The final B-body convertibles were something to remember: Big, luxurious, gas-sucking dreamboats. Should any of you CCers want an Olds version of your very own, last-year ’75s are readily available, thanks to owners who socked them away for decades, hoping to cash in. Today’s find isn’t a 1975, but the (in my opinion) more attractive ’74 Royale drop-top.
The ’74’s more futuristic-looking taillamps and simple vertical-bar grille are much more attractive than the 1975’s fussier nose and more traditionally-Oldsmobile rear lamps. And this one was particularly sharp in navy blue with my preferred choice of white interior trim.
The period-correct Crager S/Ss also added to the appeal. What a sharp boat!
My only question is why did GM play down the Royale ‘vert during the last couple of years of production. You would think the dreamboat convertible would get a big two-page spread in the prestige brochure, but no. Instead we get a Royale coupe instead!
That ’70s Green speck at the bottom of the page below is the only image of the convertible in the 1974 Olds catalog. Think maybe it had something to do with sales tapering off? “Gee Mr. Robertson, I didn’t even KNOW a convertible was still available.” Ah well…
Great car…but those tires look weird on it.
I concur.
This car wasn’t a low-priced vehicle in the mid-seventies. It deserves a higher standard of wheel adornment, such as whitewalls and wire wheel covers.
Yes, S/S wheels look good, but they’re more for Camaros/Firebirds/Vettes, etc.
1975 Oldsmobile Delta 88 convertible:
I think black walls look the best with the “mag” wheels, it’s just the ribbed for her pleasure styling of these that make them look bad. Proper smooth sides w/o the huge Goodyear Regatta lettering and it would look much better.
Nice. It’s rare to find a 70s GM product with the hard plastic steering wheel completely intact. 97% of them are heavily cracked.
That’s, by the way, the easiest and most tell-tale sign of a seller who is lying about a car’s true mileage. On eBay for example, if you see a somewhat clean GM model for sale with a claimed 75k miles or less on it, but the wheel is cracked or chipped, you might as well add 100k more miles to it because the seller ain’t tellin ya the truth…
The wheel being cracked isn’t a good indication of the amount of miles on the car. Leave it in the sun or just in a hot enough climate and it could be all cracked up on a car with no miles. The pedals are a much better indication of how many times it’s been around the block. I’m not sure about this year Olds but my 75 Buick Limited had the rubberized wheel, not hard plastic and it looked great to the end.
Exactly my point. if a 35 year old car has low miles and has been well cared for, chances are it was either garaged or covered when not being used, not left out in the sun to deteriorate.
But that has nothing to do with the number of miles on the car. One car could be driven 2 miles per day to work and another 50 miles per day, the 2 mile per day could have been left in the sun all day while the car that went to the big city parked in a garage.
I think I’d rather have a high-mileage, garage-kept one-of-these than a low-mileage example that sat outside & needs its unobtainables replaced! Pretty much everything but the chassis & drivetrain is “Billions and Trillions” away.
My heart just skipped a beat! I would love one of these. My favorites are the 1972 & 1973s with the slimmer bumpers. Love these cars!
+1 on those earlier bumpers,still a looker though
This is in really nice condition, but GM went from their peak about 10 years earlier to oversized boats like this full of simple plastic dashboards and the universal plastic interior panels.
This one’s mine. Bought in 2009, complete and running, for $1600.
’71?
’72
Good deal.
This one’s mine. Bought in 2000, incomplete and running for $1,200. The top material had been torn off by the P.O. for some reason so it lives in the basement for now.
Dreamboats indeed! That’s the first I’ve seen that word used in describing our beloved ’70’s metal.
And that blue specimen with the Cragars is mighty sharp…
A royale, Oldsmobile Royale, in royale blue? 😛
Personally I like it from all angles but I am reminded of Gas Monkey’s 88 Convertible purchased sight unseen for $4,000 (+$500 in storage fees) because he “knew the guy.” What a POS that turned out to be.
I didn’t see the begining of that episode so I was wondering how he came up with that one. Certainly worth restoring, though the little bit I saw of it says he got taken if he paid that much.
@Dan-
Even with its problems, restoring that Delta would be a cakewalk compared to that Ferrari.
Yeah but I still think the price Richard was charged was because he had dated the gentleman’s daughter, not in spite of… 😉
Dad’s revenge 🙂 .
“My only question is why did GM play down the Royale ‘vert during the last couple of years of production.”
I’ve wondered the same thing myself, and have often thought that perhaps the convertible wasn’t as profitable as the closed cars. At that time, it seemed that the price difference between a convertible and a coupe wasn’t as wide as it is today.
Convertibles were on a general decline by this period, the other question is, is that a large full brochure or one of the smaller ones? Usually there were 2 brochures made for the year, the smaller “auto show” brochure and the big larger full dealership brochure, the big fancier brochure usually had more picture, though they probably weren’t pushing the any of the big cars that much, Cutlass, Cutlass, Cutlass was the BIG thing for Oldsmobile in the 70’s.
My 70’s Buick brochures don’t emphasize the convertible Centurion/LeSabre that much either.
I have the “deluxe” ’74 Olds brochure, and it also had that tiny little pic of the Royale convertible. On the ’73 and ’75 catalogs, it was the same.
