With its two-tone pastel purple paint and abundant chrome “icing,” this 1958 Oldsmobile Fiesta four-door hardtop station wagon looks like something you’d see in a bakery window. However, it didn’t sell well, hampered by high prices and only modest practicality compared to the cheaper, more useful, surprisingly upscale Ford Country Squire wagon.
Late ’50s cars are often noted for their cheerful colors, but this two-tone Heather and Victorian White Oldsmobile is positively confectionary. It looks like something Buddy and the guys on Cake Boss (does anyone remember Cake Boss on TLC?) would try to build out of fondant and buttercream, inevitably followed by herniating themselves trying to move it down the stairs. Amazingly, this Dynamic 88 Fiesta was the LESS ornate of the two 1958 Fiesta trim series. There was also a Super 88 version with even more glitz for $228 more.
When people see these colorful ’50s wagons, someone inevitably laments, “Why can’t we have anything like this today?” These Oldsmobile station wagons weren’t a common sight even when they were brand-new: Total Olds wagon production for 1958 was only 11,747, including 3,249 of the somewhat cheaper pillared Fiesta Sedan (which was also a wagon, but not a hardtop). That was a drop in the bucket for the era — 1958 domestic factory sales of new station wagons totaled more than 672,000, a market share of better than 15 percent.
Why wasn’t the Fiesta more popular? Price undoubtedly had a lot to do with it: The Dynamic 88 Fiesta started at $3,395, and this particular wagon — which has Hydra-Matic, power steering, heater, radio, and other accessories, but not A/C — stickered for over $4,100 (a relative worth of around $62,000 today). That was a no small amount of money in 1958, which was a recessionary year.
For comparison, a 1958 Ford Country Squire started at just $2,876, although this air conditioned example would have been more in the realm of $3,800 (a relative worth of around $57,500 today), also not cheap.
Despite its size — 208.2 inches long and 78.8 inches wide on a 122.5-inch wheelbase — the Fiesta was not that commodious as wagons went. Oldsmobile rated its maximum cargo capacity at an unimpressive 64 cu. ft. The cheaper Ford station wagons, which were 5.5 inches shorter on the outside, boasted up to 78 cu. ft. of space inside.
The Mecum listing for the Heather-and-white Olds didn’t include any shots of the cargo area, so I found a black 1958 Dynamic 88 Fiesta with the same interior trim. According to the specifications, the Olds measured 84 inches from the back of the front seat to the bottom of the closed tailgate, 2.4 inches shorter than the smaller Ford. Obviously, packaging efficiency had been sacrificed for style and production expediency.
Although the Ford had more usable space with the rear seats folded, neither of these wagons could take a 4×8 sheet of plywood lying flat. The distance between the wheelhouses was 42.0 inches for the Ford, 43.4 inches for the Oldsmobile.
Like most station wagons, the Fiesta came with a folding rear seat. For a little extra, you could order a divided version that let you fold down part of the seat back while still leaving space for a rear passenger. However, Oldsmobile didn’t offer a nine-passenger version of any of its 1958 Fiesta wagons.
The Country Squire was offered only in nine-passenger form in 1958, and there was also a nine-passenger version of the cheaper Country Sedan. Although many Ford wagon buyers preferred the less-expensive six-passenger models, production of the nine-passenger models totaled 35,722 in 1958, about three times the total of all 1958 Oldsmobile station wagons.
Of course, the Fiesta offered a posher interior than the Ford, with nicer trim and a snazzier dashboard.
However, the Country Sedan was none too shabby in those respects.
The Fiesta also tended to be better-equipped than the average ’58 Ford. Nearly all 1958 Oldsmobiles (98.9 percent) had Hydra-Matic, 85.9 percent had power steering, and 86.6 percent had power brakes. (Incidentally, the above instrument panel shot is of the black Fiesta, which has air conditioning; only 12.5 percent of 1958 Oldsmobiles were built with factory air, and the Heather wagon doesn’t have it.)
You could get automatic transmission and most of the same power options on a Ford wagon, although they were significantly less common. For instance, only 27.5 percent of 1958 Fords had power steering and just 8.4 percent had power brakes.
Oldsmobile’s famed Rocket V-8 was 371 cid this year, making 265 hp with a two-barrel carburetor or 305 hp with a four-barrel. In the lighter sedans and hardtops, even the two-barrel engine provided very satisfactory performance: 0 to 60 mph in around 10 seconds. The Fiesta hardtop wagon was 313 lb heavier than a Dynamic 88 four-door sedan (remember what I said about buttercream?), but it still had more than adequate power. Fuel consumption was heavy, of course, and all 1958 Olds engines needed premium gasoline.
The 1958 Ford wagons were newly available with the FE-series 332 and 352 cid V-8s, offering up to 300 hp in Interceptor 352 Special form. This was also the first year for 3-speed Cruise-O-Matic, which offered the option to start in 2nd gear for better traction on on slippery roads. A Ford with the new transmission and 352 wasn’t any quicker than a Dynamic 88 with Hydra-Matic, but that was due mostly to the economy-oriented 2.69 axle ratio (the Olds used a 3.07 axle).
