Welcome back! Well, after somehow convincing you all to vote for a front-wheel-drive GM car over a Miata yesterday, I’m feeling emboldened. So today, we’re going to bask in the glory of GM’s earliest FWD design: the full-size E-body. Both Oldsmobile and Cadillac produced versions of this monster; we’re going to look at one of each.
Was it unfair for me to show you the worst Miata for sale I could find? Maybe. Did the overwhelming majority of you voting against it actually want that Pontiac? Probably not. I almost used a Dodge Aries instead, but I decided that was going just a bit too far. And it wasn’t as nice as the Pontiac.
I’d be curious to know the demographics at work here. I would guess that those of you who were desperately trying to plead the Miata’s case in the comments, saying “you just need to do this, and this, and this, and then it’s a good car for like five grand” are much younger than I am. I would believe that, with enough time and energy, you could polish that turd, but I am simply not willing to. I’ve got better things to do.
Front-wheel-drive has always been contentious among car enthusiasts. Some simply refuse to touch anything driven by its front wheels; others lament the fact that packaging and budget constraints led to the demise of rear-wheel-drive as the standard so many years ago. But FWD dates all the way back to the beginning, and plenty of celebrated cars have had no driven axles at the rear: every Citroën you’ve ever heard of, and a little car called the Mini, for instance.
No American car had been front-wheel-drive for three decades, however, when Oldsmobile introduced the Toronado in 1966. And no Cadillac had ever been FWD before the Eldorado moved to the same platform a year later. Oldsmobile ended its run with no rear-wheel-drive cars left in its stable except an SUV, and Cadillacs were nearly all FWD for years. So I guess, if you can’t stand the fact that so many modern cars are FWD, you can blame these two for starting it all.
1970 Oldsmobile Toronado – $2,850
Engine/drivetrain: 455 cubic inch overhead valve V8, three-speed automatic, FWD
Location: Palmdale, CA
Odometer reading: 68,000 miles
Operational status: Runs and drives but needs brake work
Nothing ever said “disposable income” quite like a personal luxury coupe. It wasn’t a uniquely American style of car – plenty of European and Japanese luxury coupes existed – but it was here in the US that the genre really flourished. In the ’60s, Buick had the Riviera, Ford had the Thunderbird, and in 1966, Oldsmobile introduced the all-new, front-wheel-drive Toronado, a stylish, comfortable “gentleman’s hot rod” with Oldsmobile’s famous Rocket V8 under the hood.
By 1970, the Rocket had reached its high-water-mark for displacement and power, at 455 cubic inches and 375 horsepower. All that power and torque was fed to the front wheels through an ingenious version of GM’s Turbo-Hydramatic transmission, which transferred power to a final drive under the engine via a two-inch wide hardened-steel chain. This drivetrain proved so tough that it also powered the famous GMC Motorhome. This one runs fine, it sounds like, but the car needs brakes to be roadworthy.
The Toronado’s FWD design gave it a flat floor inside, with no transmission hump or driveshaft tunnel. With a bench seat, there’s a ton of room inside these things. Sadly, the upholstery on this particular bench seat is gone. There’s no saving it; it will have to be reupholstered or replaced. I don’t see upholstery kits from the usual restoration suspects, but a good custom shop should be able to do it. Swapping in some buckets or a bench from some other blue GM vehicle might be a more economical way to go, however.
The seller says this car originally had a white vinyl top; it’s completely absent, and the surface of the top is rusty, but desert-rusty. It should clean up all right, and a repaint would eliminate all traces of that particular “factory defect.”
1973 Cadillac Eldorado – $4,000
Engine/drivetrain: 500 cubic inch overhead valve V8, three-speed automatic, FWD
Location: Las Vegas, NV
Odometer reading: 94,000 miles
Operational status: Ad doesn’t say, actually
Just in case the Toronado isn’t big and gaudy enough for you, here we have Cadillac’s version: the Eldorado. 1973 was a big year for the big Caddy coupe; it became a standalone model separate from the Fleetwood line, it was the official pace car for the Indianapolis 500 (in convertible form), and it got a major facelift, making it look even bigger and heavier than ever.
