Eric's 1969 Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser
- "You can literally... cruise, the vista!”
- —High Red[src]
The 1969 Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser is the car Eric Forman got from his dad Red Forman in 1976, after Red was forced, due to circumstances, to purchase a Toyota Corolla for its better gas mileage. It serves as the main form of transportation throughout the series. Many of the show's episodes feature Eric and the gang in or around his "Aztec Gold" 1969 Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser; for the first seven seasons, the show's introduction showed the cast in the Vista Cruiser. It's typically parked in either the garage or driveway of the Forman residence.
About[]
Before he gets it in the pilot, Eric gets lectured by his parents about safe driving. The gang first use it to get to a concert in Kenosha, and later that evening it is the scene of Eric and Donna's first kiss. The gang uses it as their primary means of transportation, whether it is a mere local journey (to places like Fatso Burger), or even across international boundaries, like the time the gang headed for Canada to get beer.
Red at one time accidentally sold the Vista Cruiser during a garage sale while high on special brownies (unbeknownst to him), but he and Eric manage to get it back.
Eric also loses it after scratching it when Kelso gives him a purple nurple while driving, and when he goes to California to confess his love for Donna. Red ended up taking it away for a while because Eric confesses to smoking marijuana so Hyde wouldn't get kicked out of the Forman's home.
Once Eric moved on in life, married Donna and moved to Chicago, he left the Vista Cruiser with his parents.
In 1995, Red gives the Vista Cruiser to his granddaughter Leia as a birthday present, to compete against Bob Pinciotti.
Trivia[]
- At the end of the series, Wilmer Valderrama (Fez) bought the Vista Cruiser from Carsey-Warner for $500. In August 2009, the show's Vista Cruiser was named the third-greatest television car ever by MSN Autos. Valderrama would lend the car to Netflix for the sequel series, That '90's Show.
- The Vista Cruiser is powered by the 455 Cubic-Inch Oldsmobile-Pontiac Rocket V8 engine.