreme Town Sedan 350-4bbl; 1972 Delta 88 Royale Town Sedan 455-4 bbl; and a 1977 Cutlass Supreme Brougham Sedan 350-4bbl. All of them provided dependable, comfortable, and powerful transportation in style. I think GM made a catastrophic mistake in ruining and thereby killing Oldsmobile. We never needed anything as large as a Custom Cruiser, as we were a small family and only pulled a ski boat ever once in a while.
In 1977 I was an Army medic and we had a Custom Cruiser with an ambulance conversion. Same as a hearse but white with a red gumball on top. It was obsolete as an ambulance by then but we used it for patient transfers from one Army post to another. It was fun to drive. It wasn't quick off the line but it would cruise all day on the Interstate at 100+ mph. We were an ambulance after all.
Wonderful video, thanks for producing it. We've owned a '73 Custom Cruiser for the past 5 years and use it as our daily driver summer car. It's perfect for running errands or to pack up gear and take it camping. Ours is a survivor that had 96,000 miles when we bought it and it now has about 110,000 miles. A few more thoughts and observations: (a) It's interesting how cars could be optioned back in the day. Ours has A/C, tilt wheel, cruise control, luggage rack and electric tailgate with manual windows and seat and no electric clock. We figured it was originally mom's car and used for summer vacation travel. (b) It truly is huge. With both rows of seats folded we can get several 4x8 sheets of plywood laying flat on the floor between the wheel-wells and completely shut the tailgate. (c) The tow hitch was designed and manufactured specifically for these cars due to the drop down tailgate design. They are very rare and prized today. The car is rated to tow 5,000 lbs. and there are commercials from back in the day showing the Chevy versions towing a 20 foot or so Airstream uphill on a highway. (d) We average about 10-11 MPG with a range of 8-12. (e) Although they made over 1,200,000 clamshells over all brands and all years, they are extremely rare today. We feel this is for two reasons. First, the aforementioned fuel consumption made them unwanted as used cars during the 1970's fuel crises and caused many to be scrapped early, and second, these clamshells are known as Queen of the Demolition Derby due to all that extra metal and buttressing in the rear end to hold that curved glass in place and keep the clamshell mechanism in place. A good chunk of that 5,100 pounds is out back on these wagons. (f) They didn't come with a catalytic converter and we installed duel exhaust and an electronic ignition system. Although not a drag racer from a stop, from 50mph - 80 mph our wagon is faster than most other cars we've ever driven. Super fun to pass others on the two lane highways we roam around on in the summers. Cheers
My parents were sedan people but many in the neighborhood had these big wagons back in the early '70s. The clamshell rear still looks futuristic 52 years later! GM ruled back then.
My friend's dad had one of these. He was driving it and wasn't paying attention to his speed as he was going downhill towards a stop sign. The brakes completely faded away, and we went blowing through a busy intersection. We got lucky with no accident but had the crap scared out of us, lol.
I factory ordered a 1973 Chev Kingswood Estate wagon in Dec '72. It had the faux wood sides, A/C and a black vinyl top with a chrome roof rack. I only had it for a couple of years because when the oil embargo hit gas shot up to $0.50 per gallon! At 11 1/2 mpg I decided to trade it in on a new Datsun B210 at 33 mpg to save on gas. Not as much room but fun to drive. The clamshell window on the Chev starting sticking part way open.
Another excellent video Adam. These cars, to me, are stunningly beautiful. I too, would love to own a high-optioned, excellent condition example with the power clamshell tailgate. As a former physical damage appraiser/adjuster for 30 years… and working beginning in the 1980’s…. you had to be very careful in repairing these clamshell wagons when hit fairly hard in the rear body panel/rear bumper and quarter panels, because the opening would distort, and then they were prone to leaking water and air whistling. Check carefully if you decide to buy one, to make sure it wasn’t hit hard in the rear. Thanks for featuring this vehicle in the video… love them.
You noted the wood grain’s rather abrupt stop at the header panel, then the marketing image at the vid end shows a different (idealized?) treatment. Seems the final solution wasn’t good enough for advertising, eh? Great episode, Adam!
If you look on the 1971 version Custom Cruiser at the beginning of the video, it shows the woodgrain there as it is shown in the advert pic for '72. Seems they hadn't made a final decision to "cut it back" for the '72 wagon before the pre-production shots were taken.
Absolutely love all the wagons from this era. My father had a 71 T&C 9 passenger with a 440 cid. It was black with woodgrain, absolutely beautiful. My brother and I just found a 70 T&C to relive our youth! We would love to see you do a story on the 69,70 or 71 T&C wagons. Thanks for all you do! 👍
Those and big Ole Buicks also, just huge and rode like a big boat!!! The interior of the rear wagons was narrow due to the spare tire on one side and the gas tank on the other.
Don't let pics of the clamshell hatch opening deceive you: my Dad's Chevy Impala SW version could swallow a dozen whole 4 ft x 8 ft wall panels easy like a pickup truck. All seats down there was a lot of cargo space.
The early 70s were the last gasp for these monstrous, full-size Murican iron boats. The oil embargo was right around the corner! It was cool that they tweaked the design year to year. Cars had flavor and character back then. My mom and aunt had 72 Buick Electra 225s. But build quality was starting to erode. Safety and emissions regulations would do a lot of damage to this segment of automobiles. Then Chrysler came out with the minivan and that was all she wrote for these beasts.
The ironic part of this story is the Chrysler minivan incorporated a lot of ideas developed at Ford. In the early 70s Hal Sperlich pitched an idea at Henry Ford II for a 'family' van...a mini-van if you will. Henry II didn't want to hear it believing it to be a dumb idea. In 1978 Henry II showed Iaccoca the door. Iaccoca moved on to Chrysler and brought Hal Sperlich with him and Hall brought his ideas for a minivan. If Henry II had listened to Sperlich the US car market could have gotten the minivan in 1974 instead of 1984. The station wagon would have died off a lot earlier.
@@MrSloika Maybe, maybe not. The public may not have been ready for a minivan in 74. Had they built it, can you imagine what kind of lackluster 4 or 6 they would have put in it?
My understanding was the exhaust exiting to the side was to prevent the hot exhaust from hitting people in the legs when loading or unloading the back with the engine running. Same reason the exhaust exits out the side on pickup trucks.
Back in about 1981 there was a girl in the neighborhood that I was good friends with. Her family had a '73 C.C. wagon. She stood about 5'0". When she turned 16 this is the car that she took her driving test in. We all thought that there was no way she would pass in that thing, but she did. lol
Great Video- My dad had 2 of these in the 70s, one sky blue, the other was the rust color. These are probably where I developed my love for Large Cars, as my favorite car I have ever owned was a '77 Newport, and today I still drive a '94 Town Car.
Have a 1974 custom cruiser with 45k original miles. It really is a great car. I drive it every weekend and my family loves it. It’s green silver with a vinyl roof in truly beautiful condition. I’ll post a video sometime.
