The 1970s was the golden age of American cars, and I'm Japanese, but when I was a kid I enjoyed my uncle's driving Lincoln Continental Mark 4, which was rare at the time. The uncle taught me the joy of cars. I'm so sad that he passed away last year.
My dad was given a '76 Tornado by his company to use for his on-the-road sales position he had at the time selling furnaces. I don't remember anything specific about the interior other than it was like riding in a living room. Also, it was the first car we drove that had an FM radio. I do remember THAT vividly as the sound quality compared to AM absolutely blew me away.
My dad’s OTR car for sales of hoity toity custom millwork was a DeVille, albeit stripped. No fancy FM radio, but the thing was so damn big you could get lost in it.
I'm happy to say I'm the proud owner of "Penny" which, is the '76 Toronado you featured with the beige interior. She's sat for most of her life (driven 20 miles in nearly 6 years) prior to my ownership. Been working through the process of getting her road ready (reliable as she was in 1976) and happy to say she's very close.
I'm putting in a request for an 8-day week (versus the current 7) to better accommodate my ability to keep up with the mass amount of content you have been producing lately.
Greetings from Glenn in Cleveland! What a trip down memory lane. I had the 1976 Toronado Brougham in silver with white padded landau top and white interior. It was always like daytime no matter what hour you drove it. Until now, I have never seen an identical one!
@@matthewoehrle3038The 1977 XS/XSR weighed in @ 4688 lbs. and had a base price of $11,132 versus $8,134 for a Brougham hardtop coupe making them very rare with only 2,714 produced that year.
The ‘76 velour geometric cloth (called La Mancha in the Cutlass Supreme Brougham), was available in black, blue, mahogany (maroon) or buckskin. In ‘77 those colors were offered for the ribbon-striped velour for the Toronado and the Cutlass Supreme, but for some reason the Cutlass also had it in medium green, but not in the Toronado. I think a Dark Green Metallic Toronado XS with the Cutlass’ green ribbon stripe upholstery and buckskin vinyl top would be a fantastic unicorn.
So... My buddy had a 77 the cat/ crossover pipe made the exhaust super restricted. We cut that crap out and installed a 2 in 2 out vforce muffler. It pepped up the 403 a little bit and actually sounded pretty decent.
This deep dive is one of my favorites! Your automotive knowledge is encyclopedic and your presentation is beyond impressive. This has got to be the best automotive channel on RU-vid.
I worked at a small Buick/Oldsmobile dealership in 1976. We sold only a handful of Toronado’s that year. The two I remember were both sold to doctors. Front wheel drive was just the thing for severe Wisconsin winters.
A childhood friend had a '67 I had the privilege to drive on occasion. It had buckets and console. The 425 was an excellent powerplant. I dated a woman who owned a '75 and then a '78. Excellent highway cruisers. Both had leather.'75 was all white and the '78 red. A friend has a '76 with the blue patterned cloth in his collection. My father had a '71 with the custom interior. I would agree on your assessment of the early second series interiors. Rather bland but comfortable. I hope to someday add any Toronado to my collection. Mid century modern classics in my opinion and a milestone car for GM styling.
A friend had a 1976 and the motor crapped out so he found a used 1968 455 out of a junk Toronado and installed it. He said the 1968 motor really woke that big ol car up.
By 1969, the Oldsmobile dealerships were really complaining to GM management in regards to the slower selling of the Toronado compared to the Cadillac Eldorado. They were demanding an Olds "Eldorado" of their own. Sadly, the larger, bulkier, 1971 Toronado was the result. Yes, it did sell better than the first generation. But to me, by 1971, the Toronado had totally lost its svelte sporting character, gorgeous styling and sleekness. It just became the poor man's Eldorado. I never understood how anyone would choose a 1971-78 generation over the fabulous 1966 styling. It is obvious now which one remains the true classic. The original, 1966 Toronado, 1967 Eldorado, and 1966 Riviera were perfection in design.
Lovely geo pattern. Although the stripey seats afterwards are pretty sweet too My hi school buddy’s father had a white over red leather ‘74 that was amazing. We were ballers driving that beast.
Wow, those interiors are something! I have to say, I like the '77 striped velour version the best. If you're going to go so over the top, you might as well REALLY mean it!
Sorry, but those cloth pooofy seats are tacky. The vinyl/leather version looks OK though. Never liked that redesigned dash either, and that crazy back window is a "swing and a miss" for sure.
