I spotted an (insert obscure car name here) classic car today!

explorerx4

Movie 'Blue Collar'.

omarman

fintail said:

Would that be a turbo model? Buick rally wheels have to be in the top domestic wheel designs of all time. Nice Big Wheels, too.

omarman said:

Some of the ads for Buick in the late 70's had some strange imagery. Like the LeSabre coupe above with a bearded sketchy looking guy holding Stars and Stripes in his right hand and Stars and Bars in the left hand. Why?

Here's a '79 LeSabre ad below with a group of clowns and other Halloween costumed adults on the left but the kids are off to the right and not looking to Trick or Treat tonight. Again I wonder what image Buick was going for back then? Especially the driver.

Yes and for '79 the Sport Coupe turbo 3.8 was bumped to 170 hp from 165 hp the year before. According to Curbside Classic:

Road & Track compared the Sport Coupe with a LeSabre equipped with the optional 350 V8 and found that, although the 350 felt stronger in the low-end, the 3.8 quickly eliminated the difference and actually posted a one second faster 0-60 time (10 vs. 11 seconds). As an added bonus, their turbo tester averaged 16.5 mpg while the 350 was good for only 13.5 mpg.

This Buick ad is for 1978.

fintail

I wonder how many of those LeSabres survive with the turbo intact. I remember there was a turbo Monte Carlo of that era in town when I was a kid. IIRC there was also a Trans Am turbo. In the face of malaise, they were trying!

MY 1979 would also bring the MB 300SD turbodiesel, which along with NA models probably set the stage for domestics offering so many diesels for awhile.

omarman said:

Yes and for '79 the Sport Coupe turbo 3.8 was bumped to 170 hp from 165 hp the year before. According to Curbside Classic:

Road & Track compared the Sport Coupe with a LeSabre equipped with the optional 350 V8 and found that, although the 350 felt stronger in the low-end, the 3.8 quickly eliminated the difference and actually posted a one second faster 0-60 time (10 vs. 11 seconds). As an added bonus, their turbo tester averaged 16.5 mpg while the 350 was good for only 13.5 mpg.

This Buick ad is for 1978.

ab348

ab348 said:

When I went to the Olds Centennial in Lansing in 1997 there were all sorts of vendors there and one of them was selling posters. I forget the particular theme (possibly it was the Olds 88 through the years) but one of them contained an image of the downsized '77 Delta 88 that must have been a styling proposal from GM Design. That version had a similar slanted rear quarter window as the Buick and Pontiac. It transformed the appearance of the car and to me looked much better than the rectangular one that went into production. I can only assume that at the last minute it was decided that Olds needed something to distinguish itself from the other makes and they stuck the rectangle version in its place. My memory tells me I bought the poster but I must have stored it along with some of the other things I bought somewhere since I have no memory of seeing it since.

I asked the question on the Olds Club of America’s FB page and someone came up with the picture. Here is the ‘77 Delta 2-door that was apparently originally supposed to be produced.

uplanderguy

In '81 I was in Kalamazoo with work. I saw civilian Checkers with whitewalls, wire wheelcovers, and vinyl tops with the quarter windows filled in! I did not see Elvis there, however. (Supposedly he always liked playing Kalamazoo.)

omarman

I had a '78 Delta 88 sedan in the 80s and I thought it looked better than the downsized 2 door version. Before that, I had a '72 Delta 2 door hardtop 455 with factory polycast wheels and then a '73 Delta 2 door hardtop 350 with white leather interior.

But that '77 Delta 2-door styling exercise looks so much cleaner than the version that they settled on. Still my '78 Delta sedan was my favorite because it was so comfortable and roomy. I could have been just as happy with another 2 door hardtop - if it looked like that '77 pic.

uplanderguy

I like that proposal better than what was on the car, too. Not that the finished car looked bad; just not as nice as the others I don't think. Still, a competent, roomy comfortable car with less, ahem, "road-hugging weight" than the '76.

roadburner

I liked the Turbo Regal and the LeSabre Sport Coupe. I hated the 78-up Monte Carlo until the restyle and the subsequent SS.

stickguy

on I95 today, a nice looking '68 Chevelle 2 door. had that tiptoe look.

uplanderguy

I was stunned at the first '78 Monte Carlo, and Grand Prix, I'd seen. In hindsight I could stand a '78 Monte now as I like the simple interior and that they all came with F41 suspension standard. I guess once you've seen a gazillion of anything, they look better. Maybe not.

