In 1975, a somewhat curious convergence happened: all of the Big Three came out with broughamized luxury variants of their compact cars. Ford and Chevrolet had new compacts on tap that year; the Granada and the Nova. The Granada conformed to the LTD formula and was quite nicely trimmed even in the base version, as there was also the Maverick for cheapskates; the Nova had to cover the full compact spectrum, but there was a new top-trim LN, which became the Concours in 1976.
And although they both were targeting the same segment of the market, the two cars couldn’t be more different. And their respective success in the sales charts couldn’t be more different.
A while back we bestowed the 1975 Ford Granada with “The Most Malaise Car Ever” award, with the subtitle “A Triumph of (Imitative) Style Over Substance”. It won that distinction thanks to some remarkable stats (with the optional 250 CID six):
- lowest hp per cubic inch: 0.28 hp per cubic inch. 70hp total.
- lowest rpm at max. power: 2800rpm
- worst power-to weight ratio 48.46 lbs per hp
- slowest 0-60 time: 23.15 seconds
The Granada sat on an enlarged 1960 Falcon platform/chassis; its handling, in a PS comparison test evoked these words: “The Granada..has excessive freedom to roll, pitch and bounce”. In other words, dynamic qualities took a major back seat to the sizzle, which is something Ford and its President Lee Iacocca was well versed in.
But Iacocca’s genius was in marketing, and it really shone here. The energy crisis of 1974-1974 had sent a lot of big car buyers scurrying to smaller cars. In 1974, peak year of that freak-out, the Pinto was the best selling name plate in the land. By 1975, buyers were willing to move up a notch into compacts, but wanted the amenities (and looks) they had been used to in their LTD.
The Granada was originally developed to be the replacement for the Maverick, but when Lee read the tea leaves, he decided to push the Granada upmarket, and keep the Maverick around as the bottom feeder.
Meanwhile, things over at GM were quite different. The Brougham Era had essentially been a Ford invention, and GM was still a bit ambivalent. The styling on the ’75 Nova makes it clear that they had BMW much more in their visors than a Ford LTD, or Ford’s bastardized idea of Mercedes styling.
The 1975 Nova had to cover all the bases, from cheap to sporty to luxury, although there’s little doubt that the LN was a fairly last minute addition in reaction to the coming of the Granada.
Just looking at its long-hood proportions makes its Camaro DNA all too obvious. The ’68 Chevy II/Nova shared its platform and undoubtedly many of its key hard points with the ’67 Camaro.
The ’75 redo involved some changes to the body from the cowl back, especially in opening up the greenhouse, but not really as deep as might be assumed. But from the cowl forward, the Nova now shared the subframe, suspension and steering from the ’71-up Camaro, generally regarded as the best handling sporty car at the time.
The difference in their respective stylistic missions is really acute in comparing the two coupe versions. One could see these two different roof styles reflect styling traditions at the two respective makers going back all the way to 1959.
That’s the year that Chevy’s bubble-top roof and the Ford’s formal roof tradition began, and although they were a bit modified for the Nova and Granada coupes, the traditions cannot be denied.
The Camaro genes explain the Nova’s long front end; it really was a Camaro under the skin with three inches more wheelbase at the rear to better accommodate a rear seat. As it was, that rear seat was not as roomy as the one in the Granada’s boxy body; the one advantage the Granada had over the Nova.
The driver’s seat was the place to be in one of these. This was flat out the best domestic driver’s sedan in 1975-1977. Well, the new ’77 Impala/Caprice gave it some competition in that regard, but the Nova was smaller and nimbler. And equipped with a 350 V8, faster too.
I speak from experience. At Iowa City Transit in 1976-1976, a new white Nova sedan was used by the drivers to shuttle ourselves back and forth from the bus depot to the main transit hub downtown. It also had the tell-tale of a rear sway bar, so it had the HD of F-41 suspension, along with rather meaty tires. It also had the 250 six, but that wasn’t all that much of a penalty as it ran pretty well (110 hp compared to the Granada’s 70) and it was all city driving. That didn’t stop me from probing its abilities in plenty of corners and such. And in 1975, I had never driven anything quite like this: its steering was very quick (2.3 turns), and it corner flat, and fast. The difference compared to the American cars I had driven (I’m looking at the 1971 Ford family of Total Performance sedans) was almost astounding. And in a stupid six cylinder four door sedan!
The 305 and 350 V8s were optional, and with the latter, the Nova was about as quick as it got at the time, for a sedan. And a four speed manual was available. Properly-equipped, a Nova was a…four door Camaro. It’s the easiest (and laziest) way to describe it.
