1973 Oldsmobile Custom Cruiser wagon low miles - $11950 (North Tustin hills CA.) hide this posting

http://orangecounty.craigslist.org/cto/5600470979.html

73 Olds wagon, This beautiful example is a one owner local car been in hiding for thirty plus years, She shows 36,000 miles owner past many years ago . This car has all the options and is FULL SIZE It has the unique disappearing tailgate/rear window. The butterscotch with saddle interior is outstanding and very 'period' too!! She has brand new tires,transmission carb. rebuild, radiator and full brakes to put this cruiser back on the road. $11,950 714-544-6123 or cell number 657-322-9739

 

Beautiful car! And yes she shows her 136,000 miles well. Turbo 400 tranny's don't need rebuilt at 36,000 and the steering wheel gives it away as does the repaint.. No door panel shots either

 

Gorgeous, and much better optioned than mine, which was the exact same color scheme.

 

At first, I thought this seller might be the same one that had 2 '68 Country Squires for sale a while back, one red, one white. That guy stated he was in the Santa Ana heights, and not Tustin, like this guy says. Two areas are maybe 2 miles apart, if that - so still could be the same guy.

 

At least someone gave this car a little love, comparatively speaking, to some of the haggard cars we find here.

As for the paint job - my 65 Merc had only 46,600 on it and I had to repaint it due to the previous owners eyesight.

Being predominately a Blue Oval guy, what strikes me about maybe being right on 36K on it is two things - the dash pad isn't cracked to $hit like they all are out West here and the seat isn't splitting apart. Maybe it is really that low. I don't know if it's $11900 type of low. But if it was cheaper it'd be a derby car, and we wouldn't want that......

 

Must have had a broken hood release cable: driver's kick panel is missing and that's not an easy thing to remove.

 

At 36,000 Miles that steering wheel would NOT look like that, nor would it need a trans rebuilt. yup I could see a "repaint" for reasons mentioned. My Buick dash pad was flawless at well over 100,000 miles as were the seats. Untill I pulled the dash pad to install new speakers and sat my azz in the seat and it all went to poo after that. Dry rot on seat stitching and dried out dash pad. Had the same steering wheel on the same colum and it had well over 100,000 before it started to crack that plastic outer coating let alone fragment like that. NICE CAR no doubt but I am NOT buying the milage.

 

This car may have "all the options," but it does not have a rear window defogger nor cruise control, as the switches for both of these would be in that area in the left-side instrument pod above the air-conditioning controls. The right side does show the power window and power tailgate switches. We can also see that the turn-signal stalk does not have a button in it. Neither does it have a trip odometer nor speed sentinel. That is an AM/FM radio. Can't tell if it's 8-track, too, but I don't think so. Looks like a clock at the far right.

I do like the split front seat. My guess is that that was a rarely-purchased option in these station wagons. At least, I don't recall seeing another one in all of the clamshell wagon ads that have been posted on here over the years.

We can see from some of the other photos that it has power windows. Can't tell, though, about power locks.

That does look to be an original Oldsmobile floor mat.




No cornering lights.




Up above I said that this car is much better optioned than mine was, and I think that's still true. Just shows how low-option mine was.

 

If it really is a well kept one owner car there is no real way to document if it has 36,000 or 136,000 miles. Only the steering wheel really points to over 100,000 miles. And I had a low Mileage 76 Pontiac that the steering wheel looked worse than this one, and have high mileage cars were the wheel looked new so who knows? As for power locks I say no as I do not see a switch on the rear door panel that is pictured. The top of the door panels show some sun damage, but no to bad.
And I have seen TH-400's that sat for years leaking out of the front and rear seals as soon as they are put back into use.

 

I don't think this is true. The condition of the steering wheel we're seeing here is due to the passage of time, not the passage of miles. The plastic shrinks as the polymer crystallizes, which occurs over many years. That's why those gaps develop in the wheel, and sometimes the metal core is exposed. That's why the foil trim comes off, too. It doesn't shrink as the wheel itself does, so it inevitably delaminates and falls off.

The steering wheel could look like that after this much time even if the car had only 10,000 miles on it.

The wheel on the '73 CC I used to own looked very similar. The car had a little over 100,000 miles on it. Note the large gap in the plastic at about the 3 o'clock position (as the wheel sits--6 o'clock position if the wheel was straight) in this photo. That didn't get there because of lots of handling of the wheel. It got there because the plastic shrunk, and, at that particular point, it pulled apart, exposing the metal core.




Here's photos of the left and right sides of the wheel in my '67 Delta 88. Same exact phenomena. Shrinkage and resultant cracking due to age.

 

No power door lock switch in the rear doors. The window switch is in the armrest.

 

Generally that clear plastic cover would degrade from SUN damage before the wheel would crack. NOW LOOK AT at YOUR OWN WHEEL at the 3 and 6 o'clock positions, Where when driving you tend to rest your hands. Look at YOUR wheel at 100,000 and look at THAT one. Both show wear in the same places and the seeming same amount of wear. You also have that wear on the other wheel of yours in the same place.

 

No one routinely puts their hands at the 3 and 6 o'clock positions on a steering wheel. That's about the most uncomfortable position I can think of. The most common is the 10 and 2 or 10 and 4 positions. In my case, I almost always drive with my right hand at the 12 o'clock position while my left is usually hanging on at around the 7 or 8 position.

And why would putting your hand on the wheel cause the wheel to crack at all? Unless you're squeezing the hell out of it all the time, the presence of your hands would have no effect. Your hands would certainly not cause the wheel to shrink and expose the metal core.

The sun hits the wheel only obliquely, not head on and not like the way it hits the top of the dashboard or the seats, which face right up at the sky. It hits the back side of the wheel, not the front side where the laminate is.

 

Ok so the steering wheel wear fairy makes the wear marks on all pictured wheels we see here? that wear comes from what? These are pics of YOUR OWN steering wheels and you deny wear? Good god you are a frikkin Goober.

I can see selling you many LOW MILE big buck cars throughout life would be quite easy.

I never said putting your hand on the wheel would cause it to crack it causes it to WEAR on the outside edge of the crossbar. (generally where the horn control is) we don't all follow drivers ed/ drivers test wheel position when driving keeping our hands at 10 and 2. Personally I drive with my left hand at 12 and my right ready to shift. OR with my hands at 3 and 6 on the crossbar in an automatic but not all the time mostly at 12. IF in fact the wear was from palming the wheel(which I can tell you with that plastic and foil crackin and fallin off would NOT BE HAPPENING as it would rip your hand open) that would DEFINEATLY show MORE than 100,000 miles!

And we all know no light what so ever comes thru ANY window but the windshield? Now with THAT SAID thee are MANY PICS that could be taken to back up the mileage claim, Such as gas and brake pedals DOOR PANEL on the drivers door and so on. If I was selling a LOW MILE car those would be some of the FIRST included! Remember they said it was Hidden away for 30 years!

 

No matter how many miles this wagan has on it with a lower price and being way closer I'd be interested in it.
Sadly you guys are right about the plastic and the seats. I could drive it a week and everything could go to pot!

My old 1939 Ford and 1948 Chevy panel truck have 350 GM automatics that were just fine until some dummy let them sit for years. When moved in December both looked like old Harleys left their mark and had bled pink blood where they sat.
I've noticed with age, everything shrinks and wrinkles!