The Year Is: 1975

The year is 1975 and you're a salesman for the National Products Company, purveyor of only the finest items, objects and articles. Since your job requires visiting businesses for sales pitches and your current ride is a little hard to park...

...you decide a personal luxury coupe is befitting of a man of your obvious taste and refinement. The only question is, which one?

Plymouth Fury

Oldsmobile Toronado

Mercury Cougar XR-7

Ford Thunderbird

Lincoln Mark IV

Ford Elite

Dodge Charger

Chrysler Cordoba

Chevrolet Monte Carlo

Cadillac Eldorado

Buick Riviera

AMC Matador

Pontiac Grand Prix

A car is just not a real car if you can't land a small aircraft on the hood.

The Matador gains points for its perfect 1970s quirkiness. My mom had a '77 Charger SE, dark blue/light blue landau top/white vinyl split bench with blue carpet. But I think I'd go for the Grand Prix, in green with Pontiac Rally wheels and a 400. EVERYBODY drove a Monte Carlo...

The list is missing a couple--the Buick Regal and Olds Cutlass Supreme. Depending on the budget, I'd go for the Cutlass or Grand Prix, or all-in for an Eldorado or Mark IV.

The choice is obvious... obviously.

You want a personal luxury coupe and you're a successful salesman pulling in lots of commission, BUT ostentatious displays of wealth are an easy way to turn off potential customers. You can't get the Eldorado because you would turn off those customers. Get all of the luxury with plenty of subtlety in the Oldsmobile Toronado.

I'm not so sure the Fury and Matador belong on the list....are they really luxury coupes?

The choice is obvious... obviously.

You want a personal luxury coupe and you're a successful salesman pulling in lots of commission, BUT ostentatious displays of wealth are an easy way to turn off potential customers. You can't get the Eldorado because you would turn off those customers. Get all of the luxury with plenty of subtlety in the Oldsmobile Toronado.

I'm not so sure the Fury and Matador belong on the list....are they really luxury coupes?

There were quasi-luxury versions of the Matador available (Pierre Cardin). The Fury doesn't belong--the '75 mid-size Fury was to Plymouth what the Torino was to Ford or the Malibu was to Chevy---a regular mid-size 2dr. And the Regal and Cutlass Supreme are missing, as they were their brands' equivalents of the Monte Carlo or Grand Prix.

Edited August 6, 201213 yr by Cubical-aka-Moltar

LOVE 70's carz

I tried to go with the most luxurious offerings from each brand, that's why I didn't include stuff like the Torino, Cutlass, et al. The Fury looks like it came with a 'Salon' model that could be upfitted pretty nicley.

The Matador I threw in there because it could come with option packages like Cassini and Barcelona that were meant to compete with other personal luxury coupes of the time.

The Fury doesn't belong--the '75 mid-size Fury was to Plymouth what the Torino was to Ford or the Malibu was to Chevy---a regular mid-size 2dr.

Going to disagree here (in part after viewing the '75 Plymouth brochure).

Tho they billed it a 'compact' in '75, seems clear the Duster would go against the Malibu, not the Fury.

Even downsized (vs. the Gran Fury), the "new" Fury was still plenty large- 214" overall.

Where I would agree is, I don't think it measured up image-wise well with the others listed above (Oh how far the Fury had fallen from supercar status!), to the point most overlooked it.

The Fury doesn't belong--the '75 mid-size Fury was to Plymouth what the Torino was to Ford or the Malibu was to Chevy---a regular mid-size 2dr.

Going to disagree here (in part after viewing the '75 Plymouth brochure).

Tho they billed it a 'compact' in '75, seems clear the Duster would go against the Malibu, not the Fury.

Even downsized (vs. the Gran Fury), the "new" Fury was still plenty large- 214" overall.

Where I would agree is, I don't think it measured up image-wise well with the others listed above (Oh how far the Fury had fallen from supercar status!), to the point most overlooked it.

Nah, Vailant/Duster lined up against the Maverick and Nova, Fury was against the Torino and Malibu. It was a midsize--the bumpers made it longer. The Torino and Malibu were large as well, though the 2drs had shorter wheelbases.

Edited August 7, 201213 yr by Cubical-aka-Moltar

I tried to go with the most luxurious offerings from each brand, that's why I didn't include stuff like the Torino, Cutlass, et al. The Fury looks like it came with a 'Salon' model that could be upfitted pretty nicley.

The Matador I threw in there because it could come with option packages like Cassini and Barcelona that were meant to compete with other personal luxury coupes of the time.

I wouldn't include the regular Cutlass or other standard midsize, but you did include the Elite and Cougar XR-7, which is why the Regal and Cutlass Supreme should be there along w/ the Monte Carlo and Grand Prix.the Fury doesn't belong because of the Cordoba (Chrysler-Plymouth brand).

The Thunderbird, Mark IV, Eldo, Toro, and Riviera are really in a separate category--full size personal luxury coupes, while the others are all mid size personal luxury coupes.

Edited August 7, 201213 yr by Cubical-aka-Moltar

Matador definitely belongs on this list... AMC was definitely trying to move it into the luxury coupe market, and with reasonable success...

"Best Styled Car of 1974" Car and Driver... used in a James Bond movie... some NASCAR success and 62K sales first year. But it just didn't have staying power.

