Rabbit Hole and a Question

"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn) 10/19/2020 at 16:49 • Filed to: None

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For some reason I can’t remember, the movie Robocop came to my mind today. And then I remembered the 6000 SUX. So then I wondered what car the movie prop was based on, and it turns out it was 1977 Olds Cutlass.

I was 11 in 1977, and I remember the car well. I think my aunt in Pittsburgh might have had a yellow one. Anyway, I started looking at pictures of the 77 Cutlass, and realized that, wow, that’s a pretty unattractive car. (Still not as horrifying as the next generation  !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! though.)

But then the more I looked, I realized that the 77 two-door, which I didn’t remember very well, was actually pretty sharp. Similar to the Monte Carlo, but not quite as swoopy, if that makes any sense.

So my question is, what other cars looked significantly better in their two-door version than they did in their four-door version?

Just Jeepin' > ttyymmnn 10/19/2020 at 16:55

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Jeep enthusiasts would likely  say the Wrangler and XJ, although I’m fairly ambivalent.

ranwhenparked > ttyymmnn 10/19/2020 at 16:57

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AMC Matador? (Or, American Motors Matador, American Matador, VAM Matador, Rambler Matador, depending on market and particular advertisement, their branding was a godawful inconsistent mess after the mid ‘60s).

Dash-doorhandle-6 cyl none the richer > ttyymmnn 10/19/2020 at 16:58

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There was also this style of 2 door Cutlass in those years, with regular or “ slanty” nose technology for nascar.

lone_liberal > ttyymmnn 10/19/2020 at 16:58

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Almost all old American cars looked better as two-doors to me. I think they set the styling with the two-doors and then adapted that to four doors and they just don’t look quite right. That’s why you can buy a four door Chevelle much cheaper than a two-door even though they’re just as much fun to drive. You can then  use the money you save on upgrades.

TheRealBicycleBuck > ttyymmnn 10/19/2020 at 17:01

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1985 Cutlass Supreme Sedan

1985 Cutlass Supreme Coupe

ttyymmnn > Dash-doorhandle-6 cyl none the richer 10/19/2020 at 17:04

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I like the 2 door I posted better. 

ranwhenparked > lone_liberal 10/19/2020 at 17:05

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Volvo allegedly did something similar with the 100/200 and 700/900 bodies - styled them principally as station wagons, and then hacked them into sedans as sort of an afterthought.

ttyymmnn > lone_liberal 10/19/2020 at 17:06

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We had a 77 Caprice sedan, but I always kind of liked the 2 door, with that crazy back window.

krustywantout > ttyymmnn 10/19/2020 at 17:06

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E46 BMW. W222 Mercedes S Class. Bentle y Arnage/Brooklands Coupe. All Honda Accords. R33 Skyline. All American cars from the 5 0's and 60's.

Exage03040 @ opposite-lock.com > ttyymmnn 10/19/2020 at 17:07

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barnie > ttyymmnn 10/19/2020 at 17:08

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Mom had a 2-door ‘73? Cutlass. Coming around a corner on gravel with my brother in passenger I rolled it down by the Yadkin river. Happened so fast we were still laughing when I looked across and saw him on the other side. We were held by our seatbelts and our brains had n’t caught up yet. After another good laugh, we climbed out and my foot was in the river. 2 trees held us from the water. Greasy McNeil came on down with his wrecker. Rolle d the car over, pulled it up to the ro ad with no more damage and towed it home. For $8; the harder the job, the less he charged. Mom was not amused; she had to drive my brother’s b uilt-to-the-hilt Camaro and didn’t like stick until we got the Cutlass fixed.

ttyymmnn > barnie 10/19/2020 at 17:12

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10/10 story. The greatest author in the world couldn’t come up with a better name for a tow truck driver than Greasy McNeil. 

hillrat > TheRealBicycleBuck 10/19/2020 at 17:12

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Came here for this, left satisfied.

Boxer_4 > Just Jeepin' 10/19/2020 at 17:18

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The XJ I’m fine with as a 4 door.  The Wrangler, not so much...

InFierority Complex > ttyymmnn 10/19/2020 at 17:19

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Just Jeepin' > Boxer_4 10/19/2020 at 17:21

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I’m somewhat biased because I  dislike the JK design overall, but I feel like the 2-door JK got hit harder with the ugly stick. Just weird dimensions. I think the 2-door JL looks more proportional.

