For whatever reason, I keep finding myself writing various automotive recollections in lieu of delving into any technical details of my subject cars.
Such is life.
Maybe these recollections are an easy way of celebrating a car without having to do any hardcore research. Maybe these recollections are too stout in my mind and these memories are seeking a figurative release. Maybe these recollections are ideal for cars in which there really isn’t much else to say. I’ve had that problem before. At any rate, seeing this Oldsmobile 98 posted at the Cohort by Dean Edwards was too good to pass up.
Apart from the number of doors, it is a frightfully close facsimile of the 1969 Oldsmobile owned by my parent’s neighbor Orville, someone we met long ago. Seeing it brought back all manner of auditory and olfactory memories.
To prove I have done some modicum of actual research for this CC, I was hoping to tie in Oldsmobile’s advertising tagline for 1969, whatever that may have been.
The first one I found was talking about Oldsmobile, well the 98 at least, being strong, silent, and in the classic tradition. In a sneak-peek of the brain cramp that GM would become, their advertising for Oldsmobile wasn’t exclusively about the strong, silent, and traditional. Oh no, that year Oldsmobile mottos were nine kinds of inconsistent. Or maybe it was just an advertising gimmick. Regardless, it was weird.
A horny looking Rudolph Valentino impersonator doesn’t seem to gel with the traditional and/or stereotypical Oldsmobile customer base. It looks like the one caressing the hood of the 98 is enjoying the afterglow of Rudy’s affections while the gal in the background picture has a look of trepidation, bordering on terror, knowing she is about to be deflowered by an insatiable Rudy. Or something like that.
Catchy, but not necessarily in a good way.
Oh, wait. It’s nothing but a tie into the Youngmobile Thinking of 1969. It seems the “Not Your Father’s Oldsmobile” campaign of the late 1980s had an equally ludicrous ancestor. Please note the brochure to which I was referring, identical to this one yet absent the Toronado reference, was being bashful about downloading but it can be found here.
All throughout the 1969 Oldsmobile brochure there were recreations of scenes from various old movies. Youngmobile…old movies…Oldsmobile…makes sense to me. Not. But it was 1969. From the perspective of one born three years after our featured Oldsmobile, little about 1969 makes sense. Then again, maybe that was Young(Old?)mobile’s point?
I cannot think of anything this contingent would have in common other than exaggerated facial features. It’s a stretch to believe Cleopatra, a member of the French Foreign Legion, and a Zorro looking character would all have a heaping hankering for a new Oldsmobile. That said, the woman up front has a remarkable resemblance to Alla, the delightful Russian lady who teaches ballet to my daughter. But Alla drives a Camry, one equipped like the spiritual descendant of a good Oldsmobile.
At least GM didn’t use the horror movie inspired Dr. Oldsmobile throughout the entire line. That does demonstrate some degree of cognizance about their customer base, unlike with the 98, as this was intended for the performance cars springing from Olds. The Dr. Olds campaign stuck around through at least 1971, with the ads depicting a mustachioed doctor. It does appear different actors portrayed the good doctor over time.
So with all this diving into weird brochures, where does Orville fit into all this?
Orville had been a small business owner, being the proprietor of the local tavern. With the 98 being intended for those having a certain degree of social standing, it seems to be a natural fit for Orville. Successful small business owners driving an Olds 98 made perfect sense.
When we met Orville long ago, when a 1976 Oldsmobile 98 was featured (although Orville’s was a 1975, as seen here), the general theme was about his having used that particular Olds to truck materials and equipment when he built a house in the mid- to late-1980s. Orville was just over 80 years old at the time and was a fabulous representative of a long-ago generation, being the strong, silent, and classic tradition man, just like the 1969 Oldsmobile 98.
Well, Orville was strong and in the classic tradition. He was not a silent person, much like his 1969 Oldsmobile, and my mother thought he yelled a lot. However, I am of the opinion Orville was highly animated and had a voice that carried quite well.
One prime example of Orville not being silent was with his grandson Justin, who was my age. Justin was the free-spirited type, with a perpetual smile on his face, not getting too concerned about much of anything, traits that are generally instinctual to a degree in fifteen year-old boys, but greatly amplified in Justin’s case.
While there was about two hundred feet between the houses, seeing the goings-on at Orville’s house was accomplished by standing at my parent’s kitchen sink. That particular day, Orville needed the trash burned and thought Justin should do it. The ’69 Oldsmobile was parked too close to the burn barrel so Orville was directing the activities. Orville had a particular order in which he wanted tasks performed, but he was giving poor Justin too much input in too short of a time frame.
