Oldsmobile Was Way Cooler Than You Remember

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Welcome back to PASCAS, everybody. This week it's Oldsmobile Part 2.

Last week we talked about steam engines and all the old timey stuff.

This week we're going to be talking about the stuff you guys know.

The 442, Rocket 88, the Alero, the Achiva, the Bravada.

We're going to get into all that. How did this brand go from one of the most successful car companies in American history to a quiet, whimpering death?

Well, we're going to talk about it right now. Let's get into it.

Last time on PASCAS, we traced the rise of Oldsmobile from a steam-powered family business to one of the best-selling badges in American car history.

Through thick and thin, the company survived and thrived, but they are about to face some of their biggest challenges yet, including another world war.

Today on PASCAS, why did one of the most important car companies in American history vanish?

What went wrong inside General Motors? And how did Oldsmobile go from cutting edge to the graveyard?

This week on PASCAS is Oldsmobile Part 2.

Welcome to the show, everybody. My name is Nolan Sykes.

You already clapped.

Join us always by Bart Bidlingmeyer across from me. Hello, Bart.

Welcome.

Yeah, this is going to be a fun episode.

I think so.

Happy to be here.

And Joe Weber.

Let me hear you at home. Give me a clap.

There you are.

There you go.

That was so corny.

This is Oldsmobile Part 2. Last week we talked about their early beginning, some Ranny Olds, the engineer extraordinaire.

That went from steam engines to gas engines.

That's right.

And then that Darn Smith family took over.

And then also Ranny proved, screw you guys.

I'm going home.

Yeah.

And he was like, he was right again.

Yeah.

Started at REO. He sold more for a little while than Oldsmobile.

Oldsmobile really kind of bounces back.

We see the creation of GM coming in.

Which saved them.

Which saved them was more of just like a name buy.

Yeah.

I mean, their whole strategy was buying established brands and building up a portfolio.

Your brand ladder.

Building up the brand ladder.

A bunch of different brands at different price points.

And I think we're about to get into World War II now.

So, shall we?

Always fun.

Let's do it.

What's a past gas without a little foyer and a foray into World War II?

It would be, they're rare.

I feel like the last five.

Yeah.

I've just hammered through.

Porsche Nurburgring.

Yeah.

Porsche Nurburgring.

Lamborghini.

Oh, I guess Lamborghini was after.

No, but I mean, he was involved.

Oh, he took tank parts to make his tractors.

That's true.

Yeah.

It was kind of like a big deal.

Caterpillar.

Big deal.

That event.

Well, I got, I got tied up into World War II.

Well, if we ever do a Swiss company.

Yeah.

What a relief.

As America bounced back from the Great Depression, so too did Oldsmobile.

In 1940, Oldsmobile introduced the Hydromatic Transmission, which was the first fully

automatic gearbox ever offered in a mass produced car.

It cost just 57 bucks to add to any model in the company's lineup.

The move helped cement Oldsmobile's reputation as GM's go-to brand for experimentation in cutting

edge technology.

It's, it's fun that this is cutting edge technology and we're portraying it as such.

It's the first automatic transmission in a mass produced car.

But another way to look at it is this is the beginning of the end of the manual

transmission for 57 dollars.

Yeah.

The 40s were poised to be Oldsmobile's most successful decade yet until the U.S.

entered World War II.

Production of all civilian cars was halted by government order on January 1, 1942, the

very same day that Oldsmobile Works was officially renamed the Oldsmobile Division of General

Motors.

From that point through the end of World War II, Oldsmobile factories switched to

defense manufacturing.

Floor workers were dubbed soldiers of production, producing millions of rounds of ammunition,

as well as tens of thousands of aircraft, machine guns, and tank cannons.

So we're basically like soldiers of content.

Yeah.

We're not at war though, thankfully.

Yeah.

When the war ended, Oldsmobile went right back to making cars and didn't miss a beat.

In fact, just a few short years later, the company launched perhaps its most

enduring contribution to the American auto industry, a new overhead valve V8 engine

called the Rocket.

