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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.
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.
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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.
Mine: 1995 318ti Club Sport-2020 C43-2021 Sahara 4xe-1996 Speed Triple Challenge Cup Replica
Wife's: 2015 X1 xDrive28i
Son's: 2018 330i xDrive
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
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.
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Mine: 1995 318ti Club Sport-2020 C43-2021 Sahara 4xe-1996 Speed Triple Challenge Cup Replica
Wife's: 2015 X1 xDrive28i
Son's: 2018 330i xDrive
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
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.
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.
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.
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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.
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.
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.
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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.
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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.
2023 Mercedes EQE 350 4Matic / 2022 Ram 1500 Bighorn, Built to Serve
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2015 Subaru Outback 3.6R / 2014 MINI Countryman S ALL4
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!
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.
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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'.
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.
Here's the car...
And here it is, running on the flat...
Oops...Suddenly it's 1960!
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On the 80s GM conversion theme, I have seen several 79-85 Eldo convertibles that don't look too bad.
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.
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:
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