(first posted 7/19/2012) Nineteen seventy-six brings varied images to mind. It saw the election of Jimmy Carter and the founding of Apple Computer. It also saw the last 455 cu in (7.4-liter) V8-powered Oldsmobile 98.
By 1987, disco was dead, Reagan was in his second term, and Oldsmobile was in the third model year of a front-drive Ninety-Eight. It was also the year Orville built a house for his wife, Irene.
Perhaps you are wondering what correlation exists between Orville building a house and an Olds 98. Well, here’s the connection…
Orville had just turned 80 when he decided to build Irene a new house. Living near the Mississippi River, they were tired of being flooded out every other year. So Orville looked around town and found three acres of land for sale directly in front of my parents’ house. I have never understood why the builder of my parents’ house built it at the front of seven acres and why Orville decided to build his at the rear of his three acres. In any case, the two houses were quite close in proximity.
One day, soon after school let out, I heard some commotion in the front yard. Here came Orville in his ’76 Oldsmobile 98, which was pulling a trailer with a bobcat. He unloaded the bobcat and started to level a place for his house.
He would continue to haul a trailer with various supplies every day or two throughout the summer, always pulling it in the pillow-topped comfort of his Olds 98. Rarely did he have a light load, and the nearest lumber yard was more than 12 miles away. Orville also had a 1969 Ninety-Eight that he didn’t drive very much.
If you’re a bit skeptical about an 80-year-old man being so physically capable, it’s sad that you didn’t know Orville. He, like his Olds 98, was the last of a breed. He had owned, amongst other things, the tavern in the small of town of 450 souls where I grew up. Orville didn’t suffer fools. Legend had it that Orville was in the bar one night when a couple of rowdy young men came in from out of town. They proceeded to make a ruckus, and Orville politely asked them to leave. They didn’t. Orville gave them one last chance. They refused. Orville then proceeded to use his bare fists on both of them and then picked them up, carried them outside and dumped them onto the street. He did this at the tender age of 67.
Orville’s Oldsmobile was likely the last Oldsmobile 98 that could effortlessly accomplish the task of pulling all the equipment and materials needed to build a house–not to mention all of Orville’s and Irene’s furniture and belongings–up the 7% grade of 1/4 mile length required to get to their new house. Try doing any of that in a 1985 Oldsmobile 98.
One day as I was out mowing the yard, Orville was taking a break. I stopped to talk with him, and I inquired why the hood was up on his Oldsmobile.
“It needs a bit of oil. The old thing has about 150,000 miles on it, so she’s entitled to use a little.”
I asked him when he bought the car, and also asked about his ’69 model.
“This ’76 model I bought when it was about a year old. Irene and I had just gotten married. Only thing I don’t like is the color – black, inside and out. Hotter than hell this time of year, so I’m having to run the air full-blast going to and from the lumber yard. I don’t think Irene likes the ’69 much, although it will run circles around this one, even with the same engine. The ’69 I bought new and it has fewer miles than this one. I’m thinking part of Irene’s not liking it is because my ex-wife has driven it.”
I pulled out one of my dad’s Motor repair manuals and learned Orville’s ’76 Olds was rated at 190 net horsepower, whereas his ’69 model was rated at 365 gross horsepower. Orville’s claim surely made sense.
Orville continued.
“Irene wanted a house close to town. I wanted to be out where the chickens look like the hoot-owls. She refused, saying she wanted to be close to a hospital since she says I’m getting old. Hell, we’re still 15 miles from a hospital. Oh, well, this gives me something to do. It’s been working the Oldsmobile pretty good, but it does it without a whimper. With a car like this, who needs a pickup?”
Interesting point. Back then, most cars were capable of pulling a lot and few people had pickups. Nowadays, most cars aren’t rated for pulling much and nearly everyone has a pickup. One can’t help but wonder if there is a connection.
Orville did get his house finished late in the summer. He got Irene and their belongings into the house. The next summer Orville was outside with Irene’s grandkids everyday. One day, after the five-year-old had built a mountain of rock on the Oldsmobile’s trunk lid, I learned how well Orville could yell, along with the scope and grasp of his vocabulary.