This 1 year only pattern in the Toronado Brougham and the Cutlass Supreme Brougham was so ridiculous, it was changed to a pinstriped velour the following year which in my opinion was just as flashy. I think they both look great!
The Oldsmobile Toronado was always a favorite of mine. My fondness for the Toronado may have blinded me to the truly gargantuan size achieved by the 1971 redesign. When a neighbor drove their new 1975 Toronado to our house, the Toro barely managed to clear the hedges lining both sides of our driveway, the driveway easily negotiated by our 1969 Delta 88 sedan. That 1975 Toronado became a personal wake up call to me as the neighbor tried to carefully back out the Toro onto the street. Big Outside/tiny inside - like a reverse TARDIS.
The 1976 Cutlass Supreme Brougham had the geometric pattern on the loose cushions as well. A friend of mine had a black on black Brougham and the geometric pattern was very sharp! I owned a 1977 Brougham black with red striped loose cushion interior that was not as attractive. The ride of the Brougham was great!😃❤️❤️
I worked at a small Buick/Oldsmobile dealership in 1976. I was 19 at the time and wanted a new Cutlass Supreme Brougham so bad that I couldn’t stand it. At $2.60 per hour it was unlikely that I would have been able to afford it. We had a customer who had a triple black one and I drove it a couple of times. Oh how I loved that car!
I had a ‘78 XS with the 403. It also had the am/fm/cb along with the moonroof. For its size it was quite nimble . But there was absolutely no room for people in the back seat .
My first car was a fully loaded white/maroon Cutlass Brougham coupe with a very similar interior as the maroon one shown. Those pillow top seats were awesome. They also had that geomtric design in the pattern. I grew up in Lansing and just about every other car there was a Olds back then..
The 1976 Cutlass Supreme Brougham was one of my all time favorite cars. I worked at a small Buick/Oldsmobile dealership in 1976. I wanted one so bad that I couldn’t stand it, but at $2.60 per hour, it wasn’t going to happen!
Olds had some pretty comfy interiors at the time. I was lucky enough to have a 70 Olds 98 all optioned out that I got used at a really cheap price because of the gas crisis at the time. Even though it had a 455 4v, after going to a high performance ignition and optimizing the timing for AMOCO white gas premium, I was getting 20mpg (at least when not having fun blowing away vettes! LOL. Amazing luxury and comfort, innovative tech for the time, and just plain driving pleasure, it was hard to beat.
Rare is the upholstery pattern and material that would make me even consider a red interior. This is one of those and I'd be tempted to pick it instead of the tan interior, but the red dash is still kinda blah. This car in general seems like it was an excellent "budget" alternative to the Eldorado and Mark IV.
I recently purchased a 1976 Toronado and am having a blast driving it. I’ve had many antique automobiles and have to say that the ride of the Toronado is amongst the best I’ve experienced. Despite the horsepower choking devices affixed to the 455, I think the 215 horses is sufficient to get this big and heavy car moving. I generally prefer round versus rectangular headlights, but I think that they complement the Cord-esque facia and grill very well. I also like the design of the outside door handles as they are quite different from other mid 70s cars I’ve owned.
I bought a new Toronado in 78. White with the burgundy (red) vinyl quarter roof and what my friends and I called the Bordello seats😂 Adam is correct about the specs but I found the 403 quite respectable with relatively decent mpg for a large car. I raced a friend with a beautiful aqua Lincoln Mark lll and that 403 stayed with him till about 85 when it slowly began to fade back. It was a nice car and very handsome in that color combo.
I liked the first gen Toronados best. The car was sporty and looked the part. Velour and unusual patterned seats just detract from the sportiness and give it kind of a dowdy, little old grandma or grandpa look, imo. I think the so-called energy crisis and EPA restrictions of the early 70s threw the designers and engineers off track, till it became a land yacht in early/mid 70s. Then ultimately was redesigned to be a relatively “tiny” car in mid 80s. Only the name remained. Then it was discontinued. So goes the life cycle of most American cars. Grand, glorious beginning, quiet fade away.
I had a cutlass with that.kind of interior in blue. It was very cool. I loved the T tops. But they leaked. Also, every option was thrown in. I also had liked the Toronado, even though I was very young. 😊
Starting at 8:20, there's a very cool and very rare Dodge Sweptside Pickup in view above the Toronado's hood line. I believe it's a 1958 ... 1957 was similar. Dodge took the fenders from the station wagons and melded them into the rear body line of the standard truck.