Textured Soy Protein > ttyymmnn 10/19/2020 at 17:22

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BMW E90 vs E92 - the sedan is a bit frumpy and the coupe is fantastic (especially when decked out by someone who clearly has fantastic taste ).

The 2nd gen Acura Legend is a handsome car in general but the coupe steps it up to another level. Both of these are the GS trim that came towards the end of the run.

The non-wraparound taillights on the coupe were always a nice subtle differentiator from the back.

Ford Sierra...but maybe with an asterisk because of the rally Cossie pedigree.

The OG W-Body Grand Prix sedan was rather craptastic but the coupe was pretty alright. Of all the W-bodies of this generation, the Grand Prix had both the worst of all the sedans and the best of the coupes (with no disrespect to the Cutlass Supreme which looked good in all configurations).

Honorable mention but these are two different generations of unrelated vehicle, the original 90s Dodge Avenger was a generally decent looking rebodied Mitsubishi Eclipse, while the 00s Avenger sedan was a monstrosity.

Textured Soy Protein > Exage03040 @ opposite-lock.com 10/19/2020 at 17:24

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I mean yes technically in the US these are both badged as Corollas but we all know the AE86 was its own model. 

Boxer_4 > ttyymmnn 10/19/2020 at 17:24

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A slight tangent, but m ost Golfs look better as 3 doors than 5 doors, especially starting with the MkV. Strangely, I don’t mind the MkII so much as a 5 door.

BaconSandwich is tasty. > ttyymmnn 10/19/2020 at 17:26

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Semi-unrelated: that thing reminds me of my parent’s 1980 Buick LeSabre wagon. Very similar style bumpers, wheels, door handles, mirrors ... it wouldn’t surprise me to learn that GM would parts-bin half the things of that era.

Exage03040 @ opposite-lock.com > Textured Soy Protein 10/19/2020 at 17:28

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Dead_Elvis, Inc. > ranwhenparked 10/19/2020 at 17:28

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I find that dubious, given how much better the rear doors work with the sedan roofline than they do on the wagon.

barnie > ttyymmnn 10/19/2020 at 17:33

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Greasy was a Wilkes Cty, NC institution.  All he wore was greasy coveralls and brogans, winter and summer. Had a few acres up Hwy 18 with loads of cars. His wrecker was as messy as him but it worked to perfection. He’d come out anytime he was called to tow anything. Car here to there - $50. Pull it out of a building and tow it to his yard - $10. He always chatted to us kids and helped with our cars. But he stunk a bit. If he’s still around he’s in his 90s by now. One of those few Saints we are privileged to meet in life.

facw > Dead_Elvis, Inc. 10/19/2020 at 17:36

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I do feel like Volvo sold enough of those wagons that they could have justified wagon-specific rear-doors.

feather-throttle-not-hair > ttyymmnn 10/19/2020 at 17:37

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Saw it at Peterson about 9 months ago...

ClassicDatsunDebate > ttyymmnn 10/19/2020 at 17:39

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I guess the short answer is that there isn’t one car built before 1990 that looks better in 4 doors than 2. Perhaps a Checker....but only because I’ve never seen a 2 door Checker.

Dead_Elvis, Inc. > facw 10/19/2020 at 17:40

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True, and the 700/900 wagon bodies didn’t suffer from similar awkwardness. I’m not certain if those used the same rear doors as their sedan counterparts, but I believe they did.

facw > feather-throttle-not-hair 10/19/2020 at 17:40

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Up close like that those sealed beam headlights look hilariously antiquated (even behind plexiglass) .

ttyymmnn > barnie 10/19/2020 at 17:41

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Sounds like quite a character. Wilkes City--I’m guessing over by Wilkesboro?

ranwhenparked > Dead_Elvis, Inc. 10/19/2020 at 17:41

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Hmm, what about the 700? The way the trunk beltline is higher than the doors on the sedan, but the wagon has a single straight line front to back

barnie > ttyymmnn 10/19/2020 at 17:47

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Surrounding it, yea. And North Wilkesboro. Home of Wilkeboro Speedway (RIP).

ttyymmnn > barnie 10/19/2020 at 17:53

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Beautiful country out that way. I grew up in Norfolk, and I miss that part of the world. 

