Definitely an oddball of an Olds. 1976 Oldsmobile Omega - cars & trucks - by owner - vehicle... (craigslist.org)
Woohoo! A Chevmobile Novomega! I always get a chuckle when people describe a column shift car as a three "in" the tree. Is a shifter in the hand worth three in the tree???
Yellow paint, green interior and a hatchback to boot. Sure was a lot of drugs going around in the 70s.
Hey, it was the '70s. Gas shortages, rising prices, oil embargoes, and Olds needed a small car to sell. Easiest was to re-badge an already-existing Nova. Of course, you could get an Olds Rocket V-8 in an Omega. First year for Omega was 1973. Here's something I bet few people know. For 1976, Olds resurrected a name from its past, F-85, and attached it to a new, lowest-end Omega (and cheapest car Olds offered). Note the body-color wheels, dog-dish wheelcovers, and lack of chrome trim around the wheel wells and along the roofline. Definitely a plain-looking car, but it was an Olds. If you want to find a rare car today, find one of these F-85 Omegas. They were offered only for 1976 and 1977, and production was very low both years. The Omega sold well, with just over 58,000 sold in '76 and just over 65,000 sold in '77. Only 3,918 F-85 Omegas were sold in '76, and that dropped to 2,241 for 1977. That's 6.7% of '76 Omegas and only 3.5% of '77 Omegas. Here's the F-85 entry in the '77 brochure. They used the same picture. Just changed the color.
I mostly agree with you, but You have to remember that the 1st Oil embargo was in October of 1973, that is the 2nd month of the 1974 Model year, and even if Olds was going to rush a new version of the Nova for the 73 Model year it would take at least 2 years (probably 3 full years) to modify the design, get the parts made, modify the assembly line (both actual tooling, and the assembly process to work for the new model) so they were actually working on this model from about 1970. Also for the 73 model year the cars had to meet the newer emissions standards, no an issue for the 250 I6 powered models, but the Olds 350 powered models would need to be emissions certified as it was the 1st year for EGR Valves on most cars. I think the Omegas were the least common of the 4 brands versions of the X-Car. Seldom seen then or now. Also I had no Idea they badged the most basic models as an F-85, Learned something new today! Hard to believe it had a lower base price than a 4 cylinder Starfire?
