Get the full lowdown on the luxurious 1972 Oldsmobile Toronado in this original dealer film.

Introduced in 1966, the Oldsmobile Toronado was a sensation. But for its second generation of production (1971-78) Oldsmoibile shifted gears and the Toro was promoted from sport-luxury coupe to full luxury cruiser. The wheelbase was lengthened from 119 to 122 inches, the overall length was extended to 221 inches, and the base price was around $5,400, hundreds more than Oldsmobile’s other flagship, the Ninety-Eight Luxury Sedan. For ’72, the second year of the product cycle, the front-drive coupe received only minor detail changes, but it was the right car for the moment, evidently: Sales shot up to nearly 49,000 cars, the Toronado’s best year up until then.

The powertrain for ’72 was the same familiar 455 cubic-inch V8 and Turbo-Hydramatic 425 front-drive unit, but the big Rocket V8 was downrated from 350 hp to 250 hp due to the industry’s adoption of the SAE net rating standard that year. (The shift was triggered by a new California law.) The compression ratio was unchanged at 8.5:1.

A bit curiously for modern car buyers, perhaps, items that would be standard equipemnt today such as air conditioning, power windows, and power seats were all extra-cost options. One neat strandard feature was a second set of tail lamps mounted under the rear window, foreshadowing the center-high-mounted stop lamp (CHMSL) mandated by federal law in 1986. These and other Toronado features are on full display in the brief dealer film below.