Thursday, April 29, 2010

A Once Proud Marque

Ransom E. Olds founded Oldsmobile in 1897. As a susidiary of General Motors, it was laid to rest on April 29, 2004. The last Oldsmobile came off the assembly line six years ago today. In its 107 years of operation, Olds produced over thirty-five million automobiles.

What young man of my generation did not dream of an "88"? And how many of us "settled" for Chevys and Fords? The "98" was always "old people" transportation. When I was about 23, I had a friend who owned a '52 Olds 98. He had to make a trip of about400 miles, and he borrowed my '50 Ford for the excursion, since he didn't think his car reliable enough; and he knew it was too costly to operate.

Cutlass: It's not your father's Oldsmobile.

But, In memory of Oldsmobile: It was a ride while it lasted.

Setting the Pace, William Hardner Foster, 1909.

2 comments:

Secondary Roads said...

What I wanted was a 1932 green REO roadster. That was a beautiful ride. I had a class or two in RE Olds hall (part of the engineering college) at Michigan State Univ. Later I maintained IBM equipment at Oldsmobile Hq in Lansing.

vanilla said...

--and I longed for a '32 LaSalle conv. coupe which was actually for sale when I was a sr. in hs.

So you, in a way, worked for Olds.