In many large, densely-populated cities throughout the world, the streets are full of mini cars, bicycles and motorbikes. It’s hard to find a parking space, after all, and when you do find one you still have to manoeuvre into it. But in New York City, although parking can be a nightmare, many car-owners still drive big cars. Many of those big cars are GM B-Bodies and GM C-Bodies from Cadillac, Chevrolet, Buick and Oldsmobile (sorry, no Pontiacs). Here are just a few. 
This gray Cadillac actually wears New Jersey plates. It seems appropriate: New Jersey is Cadillac Country. It’s hard for me to pin down the exact year of this model but I did make one observation: these are about as big as a car can be, in my opinion, without looking excessive. GM’s 1977 downsized B and C-Bodies really trimmed the extraneous fat and bulk from the 1971-76 full-size models.
Here is a nice 1991-92 Chevrolet Caprice I spotted on the Riverside Drive Viaduct just west of Harlem. These were a controversial design, alternately being called “bulbous”, “bathtub” or “beached whale”. The two-tone treatment on this one is handsome. When did two-tone paint schemes for sedans die out in North America? In Australia, you could still buy, for example, a red-over-gray Holden Calais or Toyota Avalon Grande at the very end of the 1990s.
A lot of the housing projects spearheaded by infamous urban planner Robert Moses feature parking lots. Those residents must be very happy to have been afforded this luxury. I was walking past one of these parking lots in the Lower East Side when I spied a couple of distinctly peaked fenders and large taillights. Ah! A 1980-84 Buick Electra in a pleasant chocolate brown and with Buick rally wheels.
While the 1977-79 Electra arguably had more presence, the revised 1980 model still retained that understated Buick elegance.
But was the 1980 revision perhaps a little too understated? Here’s a 1980-85 Buick LeSabre I spotted in Midtown which doesn’t look dramatically different from the Electra.
The ’77-79 Electra was more imposing than the 1980 and better differentiated from its contemporary LeSabre. Although handsome, these ’80-85 LeSabres look just a tad anonymous. Oldsmobile did a better job of visually distinguishing the Delta 88 from the Ninety-Eight.
Speaking of Oldsmobiles, here is a ’80-84 Ninety-Eight looking a little worse for wear. Perhaps those who lived in NYC long before I did can answer this: was Oldsmobile a particularly popular brand in the metro area? It seems Oldsmobiles outnumber their Buick and Pontiac contemporaries. Then again, it could be the “grandparent effect”: those more likely to keep their cars for longer and take good care of them tend to be elderly, and those elderly people tend to gravitate towards certain brands and models. While the revised Buicks of 1980 were, in my opinion, a backwards step stylistically, I feel the exact opposite about the 1980 Oldsmobiles. They went from being the dumpiest of the B and C-Bodies to being very handsome cars with two very different styles from each other. I’ve spotted a couple of other Ninety-Eights of this era but I’ll save those photos for another occasion.
But of course, it’s New York City and there are still plenty of old Chevrolet Caprices left.
The drab gray paintjob of this just screams unmarked police car but the NYP plates indicate this old Chevy belongs to a member of the press. For an extra $30 annually (and $60 initially), you can get these New York Press plates if you can prove you work for a news organization. Perhaps this drab gray Caprice is owned by an investigative journalist?
Finally, here’s a Caprice wagon sporting some very peculiar patina. These old GM vehicles may be a little harder to park than the multitude of Civics that surround them but it’s nice to see them still being used and appreciated.
Wow! Seeing this at 4:30am was like weird dream! I have had just about everything on this post! I think the Cadillac Brougham is an ’89. It looks like mine, but I lacked the “Premier” roof (OK,door…) option.
Speaking of that, If one takes that “roof” combined with the 1980-84 Electra rear end, One gets a 1980 Chrysler New Yorker,(Hey, N.Y.C.!) As much as there is a lack of love for MoPar’s “R” Body, GM Must have saw something in them.
I Agree with the concept that the Olds 98 improved with the 1980 re-skin. The ’81 Monte Carlo and Regal Re-skins are the few other times that happened.
That’s an 85 Buick LeSabre sedan. Easily one of my favorite cars of all time. I love those taillights!
Sure looks like an 85! I don’t remember when the change happened, but my ’81 LeSabre had the “blocky” taillights. These ones in the photo are much more “Buick” style. In my opinion the 85 LeSabre (esp the Collectors Edition,with the “Electra” interiors) were the last Buicks with a capital BUICK!.
For 1984 the LeSabre gained the Electra-like front end and taillights. ’80 to ’83 LeSabres had a bit more differentiation from the Electra. This shot is an ’81.