Justin had no trouble in realizing the Olds needed to be moved. He hit the starter motor with gusto, that Oldsmobile 455 V8 coming to life through a rather unmuted exhaust system. Dropping that Olds in gear, Justin stood on the throttle, spinning the rear wheels and slinging dirt and rock all over the place, all without much forward motion.
I grew up in an area that had a certain hierarchy in verbal coaching. It was a two stage process. For minor infractions, the Level One coaching would begin with “Jason, dammit…” and for more major infractions, Level Two would be “Dammit, Jason…”. One immediately knew where they stood.
Orville had ramped his coaching up a notch, having four levels. Perhaps he enjoyed the variety. Level Three mimicked Level One with Level Four mimicking Level Two, the only difference being a reference to God before use of the word “dammit”. Justin’s slinging crap all over creation instantaneously sent Orville to a Level Four.
More admonishment was administered and Justin again put the 98 in Drive. Second verse same as the first. This particular song had multiple verses with Orville maintaining a red-faced Level Four throughout. No doubt Justin’s perpetual smile did nothing to soften Orville’s disposition. He likely thought Justin was mocking him.
That episode confirmed what I had always heard about Orville – don’t mess with him. I wouldn’t have anyway; I had heard the story about Orville’s interactions with two rowdy and mouthy 20-somethings one night in the tavern. Orville had politely asked them to settle down and they refused to do so. Things escalated and Orville proceeded to whoop the shit out of both those guys and threw them through the front door into the street. Orville was only sixty-seven years old at the time.
Orville’s was a sedan, as seen at the top.
Another episode involving Orville’s older Olds 98 involved his wife Irene’s grandson.
Irene was a good twenty years younger than Orville. I’m not sure of her history but she was frequently visited by her daughter who drove a white and phenomenally straight 1964 Chrysler Town & Country wagon. At the time I could not fathom why anybody would be daily driving a ridiculous quarter-century old wagon, but we all mature. I’d love to see that wagon again.
Irene’s daughter had a son and daughter. The older child, Matthew, was five or six at the time. Matthew was an exceptionally handsome child with very wide and expressive eyes, with a personality that could have easily helped him later become the southern Illinois version of Rudolph Valentino.
Hmm, maybe that Olds ad wasn’t too far off the mark.
Anyway, Matthew was full of energy and was even more successful in raising Orville’s dander than was Justin. The most vivid example was when Orville was outside burning the trash one day.
As an aside, trash burning day at Orville’s was a mixed bag for those of us next door. There was entertainment aplenty but it came at a cost. It seems Matthew’s mother brought her trash to Orville and Irene’s. Her trash included the disposable diapers dirtied by Matthew and his sister. Ever smelled burning disposable diapers? It smells like a combination of very good barbecue and hot vomit. It’s really hard to describe but we were very happy when Matthew and his sister were finally potty-trained.
I digress.
My earlier exposé of Orville revealed how Matthew had built a mountain of gravel on the trunk lid of Orville’s 1976 Olds 98. Matthew was a determined child, undeterred by the temper of his step-grandfather. I was outside the day Matthew decided to ramp his Tonka sized plastic trucks on the ’69 Olds. He would place them on the trunk lid and hurl them towards the rear glass, intently watching them fly through space and come back to earth.
By this point, Orville was in his late 80s and periodically using a cane. Mentally, he was sharp as ever but age was slowing him down, much to his annoyance. Orville walked out the back door just in time to see Matthew send a tandem axle dump truck on a mission over the C-pillar of his beloved Oldsmobile.
Matthew realized the wisdom in ceasing all activity before Orville got to him. I was doing yard work close enough to hear him try to sweet-talk Orville down from his Level Four status. Somehow, Matthew was successful. A true Rudy in the making.
However, it was obvious Orville loved those kids. He never laid a hand on them despite their behavior conflicting with his constitution. Other than the avoided damage to some glass, Orville likely knew his Oldsmobile was none the worse for wear.
Rare is the time I have seen a 1969 Oldsmobile 98, either now or back in the day. Despite General Motors having built over 100,000 of them, my lifetime sighting of 1959 Edsels have been more frequent. So seeing this posted to the Cohort was terrific.
While Orville would be pushing 120 years old these days, there is a part of me who strongly suspects his Oldsmobile 98 is still out there. The world is a better place for having had both of them.
