1969 Oldsmobile Toronado - White Elephant

If you're interested in getting into the collector car universe, don't want to spend much, don't want some broken down jalopy and tend to lean towards the quirky or unusual, might I interest you in this 1969 Oldsmobile Toronado? Facebook Marketplace asking price for this Martian spaceship is $10,000 but seeing how old the listing is you might be able to get it for less; the closer bought to $7,500 I think the the better. Why is this seemingly solid oldie going for so little? Good question. Has it been wrecked? Implicated in a crime? Lost title? There weren't many details in the ad for it. More than likely there just aren't many takers for these cars - especially in this rather unfortunate color scheme. "Toronado" is a made-up word, but it might as well mean, "white elephant"? 

This car harkens back to an age and time when General Motors' myriad divisions were at the top of their autonomous and inter-company competitive powers. Legend has it Oldsmobile was jealous of the success that Buick got within GM with their Riviera, which is ironic given that the Riviera was a "corporate" design offered to all GM divisions, even Cadillac, and was turned down by Oldsmobile. Not to be out done by Buick, Oldsmobile came with a personal luxury\personality car for 1966 that was, arguably, one of the most outrageous cars GM had ever come out with. Certainly the craziest Oldsmobile ever. 

Crazy in design, no doubt, but the "Twilight Zone" styling overshadowed engineering that GM had never offered before: front-wheel-drive. It was also the first domestically produced front-wheel-driver since the Auborn owned Cord of 1929-1932 and 1936-1937 fame. 

Things was, despite the superior traction that FWD affords a vehicle, all of the interior packaging efficiencies of it were all but mute on such a large car. Who needs more room when you have all of it in the world to begin with? Can a car be too big? Take it from someone who's maybe only five-foot-nine, yes, they can be. 

This car and it's Cadillac Eldorado corporate kissin' cousin of the same vintage are so big, I can't have my left elbow out the driver's side window meanwhile having my left hand on the wheel. 

Oldsmobile had experimented with an intermediate sized front-wheel-drive design but GM executives reasoned they would not be able to amortize development costs on a mid-sized car. Therefore, a compact car would have made even less sense; the thought being smaller cars mean small profits. Sad thing was, when front-wheel-drive became fashionable during "The Great Downsizing Epoch" of 1977-1986, none of the engineering that went into pulling instead of pushing these cars was used. 

To push instead of pull, all Toronado's from 1966 through 1985 utilized what GM referred to as the "Unitized Power Package" or "U.P.P.". In a nut shell, torque was diverted from the rear of the engine to a transmission mounted under it. The "package" was so compact, despite the use of enormous engines, GMC and other manufacturers used it to "pull" motorhomes. 

Driving dynamics wise, one of these drives and handles not unlike just about every other full-size GM make and model of the era. That's damning the U.P.P. with faint praise - it was so good no one noticed it was there. And with there being no tangible benefit to it, these cars were, if anything, a technical or engineering novelty. 

And, an expensive one as it was Oldsmobile's most expensive model, their flag ship so to speak. NADA pegs one of these average retail today at $23,400; even that's reasonable money for a 1969, full-size GM two-door in, again, what appears to be very good condition. If you're interested, comment below and I'll do my best to contact the seller if it's still available.