Couple cool things additionally: because of the clam situation, these gargantuan wagons had the fuel tank in the left fender and the spare tire/jack in the right. Mom drove a 71 Grand Safari 8 passenger. Even though there's plastic, they're fantastically isolated ripping the fam on vacation.
We owned a fully loaded 1976 Oldsmobile Custom Cruiser Wagon. It was brown with a brown interior. It was a beautiful car. It had the self-leveling rear suspension that was able to keep the rear from sagging regardless of the weight of the passengers. We also had a 1976 Mercury Colony Park (Mom's car). The Mercury had softer springs but, when weight was added, the tail sagged badly.
I had a 1972 Vista Cruiser and thought it was very roomy. Most solid vehicle I ever owned. Extremely heavy, too. I liked using it for star gazing. The hood was massive for laying on and is the only hood I would trust dancing on. Solid like a tank!! It's the only car I ever had that never dented, even when dancing on the hood. No joke. Unfortunately, the frame rusted out and I had to scrap it. I also had a 1974 Pontiac Catalina Safari Wagon, which I think had the same specs as the Custom Cruiser in this video. It's what I learned to drive before getting my first license. Imagine being a beginner driver and having to parallel park that behemoth. lol I mastered it!! 👍 Great video and thanks for reviving some old memories for me.
The parking brake pedal that you see around 11:30 was used by GM into the 90s. ETA: Ford was not the only company to use GM air conditioning. In the 70s Rolls Royce used GM air conditioning and GM electronic ignition systems.
These Custom Cruisers bring back memories of Junior High School for me. I had a painful crush on a classmate whose parents owned one in the popular green without the woodgrain sides. The family had a place in cabin Country. I can only imagine the drive with three teenage girls. There was certainly enough room! I would love to add a '72 ninety eight Regency to my collection. In my opinion they give Cadillacs a run for the money in the luxury department!
I've posted this before and I figure I'll do it again when the time comes but when I was back in high school in the 80s my friends and I were townie kids who's parents worked on the assembly line at Ford. While the preppy kids drove Saab 900/900 turbos or BMW 318s my friends and I drove big Detroit iron like this. These monsters along with Ford's LTD wagon were built like tanks and were rock solid. With the big blocks they could even do burnouts. I think the Chevy offered the 292 c.i. straight six in the Malibu clamshell wagon as a delete option but I'm not 100% about that. If so it just didn't have enough power to really move a car of that weight around.
I had a 1971 Custom Cruiser, with the 455 2 barrel engine. It had a vinyl roof and the manual tailgate. Kids would try to buy it whenever a demolition derby was in the area.
We had 3 Custom Cruisers: 72, 75, 77. All bought used. Friend of the family was an Oldsmobile dealer, and we bought the trade ins from the same customer who bought new. Our 72 looked just like this one. Great car, my mom ran it everywhere, no issues. The 75 was a slug. The differences between the 72 vs 75 455 was like night and day. The 75 had to run on Amoco Ultimate unleaded premium to get any power or mileage out of it. All other gasoline it got around 8 mpg, ran like crap. 72 was great, 77 was like a tank.
That black and brown (wood grain) interior at 13:10 looks rich. I wish they had included the Vista Cruiser option on the top of the line wagon. I really like the Vista Cruiser. When I was a kid my dad was looking at family cars. I was hoping he would get either a Vista Cruiser or one of those Mercurys with the inverted back window that rolled down. I don’t remember what he ended up getting but it was neither of those. I would buy a Vista Cruiser today if I could find one in good condition for a good price, especially if it had that black and brown interior. That would be sharp. Wagons have never gotten the love they deserved from car guys. That’s why it’s hard to find a nice one today. They just got used up and discarded.
Adam, Although many of us rate the Vista Cruisers a little higher on the wagon scale, we are looking forward to the day another full-size wagon is added to your collection. If you cannot find a Custom Cruiser to your liking, you might consider adding another Colony Park. There are many other stalwarts like a Country Squire, Town & Country , Plymouth Suburban etc. Alternately, you could surprise us with an Intermediate such as the Montego MX Villager, Coronet Crestwood, Chevelle Malibu Estate..... The wagon possibilities are endless . 😁
I like the styling better than any other wagon. The only other one that stacks up in my eye is the 59' New Yorkers. I'd guess it would be hard to find one that the interior wasn't used up or the steel wasn't rusted out.
Thank you Adam. The discussion of the Custom Cruiser was quite interesting . The information shared was great at well. It is correct. I like the Custom Cruiser 1980-1990. I like the last one too 1991-1992 except for the headlight design. The issue with the 1991-1992 design is to shared too many parts with Chevrolet Caprice and Buick Roadmaster. The 1971-1976 generation was nice as well. It shared so much with the Ninety Eight and Eighty Eight and Toronado over the years. I agree with you about putting the interior on the Custom Cruiser. They never did. They could have in the 1980's and they never did. They could have had a loaded Custom Cruiser Brougham or some luxury trim.
My parents' first wagon when I was a kid was a 1972 Chrysler Town and Country., bought new. Oh wait, that was their second wagon. Previously they had a `71 Volvo wagon, but that turned out to be a lemon, so they only had it a year. Anyway, that Chrysler was a dark red color. You mentioned a vinyl top option on the Olds. My uncle had a `75 Buick Estate Wagon, and I'm pretty sure it had a vinyl top. My parents actually never owned an Oldsmobile, and I never did either. But I like the looks of them.
Been looking for one too. When I grew up mom and dad had a 71 kingswood estate then bought a 76 kingswood estate. Great cars for when you wanted to go out with a gang of friends
My college roommate had a 1972 in 1987 he purchased 5 years earlier for $250 as a high school sophomore. He helped me move a love seat into my apartment using the massive storage space. He joked it got 8 gallons per mile.
Adam, I really love that brochure at 14:40! I don't know if I ever saw a plain-jane Cutlass Cruiser instead of a Vista Cruiser - and I tended to pay attention because my older brother bought a '72 Cutlass Supreme... It's also wild to see that the giant Custom Cruiser only had FOUR cubic feet more cargo space then the Vista?!? Finally, besides all the other things that stripper wagon didn't have that you pointed out, it also didn't have power windows or locks, and that evidently meant a much less luxurious door panel and armrest. I wish I had been more than 8 years old back then...
Several people have commented that we don't remember seeing a simple Cutlass wagon in those days . As a self-confessed beancounter, Adam should have provided us with the sales breakdown for each Olds wagon variant in 1972. 😉
We remember working in a body shop in the mid-'70's. We did a lot of used cars and warranty work for local GM dealers, so we saw many of these, and their siblings. Talk about rust buckets, at least in south Ontario climate. every molding had to come off, so we could clean the rust around each retainer spot welded to the panels. One Cadillac dealer insisted they be refinished in acrylic lacquer, similar to what they came with. What a pain in the butt.
