Why did Oldsmobile die?

I don't understand why GM is pulling the plug on Olds?

Reply to
Todd Bandrowsky
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General Motors President Rick Wagoner announced that the Oldsmobile Division will be phased out, despite major investments over the past few years that resulted in critically acclaimed new Oldsmobile products. In the announcement he confirmed that the division was still unprofitable and its sales volume continued to erode.

"We stretched to find profitable ways to further strengthen the Oldsmobile product line, including developing products with our global alliance partners, but in the current environment, there was no workable solution," said Wagoner.

Wagoner added this has been a very difficult and painful decision because of the history of the Oldsmobile division. "It is the oldest automotive brand in America with a history that is rich with innovation and success stories, including dozens of legendary cars, and over the years it was one of the jewels in the General Motors? crown," he said.

"In recent years, we have made major investments in new products for Oldsmobile ? significant capital and engineering resources ? in an effort to re-position Oldsmobile in the market," Wagoner said. "Even with the introduction of several great new products, the brand's sales and profit performance remain under pressure."

Reply to
Dan--

Its an old fogie's car. Buick and Caddy more than satisfy that market.

Reply to
Dennis Smith

Simple. Too much car production capacity in the US market chasing too little sales resulting in too little profit, as the US market shifts to larger safer truck based vehicles. GM is just starting to follow the rest of the market into mid size and large RWD cars as well.

mike hunt

Todd Bandrowsky wrote:

Reply to
MelvinGibson

Dennis Smith wrote ; Its an old fogies car....

I will wait patiently till Dennis Smith reaches his olden years and I look forward to dancing with the devil on a moonlit night outside of Smiths bedroom window at the nursing home where he will reside at. The devil & I will make so much noise that Smith won't be able to sleep nights.

Smith will also be awakend many nights by the sounds of the Ghosts Of Oldsmobiles crusing up & down Main Street. The ghosts will be made up of Ram Aired 442's, The high 500 ft lbs of torque from a 455 V8 1966 FRONT WHEEL DRIVE Toronado, The ever potent Star Fire and Jet Fire will also cruise on by with tires screeching! Even some rare 455 V8 Delmont

88's will lay rubber so Dennis can't sleep. Some of the early Rocket 88's from the 50's will be in the parade of cars along with the big Ninety Eight's that smith refers to as old fogies cars.

Lastly a brown 2dr - 1978 Holiday 88 driven by an old man with a white beard will drive by slowly, laughing, laying on the horn. BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP ! An Old Fogies car - indeed !

H
Reply to
Harry Face

And Buick isn't an old fogie's car?

I've always associated Buick with the geriatric crowd.

Reply to
Brad Clarke

Reply to
stuart8181

Neither can I but I have my own opinions on the matter.

Main cause is the collapse of the sales. So why did the sales collapse? When riding high at the mid 80's engineers at the Oldsmobile forgot to look outside where the world was turning. Cutlass Ciera was probably the only successful FWD olds of the 80's as the 88/98/Toronado FWD models were a bit of a joke. Most of the Oldsmobiles didn't have an Oldsmobile engine. After energy crisis the diesel powered cars had increasing sales but Oldsmobile went to build the worst diesel engine ever. They got their diesel corrected at 1981 but it was way too late. All the real olds power and street racing spirit died '87 as the last of the RWD 442's rolled out. The last of the RWD was the '92 Custom Cruiser which itself was a dinosaur to live over two decades almost unchanged.

So it was the 90's and what had the mighty Oldsmobile to offer to eager paying customers? Two million different version of Cutlass, the horrific Cutlass Cruiser, Toronado Trofeo, Silhouette, Bravada, Intrigue, 88, 98, LSS, Alero, Achieva etc. What really was the main difference on these more or less Buick V6-based cars? The only Car was the Cutlass Supreme Convertible which was a stream of fresh air on Olds grave.

Somewhere in the late 1994 somebody got his ass off the couch and finally looked out of the window. Panic button was pushed and the Aurora V8 was brought to market. Aurora was and still is a great car but it wasn't enough to breathe life to Oldsmobile. All the other "models" were only annual front grille changes etc. This worked at the late 70's and early 80's when sales were high no matter what they did. They had the chance to make a difference and more new models as it was clear the old ones didn't sell good enough. But they didn't take it because the didn't believe that the once so proud and great Oldsmobile could be in any jeopardy. And finally - they forgot their foreign markets.

So that how it goes..on my opinion. We must remember the good things of Oldsmobile. Most luxurious interiors of the 60's, techical advantages, personal cars, first Toronados, the Hurst Olds cars, great engines, great innovations, the 442's and most of all the 455 rocket engine!

I have had the black ribbon on my radio antenna for over two years now but it seems it's not enough to save the Oldsmobile. But we will praise the name and drive our cars with pride they deserve. Maybe someday someone at the GM will find it stupid and shameful that they once killed America's oldest car make but I doubt he/she will have the guts to speak out.

Tero Huikko Oldsmobile Club of Finland Vice President

...and the proud owner of 1980 Delta88 Royale Brougham with 1969 455 rocket under the hood...;) The only car I drive - and yes we have winter here with a capital W.

Reply to
Tero Huikko

Todd,

It's because 18-25 year old males think they can impress a girl with a sports car.

Girls/women prefer to be pampered. A plush interior, smooth ride, and luxury. That scores more points than speed and a hard ride. I speak from experience. When my friends where buying Iroc-Z's, and Grand Nationals, I purchased a Cadillac Eldorado. I got more than they did, if you catch my drift?

Girls/Women, want to see luxury, not speed or performance. That's just a testosterone thing.

Instead of taking your girl to a Burger King, take her to a real restaurant, preferably where a chef is on staff. Sending flowers to her work-place is a plus. Women like to brag to the other women about how she got flowers at work (They like to rub-it-in with the other girls). If you send flowers to her work-place, that is a guaranteed lucky night.

I was 23 when I purchased that Cadillac, and it was well worth it! A fully equipped Buick could have the same effect.

Buick and Olds are pretty much the same animal. The styling is a bit different. That is why GM dropped Olds. The styling was slipping, and more people were purchasing Buick.

GMdude

Reply to
GMdude

Same here. Three years ago I figured I was old enough for a Buick and bought a Century

-- Paul snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com "You can make it foolproof, but you can't make it Damned foolproof."

Reply to
Paul O.

As we used to say down in Sunny Florida: Century is only car whose name is also the minimum age requirement for buying one.

JGM

Reply to
JGM

Her name was Karen Francis - brought over from Proctor and Gamble with the rest of the "soap idiots" that brought "Brand Management" to GM.

Last I heard she was back at P & G - hope she chokes on some soap.

Regards, William H. Bowen Sacramento, CA

Reply to
William H. Bowen

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