The ’80 to ’83 may have been more distinctive, but the ’84-’85 is a LOT more attractive. I feel like the market agreed; while I’ve never seen production numbers, it always felt like there were way more of the ’84-’85 cars around, even when they were only a few years old.
Interesting question, so I checked the Encyclopedia of American cars. Here’s the data on LeSabre Coupe and Sedan sales:
1980: 90,452
1981: 77,943
1982: 91,671
1983: 126,746
1984: 154,712
1985: 143,890
So ’84 and ’85 were the biggest sales years after the “aero” restyle on the B-bodies, though that was probably due to the improving U.S. economy and lessening fears over gas prices as the 1980s progressed.
While these were nice cars, by 1985 they seemed really dated to me. Of all the company cars my Pop had, my least favorite was his ’85 LeSabre Collectors Edition. We called it the “bloody marshmallow” (it was white with red leather inside). It just seemed very old even when it was new–great for someone who wanted “last of the breed” but not so good for someone who actually wanted a more contemporary car.
The problem for Pop was that the new FWD Buicks, while more modern, didn’t “light his fire” at all. Pop had come out of an ’83 Regal Limited sedan, and he liked that size car, but 4-door Regals had been dropped for ’85. His choices for a Buick sedan were a Century Limited (too small and square), the new downsized FWD Electra (too boxy and pricey) or the old school LeSabre, which he felt was his best choice. But it was just an OK car, and rather sluggish with the 307 V8. A great design when new (and when it had more powerful engine options), by its 9th year on the market it was getting pretty long in the tooth.
Is the C-body just a slightly widened and lengthened
version of the B?
And does photo #6 have a construction cone on
the roof? lol
Not widened, but lengthened. The 1959-1984 GM
“B”/”C”/”D” had different lenths, but not just “badge engineering” as not only did they have different power trains, but sometimes different chassis below. Hence the term “B” or “C” body, rather than “B” or “C” platform.
James Slick: “D”
Learn something new every day! What GM
cars were D bodies?
The full size rear drive Cadillacs
Ok. So what was an Olds 98 Reg, or Buick
Electra? And the obligatory stationwagons
for those looked just like the Caprice wagon.
Olds 98 and Buick Electra were C bodies…the rear drive Cadillacs became D bodies after the Cs became front wheel drive. The station wagons are B bodies.
jerseyfred:
UGGGGHH.. Just another GM Relettering,
like the rear drive A becoming a “G” after
1981. Not really a new body, so I officially
do not recognize it. I just call them “classic
C” or “old A” bodies.
Love these shapes in caddy and chev form. Grey really suits.
A+ William
Those box Caprice are wonderful.
To answer the question about 2 tone paint schemes in North America I would say that they died out in the late 90s here as well. As car companies transitioned from blocky/formal styling to more fluid-looking/”jellybean” styling the creases that would have separated 2 colors……were no longer obvious. And yet, I have seen “late” model full-sized Mercurys with 2 tone paint jobs and even some 2003+ Mercury Mountaineers and Ford Explorers with 2 tone paint jobs (usually silver paint that stops about halfway up the side of the vehicle). And even occasionally I see near new Toyotas with vinyl roofs, which most of the pictured cars have. Oddly, the vinyl topped Toyotas sport roof coverings ALMOST the same color as the main body of the car, as in white vinyl roof over a white body.
It’s not at all the same thing but similar looking? Is the move to black roof panels that have dark moonroof glass positioned within the black panel.
It seemed to me that two tone treatments on cars sort of died out by the mid 1980s. They were quite popular around 1980, but declined thereafter. Some kept them around – my son’s 89 Grand Marquis had a factory two tone treatment, with the accent color on the low body only, and you didn’t see many of them.
They remained popular on trucks and SUVs for quite a bit longer, even into the 2000s.
The last pickups to have a “true” two-tone scheme (as in, a wide stripe in the middle of the vehicle) might have been the 1998 Dodge Ram. By then, most two-tone schemes were just silver or some other color on the lower body. Since 1997, Ford has had a two-tone scheme that covers the lower body and the fenders.
The last two-tone sedan was probably the 2004 Subaru Outback sedan. I don’t think the 2005-2007 sedan had a two-tone option.
As Howard mentioned, the Grand Marquis had a two-tone option well into the 2000’s. I’m not sure when it was last offered though (I think it may have been dropped as a standard option at some point but reappeared intermittently with special models.)
The Explorer/Mountaineer while purchased as a car by most people wasn’t really a car. If you went for the Eddie Bauer trim on the Ford you had to have two tone. On the Mercury you had to have two tone unless you stepped up to the Premier trim level.
Two-tones were never popular in Australia, though Holden often used them in advertising shots. I had no idea Toyota offered them on the Avalon – but then I hardly ever saw an Avalon that wasn’t taxi yellow.
