1968 OLDSMOBILE Vista Cruiser- Ely Nevada

Text and all photos copyright D.S. Brown, except for the magazine cover image copyright Motor Trend.

The 1968 Vista Cruiser was a mild redesign which carried forth to 1969. Along with the 1967 Olds Cutlass Turnpike Cruiser (see an article on this car in the GAS LOGS section of this site) the Vista Cruiser is one of the coolest highway cars made by Oldsmobile. Passengers can see the entire view of the surrounding country through side windows and windows cut into the top of the roof, hence the name of the car.

The Vista Cruiser traces back to the F- 85 (Cutlass) body style upon which the wagon was based in 1964. The Vista Cruiser and the Buick Skylark Wagon both featured the glass tops which made vacation driving so much more interesting. Here is a picture of the Buick cover car for MOTOR TREND in March 1964. The testers also briefly drove the Olds at the same time.

For some reason the Olds wagon has a higher profile in most people's minds than the Buick, despite the fact that they both used the glassed in roof. THAT SEVENTIES SHOW reinforced the Vista Cruiser identity by featuring one as the family car for the sitcom.

This Vista Cruiser was left forlorn in the grey wild winter of Nevada apparently abandoned for quite some time. Weather was making huge inroads into the interior which was musty and rotting.