The '78 Malibu Classic, when it had the dual folding front seat center armrests and optional instrumentation, is my favorite A-body. It was ballsy I think to make that panel, with zero woodgrain and zero decoration of any kind, even no nameplate, on the right 2/3 of the panel. Of course, the urge to 'upgrade' was irresistable and the '81 panel with gauges had plastic woodgrain all over the place and a big scripty "Malibu Classic" emblem above the glovebox. To my eyes, the fake woodgrain clashed with the sort-of funky panel. But I'm not a marketing guy.

ab348

I remember when C&D reviewed the '78 Monte Carlo for the first time and referred to the body design as a steaming pile that Bill Mitchell left for Chevy on his way out the door into retirement as head of GM Design. To me the '78 seemed an unsuccessful radical reinterpretation of the '73 body style themes that did not translate well at all onto the much smaller body.

roadburner

ab348 said:

I remember when C&D reviewed the '78 Monte Carlo for the first time and referred to the body design as a steaming pile that Bill Mitchell left for Chevy on his way out the door into retirement as head of GM Design. To me the '78 seemed an unsuccessful radical reinterpretation of the '73 body style themes that did not translate well at all onto the much smaller body.

I remember that exact article- and you nailed it; all of the '73-'77 baroque styling cues looked awful on the much smaller car.

stickguy

yet the Pontiac version of that platform was very good looking. that swoopy look on the Monte, always look weird to me too.

andre1969

fintail said:

Would that be a turbo model? Buick rally wheels have to be in the top domestic wheel designs of all time. Nice Big Wheels, too.

Yep, that should be the turbo. Buick called the turbo model "Sport Coupe", whereas the non-turbo models were just "Coupe" or "Limited Coupe". The turbo model got that good looking blacked-out grille, too.

uplanderguy

I think I remember that article about the '78 Monte Carlo. There was one (might be the same) where the author basically said "But with all the businessmen at O'Hare stopped in their tracks at the dark blue car on a turntable, what do I know?"..

My parents bought an '80, which I thought was an improvement. In hindsight, I don't think so. At the time, and I'd say, still now, I thought the '81 was nicely done, with the taillights a tribute to the '74. I know most folks like the Cutlass Supreme best of the '81 re-do, but I was never a fan of the squarish wheel openings or more-pronounced under-bite of the front bumper.

I never warmed up, ever, to the '78-80 Grand Prix. First one I saw out back behind a dealer was that ubiquitous light-to-medium metallic green. At some point in that run of Grand Prixs I remember the brochure showed a really nice leather bucket interior with open area in the headrest they called "Viscount interior", but I never have seen a real one.

uplanderguy

The Turbo edged its way into the Monte Carlo lineup for '80 and '81, although I sure never saw many of them.

andre1969

Normally I tend to prefer quad headlights to singles...provided they're worked well enough into the design. But, I'm not a huge fan of that look with the turn signal in between the headlights. It can work to some degree with larger, wider cars, but the front of the Grand Prix was too tapered. I'm sure there's a technical term for it, but in layman's terms, the ratio of headlight cluster width to grille width just seemed way off.

I think the Cutlass Supreme and Regal coupes transitioned to quad headlights pretty well for 1980, before being totally reskinned for '81. But with the Monte Carlo, I didn't like the look. The quads just didn't seem like they fit quite right, in my opinion. Plus, the Monte was a bit over-styled to begin with, so the quads just exaggerated it. The grille too, I think. The texture of the '80 was much bolder than the '78-79.

All four personal luxury coupes looked great with the 1981 re-skin, in my opinion. Too bad engine choices and performance went down that same year.

andre1969

I always thought the rear quarter window and C-pillar were a weak spot on the '77-79 Delta 88 coupes. But, seeing that proposal, with the Catalina/Bonneville/LeSabre roofline, it doesn't look right, either. I think the problem is that the Delta 88 was more squared-off, and seemed a bit bulked up both front and rear, than either the Pontiacs or Buicks, and that roofline works a bit better with something that's a bit more sloped-off and rounded.