Oldsmobile had begun developing a flathead V8 shortly after the war, but the

project ran into resistance from Cadillac executives who had their own V8 and didn't

want another GM division to build something similar.

I love that it's GM, baby.

It's just amazing that they hadn't figured out like, oh, we should just develop

one power plant and use it across our product line rather than every company

you need to make your own engine.

There's so much infighting in GM.

By design.

Yeah.

Like it works sometimes and then not others.

And then there's also the infighting.

All right, guys, we did it.

And then overhead comes in like, I'm sorry, you can't.

Oldsmobile already did.

Yeah.

We want to do it.

Oldsmobile engineers side-sept these objections from Cadillac by using a

90-degree V-angle and an overhead valve design to differentiate the two

projects.

Because the other one was 60-degree?

Well, the last Olds one was 60-degree, right?

Well, they had their own V8, yeah.

By moving the valves above the cylinders, Oldsmobile's new engine allowed

for better air flow, improved combustion, and more power per cubic inch.

This engine would turn out to be the first mass-produced overhead valve V8,

setting the template for the engines that would help define the U.S.

auto industry for decades to come.

Dude, so many innovations at Oldsmobile.

This is crazy.

No idea.

Olds named it The Rocket in a nod to the public's post-war fascination

with space and missile technology.

The Rocket engine debuted in Oldsmobile's top-of-the-line 98 series,

paired with the new Futuramic styling.

Which looks, that's pretty neat.

Yeah.

All that I forgot about that Olds hood ornament.

What's the hood ornament?

It's kind of like a plane or a rocket.

And then when you get the smaller one, it's still that.

But everything's designed from this point on in their logos

to evoke a plane or a rocket.

Oh, gotcha.

It almost looks like the old Pontiac hood ornament.

That was like the chieftain, the long chieftain.

Yeah, yeah.

That was like quartz looking or something like see-through.

Two months later, in February of 1949,

Oldsmobile introduced another landmark vehicle, the 88.

Designed by engineer Harold Metzel, the 88 body was smaller

and about 300 pounds lighter than the 98,

but still had that Rocket V8 in it.

I wonder if that's the wheelbase.

Because 88 would be a shorter one than obviously 98.

Yeah, that's interesting.

They're probably right.

You want to look it up real quick?

The 1949 Oldsmobile 88's wheelbase, 119 inches.

That's long.

Big boy.

The Rocket 88 used the simple formula of small car plus big V8,

which is why it's considered by some to be the first muscle car

more than a decade before the Pontiac GTO.

It could hit 60 miles per hour in just under 13 seconds.

Wow, that's a ripper.

It was impressive performance for the era

and quickly earned a reputation as being a true driver's car.

Hell yeah, dude.

Big **** car, slow as ****.

That's enthusiast right there, dude.

That's a formula that Oldsmobile kept until it went under.

That same year, a racing series got its start

called the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing,

or NASCAR.

And Oldsmobile jumped at the chance to enter the Rocket 88.

It ended up winning the first three NASCAR Cups

from 1949 to 1951, driven by the legendary Red Byron.

It also inspired the 1951 single Rocket 88 by Jackie Brinston,

considered by some historians to be the first rock and roll song.

Okay.

It's great.

Oldsmobile is also pretty heavily tied to American musical history.

Yeah, it's weird.

Pop music, in fact.

Well, there's that Kendrick song about Oldsmobile in Milero.

Bought in Milero for the weekend.

Production numbers tell the rest of the story.

In 1949, Oldsmobile built nearly 294,000 vehicles.

Wow.

More than 100,000 of them were 88s, despite its mid-year launch.

That's a big success.

By 1950, output rose to over 416,000 units,

a new all-time high for the company.

The Rocket 88 enhanced Oldsmobile's reputation

as an innovator and would remain in production for over four years.

Good Lord.

40.

Imagine redoing Fast and Furious in this time,

and the cops are chasing them down at 42 miles per hour.

Ugh, I can't catch up.

Oldsmobile founder Ransom Olds may have passed away in 1950,

but his old company kept chugging along.

Oldsmobile entered the 50s with momentum,

powered by a winning formula of strong performance

and appealing styling.

