CutlassS1972

I have a 1972 cutlass s hardtop nd I recently decoded my vin leaving me to find that I have. Holiday coupe. Does anyone know what that means? Thank you

joe_padavano

It means that you have a two door hardtop Oldsmobile.

"Holiday Coupe" is just an Olds marketing term, like "Rocket V8". In this case, a Holiday Coupe is Oldsspeak for a 2dr hardtop body. Holiday Sedan is a 4dr hardtop. Sport Coupe is a 2dr post coupe.

Bens71442

What made the Holiday coupe more desirable- was no window frame around the door glass and no B pillar.

People gladly chose to sacrifice the vent window for the Holiday coupe (no vent window) because they enjoyed the openness the Holiday afforded them over the "Sport coupe" (post cars)

I think 1968 was the only year a Holiday coupe still came with a vent window.... I know in 1969 the vent window was gone if it was a holiday coupe.

Lots of variations and choices made cars of that period very interesting and not the boring cookie cutter cars of today.

joe_padavano

That is true for any 2dr hardtop, whether it's called a "Holiday" or not. And while people may find this difficult to believe today, the 2dr hardtop body outsold other body styles in the 1960s and early 70s. Our parents apparently bought much cooler cars than we do now.

Tedd Thompson

I think the holiday style mimicked the look of the convertibles openness especially if it had a vinyl top whereas the post cars were seen as more of a low end cheaper version and were often sold or offered as a budget line..... Just my thoughts , could be wrong....Tedd

jaunty75

Go back and check your literature. Vent windows were a part of Oldsmobile cars for many years, whether they were hardtops or not.

The term "Holiday," as Joe P notes, is just Oldsmobile's term for a hardtop, whether it be a 2-door or 4-door. According to Setting the Pace, Olds first used the term in 1949. All through the years, it meant hardtop, and those hardtops came WITH a vent window right up through 1968. I have a '67 Delta 88 convertible that has vent windows. Certainly if the idea was to get rid of vent windows with the hardtop body style, they certainly would have been gotten rid of for the convertibles, the body style a hardtop is supposed to mimic, as well.

As a couple of examples, here's a page out of the '52 Olds brochure showing a 98 Holiday coupe. It's a hardtop. Note the vent windows.




Jumping ahead 10 years, here's a page out of the '62 Olds brochure showing a Super 88 Holiday Sedan. Note the vent windows.




Remember what the term "hardtop" means. All by itself, it's kind of pointless to apply to it only to cars without center pillars as ALL cars that are not convertibles have hard tops.

"Hardtop" is short for "hardtop convertible," which is an oxymoron, but the idea is that the car, with its windows rolled down, looks like convertible with its windows rolled down and the top up. Tedd is right. The idea was that you had the open-air feel of a convertible without actually having a convertible.

joe_padavano

While he could have worded it better, what I THINK Ben was trying to say is that 1968 was the LAST year (not the "only" year) that vent windows were offered on the A-body Holiday Coupes (and other divisions' A-body 2dr hardtop models), which is correct.

Bens71442

Joe is correct, in that I was referring to "A" body Olds in 1968-1972 which are the Glory years for the "A" body to answer the threads author of what made a ht vrs post cars more desirable.

Koda

Except that the 66-67 looked better and was faster than the 68-69.

tmaleck

what he said....