Car of the Week: 1971 Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser

[mongooz]

(not a muscle car....)

As far as Maher knows, he is the third owner of his Olds wagon, and he certainly appreciates the care the first two owners gave the car. The original owner was a woman from the Reading, Pa., area, who purchased it from Bayliss Oldsmobile back in 1971. “I don’t know much about it … I’ve love to know more of the car’s history from back then. I would be great if somebody from the Reading area knew about the car or remembered it,” Maher says. “Evidently, she had it until she went into assisted living at around the turn of the century and that’s when Jim Martino bought it. He is a hot-rodder and he was planning to make it into a drag car — a drag wagon — but then he decided it was too nice for that. So I bought it from Jim.

read more: https://www.oldcarsweekly.com/features/car-of-the-week-1971-oldsmobile-vista-cruiser

 

[Tig]

A classic family truckster.
We had a '73 Ford LTD wagon like this.

 

[mongooz]

A classic family truckster.
We had a '73 Ford LTD wagon like this.

we had the Mercury version of that^^
Marquis Wagon.

the neighbors across the street had a Vista Wagon, tho.

 

[Lerxst]

IIRC '71 would have been the last 'good' year cause starting in '72 they began loading up the engines w/ poorly designed emissions gear. Shame that one came w/ the 350 and not the 455 option

 

[tiger roach]

When I was a kid we briefly had a sky blue Vista Cruiser, probably a '68. I loved it, with those glass features around the top and all.

That car was in a bad crash though, and got replaced with a Chevy POS. Not good times.

 

[dodgechargerfan]

 

[sunvalleylaw]

Yes please. I like that one a lot. So much style and attitude to drive one of those with a good tunes set up, and racked out to carry adventure stuff.

 

[sunvalleylaw]

PS, I drove a '65 Buick Special Wagon with a 350 "Wildcat" motor and 3 on the tree in highschool. Owning one's inner suburbia, I guess. Ours looked about exactly like this, in that blue. with black vinyl seats that would give you second degree burns when you climbed in after swimming lessons. Became the kid car when we got older.

Near as I can tell, that Olds is an updated cousin. Our model came with the glass in the roof also, if you got a fancier version.

 

[Lerxst]

View attachment 70115

the gen after the op, IIRC

 

[Pine Apple Slim]

I would so rock that. The faux wood panel ones, not so much.
Back in the 90s I had a little Subaru 4x4 wagon that was great.
Unfortunately it got totaled when a teenager pulled out in front of me.

 

[mongooz]

I would so rock that. The faux wood panel ones, not so much.
Back in the 90s I had a little Subaru 4x4 wagon that was great.
Unfortunately it got totaled when a teenager pulled out in front of me.

yea, in the early 80's, i had a subaru GLX 4x4 wagon, a 1980/81 i think. that little bugger would go nearly anywhere, within reason for the size of the tires.
a lot like this one.

 

[dodgechargerfan]

the gen after the op, IIRC

'twas a 69

"Fez" from the show, bought it for $500, and still drives it.

 

[Mark Wein]

I'm pretty sure the wagon that my parents drove us across the country to relocate in California from New York in 1977 was a Mercury Montego:

 

[Lerxst]

We had this beast

Damn thing would stall out anytime you made a hard left hand turn.

 

[Pine Apple Slim]

yea, in the early 80's, i had a subaru GLX 4x4 wagon, a 1980/81 i think. that little bugger would go nearly anywhere, within reason for the size of the tires.
a lot like this one.

[/QUO
TE]

Yea mine was an early 80s I got for a steal used. Looked pretty much the same except it was green. I think the wreck happened in 95' after I'd owned it for only 6-8 months, just long enough to get all the little kinks worked out of it, mainly a new radiator and water pump. Was sad to see it go but the gal that hit me's Dad paid me $2000 for it, blue book value. I only paid $1200 for it so I guess it all worked out. But I really missed it. About 6 months later I saw the rear half of it go thru town. The front half was a blue one that somebody had welded onto it. I knew it was the same rear half because of the Terrapin Turtles Dead sticker still in the back window, lol.

My family was never a wagon crew. I was an only child so Mom drove sedans and Dad always had a pickup

 

[Mark Wein]

A couple of pictures of ours from before we left New York. My dad only dressed cool in the 70’s.

 

[Bob411]

I'm pretty sure the wagon that my parents drove us across the country to relocate in California from New York in 1977 was a Mercury Montego:

Only wagon I sort of remember was a 68 Chevy. I googled 68 Chevy and there were three differed models. I'm pretty sure, it was an Impala. Only thing I remember about it was it was grey, it was a 68, and my brother, eight years older than me saying it was a pooch because the transmission was a two speed.

 

[Denverdave]

At one point when I was much younger (around 1991ish...) we were very, very broke and needed a really cheap running car. A couple in our church had about a 1975ish Impala wagon they kept for their daughter when she started driving. She refused to be seen in it so they just gave it to us. It served us well for about a year, then the transmission went out. Horrible gas mileage, but built like a tank. I got rear ended very hard at a stop light while we owned it (the other car was reading a sign on the side of the road and did not see the light turn red). His car was totaled, I drove away.

 

[B Valley]

My Uncle had this same wagon in white. In 1989 it was parked next to my Grandmother's house. When the Loma Prieta Earthquake struck, it stopped the World Series, killed countless people when a double deck freeway collapsed, broke the Bay Bridge and crumbled my Grandmother's chimney which fell from two stories up and landed on my Uncle's mint Vista Cruiser, smashing in the entire roof of the car.

 

[mongooz]

My Uncle had this same wagon in white. In 1989 it was parked next to my Grandmother's house. When the Loma Prieta Earthquake struck, it stopped the World Series, killed countless people when a double deck freeway collapsed, broke the Bay Bridge and crumbled my Grandmother's chimney which fell from two stories up and landed on my Uncle's mint Vista Cruiser, smashing in the entire roof of the car.