Fiesta
According to Dennis Casteele's "Cars of Oldsmobile" book there were no
Olds wagons made after 1950 until 1957. In '57 they reintroduced the
wagon as the "Fiesta" model which was available in 2 styles, either the
normal 4-door sedan style wagon with a post between the front and rear
doors or as a 4-door hardtop style wagon.
Vista Cruiser
All Vista-Cruisers are Wagons, but not all wagons were Vista-Cruisers. The
Vista-Cruiser had the funky skylights, third seat, woodgrain, longer
wheelbase, etc. On an A-body chassis, sharing front sheetmetal with the
rest of the Cutlass line.
The Cutlass Cruiser was a flat-top wagon, based on the Cutlass. The Custom
Cruiser was the full-sized wagon. From 1965 to 1970, however, there
was no full-size Olds wagon, so the Vista Cruiser, built on the F-85 chassis,
served the upper-class wagon market. The Vista Cruiser was built through
the 1972 model year.
The Vista Cruiser was based on the midsize cutlass, the Custom Cruser
was based on the 98. It's a
Cutlass station wagon with a large sunroof (It's about 4.5 feet by 12
inches, and it doesn't open), that is mounted over the rear seats.
The rear windows are extra large and wrap into the roof of the car.
It's named for the windows, Vista (as in view) Cruiser. It's much
smaller than a Custom Cruiser, it's only about 18.5 feet long and holds
8 passengers. (I think the Custom Cruiser is about 21 feet and 9
passengers). It's amazing how a Vista Cruiser really looks like a tank
until you park it next to a Custom Cruiser, then it looks downright
puny.
The sunroof really set the
wagon off and added a lot of character. It just wasn't the same after
1972 when they had just the plain 'ol flat roof. They were
standard with a V-8 from 1966-1972, either 350 or 330 depending on the
year, and sometime after 1966 there was a 400 option, and somewhere around
1970 there was a 455 option.
They're beautiful cars, better looking than the Custom Cruiser IMHO. In
fact I'd go so far as to say you won't find a better looking station
wagon from that era. The only station wagons I can think of that look
better are the old "woodys" from the prewar days. They're also exellent
road cars, as were most Oldmobiles of that era. I can personally attest
that a stock Vista Cruiser is capable of being comfortably driven at
speeds well in exess of 100mph. (Well, I was comfortable. Someone
with a higher IQ may not be.).
Custom Cruiser
In 1971, Olds re-introduced a full-sized wagon, called the Custom Cruiser, based on the full-sized chassis.
The 1971-1976 Custom Cruiser wagons were essentially
Ninety-Eight station wagons. They just weren't called that. As I recall,
they were built on the 98 chassis, and they did have the 98's taillights.
[ Thanks to Bob Barry, Daniel Gulino, Greg Beaulieu, Greg Pruett
for this information ]