Of course the leaf-sprung solid rear axle would have gotten the shakes on uneven surfaces, especially while cornering briskly. That’s where the BMW facade really fell apart. That and its weight and poor space utilization, fuel economy, etc. But then this was the traditional big compact’s last hurrah; in 1980 the Nova would be replaced by the Citation, which was a drastically more sophisticated and modern car, albeit hampered by its rather severe birthing pangs.
I made up this chart to graphically illustrate the sales of these 1975-1979 luxury compacts. The Granada includes all versions; the Nova just the LN/Concours, which was priced right around the same as the Granada. I also included the Mopar competitors, which in 1975 were the Dart SE and Valiant Brougham, and the 1976-1977 Aspen and Volare SE.
The Nova Concours’ last year was 1977; there was a 1978-1979 Nova Custom that kept some of its external affectations like the grille, but was not as well trimmed and priced accordingly. The Aspen was replaced by the Diplomat, but that was a fair bit more expensive. Plymouth just threw in the towel on the segment. And even the Granada showed a strong downward trend; by 1980 sales had sunk in half again. This really was a short-lived phenomenon.
Of course I didn’t include comparable cars, like the X-Body clones from B-O-P, and the Mercury Monarch. It gets a bit complicated, but the story is pretty obvious: by 1977, buyers had a wide range of new down-sized GM B-Bodies to savor, and in 1978, the new A/G Bodies only added to the allure of something a bit more modern and spacious without the penalty at the pump. Of course that would all be turned on its head again in 1980-1981, and cars like the Buick Skylark were suddenly hot sellers in this field.
But the pendulum swung seriously away from Ford, as its boxy 1980-1982 Fox-body alternatives (Granada, Cougar, T-Bird) were all rather quite ungainly, and contributed to Ford’s near-bankruptcy in 1980.
It’s all word play, of course, but by 1977 Chevrolet was so eager to try to give its languishing Concours a bit of cachet, they even went as far as changing its name to “Concours by Chevrolet”.
That included its own brochure.
But buyers weren’t…buying it. And she looks like she belongs in a genuine BMW Bavaria, not a cheap imitation, even with its optional fine cloth upholstery.
Not even its stand-up hood ornament was doing the trick. Not very BMW-like at all; mixed messages.
This Concours is sporting dual exhausts, so we can safely surmise it’s not a six. Which raises the question: how many times have you seen a Granada with dual exhausts? Ok, I’m sure they exist, but you get my drift. These two cars couldn’t have been more different, considering they were fighting for the same slice of the pie. One is the crust; the other is the cream filling.
Related CC reading:
Here’s a R&T Vintage review of the 1975 Nova LN
Note: a rerun of an older post.
I remember many Novas were used by L.A. County law-enforcement agencies. I assume others followed suit.
They did. Many departments went from Chrysler B-bodies to Novas when those and the 440 engine were discontinued. The replacement R-body was bigger and slower, and LASD excluded transverse torsion bars until 1982. That year LASD went to Plymouth Gran Fury 318s.
I’ve never owned a Nova of any vintage. But I have owned several 1976-1979 Cadillac Seville’s which come close? haha.
Anyhow, where I grew up there were plenty of them in the farming community of the mid-west. But to this day, if I came upon a 77 Nova Concours, I would be inclined to buy it. Kind of cool in my book.
Great article.
From the factory, only the muffler had dual outlets, it was still a single system, a trait shared with the concurrent Camaro.
This car has an obvious non-stock system, the factory pipes curled out from behind the tires.
A much better look, BTW, than the Camaros strange cross-eyed outlets that curled towards each other out the back.
Curiously the BOP X-Bodies didn’t use it. My ’76 Omega coupe with a 260 Olds V8 still had the single tailpipe. Had I kept the car longer, I would have had a dual-pipe muffler installed, but alas the monstrous torque of the mighty 260 “baby rocket” had had it’s way with the Borg-Warner T50 5-speed to the extent that it was on the way out. And there no replacement parts available for it as early as 1982. It had the Olds equivalent of the F41, (FE2?) and can attest to the handling and cornering ability.
These were simply not differentiated enough from the Nova. An extra tail light, a hood ornament, and plusher seats? Still a Nova.
Those mid 70’s Detroit cars were, in a word, horrible. Bad fit and finish and puny big bore engines. 230 hp out of a 454? I’m old enough to remember driving a 450 hp 454 in 1970. Embarrassing for us muscle car fans. This is why Japanese and European cars started to gain in popularity with more efficient engines and early fuel injection.
