1978 Oldsmobile Toronado - Big Ole Slice of Malaise Era Luxury

Today's Facebook find reeks of someone trying to ditch their old car before they have to pay the stipend to store it. Originally listed at $4,600, the price has been sawzalled to $3,200. Only 34,000-miles or so on its 44-year-old analog ticker too. Still available today five weeks after original listing. That's not a good sign. I mean, who wouldn't want a 1978 Oldsmobile Toronado? 

This darn thing is so "cheap", I might feel inclined to jump on it although, with this being the only picture of the interior, and this to show off its super low mileage, I get the sneaky feeling there might be something up with the insides. My concern would be getting stuck with it after I grew tired of it. Three-grand is still three grand, after all. 

If you're curious, "S" on the transmission selector is for "SPORT", although "sport" on an almost five-thousand-pound car powered by a 185-horsepower engine is relative. "SPORT" was simply a third-gear lockout. "L", or "low", locked out second and third gear. 

There is some quasi or semi-interesting history to this car what with it being a 1978, 1978 the last year for these cars before GM shrink-rayed them to a more manageable albeit still substantial size. It also has, debateably, the last great or really good V-8 engine built by Oldsmobile, that being the good old 403-cubic incher. Making all of 185-horsepower, which, give or take ten-to-forty horsepower, was about the most any engine made by the Big Three and a Quarter back then, it did make a stout 325-foot pounds of torque that gives this car a fighting chance to get up to freeway speed without it getting clobbered. No engine pictures either. This a barn find and they only detailed the exterior? 

You'll still get clobbered at the gas pump, though. Perhaps not as bad as what the Oldsmobile 455 engine would do to your wallet or debit card; the 455 the engine the 403 replaced starting in 1977 because GM believed they would never be able to get the 455 to pass ever stricter emissions and fuel economy standards. I'd figure seven-to-nine mpg around town, maybe twelve, thirteen if you're lucky on the highway. 

The coolest thing about these cars, although few would notice, was that these are front-wheel drive. While most cars today are "pulled" by their front wheels, back in the day, most cars were "pushed" by their rears. Thanks to what GM referred to as the "Unified Power Package", or "U.P.P.", the engine, transmission and differential were lumped together as one unit in front of the firewall. Pretty trick piece of engineering. It was so good and so seamless, there was zero torque-steer, unsuspecting drivers never noticed. Or cared. 

Why GM decided to use it only on the Toronado and very similar Cadillac Eldorado is a question us mortal car geeks will never get answered. Certainly, would have made more sense to use it on at least their mid-size models or even their compacts given the interior packaging efficiency front-wheel drive enables. You ever sit in a rear engine, 1960-1969 Chevrolet Corvair? Positively cavernous without the tunnel and the hump for the driveshaft. Rumor has it the "U.P.P." was initially intended to be used on intermediate sized cars but that plan was scrapped by GM higher-ups. 

Oh, but how will she drive? Well, despite being front-wheel drive, typical for the time period, actually. That means soft, cushy and silent. Over boosted power steering will providing little to no road feel and the front end will wander and need constant attention to keep in a straight line. Solid beam rear axle doing handling no favors save for providing isolation from the road.  

Combine the floaty ride and handling with sluggish engine performance, and what you have here is a big-ole slice of "Malaise Era" luxury. Yum. Gosh, what did I ever see in cars like this when I was younger?   

Looks like I've talked myself out of this thing. Which is therapeutic. Like I said, when I was younger, and for reasons that all but escape me now, old iron like this were "my thing". Now all I see is what they are or portended to be. What that was, much like old trappings of the wealthy, escapes me now too.