We had a ‘72 Pontiac Grand Safari growing up, 455 ci I believe, in “Springfield Green.” Manual clamshell tailgate-it was HEAVY. Never passed a gas station without stopping. 😅
Took my driver's test on June 25, 1977, in my dad's '73 Custom Cruiser (I passed).. it was the perfect car for a family of six, and I and my one sister sat in the rear seat since we were the two youngest. It was very elegant for a wagon (and for us; previously we had Vista Cruisers only), but there was an annoying hesitation whenever you pressed the gas, plus it had equally annoying seat belt buzzers. The clamshell was cool, but the tailgate accumulated dirt easily, for obvious reasons, and was hard to clean out.
My Dad bought one new- loaded. It was a very attractive dark blue. In ‘74 he traded it in for a ‘75 Pontiac Grand Safari- red with a stunning red interior
I love your channel which is bringing back so many memories! I got my first car at 16 when my grandfather gave me his 72 Merc Meteor. That was in 1982, and although it was only 10 years old, back then if you can remember…there was a world of difference between 1972 and 1982, especially on how these cars were perceived. We were a Mercury family, and on the farm we even had a Mercury dump truck lol! The Meteor was like a dé·classé version of the Marquis sold here in Canada. My dad was also involved…with the Marquis, Lincoln Towncars, Cougars. At one point I even had a 70 Cyclone Spoiler. Thank you !
“Because I want to” I agree with you Adam. I was very jealous of the Families who owned these beautiful Skirted Wagons including the Chrysler Series large and in charge wagons.
One of the few non-Olds we had was a Ford Ranch wagon. My dad distrusted the glideaway tailgate. His big concern was that if you were in a rear end accident that it would be hard to align things to make it work well again. I thought they were cool as hell..
Very nice. Those were pretty neat wagons. My friend's family had Buick's, including a '65 Riviera and a 1972 Buick wagon with the clam-shell tailgate. It was fun to watch the tailgate glass move out of the way and then the tailgate would disappear underneath the floor. Cool cars, for sure.
One particular reason for the raised roof was to package the sliding glass into the roof. Our used car manager drove only Caprice Estate, which I drove daily to shuttle clients, parts and dealer trades.
The extreme slope of the "Clamshell" rear window sure ate a lot of interior space. Also, with the tailgate sliding under the car people can't have a "Tailgate" gathering, no tailgate -- no seat... Thanks to Adam for keeping automotive history alive.
I had always assumed that one could slide it under, or pull it back to serve as a loading platform, but come to think of it, I've never seen one with the tailgate out. The floor in these cars was probably as long as the extended loading surface in many normal-sized wagons (I think a 4X8 piece of plywood could fit in with the tailgate closed!), but the ability to fold the tailgate out would have been useful for moving a long rug.
That all - Gold wagon featured on here is just gorgeous. Stately and elegant. I'm biased of course because I remember seeing these in the neighborhood. But never saw a Gold one like this. Those were the years when Detroit was still building cars WE wanted, remember those days????
Wow Adam, a huge wagon with more head-room in the back and a clam-shell tail-gate, as well...With a 455 engine, filling-up at a gas station wud have been a frequent thing, if on a driving holiday. Cheers fm Damo😊👍
My sister had a 76 Custom Cruiser, which she loved. The door panels in her car were the same as in the Ninety Eight, full length armrests with integrated courtesy/warning lamps. I don't remember the seats for sure, but I don't think they were the same as the Ninety Eight. She says if she could find another in good condition she would buy it in a second!
It looked like the Vista Cruiser had almost the same amount of interior cargo capacity as the Custom Cruiser. Combined with the more restricted cargo bay access in the back & I would have been leaning toward the Vista Cruiser unless the width for 4 foot wide plywood was the central concern, ---but my Father back in the day, had a small trailer for such trips to the lumber yard. Back then I recall my Father who bought new 62 & 65 Pontiac full size wagons from Clohecy Pontiac on 22520 Grand River in Detroit, also complaining about the 65 having a less squared off rear door access because of the leaning forward design on the c-pillar resulting in a few more head bangs from taller back seat passengers... Our neighbor had one of those Ford Magic Gate wagons type dual tailgates and again my Father was impressed at the functional aspect of the design & how well it appeared to operate & thought the clam-shell Glide-Away design took away some rear cargo room & access from the wrap around windows, & was a lot of high tech nonsense pushing too much style over function!! To me function combined with style always trumps pure style whenever it clearly interferes with functional attributes. I thought the 64 Pontiac Bonneville Safari down the street as a kid was a good example of good looking style combined with considerable functional attributes. Take a look at the back and side of those 64 Pontiac wagons with their large attractive tail-lights (It still needed better bumpers or at least bumper guards my Father said!!) & you can see a combination of function yet impressive style. Still further, when my Father experienced the roominess and function of a 1967 International Travelall with overdrive, he was impressed with that machine too as it was such a terrific 2-wheel drive wagon back then (you could get 4x4 as well) if you liked a more rugged functional platform that was still darn good looking in exterior style, & on the interior instrument panel as well.
Nice i luv wagons..had 78 caprice classic wagon .elec back window rear facing seat in back..had it 15yrs..easy 350 engine 2 work on ..front bench romantic seats .....the good ol cruisin days n nites ..now?? Im old
In 1975 (high school), I had the opportunity to perform in the annual stage play. Practice was in the evenings. One Friday night after practice, I went out with one of the other players, who was driving the family Custom Cruiser. Since it was already a shared and well-understood goal, it wasn't long before the Custom Cruiser was parked in the middle of a corn crib, and I became separated from my pants for a little while. Monday morning, my first class in school was geometry. Imagine my horror when, as class began, the teacher reached into his middle desk drawer, extracted my wallet, and handed it to me. "I found this while I was hunting Saturday, out near [Old MacDonald]'s corn crib." I hadn't even yet realized that I'd lost the wallet; it was around the time I started carrying one full time. I took the wallet, blurted out the first thing I could think of ("It was stolen at play practice! Wow, you found it!"), and I'm sure turned 800 shades of red. I have never had a poker face and that geometry teacher knew I was lying. Every time I see one of these cars, especially in the same color, I remember that Friday night and that Monday morning.
@11:54 That looks like a Kraco hump-mount accessory console in the green interior, in the inset picture. My parents had one of those in their '75 Cutlass Supreme, to mount the Johnson 23 channel CB radio! And a magnetic antenna base for the deck lid.
Cars certainly have changed radically. From this time, we'd be excited that our Vista Cruiser had a slice of sunroof in the ceiling of the wagon. That was actually a big deal! Now, our cars baby us in hundreds of ways, are stuffed with sensors and processing power, and are completely beyond us in terms of maintaining them.
I believe that when GM replaced the real Vista Cruiser with a "Vista Cruiser" in name only for 1973, they made a little pop-up sunroof, the kind all the kids later put on their Pintos and Corollas, standard on most trim levels as sort of a consolation offering. Well, at least they were sort-of trying.
