In 1977, the Oldsmobile Cutlass was the number-one selling car in America, and the nicely equipped Cutlass Supreme accounted for three-quarters of the total.
In the auto industry, there’s power in a name: Cougar, Camry, LTD. Sometimes a model name simply catches fire with the American car-buying public for reasons that are never fully identified or understood. There’s no better example than the Oldsmobile Cutlass. First seen on a GM Motorama show car in 1954, the Cutlass badge was next applied to an upscale version of the F-85 compact in 1961, and as the F-85/Cutlass grew into an intermediate, Cutlass sales grew as well. (See a more complete history of the Cutlass emblem here.)
As the personal-luxury coupe market blossomed in the 1970s, Oldsmobile seemed to have just the right mix of features, styling, and pricing for the Motor City’s hottest segment, and that’s when sales really took off. In 1973, the first year for Colonnade styling on the GM intermediates, Cutlass volume exceeded 400,000 cars, a 35 percent increase. In 1977, Oldsmobile produced more than one million cars, becoming the first GM division other than Chevrolet to achieve that feat. That was largely on the strength of the Cutlass, which sold 632,742 units—the best-selling car in the United States that year.
Cutlass Supreme four-door Sedan
When we peel those numbers back a little, we find that of the four trim levels—Cutlass S, Cutlass Supreme, Supreme Brougham, and Cutlass Salon—the Supreme and Supreme Brougham took the lion’s share of the total: nearly three-quarters of the total volume. The Supreme two-door coupe was by far the most popular at nearly 243, 000 units, while the Supreme Brougham found 124,000 buyers. While the Supreme lineup included a four-door sedan, its sales trailed the coupe’s by a fair distance: around 38,000 Supremes and 17,000 Supreme Broughams. Clearly, it was the coupe that captured the minds and the pocketbooks of the American public.
Cutlass Supreme Coupe (left) and Supreme Brougham Coupe interiorsÂ
Both the Supreme and the Supreme Brougham offered a V8, automatic transmission, power steering, and power front disc brakes as standard equipment. While the Supreme’s cabin (above) was actually somewhat restrained, the Brougham went full ’70s velour with pillow-style seat cushions, extra faux woodgrain, and deep-pile carpeting for an extra $299 ($4,969 vs. $4,670). Notable options included power windows, T-tops, and swivel bucket seats. Nearly 90 percent of the Supreme buyers chose air conditioning, a $456 extra.
When GM’s A-body cars were downsized for 1978, the Cutlass Supreme continued to perform well on the market, but not quite at the same level. Oldsmobile would enjoy several more million-car seasons, though for the Cutlass and Cutlass Supreme, 1977 proved to be the peak year. But Oldsmobile continued to recognize the power of the name, as a Cutlass in some form remained in the Olds lineup through 1999.
The classic example of how you can overuse a name to death. 28 years later Oldsmobile is history.
The 1968-1977 models were the best. After that they were downhill. lol
The sale mix clearly demonstrates the failure of the 4-door colonnade styling.
All the midsizes of that generation sold more as coupes. Chevrolet probably sold more midsize sedans than anyone else, with basically the same styling although the reason the Malibu mix wasn’t as coupe-heavy as the Cutlass was that the Monte Carlo existed.
Personal-luxury coupes were red hot back then, and Oldsmobile had theirs under the same Cutlass nameplate as the entire midsize line.
I still don’t understand how the Cutlass became America’s most popular car. But I know that giving almost every Oldsmobile some variation of the Cutlass name is what took the bloom off the rose. It was a handsome car but I didn’t see anything that made it stand out above the rest.
The only GM car I’ve owned was a 1971 Cutlass S. I didn’t need it and hardly ever drove it but a friend was getting rid of it and it was in nice shape. I don’t remember why or when it left the fleet but I had four cars at that point and it was the least interesting or useful. The ex had a converted diesel Cutlass when I met her.
The PLC stage was raging at the time, and everyone was adding luxury touches to even their mundane models (Mustang II Ghia? Monza’s with vinyl roofs?). When I started college in the mid-70s the Monte Carlo and Grand Prix were all the rage.
They had cross generational appeal at a time when the Greatest Generation were not quite retirement age empty nesters and the Boomers were just coming into real career paychecks and hadn’t had kids yet.
I owned 6 of these . Really reliable & comfortable cars. Some were bought for $50 & used as beater winter cars in rust prone Montreal .
Not a single one ever failed to deliver. 350 V8 & Th350 were unbeatable & in the day a spare transmission could be had all day for $50.
One of the factors seldom mentioned about the 1976-77 Cutlass Supreme coupes is that the basic body shell is identical to that of the 1976-77 Buick Regal coupes (the only differences were in the front clip and the rear bumper and trim, but, at that point, the Buick and Oldsmobile engines hadn’t been made virtually identical). Again, it’s an intangible that made the Cutlass a raging success while the Regal sat on the back burner at Buick stores. And, as mentioned above, Oldsmobile made the same mistake with the Cutlass brand that Chrysler did later with New Yorker and Fifth Avenue…
I’d gander to say that by that time Buick was getting the reputation as an “old people’s car”, whereas the Olds was still considered “sophisticated sporty”. You’re absolutely right, the Regal was nearly identical…my grandmother’s last car was a full-zoot Regal coupe. Compared to the Cutlass, though, it appeared to be more formal….
Buick split their midsize line between two nameplates, the plainer and sportier coupes were still Century models.
The Regal with a turbo was a wolf in sheep’s clothing
GM was a juggernaut in 1977. It was bigger than Toyota of 2026.
Oldsmobile was right in the middle of 5 highly successful divisions of cars, of which, claimed over 50% of American driveways. Just the right company, at just the right time. Foreign cars were gaining presence but GM was still decades away from closing factories and dropping brands.
The 20 year period of 1970-1990 was brutal for GM. It seems they couldn’t get anything done right the first time. New GM buyers became the beta testers, and by 1990 people were done with that. That’s the problem when the bean counters run the asylum.
Still.have my 77 Supreme with Hurst T Tops, 403, FE3 Suspension and buckets. No grandma column shift and bench seat
I owned a Blue T top Salon with buckets and a floor shift plus the 350 rocket. All show, no go but a great ride. You left out the info and sales #s on there top car. Disappointing
Most all you people are complete bummers . The olds line , although as a child pontons were my passion, Iearned to love and really on olds. They were cheaper than used Chevelles and I had two in particular that as I walked out of the convenience store someone would say hey you wanna sell that, they were both handsome cars coincidentally both were GM dark green w/ a camel off white vinyl top. One with ET 5 spoke one with American Racing muscle 5 spoke. My only bitch I had bought a 76′ Supreme it was definitely an old man car that was absolutely terrible on gas. .
I had 3-77’s with the legedary 350R which was a big block in that the heads were big. Big valves etc.. and with the 4bbl. Q-jet…baaaWAAAAA!! when the massive secondaries opened it was a whole other beast. Loved all of them even put a 455cu. In one. Kyb’s all around and lifted front and rear coils.