The 88 was dominating NASCAR, winning 10 of 19 races

in 1950 and 20 of 41 races in 1951.

Sales remained strong despite production restrictions

caused by the Korean War, and during the conflict,

Oldsmobile contributed to the war effort

by producing nearly 8.5 million Bazooka rockets,

making this our very first mention of the Bazooka

on the podcast.

In 1955, Oldsmobile produced nearly 600,000 vehicles,

overtaking Plymouth to become the fourth-largest car

manufacturer in the US.

But another downturn was coming, and it would be 10 more years

before Oldsmobile could reach that level again.

Several factors contributed to Oldsmobile's next decline.

The brand lost its competitive edge on the racetrack,

American buyers began shifting away from large sedans

in favor of smaller imports like the Volkswagen Beetle,

and a sharp recession in 1957 further strained the market.

Perhaps just as important, though, by the late 1950s,

Oldsmobile's lineup had become difficult to distinguish

from its GM siblings, Pontiac and Buick.

As the economic recession compressed GM's pricing structure,

style became one of Oldsmobile's few differentiators,

but that also backfired with an unpopular,

overly-chromed 1950 lineup.

Cop between Pontiac and Buick and GM's brand hierarchy,

Oldsmobile lacked a clear identity.

To stay relevant, the division turned to technical innovation

once again.

In 1962, Oldsmobile introduced the turbocharged

F-85 jet fire.

Along with the Corvair Monza Spitfire,

the jet fire was one of America's first

high-volume turbocharged cars.

It produced 215 horsepower

and could reach 0-60 in 8.5 seconds.

That's like...

Like that?

Not bad.

I think there's one in the lineup's garage?

Probably.

Yeah, that would make sense.

He also has a Tornado that's really sick.

Like rope here.

We'll be right back after these messages.

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Now back to the show.

Reliability issues led Oldsmobile to abandon

the jet-fire turbo after just two years,

but the company quickly rebounded

with a much bigger success than 1966 Tornado.

Designed to compete with the Ford Thunderbird,

the Tornado was a personal luxury coupe

that pushed the boundaries of what an American car could be.

By just being that.

That's it.

There was one parked, and it was like a turquoise,

or a light, maybe a light anyways.

Just when you see him, yeah, just street parked.

This is when I lived in Hollywood.

It looks like it's fast.

When it's parked, it looks like it's moving.

It was front-wheel drive.

Well, good to that.

The name was deliberately futuristic-sounding,

designed to evoke speed and technology

without referencing any actual existing object.

Its bold styling set it apart visually,

but the real innovation was in the engineering.

As Bart mentioned, the Tornado was the first

mass-produced front-wheel drive American car

in more than 30 years, making it a radical departure

in a market dominated by rear-wheel drive layouts.

This allowed for a flatter floor,

better traction in poor weather,

and a roomier cabin,

powered by a massive 425 cubic inch V8

making 385 horsepower.

The Tornado could hit nearly 135 miles per hour,

blending muscle car performance

with grand touring comfort.

That's crazy. What year was it?

1960s?

1966.

Do a bunch of front-wheel peels in that thing?

Yeah.

I was thinking it'd be fun to set up a handbrake

for the front wheels.

Skid the front wheels everywhere,

or do backwards drifting.

Sure.

Kinda sick.

The car was a hit with critics

and enthusiasts alike.

The Tornado won Motor Trans Car of the Year award

in 1966 and helped solidify

Oldsmobile's reputation

as GM's most technically

adventurous division.

It proved that Olds can make bold forward-thinking cars

at least for the time being.

That is a crazy front-wheel drive V8

with that much horsepower.

And then it's a boat of a car too

and without a transmission tunnel in it.

Yeah. No transmission tunnel.

And it's lower too.

Yeah, they're low.

Pretty sick.

I like the headlights on them.

But it's funny that the marketing department was like,

and if you reference anything,

that's a real object.

The 70s were a difficult decade

for most of the American car industry,

but Oldsmobile just kept growing

through the oil crises,

new strict regulations,

and rising competition from Japan.

Oldsmobile's production climbed from

560,000 units in 1971

to over a million in 1977,

1978, and 79.

