Really looks great for the price. https://cnj.craigslist.org/cto/d/jersey-city-1977-oldsmobile-toronado/7112246549.html
It is a pretty car. Living in NM, when I first saw the trunk picture thought it was clear coat breakage, instead of cloud reflection. It really is lovely, and super reasonable.
We saw this car a few weeks ago. I can’t believe it’s still for sale. What a lovely car, at what seems to be a great price.
My dad had a 73 then a 79 and finally and 85 - the 85 was the last car he owned till 2007. when both he and the car went to better homes, Him 1st
https://cnj.craigslist.org/cto/d/jersey-city-1977-oldsmobile-toronado/7131641075.html Ad has been reposted. I learned to drive in a '73 Toronado, so I've a soft spot for these. Curious why this hasn't sold. From craigslist to ebay, from North Carolina to New Jersey, this seems to be the same car that's been haunting the internet in search of a buyer for quite a long time (I think I first noticed it on Hemmings). The price is way down from what it once was, too. And still no buyer. I was also curious about how this Toronado compares with the '76 Eldorado I'm trying to sort out. I didn't realize that compared with the Eldorado, the '77 Toronado was longer by 3.5 inches, but the wheelbase was shorter by 4, that it had a smaller turning radius, that the 403 scooted from 0-60 1 second faster than the Cadillac's 500 cu. inches and beat the Eldo in fuel use by 1.3 mpg. The Toro's top speed was 118 mph to the Eldo's 110. It's largely an apples-to-apples comparison. Guess I'm just noticing how the variety of apples differ. https://www.automobile-catalog.com/auta_cmp2.php
This may have been posted before (even by me), but here's another pretty much equally nice '77. The issue in selling these cars, no matter how good their condition or how low the price, is finding someone who wants one. The market for these second-generation Toros is just not that large. Most people see them as land yachts, which they were and are, but that's what makes them so charming today, I think. https://pittsburgh.craigslist.org/ctd/d/creighton-1977-oldsmobile-toronado/7130027972.html
jaunty75 you are dead on! "is finding someone who wants one" this also applies to wagons, while I for 1 keep stating that they are getting scarce, most are used, perhaps in great condition but USED, so the trailer queen crowd isn't interested. though I would sell the 85 CP with ease, at over my reserve - WAKE UP MAK! back in 07 tried to sell my dad's Tornado for $4,000 - ended up selling it to my friends son for $300. I am a nice guy!
I've said it often, but it always bears repeating. There are three legs to the value-of-a-car stool. 1. Rarity 2. Condition 3. Desirability Many people think that if the first two are met (especially the first one)...a car is in great condition and is one of only two left on the planet, that will automatically mean that #3 is met, that it will be desirable and thus its value will be high. Not true. Desirability is driven by many things, but rarity isn't usually one of them. The same issue afflicts station wagons. They seem to be becoming more desirable as people discover them as a way to relive their youth and as a somewhat cheaper way to get into the old car hobby, but this goes only so far. Wagons will always be a niche collecting interest, and their value will reflect this.
Getting back to the Toronados, I would argue that the transition from the first to the second gen Toros (1970 to 1971) was probably among the most dramatic in terms of a car’s design, appearance, and target market of any model from any make in the history of the automobile. The Toronados everyone talks about and thinks of when talking about them today are the iconic first generation models, 1966 through 1970. But it’s interesting to look at Toronado production over those five model years. 1966: 40,962 (an auspicious start for what was a new, niche model featuring what was probably seen as radical new technology—few people likely remembered or cared about the Cords of the 1930s no matter how much it might have been pointed out that the Toronado was not the first American-made, front-wheel drive car.) 1967: 21,790 (barely more than half of ‘66 sales, and you wonder if GM didn’t consider dropping the model after 1967) 1968: 26,454 1969: 28,494 1970: 25,433 After 1966, production stayed constant in roughly the mid-20,000 range. This amounted to about 5% at most of total Oldsmobile production in any of those years. Now look at the first few years of the second-generation models. 1971: 28,980 (still in the 20,000s, but higher than any year since the first in 1966 and probably would have been higher if not for the GM strike in the fall of 1970) 1972: 48,900 (huge increase and highest yearly production total in Toronado history to date, exceeding the first year, 1966) 1973: 55,921 (highest production year in the 27 year run of the Toronado. 1979 would come close at just over 50,000, but in no year following 1973 right through to the end in 1992 would Toronado production exceed the 1973 total.) 1974: 27,582 (half of the previous year’s production probably affected by the oil shortages, rising gas prices and gas rationing, and the move by consumers to less gasoline-hungry cars) 1975: 23,301 (second-lowest yearly production in Toronado history and probably still a result of rising gas prices and the economic recession that was going on) 1976: 24,304 1977: 34,084 (interesting, one-year-only jump compared to the years around it. Probably a result of the downsizing of the other Olds and GM full-size models that year, leaving the E-body Toronado and Eldorado as the largest GM cars, and there was still a market for these large cars.) 1978: 24,815 (last year of the second generation models) Here’s the first three years of the third-generation models. 1979: 50,056 (the second highest total in the Toro’s 27-year run, eclipsed only by 1973. It appears that people really took to the downsized Toronado) 1980: 47,018 1981: 46,003 My take on this is as follows. As much as GM and Olds wanted the Toronado to be seen as a sporty, personal luxury car that appealed to a younger crowd that was into technical sophistication (this was the era of "Youngmobile" and "Dr. Oldsmobile"---remember him?), Olds couldn’t shake the bank-vice-president image of its typical buyer, and sales of the ‘67 through ‘70 models never came close to the ‘66's. Oldsmoblie buyers wanted what they always wanted in an Oldsmobile, and that’s a large-car, softly-sprung, isolated-from-the-environment, living-room-on-wheels riding experience. The second-generation Toronados, no matter how much they seem like beached whales today, gave these buyers that plus a touch of personal luxury, and that’s what sold these cars more than their front-wheel drive ever did.
