canadiancatgreen is one of our most prolific Cohort posters. I just perused a few pages there (I’m covering for Rich this week, who is taking a well-deserved vacation) and there’s a lot of old iron. I was taken by several shots of ’70s and ’80s GM A-Bodies that are still being driven, despite the brutal winters (and salt).
Daily driver colonnades have become a rare thing indeed, but here’s a rusty Olds Cutlass sedan still at it.
This Chevy Malibu looks pretty solid still.
As is this Buick Century.
And there’s this A/G Body Monte Carlo to round out the quartet. I hate to say it, but these kind of beaters have become almost extinct out here in my neck of the Oregon woods.
I see from the Lynnwood Centre sign that this is in Edmonton.
I think Edmonton (and all of Alberta) tends to be more gritty than salty and it gets so cold it’ll practically stop the galvanic corrosion reaction!
Can’t imagine there are any colonnade year round daily drivers here in salty Ontario, the whole frame aft of the rear wheels would have dissolved about 25 years ago.
Yes most of these are in South Edmonton and spoted not far from each other the first on I think was more Kingsway area
When I was in western Canada last summer, I saw a surprising number of A/G cars but no Colonnades that I recall. However, the only two Colonnades that I can recall ever riding in were both in Canada. They belonged to my sister’s ex-husband’s father, a 4 door Malibu and an El Camino, both pretty new at the time, in Toronto. I got a ride to the airport in the Malibu after a very heavy snowfall and before the plows had gotten to the neighborhood. The ex took his dad’s car “because it has radial tires and is really good in snow”. It was an exciting ride. Both are probably long returned to the earth by now.
Great finds!
The last Colonnade I’ve seen in daily driver condition was the Century picture below that I saw in traffic few years ago. I’ll occasionally see one rusting away in a field or in the back of a gas station, but as for actual driving examples, they’re almost all gone now.
We lived 90 min drive south of Montreal from ’75-’80, when at least some of these were still being sold as new. My car at the time ’74 Datsun 710 was rustproofed shortly after being bought, but by ’81 the cowcatcher bumpers caught enough slush to be very rusty, and I sold it to buy a ’78 Scirocco. In ’82 we moved to central Texas and have been here since,
Of course these were very common back then. One of my then co-workers had a ’75 Chevrolet Malibu Coupe through about 1983
These 4 cars are what used to be referred to here in New England as “winter beaters”. The thought being that if you’re going to subject a car to salty, pot-hole infested, winter driving, you might as well do it in a car that’s already got one foot in the grave. Historically, some drivers would line up a “new” (new to them) winter beater each winter and it’d be 100% in the grave by the end of mud season (e.g., April). Others with more storage room might have a winter beater stored on property and use it for several winters…before its inevitable passing.
Such things are becoming less common with the overall elevation of living/driving standards. Now folks just replace their vehicles every 3 years or so. Except out in the deep country. The practice is still pretty common in Vermont and very rural Maine. And presumably much of Canada.
That Buick needs a new tail light, as something that broken probably wouldn’t be allowed (here in the States at least) unless it’s being driven by the local authority’s relative.
The early 1990’s Olds Delta 88 in the third pic, is mighty impressive as well.
The entire Colonnade range was very well represented in Southern Ontario. But alas, they all turned out to rust as badly as concurrent Ford products.
YEAH BABY!
I love it when these old roaches reveal to us how long a car from this era could have survived. Lt. blue with a white roof! RIGHT ON! That was a typical car of the era. Oldsmobile – Chicagomobile, you mean! Cook county rocked with Olds and helped make the Cutlass the King of the Hill.
Great photos – wish I could see them in person.
Baseline Road at Merivale Road in Ottawa, Ontario, facing east, in the summer of 1975.
It is no coincidence, there is a Colonnade Buick Regal and Pontiac LeMans, in this random pic. As well as two Squarebody GMC/Chev pickups. Both lineups were everywhere here, at the time. Iconic Harvey’s fast food restaurant located in the centre back.
The orange Fury is a City of Ottawa fleet car. Look at the flared jeans on the person waiting for the bus.
Actually, that looks like a GMC Jimmy, behind the Regal.
great picture! I was trying to see if that blue car on the left waiting to get in to traffic was also a Colonnade. And that lime green one on the right in the parking lot looked a bit like a Malibu, maybe.
I was thinking that was a full-sized Chev, on the left. I agree Lee, that appears to be a green Malibu, parked to the right.
Forty-nine years later, Harvey’s is still at the same location.
https://www.google.com/maps/@45.3646114,-75.7321891,3a,75y,188.15h,86.12t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sc4eXT5txilUo3_PhjVacfA!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?authuser=0&entry=ttu
Harvey’s menu: https://www.harveys.ca/en/menu.html
I’m amazed there’s still what looks like an operable pay phone!
Plus a painted yellow crosswalk across the drive-thru lane to get to it. Along with a small sidewalk, and concrete stepping stones leading to the booth. Lol
The Harvey’s owner, must be paying for it to remain there.
Where was Olds going:
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/53350754037_83c5a1fff3_k.jpg
With the crease work on the lower half of the door panels?
With that light drab blue and white roof colour combo, Olds was going nowhere fast.
Actually, I think that crease work was supposed to be some sort of reminder of great classic cars of the past from the 20s and 30s with separate fenders from the body. Maybe.
You’ll still see the odd Monte, Cutlass Supreme, Grand Prix every once in a while here in TN. Almost always restored, some with big gaudy wheels, but never in beater status like this. And never the 4 doors.
Another factor in the attrition of old cars(old pickups especially) here in middle Tennessee is they are bought up by the Latinos and driven down south of the border to never be seen in these parts again. Makes sense cause cars dont rust around here and something that might need a ton of mechanical work that would cost $4000 here costs 4,000 pesos to fix up in Mexico.
The colonnades have vanished from my neck of the woods (Charlottesville, Virginia), but I’m aware of one nicely modified Monte Carlo of the 80s like the one in the 3rd photo. I can’t figure out the logic of its vanity plate — DRTY RAG.
Interesting how many there are where it snows often, given that they’re rear wheel drive. I wonder if adding weight in the back is common.
The “Monte Carlo” makes me sad. hate to see it “deteriorating”.
Was always partial to the “burgundy color” ones..