From 72 to 79,

Oldsmobile ranked third in U.S. auto sales

and production every year.

Wow, I honestly did not know

they were so successful.

I feel like in my mind,

the 70s are the Oldsmobile.

Every Oldsmobile I think of

is from the 70s.

The 442.

This is where it's split.

It's just such a look.

And the ones like the 442,

where the hood was actually part

and flipped down in the front.

So sick.

Part of that success was due to the popular Cutlass model.

First introduced in 1961

as a trim level on the compact F85.

The Cutlass eventually became its own model.

By the mid-1960s,

it had grown into a mid-sized car

and become one of the best-selling lines in the country,

especially in its sportier versions

of the Cutlass Supreme and 442.

The 442 in particular became

Oldsmobile's signature muscle car.

First introduced in 1964

as an option package for the F85

and Cutlass, its name was simple.

It had a four-barrel carburetor,

four-speed manual transmission,

and dual exhaust.

So that's so funny.

It's also because they went from

don't you dare reference a thing on the car.

To the most basic.

Four-barrel carburetor.

The 442 became a...

Is that a Rochester carburetor?

I think that's what Oldsmobile was.

Rochester.

What Dorchester?

Dorchester carburetor.

It's going to beat the crap out of you.

Probably call you a slur.

Probably. It's guaranteed.

Guaranteed to call you a slur.

The 442 became a stand-alone model

in 1968.

And by 1970, a top-tier

W30 version came with a

455 cubic inch V8

that made up to 370 horsepower

and 500 pounds

feet of torque.

What is that, like almost 8 liter?

What was it? Displate 59?

Jeez.

Those numbers put it right in the mix

with the era's top muscle cars like the GTO,

the Dodge Charger, and

Chevelle SS.

Wow. Because of blended raw power

with Oldsmobile's more upscale image.

Yeah. It also...

the look...

I think, again, the

fastback that

I think was

that Chevy made.

Yeah, that kind of changed this look.

So now all of these other companies have that

platform to make these super

slippery...

Chevelle-esque.

His first one was the Supernova,

production, but we talked about it in the Camaro episode.

Yeah. This is a

sick era of muscle car where they're

two-door...

442, I think, is one of those cars where

like, look, there's

the Boomer market people,

you know, those people are still

driving up the value of these cars. They're buying cars

they wanted when they were younger.

I think cars like Charger, Challenger,

Nova, Chevelle,

Camaro will

always hold their value,

always be like, desirable

expensive cars.

But something like this 442

might fly under the radar.

Because it's an Oldsmobile and it's dead now.

There's not like Oldsmobile guys now.

I think now probably finding

a good condition in 442 is still...

that's expensive, but we think like

10, 15 years from now

when like Boomers are...

Dead.

Not all of them, but a lot of them.

That'll be a smaller portion

of this market, I think.

The smaller portion that has a nostalgia

for this car

versus the

market that says, oh

that's a good car and I want it.

It's not a nostalgia base.

This is

not like a pop culture icon in the same way.

It's like a challenger or something.

Keep this on your shortlist.

And it was not like

a character car in a movie.

There's none of the bullet stuff.

You know what I drove? Vanishing point.

That I really want now is one of the...

a judge GTO. Oh yeah?

Got to drive one of those and I was like, oh this is...

This is really fun. This is me.

But even though those are expensive too

because like it's the GTO.

But that cutlass body

is a little... it's actually

like handles pretty well.

Wow. Nice.

Hell yeah. Let's all get 442.

Let's do it. I already spent like

so much money on gas

That's true.

Oldsmobile's innovations continued through the

70's when they became the first American brand

to offer airbags.

The company was also a leading adopter of diesel engines.

It was just a... let's be honest though.

It was just a paper bag you blew up put on your dash

just in case.

The concept was like a popcorn bag

and they had a little microwave

and it would...

The company was also the leading adopter

of diesel engines in response to rising fuel prices.

Oh yeah.

The company at the time joked that

we can just about dieselize anything.

Yeah.

And they did, they had a diesel option

for like the 88 and the 98.

Is that like one of the worst diesels ever made?