I am glad to see some B- and C-bodies still plying the streets of the Big Apple. I agree these cars were about as big as you could comfortably get for the city and still be able to maneuver. I remember in the 1980s these were all over NYC, including all the Impalas used as cabs. And even back then it seemed that a lot of the Cadillacs had Jersey plates…
That’s a 92 Caprice in the third pic. The 91s had black b pillars.
I remember how small these cars looked in the fall of 1976 when the 77’s first arrived. Having worked for Avis in 1979-80, I drove all of the B and a few C bodies when they were still new. My ownership experience has been with an 84 Caprice Landau, and a 79 Coupe De Ville. I’m now starting on my second Caprice Landau, which I picked up at a salvage yard last month. Honestly, where the Caprice feels more taut and sure on its feet, the Caddy floated and wallowed a bit. It was still light years ahead of the 76 version, just not as nimble as the Caprice. Of course, the view from the driver’s seat is different… The Caddy makes you feel like you are piloting a boat, with that expanse of hood visibIe ahead of you. I haven’t gotten to drive my current 80 Caprice yet, it is getting an engine transplant… Typical 305 with a bad camshaft issue. Both it and the 84 I used to own have the F41 suspension, so I am sure it’ll feel familiar. It’s too bad this type of car fell out of favor and now we are stuck with cramped, bloated front wheel drive econoboxes, masquerading as mid sized sedans, instead. Here is My current project…
My Aunt MJ lived in Greenwich Village and always parked her “new every other year” black Buick LeSabre sedan at the “pier.”
Those were certainly the good old days.
#jealous
The Buick Estate wagon of this era is also a favorite of mine.
if you are going to put up with the crowds, might as well drive something classy.
I sure miss seeing these cars as a regular fixture on our roads. But
Upstate, NY salt and horrible Winter weather have done most of them in but you still see some later 80’s Caprices, the occasional wagon and quite a few of the 91-96 examples floating around. It gets tiresome looking at beige and gray plastic hubcap Camry’s and loads of SUV/CUV’s and trucks all the time.
I had a chance to pickup a beautiful 1981 Bonneville sedan with 64K original miles with the Pontiac 4.3 liter V8 that literally ran and drove like a brand new car! The $4900 asking price was a bit much but the car sold telling me that some are willing to pay a little more than before to get one of these B-body sedans. It was a well equipped example too with split front bench and power driver’s seat, PW, PL, partial gauge cluster with the silly fuel economy lights and it had the upgraded rally suspension with rear sway bar that went a long way to improving the ride/handling and tightness of these cars. And the best part- it was a former North Carolina car so zero rust. Well I still have the 1996 maroon Caprice so that will probably carry on as my Summer driver again this year unless something else interesting comes along.
My mother had a 1983 Ninety Eight Regency Brougham. It was pretty well equipped including a moonroof. I think this is why they wanted to move it out – it was the only one on the lot with a moonroof. An expensive option like that wasn’t very popular on those cars back then.
I always thought it was very elegant-looking in burgundy/burgundy.
These former 1973-77 Chevelle Malibu Colonnade 4 Door Hardtop sized remember I said sized RWD B/C/D Bodied Full Size Cars along with their Ford Crown Victoria and Lincoln Town Car competitors were already extinct since 2012 and it was ironic that these class of cars were considered mid-size or intermediates during the mid-1970s or even “small”. The largest cars that can be had now would be cars in the same physical size class as the 1975-79 Chevrolet Nova through the 1979-85 Buick Riviera which were still slightly shorter generally than the 1974-77 Chevelle Malibu Colonnade Hardtop 2 Door Coupe but far larger than the 1982-90 Chevrolet Celebrity.
Seeing the reinforced trunk lock with plate on the back of the Olds brought back memories of living in NYC. It was pretty common to see that in a lot of cars back then.
Are they pretty common still today on more contemporary vehicles in the area?
I’m wondering if a lot of the old GM B and C bodies are ex-livery cars., though I’d think the Panthers were also more dominant in that application.
In the mid 90’s we had a representative of the missing Pontiac B bodies, in particular an ’86 Parisienne. Nowhere near NYC though! But it was a comfortable, spacious, reliable car with classic good looks. Probably would have kept it longer, but it was stolen in 2002.
The mean streets of NYC are the perfect environment for the BOF car. Growing up there, I remember Chevy and Ford and Checker cabs, but don’t recall seeing any Plymouths.
Why? I suspect that MoPar’s lack of a frame made them not as durable.
Also peculiar given that the NYPD used M-body Plymouths, if I’m not mistaken. You’d think a car tough enough for police work would also be tough enough for taxi usage, unless the M-body just wasn’t roomy enough in the back seat.
