Text by Patrick Bell.
Oldsmobile was a fine medium price car line that really hit their stride in the 1970’s with the hot selling Cutlass Supreme. Unfortunately, that all turned in the mid 1980’s, and twenty years later they closed up shop, but there was much to admire before then. Today we have some some good examples to view of their prime years, so here we go.
We begin at the top of the heap with a 1961 Ninety-Eight Sport Sedan. They offered three four door models that year; the Town Sedan which was a pillared sedan, the Sport Sedan, which was a hardtop with a wrap around back window, and the Holiday Sedan, which was a six window hardtop. Plus you could get a Holiday Coupe or convertible.
The featured car had a Washington State license plate first used in 1963 and issued in King County, the home of Seattle. It also had non original wheel covers, and the lady may have had cold feet standing in the snow without much for footwear.
Oldsmobile’s compact model debuted in 1961 as the F-85. Shown here was a 1962 F-85 4 door sedan from California. Standard power was an aluminum 215 cubic inch Rockette V8 with 155 horsepower, with a 185 hp version optional. Across the street was a 1960 Dodge Dart Seneca wagon.
A 1961 Starfire, a late year model that was available in convertible only that first year. It was marketed as a luxurious, high performance car that was loaded with standard equipment and was the most expensive Oldsmobile of the year with a base list price of $4647. The one above had an Oregon license plate and that was also the location as you can see the paper tube for the “Oregonian” newspaper.
Somebody told these folks to go fly a kite. Their apparent kite hauler was a 1962 Fiesta wagon, which was offered in the Dynamic 88 and Super 88 trim series. This one had a roof rack and perhaps a military base decal on the bumper.
The F-85 line grew up to an intermediate size with a new style in 1964, and the Cutlass continued as the senior series. Shown above was a 1964 Cutlass convertible that looked on the plain side with the standard hub caps and blackwall tires. It may have been new with a buyer’s tag in the windshield. A new 330 ci Cutlass V8 was standard, while a 225 ci Econ-O-Way V6 was standard on the F-85 models.
A man was posing with a 1965 Dynamic 88 Celebrity sedan, the most popular full size model that year. It had a 1966 Illinois license plate, which matched the others in sight and marks the location of this mobile home park.
In the background from the left was the right front corner of a black 1966 full size Pontiac, and two Dodge’s; a maroon 1965 Monaco, and a red 1961 Dart 2 door hardtop. Next in the red lineup was a 1966 Ford Fairlane GT hardtop, and a 1962 Mercury Comet 2 door sedan.
The Jetstar 88 was a low priced full size line that was offered from 1964-1966. It used a new Jetfire 330 ci V8 for power, while the other full size series retained the larger (394 in 1964, 425 in 1965 & 1966) Rocket V8’s. The concept lived on in the renamed 1967 Delmont 88.
The May 1969 image above shows a 1965 Jetstar 88 Celebrity Sedan. It was the least expensive full sizer with a base list price of $2938, which was $70.00 cheaper than the Dynamic 88 in the previous image. In the background looks like a 1964 or 1965 Ford Falcon 2 door sedan.
Here was a lady showing off while holding on to a 1968 Ninety-Eight Luxury or Town Sedan with a beat up valet license plate. Three four doors were available for this year; the Luxury and Town were pillared sedans, and the Luxury stood out for it’s nicer interior. The Holiday Sedan was a 4 door hardtop, and a Holiday Coupe and convertible were also available.
There are at least two Oldsmobile’s shown on this busy side street somewhere in California. The most obvious one was a white over green 1969 Cutlass S or Supreme 2 door hardtop in the center. Parked at the right edge was a dark 1976 or 1977 Cutlass Supreme. Second in line was a maroon 1978-1981 Chevrolet Camaro. Others include two blue Toyota pickups and a rough red Corolla. Plus a 1955 Chevrolet, two full size pickups, and an El Camino.
This was a 1969 Cutlass in the Holiday (4 door hardtop) Sedan version with a man in the driver’s seat looking this way. These were not all that good of sellers, especially when compared to the coupe models. But the comparative 4 door sedans were a little different. In the Cutlass line (as shown), the sedan handily outsold the hardtop, while the Cutlass Supreme hardtop outdid the sedan. I guess the Cutlass buyer’s were looking at price, while the Supreme buyer’s looked more at prestige.
The Toronado debuted in the 1966 model year as a front wheel drive luxury coupe. Shown above was a second generation 1972 model, which turned into the best seller of them all up to that time. It also had a Minnesota license plate that was used from 1971-1973, and was a looker in all black exterior with a brown interior.
The Cutlass Supreme Coupe was the top dog sales wise through many years of the personal luxury car era. Shown above was a 1977 Cutlass Supreme Brougham Coupe, the top of the line series. It sold very well, but the Cutlass Supreme series sold nearly double compared to the Brougham. It was optioned with the Vinyl roof, Dual Sport Mirrors, Simulated Wire Wheel Covers, and had a Georgia license plate that was issued in Putnam County, located in the central part of the state.
This is a good illustration of what was going on during the late 1970’s in the U.S., the imported cars were pushing the big and heavy American cars off the driveway. The gas crises hit the Toronado and its kind hard. The 1973 sales year was the best ever for the Toronado with nearly 56,000 units out the door. After that only one year broke 30,000 until the 1979 restyle, which barely hit the 50,000 mark.
