Oldsmobile History: From the Curved Dash to the Last Alero

Oldsmobile at a glance

Ransom E. Olds and the first factory

The company began in Lansing in 1897 as the Olds Motor Vehicle Company, set up by Ransom Eli Olds. According to Wikipedia, in 1898 it sent a steam car to Bombay, an early example of an American car export. In 1899 the business merged with the Olds Gas Engine Works to form Olds Motor Works, and a second plant was set up in Detroit.

In March 1901 a factory fire destroyed nearly all the prototypes. Only one, a small runabout with a curved front board, was saved, and the company decided to build that car. The decision proved lucky: in 1901 Olds produced 635 cars, which made it the first high-volume maker of petrol cars in America.

The Curved Dash: the first mass-produced car

The Curved Dash Oldsmobile was a light, open, single-cylinder runabout that sold for 650 dollars. More than 400 were sold in the first year, and output later rose into the thousands per year. Production ran until 1907 on an assembly line where the car was moved from station to station. For that reason historians usually name the Curved Dash as the first car made in mass production, a few years before Ford's moving line for the Model T.

Ransom Olds left the company in 1904 after a dispute with the sales manager, Frederic Smith. He then founded the REO Motor Car Company, using his initials. The popular song "In My Merry Oldsmobile" of 1905 fixed the nickname that later became the brand's official name.

Joining General Motors in 1908

General Motors bought the company on 12 November 1908. Oldsmobile was GM's second brand after Buick, and in GM's later ladder it sat above Chevrolet and Pontiac and below Buick and Cadillac. Our General Motors history explains how that system worked.

The first years under GM were ambitious. The 1910 Limited was a huge touring car priced at 4,600 dollars, about as much as a modest house at the time. Only 725 were sold in three years. More practical engineering followed: in 1926 Oldsmobile became one of the first brands to use chrome-plated trim.

Hydra-Matic and the Rocket V8

Two inventions defined the brand. For the 1940 model year Oldsmobile offered Hydra-Matic, the first fully automatic transmission in a mass-produced car. GM soon fitted it to its other brands, and the idea of a car without a clutch pedal spread across America after the war.

In 1949 Oldsmobile introduced the overhead-valve Rocket V8. The first version displaced 303 cubic inches (5.0 litres) and produced 101 kW (135 hp) and 343 Nm with a two-barrel carburettor; by 1953 it gave 123 kW (165 hp). By our calculation the 1949 engine made about 20 kW per litre, a high figure for an American car of the time; our power converter turns the period horsepower ratings into kW. In the lighter 88 body, the Rocket 88 became one of the fastest cars on American roads, won stock-car races and even gave its name to an early rock-and-roll record.

The Rocket design stayed in production, enlarged step by step, until the 455 cubic inch (7.5-litre) engine of 1968–1976. The last Oldsmobile-designed V8, a 307, ended in 1990.

The 1960s: Jetfire, 4-4-2 and Toronado

In the 1960s Oldsmobile was GM's engineering brand. The 1962 Jetfire was one of the first production cars with a turbocharged engine and used water injection to control knock. In 1964 the 4-4-2 package arrived for the F-85 and Cutlass, the start of Oldsmobile's muscle-car line; the Oldsmobile 4-4-2 guide and the page on the 4-4-2 Hurst tell that story.

The 1966 Toronado was the first American front-wheel-drive car built in large numbers and won Motor Trend's Car of the Year award. Families bought the Vista Cruiser, a stretched estate with glass panels in a raised roof, built from 1964 to 1977.

The Cutlass years: number one in America

From the mid-1970s the Cutlass was the most popular car in the United States, and in 1976 it was North America's best-selling car. Versions such as the Cutlass Rallye 350 gave it a sporting image. Oldsmobile passed a million sales a year in the mid-1980s, a level previously reached only by Chevrolet and Ford, and set its record of 1,066,122 in 1985.

Two problems from this period damaged the brand. From 1977 GM fitted Chevrolet-built 350 engines to some Delta 88 models without telling buyers, which caused a public relations crisis. The 5.7-litre diesel V8 offered from 1978 suffered from corroded injectors, fuel clogging in cold weather and failing head bolts, and hurt the name of diesel cars in America for years.

Decline in the 1990s

Late in the 1980s GM tried to attract younger buyers with the slogan "This is not your father's Oldsmobile". It did not work: the cars looked too much like other GM models, and the brand's traditional buyers were growing older. In 1993 Oldsmobile sold only 402,936 cars; by our calculation that is about 38 % of what it sold in 1985.

New models tried to change the image. The 1995 Aurora used a 4.0-litre V8 with four valves per cylinder, based on Cadillac's Northstar. The Intrigue (1998–2002) and Alero (1999–2004) followed, and the Bravada SUV was the last new Oldsmobile, reaching showrooms in February 2001.

How Oldsmobile ended

In December 2000 GM announced that it would phase out Oldsmobile. Production of the Intrigue and the Aurora V6 ended in June 2002. The final 500 Aleros carried "Final 500" badges and dark cherry red paint. The very last car, an Alero GLS saloon signed by the factory workers, left the Lansing line on 29 April 2004 and went to the R.E. Olds Transportation Museum in Lansing.

The brand had lasted 107 years. The reasons for its end are compared with other lost brands in our article on American car brands that disappeared.

Oldsmobile in numbers

Oldsmobile compared with other lost GM brands

Oldsmobile was the oldest of the three, and unlike Pontiac and Saturn it was closed before GM's 2009 crisis, as a planned decision rather than a forced one.

Our verdict: why Oldsmobile still matters

For half a century Oldsmobile was where General Motors tried new technology first: the automatic gearbox, the modern V8, the turbo and front-wheel drive. Its decline shows what happens when a brand loses that role and shares too much with its siblings. For classic-car buyers, Rocket 88s, Toronados and 4-4-2s are the most collectable, while late-1970s and 1980s Cutlasses are still an affordable way into American classics. You can browse them in our classic cars section or set two of them side by side with our comparison tool.