lpuccini

Hello everyone, my husband and I just recently acquired this car from a gentleman who was the original buyer and sole owner. The car is in excellent shape, very little work needed. The two major things is the front seat needs to be reupholstered and the air conditioner fixed. We cannot find the value of this car as all the 1971 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supremes on-line are 2 door, but this is a 4 door. I understand not many 4 doors were made that year. I appreciate any information anyone can share with me about this car.

oldcutlass

Welcome to the site. With the seat and A/C working the value in my opinion is probably $3-5k. With it being a 4 door it's not very collectable to most people.


http://www.nadaguides.com/Classic-Ca...n-Sedan/Values

jaunty75

First comment: this car cannot be a Cutlass Supreme as it is a 4-door sedan (called a "Town Sedan"), meaning it has a center post between the front door and rear door windows on each side. The 4-door sedan style was made only in the base Cutlass line (not Cutlass S or Cutlass Supreme) in 1971.

On the contrary, 4-doors were generally produced in high numbers as they were often more practical than two-doors, even though 4-doors are not in high demand as collector cars now.

Cutlass 4-door sedans like yours could have been had with a 6 or a V-8 engine. Production of the 6-cylinder version was quite low at only 618 units. But the 8-cylinder version saw production of 31,904, which put it on par with the 2-door hardtop version at 32,278.


The latest issue (October 2013) of the Old Cars Price Guide lists the value of a '71 Cutlass 4-door sedan in #3 condition ("car show" but not showroom) at about $6,000. Given in that it is not quite in this good shape, oldcutlass's estimate of $3,000 to $5,000 is likely a good one.

Of course, your mileage may vary, and if you are looking to sell it, you may have to advertise it for a while because, as oldcutlass notes, 4-doors are nowhere near as popular as 2-doors among collectors today.

joe_padavano

That may be true today, but in the 1960s and early 1970s, two doors dramatically outsold four doors. For the 1971 model year, two door Cutlii (that includes all Oldmobile A-body cars) outsold four doors by about three to one. If you include wagons in the four door totals, it's still about two to one in favor of the two doors.

jaunty75

Picky, picky, picky.

I didn't say they didn't. She said "I understand not many 4 doors were made that year." I took her "not many" comment to mean low production in an absolute sense, which was not true. Yes, more 2-doors were made, but production of 30,000+ is not "not many."

Jaybird

Hi lpuccini: Welcome to the Classic Oldsmobile Forum. There are a lot of great people and good information here for you. Your new 1971 looks very clean and well kept.
I believe new seat upholstery is available and I know that repairing the A/C will be no problem.
You might want to consider purchasing a chassis service manual for you car. It has plenty of useful service tips. They are available on eBay, Amazon, etc.
Many parts can be obtained from Fusick. www.fusick.com. Upholstery products can for purchased from Legendary Auto Interiors. http://www.legendaryautointeriors.com/ (fixed incorrect website)
If you have certain questions about your car, please try to find the correct section of the forum to post them.
Have fun with your new Cutlass.

Olds442redberet

Congrats on the car!

Four door classic vehicles offer a lot of value for the dollar. First, they are usually less expensive than their two door counterparts, while offering the same basic ride and performance. Second, they offer more convenience with the additional two doors, allowing easy entry for the entire family. So taking the kids is less of a hassle, this is especially true if a child seat is being used. Third, the lower value make them less stressful to drive as it isn't as big of a deal if the wife puts her purse on the hood while she searches for her lip stick. Good luck with the car.

Allan R

Welcome aboard.
It's always nice to find a one owner car that's been fairly well kept. As Dan has already pointed out, this is not the Cutlass Supreme. There are several indicator of that beyond just the Town Sedan trim.

The front of the car appears to have suffered a minor impact - that's why the bumper is bent back and the stone shield is pressed back at an angle. Chances are the shield is broken (it's only plastic) and will need replacing. The bumper can be straightened at a shop but may require re-chrome. If that's the case, it may be cheaper to just buy a new repro front bumper as the cost of chroming is very high nowadays.

These 4 doors have been surfacing periodically in the last while but they're not rare. They also don't command as high a profile in the collector car market as the coupes or convertibles. As far as valuation goes, it's not going to be that high, but you also haven't mentioned what the car has for options either.

Upholstery for your car is likely a combination of vinyl (naugahyde) and cloth. Jay pointed out a couple of good vendors, but there are a lot more than that out there for these cars. Legendary has one of the best reputations for upholstery, but they don't stock the brocaid cloth that typically came in these models. BTW, that link is all wrong - it's a gamer site. The one you want is: Legendary Auto Interiors. One other thing to remember is that most of the aftermarket upholstery is catered to the 2 door cars with split bench seats or buckets. Your 71 Sedan will have a straight bench seat that is not included in either Legendary or PUI's upholstery selections. Best thing may be to take out the seat and check with a local upholstery shop for comparable materials. Upholstery is NOT cheap BTW.

What is your location? One of our members (Rambow) does upholstery professionally and may be able to guide you with your quest.

GAOldsman

Welcome aboard

Mr Top Notch

Welcome Aboard it is always good to see another 4 door Cutlass the car looks to be in good shape good luck!!!

brown7373

Cars like this can be fun to drive and very inexpensive, if you plan to keep it and use it. If the purpose is to make a lot of money selling it, or restoring it to sell it at a profit, it is a bad idea.


I have owned my 72 Supreme Convertible for 8 years. I have about $18K total in it, including purchase, parts and labor (mine is at no cost). Divide that by 96 months and it works out to less than $200 per month. That is a very cheap car. Granted, mine is a convertible, but not a more valuable 442. So a 4 door should have had a much lower purchase price and therefor a lower total cost. The key would be do you want to use it? Nice old 4 doors do get attention at car shows and on the street, because you hardly ever see them, but most people don't lust after them.

citcapp

This Olds will make a great daily driver. Enjoy it for what it is. You'll still get thumbs up from other drivers

rcrac3r

Welcome. Good to see that another 4 door is getting some TLC. Body looks really good, minor stuff to fix. Thats the toughest part about the 4 doors is body parts are few & far between, at least from the windshield back that is.

jaunty75

I thought this myself. People (at least some people) are talking about how cheap it is to drive a four-door. How?

Once you actually own the car, which the OP apparently does, and, yes, the initial cost is likely to be cheaper than a two-door, everything else is the same cost as it would be for restoring a two-door. The car burns the same fuel, takes the same engine, tires/wheels, drivetrain, brakes, bumpers, sheet metal, dash, seats, window glass (except for situations where these are unique to four-doors, which makes them likely to be more expensive, not less), and so forth.

Exactly where is the savings?

rcrac3r

Fusick's looks to have replacement covers & cushions for bench seats, front & rear. Automotiveinteriors.com has bench seat spring rebuild kits for a fairly good price as well.

Allan R

If you can post a picture of the cowl tag and the VIN, we can decode it for you. That will give some more info on the car that may be of value to you. The cowl (also called trim) tag is under the hood, to the right side of the drivers windshield wiper.



The cowl tag looks like this (and by coincidence this example happens to be a Cutlass Town Sedan too):

lpuccini

I want to thank everyone for their input!! I will post the pictures with more information soon.

OLD SKL 69

Welcome to CO! Always good to see another one being saved.