Yes. Just because it's not... it works.

It was a gasoline...

it was a gasser that they had like converted

I think they took the 408

to make it run on diesel.

I think we're going to talk about it in one sec.

Okay cool. Let's do it.

Don't spill the beans yet.

I know I was like really excited to get into this

episode I think. We're like this is going to be good.

We're going to... but as things are coming up

we're like oh yeah yeah yeah remember you know

it's been fun.

I think it's because a lot of their cars fly

under the radar. You don't think of them

as like a performance company.

The 1973 oil embargo

fundamentally changed the auto industry

in the U.S.

I never heard of that.

And Oldsmobile initially seemed well positioned

to benefit. The division quickly retooled

around smaller more efficient engines

while maintaining the comfort and features

that middle class buyers expected.

The Cutlass in particular continued

to sell well during this period.

By offering a smaller more efficient package

with Oldsmobile's traditional refinement

the Cutlass captured buyers

fleeing both gas guzzling domestic

cars and unfamiliar imports

from 1975 to 77

the Cutlass was America's best

selling car.

But Oldsmobile's success during the energy crisis

came at a hidden cost

that would soon become apparent.

In 1977 facing a shortage

of its Rocket V8 engines

Olds began installing Chevrolet built V8s

in many of its cars without informing buyers.

Oldsmobile customers

saw this as a bait and switch.

It's a cash grab.

The backlash was swift with the tractors

coining the scathing nickname

Chevy Mobile.

Ha ha ha.

Roasted.

Ya burnt.

You're done.

GM's response certainly didn't help.

Rather than reversing course

the company introduced a disclaimer

quote, GM cars are equipped

with engines produced by various GM divisions.

Oh my God.

This may have resolved legal concerns

but GM's divisions had been drifting closer together

in both styling and engineering for years.

The disclaimer only deepened

the perception that they had become interchangeable.

They've spent

70 years

60 years creating

very distinct

classes of cars

within their portfolio and then all of a sudden

they're like

listen, let's be honest

it's all the same stuff.

You've never been to Taco Bell

it's all the same ingredients

rearranged. Just don't admit it.

We're gonna knock down all these walls

and make this company open

concept.

You can have your TV

in your kitchen.

Your kitchen

your whole house could smell like your kitchen

if you wanted to.

We'll put a bathroom right next to it.

We'll be right back after these messages.

We've connected this whole time

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The second oil crisis in

1979 triggered by the Iranian

revolution pushed Oldsmobile

into an even more disastrous

mistake facing renewed pressure

for fuel efficiency and convinced

that diesel technology offered a competitive

advantage. Olds engineers

decided to convert their existing

350 cubic inch

into a diesel engine.

The conversion was rushed

and fundamentally flawed.

Diesel engines operate at compression

ratios nearly three times higher

than gas engines. Rather than

redesigning or strengthening the engine

block, Oldsmobile engineers simply

modified the fuel system and increased

the compression ratio.

They failed to add the additional head bolts

necessary to contain the increased

pressure. The results were catastrophic.

The converted diesel engines

began failing within months

often suffering blown head gaskets.

Customers reported engine seizing,

excess smoke and oil

contamination. It's also a

huge reason why that

diesel thing never happened.

It was an uphill battle

to get Americans to want to use diesel

in the first place and then that happens

because suddenly everybody's like,

well, never doing that.

These twin disasters

marked a turning point for Oldsmobile.

A car that had built its reputation in part

on engineering excellence now faced

widespread customer distrust.

Both problems would haunt the brand for years

to come contributing to the gradual

erosion of customer loyalty that ultimately

led to Oldsmobile's demise.

They'd been using the 350

for like 40 years.

Yeah, it was the Rocket 88.

And all they did

was detune it. You'd still have the

four-barrel carburetor

making 180 horsepower

on a 5.7 liter engine.

Put some big jets in that thing.

Let's fatten it up.

In 1984, GM

chairman Roger Smith

launched a major reorganization that

permanently changed how divisions like

Oldsmobile operated.

Instead of designing and engineering their own cars,

Oldsmobile was placed into the

strategic Oldsmobile Cadillac Group

which centralized product development.