I wonder if a better compromise would have been a window a bit like the Ninety-Eight/Electra. Where the back edge is angled, but not as steeply angled as the rear window, so you still have a relatively thick C-pillar? That was an issue I had with final-gen Eldorado, too. That quarter window was just too vertical.

ab348

It would be interesting if a magazine like Collectible Automobile someday does a retrospective on the B-body downsizing for '77 - or for that matter, the A-body downsizing of the following year - and unearths some proposals from the GM Design archives of the various workouts the stylists came up with. I don't think I've ever seen much from that era anywhere.

uplanderguy

Speaking of Collectible Automobile--I'm still trying to find the June issue you had told me about, ab. No luck. Maybe it's too early for supermarket newsstands. I think I'm going to see today if I can just order it from CA online.

andre1969

I do remember Motortrend doing a big spread on the Caprice/Impala for '77, with a lot of concept sketches and a few mockups. Curbside Classic posted it a few years ago. https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-american/vintage-review-1977-chevrolet-caprice-downsized-by-design/

One of the coupe proposals has a roofline that makes me think of the '78-81 Malibu. And one of the sedans looks a bit like the '78-80 LeMans, with a quarter window in the C-pillar that kicks up a bit at the bottom.

Some of the sedan proportioning also makes me think a bit of the '73-77 Colonades, if they had been squared off and modernized a bit. Mainly, the C-pillar and rear door area makes me think of it. Not only the quarter windows in the C-pillar, but also the somewhat short rear doors, that don't extend as far back over the rear wheel opening as they did on the finished product.

I don't think I've ever seen a whole lot about the downsized '78 cars, though. Consumer Reports talked about them a lot though. I can't remember if it was in a review of one of the models that got extra wordy, or a special article on them in general. I seem to recall Motortend did not pick any of them as its car of the year, because they said that it was really just "more of the same", essentially a repeat of the process the '77 big cars went through. So what was new and radical for '77, would have just been a repeat a year later. So, they went with the Omni/Horizon which, in retrospect, if you compare it to the typical US subcompact of the era, was a pretty big deal.

uplanderguy

My first impression when I saw the first of the new '78 GM midsizes, were that they really were downsized/redesigned in a much-more drastic way than the '77 full-sizes....more shrunken it seemed, and more radical. I remember my hometown dealer's first new one I saw was a Malibu Classic sedan in that cream and gold two-tone. The fixed rear windows and 'baby spare' were a couple things both my Dad and I had a hard time swallowing, although I think both were a more 'impression' thing than anything else. Neither would bother me today.

I think that, for me, after the Malibu Classic coupe, the most palatable/least shocking '78 midsize was the Cutlass Supreme coupe. In either '79 or '80 Olds replaced the thin wheel opening moldings with wider ones which I liked better.

I seem to remember a lot of Grand Prixs with the padded Landau top and shrunken quarter windows, and not a fan of that look.

uplanderguy

RE.: The last Eldorados--I so-wanted to like those cars, but I'm in total agreement on the almost-perfectly-square quarter windows and resultant huge C-pillar (and blind spot). The car just didn't look expensive to me.

ab348

Thanks for that link Andre. I had never seen that before nor do I have any recollection of the articles from Motor Trend that they reproduced. Odd, because I used to get most of those magazines back then, but I suspect that appeared just after I gave up on MT for being obviously for sale in their opinions.

The 6-window greenhouse concepts look great on the B-body Chevy sedan, and I like the coupe proposal better than what was produced too. I would still like to see more of what GM has in their archives on these cars though, going beyond just the Chevy version.

I do remember the introductory article (I think in MT oddly) on the downsized '78 A-bodies. I think I had picked it up at a newsstand because dad was in the market for a new car and was interested in seeing some info on the new offering from GM. The article mentioned how lightweight the frames were in these, using an example of a bare frame on display at a GM long lead preview that someone kicked at one corner and which made the opposite corner vibrate. It's easy to forget that these were still body on frame designs whereas not too long after they would have all been unitized.

As I mentioned here before, he ended up buying one of the first '78 Grand LeMans Safaris produced, in the colors that GM used in their promo materials as seen below (except his had wheel discs instead of fake wires), without seeing anything other than a picture of it. He should have waited a couple of months as it was very poorly assembled.

andre1969

I think that's another issue with the final-gen Eldorado. Something about its styling just doesn't seem all that "expensive". Yet, the Seville, which was similar, managed to have an upscale look to it. I think part of it might be the grille. The Eldorado's just looks like a cheap, generic lattice thing, like the grille vent at the bottom of a refrigerator. The Seville at least, had a slight prow to it, and the way it dropped down below the bumper line gave it the illusion of more height.

andre1969

I wonder how much weight GM was able to shed from the frames of the '78 intermediates, compared to the '77? I recall reading somewhere, that for the '77 Caprice/Impala versus the '76, the frame was only 50 pounds lighter. So even though it lost a lot of weight in many other areas, it was still a fairly rugged design.

