You don't find many 1978 Oldsmobile Cutlass' anywhere in this kind of shape, especially up here in the northern reaches of the rust belt. Most of these types of cars are either disintegrating or have been modified up the proverbial catalytic converter. Nice to find a survivor that's original and unrestored.
Asking price is a fair $7,000. NADA pegs this "average retail" at $11,200 so there may be more issues to contend with than just the transmission leak they disclose in the ad. Or they just want to unload it quickly and without much drama. Outside that, details are sparce for this one-owner time-capsule with just 40,000-miles on its forty-five year old analog odometer.
Our "Cutty" here here is part of General Motors downsized intermediate line that was all new for model year 1978. GM first shrink-rayed their full size models for 1977 and then they rebooted their mid sizers for '78. While GM returned their full-size models in 1977 to approximately the size they were in 1965, they sliced and diced these intermediates down so much they were more like upsized compacts than mid-sized cars.
That's all well and good as the smaller, tidier dimensions made for more fuel-efficient cars and ones that handled better than any GM intermediate prior. I've just never cared for their styling but if you held a air gun to my head, I'd be ok these notchback, Cutlass two-door sedans. Especially if it had the optional, Chevrolet built, 160-horsepower, "LG4", 305-cubic inch V-8 that could move a '78 4-4-2 from zero-to-sixty in 8.9-seconds. Don't laugh, that was pretty quick back and roughly only a second quicker than an "L82" powered Corvette could do it. Seeing what a bone-stripper this is, that's highly unlikely. I'd bet on it having the base, 105-hp, Buick V-6 or everyone's favorite Oldsmobile built boat anchor, their 115-horse, 260-CID V-8. I know, you thought I was going to say Oldsmobile's "350" diesel. These cars didn't get those monsters until 1979.
What to do with our little brown bomber here? Good question. I don't see much sense it leaving it alone and not "retro-modding" it to give at least somewhat contemporary performance. As is, it's so underpowered, it could be dangerous to merge onto highways with given how fast traffic can move these days. But then it's not "original and unrestored", right? Yeah, but let's be real, shall we? We're talking about a 1978 Oldsmobile Cutlass here. $7,000 can't buy you a 1977 Camaro, Corvette or Firebird in this shape so in that, perhaps there's great value here. Swap in a spicy engine, 700R4 (transmission) gutsy rear end and firmer shocks and springs, and you could give any muscle, pony or sports car of similar vintage a real good run for the money. For not all that much money too. Leave it everything else looking stock so at least it still looks "original and unrestored".
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