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Oldsmobile - R.I.P.

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Sherlock

Sherlock

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Just saw on the news tonight that the last Oldsmobile ever to produced rolled off the line today.

https://www.wistv.com/Global/story.asp?S=1826278

We're a British car hangout, but I'm sure at least a few of you have some good Oldsmobile memories as well.

Speaking for myself... a 1984 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme sedan (our family car) was the first car I ever drove alone with my new driver's licence back in 1993. Actually a very nice car running a Chev 305, unfortunately written off in a car accident in northern British Columbia when dad rolled it (along with the travel trailer it was towing) while driving alone, no worries there were no major injuries...

I have always like that car, much better than the 1993 Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera it was replaced with, never liked that car the few times I ever drove it.

Memories anyone?

[ 04-29-2004: Message edited by: Sherlock ]</p>
 
My Grandmother used to own an early 70's (71 or 72) 98 cream color on the outside with green cloth on the inside and a 455 under the hood. Wonderful car.
 
It's hard to believe that we'll not see any more Oldsmobiles. 100 years is a long time to manufacture an automobile. The Plymouths are gone now, too. End of an era.

My first car was a 55 Olds with a "Rocket" V/8 (don't remember the displacement). A huge, lumbering car, but a joy to drive on the open road.

One of my favorite American cars was an '86 Olds Cutlass Ciera ES (2 door). It had factory bucket seats, console, rally gauge package, alloy wheels, fat Goodyear Eagles and a peppy 3800cc V6 engine. It was a lightweight car and would really go. Lots of fun to drive.

Another one I wish I'd never sold.
 
Lots of memories with Oldsmobiles – my Grandparents owned many as I was growing up. But my Grandfather’s favorite was the Delta 88s. He actually owned three. Large & Stately (but not over done) Land Barges and would fit a whole herd of grandkids in the back seats.

As for Plymouths demise – I always loved the mid-late 60’s and early 70’s variants. Matter-a-fact the very first car that I purchased with my own money was a 1967 Barracuda Coupe with the 273ci V8. Bright Yellow with a black vinyl top.

They’ll both be missed.
 
Personally I would have rather seen Saturn get the axe and Olds get some new products.
 
ive never really liked olds except for the 70's cars they made. dont really like gm much for that matter either. they are coming out with some pretty cheep looking stuff. go up and look at a new chevy colorado when you have a chance and try to figure out why it would be worth more that 5k new. there are gaps in the body and a 1/4inch gap all the way around the headlights and you can see behind the huge hidious plastic grille.
 
I'm not sure if any of you recall that Olds was the "leading-edge" engineering-oriented part of GM. They were the first with the 12 volt system, the first automatic trans, and one of the leaders in early overhead valve V8 "hot-rod" engines....lots of other tech stuff too.
Ransom E. Olds also helped form the REO truck company (those are his intitals) that eventually begat the Diamond-REO truck company. A famous product was the REO Speedwagon (and also a forgettable '80s pop-group).
Olds sold more cars than Audi last year....the demise of the brand-name surprises me.
 
learned to drive in a 79 cutlass supreme maroon with buckets and a console. I loved that car for many reasons but my dad said it was a piece of junk and after many years of driving oldsmobiles he bought his first honda and has been driving them ever since.Maybe I was to hard on this car as a teenager and caused a lot of the repairs.Anyway, Oldsmobiles will always be special to me!
Warren
75 MGB
canpatriot.gif
 
Olds was a victim of lousy demographics as anything. No matter what they did, the perception remained that they were old people's cars. Median age of an Olds buyer was only slightly behind Cadillac, and the median age of a Cadillac buyer is somewhere between Methuselah and dirt.

Anyway, the brand had been in a slow decline for 20 years. It doesn't really fit in the product matrix, the general has no clue how to fix it, and altogether, I think it was a mercy killing at this point.
 
<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr> Aeronca65T said: ...the demise of the brand-name surprises me.
<hr></blockquote>

Actually I believe it was annouced by General Motors one or two years, that they were going to stop building the Oldsmobile brand-name.

I think GM was guilty of having perhaps a few too many brand-names to sell and basically had to pare one of them, and all their brand-names go back many years.
 
Let's not forget the work Olds did on the 2.3L engine. They had a very nice 2.0L version making 700 some horsepower. They also had a concept V8 using the same DOHC technology from the 2.3. That never went to production. Of course, I like the newer Aurora with the 4.0L V8.
 
It's going to blow your minds, but Olds was given the death news back in 2000! It has been four years.

I actually drive a '98 Olds Intrigue as a daily driver. It has its issues, but is a great front-wheel-drive car. Handling is great, and with 0-60 in 7.7sec, it's pretty darn fast. I had it out in the snow, and it just plowed through.

GM gave Olds the directive of being the "import beater" division back in 1995. In '98 the Intrigue came out, then in '99 the new Aurora, then the Alero. At the time, it was considered the best American product lineup...Then, when GM sales diminshed a year after the Cutlass was killed, GM panicked and killed Olds...just like they did to the V6 Fiero and the Northstar Caddy Allante.

Bad decision. I think GM is run by former British Leyland hacks.
 
I'll kinda miss them too, I learned to drive in the family truckster, an Delta 88 wagon. It actually was a nice enough car for the money, reasonable fit and finish, and few problems to mention. I did learn the hard way that when driving a big, floaty boat the only way to monitor speed is the speedo. The Officer didn't accept that as a reasonable excuse either.
 
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