Most Eldorados didn’t have this Continental-style hump in the trunk lid; the seller says this is some special-order edition called the “ElDeoro” (or maybe they meant “d’Oro”?). Apparently it’s one of only 100 made; we’ll have to take their word for it because I can’t find any other record of it. The ’70s was the era of the special edition, though, and it wouldn’t surprise me if some Cadillac dealership came up with its own package, especially in Vegas. It looks like it came with a special grille surround and a truly ostentatious padded landau top, as well.
The vinyl is deep-fried from the desert sun, and so is the paint. We don’t get any interior photos, but what I can see of the rear deck through the back window does not look promising. All the seller will say is that the interior is “all there” and “needs to be redone.” I’m assuming it looks similar to the Toronado’s interior.
The ad also doesn’t give any indication of whether or not the massive 500 cubic inch engine runs or the car is drivable. But it’s parked in an alley, and staged nicely with the hubcaps and fender skirts on display, and something tells me it got there under its own power. I just have a feeling that, with a car this rough, if it didn’t run, it would have been photographed wherever it sat. I could be wrong, of course.
Neither one of these cars is probably worth actually restoring. But they also both look sort of right, somehow, all desert-faded and scruffy. Mechanical stuff is still easy to find for them, at least. Fix ’em up enough to be reliable, clean up the interiors enough to not be scary, and just drive ’em as-is. Which flavor do you prefer?
(Image credits: Craigslist sellers)
The Eldorado is a cool car,but it’s a bit too expensive and a little too beat. I went for the Toronado.
I like both of these but that Toronado is awesome! I don’t like the front end of those Caddy’s as much- still a cool car and it’s got the 500.
Thank you for not subjecting us to a Dodge Aries! I did really like that 6000
Heaven is in the back seat of my Cadillac….even if it does not run
Toronado for me. I like the style a little better and it’s a little smaller and lighter. And it doesn’t hurt that it’s cheaper.
The Toronado. It isn’t the most desirable year of that first generation, but it’s still a handsome car and most likely (I don’t remember if they were standard or not by then) has the front disc brakes whose absence made the original ’66 pretty treacherous in a panic stop.
The second-generation Eldorado looked better as it was facelifted, as the crisper and more rectangular lines of the later years are cleaner than the baroque Bill Mitchell neoclassic curves it started out with, and cleaner is definitely better on a couple this size. And no matter what model year it is, it looks better with a convertible top. With that dealer-special Midwesternental trunk hump and padded top with landau bar and a Vegas location (Arizona tags, though), I’d worry the cops would want to swab the trunk every time an old corpse turned up in Lake Mead, and I wonder if the seller is trying to unload it before there’s another drought.
I’ve never been in one of these (that I can remember). I’m curious if the chain drive contributes much noise. It would seem incongruous for a ‘luxury’ vehicle if it did.
It was completely transparent, noise-wise as I remember them. These were quiet cruisers, although they would have benefited greatly from an overdrive gear as they had all the torque in the world to pull them down the highway at 80mph.
Had it been a 1970 Eldo, I might have overlooked the price and lack of drivability details, but by 1973 the motors were pretty well detuned and the shape was a bit less sharp. I would go with the Toronado and write High-Toned SOB on the back as a nod to good old Stephen King, the 1970 model being pretty similar to the 66 an all.
I like the Toronado’s design. The Caddy is gigantic, but that is pretty much it. Assuming they both run, I’d still go Olds. As someone else said, put a blanket over the bench seat there and you’re good to go.
Swap the prices, I’d still go with the olds
If I HAVE to pick one, it’s the Olds.
Always liked the unique look of the 1st gen Toronados with the chunky wheel flares. Especially the 66-67 and 70. Normally I’d be into an Eldo too but the conti hump ruins it, I don’t care how rare it is.
Hard no for either one for me personally, but since I have to choose… my parents had a couple of Oldsmobiles during my formative years and I inherited a ’71 Toronado when my grandfather passed away. I passed it on to my brother who promptly wrecked it as he had my parents’ ’65 Dynamic 88.
