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I want to say HELLO form the South Part of Germany. Since early June I'm the owner of a 1971 Cutlass S - 350 - hopefully! As the VIN (332871) says F-85:
I want to say HELLO form the South Part of Germany. Since early June I'm the owner of a 1971 Cutlass S - 350 - hopefully! As the VIN (332871) says F-85
Your car is definitely a Cutlass. The base F-85 was available only as a four-door sedan ("Town Sedan") in 1971, and your car is a two-door hardtop . The 87 in your car's VIN indicates a "Holiday Coupe," which is what Olds called a two-door hardtop.
The initial "332" in your VIN could have appeared on both an F-85 or a Cutlass that year.
Your car is a base Cutlass, not a Cutlass S or Cutlass Supreme, and despite the "442" badge on the front fender, it is not a 442 as the VIN would begin 344671 for a '71 442 convertible or 344871 for a '71 442 2-door hardtop. Correct placement of the 442 badges on the sides would have been behind the front wheel well (where the "Cutlass" appears on your car), not in front of the wheel well right behind the headlights as it is on your car.
Regardless of 442 or not, yours is a good-looking car.
Jaunty is correct. Olds was not consistent in matching model names and VINs. Usually, the 2-door cars were "inflated" one trim level. For example, in the 1971 model year, the 32xx body styles were called F-85s if they were four doors but Cutlass models if they were two doors. The 36xx models were Cutlass in the four door and wagon bodies and Cutlass S in the two door bodies. As noted, there were no two door F-85 models built in the 1971 model year, despite using the same VIN codes as the F-85 four door cars.
Bottom line is, don't believe everything you read on the web. Always verify info from original factory literature. This page is from the 1971 Salesmans SPECS booklet.
@jaunty75 and Joe
Thanks' for your explanations. As I have seen the VIN description on the Web I was afraid that my car could be a building kit consisting of F-85 frame and Cutlass body.
442:
Well, I was aware that this car can never ever be a real 442 - drum brakes, Small-Block, 2" Exhausts... - And I'm not really happy with this 442 Gimmick which the previous owner put on the car after the new painting as I'm more a friend of understatement...
@carid
Thank you!
Yes, the condition of the car is very good and I have got a DVD with ~900 photos of the restoration during the last two years - one reason why I made the decisions to take this Base Custlass.
Planned mods: changing the new Gabriel shocks against KONI Classics, longer rear springs, changing the new 2" Exhaust Pipes against 2.5" plus headers, change of the front drum brakes, maybe engine mods, but I have no plan what could make sense for more power in the low rpm-range.