The only GM make that showed nice, big pics of the convertible version after 1972 or so was Cadillac. Looking good in Cranberry Firemist…
Yeah, Cadillac did keep a dedicated section to the Eldorado Convertible all the way through 76. I always kinda liked the Grand Ville and Centurion convertible, and always the Eldorado, of course.
It’s interesting to note that everyone except Oldsmobile started the 70s with 2 convertibles, the Impala/Caprice, Catalina/Grand Ville and LeSabre/Centurion, but only finished with one.
Not quite-There was either an Impala or a Caprice convert, they were never concurrent, the last impala was ’72, changed to Caprice in ’73.
Also, In 1970, you could still get an Olds Ninety-Eight or a Delta convert.
Roger is correct, there were never both Impala and Caprice ragtops in the same year, it was moved from one to the other for 1973.
Pontiac had convertibles in two fullsize models through 1972 (Catalina and Bonneville through 1970, Catalina and Grand Ville in 1971-72), then just the Grand Ville from 1973-75.
I’m less familiar with what Olds and Buick did in this era, but the last year for C-body convertibles (e.g., 98, Electra) was 1970. I think Buick had both a LeSabre and Centurion convertible in 1971-72, just the Centurion in 1973, then moved the convertible back to the LeSabre line for 1974 after the Centurion was dropped.
They weren’t both available? I never paid much attention to the Chevrolet, I like the Pontiac, Buick and Cadillac ones best. 70 was the last year for a high end convertible at both Oldsmobile and Buick, the Electra 225 convertible didn’t return for 1971.
Mrs JPC and I have been on a mini vaca in St. Joseph MI and saw a 75 version top down on the road yesterday. The CC effect is functioning at full signal strength.
Aftyer the buy a Chevy post I passed a matt black and flames 38 Master coup’e the signal was working fine, if I see one of these today I will be amazed. Cool car though not something I’d buy.
David Lynch evidently likes these-They tend to show up in his projects quite a lot-
For many years, I have referred to these ’71-’75 B&and Cadillac-C-Body converts as just that, David Lynch Specials. For the record, I like them, too, except my first pick would be a ’75 Pontiac Grandville with rectanglar headlamps, much sharper than that Olds in IMHO.
Different stroke for different folks, I suppose, but I always personally thought of the Oldses as the best-looking B-bodies of the bunch. They just seem to have a certain style and flair that the others don’t.
True, I never have seen that many David Lynch movies, but Leland Palmer, Laura Palmers father from David Lynch Twin Peaks TV series drove a 75 or so Caprice Classic convertible.
Very pretty, love the color combo. For me the classic Cragars improve the appearance of just about any 60s or 70s car that has wheelcovers. Usually though I’d rather have factory Rallye/Magnum style than even period correct aftermarket.
The thing that bothers me on this Royale is the tire sidewall. It is overly styled for my taste. Everyone knows there aren’t many affordable whitewall choices these days but there are even fewer plain blackwalls in 15″. Nearly all have raised letters or a look that is clearly crossover/SUV style.
I hate to admit this, but in 1979, I thought Cragar Mags were the most beautiful things on earth. I so wanted to buy a set but couldn’t afford it.
The ’74 Deltas did not sell and the ’74 convertible is scarce. I was driving through some small town in Tennesee several years ago & spotted this straight example at some rinky-dink car lot. The ignorant owner let it sit out like this, top down, uncovered.
Red is the original color and the white interior complements it very well. I’m thinking this was a 350 car. Look how few options this one has. Just the wire caps, remote mirror, AM/FM (maybe stereo) and A/C. No clock, tilt, cruise, etc. It had cranker windows.
Why did they downplay the convertible? I think…the convertible was only offered by this time, to use up inventoried parts, the top and bows and assorted hardware. Convertibles were not big sellers by this time; and the automakers were bracing for a (never made) anticipated rollover standards which would have made traditional convertibles impossible.
So they offered it, to use up parts; but didn’t push it, because they didn’t want demand to outstrip parts supply.
If I recall correctly, sales of the 1975 Delta 88 convertible rebounded strongly. The total was over 20,000 units, which was excellent for a convertible at that time.
Sales of all big cars were down sharply for 1974, thanks to the Arab Oil Embargo, and that undoubtedly affected sales of this car, too.
It may well have; I don’t know. But that wasn’t the plan GM had.
GM was phasing out the convertible; in anticipation of rollover standards that never came to be. 1976, as you may recall, was the year for the “last” convertible, the Eldorado.
Probably, partly, to slow demand; wind down contracts with suppliers; use up materials without having to order more.
I think all of the “last” GM convertibles experienced and uptick for their last years, the Eldorado convertible swelled from 7500 or so to 14,000, the most produced Eldorado convertible from 1971-76.
I love “Fast & Loud”, even if they get little history bits wrong.
For their ’75 D-88 Convertible, Richard Rawlins says in a ‘history’ tidbit, “1975 was the last year for 88 Royale…”, when I think he meant ‘convertilble’.
Their 88 may be worth more now that it was on a show! Just kidding, it may be a ‘parts car’, but I want to see it restored.