Great piece Jason. I’ve always loved your writing style. You painted quite the picture to go with my morning coffee. Orville reminds me of my late great uncle. He had Oldsmobile cars too when I was growing up. He had a similar scolding style as well. He’d be 109 years old though, so a tad younger.
The subject car is a ‘69, but is wearing that 70’s gold. Perhaps Olds really was ahead of its time. 😉
It all came back to me when I saw these pictures. Weird how that can happen.
Another component of my flashback, which mimics current events that I didn’t want to dwell on as I view time at CC as having a degree of escapism, was something I’m wanting to say Orville mentioned one time. Problem is the memory is murky but it involved the Spanish Flu – or whatever happened in 1917-1918. But it did not fit, which is for the best.
Great story; I would have liked to have known Orville.
I was 13 years old in 1969 and already car crazy. However, my GM dreams were all about Chevelles, GTO’s and Corvettes. The land barges were invisible to me, and after about 1971, I felt that way about everything GM made.
All that said, I think this 98 is something I wouldn’t mind owning. It seems like the cleanest and best sorted of the land barges.
Born in 54, very close in age. First 98 was a 62 no post, my late dad’s.slim Jim blew . Next a 65 no post took to my prom a beauty. Then a 68 Ls 4 door. Had a thing for olds at the time. Went to buy a new 74 98 coupe at brogan olds in Clifton they wouldn’t talk to me because I was a kid. Ended up switched to Mopar with a Cordoba.
Oh, so much here for me. I never had the pleasure of burning disposable diapers, but do remember smaller communities where everyone had a burn barrel in the backyard. For that matter, my 1958-built house had a gas trash incinerator in the basement when we moved in. By that time it was illegal as hell to use and there was some deteriorating asbestos wrapping on the chimney pipe, so I had it taken out. But how I would have loved firing it up occasionally.
Where I grew up, these were not uncommon at all. I knew a kid at school whose parents had one just like this, only maroon with black vinyl. We had family friends who had a yellow 4 door, also. I always found these very attractive, and they seemed more popular than earlier generations of 98s had been.
And howabout all that gold! It was a really hot paint color in 1969-70. I’m OK with the paint color, but there is so much about that time period that aged really poorly. The advertising for Oldsmobile is one of those things.
Until just a few years ago my father-in-law still burned their trash. He would generally dump some used motor oil on top to get it going nicely. I use kerosene on those rare occasions when I pull out my burn barrel.
Orville’s 98 was like my parent’s base model ’73 Torino – I never saw another one. Perhaps my timing was simply off for seeing any back then and I’ve seen maybe one other 98 of that vintage ever.
One I do seem to remember about Orville’s Olds – I want to say it had a telescopic steering wheel. No big deal now but that was heady stuff back then, something that seemed to be in Cadillac’s domain.
Funny that you guys mention this, as I’m currently dealing with the effects of trash burning – and ironically, it’s Earth Day.
It probably comes as no surprise that burning trash is still practiced in the rural and semi-rural/sub-suburban South, but appears to be dwindling as there are less old-timers around. A lot of water districts in my area automatically bundle trash pickup with water service, and even without that I suspect that younger property owners see the value of trash pickup. It takes less time, no smoke, and the amount of plastics and metal in today’s trash means that you still have to deal with debris. But for some who have to pay separately for the service, that $25 to $50 each month is seen as unnecessary, even when they can well afford it.
My better half’s 80-year-old still burns their trash in a 55-gallon barrel, and the larger stuff is dumped in the “holler” at the back of their property. And on the small farm we bought four months ago from a couple in their late 70s, there is an area between the house and the barn that is littered with unburned and half-burned cans and plastics (mostly water bottles, data CDs, and floppy discs). I have a feeling we’ll be going over that area for years with the tractor and a rock rake, followed by walking about with a trash pick.
Is it really Earth Day? How appropriate. No doubt some have cringed reading all this.
While I only use my burn barrel for limited amounts of brush, I tossed an abundance of trash in a gully on my parent’s property while growing up. We never had trash service. That said, we did the landfill thing by covering it up with dirt periodically. My 99 year old grandmother still throws her trash down a hillside adjacent to her house.
All that said, I’m an avid recycler these days and was quite peeved when our trash service suspended recycle pickup for the duration of This Event. We were encouraged us to throw it all away, but my recycle bin is full and awaiting a return to normalcy.