The Custom Cruiser (particularly '71 - '73) was the closest GM got to offering a production Cadillac wagon until the advent of the CTS model, IMuHO. The Custom Cruiser was a true wagon-version of the 98 whereas the Buick equivalent was at least partially based on the LeSabre. The Olds version included the 98's fender skirts along with sort of Caddy-type vertical tail lamps. The 98's rear fins were retained as well. Of course to be fair, the Buick & Pontiac also carried a fin so that's gotta be said. But IMuHO, this was the best of the four brands offering a full-size clamshell wagon. I have believed for quite a while that Olds exceeded Buick on this one although the interior of the Estate Wagon admittedly may have been a little nicer.
In 71 Dad brought a Vista Wagon and a Fury III sedan home to checkout. I loved the curved glass, but he bought the Fury. I ended up owning the Fury in 79 for a short time. Rolling bedrooms. Ahhh those were the days.
Most of those wagons (Chev, Pont etal.) got lost to demolition derbies when they got old. That body style was banned from them as they were almost impossible to kill.
Are you sure the Oldsmobile is the biggest wagon? My grandparents had a 1976 Buick Grand Estate wagon and I swear that thing was as big as the Exxon Valdez!!!
What a community center-- seems like you might find a hockey rink inside. My first thought about the fin tops was they might have been there to take the brunt of damage incurred during loading, but your guess is better, Adam. Great vid!
Great cars - thanks for posting. It surprised me that GM did not offer full-size wagons for Olds ( or Buick? ) from about 1964 through 1970. If any GM experts know for sure, please comment
My dad bought a 72 Chevrolet Kingswood wagon with many of the design features shown here, especially the clamshell back door (ours was electric, and the bottom half always needed manual assistance to close). Ours was three row, but I don’t believe it had any roof windows. I remember a “400” in front of the front wheels, so no 455 (though I later bought a ‘70 Riviera with that motor). My dad drove the Kingswood for about 200,000 miles before my brother took it over as his high school car. It ended up winning a demolition derby some years later.
My parents had a 1973 CC wagon, I took my driving test in it. It rode nice with the long wheelbase had plenty of power with the 455 under the hood and could haul anything you could throw at it. Unfortunately the body started rusting out along the rear windows, they sold it around 1984-85. No cruise control manual turn down windows and locks and no tilt wheel. We were the second owners, a family purchased it and it was too big for their needs so they traded it with only 300 miles on the clock on a Cutlass Cruiser wagon
My Dad was a legal products salesman for BNA in Detroit in the 1960s - 1980s. GM was his biggest client, and back in the days when deals were discussed over a 3 martini lunch, he would transport his GM clients around in big GM cars. Dad liked Pontiacs, and we owned a couple of the big Grand Ville/Grand Safari wagons from the early to mid 70s.
That first car has a bent front bumper on the left side. This kind of thing often caused when a car was towed by wreckers were the old strap type towing rig.
I had a 72 custom cruiser witahvinyl roof. It was totally loaded and I also has a moon roof installed, Hensel the vinyl. It was silver, burgundy interior and burgundy roof. A striking car.
In 1971, my sister had a 1965 Oldsmobile Dynamic 88 with a 455, and my best friend's mom drove a 1969(?) Ford station wagon with a 390. Me? Had a '66 442 with the factory tri-power, 4-speed. Those were the days.....
When I met my late ex-wife, her parents had two cars, a Pinto and a Custom Cruiser. Her father and brother built and raced inboard hydroplanes, and used the Olds to pull the boat trailer. Long time ago.
As a child of the 80’s I absolutely hated these cars of this era as a kid. I was ready for round corners and wedge shapes and digital baby! Things like all these straight lines, ornate grills, landau tops, wire wheels, etc, were just laughable and stodgy to me. Until I started watching your videos. You have single-handedly changed my opinion about cars from this era, you have revealed a beauty I never saw in my youth with your commentary. Thank you!
I think it was big, but had power with a 455v8. We had two wagons while I was still in school. Dad ordered a '1970 Olds Vista Cruiser (sherwood green color) with the wood grain vinyl on the side. Dad had to order it special because we had a travel trailer towing. Then in 1975 we traded that in for a '75 Custom Cruiser. It was HUGE, but dad got it with the towing group and the 455V8 again. In high school my friends and I all called it "The boat. The clamshell back on that wagon... was very unique system. The MSRP for the Vista Cruiser was 4800 and the Custom Cruiser had a MSRP of 8500. We loved it. Good review. I enjoyed this.
I remember Olds always had a super cushy ride more than Buick.
Very cool! It was almost surprisingly expensive- way to go dad!
I was a passenger in a show-off run in these once--120 mph and the speedo was pegged, so faster than 120--but to look out or listen, you'd swear you were poking along at 75. A beautiful tank!
I just love these clamshell wagons! My dad had two of them, a 71 Pontiac Safari with a 455 and a 73 Grand Safari also with a 455. My dad was an engineering supervisor for food service construction projects all over the midwest and would put well over 50K miles a year on these company cars. Those were two of his best ones that he had over the years, they just would eat up the miles cruising down the highway!
15:22 "curb weight, 5109". The 2023 Dodge Charger weights between 5,100-5,500 lbs depending on options
Great video Adam! Thank you! I truly miss Oldsmobile!😢
I love woodgrain wagons, and have owned several. I was able to have the woodgrain vinyl replaced on a couple of them at a sign shop that did vinyl body wraps.
I enjoyed working on these cars at our Chevrolet , Cadillac , Oldsmobile dealership for many years .
Learned so much from the older technicians . Thanks for helping my life men ! Bob , Florida .
Ended my automotive career working with medium & heavy duty trucks . I am thankful .
My favorite aunt had a Pontiac Grand Safari 455, very similar to the Custom Cruiser. These were extremely large vehicles. I recall driving it shortly after getting my learner's permit. It seemed wider than the lane on narrow two lane country roads :) Thanks for the memories!
Dad debated getting one of those in '76, but the size put him off. He ended up with the smaller Lemans Safari with the 400. The Grand Safari looked better, I thought, but yeah, huge.
That Lemans rusted like crazy though. It had holes through the door skins by the time '78 rolled around. It had two extensive body jobs on it by the time it was replaced with a Plymouth Voyager in '84.
Brings back memories of driving my Dad's Chevy G van with my learner's permit.
Yep, one of my neighbors, who was definitely in the little old lady category, drove a huge Safari wagon around town for her regular shopping. In retrospect, the old woman-driver jokes were not really accurate. Just off the top of my head, our mothers were all driving (and parallel parking) huge pre-downsized wagons, Town Cars, Eldorados & T-Birds.
Who doesn't love a Rocket Oldsmobile from 1968 through 1976? To a car fanatic, there is not a more beautiful sound than the fabulous and famous "metallic rumble" of an Olds 350 or 455 Rocket V8. This was as American as it could get. My family had three Oldsmobiles: 1968 Cutlass Supreme Town Sedan 350-4bbl; 1972 Delta 88 Royale Town Sedan 455-4 bbl; and a 1977 Cutlass Supreme Brougham Sedan 350-4bbl. All of them provided dependable, comfortable, and powerful transportation in style. I think GM made a catastrophic mistake in ruining and thereby killing Oldsmobile.
