[Closed] Added to my Oldsmobiles, a 1960 Olds 98 in Garnet Mist Poly from Western Models.

Great line up of Oldsmobiles, including that sleek '60. Wish Olds were still around.

Car brands that sell well stay in production. Survival of the fittest.

If more folks had bought Oldsmobiles, I bet they'd still be around. Pontiac, Mercury, and Plymouth too. But the big three still own the names (I assume) so they could pop up again someday.

It all boils down to GM or Ford or Chrysler making the style, performance and creature comforts that people want in those brands. People would then buy them and those brands would still be with us.

Was it purely a matter of sales, or did corporate restructuring and allocation of resources play a part? I can't believe that it was strictly a matter of sales figures that caused the demise of those three brands.

Starting in 1949, Olds had an exciting new V8.

The styling was also distinct from each of the 5 divisions. It started with the regulations: lower engine emissions and safety features. (And I'm not saying these were unnecessary.) Lots of investment in "keep up with regulations" meant lower investment in 5 distinct brands. Plus, each brand became several different sizes of car. In this case, the companies had control over how to handle the expansion of models, and it may have been a mistake to allow each brand to try to be everything to everybody. After a while, engines were mostly shared, along with new technologies, and an Oldsmobile was a Pontiac was a Chevrolet, etc.

A good point. With the proliferation of sub-brands, the old pecking order at GM disappeared. Chevrolet at the bottom, then Pontiac, Olds, Buick, on up to Cadillac.

Richard Nosker makes some very good points...,

When Pontiac starts making products like the Aztec, and makes generic engines, used in all of GM's brands, it all becomes redundant. Or you could not tell the difference between a Buick LeSabre and Electra, it becomes redundant. Remember, just a few years ago, the Cutlass was a best selling nameplate. When Chevrolet had a variety of great products and you were on top of the world, if you were a Chevy dealer. Mercury became just a Ford, with a different nameplate, and Plymouth had no product to offer. It all came tumbling down. All we have left is nostalgia.

Strange part was that Olds killed off the Cutlass when it was their top selling car! Never could figure that one out. Had a Cutlass at the time and it was a great car.

Two words: Roger Smith

If ever one man could be held responsible for the ultimate bankruptcy of GM (unthinkable!) it was him. Under his leadership, each division was reduced to a desk in the corporate office, and each model was a standardized, homogenized, cross pollinated version of a few basic body sizes.

Agreed ! Shameful imo.

I asked a friend of mine who worked for Ford once about the badge engineering...

...between Ford and Mercury. He said it allowed different styling exercises to be experimented with on each brand. But I don't recall any Mercurys outselling Fords in recent decades based on styling.

Your father's oldsmobile

I remember Olds at the auto shows of the 70s and 80s displaying a big banner "Not Your Father's Oldsmobile." Too bad that was a terrific car. Remember too their misadventures with the Aurora. By most reports, a terrific car. Olds powers did not want Olds name on the car. Good read on all this is the book by John Rock who was their last division head.

I sold Oldsmobiles in the mid seventies and left to work for the state dealers association. And the first Olds dealer I called upon had just gotten shipped his Delta 88s with Chevrolet engines. He wasn't happy. And so Cadillac got the Olds engine in the Seville. Cute, huh? Now this was a downstate dealer who sold a couple of lines and knew how these motors were behaving too. Of course a lot has happened since then. My personal opinion was that Oldsmobile lost its zoom. And it was before that.