My in-laws still burn their trash as well (and dump bigger stuff in the holler, which is immensely satisfying).
Unfortunately, they also order a lot of food to be delivered, which is usually packaged in huge Styrofoam boxes. Have you ever burned a large amount of Styrofoam? Having done so, I can safely say that the result bears a lot of similarities to poison gas. I’d actually prefer Jason’s family’s burning diapers.
Yes, the days of most trash being paper, tin cans, food waste, wood and cellophane are long gone.
The City of Indianapolis built a high-tech, high-temp incinerator in an effort to reduce the use of landfills. I am quite sure their fires reach temps that those with backyard burn barrels can only dream of. They claim that with the high temps and the chimney scrubbers it is more environmentally friendly than landfilling.
The only burning I can do on my property is brush and such that comes from this property. But no grass or leaves. I have a big pile of brush that will get burned when I can free up some time to break it all up. And yes, what a great way to celebrate Earth day, talking about burning stuff.
Happy Earth Day! On my wife’s uncle’s farm that I have written a couple articles about here, they don’t have trash service and burn their trash. They do, however, have a recycle center that they take recyclables to.
If I were to burn trash in Baltimore County, Maryland, like Arlo Guthrie’s character in Alice’s Restaurant, I would be “Immediately arrested. Handcuffed even.”
I can’t even fathom the concept.
That said, my friend who lives north of the border in PA, routinely uses his burn barrel, and even told me so over the phone about 2 weeks ago when he was doing it.
Ok, maybe I wouldn’t have been “immediately arrested”; my neighbor, and old timer, must’ve lived back when it was OK to do this. I was doing something around the house about a month or so ago and noticed that I smelled paper burning. A little freaked (my wife likes candles… LOTS of candles), I went searching for the source of the smoke.
There was my neighbor, standing in front of a 55 gallon barrel (with lots of holes drilled in it… for airflow I imagine) tossing documents into the barrel which was ablaze. All I kept thinking was, “DUDE… That fly-ash is gonna set everyone’s house on fire!”
Fortunately, the fire department didn’t have to be called this time, like when his W-Body Buick caught on fire a few years back….
https://www.facebook.com/kingsvillevolunteers/videos/1371016643009513/
Yikes! My Mustang was parked WAY too close for comfort.
I was born in 1951 and in the small Kentucky town where I grew up it SOP for each household to burn their trash/garbage. Once a week the sanitation truck would come by, dump the ashes from the can into said truck and then take the ashes to the landfill. My father worked for a chemical company that had hundreds, if not thousands, of empty 55 gallon barrels free for any employee that wanted one. My father was the “trash barrel guy” for our block; a neighbor would request a barrel and my father would grab one from the stack, put in the trunk of the car, and deliver it to the neighbor. Most of these barrels would have contained some sort of toxic concoction when delivered; I’m sure they were never cleaned, whatever was in them was emptied out and the barrel moved over to the stock. There had to be some sort of “methyl ethyl bad stuff” residue in these barrels that got burned off the first time someone burned their garbage. Simpler times.
Interesting set of options on the featured car.
No a/c, which is understandable, given that it’s a Canadian car. But I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Ninety-Eight of this vintage without a radio AND the OEM tape player.
I consider myself somewhat familiar with this generation of full-sized Olds because we had a ‘69 Delta 88, followed by a ‘70 Delta 88 and a ‘70 Ninety-Eight (the ‘69s and ‘70s were fairly similar). My dad was probably at the peak of his career (and earnings) at that time, and these cars probably conveyed an image of success, but not over the top.
And I agree that the ‘69 brochure is downright bizarre. The ‘70 brochure is a bit more relatable, yet still very “Walter Mitty” in its presentation.
Your post made me go back and take a closer look. I does have the 8-track player, but not sure if the steering wheel is blocking the view of the radio. It’s possible there is a blank plate where the radio would go, but I would think a radio would certainly be standard in this car.
No , radios were not standard in many luxury cars.
And this car doesn’t have one.
And I would have thought that a radio would be a required item
before a tape player could be ordered.
Correct, Roger. A table in the 1969 brochure (see attachment) shows that a radio was optional on all models, including the Toronado and Ninety-Eight.
The eight-track option is featured on another page, and states “Rear speaker included,” so I’m assuming that it ran separately from a radio.
Forgot to attach the pic.
Thanks Buzz for the chart.
For some reason I thought the TH350 was optional on the base Delta 88 since it came standard with the 350ci V8 engine, I also wonder if the base, Custom & Royale models competed with vehicles in the same league?