Smith had become GM's chairman in 1981

with a mandate to modernize

the world's largest automaker.

But his decisions would prove

devastating for Oldsmobile.

A finance executive who had risen through

GM's accounting ranks, Smith believed

the company's future lay in high-tech

manufacturing and global expansion

rather than traditional brand management.

Smith's reorganization strategy

centered on reducing costs

through platform sharing

and eliminating redundancies

between divisions. He consolidated

engineering operations, stripped

individual brands of their autonomy

and pushed for common components across

all GM vehicles.

There had always been GM part sharing

which is one of the reasons people liked GM

to work on because you knew you could get your parts.

But it was also mostly just

drivetrain

were similar

and chassis.

Other than that

they were like do whatever you want

for a while. And this was at a time

when Chrysler had just done this

with Liay Coca ahead.

Liay Coca.

From then on, Olds no longer controlled

its own engineering, only their sales

and marketing. This shift

robbed Oldsmobile of what had once

set it apart, the freedom to design

and build its own vehicles. Now

the company's engineers were essentially just

one voice in a much larger GM

and were often ignored by corporate

product teams. Ironically

this strategy worked for Oldsmobile

and this period marked the brand's commercial peak.

It's really funny that every time they're

like you know this could be a hurdle

it makes their

brand boring but then they

thrive. Oldsmobile

sold more cars in 1984

than any other year with annual sales

topping 1 million units

from 1983 through

1986. But it's also I think at this

point because the people

who know Oldsmobile as a brand

like they know the name and they're

ready to buy cars that don't

mean anything. You know what I mean? Because they're at that age

where it's like I just need a car. I'll get an Oldsmobile

that are good cars. I think that

exists for them and that's how they're selling

a lot of them. Even at this high point

the core of the brand was beginning to

erode. Oldsmobile's ever increasingly

resembled models from Buick, Pontiac

and Chevrolet. Meanwhile the

company's dealers were pushing for copies

of whichever vehicle types were currently popular

including minivans, SUVs and

compacts which further diluted Oldsmobile's

identity. If you're GM

I'm thinking why let every

brand make the minivan?

They didn't let Cadillac.

So like pick if you like

good you guys make this way we can

we can keep some brand identity

anyway. In the 80s

consumer tastes were also shifting

mid-market buyers gravitated towards

imports which were perceived as better built

and more reliable. Seeking to reverse

its fortunes Oldsmobile launched

a rebranding campaign centered around

a cringy new slogan

this is not your father's

Oldsmobile. It's funny because

Buick was like it's not your grandma's Buick.

They just reused the same.

Oh my god. In an effort

to appeal to younger drivers Oldsmobile

also ran a series of TV ads

featuring aging celebrities like Leonard

Nimoy and Ringo Starr

and paired with their nonfamous children.

You want to get

kids on board use aging

actors. Spock

drives it and his son.

Spock's son drives an Oldsmobile.

In the cases of Mel Blank

and Rod Serling the celebrities were quite

literally dead.

The marketing

fell flat and sales dropped by 100,000

units the year after the ads debuted.

In 1986 Oldsmobile

sold over a million cars all

of them developed when the division still had

control over its own design.

By 1991 that number had dropped by more

than 60% with a lineup

that was now including rebadged

GMC SUVs like the

Perfata and Chevy

minivans.

Meanwhile Roger Smith was pouring money

into a new domestic brand called Saturn

launched in 1990 with

a $5 billion investment

Smith saw Saturn as GM's

import fighter and gave it the same

innovative mission that had once belonged

to Oldsmobile. While Saturn

developed new materials, manufacturing

processes and dealer relationships

Oldsmobile was left with

increasingly similar products

and a diminished identity. With this

Oldsmobile lost not just its competitive

momentum but its

reason for existing.

I wonder if Saturn is a good story to tell.

I think it is. We were talking about buying

Saturn for a while

I think that would be really funny.

We are telling this story of Oldsmobile

over the course of a hundred years

and GM

and the pitfalls

Saturn is like, you can do that

but it took

a fourth of the time.

That took 14 years.

