I'm just curious. There was a 69 Olds Cutlass wagon at the local cruise in on Saturday (a factory 4 speed car by the way), and it had the cutaway step in the bumper for access to the third seat. I thought Vista Cruisers all had forward facing third seats and would have thought the non-Vista wagons would be the same. Did I miss something?
Somehow it seems to me that if that were the case on the Vista Cruisers, that would defeat the purpose of the Vista roof.
We had a '69 six-passenger Chevelle Greenbrier wagon with the same cut-out (the "step-in wagon") and all the GM wagons had them, whether there was a third row seat or not.
The back end of the Vista Cruiser was a different design, with a 5 inch stretch in the wheelbase to accomodate the forward facing third seat. The 'flat roof' 'regular' model was basically the same as the Chevelle Malibu or Pontiac Le Mans. Not sure whether you could actually order a 3rd seat in the flat top. (I checked a '72 catalog, and it indicated the flat yop was only available with 2 seats.) That '69 you pictured is nice.
All non-Vista Cruiser, Cutlass-based wagons from 1965 through 1972 were two-seat wagons. Only the VC was available as a 3-seater. The VC's seats were always forward-facing. Maybe the cutout in that wagon's bumper is there because that bumper is from a different car? Also, yes, the VC's had a longer wheelbase at 121 inches versus 116 for the non-VC wagon, at least for 1969. The VC wheelbase was always longer than the non-VC wagons, but they weren't always these two particular values.
It's still a step to access that cargo area, or load stuff on the roof rack. 1973 was the year the A-bodies switched back to rear facing third rows.
Thanks for all the replys. I had no idea that the flat roof wagons and the Vistas had different wheel bases. I thought only the roofs were different. That means some of the wagon sheet metal below the beltline is different some where on the Vistas vs. the flat roofs. To me that seems pretty strange, but maybe thats why there were no full size Olds wagons during Most of the Vista's life span. Now if none of the flat roof wagons had the third seat, and all the Vista's third seats faced forward, then I'm still confused by the step bumper.
The Malibus and Le Mans wagons of this period did offer rear-facing third seats, so I think the step cut-out is just an outgrowth of the Chevy and Pontiac flat roof bumper design.
I had a 69 VC back in 1986, so memory is a bit foggy on details, but I don't think that cut-out is for a step, I think it is for the hinge and latch of the two-way tailgate. Is that wrong?
