Last Oldsmobile rolls off the line today

[civ104]

GM's beancounters killed the Olds. They took any capability to have anything like the Rocket 88 of the fifties and the 4-4-2 of the seventies away from the division probably 15 years ago. It appears it was a conscious decision on the part of GM management. With Pontiac building the more youthful and potent cars and Buick building the land yachts, who needed the Oldsmobile? Not GM's beancounters.

JMHO

[abas]

Simple marketing probably. All products/brands have a life cycle, but that life may be short or long.

Oldsmobile sounds like it has had a long product life cycle and been a great 'cash cow' that has been milked for a number of years, with minimal investment and has turned a good profit for GM in the last few years.

Once it stops making money. It gets dropped like a hot rock.

Just my thoughts

Andrew

[Zrush]

The SUV vehicles have been the down fall of the sedan type vehicle along with many other type autos (1996 Z) IMO. To me Oldsmobiles have always been stodgy, other then their late 60's & early 70's 442's and such. Even in the mid 70's olds where thought of as your "grandparents" car. The stepchildren of GM is Buick and Olds. Buick will probably be next. No great loss either. Todays trend in automobiles seems to be BIG Trucks and BIG SUVs. Has anyone seen the Chevy Kodiak Truck yet, it's massive. Almost twice the size of my Silverado Crew Cab dually with the 454 and that's big. Gas prices, what gas pricesLOL

Vicky

[Zvoiture]

Cars themselves are being 'SUV'ed' also. Have you seen the Dodge Magnum and Chrysler 300?

steve

[Zrush]

Originally posted by Zvoiture

Cars themselves are being 'SUV'ed' also. Have you seen the Dodge Magnum and Chrysler 300?

steve

The Dodge Magnum is kind of a hybrid between the SUV and a "Station Wagon", I agree. Looks OK, but I bet there aint no 440 Magnum engine under the hood Seems auto manufacturers are trying to bring back some type of "muscle car".

Maybe they can get a simular powerplant but they gotta work on the body styles IMO

Vicky

[SuDZ]

Originally posted by Zvoiture

Don't want to hijack the thread, but do you think--given global automotive trends--Chevy is regretting shutting down all their RWD plants?

I do. That is why I think the sales of trucks went up ion the last few years. They were basicaly the only RWD platform left and the only vehicles that had the V8 option other than the select few (Firebird,Camaro,Corvette). I think they finally realized that people wanted these as a more regular option they could afford. Thats why I think they are bringing the GTO over in the next year or so. I think also this is why Chevy is trying to bring back a SS label by giving cars more factory power from superchargers and turbos as well.

They saw the drop in their market and the rise in others and are trying to capture it now. Some say it might be too late but I wouldn't be so sure, they also have like 8 new models of cars/trucks/SUVS coming out in the next few years.

SuDZ

[TomoHawk]

No,Oldsmobubble aint dead....

They're just going to convert the plant to make Z cars!!

Seriously..... I bet theyre going to make hybrid cars (just not ZED hybrids:cry: )

[Zvoiture]

>>>>why I think they are bringing the GTO over in the next year or so<<<<

Already here. Have seen several--including one at the track. They sound pretty mean. Where's my Falcon?

steve

[Zrush]

I think Pontiac is going to try and "cash in" on the legendary GTO name, like Dodge is doing with the "Hemi" that's mentioned in every one of their commercials. I'm waiting for the redesigned Mustang. Suppose to have a simular version of the early GT500 type front end........we'll see.

Vicky

[sblake01]

I find that to be an interesting trend. It seems that most of the manufacturers are using names from the 50s 60s and 70s to recapture some of the glory of what had to be a most successful era for the automotive industry. GTO, Thunderbird, Magnum, Super Bee (Rumble Bee??), Impala, etc. These newer cars don't appeal to me as ones they are named after did 'back in the day.' Maybe because I grew up with them or maybe becase I'm older. I just don't think the 80s 90s and 2k cars will have the same type of appeal in 30 years.

[Zrush]

Well Stephen we know that nothing made in the 80's will even be around in 30 years. I believe the 80's to be the worst decade for automobile manufacturers. Maybe the Grand National (six banger too) or the, I can't remember the year, Monte Carlo SS (1985?). They were OKish. Seems every car that I see produced in the 80's (that's still on the road) blows white smoke.......I'm not kiddingLOL

Vicky

[seerex]

there were plenty of great cars from the 80's and 90's but they weren't american made, honda crx , mazda rx-7 , 300zx tt , supra turbo , but it seems it was also the last bit of most of these cars production run, japan also tends to mess up a good thing but generally it takes longer, 50k for a sports car is a bit much , but just my 2 copper pieces