But it's just a microcosm of

the whole thing.

By 1992 Oldsmobile's position

inside GM had started to slip.

The Washington Post reported that GM

execs have been giving serious consideration

that you are killing the brand

only to pull back at the last minute.

GM and Oldsmobile denied the story

vigorously but a seed of doubt

was planted in the mind of buyers.

Around the same time GM began

another reorganization that would have

lasting effects across the company.

As part of the restructuring, GM

dissolved its group system including Buick

Oldsmobile Cadillac. Now

engineering and manufacturing for all

GM brands were centralized under

a single corporate office.

Oldsmobile's core problem at this point

was one of identity.

It had once thrived by offering innovation

and distinctiveness.

But without those traits it struggled

to hold on to a reason for being.

Oldsmobile cycled through six brand

managers over 13 years

each tasked with finding a new direction

and none ever finding success.

GM's increasing reliance

on platform sharing only blurred the

lines further.

By the late 80s and into the 90s

Oldsmobile's cars had become nearly

indistinguishable from their Buick,

Pontiac and Chevy siblings.

In a market that was rapidly diversifying

and shifting towards imports

the overlap made Oldsmobile feel redundant.

Models like the Achiva

launched in the early 90s were functional

but bland and did little

to revive the brand's appeal.

Did Oldsmobile make any concept cars

in that period? Because I know Cadillac was.

Oh for sure. Yeah they did

some concept cars. Remember Eddie

was Alero. Yeah.

The Olds Alero man. The Alero

was a Pontiac Grand Am

rebadged. That makes sense.

Which is like that was a good car for the time.

I love those Pontiacs.

But no it's also funny that if

like you're saying it was a

rebadged Grand Am like great.

But if you're Oldsmobile you don't want to

talk about that but it's the only way

you're going to get somebody to buy it.

Compounding problems

Oldsmobile remained primarily

a car brand throughout its history.

Unlike Chevrolet Buick or Cadillac the

brand was designed specifically for the

American middle class and American driving

conditions with an emphasis on comfort

size and highway performance that reflected

distinctly American preferences.

European and Asian consumers preferred

smaller more efficient vehicles.

The company chose to export

Chevrolet as its volume brand

and develop regional name plates like

Opel in Europe rather than expanding

existing American divisions.

As time GM began serious globalization

efforts in the 1980s and 1990s

Oldsmobile was already

struggling domestically and suffering

from an identity crisis that made

international expansion impossible.

And it doesn't have the same

kind of prestige

in the name. So like if you were to

export it you know can you imagine

someone in Spain being like

what the f**k is Oldsmobile.

I don't want to buy Newsmobile.

Currentsmobile.

The company eventually

pivoted towards marketing Oldsmobile

as a domestic alternative to Honda

of all things. It was

a risky proposition that required

turning away from the existing Olds

customer base in order to keep chasing

younger buyers. Oldsmobile changed

its entire lineup from large old-style

sedans to smaller sportier cars

and what was called the Centennial

Plan. The Aurora

introduced in 1995 represented

the division's final attempt at

invention. It featured European inspired

styling and advanced engineering.

The design was so radical that

Oldsmobile emitted traditional badges

using only a circular

A logo. Internal

discussions reportedly even considered renaming

the entire division Aurora.

But the circular A logo

was another take

on the historic

Oldsmobile logo representing

a plane or a rocket ship shooting at the sky.

I like the Aurora

honestly. The Aurora's got a 4

liter V8. I didn't realize that. There's something

so comforting about these like 90s

block cars. I know.

It looks like a Ford

contour. It's just like

familiar, you know?

It's like, oh, I'm driving home

to my

brand-new house. You know it kinda smells a little bit like cigarettes.

Yeah. When you look at it

though, you'd say

if you're trying to compete with

Honda

you're not doing it.

It's still too long.

It's a big car.

I can just see like driving

to my job at the factory

in the Midwest somewhere.

Three deep in the front.

Four in the back.

Smoking a cigarette.

Listening to AM radio.

Heading back from the bowling alley.

Yeah dude.

All bundled up in your down.

You work there, but you also play there.