2:53 Wow! That pattern belongs in a Ron O'neal movie. My '77 Olds 98 had that loose cushion look, but it being the first downsized year, you could tell the "cushions" didn't take up a significant amount of space away from the edges of the seat. Those in this video look as if the full thickness was applied across the width of the seat, something they could get away with in a 2 door coup. It really is amazing how much space was wasted in pre-1979 Eldorados and Toronados, despite the reasonably compact UPP drivetrain. There is a huge amount of space behind the firewall (maybe to share some panels with the RWD Riviera?) and under the parlor-trick flat floor. For the 1979 Toronado, Eldorado and Riviera , GM finally got serious about making efficient use of its unique FWD layout, just in time to use it in the cavernous 1980 Seville. Those cars were the best demonstration of what the earlier cars could have been.
I used to walk past a 1977 Toronado with the bent rear glass on my way to HS back in the late '70s. One thing I distinctly remember, besides the glass, was that this car had an airbag steering wheel. I can't find any photos showing this and am guessing this car might have been part of a pilot program for airbags since they didn't really come into use until the early '90s.
I had a ‘76 Cutlass Supreme Brougham coupe that was a beige color with a matching 1/2 vinyl top and rally wheels. It had the same loose pillow, tan with geometric interior. It was a gorgeous car and one owner, 40K miles, 350, loaded and mint. I,should have never sold that car.
Thank you Adam. I enjoiyed the Toronado video. My 1992 Oldsmobile Toronado was influenced by the 1975-1976 and 1980-1985 Toronado. I hate to say this, but the comment you made about the rear seat and the plasticky/ vinyl trim was still true in 1990-1992 as well. It is a one piece with some trim. I do not have "T" emblems in my generation. It is one piece trying to mimic the front doors. I thank you for the video on the interior. I recall this seating pattern. You called it geometric, but I think they called it some else related to aztec/ native American themes. The instrumentation in the Toronado was shared with the Ninety Eight, and Eighty Eight and Custom Cruiser from 1971-1976. That was interesting how Oldsmobile did that yet giving different trim panel/cards. I recall my kindergarten teacher owning a 1975-1976 Toronado and a first grade teacher at the same school had 1973 Toronado. I do thank you again Adam.
Adam: Huge fan of your 'Driving Impressions' videos (delivering commentary as you drive the car); they are among some of your BEST -AND- very helpful to prospective buyers, who really like a certain car, but have not yet driven that specific model. Example: your comparison of the Mark III and the '67 Eldorado; at the end of that video I knew I'd follow your recommendation and go with a Mark III. GREAT WORK! love the channel.
Oldsmobiles steeringwheels were not winding down..and in 1979 the had a hot new 2 spoke telescopic wheel...i mean Lincoln Mercury Ford all had the same crappy chesp steering wheel in ALL its vehicles...the Maverick Pinto Town Car ..Gran Marquis ...etc etc etc.
Other GM division customers must have been jealous of the 455 in Toronado still making 215 HP by 1976. In that year the 455 in Riviera was down to 205, 455 in Grand Prix was down to 200, and the 454 wasn't even available in Monte Carlo anymore. On the other hand, Oldsmobile customers might have been jealous of the other models for not having to deal with torque steer from pushing all that power through front wheel drive.
The geometric pattern in the 1976 Oldsmobiles was quite something though rather tame compared to Porsche’s Pasha velour offered in 1980 to ‘84 euro models!
Yet this car still had a top speed of 121 mph and a O-60 time of 10.7 seconds. Granted my grandmother's '72 Toronado was faster. Personal luxury cars were very much in during the 70s and it wasn't all about the performance. In fact, my grandfather loved this 2nd generation so much that I remember him saying, "No car rides like the Toronado."
Hey Adam, what source can you recommend for engine power ratings from this period? By 1972, power ratings generally no longer appeared in sales brochures, for GM anyway. I tend to find what I can on wikipedia when I want to know, and hope it is right... Chevrolets are well covered via the GM Heritage site's vehicle info kits, but not Pontiac or Buick.
In 1997 a friend in another state sent me a bunch of pictures of a 1976 Cadillac-based 3-way loading hearse with that geometric pattern interior, in blue. Both the driver's compartment and the rear compartment were done up in that cloth. He had the car up for sale. I so wanted it, but it needed more work than I would have wanted to deal with at the time. I have no idea what ever became of that car (and my friend has passed away).