You could tell that station wagons were really just a sideline for Oldsmobile. They had only gotten back into this market in 1957, mostly because everyone else was doing it, and Olds (and Buick) outsourced their wagon production to Ionia Manufacturing, which was cheaper from a tooling investment standpoint than having the wagons built by GM’s Fisher Body Division. That clearly didn’t make the Fiesta wagons cheaper to buy; even the pillared Fiesta Sedan started at $3,284.
Usually, the big reason to buy an Oldsmobile rather than a Chevrolet or Ford was prestige. However, older Ford woodie station wagons had been embraced by the rich and famous long before station wagons became popular for family duty in the ’50s. Like the Thunderbird, the Country Squire managed to attract buyers who wouldn’t otherwise consider a mere Ford, and it was not at all uncommon to see a Country Squire in driveways where one might otherwise expect to see an Oldsmobile or a Buick. That it was also a better wagon than the Fiesta or similar Buick Caballero wagon surely didn’t hurt.
Ford didn’t sell a huge number of these fancier wagons — 1958 Country Squire production totaled 15,020 units — but those were in addition to the 169,593 cheaper Ranch Wagons and Country Sedans built this year. Country Squire production would really take off in the 1960s, building on the foundation laid by these wagons.
As for the Olds, this Fiesta wagon’s rarity and hardtop body style make it a little more interesting, and it remains a delight to look at, but as a practical proposition, it was not unlike the fancy art cake it so resembles: lots of frosting, but not enough nutritional value for the price.
Related Reading
All Those Glamorous Four-Door Hardtops – Hardtop Station Wagons Of The 1950s (by Rich Baron)
1958 Oldsmobile Dynamic 88: So Much Incredible Styling All In One Car! (by Stephen Pellegrino)
1958 Oldsmobile Dynamic 88 – OLDSmobility In The Rocket Age (by J P Cavanaugh)
Curbside Classic: 1958 Oldsmobile Dynamic Eighty Eight – In Defense of The Baroque Beast (by Laurence Jones)
How Postwar Ford Station Wagons Went From Real Woodies To Woodgrain Country Squires (by me)
Fabulous Fiesta. It needs to be staged in front of an equally fabulous mid-century modern home from the pages of a late-1950s issue of Sunset or House & Garden.
I remember Cake Boss 🙂
I find a distinct disparity between the sleek and minimalist mid-century houses and these gingerbread cars of the late ’50s. The whole point of the (proper) mid-century modern house (and interior) was to get away from all the unnecessary fillips and trim and decoration and such that had characterized earlier architectural styles. Meanwhile, American cars were going the exact opposite direction at the time, slathered with unnecessary fins, trim and chrome. Rightfully, they are more Victorian/Queen Anne than mid-century modern.
I could see a 1960 Corvair in front of a mid-century modern house.
If we hold to the 50’s this car works better than the Olds. The 61s LC’s are even more MCM, inside (that dash!) and out.
Interesting that the otherwise well optioned Olds Fiesta didn’t have the deluxe steering wheel. Kinda like a neighbor who special ordered a 1963 Dynamic 88 that came in with the cheapo steering wheel. He had no idea that there was a deluxe wheel available.
It’s always enjoyable to see a nicely restored 1958 GM automobile. As a kid growing up in the rust belt these cars led a remarkably short life. I only recall them as ‘beaters’.
Because of all the perforations in the sheet metal required to attach all the trim, rust spots and stains would develop every foot or so. Soon the retainer clips would rust away and the trim would fall off, adding to the neglected look.
Bumpers would have rusted through, exhausts would be blowing, wheel covers missing, interior upholstery shredded, and so forth.
Between the out of date styling and high body maintenance costs, I don’t remember seeing these cars
much past 1964 !!
Same here. These all aged terribly, especially the ’58s. The combination of the rust and excessive ornamentation made for a really bad look. I suspect their resale values were in the toilet too.
My dad’s 1970 Pontiac, bought in 1971, was a total rust bucket by 1976. The “magic mirror” paint was all chalky. It lived in Quebec, where millions of tonnes of road salt is dumped on the roads. every winter.
I live in Vancouver BC, where very little road salt is used. My 2018 model car doesn’t have a speck of rust on it.
I have always wondered about an alternative universe where Ford used the Fairlane 500 as the basis for the wagon, with its thin, bright metal-trimmed greenhouse. The 59 wagons did follow this plan, and they were both popular and good looking.
I would happily adopt either of these.
No power brakes (and drums at that) when fully-loaded for family vacation sounds exciting when descending the Continental Divide or Calif. or Colorado mountain roads. And add a trailer for even more excitement.
Power is unnecessary with drum brakes the way they are designed. I hated them for the “touchy” feel. It does nothing to prevent fade in the mountains. You had better have separate trailer brakes, required in CA above 1500lbs.