Speaking of radios, has anyone noticed the strange placement of an non-GM power antenna on the trunk panel behind the glass? It’s little details
like this that infuriate me, as I like correct placement of correct items. It’s right up there with non-matching/ incorrect mirrors, wheel covers, whitewall widths, tailpipe shapes, etc.
And what could it be for, is/was there an aftermarket hidden radio in it?
Also, while I’m on that subject, Olds did a funny thing in ’69. The standard manual antenna was in its normal pass side front location. The power one
was on the driver’s side front. Buick still put their B&C body power antenna on the the driver’s rear quarter, while the standard type was in it’s usual location. Cadillac put both types in the usual RHF location .
But to reiterate, whoever elected to put that antenna there needs a kick in the pants. That’s almost impossible to undo.
Power antennas are one the worst accessories in modern times. Even in the mild West Coast climate they darned things packed it up after a year.
A close second was the windshield antenna, which was almost useless the car was facing the station’s antenna. Of course it was cheaper.
Yet today, virtually all cars have in-glass antennas. Mind you, they have the benefit of modern super-sensitive radios and in some cases, amplified antennas. Just shows they were on the right track, but the tech of the day wasn’t up to the concept.
I own a 1970 Delta 88 2 two door coupe.
P.S – what a tiny interior grip on that armrest to close that huge driver’s door!
Jason
Great write up on a seldom seen car. This find broke my heart. It was a very original Olds 98 that belonged to the vendor’s dad and had been parked in a barn for 10 years or so. They wanted $3500 for it, but could not get it to run unless primed. so it would have been a complete draining/re-filling of the gas tank and lines. brakes, general going over, etc. The back bumper had rust through, and I recall thinking where in the heck would I find a decent replacement, as Olds changed bumpers yearly in these days, and they were unique the 98.
I had a weak moment and passed, but have regretted that decision ever since. I have never seen an unmolested 98 like this at any show in years, with most of them being donked or rattle-canned black. A nice original car like this really appeals to me.
Those are tough decisions to make. The bumper rust is obvious in one of the pictures but the rest of it looks pretty good. Seeing pictures of this car really triggered a flood of memories.
For what its worth, there is another car you posted at the Cohort a while back and I’m working through a write-up now. The only problem is being able to sit down long enough to finish it. Stay tuned.
Cool! I did take some shots of a ’75 98 a while back that would also work for this posting, but it was a fair bit rougher than the example above. If you need any background or additional photographs, just holler!
Thanks!
Dean
Thanks for providing these pictures. That car sure looks like a lovable orphan longing for a good home. Rationally, I’m sure you made the right call. Seems like this one would be ideal for a dream mash up with a southwestern car with a great body but needing interior and mechanical parts.
Jon
That’s the reason why I was sad at missing out. The body was super solid, including the vinyl roof, which looked original and had no bubbling. I got my fat head underneath and it looked great – I believed the original owner had it for years and undercoated/oiled it. I was sure that the mechanicals would be solid, but it was that rear bumper that threw me. Having Caddies from that vintage, you soon realize that GM changed constantly every two years, such that a ’70 or ’68 bumper wouldn’t work, and neither would an ’88 bumper. I haven’t seen any of these in junkyards in many years, and if it was an Ontario car, it would be in worse shape. I just think the original owner didn’t think of undercoating the rear of the bumper and it got away on him. BTW, this car was located around Tillsonburg, so it might be cruising around London (hopefully!)
The car is in long term storage at the moment. It has no AC and is radio delete but strangely does have factory 8 track. The current owner has stored the car with me for 4 years now. It’s still in nice condition and the rear bumper has been replaced. I take it out every summer just to keep things free. The car drives well but needs some attention. I have lost contact with the owner.
John
Thanks for the update, and I’m glad that you’ve kept an eye on it for the owner. If things change, and they are looking at moving it along, please keep me in mind. I’m in the book on Rushwood in LaSalle.
I love this car. This is peak GM. Interior finishes were still high quality and they looked more imposing than the prior 67-68 models. A very attractive dashboard. A friend had a 1970 Delta 88 in university – prodigious power from the very smooth 455 engine when he floored it. Also prodigious fuel consumption! They seem very rare now. Didn’t seem to get much interest from the car collecting crowd.