I know I've theorized in the past that GM simply took the 116" wb from the Colonade sedans, and dropped a new body on it to come up with the '77 B-bodies, but I read somewhere that they actually used the '71-76 frame, just with the 50 pound weight reduction. So, who knows what the truth really was?

GM might have gone a bit too far in lightening the frames on the '78 intermediates.

Collectible Automobile usually does a great job of showing all sorts of concepts and mockups of whatever car they happen to showcase. I found my issue the other day, that has the '73-77 LeMans in it. One concept that was pretty cool, which was probably a contender for the '76 update, had a Trans Am looking front-end. It also had the larger, triangular quarter windows that Pontiac ended up dropping for '76. The rear-end looked elongated, too. The front-end made me think a bit of what they finally did for the '81 LeMans. It was pretty cool looking, but probably would have been too big to be a practical midsize, even back then. That sloping front and extended-looking rear probably packed on a lot of length.

uplanderguy

I've said this before I know, but I think the '78 mid-sizes were the smallest cars out there with body-on-frame construction. I remember them much more feeling like a small, big car than the Fairmont/Zephyr, which in comparison felt like a big, small car. In the early eighties I was renting cars for a week at a time, 26 weeks a year, and I had plenty of both lines of cars. On top of just liking the styling better in general, I'd have taken a GM mid-size any day of the week over a Fairmont. I do remember the GM cars being notably more expensive too though, to be fair.

ab348

andre1969 said:

I wonder how much weight GM was able to shed from the frames of the '78 intermediates, compared to the '77? I recall reading somewhere, that for the '77 Caprice/Impala versus the '76, the frame was only 50 pounds lighter. So even though it lost a lot of weight in many other areas, it was still a fairly rugged design.

I know I've theorized in the past that GM simply took the 116" wb from the Colonade sedans, and dropped a new body on it to come up with the '77 B-bodies, but I read somewhere that they actually used the '71-76 frame, just with the 50 pound weight reduction. So, who knows what the truth really was?

I'm not sure what you mean about using the '71-'76 frame. Those cars had a much longer wheelbase. There was a comment on that Curbside Classics link you posted about the suspension differences between the Colonnade cars and the later B-bodies, with the fellow saying that some pieces interchange and others do not. So I would guess they used the '73 design and tweaked it. That might also explain the better space utilization in the later cars. I recall the trunk in my '77 LeMans being pretty small for the size of the car.

andre1969

The Fairmont was definitely cheaper than a Malibu, since it was supposed to be a compact replacement for the Maverick. The '78 Fairmont 4-door sedan started at $3710, while a Malibu was $4276. To throw a few comparable-sized cars out there (if not direct-market comparisons), the Nova sedan started at $3777 for the sedan. Not too much of a premium over the Fairmont in my opinion, as it came with a 250-6 standard, rather than a 2.3 4-cyl. But the Malibu only had a 200 V6 that year!

The Granada 4-door started at $4390. I hadn't realized they were that much of a premium. Even though they were considered an "upscale" compact, I didn't think of them as being any more prestigious than any midsized car on the market at the time.

The LTD-II, which was technically Ford's midsized car that year, started at $4935 for a 4-door sedan. While that sounds pricey compared to a Malibu, the LTD-II did have a standard V8 and automatic.

On the Dodge front, an Aspen 4-door sedan started at $3911 for a 4-door sedan. The Diplomat started at $4937...a bit pricey in my opinion, since a slant six and manual shift were still standard. I think it had the 2-bbl version standard though, while the Aspen used a 1-bbl. Marketing-wise, these were a compact and upscale compact, respectively, even though they were both bigger than a Malibu. Their old-school Monaco was $4344 for a base sedan, which sounds like a good deal compared to the LTD-II. But, the Monaco had a slant six and manual shift standard.

uplanderguy

RE.: The last Eldorados--not that this is earth-shattering, but I'm thinking those are the last domestic luxury cars with frameless door glass. I do like that feature though.

uplanderguy

Well, I booked a hotel (Motel 6, yeesh) for Hershey this fall. We'll see if it happens.

andre1969

uplanderguy said:

Well, I booked a hotel (Motel 6, yeesh) for Hershey this fall. We'll see if it happens.