If you showed up at your local watering hole in 1958 in either of these I think your friends would laugh you out of the place. “ hey Bob did you let your wife pick that color?”
I’m sorry, did you say 64 cubic feet of storage space? With the 2nd row folded down? Where did all the space go? I used to drive Volvo 245s, which are clearly much smaller than this Oldsmobile externally, and those claimed 67 cu. ft. of storage space with the 2nd row folded.
Personally (everyone is entitled to an opinion), I thought the 1958 Olds were ugly and over-ornamented when new, and still do. Maybe that had some bearing in the weak sales.
GM was apparently on a “pile on the ornate” kick to justify higher priced cars in 1958. Chevrolet and Pontiac were relatively conservative; Olds and Buick went off the deep end.
How many little chrome squares were in the grill of a 1958 Buick?
The 1958 Fords with their monkey-like overbite, the opposite of the 1957s, were no beauties, but were better.
There was a recession during 1958 that hurt car sales. The medium-price marques were hit the hardest.
Interestingly, Oldsmobile fared better than its direct competitors. It had managed to avoid the build quality and reliability issues that other medium-price marques experienced during the 1955-57 timeframe.
Nice rigs
Lots of cars in the ’40s and ’50s had frowning grilles, but the 1958 Oldsmobile looks like it has a bad back AND its dog died. Sheesh!
That 58 Olds wagon looks like a real beast. Any idea what it weighed?
I’d guess 4,500 to 5,000 lbs.
Assuming it has power brakes (not clear from the listing or the photos, but statistically likely), its curb weight with this equipment would be about 4,675 lb. Air conditioning, which the Heather-and-white Fiesta doesn’t have, would add another 134 lb.
Man, that Olds is ugly! I’ll take the Ford. That said, that all rubber fuel line and cheap, cheap fuel filter has to go NOW. A car fire waiting to happen. Anyone who uses that type of fuel filter on anything above a garden tractor should be shot, hung, and drowned. And not necessarily in that order. Don’t ask me how I really feel about those filters. I have even found them on inboard marine engines!!!
Harley Earl’s mantra at the time for ornamentation was: “Go all the way, then back off!”. Sometimes they forgot to back off.
Love the Heather, and if I’d finished restoration of my ’58 Dynamic 88 sedan it would have been this color, a perfect match for it’s over-the-top design and exactly why I love them, a crazy period of extravagance we’ll never see again.
These ’58 Olds and Buick wagons had very little cargo area due to their unusually high deck floors. As a child riding back there it was very cramped and claustrophobic. That must be where I got my claustrophobia. My Dad’s ’56 Bel Air wagon was much more space efficient, dimensionally more like the Ford here. His ’58 Estate Wagon may have been available in pastel colors- Buick offered turquoise for sure- but he ordered the car in a conservative two-tone gray and white combo. Gray on the bottom helped to mute the chromed-up side trim. The not so conservative interior was red with white accents, fairly common for Buicks of this period.
That Heather paint job is quite the color! I might like it with a white roof (for about a month or so) on my modern car.
As Paul noted, this ’58 Olds should be featured in front of a Victorian or Queen Anne style house, maybe with matching wisteria growing on a front porch trellis.
Maybe the design of the late ’50’s over decorated cars was a revolt against the concept of Mid Century Modernism. Some of the buying public still wanted their Gorp, and if home designers and others thought that it was passe, they’d get it in their cars! I really like this era of Country Squires. I bought what I consider to be it’s modern equivalent, the Ford Flex. Mine is kind of plain looking, black over silver, but the early models, with the blue body and white tops are really retro looking.
“Like the Thunderbird, the Country Squire managed to attract buyers who wouldn’t otherwise consider a mere Ford…” Honda pulled off this same trick with the Accord. It had the cachet of a much higher priced car. Chevrolet had moved in this direction with the ’59 Impala. Then with the Caprice. Not coming out with an H-body Chevrolet turned out to be a key mistake. An H-body Caprice could have gone toe to toe with (an ever larger) Accord. The Lumina- supposedly an Accord fighter- generated all of the cachet of a rental car. There was no recovery for Chevrolet after that.
learned on the 126 wheelbase mercury colony park. 3rd seat faced forward, Buick faced to the rear which Dad did not like. the merc was stunning, black woody on red.
An observation on the obscure. I believe the Olds & Ford were the only two 1958 autos to share a similarly curved speedo layout. The Ford carried over from 1957. Olds copying Ford?
Ford was always America’s Wagonmaster! GM made beautiful and clean innovative s dans however the Ford Country Squire reigns supreme! In the 1970’s they offered the three way magic lift gate, ! The rear seats in the third compartment actually faced each other! GM had its nifty clamshell tailgate and olds offered the vista cruiser, but Ford always understood the needs of wagon buyers!
It wasnt until the 1965 that full size wagons could swallow a four foot wide load flat inside. Our 1959 Chevy was wide outside, but not inside. The ’65 had wider track, trimmer doors, more space efficient.
In spite of how porky it looks I like this whale .
These were used car lot poison almost from the jump .
-Nate