Incidentally, Irene was 20 years younger than Orville. She was short, with pendulous bosoms that rested on her belt line, and always wore tank tops. Orville was an amazing guy.
And Orville’s Oldsmobile was an amazing machine. By 1976, this generation of Oldsmobile 98 had had a natural lifespan (in automotive terms) since being introduced on September 29, 1970. Its lifespan spanned the implementation of five-mph bumpers and the increasing influence of the EPA. GM’s approaching downsizings, in 1977 and 1985, should have been expected even if not welcomed.
Today, versatility sells SUVs and CUVs. Still, one could argue that cars like the ’76 Olds 98 were equally versatile and capable–maybe even more so, as Orville demonstrated. The 1976 Oldsmobile 98 truly was the end of a breed.
My dad drove a ’74 Regency in the early-mid 1980s, 455 and all. This was a bit before I was born so I’ve only heard of it in stories. With his ski equipment strapped to the roof, he claims could almost literally watch the gas gauge plummet as he drove – he only measured the fuel economy once and never dared to again.
7.6 miles per gallon.
My mom’s car at the time was a 1972 Super Beetle, so they made for a nice contrasting pair.
Yep, I remember the onslaught of EPA requirements on engines back then. My folks had a 1975 Lincoln Town Car and 11mpg was average for mixed suburb and highway driving.
Being the teenager that I was, I convinced my Dad to let me “fix” those EPA-imposed burdens on the car. I got it up to 13mpg after gutting the cat converter, removing the smog pump, disconnecting the EGR, and connecting the ported vacuum straight to the vacuum advance on the distributor. The last act of rebellion was to remove the fuel neck restrictor so we could put regular leaded gas in.
And of course the “test pipe” used to replace the catalytic converter “to see if it was plugged.” There was a lot of ADD in those days, because almost every buyer of a test pipe got interrupted during the test and forgot to reinstall the converter.
A great writeup, Jack. I remember these vividly. Both your pictures and your story have me hearing that fat, muscular sound that came out of the exhaust of Oldsmobiles in those years. Olds, Buick, Cadillac, mechanically you could not go wrong with one of these big C bodies.
I have mixed feelings on the styling. I prefer the 71-72 models, mainily for the greenhouse. Once these got the revised roofs with the opera window, I did not like them as well. I will say that the tail treatment was very nice.
As much as I hate the cheap-feeling bodies on these, they may have been the most trouble-free of all mid 70s big cars.
I remember when cars like that were nearly always the choice of people pulling airstream trailers.
Fantastic! What a great start to my or anyone else’s day.
I got a kick out of the part not wanting to live too far from a hospital! Wifey and I had that exact conversation when in our twenties about where I’d/she’s like to live: country for me, ‘burbs for her…go figure – here we are!
You don’t EVEN want to get me started ranting about disco…ugly memories, all.
Yes, Orville was indeed last of a breed. Someone pulls that stuff about kicking a couple of guys out of a bar nowadays and you’d better watch your back, lest they come back and gun you down.
1976…hmmm…lots going on in my life at that time. Work, dating, eventual engagement, a last “blue highway” trip around Missouri with a buddy, using my 1976 Chevy truck as our sleeping quarters and other stuff I mercifully won’t write here.
The huge Olds? Very nice and all. True, those big hogs did have their virtues, but not for me – even if it was a gen-u-ine hardtop!
Re: “those big hogs”, you talkin bout the Olds……or Irene?
Love these old-timer stories!
And man, those ’76 ads are weird. “I’m a politician. My job is really hard, but at least I get to cruise in gas-guzzling comfort at your expense.”
Might as well call it the Watergate Regency.
Trying to remember the last time a politician (even an unidentified one) was used in an ad as someone we could identify with (well, Bob Dole’s ED ads, I guess). You’d never see a pol as an “everydriver” now.
Ha, I remember those Bob ads.
