By most measures, 1969 was perhaps the greatest single year in American history. Neil Armstrong walked on the Moon, a no-name expansion franchise won the World Series and the Super Bowl, and the year saw the arguable apex of the first muscle car renaissance. But not every American car worth talking about from 1969 was some low-slung, muscly sports coupe. People in those days still had kids and groceries to lug around. Hence why the 1969 Oldsmobile Cutlass wagon exists.
Coming to us for sale on Craigslist out of Phoenix, Arizona, we bet some younger folks out there had no idea the lauded third-generation Cutlass came in wagon form. In fact, there was hardly an automotive form factor available in the late 1960s that the Cutlass platform didn’t find itself attached to. From sedans to coupes to two/four-door hardtops, convertibles, and, of course, wagons, the average American could fill their driveway with nothing but Cutlasses if they wanted to.
But while the rest of the Cutlass range was awash with aggressive styling cues, the comparatively stately-looking wagon has a look all its own. In an era when Oldsmobile fielded two wagon models in its lineup based on the same General Motors A-body platform, the Cutlass and its sibling, the Vista Cruiser, represented two very different approaches to styling, all within the same family of vehicles. Engine options stayed relatively stable across the Cutlass line during its third generation. Three variants of the brand-exclusive Oldsmobile V8 came to define late-60s Cutlasses, of which the 350-cubic inch (5.7 L) variant is under the hood of this particular Cutlass wagon.
But it’s not the engine that makes the drivetrain in this Cutlass Wagon notable or special. Instead, it’s the inclusion of a column-shifted, three-speed manual transmission, where an automatic gearbox would have been used most of the time. This combination of an Oldsmobile 350 V8 and a manual transmission in a wagon body is one of the less common configurations a third-gen Cutlass could have hit dealerships sporting. But nowadays, rarity of this caliber can only add on to the value.
In numbers-matching, unrestored condition, we can envision Cutlass fans foaming at the mouth to own a V8 manual wagon. In the condition it sits now, however, that’s a very different story. Evidently, decades of exposure in the Arizona desert hasn’t been that kind to this old wagon. That’s despite a not-all-that-terrible mileage of 44,000 miles on the odometer. But owing to its location, far from the salty ocean, at least you won’t have to dunk this wagon’s body in an electrolysis bath before it’s rust-free again. At an asking price of $8,500, chances are good this is a project worth taking on.