In 1977, Chrysler found itself in a rather precarious situation. They were losing money at a rapid rate, their newest model the 1976 Volaré and Aspen, had serious quality issues and rust problems, their midsize Coronet and Fury were popular only with little old men, taxi operators and law enforcement, and there would be no relief in the form of a new product—the FWD Omni and Horizon–until MY 1978. And then there were the full-sizers.

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GM’s 1973-77 intermediate cars, known as Colonnades, get much love from us at CC.  While the collector market hasn’t warmed to most of these models, we here at CC recognize that during an era when Detroit wasn’t exactly at its peak, these cars had a lot of inherent goodness.  I think it’s also recognized that the dominance of the Colonnade car line in the personal luxury car field means they hold a significant place in history.

That said, we here tend to give a lot of love to the Buick, Oldsmobile and Pontiacs but the Chevrolets, at least the Malibus and Chevelles, seem to be the bottom of the barrel.  Clearly, the 1964-72 Chevelles are well-loved and accepted by the collector community, but even die-hard bowtie lovers offer little love to the Colonnade Chevrolets.

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To most observers, those who were there and those who were not, 1970 was the pinnacle of the muscle car era. In that one golden year, a consumer with a few thousand bucks to spend could buy an LS6 Chevelle, any number of hot Mopars, Cobra Jet or Boss Mustangs, 429 Torinos, W30 442s…the list is impressive.

All three automakers carried on for one final year in high compression, leaded gasoline glory; all automakers continued to use insurance angering, inflated gross horsepower numbers.  And for that year, a Buick was one of the fastest musclecars from the new car showrooms.

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