Don’t forget to account for the switch from gross to net HP. Chevy was kind enough to publish both for 1971 .
While there was no LS6 for ’71, an LS5 was 365/285, 78 percent of the gross figure. Extrapolating this figure to a 450 HP LS6 gives about 350 net. Yes, still a plenty strong rating. Given the more stringent emissions regs of the late 70’s,
a drop from 285 to 230 on a low-tune 454 was not egregious, given the single exhaust and cat, EGR, AIR etc that a 1971 model didn’t have.
The Granada was marketed as an ersatz Mercedes, it’s performance and handling may have been terrible, but it looked the part and allowed customers to downsize without giving the impression they had just declared bankruptcy. The Nova LN may have been a much better handling carl, but it still looked simply like a Nova with a pimped- up interior.
Ford powertrain engineers must have been incompetent to spot GM 40 hp from essentially the same design 250 cu in 7 bearing carbureted six. Hard to understand such a low output, inexcusable really.
Yes she does belong in a classy Bavaria, but having had one (2800) I’d gladly have traded the latter’s sporty handling competence and general chassis excellence for the reliability of a Concours with a 350 and 4 Spd, that must have been one fun car with low maintenance thrown in to the bargain. Woulda coulda shoulda.
For some reason, Ford really sucked at emission controls. When the first emission standards came out, Ford’s attitude was, “The emission controls make your car so bad you need to contact your Congressman and have the emission laws repealed.” Ford cars of the era were awful. They surged, were cold blooded and used more fuel than a GM counterpart.
By 1975, GM was on board with emission controls. The catalytic converters of that year allowed for much better engine tuning, and power figures improved. Ford’s malaise lasted a lot longer. It wasn’t until they introduced fuel injection circa 1985 did the drivability of their cars improve.
Ummm, no. By 76 or so Fords were comparable to any other make in how they ran. Look at some of the old tests from CD and MT etc. Japanese brands ran horrible cold AND warm because of lean carb settings. Tests of the new Seville (75) complained about surging and hesitating.
I had a 78 Cougar XR7 with 351W. I started right up every time cold or hot. When cold it did have to idle about 30 seconds to get off the choke. After than it would hesitate just a bit sometimes til warm.
Models equipped with the VV carbs were horrible however……it made CA smog cars horrible. When they put the simple and reliable Motorcraft 2150 2V on the 82 Mustang GT, the magazines were very happy how it ran, same with the 83s with the Holly 4V. My brothers 84 GT ran great as well.
1975 Fords were the worst. Lowest MPGs and worst driveability. My 1975 Monarch 302 Drivers Ed car a perfect example. Even when fully warmed up, it would stumble and cut-out strangely in certain part-throttle conditions.
And gutless? Our 1972 302 Comet would have spanked it.
1976 actually brought meaningful improvements. The 400, for example jumped from 158 to 180 net HP, it’s highest net rating ever, And 332 foot-pounds of torque put it only 20 under a 460. Alas, it was not to last. By 1978 it was down again to around 161 or so.
We had a 1977 Granada that drove a lot better than that ’75 Drivers Ed car , although it was guaranteed to stall exactly 5 seconds after it’s first morning light-off. My parents quit Ford after 1977, after a steady 14 year diet of them, so later ones I cannot attest to. Our ’78 LeBaron with 318 Lean Burn wasn’t great either.
My older brother, for some odd reason, was obsessed with the Nova Concours when it came out. I realised it was just a regular old Nova with a nicer interior, which is exactly what it was.
The only time I was ever in a Nova Concours was when I was out car shopping with a family friend. I was brought along to test the room in the back seat. I didn’t find it a very hospitable place. As seen in Paul’s photo, the bottom cushion was very short and the backrest was concave. It didn’t make for a very comfortable experience.
We had an F-41 Nova 350 for a taxi and for the time, it was a hot car. Dad had not yet learned that you didn’t want big engines in taxis, although the drivers loved them. This Nova didn’t even last one shift. The driver gunned it at a stop light on a rainy day. This caused the car to fishtail and crash into a power pole, caving in the right side and bending the floor pan. In less than an hour, our $5000 (total, including taxi paint job) was rendered junk!
My folks had a Concours for about a year or so, but it wound up being a short-lived stop-gap between two Fiats.
They’d just sold their ’71 Fiat 124 Sport coupe, as my sister and I were growing too big for that to be practical anymore, and it was starting to rust out along the rockers and lower edge of the doors anyway. Before that, the Fiat had started running poorly on the way home from a long-distance road-trip vacation, so they wound up leaving it at a shop and took a loaner Nova for the couple hours’ drive the rest of the way home. The issue turned out to be a cracked distributor rotor, a cheap and easy fix, so they drove the Nova back to swap for the Fiat.