We never needed anything as large as a Custom Cruiser, as we were a small family and only pulled a ski boat ever once in a while.
In 1977 I was an Army medic and we had a Custom Cruiser with an ambulance conversion. Same as a hearse but white with a red gumball on top. It was obsolete as an ambulance by then but we used it for patient transfers from one Army post to another. It was fun to drive. It wasn't quick off the line but it would cruise all day on the Interstate at 100+ mph. We were an ambulance after all.
Army used Pontiacs!
Wonderful video, thanks for producing it. We've owned a '73 Custom Cruiser for the past 5 years and use it as our daily driver summer car. It's perfect for running errands or to pack up gear and take it camping. Ours is a survivor that had 96,000 miles when we bought it and it now has about 110,000 miles. A few more thoughts and observations: (a) It's interesting how cars could be optioned back in the day. Ours has A/C, tilt wheel, cruise control, luggage rack and electric tailgate with manual windows and seat and no electric clock. We figured it was originally mom's car and used for summer vacation travel. (b) It truly is huge. With both rows of seats folded we can get several 4x8 sheets of plywood laying flat on the floor between the wheel-wells and completely shut the tailgate. (c) The tow hitch was designed and manufactured specifically for these cars due to the drop down tailgate design. They are very rare and prized today. The car is rated to tow 5,000 lbs. and there are commercials from back in the day showing the Chevy versions towing a 20 foot or so Airstream uphill on a highway. (d) We average about 10-11 MPG with a range of 8-12. (e) Although they made over 1,200,000 clamshells over all brands and all years, they are extremely rare today. We feel this is for two reasons. First, the aforementioned fuel consumption made them unwanted as used cars during the 1970's fuel crises and caused many to be scrapped early, and second, these clamshells are known as Queen of the Demolition Derby due to all that extra metal and buttressing in the rear end to hold that curved glass in place and keep the clamshell mechanism in place. A good chunk of that 5,100 pounds is out back on these wagons. (f) They didn't come with a catalytic converter and we installed duel exhaust and an electronic ignition system. Although not a drag racer from a stop, from 50mph - 80 mph our wagon is faster than most other cars we've ever driven. Super fun to pass others on the two lane highways we roam around on in the summers. Cheers
My parents were sedan people but many in the neighborhood had these big wagons back in the early '70s. The clamshell rear still looks futuristic 52 years later! GM ruled back then.
The clamshell was a good idea badly implemented. The clamshells caused a lot of problems which is why they didn't last very long.
My friend's dad had one of these. He was driving it and wasn't paying attention to his speed as he was going downhill towards a stop sign. The brakes completely faded away, and we went blowing through a busy intersection. We got lucky with no accident but had the crap scared out of us, lol.
I factory ordered a 1973 Chev Kingswood Estate wagon in Dec '72. It had the faux wood sides, A/C and a black vinyl top with a chrome roof rack. I only had it for a couple of years because when the oil embargo hit gas shot up to $0.50 per gallon! At 11 1/2 mpg I decided to trade it in on a new Datsun B210 at 33 mpg to save on gas. Not as much room but fun to drive. The clamshell window on the Chev starting sticking part way open.
Another excellent video Adam. These cars, to me, are stunningly beautiful. I too, would love to own a high-optioned, excellent condition example with the power clamshell tailgate. As a former physical damage appraiser/adjuster for 30 years… and working beginning in the 1980’s…. you had to be very careful in repairing these clamshell wagons when hit fairly hard in the rear body panel/rear bumper and quarter panels, because the opening would distort, and then they were prone to leaking water and air whistling. Check carefully if you decide to buy one, to make sure it wasn’t hit hard in the rear. Thanks for featuring this vehicle in the video… love them.
You noted the wood grain’s rather abrupt stop at the header panel, then the marketing image at the vid end shows a different (idealized?) treatment. Seems the final solution wasn’t good enough for advertising, eh? Great episode, Adam!
If you look on the 1971 version Custom Cruiser at the beginning of the video, it shows the woodgrain there as it is shown in the advert pic for '72. Seems they hadn't made a final decision to "cut it back" for the '72 wagon before the pre-production shots were taken.
Those '91/'92 Custom Cruiser are UNICORNS. I would LOVE to own one.
Absolutely love all the wagons from this era. My father had a 71 T&C 9 passenger with a 440 cid. It was black with woodgrain, absolutely beautiful. My brother and I just found a 70 T&C to relive our youth! We would love to see you do a story on the 69,70 or 71 T&C wagons. Thanks for all you do! 👍
Those and big Ole Buicks also, just huge and rode like a big boat!!! The interior of the rear wagons was narrow due to the spare tire on one side and the gas tank on the other.
Don't let pics of the clamshell hatch opening deceive you: my Dad's Chevy Impala SW version could swallow a dozen whole 4 ft x 8 ft wall panels easy like a pickup truck. All seats down there was a lot of cargo space.
The early 70s were the last gasp for these monstrous, full-size Murican iron boats. The oil embargo was right around the corner! It was cool that they tweaked the design year to year. Cars had flavor and character back then. My mom and aunt had 72 Buick Electra 225s. But build quality was starting to erode. Safety and emissions regulations would do a lot of damage to this segment of automobiles. Then Chrysler came out with the minivan and that was all she wrote for these beasts.
The ironic part of this story is the Chrysler minivan incorporated a lot of ideas developed at Ford. In the early 70s Hal Sperlich pitched an idea at Henry Ford II for a 'family' van...a mini-van if you will. Henry II didn't want to hear it believing it to be a dumb idea. In 1978 Henry II showed Iaccoca the door. Iaccoca moved on to Chrysler and brought Hal Sperlich with him and Hall brought his ideas for a minivan. If Henry II had listened to Sperlich the US car market could have gotten the minivan in 1974 instead of 1984. The station wagon would have died off a lot earlier.
@@MrSloika Maybe, maybe not. The public may not have been ready for a minivan in 74. Had they built it, can you imagine what kind of lackluster 4 or 6 they would have put in it?
Loved this styling of Oldsmobile. I had the 72 Olds 88 Royale Hardtop in dark blue with a light blue top. Biscuit interior beautiful
My understanding was the exhaust exiting to the side was to prevent the hot exhaust from hitting people in the legs when loading or unloading the back with the engine running. Same reason the exhaust exits out the side on pickup trucks.
Back in about 1981 there was a girl in the neighborhood that I was good friends with. Her family had a '73 C.C. wagon. She stood about 5'0". When she turned 16 this is the car that she took her driving test in. We all thought that there was no way she would pass in that thing, but she did. lol
I remember those "clamshells". Very unusual. Great review Adam! Again.
Love it when you review classic Oldsmobiles !