I would probably chose the Matador... Grand Prix would be second and while I like the Monte Carlos, they were too common at the time.

I was only 5 when these cars came out, but I vaguely remember them around...my brother was working at a Ford dealer then, and drove home many demos, incl. a black Thunderbird of this vintage, a Torino, an Elite and others...one of his buddies had a black w/ red top and red interior '75 Grand Prix...I have memories of riding in that car from around 1976-77...my brother bought a '75 Mustang II Mach 1 then, and my sister got a '76 Pinto Runabout the following year.

My Mom was driving the '68 Cougar and '69 Mustang up until then, but in '77 got one of the new 'small' angular Thunderbirds (white w/ blue interior and blue partial vinyl top)...those were a reskinned '72-76 Torino. So the family cars were a '76 Lincoln Continental 4dr and '77 T-Bird until '80 when they traded them for the downsized '80 Lincoln and T-Bird...

Edited August 7, 201213 yr by Cubical-aka-Moltar

Nah, Vailant/Duster lined up against the Maverick and Nova, Fury was against the Torino and Malibu. It was a midsize--the bumpers made it longer. The Torino and Malibu were large as well, though the 2drs had shorter wheelbases.

I can go with that.

GM being the only one using the square sealed beams looks a whole generation ahead on the senior models.

GM being the only one using the square sealed beams looks a whole generation ahead on the senior models.

I can't agree... I always felt the early square beams looked out of place, tacked on and awkward... worse, they made the rest of the cars look past their prime.

GM being the only one using the square sealed beams looks a whole generation ahead on the senior models.

I can't agree... I always felt the early square beams looked out of place, tacked on and awkward... worse, they made the rest of the cars look past their prime.

You mean like the round headlights in the square holes like on the Thunderbird, Fury, Grand Prix, and Elite?

The quad rectangular headlights look great on those cars...I always thought the single round headlights on GM and Chrysler midsize models then looked like a cheapskate move....

Edited August 7, 201213 yr by Cubical-aka-Moltar

Given the real Choice...Cutty all of the way....Cougar also is nice.

GM being the only one using the square sealed beams looks a whole generation ahead on the senior models.

I can't agree... I always felt the early square beams looked out of place, tacked on and awkward... worse, they made the rest of the cars look past their prime.

You mean like the round headlights in the square holes like on the Thunderbird, Fury, Grand Prix, and Elite?

BFD, something done for years at that point. My '70 Tempest had rounded off square bezels... it wasn't because they were going to plug in square sealed beams. Or a 1970 Impala... or a '65 Chevy Pickup.

Square headlights looked good on squarish cars... and it was a fad, as most headlights have returned to organic shapes... mostly circles... and circles in squares/rectangles.

Well, in the list above, I think the cars with square headlights look newer than those with round. Also, those with square headlights, couldn't really get away with round ones and look ok. (just go back to 1972 for the Toronado and El Dog). It was a fad that lasted over 30 years.

Well, in the list above, I think the cars with square headlights look newer than those with round. Also, those with square headlights, couldn't really get away with round ones and look ok. (just go back to 1972 for the Toronado and El Dog). It was a fad that lasted over 30 years.

Its not still a fad simply because you can still option down your fleet Colorado to have square sealed beams. Square beam fad starts in 1975 and by 1978 virtually everything has them... by 1984 the next big thing is are flush mounts and by 1988, only a handful of vehicles, all long in the tooth or extremely cheap, still have them. That's roughly a decade and a third.

In my previous post, I meant to say "square sealed beam headlights", but still, even square flush mounts only were common until '92 or so.

The ONLY square beam retrofit I ever thought looked good was the '75 Grandvilles... but that's largely due to Pontiac's fullsizers being pretty ugly from '70-'74. I would avoid many of the square beam tack-ons, and would prefer a '74 Eldo or Toro over the '75. A '74 or '75 Riv would likely never grace my garage, as its just a disaster (and a fancy 2 door Le Sabre).

Anyway, its a matter of taste, but I would think you and Cube, would have picked up on the quick fix GM did and saw it as a bandaid. In any case, the voting indirectly seems to prefer round over square, 6-2.

Oh, BTW, I forgot to mention, that's not a '75 Matador Coupe... its a '76 or later. The '74-'75 Matador Coupes had little bull's eye round turn signals in the front... which looked much better than the later squares, IMHO.

I like the rectangular lights on the '76 Caprice, full size Buicks, Olds, Pontiac and Caddys also. I think it's not so much the square that I like as I dislike the single round lights on the midsize models...single round lights were ok on compacts and smaller cars like the F-bodies, but I thought they looked cheap on the midsize models instead of quad lights..

I never cared for the quad stacked rectangular lights that showed up inexplicably on some A-body Buicks, Chevys, '77-79 Ford midsize and '77-78 Chrysler midsize...those looked like a bandaid. The horizontal quad rectangular lights go well w/ the '76 B-/C-/E- body models which have wide front ends w/ mostly horizontal grilles..

Edited August 10, 201213 yr by Cubical-aka-Moltar

If it were 1974, I would have taken the Matador with 401 V8. Those things were quick. But since it's 1975, I took the Cordoba. Clean looking car that was reasonably swift with the 400.