I liked the red and blue cloth interiors. Olds Toronado was the poor mans Cadillac El Dorado. I preferred the Toronado. It was conservative looking and same luxury as El Dorado. The Cadillac was too ostentatious.
Everyone thought of Pontiac as the sporty division in GM but that was only true if the car was equipped with the touring suspension. In truth the firmest standard equipment suspension tuning of the divisions came in the Oldsmobiles as told was considered GM’s engineering division with Buick trailing right behind in the ride and handling balance. Gosh Oldsmobiles and Buicks were so well built in the 60s through the 70s that they really outdid the Cadillac division in quality.
4:40 I'd like to see a video dedicated to GM's 1974 flattened dashboards, and any connection it likely had to the new retracting shoulder belts. Before 1974, a properly tightened shoulder belt restricted the driver's movement a great deal, and to meet federal requirements that all the major controls be reachable by a strapped-in driver, GM had to put them in a cockpit arrangement. With the new crash-actuated belt locks, they could go back to spreading everything out in '74. Was that really an improvement? The video could be billed as a "Features: best or worst?" piece to get a range of opinions. Just a suggestion.
I really love a red auto interior. *Almost* *any* red interior.... I'd say this lovely, almost art-quality geometric red cloth goes high atop my faves list, other than maybe my bright red leather 1979 Coupe de Ville interior. Recalling all the red-interior cars I've owned over the years, I note that without exception, they *all* were with white exterior paint. For me, *That's* my Signature Combo
Had a light blue '78 back in 1981 for a few months. Wasn't that the first domestic car with an engine computer? Anyway, the engine would ping even on slight acceleration and so I got rid of it. It did ride and drive very smooth and quiet.
starting in 1971, Oldsmobile used the Cadillac styling on the Toronado, as the the Eldorado had gotten re-styled for 1971. I love Oldsmobile, and it is my favorite GM brand too. I had a 79' and I miss it.
Thanks for sharing this wicked interior color! Did Oldsmobile still have the cloth sample book for dealerships in that year? It would be fun to see the samples. The plastic rear seat areas make good sense as customers would put messy kids and childlike smoking adults back there. The Old GM company cars came back with cigarette burns, a fact they knew in Lansing and Warren. GM bottom seat cushions tend to be symmetrical, so swapping them can help them last longer. Hopefully, when GM brings out the new electric Oldsmobiles that are built to order in dozens of colors this interior will be an option.
Those gold-brown seats actually look comfortable. I wish they would make seats like that these days, not those POS that are like Park Benches, and pinch the Shoulder Blades
5:34 It seems that Detroit was at a loss on how to trim out the interiors of coups with opera windows, usually settling for molded plastic that looks as if it belongs on the inside of a porta-potty. The vinyl-covered stuff here is a little better than that, but it's far short of the custom-upholstered look of many 1960s coups. Somehow, they got coup buyers to give up roll-down rear windows, settle for cheaper trim, and still be thankful for getting the latest in "classic car" looks. They get an A for marketing, if not for effort.
I really miss the different interior colours of cars of the past. They truly made each car unique; with streeing wheel, door-cards dashboard and the plush seats of a similar colour. Now it´s all dark grey´s and uniform black, with a touch of faux aluminium to lift the ambience alittle.
I'm looking at the exact same car they had in the red. It was all driver's side control in the 70-74 model years. We had a 1972 98 and it was a monster of a rude.
That is a cool interior, but man, you're killin' me over here .. keep showing that Riviera ! One of the most beautiful cars of all time ! Keep the vids coming, all fun to watch for an old guy here that grew in this era.
My Grandfather had a sister who married a great guy from the Bessemer and Lake Erie Railroad and he had bought one in 1976 and it was a beautiful car awesome interior, sweet brakes, tons of power for what it was and he and they loved it.
Nowhere as attractive as the first generation but must better riding. My personal preference of gen2 is that the 71-72 and the 76-77 are more attractive than the middle years.
The Toronado is on my list of cars I am constantly on the hunt for!! Always looking to buy a nice low mile original! My RU-vid channel needs some more Toros on it! Great review!
I saw one of those XS models when I was a kid and it fascinated me. I thought it was really cool looking and I just couldn't figure out how it was made.
You must have retired early to have the time to produce these videos in the quantity that you put out weekly. I retired ‘early’ also, but I’m guessing you’re several years younger than me