The Olds pics look to have been shot in Chicago or NYC. Because those were paragons of good government in the ’70s…?
Long gone are the days when a Richard Nixon could arrive in D.C. in 1947 in a used pre-war Chevy to be sworn in as a new congressman, or when Harry and Bess Truman could LEAVE D.C. in a new Dodge he had purchased for their trip back home to Missouri after stepping down as president
.
His last car was a ’72 Newport, in, what else, green!
It can still be seen at his house, now a museum, in Independence Missouri!
They might as well have said, “I want a big, quiet, plush car but the optics of a Caddy are all wrong.”
That actually defines the very idea of the Ninety Eight and Electra. They provided all the Cadillac comfort and feel of a Cadillac while being less “in your face”. There were many buyers of these who easily could have afforded a Caddy, but wanted less of a “rock star” image. You’d WANT your accountant to drive one. It meant he was successful, yet prudent with money. In an election year (1976), a “pol” with that image would be appealing.
Beautiful, but some reason I was never a huge fan of GM’s 1971 – 1976 full size cars.
Perhaps it’s because my father bought a new 1970 Ninety-Eight and drove it – 100% trouble-free – for seven years. If the contentious UAW strike had any effect on quality that year, you’d be hard pressed convincing me.
Our neighbors had a ’71, and my best friend in junior high’s parents had a ’76, and I always felt that these cars were bloated. No larger on the inside than my Dad’s ’70, but a bit bulbous on the outside. Also, in hindsight I now realize that the quality of interior materials went down considerably, starting with the ’71s…cracking dashes, sagging headliners and rotted plastic were all common maladies to these cars.
The UAW strike against GM didn’t start until September of 1970. More than likely, the production of 1970 models would have ended by that point.
I know, but I always wondered if morale didn’t go down in the months prior to the strike.
The strike began at 12 midnight on Sept. 15, 1970, just a couple of weeks after 1971 model production began, so it had no effect on ’70 model production. The first 1971s arrived at GM dealerships on Sept. 29, 1970 – all built before the strike shut down the Corporation. It would be mid-November before the strike was settled and production of ’71s resumed.
The prime example of a nadir of Detroit: Over-sized, overly heavy, lousy gas mileage, lousy construction quality. And you wonder about the ascendance of Mercedes-Benz? You’re looking at the reason..
Europe has never abounded with guys like Orville, I suspect, so no surprise that cars also developed differently over the years.
The lousy panel and interior fit & finish had nothing to do with durability.
As the owner of several of these I dispute your opinion of low quality. I remember a friend who visited me in his Mercedes, opened the trunk and gave me something. Handling the trunk lid, it was amazing as to how flimsy the Mercedes lid was, flopped back and forth, thin as paper. In comparison, a Olds trunk lid is built like the Hoover dam. Maybe the weight was excessive, but the quality of the American car exceeds the Mercede’s.
That’s an interesting recollection, Duane.
Now THAT is an Olds 98! The flagship of the Oldsmobile line, from a time when cars were still sold by the pound. Great story about Orville too. He reminds me of my grandad.
@Syke: The whole article discusses the virtues of this car, such as how it was over-built enough to effortlessly haul loads that would only be attempted with a pickup truck today, while the driver sits in air-conditioned comfort. In that context, your comment seems out of place to me.
When I was in the Army in the early 80’s, I was stationed in Germany for two years in the city of Ansbach, midway between Nuernberg and Stuttgart. My first sergeant brought over his silver Ninety Eight Regency, just like the featured car (but with nice, shiny paint, of course). Man, did that thing look out of place on those cobblestone streets! You gotta wonder how he made some of those tight turns in town, but I’ll bet it was great on the autobahn…
I can just imagine a Ninety-Eight barreling down the autobahn. Granted, it would probably overheat quickly while running it at 120, and no doubt the gas needle would drop at an alarming rate, but the look of sheer horror on the face of the Mercedes owner would be worth it.
Great story indeed.