Chrysler’s Mid to Full-Sized offerings along with the AMC’s lone Matador Mid-Size Cars were made of Unitized Body and Chassis and rather unique for the cars of their exterior sizes. Well Chrysler’s large cars were rust prone to say the least so they do not have the longevity of the BOF offerings from both GM and Ford. Notice I put AMC in the same photo montage compilations with the Chrysler Cars because way after these cars were long gone, AMC became a part of the old and original Chrysler Corporation aka Iacocca’s Chrysler regime.
There still are plenty of Bs, Cs, and Box Panthers floating around the city, as this aptly demonstrates. It’s good to see most of these have whitewalls, at least around NY/CT whitewalls aren’t that hard to find in the 1 in stripe (and in fact are sometimes the only type available in P235s), so it annoys me to see cars that should have them going without.
I have always found these big cars quite easy to parallel park and maneuver in the city as well with the heavily-assisted power steering and great visibility. It is a rude awakening to take a Ford Escape or Camry hybrid cab up First Avenue or down the FDR after you’ve been driving on the same roads in a properly maintained B or C body, you realize how awful the roads really are and how much the big cars filter out.
The only trouble I’ve had with these in the city is that certain garages balk at them and try to charge oversized rates which is ridiculous; those garages were built when these were normal or downsized. Luckily all garages are not run by total morons and most parking attendants soon realize that these cars are easy, not hard, to park.
I would agree. Having owned several B bodies and a Panther; I found them very easy to park and maneuver in the city. Orrin is correct, the heavily assisted power steering and great visibility are the key.
I have a 2010 and 2013 Honda Accord which I find difficult to park nose out without the back up camera.
These were Chevrolet and Cadillac’s chief rival Ford and Lincoln.
Regarding the popularity of the Oldsmobile Delta 88 and Ninety-Eight from these years – both cars sold very well after they were downsized for 1977.
If I recall correctly, they also didn’t suffer quite as much during the severe recession of 1980-82 as other full-size cars, and bounced back very strongly for 1983 and 1984. These cars were almost as important as the Cutlass Supreme to Oldsmobile’s success during the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Love those Buick road wheels on the Caprice wagon. It’s refreshing to see an 80s Brougham with blackwall tires, it’s a good look.
CC effect for me today was finding this beauty in Long Beach.
And we’ve found one of the few American cars that *doesn’t* look good with Torq-Thrusts! Looks like it’s in amazing shape otherwise though.
They’re still better than 22″ chrome rims or 13″ lowrider wires, at least.
To European eyes like mine, these cars are really part and parcel of the American urban landscape, as seen in countless movies and from my own experience over the years. Even a battered, entry-level Caprice wagon like this one has more presence, more oomph than ten bean-shaped econoboxes put together. I’ll sorely miss these nice old beasts when they’re all gone.
BTW anybody knows why New Jersey is Cadillac Country? Just wondering.
Elle King could do a song about these.
“My B’s and C – C – C’s they haunt me..”
LOL!
Late ’70s Fleetwood.. Check out the SLOPPY
b-pillar treatment on her! How was that ever
given a pass by product development? The
Germans must have been dying of laughter
when they inspected that element.
Never did understand that. It was certainly different, but perhaps just for difference’s sake?
The color-keyed wheel covers with the wide-stripe whitewalls, on the other hand, look fantastic.
The B-pillar stuck out so obviously that
I never even noticed the color-keyed
wheel covers.
In the early to mid eighties, the Oldsmobile 88 and 98 lines were the preferred cars for the ‘black car’ or radio-only car companies. NYC has limited its number of licensed yellow taxis since the 1930s. To meet the needs of those needing a pickup at a specific location, you called a black car. These were particularly popular with the financial firms, law firms and other late-night-workers. When I typed for or worked at a downtown law firm late a night, they’d buy you dinner and send you home in a radio car under contract to the firm … on a damp, rainy night, it’d still sometimes take 45 min for one to get to you. Then riding home you’d hear the dispatcher calling repeatedly “Battery, Battery, I need folks for Battery Park” on your car’s radio. My cousin drove 1200 miles a week for one of these firms. Now, I guess, it’s just an Uber ride.
On a non car related topic, I don’t think that infamous is the best term to use for Robert Moses. He certainly was controversial, but I am not sure he rises to the level of infamy. He was a very significant figure in the history of NYC’s buildings and roads. The very long list of his accomplishments would have some good things and some bad things on it, and which you consider which would depend alot on your point of view.
Having read the rather comprehensive book by Robert Caro, “The Power Broker”, I’m by no means a Moses scholar but I do know about his accomplishments. And, to be as diplomatic as possible, he built a lot of extremely useful infrastructure but he also did a lot of harm and was a deeply, deeply flawed man. But let’s stay on topic…