Cool...I'm usually up there on the Saturday of the show. Perhaps we could meet up?

uplanderguy

Sure! Even if it's just to meet...I don't expect you to hang around! My buddy is showing his '63 Riviera for the first time.

tjc78

Not really classic but certainly obscure. How many could they have sold in this color?

Michaell

tjc78 said:

Not really classic but certainly obscure. How many could they have sold in this color?

That's probably the only one!

texases

Old Germans time today - a 318ti, then a 914 within five minutes, after not seeing either in at least 5 years.

uplanderguy

The 'pic' of the '77 Delta 88 with the Pontiac/Buick coupe roofline, reminded me of this rendering in the 1970 Chevrolet Accessories Brochure, which I had as a twelve-year old from good ol' Dart Chevrolet-Cadillac, Greenville, Pennsylvania. For this to have made the brochure I believe shows that Chevrolet was thinking about it. It looks nice in convertible form I think, and to my eyes, this is one of the few cars that looks like it was originally designed with skirts in mind: :

fintail

On that note, some may remember this custom I spotted in the wild a little while back:

andre1969

I think the finished product looks better than the artist's rendering. In the drawing, the rear of the car behind the door looks a bit exaggerated and swollen, like they tried to mate an Eldorado rear to the Monte Carlo.

Actually, here's one with the top up, and with skirts. In profile it definitely has a bit of an Eldorado vibe...


I've seen the occasional Chrysler Cordoba that's been turned into a convertible, at car shows, and pictures of '73-77 Colonades that were chopped. They don't come off nearly as well. I think with the Colonades especially, so much of the design is tied up in the roof, that when you lose it, it just doesn't look right. And, since these later models had B-pillars and stationary rear windows, there was a lot more top structure that had to be stowed, whereas with the earlier models, the rear windows simply rolled down and out of the way.

I've also seen a couple of early 80's Monte Carlos that were convertible-ized, and they didn't look good at all to me. Oddly, one of the better versions I've seen, is to the Cutlass Ciera, of all things!

ab348

One can only wonder why someone would go to the trouble and expense of doing a convertible conversion to a 1st-gen Monte Carlo, then painting the rally wheels black.

I understand that cancelling the convertible was a very late decision for the 1970 model year, hence the appearance in some sales material. I suspect the GM bean counters threw their weight around and concluded that sales would not support the tooling and development costs. Unfortunate.

uplanderguy

Agree 1,000% on the black Rally Wheels!

The five-slot Rally Wheels, available in the early '70's only on Corvettes and Monte Carlos, looked better than the ones reserved for more-lowly Chevelles, Novas, and Camaros (well, '71 and after)!

The Monte body carried the convertible look well I think...I wonder if a little 'too well'.

andre1969

I can think of a few reasons for not offering a Monte Carlo convertible.

1) Low production. My old car book doesn't break out 1970 stats, but for 1971 and 1972, the Malibu convertible only sold about 5000 units per year. As it stands, the '71 Monte Carlo carried about a $400 price premium over a V8 Malibu hardtop coupe, so it would stand to reason a convertible would price higher by about the same margin. And, while the Monte Carlo proved to be a good seller, there's no guarantee the convertible would have. It most likely would have cannibalized some sales of the Malibu, which would have made it less cost effective, as they'd have to build twice as many model-specific parts (interior door panels, the narrower back seats, and so on, but across less units sold, of each.

2) Air conditioning. In 1971, a Malibu convertible had a base MSRP $280 higher than the hardtop. But, how much did air conditioning cost that year? I tried to look for some specs but couldn't find anything. The closest I could find was $537, but that was auto climate control for Cadillac. So I'd imagine for a more mainstream a/c setup, it was more like $350-400? Air conditioning was becoming more common, and cheaper, relative to inflation. But, in midsized cars, where buyers were more price-conscious than full-sized cars, it was an either-or thing. You either got a/c, or you got a convertible, but usually not both. And GM probably made more profit putting a/c in a hardtop than they did, selling a convertible without it.

3) Pontiac. You know that if Chevy was allowed to push ahead with a Monte Carlo convertible, Pontiac was going to want it for the Grand Prix. Pontiac must have concluded earlier on that a Grand Prix convertible didn't make sense, for whatever reason, as they only offered it for 1967, when it sold about 5800 units. Seems to me it wouldn't have been that expensive to offer it again for '68, but they didn't. And the '69 was never offered as a convertible.