Since I’ve been nuts enough to tow a Bobcat on big, double axle trailer with my 240 six F100, I know what’s involved. We’re talking about 5500-7000 lbs total to pull. I imagine that the 98 was riding a bit low in the rear, but had less trouble than my poor tortured Ford.
Double-nuts towing a huge, heavy industrial-powered air compressor on wheels like you see at construction sites behind a friend’s 1964 Chevy van using a large, heavy clevis pin (which I still have), in order to sanblast the ’57 Chevy I attempted to restore…
That was fun.
I really miss the old GM cars of the 60’s, 70’s and up to 1985. Of course, they had their down sides as everyone knows. The positives were the great ride and feel of driving a rear driven car with a massively long hood out front and the great solid feeling of weighty, thick sheet metal surrounding you.
It would be wonderful, if GM, Ford would produce them again with all the modern upgrades, including a powerful V-8 with good gas mileage comparable to the Ford F-150 of today. I am ready to bet that truck sales would decline as people would flock to a big American stylish passenger car.
Like maybe the Chrysler 300C? 🙂
Chrysler 300 C – to small for my taste
Unfortunately, we would no doubt end up with something as gimmicky as the new Camaro.
Well, i am a fan of the new Camaro and all generations of them. But, i guess GM did try them with the 95 Impala, and then of course Ford has dropped the full size Crown Victoria.
I’m hopeful that the upcoming Chevy SS (civilian equivalent to the current Caprice cop cars) will fill this niche. I expect that the styling will be cheesy and Camaro-like–apologies to those of you who like the Camaro, but I think it looks like a an angry Japanese cartoon compared to the lithe original–but at least the SS’s heart will be in the right place. (And if they get the styling right, I just might buy my first American car.)
It all depends how many people will actually buy one. I can’t see a lot of V-8 cars going out the door these days, especially since a V-8 is now totally unnecessary.
The new Chevy SS is the Holden Commodore rebadged smaller than the Caprice but with same powertrain. Fords Falcon should be made available for those so inclined but Fords retarded thinking is going to foist the unacceptable Taurus into the Falcon market again.
CAFE led to Body on Frame Trucks with V8s replacing cars with V8s.
Ironically, these barges with modern motors would burn less fuel–they would be lighter and have less frontal area.
Our comments about fuel economy and (civic) appropriateness would be moot if the General had done a good job with the diesel. Even at that time, I wouldn’t have owned one of these. The engine itself was dynamite. Knew a Navy chief that dropped one in a GMC truck with a slide in camper. He drove all the way from probably California to Panama. Before the days of the drug cartels a lot of Military families did that drive.
365 Gross HP would be maybe 250 Net HP. Shouldn’t assume the same measurements.
And, the 1977-79 Olds 98 could be had with the 403 motor with about same or more HP than the 455. Also less weight in the body to haul.
Now, just get a truck to tow. Cars should be effiicient these days.
I believe it was the 1971 model year when Detroit began using the net horsepower ratings, which were more accurate than the gross figures. It was also in 1971 that GM began lowering compression ratios in preparation for unleaded gasoline. The rest of the industry soon followed suit.
At any rate, there was a lot of fudging of horsepower figures in the 1960s. In some cases, the figures were bumped up for bragging rights. With some muscle and pony cars, however, the figures were deliberately bumped DOWN to avoid insurance surcharges.
I wouldn’t be surprised if a few of those horses contained in the total horsepower figure for the Ninety-Eight’s engines were created by the marketing, as opposed to the engineering, department.
I believe that the SAE Net numbers started for MY 1972.
You’re correct. I thought it happened the same year that GM lowered the compression ratios of its engines.
250 seems low. My `71 Cutlass with a 350-4 dyno’d 177 hp at the wheels. I don’t remember the conversion, but that would put it close to what, 230 net?
Just a comment on the 403 motor: I’ve been scanning ebay for months, on the look-out for a box B-body with anything bigger than a 350 (and NOT a Cadillac). I think they’re all gone. Sad.