Dead_Elvis, Inc. > ranwhenparked 10/19/2020 at 18:12

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While the 7xx /9xx   have their own aesthetic issues , Volvo integrated those rear wagon doors much more successfully than on the 145/ 245.

Something about the extra-crisp lines of the 7xx has always been slightly off-putting to me. The 9xx softened those just enough to be better looking, and in both cases , I think the sedan’s trunk elevation worked just as well as the single-level belt line on those wagons.  

onlytwowheels > ttyymmnn 10/19/2020 at 18:23

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feather-throttle-not-hair > facw 10/19/2020 at 18:24

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Yeah, all the futuristic movie cars had that kind of quality to them where its like “yeahhhh, i see what you’re going for, but that’s emphatically NOT the direction the real world ended up going...”

Wacko > Dash-doorhandle-6 cyl none the richer 10/19/2020 at 18:28

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My father had a blue slant nose like the gray one you posted. I remember it had the same graphics but don’t remember what colour they were. That was way back in the mid 80s so I was like 5-8 years old when he had that car. He had a Vega before the 442

Wacko > Boxer_4 10/19/2020 at 18:30

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I love 2 door Jeep Wranglers, I even owned 2 TJs. But 4 door Jeeps will always  be odd to me. They just don’t do it for me.

Manwich - now Keto-Friendly > ttyymmnn 10/19/2020 at 18:45

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The old A-body/G-Body RWD Buick Regal looked way better as a 2 door. Here’s the 4 door:

And here is the Regal coupe

ttyymmnn > onlytwowheels 10/19/2020 at 19:17

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Oh, god, yes. Love the green. 

ttyymmnn > Manwich - now Keto-Friendly 10/19/2020 at 19:18

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It seems that pretty much all of the GMs of that era looked better in two doors. The cops in my home town drove the Malibu version of that. 

Jim Spanfeller > ttyymmnn 10/19/2020 at 20:42

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In 1953, Studebaker radically restyled all their cars to create some of the most stunningly beautiful American coupes you could buy. They had the proportions of sports cars like the Corvette, except you could actually hope to afford one of these, and they had such beautiful styling that aside from the chrome, I would argue the design was truly timeless. It was just plain good.  

Seriously, you could release this car today with only minor styling tweaks and it wouldn’t look out of place!

Unfortunately, the beautiful shape of the coupe models didn’t translate so well when they distorted it to make sedan, two-door sedan, and wagon versions.

It wasn’t bad by any means, but it didn’t look nearly as good as the gorgeous two-door models, and this actually became a problem for Studebaker. You see, they had assumed that the four-door models would be the best sellers because that was generally the case in the 1950s, and had therefore prepared to produce a lot more sedans than coupes. But the public was so infatuated with the coupes that they didn’t want anything to do with the sedans. They ended up having a surplus of sedans while production couldn’t keep up with the runaway success of the coupe! IIRC, they ended up losing a lot of money on the unwanted sedans and couldn’t make enough of the car people actually wanted. Probably one of the few cases I can think of where a successful car was bad for a company...  

MiniGTI - now with XJ6 > ttyymmnn 10/19/2020 at 22:03

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I mean most cars, amirite??

ttyymmnn > Jim Spanfeller 10/19/2020 at 22:38

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I imagine one of those coupes in good condition would fetch a price today. Gorgeous car.

ttyymmnn > feather-throttle-not-hair 10/19/2020 at 22:40

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that’s emphatically NOT the direction the real world ended up going...”

I don’t know, with as bloated as SUVs and crossovers and even minivans are becoming, Robocop may be more prescient than you think.

Jim Spanfeller > ttyymmnn 10/19/2020 at 22:53

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It seems that prices for these vary quite a bit. I found examples in decent condition for as little as $7,000-$10,000, while a very nice stock example on BAT sold for $28,000 and hot-rodded examples asking anywhere from $17,000- $50,000. So... Somewhere in that range. Definitely a very beautiful car, I’d say possi bly the prettiest American car of the 1950s.

feather-throttle-not-hair > ttyymmnn 10/20/2020 at 00:04

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Hah, fair enough!

ST80MND > ttyymmnn 10/20/2020 at 09:57

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I’ll buy that for a dollar!