LOL the burning diapers bit. That ad campaign was ripped from the cover of the Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” album. An acid trip in Peter Max’s garden shed / studio. Marketing suicide in the interest of seeming hip for a brand like Olds. Muddled to the point of being incomprehensible, which you DON’T want to be to an Oldsmobile customer.
Whenever I see this era of Olds 98, I think back to when, shortly before getting my drivers license in the late 1980s, I was looking for a first car to buy. I saw a two-door late-60s 98 for sale and absolutely loved it… it was in pristine condition with power everything, and I talked my father into going to look at it.
Dad drove it – I sat in the passenger seat – and I absolutely loved it. But Dad exercised is parental authority and said it wasn’t an appropriate first car for me. Why not? For one, he said I wouldn’t be able to afford to keep gas in it. And for another, he said it was way too powerful, and said he envisioned my spinning those back wheels entirely too much. Right now I can just picture myself being just like Justin there, spewing all kinds of debris up from the back of a giant 98. Dad was right about the 98 of course, but I always wished I had somehow convinced him to let me buy it.
All that huge length of car with only two doors for entry and exit. Hardly seems worth it.
I never heard of Dr. Oldsmobile. That they allowed it to exist for two years was two years too long. I cringed when those Dr. Z ads came out from Daimler in the ’00s.
A Young-mobile campaign seems as misplaced as the not your father’s Olds campaign that came later.
On these early Ontario lettered license plates, the lower right square was for the annual renewal sticker. It was later changed to its current upper right position. On the rear plate only please.
I was born in London, Ontario, as my American parents were living there for a few years at the time. They kept their 1973 Ontario plate and it is hanging in my garage now. Looks just like the one on the Olds.
Excellent souvenir!
I think I remember why I only have one plate from my 1973 vintage. The front plate always got bent and ripped to shreds in the car wash.
Context and perception are as important as anything technical….after all, cars are an irrational, emotive “women, horses, money and war” sort of thing for most reading this website, and I really enjoyed reading this!
My aunt had a 4 door version of this car in this exact color. She and another sister (who died the year before) were older than my Grandfather but never married, and lived in the family homestead. They were considered well to do by my Father’s family, and this was her 2nd Oldsmobile. She had a stroke sometime in the 70’s and my Grandfather took over this car (though he had a ’72 Chevrolet Biscayne) he kept both cars at his house.
His youngest son, my Uncle, bought her previous car, a ’62 Oldsmobile from her and used to say that that car apparently had the largest engine available and he could barely keep it on the road (narrow roads being the norm back east where they lived). He said the local Oldsmobile dealer knew my Aunt was a spinster and “oversold” it with the largest engine to them as they didn’t know much about cars (and apparently my Grandfather wasn’t around she bought it). Maybe he was talking about driving it during the winter when traction was bad; my first car, a ’74 Datsun had an automatic choke that kept the idle way high such that when the car was cold in the winter I had to shift the (automatic) into neutral at stoplights lest the car crab forward with the high idle due to the low traction. Of course this would have been with the emissions more than a decade after her ’62, where driveability took back seat to pollution control, but I believe him when he said the Olds was a handful to drive…guess it really did have the “Rocket” V8.
I think I drove the ’69 a time or two at my Grandfather’s…it was a nice driving car…I think the late 60’s Oldsmobiles were probably one of the best large GM cars, way better than the ’71-’76 oversized ones that suceeded them. Nicer car than my Grandfather’s ’72 Biscayne (though the Biscayne was nicer than his ’63 Fairlane he owned right before it).
Classic JS story telling at its best!
Thank you!
I grew up in a different 2-door 98 hardtop —
a 1955 98 “Holiday.”
Soft-spot here for any other Olds 98 2-dr. hardtop.
This one’s a winner.
This, actually the 1970 version, was my first car. Lots of power at the expense of 12 mpg, maybe 15 on an extended highway trip. It did not suit my personality, or gas budget, and I’ve driven only subcompacts and compacts since.
Thanks for the entertaining article! I especially liked the absurd ad and brochure campaign. I’ve seen it before, but forgot how incoherent and silly it was. Gotta love the 60’s!
While undoubtedly a good car, if a powerful plus-size cruiser with horrible gas mileage is what you’re looking for, I have never been a fan of these. I much prefer the 65-68 styling theme. The 69-70 just looked heavy and boring (stylingwise) to my eyes.
I posted on the Maverick article, but does anyone think that the Cowboy from the ’69 Olds brochure is Robert Fuller, aka Dr. Brackett on Emergency? I couldn’t find Julie London in that crowd.