Someone on a local message board was selling a ’78 Ninety Eight with the 403 a little while back. It had been converted to CNG and the seller was basically pitching it as “I’m selling a CNG conversion kit that happens to have an Oldsmobile attached to it”. I think he even offered to haul away the car if the buyer only wanted the engine, or only the CNG kit. I sent a message that I might be interested in the whole car, but never got a response… Must have been sold already. Hopefully the car didn’t end up as scrap, but there were no pictures, so maybe it was rusty or just worn out.
I learned to drive in 72 Buick Estate Wagon with a 455. 225 net hp. My Dad then bought a 78 Estate Wagon with the Olds 403. 185 net hp, but 320lb-ft of torque.
The 78 Buick was much quicker carrying almost 1000 lb less weight.
There was a 2 door one of these languishing in a driveway for like 15 years, by the time they got rid of it, it was the rustiest thing I had ever seen, all the fillers were long since rotted away and water had leaked through the dried out weatherstrip and rotted the carpet and filled it with mildew, sad sight.
After about 1965, the four-door hardtop versions of GM’s C-bodies look better balanced than the two-door versions. After a certain point in size, a vehicle just looks better as a four door.
The owner of the package (liquor) store that my father was the manager of owned a ’73 full-size Olds wagon for many years. It was dark blue w/woodgrain exterior & a baby blue interior. I remember that they used it to stock up the store when the truck drivers for the liquor distributors went on strike.
Our family had a ’71 Custom Cruiser wagon. 455 – big Quadrajet. Lumbering off the line, but once going – blast off!! When those secondaries would kick in you would be pushed back in the seat – not with the jolt of a muscle car, but much like a jetliner on a short, full throttle takeoff. And would see the gas gauge “wobble” when the secondaries would kick in. I measured the gas mileage one time driving it in town driving on an unusally hot (100F plus) day in the Bay Area: 7.9 mpg.
I for one, have been a BIG fan of Ninety-Eights. My favorite would be a ’65 98 LS. Fleetwood ammenities for far less than a Caddy.
The father of one of my best friends in high school had a 1975 Custom Cruiser. The jet plane accelleration was gone by then, but the Boeing-class fuel consumption was not. My friend (who was very careful with his money) had a 67 VW Beetle one very cold winter. About mid January, he gave up the asked for the keys to the Cruiser (which his dad did not drive everyday). Gas mileage was about 8 mpg around town, IIRC. But it had a heater and a defroster.
As the owner of a 75 Estate Wagon, I have to agree, the 747 key chain I have for mine is an homage to the fuel consumption, along with size, 10mpg is not unusual.
If this works. It should be a photo of a vintage Olds, not as old as the subject of the post.
Failed again. Can anybody explain how the upload works, and if Firefox can do it?
You’re not wrong, Walter. You’re just an asshole.
Sorry! I had to. I am able to upload via Firefox just fine. Just choose the file from your computer as you normally would.
Firefox is all I use. Just click Browse, find the picture in your PC, click it (highlight it) hit Open, and there it should be.
And the Farah picture brings me to the Ford Courier post as, at age 17, my friend Wayne and I had our parents ‘trust us’ enough for us to venture down to L.A. – by overselves – two teenagers in Ford Courier. April, 1977. I-5 down when there was hardly anything on I-5 save Harris Ranch until you got to the grapevine.
I had the Farrah ‘high-beams’ poster picture on a t-shirt. And the poster. And so did my friend Wayne. And so did every other teenage boy back then in mid-late 70s. Nice to wake up to.
Courier down I-5 and back home on 101 – 28 mpg @ 55-60mph. 4th gear screaming along at 65 mph would drop it to 25 mpg. On the Couriers then, you pulled open a knob under each side of the dash for some great ventilation. And it had wing windows too. Stayed relatively cool.
But we’re talking Olds 98 here . . . . and at that time, Pop had the ’71 Custom Cruiser. 7-13mpg. But would hold all kinds of people (i loaded it up with twelve of us once). Clamshell tailgate. Great for dates (tilt/telescope wheel although the Custom Cruiser was so cavernous, you really didn’t need to slide the wheel up and in for . . . . entertainment with the girlfriend).