Shown in a 1978 image above was a dirty 1978 Toronado Brougham, the last year of the second generation. The Volkswagen Type 1 looks like a 1973 model.
Our final shot today was a 1979 Cutlass coupe, the best selling single model Oldsmobile that year, and many other years as well. They were downsized in 1978, and these were carried over with some minor trim updates. New to the engine lineup was a 4.3L Diesel V8, which was an attractive option to many for a couple of years when they began to fail. This one was a low option car, as only the Super Stock Wheels were visible. It was clean and had no license plate, so perhaps it was someone’s new car. To the left was the right rear corner of a 1973-1978 Ford Country Squire.
Thanks for joining us and have a great day!
Great Olds pics! In photo #9 can’t help but notice the steep slopes on either side of this street. The Corolla and the featured white over green Cutlass S Supreme look like they are ready to or already have slid apart, and the Camaro looks like it is struggling to get back up the slope.
We had a 76 cutlass brom..one of the best cars my dad ever bought..rj
I miss these full size American Land Yachts .
-Nate
That light blue “77 Cutlass Supreme looks very good to me.I know everyone likes to crack on the way US cars “were” built back in the day……Well this Cutlass was supposedly built during the timeframe where every UAW built car was “junk” according to every restoration shop in existence.
The door gaps look good to me….So does the trunk lid…..The molding on the doors and front fender line up…The fenders themselves line up perfectly….The chrome bumpers are straight as an arrow…..The vinyl top looks perfect…The paint looks fine….So where are all the bad things that all of these cars supposedly had wrong with them?
All of the Big 3 had inspectors who would look out for the stuff that I just mentioned….If something was found out of spec the car was deadlined and it was fixed…..To hear people talk cars were built back in the day with doors that wouldn’t shut and trunk lids that were so off location that they wouldn’t open or close…And they always had bad paint according to these experts.
Lots of restoration shops will always say “That’s how they built them.” after restoring an old car with lots of the above defects in them…..Those defects are in them because the restoration shop put them all in there due to their limited abilities of restoring a car……I’ve seen many a “restored” car and the hood would not fit after the restoration was completed.It fit fine before the restoration but after it was removed by the restoration shop it suddenly does not fit…..Yet the shops always say “That’s how they were built.”
These restoration shops are like hedgefund groups.They take your money and give you nothing in return.90% of them should be run out of business.A bodyshop is only good for fixing a fender bender…Then when you get your car fixed you quickly sell it off before the paint fades.
The one photo with the Olds having a military tab, looks like an unused part of an Army base as those “Camp Swampy” style buildings were built during WWII during the surge to house trainees at the various basic training bases or camps. The last surviving one at Lackland AFB was torn down about 10 or so years ago, having been empty for years.
Google doesn’t seem to know what a valet license plate is! Any more info?
That particular license plate type is actually a bit complicated – it’s a New Jersey “Courtesy Plate.” They’re issued at the authorization of State Senators, usually as political favors, but also by request.
Courtesy plates typically consist of three letters followed by one or two numbers. The first letter is a County Code – “E” in this case stands for Essex County. The next two letters and the numbers can be requested by the vehicle owner, but frequently they’re the owner’s initials.
In this vehicle’s case, the owner probably had the initials AF, and it was the 4th AF Courtesy plate issued in Essex County. Courtesy Plates aren’t extremely expensive ($50 now… I think they cost $10 in the 1960s), but I guess the appeal is that it shows the driver is likely politically connected.
Thanks! That’s a whole lot weirder than I expected!! I thought maybe they were related to livery services somehow.
That Courtesy Plate is a new one on me as well. Thanks for filling us in, Eric!
I actually meant to say “vanity” plate, not “valet” plate. I am sorry for any confusion. That was my thought with what I could see, which did not include the details well enough to ID it as a New Jersey plate.
Re: the last photo with the ’79 Cutlass with no front license plate–the absence of a front plate doesn’t necessarily mean the car is new. It could mean the car is titled in one of the States that doesn’t use front plates. Kansas, Mississippi, and North Carolina are examples of states that don’t have front license plates.
Those wheel covers in first picture are an after market “air flow” type sold by J c Whitney and others. They were designed to direct cooling air on the brake drums and left and right sides were different shapes. Some manufacturers (Studebaker) offered them as accessories
Like the mobile home park pic. Wish there were some one could live in now adays that weren’t drug havens,
“Not you father’s Oldsmobile” In my family it was only my grandparents that I know owned an Oldsmobile, otherwise it was Buick and Cadillac among the older generation, my parents and their contemporaries had imports, or humbler vehicles like AMC or Chevrolet.
I prefer the cleaner mid 60s cars and the rectilinear 79. Those downsized G bodies were a fixture of my youth, and lot were Cutlass Supremes like that
I was looking for a pic of a 72 Olds Cutless Supreme. My favorite car. I owned one in 74, best car ever!!!!!
Ah, the sea in which I swam in my first two decades of life!
I had a ’65 Olds F-85
Went cross country (Chicago to Sacramento)
FOUR TIMES IN THE 70’s!
330 cubic inch V8
Loved my F-85!
About when/what model year did Oldsmobile finally correct the scary, fade-prone braking problems with their cars?
Buick always had much better brakes in the 1960’s than Olds did.
My first car, 1963 Olds Dynamic 88