Great Video- My dad had 2 of these in the 70s, one sky blue, the other was the rust color. These are probably where I developed my love for Large Cars, as my favorite car I have ever owned was a '77 Newport, and today I still drive a '94 Town Car.
Adam, excellent as always!! Save the wagons! ❤
Have a 1974 custom cruiser with 45k original miles. It really is a great car. I drive it every weekend and my family loves it. It’s green silver with a vinyl roof in truly beautiful condition. I’ll post a video sometime.
Couple cool things additionally: because of the clam situation, these gargantuan wagons had the fuel tank in the left fender and the spare tire/jack in the right. Mom drove a 71 Grand Safari 8 passenger. Even though there's plastic, they're fantastically isolated ripping the fam on vacation.
We owned a fully loaded 1976 Oldsmobile Custom Cruiser Wagon. It was brown with a brown interior. It was a beautiful car. It had the self-leveling rear suspension that was able to keep the rear from sagging regardless of the weight of the passengers. We also had a 1976 Mercury Colony Park (Mom's car). The Mercury had softer springs but, when weight was added, the tail sagged badly.
I had a 1972 Vista Cruiser and thought it was very roomy. Most solid vehicle I ever owned. Extremely heavy, too. I liked using it for star gazing. The hood was massive for laying on and is the only hood I would trust dancing on. Solid like a tank!! It's the only car I ever had that never dented, even when dancing on the hood. No joke. Unfortunately, the frame rusted out and I had to scrap it. I also had a 1974 Pontiac Catalina Safari Wagon, which I think had the same specs as the Custom Cruiser in this video. It's what I learned to drive before getting my first license. Imagine being a beginner driver and having to parallel park that behemoth. lol I mastered it!! 👍 Great video and thanks for reviving some old memories for me.
My friend has a 75 Custom Cruiser. Massive car. 455, factory alarm.
The parking brake pedal that you see around 11:30 was used by GM into the 90s. ETA: Ford was not the only company to use GM air conditioning. In the 70s Rolls Royce used GM air conditioning and GM electronic ignition systems.
These Custom Cruisers bring back memories of Junior High School for me. I had a painful crush on a classmate whose parents owned one in the popular green without the woodgrain sides. The family had a place in cabin Country. I can only imagine the drive with three teenage girls. There was certainly enough room!
I would love to add a '72 ninety eight Regency to my collection. In my opinion they give Cadillacs a run for the money in the luxury department!
I've posted this before and I figure I'll do it again when the time comes but when I was back in high school in the 80s my friends and I were townie kids who's parents worked on the assembly line at Ford. While the preppy kids drove Saab 900/900 turbos or BMW 318s my friends and I drove big Detroit iron like this. These monsters along with Ford's LTD wagon were built like tanks and were rock solid. With the big blocks they could even do burnouts. I think the Chevy offered the 292 c.i. straight six in the Malibu clamshell wagon as a delete option but I'm not 100% about that. If so it just didn't have enough power to really move a car of that weight around.
I had a 1971 Custom Cruiser, with the 455 2 barrel engine.
It had a vinyl roof and the manual tailgate.
Kids would try to buy it whenever a demolition derby was in the area.
We had 3 Custom Cruisers: 72, 75, 77. All bought used. Friend of the family was an Oldsmobile dealer, and we bought the trade ins from the same customer who bought new. Our 72 looked just like this one. Great car, my mom ran it everywhere, no issues. The 75 was a slug. The differences between the 72 vs 75 455 was like night and day. The 75 had to run on Amoco Ultimate unleaded premium to get any power or mileage out of it. All other gasoline it got around 8 mpg, ran like crap. 72 was great, 77 was like a tank.
Cruiser is exactly what the Olds with 455 are. Float down the road doing 80 to 90 and never know it. Just fantastic cars
That black and brown (wood grain) interior at 13:10 looks rich.
I wish they had included the Vista Cruiser option on the top of the line wagon. I really like the Vista Cruiser. When I was a kid my dad was looking at family cars. I was hoping he would get either a Vista Cruiser or one of those Mercurys with the inverted back window that rolled down. I don’t remember what he ended up getting but it was neither of those. I would buy a Vista Cruiser today if I could find one in good condition for a good price, especially if it had that black and brown interior. That would be sharp.
Wagons have never gotten the love they deserved from car guys. That’s why it’s hard to find a nice one today. They just got used up and discarded.
Adam, Although many of us rate the Vista Cruisers a little higher on the wagon scale, we are looking forward to the day another full-size wagon is added to your collection. If you cannot find a Custom Cruiser to your liking, you might consider adding another Colony Park. There are many other stalwarts like a Country Squire, Town & Country , Plymouth Suburban etc. Alternately, you could surprise us with an Intermediate such as the Montego MX Villager, Coronet Crestwood, Chevelle Malibu Estate..... The wagon possibilities are endless . 😁
The '70 Fury Suburban had the best facia in the business when you got the hidden headlights. Looked like a '68 Charger. Us kids thought it was badass
He has a colony park
@@bendeleted9155 You kids were right!
@@moejr1974 You can never have too many Colony Parks.
I like the styling better than any other wagon. The only other one that stacks up in my eye is the 59' New Yorkers. I'd guess it would be hard to find one that the interior wasn't used up or the steel wasn't rusted out.
Oddly only a 21 gallon fuel tank. My friend’s dad had a ‘73. I got to drive it. Beautiful riding car, super Comfy.
Sad as good as Oldsmobile was doing in the 70s-80s they would be GONE 20 years later. Those taillights are very Cadillac looking.
Thank you Adam. The discussion of the Custom Cruiser was quite interesting . The information shared was great at well. It is correct. I like the Custom Cruiser 1980-1990. I like the last one too 1991-1992 except for the headlight design. The issue with the 1991-1992 design is to shared too many parts with Chevrolet Caprice and Buick Roadmaster. The 1971-1976 generation was nice as well. It shared so much with the Ninety Eight and Eighty Eight and Toronado over the years. I agree with you about putting the interior on the Custom Cruiser. They never did. They could have in the 1980's and they never did. They could have had a loaded Custom Cruiser Brougham or some luxury trim.
My parents' first wagon when I was a kid was a 1972 Chrysler Town and Country., bought new. Oh wait, that was their second wagon. Previously they had a `71 Volvo wagon, but that turned out to be a lemon, so they only had it a year. Anyway, that Chrysler was a dark red color. You mentioned a vinyl top option on the Olds. My uncle had a `75 Buick Estate Wagon, and I'm pretty sure it had a vinyl top. My parents actually never owned an Oldsmobile, and I never did either. But I like the looks of them.
Been looking for one too.
When I grew up mom and dad had a 71 kingswood estate then bought a 76 kingswood estate. Great cars for when you wanted to go out with a gang of friends
The Regency had a sweet black interior. Still looks good today.
My college roommate had a 1972 in 1987 he purchased 5 years earlier for $250 as a high school sophomore. He helped me move a love seat into my apartment using the massive storage space. He joked it got 8 gallons per mile.