That is what I did. Here, I will do it again:
The Farrah Fawcett poster was always posted to the interior of the locker door of male dorm rooms. The door could be closed as not to upset any female visitors.
New Tahoes get better mileage than most old big cars, btw.
They sure do. And, in many way the Tahoe is the true successor to this car – luxurious, powerful, comfortable, haul/tow a bunch, occupies a similar place in the status symbol hierarchy, etc.
We had a huge Oldsmobile dealership in Providence, RI that closed in the early to mid 90’s due to the owner retiring. (Which they knocked down to build an Autozone.) The owner had the exact 1976 Regency 98 4-dr., color combo and all, as the featured car, under a cloth cover with 26 miles on it. He knew my father well and I remember him showing us that car in 1987 when we almost bought a Ciera wagon. I remember that car seeming gigantic compared to the downsized Oldsmobiles of the 80’s. The owner had ordered it with every option as late in the ’76 model year as possible. He wanted one of the last full-size Oldsmobiles off the assembly line before the 1977 downsizing took place, figuring cars of that size would probably not exist any more. Well the saddest thing happened to that car. His brother somehow got hold of the car, probably part of the closing of the dealership, and started to use it as an everyday driver. To see a vintage mint condition car that was preserved for so long get beat up is so sad. I actually approached him one day when I saw him at a local CVS. He saw me looking at the car and yelled out “8 grand and its yours”. I chuckled and drove off, totally disgusted. There were scratches on it and overall you could tell he practically was living in it. The next and last time I saw the 98 was about 2 years later. The entire passenger side was side-swiped and 2 hubcaps were off as well as the fender skirts. What a horrible thing to see. I wish I wasn’t a car buff so I wouldn’t have cared so much. It wasn’t fair for that car to reach its demise the way it did.
What a horrible story! This bothers me almost as much as hearing about an animal get mistreated. The guy sounds like a jerk.
He was a real jerk. He must have gotten the car as part of the dealership’s closing; I doubt his family thought he would use it and destroy it.
I hear you, Tom. Ironically, the ’71 Custom Cruiser wagon I mention here was bought with cash and the trade in of our ’61 Pontiac Catalina Safari wagon, which, if I recall, had, I believe about 80K on the odometer. I was about 12 when my Dad made the trade. The Catalina looked very good (oddly, my father FINALLY got a radio for the Catalina the same year he traded it – a tube unit out of a junkyard ’61 Bonneville, I recall). It ran OK, although I remember my Dad taking it to this diagnostic tune up center off of Bellam Blvd. in San Rafael and the mechanic telling him “No.7 has lower compression than the rest of the cylinders.” . . . (389 2bbl, three speed Roto Hydra Matic, which, to my knowledge, my Dad never had rebuilt). He also had Michelin X whitewalls on it, not too common in the early 70s.
Anyway, the Catalina was traded for the Olds and the Catalina was bought by this hippie-type guy who washed cars at the Olds dealer (then Scripture Oldsmobile on W. Francisco in San Rafael). I believe he “lived” in the car, as a year later, I saw it parked curbside in Fairfax. It was sadly neglected, had a huge hole punched in the tailgate like he ran it into a protuding tree branch or something, and when I saw the Safari, he had a couple of German Shepherd dogs living in the car. Sans two out of four full wheel covers, white side walls ground down passengers side where he used the Michelins as curb feelers. Front bumper pushed in where he must’ve hit something. Sad to see such a nice car go to hell.
C’est la vie . . . . at least the ’55 Pontiac my Dad had went to an owner who took real good care of it as I saw it three years later after my Dad traded it going down Irwin Street (San Rafael). As a kid, I had a photographic eye for cars and both Pontiacs, when switched over from the Black on Yellow to Yellow on Black Plates (’63) were sequential: the ’55 was DNS 447, the ’61 DNS 448. I still remember that to this day.
The ’55 was bought new at Boas Pontiac (San Francisco), the ’61 at Bianco Motors (San Rafael). Bianco’s is now Bananas At Large music (4th Street).