To take a drive in this Olds, listening to Julie London singing on the radio would be so nice!
Great write up. Spending too much time on Youtube, I’m well aware of all the ad campaigns mentioned, it was a sign of the times.
I recently saw an ad spot from probably 1969 for RCA Color TV. A very young lady comes across hip, high, hippie, sexually suggestive and with no way to actually afford the fancy console TV she is draped all over. I can’t find the spot today, of course.
My best childhood friend for several years was an only child, and a neighbor a few houses up the street. I’ll call his parent’s John and Margaret.
John was an engineer that bid jobs for roads and bridges for a construction company. Margaret was a legal secretary for a big shot lawyer, think Della Street from Perry Mason. I don’t think they were expecting any children, and my friend was born to them at an older age. Margaret hired a live-in nanny to (gasp!) keep her career throughout the mid and late 1960s.
John and Margaret were exotic on our street otherwise over populated with school teachers. Their house was modest and from the same builder as the others on the street, but was loaded with fine furniture, electronics (French Provincial console RCA color television) and TWO Oldsmobile Ninety-Eights in the driveway – a 1966 Town Sedan and a 1970 Luxury Sedan.
John and Margaret looked more like characters from Mad Men then people from a psychedelic ad campaign, and it was hard to connect them to the commercials of 1969 that seemed to be trying too hard to be hip.
Maybe it all backfired. If you review the 1970 Oldsmobile brochure, you’ll see a dialed back campaign loaded with images of conservative, hardworking people. A huge contrast from the 1969 brochure your article borrows from.
I was quite impressed with those Ninety-Eights. When John or Margaret sped up our hill, usually kicking in the secondaries just as they passed our mid-hill house, you KNEW an OLDSMOBILE NINETY-EIGHT had just gone past by sound alone. Quite an intoxicating sound it was.
John’s car was a dark green Luxury Sedan and sported the dash as seen, I was the beneficiary of many rides in it to events and dinners out that my parents generally could not afford (belatedly, thank you John and Margaret, both now deceased). Life was good in the early 1970s in an Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight…
I love your reference to the sound. I grew up around Oldsmobiles and somewhere between our 64 Cutlass and the 2 relatives with 68s, Olds switched from whisper quiet to that throaty sound that surrounded us in the 70s. It was impossible to miss the sound of an Oldsmobile.
Great accounts, Jason – I enjoyed this very much. I would have liked to have been a fly on the wall when Orville let loose on those 20-year-olds in his bar.
And I can only imagine what those burning diapers smelled like. Yeesh. (As an aside, burning the trash was one of my favorite “duties” my grandparents would assign me when my family was visiting their farm. Burning things was fun!)
Jason, your post definitely brightened my morning! I love the cars of this era, especially the full size luxury cars offered by GM. As I do prefer the styling of the Electra to the 98, I wouldn’t turn one of this down. It does have very classy styling and a certain presence that today’s cars do not have.
One thing that bothers me about the interior of the ’69/’70 full size “youngmobiles” is the dashboard. I hate how the steering wheel is not centered with the 4 square boxes that house the speedo, clock, etc. I think if each of these squares where surrounded with the vinyl pad, it would of gave the design a more coherent look.
Driving one of these cars and looking at that everyday would of drove me crazy.
This is the second car I owned. I had the same basic model. I believe it was a “holiday coupe”. My first car was a 1963 Bel Air 4 door that I got in 1974. 230cid I6 with unsynchronized column shifted 3 speed. I got the Olds about a year later for $1,200 with about 50,000 miles.
What a difference. I owned this car until 1980. It was a good car. I only had 2 significant issues with it. It would always turn over slowly when it was hot. I never solved that and probably wasted a lot of time and money replacing starters. I now know that the issue was almost certainly the lack of a heat shield around the starter that seems to be a known issue with these. At some point in the lifetime of the car before I had it someone neglected to reinstall this piece. The other problem was a slight vibration at high speed that I am pretty sure was an unbalanced drive shaft.
The car had a limited slip differential and was great fun to hoon around in. If I recall correctly, there were two versions of the 455 available. Mine was 365 gross HP. I think there was another version that was 385HP. I think the more powerful version had dual exhausts.
In any case, mine was plenty powerful. I used to leave the distributor semi loose so that I could set the timing back when I was too poor to put premium in it. The air filter had a sticker declaring that it was “Ultra high compression. Premium fuel only”. This was only readable on the rare times I did not have the air filter lid installed upside down to increase the intake noise. LOL
The one I had was pretty well optioned. Power windows, doors, and trunklid. AM/FM radio. Air Conditioning.