So the move with the Aurora back

fired. While the Aurora helped lower

the brand's average buyer age from 60

to 49.

Average was 60?

Holy s***.

The shift came at a cost.

Older customers who had long-bought big comfortable

oldsmobiles went elsewhere

and younger buyers weren't drawn in fast enough

to replace them.

You still got the Panther platform.

You still got Grand Marquis.

Yeah.

The Lincoln town car.

So it's still happening.

In other words, not enough young

wanted an olds.

Oh, hey old.

Ding-bong. Got him.

Dealer rebellion became common

during this era of Oldsmobiles decline.

Many dealers openly criticized

GM's product decision.

Some threatened to drop the Oldsmobile franchise

entirely while others began emphasizing

used car sales and service work

over new vehicle sales.

The Aurora, you don't want that.

Come here.

I got some used cars for you.

By the time Oldsmobile became the first

American automaker to celebrate its 100th year

anniversary in 1997

it was already facing extinction.

In 2000, after years of

rumors, GM finally announced

that Oldsmobile would be phased out.

The 2004 model year would be its last.

That's still four

years after they announced it. That's crazy.

That wouldn't sell any cars.

No.

Just cut your losses there.

On April 29th, 2004,

the last Oldsmobile

and a Larrow sedan rolled off the line

in Lansing, Michigan.

The workers signed the cars before it was sent

to the RE Olds Transportation Museum.

It was essentially a rebadged Pontiac Grand

Am, a far cry from the innovations

that have once defined the Oldsmobile brand

and inspired history's

first rock and roll song.

You know that a Larrow rolled off the factory

for smelling like cigarettes?

It was smoked in from the factory.

Yeah.

Well, that's like when you get...

there's another tangent, but if you order stuff

like furniture or whatever

that is coming from Chinese factories

and you open it up, you just get a whiff

of just

cigarette.

Do they smoke while they're working?

I have a feeling.

Our Oldsmobile officially became history itself.

After 107 years in operation

the oldest surviving

American automobile brand

was no more.

In the end, maybe it's no surprise that Oldsmobile

died. The word old

was right there in the name all along.

But the real lesson might be this.

Nothing lasts forever,

especially if it stops being good.

After decades of innovation and reinvention

Oldsmobile ran out of ideas,

then ran out of time.

Still, for over a century Oldsmobile

built some of the coolest, fastest

and most influential cars in American history.

From the first mass-produced American automobile

to some rocket V8 powered muscle machines

they helped shape what cars would become.

Not bad for a legacy

of a brand that started with a 3-wheeled

steamer and a guy named

Ranny.

And there you go. That is

Oldsmobile.

I love stories like this where you're like

this is gonna be kind of a long day

and then it's actually a really good story

and you're like I didn't know that.

But it's also like

it's stuff you forgot you knew

because no one's been talking about them

for 20 years.

There's not like an Oldsmobile enthusiast group

anymore.

You think so?

Someone driving like a grey

87 cutlass that's

immaculate.

Actually now that I'm thinking about it, I really liked

my uncle's Cutlass Supreme

Yeah?

I think it was a coupe Cutlass Supreme

that came with that was the Bacon Tomato Mayo.

Oldsmobile Club of Southern California

Official.

These are some older ones.

These are like old Oldsmobile

Oldsmobile Club of

America has a

442 on the banner image nice.

There's 56,000 numbers.

What?

How many active though?

And three admins.

Those admins are working overtime.

That's sick dude.

That's awesome. Oldsmobile

Enthusiast Car Club.

14,000

There's still people that love these cars.

I'm going to eat my hat now because I was so wrong.

You better start chomping on that hat.

Good thing it's a very light hat.

Alright

that is our episode this week.

Thank you so much for listening. Follow Bart

at Bids Bartow. Follow Joe at Joe G Webber.

Follow me at Nolan J Sykes.

Follow Drew, Audrey and Edgar

behind the camera and our writer this week

Greg Nix. Next week

we've got

Reeves Callaway.

You talking about that sledgehammer?

Sledge hammer

So stick around for that one.

We'll see you then.

Thank you so much for listening. Goodbye.

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