So Billy you know how it feels to see a car get destroyed….it sucks!!
Sad to hear, its funny that there were a bunch of the “last of the big cars” put away from the 70’s with low miles, its still not unusual to come across ads for low miles 98’s Caddy’s and 225’s, along with their running mate, the “last convertible” 76 Eldorado.
Great writeup! It feels like we’ve covered these before, but even if we have, it’s always great to visit them again. Good point about the sheer heft and pulling power of these cars, especially compared to the 1985 front-driver. I owned a ’72 98 Regency for a few years as a collector car, and thoroughly enjoyed it. I truly realized its sturdiness and power (torque) when I had it full of six people–and their luggage–for about 30 miles on the way to a caravan meeting point. The car wasn’t fazed — acceleration was unaffected, and it almost handled BETTER with that load. Too big and inefficient, yes, but smooth, quiet, comfortable, and absolutely born for the open highway.
People always say that quality took a dive on the GM big cars in ’71, but I’m not sure I agree. In addition to the ’72 Regency, I’ve owned a ’68 Electra Custom, and while it was a great car, I think the ’71s were more refined in many ways. They were the ultimate expression of big, no-compromises comfort and smoothness. The people who bought them new didn’t have to concern themselves with future disintegrating dashboards or bumper fillers. Most of them traded that ’71 on a ’74 and then on to a downsized ’77!
There has already been mention of the strange ’70s ads above (I think all advertising was a little “off” in the ’70s), but the ad that really struck me was the one for the ’69. I’m guessing it was part of a series of movie-themed ads. But the little icon in the bottom right corner is what caught my eye the most. “Oldsmobile — Now Showing YOUNGMOBILE Thinking 1969!” It’s the first I’ve heard of a “Youngmobile” ad push.
I wasn’t alive back then, but was Olds already battling an “old person” image as early as ’69? It foreshadows the “Not Your Father’s Olds” campaign that didn’t launch until almost 20 years later.
The “Youngmobile” line in the ad for the 69′ 98 kind of shows that Olds may have had an image problem in the 1960s.
It worked, since Olds went to #3 in sales and also had #1 selling car line in ’76, Cutlass.
Beautiful just beautiful. Lust does not begin to describe it.
My parents had a 75 Estate Wagon in the early 80’s. When my uncle cleared his yard my father towed the bobcat to his house for him in the Buick. The 455 did not skip a beat pulling that load.
I’ll forever associate the ’76 big Olds with the episode of Degrassi Junior High where Snake, Joey and Wheels take Snake’s parents’ ’76 Delta 88 out for a cruise a couple years before they were eligible for a license. I suspect the car was chosen for the role (iirc it was seen only in that episode) because it was entirely valueless being rusted out after 10 southern Ontario winters and big enough to accommodate all three of them in the front seat for ease of filming.
I picked one of these up cheap when I returned from Korea in early 83. The car was no longer new enough to have any resale value, but was still too new for anyone to consider it a classic. These cars were generally bought new by older people, so they were often lightly used mechanically. Mine only had 28k miles on it when I bought it, but almost every panel has some kind of minor damage. Looked like the driver parked by feel and had a very narrow garage. However, the drive train and interior were good. The car wasn’t very tight though. For some reason all these GM big cars had tinny sounding doors. Fords always seemed tighter to me. This car never matched my self image, but I needed something in a hurry to haul me and my stuff from LA to Fort Bragg and this was the best I could find in about 6 hours of looking.
I’ll probably get flamed for destroying a future CC subject car, but I have to admit beating the crap out of this car for the 6 months I owned it. I was a bit frustrated that a car with such a big engine seemed so doggy. Interestingly, the more I beat it the better it seemed to run. Almost got to be a game to see how much abuse the thing could take.
Towards the end of the summer, I heard there was a good chance my unit would deploy, so I sold to a new private for what I had paid. The deployment rumors proved true and I never saw the car again. I’m pretty sure the new owner finished it off though. If anything, he beat the car even harder than I did. Oh well.
