I think it replaced the 3 on the tree in 1977.

Well, you got the base caps, often the small "dog dish" style. The full sized ones, or the better looking ones, cost more.

@jdslyman In 1985, I bought a 76 Granada for $700. I lived in Spokane, WA at the time. The car had some rust bubbles that were starting under the rear windows, but I buffed the thing up and it still looked pretty good. I also had to replace a few things under the car that rust was starting to attack. I sold it about a year later for the same price. I'm guessing that it probably hit the wrecking yard around 1990.

@nlpnt The Granada had better build quality was a quieter/ smoother car and had a much better option feature set than the Fairmont It was a class above and priced accordingly

The Fairmont had more potential, but being aimed at the "compact" market, it had a penalty-box interior. It wasn't until the debut of the FOX-based Granada, then "LTD" that Ford could offer a FOX body with the opulence of a well-optioned Granada.

Granada had a lot better build quality than the Fairmont

Gladly! I can use it! 😆

I like the styling of the U.S. Granada better than most of its competitors and better than many of the sedans Ford was selling in the USA during this time (LTD II, Fairmont, etc.). It's a little over-ornamented, but very well proportioned. And, while I don't love the looks of the European Granada, it was obviously a far more advanced platform, bigger on the inside, smaller on the inside, much more refined suspension, than the U.S. model which was a re-styled Falcon. But they were really aimed at different ends of the market, with the American version built down to a very low price level. And, in this market, Ford was stuck with performance stifling emissions regulations that would render any car at least somewhat inferior.

Was it the later restyled Granada on the Fox platform? Those were awful.

Did the AMC offer a 4 speed?

@@MisterMikeTexas yes in Manual it also offered a 5 speed Manual

The Malibu rear door was a terrible design - obviously Chevrolet’s bean counters won the battle over the designers and common sense. I bet that cost Chevy a lot of sales. The Granada wasn’t that bad looking for its day actually, not as sleek as the then-new Fairmont but quite a lot more modern looking than its predecessor the Maverick.

I believe the fixed rear door windows was an attempt to keep interior dimensions similar to the outgoing Malibu, which was the same size as the Impala/Caprice Classic in 1977.

AFAIK, the reason the rear windows didn’t roll down is because GM thought they could upsell more people on air conditioning which had a nice profit margin for them

A few years later, Chrysler did the same thing with the first couple years of the Dodge Aries K and Plymouth Reliant K.

They sold it as a safety feature "your kids can't fall out because they don't roll down" or so the people who I knew that had them would say. But in the Malibu you could crack the rear vent windows for what it's worth

I don't remember any factory stereos from the 1970s that were better than barely-mediocre. That Altima stereo would have to be pretty terrible to be worse than the Monarch's.

Dig into the menu and turn the bass and treble up.

@@wintersbattleofbands1144 I did, and it didn't work. Speaker quality on the BASE model Altima is terrible. I saw the brochure online and they DO make a premium stereo complete with multiple speakers, but I got my car from a place that sells ex-rentals so all I can do is upgrade my speakers at an audio shop.