Photos from the CC Cohort by Hyperpack (Slant Six).
Admittedly, when talking about the brand from Lansing, any title making use of the “Not your father’s Oldsmobile” campaign is pretty old-hat. But how to avoid it? Particularly in my case, with a youth spent in the ’70s and ’80s. Days when the brand was only present in my head as the car of “someone’s parent” around me. That, regardless of the nation I lived in; be it Puerto Rico, El Salvador, or the USA. And as I reached my twenties, an association even more pronounced, as no one around my age wanted anything to do with the make (being in California, not even as second-hand vehicles). By that point in the ’90s, any Olds was always someone’s parents’ car.
But before that terminal unhip-factor gripped the brand with a stronghold and sent it to its grave, Olds was on quite a roll. Particularly in the ’70s, when Olds was number three in the US, the era from which today’s find belongs; a Delta 88 in Royale garb. In Olds’ (and 1970s) scale, a car that told your neighbors you had arrived and that you enjoyed a vehicle that spoke silent luxury. An affluent possession, distinguished in a sober and not too flamboyant kind of way.
Flamboyance, in Olds-speak, belonged to the intermediate Cutlass in those days, which then reigned undisputedly supreme (no pun intended) in the marketplace. Above that line, the B-body full size Delta line stood; in ’76, the second most numerous product for the brand and quite a penny-maker. And the Royale, the line’s top trim, which can be appreciated in today’s vinyl top and neat chrome detailing.
Lacking any further badging, I assume this is a “plain” Royale, of which about 52K 4-doors sold in ’76. A more exclusive Royale town car 4-door was also available, and sold an additional 33K units. Of course, Olds was still something then, and if you wished to stay in the house of Lansing and the Royale didn’t suffice in pedigree, a Ninety-Eight C-body series was what you were looking for.
Back to this Delta. The ’76 was the last restyle of the generation that debuted in ’71. Curiously, the mid-seventies styling updates work quite fine on the model. Some of the flamboyance of the earlier ’71-’73 years seems gone by this time, but the new squared-face…
… along the more tastefully applied side sculpting fits the car’s affluent appearance well.
Admittedly, this one’s color combination speaks to those pretenses as well. The exterior gray is a hue that hints at our colorless present era, but back then, it gave an attractive modernist and restrained look.
Of course, the car’s red/brownish interior is what shows this is a seventies-mobile, and keeps the car from looking severe. Some fun was still allowed.
The kind of interior that said “father’s Oldsmobile”, particularly to my Gen-X classmates.
By the late ’70s, Olds still had prime days ahead, but regardless, some elements of the era were coming to an end. The 455CID displacement was making its last outing, and for ’77, the whole B-body line would be placed on a diet. The leaner, sheer-look-derived ’77 products brought new life to the genre, though beneath the successful launch, signs of serious distress showed up (mainly, Olds’ Diesel troubles).
It’s been over 20 years since the last Olds came out of the assembly line, so I would think the “father’s Oldsmobile” era is fading into the distance. For younger folk, if they hear about the make, it is probably in reference to their grandfather’s car. Or grandma’s. I’m sure for those younger folks it is hard to imagine, but yes, there was a time when Olds was a household name and reigned supreme. Or Royale, in this case.
Found in Pearson Automotive, North Huntington, PA.
Related CC reading:
Curbside Classic: 1973 Oldsmobile Delta 88 – GM’s Deadly Sin #15 – GM Discovers Rubbermaid
Curbside Classic: 1971 Oldsmobile Delta Royale – Getting Warmer
Curbside Classic: 1972 Delta 88 Royale Convertible – Practical Impracticality
CC Capsule: 1976 Oldsmobile Delta 88 Royale – The Greater Brougham Land Whale Faces Extinction
GM shot themselves in the foot when they standardized their engines and transmissions. Back in the 90s I was getting 4 car magazines and they would test 2 GM cars against some imports. The GM cars had the same engine and transmission so the only difference was the looks of each. Of course the imports always won out as being the better car. Evidently the magazines were owned by the same company and they passed the same car around. Now I get my car reviews from utube videos and GM doesn’t make cars just trucks and SUVs.
The whole GM engine fiasco was in my opinion totally overblown. Coming from a garage background, I can safely say the average motorist had no idea what engine was in their car and didn’t even care. The lawsuit was something dreamed up by suits to make them money, as the actual compensation for those “wronged” was a pittance. A SBC 350 didn’t feel all that different from and Olds 350 and the average motorist wouldn’t care much.
In Canada, GM had shared engines for decades and nobody cared. I guess were were more used it it.
Ford and Chrysler always shared engines among their respective divisions and nobody said a thing about it.
Given how much GM played up the uniqueness and advantages of each of their division’s engines in the their marketing, especially so from the 1930’s through 1960’s, GM was asking for a lawsuit.
Exactly. Whether or not it really matters in driving experience for the masses doesn’t really matter, anybody even if it is an insignificant fraction of buyers who did in fact buy a car thinking it had something it actually did not had every right to file a lawsuit about the deception.
In the movie “8 Mile” the character “Jimmy” (Eminem) drove a ’76 Delta 88 four door hardtop. His mom gave it to him.
We rarely see anything that big and GM around here out in the open any more. Just All of the Gigantic Trucks and Stuff at Car shows. This is an Honest car, I saw it first in Irwin, PA one rainy Sunday morning at the laundromat. At that moment I had no time to shoot pictures. I hope Pearson Automotive can get it up and running again!
Those red velour seats look way more comfortable than the black plastic threaded seats in my RAV4.