One thing I found interesting was some obscure changes between this model and the 1970 version. Late in the time I had the car, I accidentally backed into a concrete filled steel post and did some significant damage to the rear bumper and trunk lid. I removed them and beat the body back straight. Then I found a replacement trunklid and bumper from a 1970 model in the junk yard. Everything fit fine, but the one interesting change was that the remote trunk release was different between the two model years. If my memory is correct, the 1969 version used vacuum and the 1970 version was electric. I had to wire it up to make the replacement work.
I forgot to include a pic of my car. Sorry about the quality. It is a picture of a faded picture. I am even more sorry about my dorky look.
Is this car for sale?
It was, eight years ago…
Excellent post Jason. One of my uncles drove Oldsmobiles-Wilbur was a farmer, he drove an Oldsmobile, I believe it was an 88; he drove it until 1963 when he traded it for a 1963 98. In 1966 he bought another 98, I don’t remember much about it except that it had a reverb unit which really made for some nice sounds.
One of my cousins bought an Olds 98 much like the one pictured in your post except I believe it was metallic green. The only thing I remember about it was the absolutely cheap looking fake wood paneling in the interior; it looked like that wood grained contact paper that was sold at K-mart. You would have thought the interior designers at Oldsmobile would have had better taste than that.
These cars look so awesome donked. Seriously they do. I no some people dont go for giant rims and techno stuff but those old landyats scream to be customized. Ill take mine tripple black 500hp under the hood 24’s and a killer audio system.
Regarding Dr. Oldsmobile; I believe you have to be of a certain age and lived through the era. Dr. Oldsmobile was right in tune with the times. It was truly the height of the muscle car era, and a friend purchased a ’69 Cutlass W-31, probably because of the awareness the campaign created. You had to live through the times to understand.
What a great read. Thanks for this.
Nice! That Aztec Gold 98 coupe sure caught my eyes; sold a twin to it in ’69. The Olds brochures really made no sense to me either, but graphically I suppose one could say they were very 1969.
A very enjoyable read after the less than delightful 2020 (I missed this write up originally).
Given their exterior size/BULK these big 98s and 455 88s were credible performers. Handling….uhh? However, the then desired ride characteristics were certainly supplied by these Oldsmobiles. Of course, I gravitated to the Cutlass line for my demos as they were more to my then young “taste”. 🙂 DFO
I am at it again, with the top being just a tad too small for the body – as per the 1970 Cadillac. I added about 3″ to the length of the C pillar, thereby shortening the trunk length by the same amount. I think it adds to the luxury car look slightly, but enough to make a difference and add balanced proportions.
Odd that you couldn’t get the split seat in the sedan.
I missed this one at the time, and as ever, it’s a great read, Mr S. Very enjoyable indeed.
My dad’s cousin and his wife had an identical Olds 98 to the one in this article. It would be their last car. My dad’s cousin was a legally blind accountant nicknamed “Blinky”, and his wife had been the bookkeeper at my family’s store for many years. About the time they bought the 98, she began having multiple little strokes, from which she developed a form of dementia. Did anyone stop her from driving? Oh no, of course not. Who would be driving Blinky and her to their endless doctor appointments? Their daughter lived 2000+ miles away in the SOCAL area, and had no idea her mom was as bad as she was, “She seemed ok on the phone!”, she would say later.
My dad died suddenly and Blinky wanted to go to the funeral home for the showing. They never made it. In her confusion, she drove up the exit ramp to I475, hitting a Cadillac head on, killing the driver instantly. Blinky’s legs were crushed, along with a bunch of other broken bones, and he died a week or so later, his wife was unhurt, and immediately put into a “home” where she lived another 11 years! Their daughter said that her dad would have probably survived but he was just unable to tolerate the pneumonia he developed from broken ribs puncturing his left lung. When I saw both cars (Both cars were towed to the Olds/Cadillac dealership our family bought almost all our cars from at that time), I couldn’t figure out how anyone survived at all, let alone someone walking away from it. I was kind of shocked at the amount of rust the 98 had at 4 years of age, considering it only had about 20,000 miles on it, and a large portion of that was their daughter and son in law driving it during their once a summer visit for 2 weeks. The Caddy was also a ’69, but had much less rust on it, with 60K+ miles. Very odd to me.