4) Olds and Buick. While their personal luxury coupes were the larger, higher-priced Toronado and Riviera, they did have the Skylark Custom and Cutlass Supreme, both of which were fairly close to the Monte Carlo in price, and both did offer a convertible. The Cutlass Supreme was somewhat popular, with 10,255 being sold in '71, although the Skylark Custom only sold 3993. Pontiac had the LeMans Sport, which sold 3865. So perhaps GM figured a Monte Carlo convertible would have also cannibalized sales from these models?

Interestingly, in most cases it seems like "convertible" and "personal luxury coupe" were two mutually exclusive items. Ever since the T-bird went to 4-seat for 1958, the closed coupe continued to take a larger portion of the sales, until the convertible was dropped after '66. The Riviera and Toronado never offered one, except for the early 80's, when it was outsourced. The Eldorado only did it in '71-76 (as a personal luxury coupe, I'm not counting the 1966 and earlier Eldorados), and that was mainly as a replacement for the loss of the convertible DeVille. Oh, and like the early 80's Toro/Riv, it was outsourced for a few years. The Grand Prix only did it that one year. By the time the Cutlass Supreme became a personal luxury coupe, the convertible was pretty much dead. The Charger was Dodge's attempt as a personal luxury coupe of sorts, although people remember it more for performance. And, it never offered a convertible.

Also, interestingly, when higher trim levels of the lower priced cars started coming out, like the LTD, Caprice, Fury VIP, and Monaco, they stayed with closed models. Convertibles were reserved for the Galaxie, Impala, Fury III/Sport Fury, and Polara. Ford did eventually transfer the convertible to the LTD name, but by then LTD was more an Impala equivalent. The luxurious model became LTD Brougham. And, Chevy did move the convertible from the Impala line to the Caprice for '73-75. But, by that time I think they were trying to consolidate and milk the few remaining models for all they were worth. Buick dropped the LeSabre and Pontiac dropped the Catalina convertibles, leaving just the Centurion and Grand Ville.

andre1969

I had Antenna TV on in the background as I was typing that lengthy post above. "Dennis the Menace" was on. Mr. Wilson (the second one) was out in the street, sweeping up some glass and debris from an accident he'd had earlier when Mrs Elkins and he collided. Well, a car came along, ran through the debris and got a flat tire.

Here's the car...


And here it is, running on the flat...


Oops...Suddenly it's 1960!

uplanderguy

"Sherman, fire up the Wayback Machine!".

uplanderguy

RE.: The cost of A/C in those early'70's days--I remember "Four Season Air Conditioning" in Chevrolets to be in the $350-400 range, for some reason.

ab348

Did running over the broken glass cause the Galaxie to transform into a Fury?

fintail

I recall that Dennis the Menace (but not the presto-changeo Plymouth), I think Mrs, Elkins had a 62 Mercury - the Ford sponsorship of that show was never hidden.

On the 80s GM conversion theme, I have seen several 79-85 Eldo convertibles that don't look too bad.

andre1969

Good memory, Fin! Here's a pic of the Merc...a 4-door hardtop, even!


Even though Ford sponsored the show, I liked the fact that you often saw other cars in the background, especially in the earlier seasons, it seemed...


Oh, useless trivia time...in those pics above, you can see the garage for 1164 Morning Glory Circle, i.e., Sam and Darrin's house...but no house! I'd always wondered why there was a free standing garage there, all by itself. Turns out, in the earlier days, it belonged to the house next door. That house went on to become the house used in Hazel, Gidget, the Yuppies' home from National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, etc. There's a breezeway that attaches the garage to the house, but it's obscured by the trees in front. In a few of the earlier episodes of "Hazel" you can see it quite clearly. But, I guess once they built the 1164 house for Bewitched, they got ride of the breezeway, and built a new garage much closer to the house. Here's a pic that shows it...


I can't quite tell if the garage is actually attached to the house, or just very close to it.

fintail

That Mercury reminds me of one I saw locally not too long ago - has to be a very rare car nowadays. Funny, I remember that scene with the background cars too - where Dennis and Tommy inadvertently end up having a nice 60 Ford wagon towed (I've imagined this car is two tone blue):



A view from a prior season episode showing another cool FoMoCo product, and those background houses:




That house to the left also really looks like the Griswold's house, but I know the set houses are frequently modified.

A fun link between Christmas Vacation and the Bewitched house/1164 Morning Glory Circle - it is shown as Clark's childhood home, when he was stuck in the attic watching old filmstrips:

kyfdx

I just want to note that Dennis The Menace was a terrible TV show, and the comic strip (currently) might be worse.