Adam, I really love that brochure at 14:40! I don't know if I ever saw a plain-jane Cutlass Cruiser instead of a Vista Cruiser - and I tended to pay attention because my older brother bought a '72 Cutlass Supreme...
It's also wild to see that the giant Custom Cruiser only had FOUR cubic feet more cargo space then the Vista?!?
Finally, besides all the other things that stripper wagon didn't have that you pointed out, it also didn't have power windows or locks, and that evidently meant a much less luxurious door panel and armrest. I wish I had been more than 8 years old back then...
Several people have commented that we don't remember seeing a simple Cutlass wagon in those days . As a self-confessed beancounter, Adam should have provided us with the sales breakdown for each Olds wagon variant in 1972. 😉
my family had the earlier vista cruiser, i loved that car with the overhead windows and long side top rail windows.
Of all the station wagons owned by various family members when I was a kid, my uncle's Vista Cruiser ranks at the top!!
We remember working in a body shop in the mid-'70's. We did a lot of used cars and warranty work for local GM dealers, so we saw many of these, and their siblings. Talk about rust buckets, at least in south Ontario climate. every molding had to come off, so we could clean the rust around each retainer spot welded to the panels. One Cadillac dealer insisted they be refinished in acrylic lacquer, similar to what they came with. What a pain in the butt.
We had a ‘72 Pontiac Grand Safari growing up, 455 ci I believe, in “Springfield Green.” Manual clamshell tailgate-it was HEAVY. Never passed a gas station without stopping. 😅
Took my driver's test on June 25, 1977, in my dad's '73 Custom Cruiser (I passed).. it was the perfect car for a family of six, and I and my one sister sat in the rear seat since we were the two youngest. It was very elegant for a wagon (and for us; previously we had Vista Cruisers only), but there was an annoying hesitation whenever you pressed the gas, plus it had equally annoying seat belt buzzers. The clamshell was cool, but the tailgate accumulated dirt easily, for obvious reasons, and was hard to clean out.
My Dad bought one new- loaded. It was a very attractive dark blue. In ‘74 he traded it in for a ‘75 Pontiac Grand Safari- red with a stunning red interior
I love your channel which is bringing back so many memories! I got my first car at 16 when my grandfather gave me his 72 Merc Meteor. That was in 1982, and although it was only 10 years old, back then if you can remember…there was a world of difference between 1972 and 1982, especially on how these cars were perceived. We were a Mercury family, and on the farm we even had a Mercury dump truck lol! The Meteor was like a dé·classé version of the Marquis sold here in Canada. My dad was also involved…with the Marquis, Lincoln Towncars, Cougars. At one point I even had a 70 Cyclone Spoiler.
Thank you !
Have you seen Adam's 1968 Meteor?
@@rightlanehog3151 no, I’ll have to check it out 👍
@@TheKingInHiding It is my favourite car from his vast collection with the '65 Bonneville right behind. 😉
“Because I want to” I agree with you Adam. I was very jealous of the Families who owned these beautiful Skirted Wagons including the Chrysler Series large and in charge wagons.
One of the few non-Olds we had was a Ford Ranch wagon. My dad distrusted the glideaway tailgate. His big concern was that if you were in a rear end accident that it would be hard to align things to make it work well again. I thought they were cool as hell..
very nice station wagon and it handles very well
Very nice. Those were pretty neat wagons. My friend's family had Buick's, including a '65 Riviera and a 1972 Buick wagon with the clam-shell tailgate. It was fun to watch the tailgate glass move out of the way and then the tailgate would disappear underneath the floor. Cool cars, for sure.
One particular reason for the raised roof was to package the sliding glass into the roof. Our used car manager drove only Caprice Estate, which I drove daily to shuttle clients, parts and dealer trades.
The extreme slope of the "Clamshell" rear window sure ate a lot of interior space.
Also, with the tailgate sliding under the car people can't have a "Tailgate" gathering, no
tailgate -- no seat... Thanks to Adam for keeping automotive history alive.
I had always assumed that one could slide it under, or pull it back to serve as a loading platform, but come to think of it, I've never seen one with the tailgate out. The floor in these cars was probably as long as the extended loading surface in many normal-sized wagons (I think a 4X8 piece of plywood could fit in with the tailgate closed!), but the ability to fold the tailgate out would have been useful for moving a long rug.
That's what the 5mpg bumper was for!
That all - Gold wagon featured on here is just gorgeous. Stately and elegant. I'm biased of course because I remember seeing these in the neighborhood. But never saw a Gold one like this. Those were the years when Detroit was still building cars WE wanted, remember those days????
MY FAVORITE is the one we had a76 Chevy Caprice estate wagon.😊😊
Wow Adam, a huge wagon with more head-room in the back and a clam-shell tail-gate, as well...With a 455 engine, filling-up at a gas station wud have been a frequent thing, if on a driving holiday. Cheers fm Damo😊👍
My sister had a 76 Custom Cruiser, which she loved. The door panels in her car were the same as in the Ninety Eight, full length armrests with integrated courtesy/warning lamps. I don't remember the seats for sure, but I don't think they were the same as the Ninety Eight. She says if she could find another in good condition she would buy it in a second!
Very cool cars. I have a lovely 1974 Oldsmobile Custom Cruiser wagon. What a terrific car. 👍
It looked like the Vista Cruiser had almost the same amount of interior cargo capacity as the Custom Cruiser. Combined with the more restricted cargo bay access in the back & I would have been leaning toward the Vista Cruiser unless the width for 4 foot wide plywood was the central concern, ---but my Father back in the day, had a small trailer for such trips to the lumber yard. Back then I recall my Father who bought new 62 & 65 Pontiac full size wagons from Clohecy Pontiac on 22520 Grand River in Detroit, also complaining about the 65 having a less squared off rear door access because of the leaning forward design on the c-pillar resulting in a few more head bangs from taller back seat passengers... Our neighbor had one of those Ford Magic Gate wagons type dual tailgates and again my Father was impressed at the functional aspect of the design & how well it appeared to operate & thought the clam-shell Glide-Away design took away some rear cargo room & access from the wrap around windows, & was a lot of high tech nonsense pushing too much style over function!! To me function combined with style always trumps pure style whenever it clearly interferes with functional attributes. I thought the 64 Pontiac Bonneville Safari down the street as a kid was a good example of good looking style combined with considerable functional attributes. Take a look at the back and side of those 64 Pontiac wagons with their large attractive tail-lights (It still needed better bumpers or at least bumper guards my Father said!!) & you can see a combination of function yet impressive style.
Still further, when my Father experienced the roominess and function of a 1967 International Travelall with overdrive, he was impressed with that machine too as it was such a terrific 2-wheel drive wagon back then (you could get 4x4 as well) if you liked a more rugged functional platform that was still darn good looking in exterior style, & on the interior instrument panel as well.
Thanks for posting this video.
I noticed in several shots there were foreign license plates. A huge vehicle to operate in other countries!