I reckon that loaner Nova must have made some sort of favorable impression that influenced their purchase of a used beige Concours when they sold the 124 . However, they ultimately grew to hate that car and gave it up as soon as my dad negotiated a steal of a deal on a new ’79 Fiat Brava metallic mint-green wagon he’d noticed languishing on the dealer lot into early ’80, knowing the dealer would be desperate to see that car Gone. That Brava served us well for several years and many more long-distance family road trips, needing little more than a couple of scheduled timing belt changes and other routine maintenance.
Drive a Nova then get in a Granada and in about 10 seconds one realizes whey they sold so many Granadas. The Nova’s front seats SUCKED. The Ford bench, flight bench and buckets were a hell of a lot more comfortable. My great uncle was a Ford district manager in Utah in the 70s and his company car was a Granada Ghia fully loaded with a 351. It was a coupe with floor shift and console. Medium slate blue with the landau roof and tan interior, it was really beautiful at the time (I still like them). The reclining buckets were the same as in my 75 Maverick Grabber 302, but his had cloth instead of my vinyl.
Later on he went to Mercury and got a 77 Monarch Ghia. He was excited about it because it had the optional 4 wheel disc brakes, Traction Lok axle and 351. He hated wire wheel covers so he ordered the Lacy Spoke aluminum wheels for it. This one was white with blue interior…..I liked the Granada better but the Merc was better in the snow with the limited slip rear end. He put a LOT of road miles on them and he really like them on the highway. His last car was a 79 Vesailles. He thought it was kind of silly and the 302 was breathless in the mountains of Utah.
I liked the coupes best….especially with the console and floor shift.
I think the BMW thing with these is mostly coincidence due to its shared long nose with the F bodies and the hoffmeister kink, but that that was also present in the restyled for 1975 B body 4 door. The 75 Nova really just looks like a scaled down 75 Caprice; the sloping tail, the angled back headlight assemblies, the aeformentioned greenhouse with the kink, but even the coupe greenhouse is similar to the caprice coupe one, (both cars got a lot more airy with their restyles). It’s not to say there wasn’t possibly BMW influence the designers were drawing inspiration from but it certainly wasn’t exclusive to the Nova
In a sense it wasn’t that different from the Granada with it looking mostly like a scaled down 1975 LTD only with two headlights.
The seats in the “Nova” were kept short to give the allusion of more space. (more distance between the seat and the dash)They were not very supportive either.
The optional, bucket seats were a darn site better.
If the “Nova” was a generally for short hops, car… the bench could suffice.
My buddy Rick bought a new Concours sedan. It was black outside with a bright red red velour interior. V8 powered. I think that it might have had the color keyed black wheel covers. It was a really handsome car. He was quite proud of it because it looked a lot like a Cadillac Seville. In some ways it looked better than the Seville because the H kink and the roof was lighter looking and even a bit sporty. I rode in the car many times and it was a typical Detroit machine, it looked nice inside and was comfortable enough. These cars can be built up to run and handle like a souped up Camaro, and would make an okay family car for a guy with young kids. They are pretty inefficient when it comes to space utilization and fuel economy though.
Big fan of the ’75-’79 X-bodies. I got to drive a ’77 Nova 4 door with a 305 and F41 suspension often, it was as good as domestic cars got then. Yes the seats were poor in the base models (which this one was) but the car was sturdy and reliable. All the Granadas I was exposed to back then were 6 cylinders with the standard floaty suspension and I pegged them as old lady transportation, nothing more. I would have liked to have driven a well optioned 351 Granada or Monarch, but I never saw one of those cars. The bottom line as Paul pointed out was the Nova was based on the 1970 1/2 Camaro, the Granada on the Falcon. Nothing more to say…
I thought at the time the Concours (“of course”, as the ad line went!) was dropped to make room for the higher trimmed ’78 Malibu/Monte Carlo.
I see there’s still considerable stigma connected to anything Chevy II / NOVA, yes they were specifically designed to be cheap transportation and little more .
I loved all of the many NOVAs I picked up cheaply overhauled as necessary then drove until I got bored and sold them on .
My buddy’s mother bought a new 1977 Concours in bronze, a four door, it wasn’t fancy but served her well until she passed away many years later .
These look okay to me, I was never aware of the available sporting suspension and four speed manual box, I imagine they must have been nice ‘sleepers’ .
-Nate