Might be good for the price. $5250. 1977 Olds Toronado - cars & trucks - by owner - vehicle automotive... (craigslist.org)
It looks very good for the price. There's an interesting history here, though. Note that some of his photos are like the one above, taken outdoors with a quality camera. But some of his photos were clearly taken in a different location with a different camera, probably a cell phone camera, like this one. Note, also, that the license plate is different. I like to save photos of '77 and '78 Toros whenever one comes up for sale, and these in-the garage photos looked familiar. I looked back through my photos, and, sure enough, these same garage photos were used when the car was up for sale in April 2018. So some of his photos are apparently recent, while the lower-quality, slightly out of focus photos are from more than four years ago. Apparently the car did sell back in 2018, and now it's for sale again. I didn't record the asking price in the 2018 ad. It's apparently a nice car, so why bother using photos from another time that aren't very good quality when you have the car right in front of you can can take all the good-quality photos you want? It's not like these older photos are showing anything newer photos can't. If anything, their poorer quality detracts from the quality of the overall presentation.
Also, from this photo, it's clear the fender extensions have been replaced, which is pretty much par for the course for these cars. Surprising that they couldn't have done a better job matching the appearance. The color looks right, but it's a matte finish, not shiny.
@jaunty75 So, I see I'm not the only one who saves pics from car ads too. But agreed. I have seen that as well where people will use old pics from past ads, pictures taken with different picture qualities from different devices, pics taken at different times of the year, pics of a computer screen or an old print photo, pictures and screenshots from the internet of what the car "could" or "should" look like, or several pictures from years or decades past that have nothing to do with the current condition or value of the car, etc. Not to mention interiors that have lots of debris and/or garbage on them, and general cruddiness that just makes the car look bad. There's a lot of weird stuff people do in their ads, but sometimes it just comes off as being very lazy and not very useful or helpful for potential buyers. By supplying clear and recently taken shots (preferably right before posting the ad), and by at least tidying the car a bit before pics are taken helps to present it in a better light and, at the very least, will help sell the car faster and/or even generate more interest in the car. But well, not everyone has the same thought process about putting an ad together. Sometimes I have to remind myself that we look at ads all the time, yet for someone who is posting an ad, it might be the only one they post that year or that decade, or in some cases: even in their entire life. So, sometimes people aren't as thoughtful and detail-oriented as many of us are who see these things virtually every week, or even everyday. With all that said, from the pics presented in the ad, and for that price, that looks like a very nicely presented car. Too bad about the supposed minor rust in the rear rockers, but that could potentially be taken care of relatively easily. Overall though, in today's market I think that's a more than fair price.
By the way, I forgot to mention, but I never noticed this little detail of these cars before! The lenses look red, so I'm assuming they're a part of the braking system? I bet the whole top of the deck lid lights up when those lights illuminate at night. Very cool!
Brake lights is exactly what they are. Olds called them "eye-high" taillights, and they first appeared on the '71 Toronado. It was always only Toronado. They never appeared on any other Olds model. They lasted through the end of the second generation, 1978, and then they were gone. I don't know why Olds discontinued them, but they did foreshadow the centered, single, high-mount brake light that became required starting with the 1986 model year. Here's my '78 with those lights lit up. Just have to step on the brake. They do not light up like the taillights when the headlights are on, only for the brakes and the turn signals. Because it's daytime, the regular, lower brake lights are bit washed out, but the high-mount lights are easy to see. You're right that they do look cool at night. Here's a page from the 1971 Olds Toronado brochure. The text is a little washed out, but it is readable. The taillights are mentioned in the upper right with the paragraph describing them down below circled in red. In case it's difficult to read, the text says "Only Toronado provides a second, eye-high set of taillights to signal your intention to stop or turn. Note how the deck lid has been sculptured to permit superb visibility of the lights."
Very cool. Thanks for the explanation! I figured they'd only illuminate when the brake pedal was applied, but that's interesting about how they light up for turn signalling. I bet it's a neat effect at night. It is kind of a mystery why they disappeared, but I guess they disappeared before the introduction of that mandate. But in a way, it kind of "makes sense" why they disappeared because by the late 70s, all manufacturers were de-contenting their products, making them smaller, simpler, less ornate, etc., so I guess those auxiliary lights got the axe. It's interesting how I never noticed that design feature of these cars before though. Chalk that up to being a Mopar guy.
I always thought the Toronado was ahead of its time in light of the center mount break lights that were government issue on the 1986 model year cars. I always loved those eye level lights. We had a neighbor with a ‘78 XS and I thought that arrangement was so cool.
There were a handful of other cars I've seen those tail lights on, mostly early '70s Ford big cars. I do know they were a somewhat popular aftermarket add-on as a guy I used to work with drove a 1971 Impala that had an extra set of tail lights like that added to his trunk lid (obviously not factory).
Here's the lights lit up on my '77 XS. It was early morning and cloudy, so the light was not bright, and the lower taillights stand out well.