I found the 76 Olds lineup confusing. There was the Ninety-Eight, and also the 88 Delta Royale. Both were ostensibly land yachts, the 98 bearing a closer resemblance to the Titanic than the 88. My GF’s Dad at the time had the 88, it was a beauty ride, power to spare from the 350. I guess Olds made both because they could sell them all, in sufficient numbers. Then they had the Toronado and the Cutlass, plenty of large Detroit iron for all.
I grew up with guys like Orville and miss them dearly .
.
Nice land Barge, I wouldn’t have it but glad others did and some still like them .
.
-Nate
But whatever became of Orville?
I look at those young nurses in the Olds ad, and wonder where they are now, over 40 years later.
While people used their big sedans for hauling everything, you would need to have a trailer to really get the use out of it. And a place to store the trailer when not in use. The big station wagon was the load king of the day. My Dad preferred wagons to sedans all during my youth. As American cars were downsized, the utility of the wagons diminished until the introduction of the SUV finished them off. I still like the look of a long roof, but modern ones like the Dodge Magnum, or midsize BMWs just don’t have enough load space.
That big Olds is obviously a survivor, but I always wonder why the owners of cars like this don’t get the thing repainted. It seems like false economy to hold onto a car and not do anything to slow down it’s deterioration. Of course Orville would probably say that since he wasn’t a movie, star who needed a shiny new car?
Back in the seventies, my ’66 Chevy Biscayne wagon was my hauler. Car trailer or towing with a tow bar, or engines and snowmobiles in the back, it did it all. In 1979 I bought my first pickup truck and that took over most of those duties.
Today I still have both of them (as well as an entire fleet of vehicles).
Nice to see this one come around again. My ’75, which needs to be written up, is in a similar shade of blue. That 455/THM400 combo is satisfyingly responsive. I’m sure Orville could have pulled most anything with it.
Great writeup! Lots of word pictorials to accompany the four wheel kind! I think this Ninety Eight won the longest car award elsewhere on CC. I shot one too, a ’75 methinks. Nice photographic work.
I bought an almost identical ’76 98 LS with 140k miles on it, same silver over silver with a maroon interior, for $600 in 1987. Used it as a “farm car” for my summer job (summers off from teaching) visiting farmers as an IPM consultant, which involved driving to and through fields and farm lanes to assess bugs and weeds present and make treatment recommendations. It had the torgue to plow through ruts, dirt, mud, high weeds, and do it in a/c’d comfort. I didn’t care how bad it looked, the top was full of cracks anyhow and I had bondo-ed the rusty rear 1/4s, due to the MD winter salt. Silver Rust-oleum completed the cosmetic “refreshment”. After 2 years of this abuse the THM400 gave up the ghost so sold it to an old lady who had the trans rebuilt and several years later her daughter told me her Mom just loved that car! I did too!
Leading edge front clip design, reminiscent of the ’75 Cadillac Seville. The rest of the exterior body design, looks straight from 1963.
Reminds me of a Cadillac Calais we had in the early 80s. It was a heap, and horrible in the snow, but it could pull. My uncle lost a u joint on his full size Dodge van when going up a steep hill. My dad hooked it to the Calais with a tow strap and towed it back home for him. First it just spun the tires, then he backed up and put a little slack in the strap and got it moving no problem.
The massive trunk and tail fins made it hard to back up and work on it. We had this hill that we could back up any other vehicle onto to get clearance underneath. Not the Calais. It just dug its fins into the hill. Had to find another way to do the soup can exhaust repair.
Kind of a contradiction with this story. While saying the car pulled trailers for Orville, I see no sign what so ever of any hitch on the rear of the Olds, not even a receiver hitch. Also to mention that this car does get poor fuel economy, gas during the era of this car was 50-60 cents per gallon, edging up to 75 cents.
What contradiction? This is not Orville’s car nor was such ever implied; I even stated his was black. I suppose you missed that? The time frame of the story is mid- to late 1980s, as his car would not have accumulated 150k in two or three years. Gas was not that cheap, even then.