Imagine the gasoline bill for a fill-up ☠️💩
*That* was the first thing I noticed about the front end!
First car had Dutch licence plates.This is a VERY big car for there. A few of them were sold.
Nice i luv wagons..had 78 caprice classic wagon .elec back window rear facing seat in back..had it 15yrs..easy 350 engine 2 work on ..front bench romantic seats .....the good ol cruisin days n nites ..now?? Im old
In 1975 (high school), I had the opportunity to perform in the annual stage play. Practice was in the evenings. One Friday night after practice, I went out with one of the other players, who was driving the family Custom Cruiser. Since it was already a shared and well-understood goal, it wasn't long before the Custom Cruiser was parked in the middle of a corn crib, and I became separated from my pants for a little while.
Monday morning, my first class in school was geometry. Imagine my horror when, as class began, the teacher reached into his middle desk drawer, extracted my wallet, and handed it to me. "I found this while I was hunting Saturday, out near [Old MacDonald]'s corn crib." I hadn't even yet realized that I'd lost the wallet; it was around the time I started carrying one full time. I took the wallet, blurted out the first thing I could think of ("It was stolen at play practice! Wow, you found it!"), and I'm sure turned 800 shades of red. I have never had a poker face and that geometry teacher knew I was lying. Every time I see one of these cars, especially in the same color, I remember that Friday night and that Monday morning.
I loved those wagons. I wish they had done a Cadillac wagon based on on the clamshell body.
I always thought the Vista Cruiser's were the best looking wagons ever made. The late 60s FORD wagon were 2nd.
@11:54 That looks like a Kraco hump-mount accessory console in the green interior, in the inset picture. My parents had one of those in their '75 Cutlass Supreme, to mount the Johnson 23 channel CB radio! And a magnetic antenna base for the deck lid.
Loved my 72 Buick Electra instrument panel. Wrapped around so nice..
I like the fact that it uses the 98's body rather than 88's. What a car!
Yes, the tailfins looked cool on a wagon.
My Mom had one of those. We called it the Enterprise.
My dad owned a 72 custom cruiser wagon. I learned to drive with it. I grew to have a long love affair with Oldsmobiles since then. Great memories.
Cars certainly have changed radically.
From this time, we'd be excited that our Vista Cruiser had a slice of sunroof in the ceiling of the wagon. That was actually a big deal!
Now, our cars baby us in hundreds of ways, are stuffed with sensors and processing power, and are completely beyond us in terms of maintaining them.
I believe that when GM replaced the real Vista Cruiser with a "Vista Cruiser" in name only for 1973, they made a little pop-up sunroof, the kind all the kids later put on their Pintos and Corollas, standard on most trim levels as sort of a consolation offering. Well, at least they were sort-of trying.
The Custom Cruiser (particularly '71 - '73) was the closest GM got to offering a production Cadillac wagon until the advent of the CTS model, IMuHO. The Custom Cruiser was a true wagon-version of the 98 whereas the Buick equivalent was at least partially based on the LeSabre. The Olds version included the 98's fender skirts along with sort of Caddy-type vertical tail lamps. The 98's rear fins were retained as well. Of course to be fair, the Buick & Pontiac also carried a fin so that's gotta be said. But IMuHO, this was the best of the four brands offering a full-size clamshell wagon. I have believed for quite a while that Olds exceeded Buick on this one although the interior of the Estate Wagon admittedly may have been a little nicer.
I agree, the Custom Cruiser was the best looking of the four by far.
My father had a 1971. We called it The Freighter. The power clamshell was really cool.
They were cool wagons indeed... I think rust consumed most of them. Very interesting about those inverted valves, never knew that!
Quite a few were sold in the South where rust is not a problem.
@@MarinCipollina I think the crash up derbys consumed many of them as well
In 71 Dad brought a Vista Wagon and a Fury III sedan home to checkout. I loved the curved glass, but he bought the Fury. I ended up owning the Fury in 79 for a short time. Rolling bedrooms. Ahhh those were the days.
Most of those wagons (Chev, Pont etal.) got lost to demolition derbies when they got old. That body style was banned from them as they were almost impossible to kill.
Are you sure the Oldsmobile is the biggest wagon? My grandparents had a 1976 Buick Grand Estate wagon and I swear that thing was as big as the Exxon Valdez!!!
We had a gold '71 or '72 Chevy Kingswood wagon. I just remember those rear side windows and the tailgate.
What a community center-- seems like you might find a hockey rink inside. My first thought about the fin tops was they might have been there to take the brunt of damage incurred during loading, but your guess is better, Adam. Great vid!
Great cars - thanks for posting.
It surprised me that GM did not offer full-size wagons for Olds ( or Buick? )
from about 1964 through 1970.
If any GM experts know for sure, please comment
My dad bought a 72 Chevrolet Kingswood wagon with many of the design features shown here, especially the clamshell back door (ours was electric, and the bottom half always needed manual assistance to close). Ours was three row, but I don’t believe it had any roof windows. I remember a “400” in front of the front wheels, so no 455 (though I later bought a ‘70 Riviera with that motor). My dad drove the Kingswood for about 200,000 miles before my brother took it over as his high school car. It ended up winning a demolition derby some years later.
I love the clamshell wagons!
My parents had a 1973 CC wagon, I took my driving test in it. It rode nice with the long wheelbase had plenty of power with the 455 under the hood and could haul anything you could throw at it. Unfortunately the body started rusting out along the rear windows, they sold it around 1984-85. No cruise control manual turn down windows and locks and no tilt wheel. We were the second owners, a family purchased it and it was too big for their needs so they traded it with only 300 miles on the clock on a Cutlass Cruiser wagon
Great video.Te full body Chrysler and Dodge wagons were rather voluminous as well
My Dad was a legal products salesman for BNA in Detroit in the 1960s - 1980s. GM was his biggest client, and back in the days when deals were discussed over a 3 martini lunch, he would transport his GM clients around in big GM cars. Dad liked Pontiacs, and we owned a couple of the big Grand Ville/Grand Safari wagons from the early to mid 70s.
That first car has a bent front bumper on the left side. This kind of thing often caused when a car was towed by wreckers were the old strap type towing rig.
We had a 1972 Vista Cruiser with the 455, 4 barrel, and dual exhaust. Parents bought it brand new in 1972.
I had a 72 custom cruiser witahvinyl roof. It was totally loaded and I also has a moon roof installed, Hensel the vinyl. It was silver, burgundy interior and burgundy roof. A striking car.
In 1971, my sister had a 1965 Oldsmobile Dynamic 88 with a 455, and my best friend's mom drove a 1969(?) Ford station wagon with a 390. Me? Had a '66 442 with the factory tri-power, 4-speed. Those were the days.....
When I met my late ex-wife, her parents had two cars, a Pinto and a Custom Cruiser. Her father and brother built and raced inboard hydroplanes, and used the Olds to pull the boat trailer. Long time ago.
By the way, my favorite thing about the car was the color combination. It was silver outside and red inside with of course the faux woodgrain.