During the late Sixties, they seemingly put a new front face on it every year. I actually liked the ’68 iteration.
Oldsmobile Toronado – Wikipedia
I’m feeling very Count Olaf these days.
Gimme a couple serape blankets and the Toronado.
Rough as it is, Toro all day long. This was the last model year of the gorgeous “sporty” luxury coupe and it was a sesquipedalian treatise on personal indulgence. The Eldo has its proponents I’m sure, but for me the Toro takes the W every time.
Fun fact: in his novel The Dark Half, Stephen King describes the bad guy as driving a Toronado “so steeply raked in the back that from the driver’s seat it appeared to be pointed straight at the ground.” That always bugged me. King has leaned on car scenes in certain of his stories – Christine comes to mind – but that particular factoid lurched me so far out of the story I almost couldn’t finish it.
Didn’t read the book, but did see the movie. It was appropriately freaky like a typical King movie adaptation. The theater wasn’t full, but there was a decent attendance and we all seemed to get a little freaked out by the bird scene at the end.
We hung back and were the last ones out of the theater. There was a crowd in the lobby waiting to get into whatever blockbuster was newly out that week, and they all got to see a fairly somber flow of people exit our particular theater.
Just as the group of a half dozen or so of us got to the door, one of my buddies said “man, I sure hope I don’t go that way”, and every head in the lobby turned and looked at us as we burst through the doors laughing hysterically.
I miss those guys.
Some day I’d love to get one of those GMC motorhomes, and either of these could provide replacement drivetrain. That’s really the only redeeming value I see in either of these monstrosities.
Throw on a self tuning throttle body EFI setup and you have a pretty decent package.
“…a pretty decent Unitized Power Package.”
Fixed it for you!
It’s Vegas so I’m gambling on the Golderado (I’m sure future me will regret it but we’re on a 0 win hot streak)
These are both rougher than I’d really want, but the Caddy is both even rougher and more expensive. Plus that continental hump truck is HIDEOUS. Oldsmobile all the way today.
Neither. The Toronado if forced to buy one.
Bang for the buck says the Olds is the way to go.
370 HP and 500 FTLB of torque at 3000 rpm?
More than enough power to steer you right into the largest tree on the block. And enough weight to take it down!
Cadillac because Bender and the Were-car
Even if I weer objective, I can’t think of a reason to prefer the Caddy. But I’m not objective because, as I’ve mentioned, the Toronado was my Gramps’ dream car, and I wouldn’t mind making that dream come true.
Shame about the front seat tho.
“Diamond in the back. Sunroof top. Diggin’ the scene with a gansta lean…”
Give me the pimpmobile Eldo!
I’d bet that you will find an old bottle of Ripple in the glove box! 😉
My buddy had one of the Olds versions. It had a HUGE front bench seat. The possibilities for making out were endless.
The Olds is a pretty good looking old boat. Priced more than it’s worth, but clearly the better choice.
Does the Cadillac come with a glove box full of drugs, or did the seller take them all before setting the price?
Likely option B.
This one’s a no vote from me. Both pieces of garbage. FWD is fine for lots of vehicles, but not these. I don’t even want to look up the weight distribution…on top of the fact that they are both rotting, who would pay thousands for junkyard parts donors like these?
I’ll take the Toronado. Just because I know it runs and it’s cheaper and not much else. It’s funny but in school, my car broke down on the way to Vegas. It broke down in Palmdale and I remember a guy had an old red Toronado in the gas station I walked to and was spraying water on the engine as steam filled the air. I guess it was overheating? Just weird that this one is in Palmdale. So yeah, this Toro, just for some fun before I get tired of buying gas.
I cheated and voted twice – one vote for each car. I love two door land yachts. I refuse to choose between two cars that are awesome.
Anyone who dislikes either of these cars is objectively wrong, and probably a communist.
The top of that Caddy is rotten. Almost as rotten as the souls of the greedy bourgeois who oppress the workers through capitalism.