1977 Oldsmobile 442 - Barber Poll

Cars like this very worn out 1977 Oldsmobile Cutlass 442 were my dream cars when I was in my late teens and early twenties. This is for sale on Facebook Marketplace for $3,200. Bonus, the original driver's door comes with the sale. 

Here's what it would have looked like new. Or restored. Quite the looker, no? Even in this barber poll motif. 

Color coordinated interior too although that black seat belt buckle poking up next to the drivers seat makes me wonder if this interior is original to the car. Not that it matters. A lot can happen to a car in forty-five years. 

As is the case with many an old car up here on the cusp of the Great White North, rust is a major concern. Especially with regards to the structure of the car. This is not the rustiest bucket out there and that mouse hole is just advanced surface rust. Poster of the ad claims the "frame is solid". I'll take their word for rather than make a four-hour round trip to see for myself. 

Same here on the lower rear, passenger side quarter panel. That this this is sitting on grass makes me believe it's not going to be the driest old car either. 

Something tells me this Oldsmobile "Rocket 350" is not running and would explain why this hasn't been moved to pavement. Maybe they don't even have anything paved? At best it should be indoors. Plastic bags in the air cleaner to stop mice from nesting in there tells me this bubba has been sitting out here for while. 

This is what the engine room looked like when the car was new although that's an Oldsmobile 403-cubic inch V-8 and not the Olds 350 like our Facebook Marketplace find has. The Oldsmobile 403 was an Oldsmobile 350 with a larger bore. You'd find this engine in a number of Pontiac Trans Am's in the late Seventies too. 

For 1977, available engines ran the gamut on 442's from a Buick V-6 through every available Oldsmobile engine at the time. That included the dreadful Olds 260-cubic inch V-8 although with that motor, you could get a five-speed. Yes, a five-speed. FE2 "Rallye Suspension" was optional so the 442 package, at its most rudimentary, was a trim package. 

Poster of the ad says the brakes, exhaust and radiator are bad and the car has some some electrical issues. At least they're honest. They don't mince words about the rust either. Sigh. 

This another prime example of let's "put it out there" before winter comes? Which, newsflash, it's all but done up here already. Price is knocked down from $3,500. NADA pegs these high retail at around $19,000. average around $13,000, fair approximately $6,000. There's no NADA value for poor or basket case - which this one most certainly appears to be. Might be fun to make into a rat rod but not at anywhere near $3,200. 

1987 Oldsmobile 442 - Some Things Never Change

I was amazed at the number of late model cars in the student parking lots at St. John's University in Jamaica, New York when I went there in the mid-Eighties. SJU was primarily a commuter school back then and General Motors intermediate coupes were very de riguer and made my ten-year old Chrysler Cordoba stick out like the beater it was. The Monte Carlo was the most popular of them followed by the Pontiac Grand Prix (not included in the above Car and Driver article because there was no real sporty GP), Cutlass and then the Regal. If any sport model was in vogue like the cars in C&D, it was the Monte Carlo SS. The Buick Grand National was a unicorn because it was so expensive. Again, the Olds Cutlass was popular although its sport model, by the time I was at St. John's it was the 442 (nee Hurst\Olds Cutlass) and was about as rare as the Grand Nat. 

That's why when this 1987 Olds 442 popped up on my Facebook wall the other day I had to take a closer look. For sale for a relatively sane $4,500 asking price, with 30,000 on its thirty-five-year-old analog ticker, could this be the ride to take me back to Utopia and Grand Central Parkways? 

General Motors did a great job updating their class of 1978, downsized intermediate coupes for 1981. The four-door models stayed all but the same as did the wagons. While I've always felt these updated coupes were still far too narrow, the 1981-1987 Cutlass coupe I've always thought particularly handsome. Regardless of trim level. I wasn't alone in my sentiment as Cutlass coupes were one of the best-selling cars in America in the mid-Eighties. Fun fact, Olds actually built the Cutlass coupe through 1988 calling the last run of them, "Cutlass Classic" selling them alongside the new for '88, front-wheel-drive Cutlass. 

Oldsmobile's first came out with a "442" in 1964 as an "answer", as it were, to the Pontiac GTO. Denoting a four-barrel carburetor, four-speed manual transmission and dual exhaust, with a gussied up 330 cubic-inch V-8 and firmer suspension than stock, it was essentially the same package Oldsmobile sold to police departments.  They even sold it as a four-door in 1964 although legend has it less than ten were made. Was this America's first sports sedan? 

Somewhat amazingly, Oldsmobile offered a "442" originally and continually through 1980 before putting the moniker on a four-year hiatus from 1981-1984. They brought it back in 1985 after Oldsmobile's partnership with Hurst ended that sired the 15th and 16th anniversary celebration of the venerated "Hurst\Olds". 

After production ended on these 442's after 1987, Oldsmobile brought 442 back festooning it to a limited run of Quad-4 powered Calais' in 1990 and 1991. After that, "442" was gone forever. 

Not that it mattered, but our '87's "4-4-2" could denote a four-barrel carburetor, four-speed automatic transmission and dual exhaust. That four-barrel carburetor, a Rochester Quadra-Jet, bolted to a slightly warmed over, 307 cubic-inch Oldsmobile V-8. The Olds 307 either a bored version of their deadly-dull 260 cubic-inch boat anchor of 1975-1982 infamy, or a de-stroked version of the famed Oldsmobile "Rocket 350". Frankly, I've always thought it was the former rather than the later. Your opinion or knowledge base may vary. See dealer for details. 

Regardless, in a 442, it made all of 180-horsepower and 245 foot-pounds of torque, same as a '83-'84 Hurst\Olds save for the fancy, dare I say silly, Hurst "Lightning Rod" shifters. Seeing a 442 tipped the scales at some 3,500 pounds fully loaded, zero-to-sixty was a matter of eventuality as opposed to rapidity. At least it was somewhat quicker than a non-442 Cutlass. 

In the Car and Driver article on GM's "Modern Muscle" triumvirate, David E. Davis wrote that it seemed the 442 didn't have its heart in whatever it was it was trying to be. He did gush about the Monte Carlo SS and he said the Buick Grand National had an engine that deserved more car. 

I never followed up and inquired about this thing. I searched again for it recently and it was gone. Honestly, I have little use for another old bomb that needs a lot of work and I'm not about to drop the $20,000 to $25,000 or so on one that's in mint condition. 

I guess some things never change.