Once again the Halifax Municipal Archives comes through with some pics of city life in 1965. These were intended to document some improvements to the Halifax Common, but also captured some traffic scenes at the time. Check out some of the interesting or obscure models in these:
Cool pics, I am amused at the volume of British cars, at least one in each pic, sometimes many. I wonder if this was more of an east coast thing, as I have seen many period pics of Vancouver, and the numbers weren't as noticeable.
On the subject of '55 Oldsmobiles, here's an old dealer promo, but from a DeSoto salesmans' perspective! https://1-tube.ru/watch/x7sT0NWnpq8 It's actually a hoot, to see the extremes they go through to make the DeSoto look like the better choice. One thing I thought was particularly amusing is how they played up the 2-speed Powerflite as being better than the 4-speed Hydramatic. I know the Powerflite shifted faster, and I guess wasn't quite as "slushy", having a torque converter, but still, I'd think 4 gears are still way better than 2! I haven't driven a car with one of those old Hydramatics since something like 1993, when I looked at a 1960 Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight someone was selling, and I can't really remember how it was, except that it felt fast. I do vaguely remember the transmission feeling "weird", but it's been so long I couldn't explain in which way.
They also claimed the the "Dome" shaped combustion chamber prevented carbon buildup, whereas the Olds engine would have to be cleaned out every so often. Dunno how realistic that claim is, although I've heard that at the time, the Hemi engines did run cleaner, and more efficiently, than other engines. Supposedly though, they would not adapt well to emissions controls...or maybe that was just listed as one of many excuses to dump the 426 Hemi in later years?
I also recently got an old Motortrend magazine that did a comparison test of a '55 Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight, DeSoto Fireflite, and I forget which Mercury, but I think it had 197 hp. I just glanced through it quickly, but noticed it didn't seem like they picked a clear winner. I do remember the DeSoto doing 0-60 in 12.8 seconds, and that was the slowest of the bunch. The Mercury was the quickest. I'll have to look through it a bit more deeply, and see what the pros and cons were of each car.
And, packed away somewhere, I have an old Consumer Reports that someone gave me back in the late 80's. A neighbor who knew I liked DeSotos had come across it, and gave it to me. It was a 1955 issue and also tested a Ninety-Eight, as well as a Fireflite, and I think the third car they tested was actually a Kaiser! I might have to dig that one out, too. About all I remember from that one was that the DeSoto did 0-60 in about 13.3 seconds, 11.8 for the Olds, and I think the Kaiser was 15.4. Or, was it a Hudson? All I remember is that it was a car with a straight-six, and CR said it wasn't a fair test because it just couldn't compete with the more modern V-8s.
Cool pics, I am amused at the volume of British cars, at least one in each pic, sometimes many. I wonder if this was more of an east coast thing, as I have seen many period pics of Vancouver, and the numbers weren't as noticeable.
Possibly so. I know when I was a kid they were quite common. Members of our family owned several - Minis, a Ford Consul, Austin 1100s and Americas, and my brothers had a few BMC sports cars. Seemed to mostly die out in the early '70s when British Ford Cortinas and GM Vauxhalls came out with new models that were problematic, though British Leyland hung on with a local dealer until the late '70s at least.
Much of that material made it here too, but in smaller volumes compared to the overall vehicle fleet, and probably mostly in coastal areas. With no "empire" ties, I suppose that reduced the potential customer base as well. When I was a kid in the 80s and 90s, something like an Austin America was a unicorn sighting, but they were out there.
In the small town where my mother lives, there was a MG/BMC dealer back in the day. The owner operated it as a garage long after new car sales stopped, and I think the old MG sign with a BL logo was up until 2005 or later. At one time, there was a junkyard behind it with mostly 1100/America cars, quite interesting at the time.
Possibly so. I know when I was a kid they were quite common. Members of our family owned several - Minis, a Ford Consul, Austin 1100s and Americas, and my brothers had a few BMC sports cars. Seemed to mostly die out in the early '70s when British Ford Cortinas and GM Vauxhalls came out with new models that were problematic, though British Leyland hung on with a local dealer until the late '70s at least.
It is almost shocking how much style difference there is between 1958 and 1959. It is almost like a flipped switch in the auto industry. I can't really think of another time when models seemed to shift so universally (although i'm sure that the 58/59 thing wasn't really universal).
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All the talk about Oldsmobile, a brand I liked, and I read in today's Detroit Free Press an article about how Millennials are starting to look at and buy Buicks. I hope that continues. I'd like to see a strong GM again, as well as a return to some mid priced brands. GM was an innovator in the old days and we could use some of that nowadays. Too many Japanese cars look goofy nowadays and too many German cars look pretty much the same year after year despite the hefty price tags and depreciation dollars that go with that.
I think one thing that really made the 1959 cars look radically different was the trend of putting the headlights down in the grille, rather than above the grille. There was also a bit of squaring-off of styles, with more angles and straight lines, and less curvature.
I think the '59 Plymouth and Dodge were probably about the most outdated looking of the '59 lineup, looking like heavy-handed facelifts, but without really advancing the style, any. At least Chrysler/DeSoto squared-off a bit up front, and moved the headlights down a bit, and raised the grille a bit as well.
I thought the '59 Pontiacs looked downright futuristic, for the time. Heck, shave off the fins and take the dogleg out of the windshield, and it was the basic proportions of your typical 60's big car...at least until they started porking up in later years.
The GM 1959 cars were an emergency response to Chrysler's "Suddenly it's 1960" '57 models, as has been well-documented. Apparently the original designs were a refresh of the heavy-looking '58s, which were scrapped while Harley Earl was touring Europe. Ate Up With Motor has a good article on this:
Chrysler's attempts to refresh the '57 designs were not totally successful, and Ford did a decent refresh of the '57 body that modernized it quite a bit but seems to be either a love it or hate it thing. But the big 3 were all pretty much on the same page design-wise for the first time in a while.
Seeing a '59 or '60 Olds at a car show or on the road these days is really a bit of a shock. They are absolutely huge, to begin with, and have styling that was probably Lexus/Toyota-outrageous for the time in today's terms.
1962. Again these brochures are all 20+ pages—this is just a selection a few pages from them....This booklet talks about the "flattering professional respect" that the owner of an Oldsmobile gets at the gas station.
1965 saw the intro of the Vista Cruiser wagon. But the brochure also said that they had a car that had "a price for every pocket." If you could somehow find a base Oldsmobile without options, it would probably cost just a little more than a base Chevy, Ford, or Plymouth without options.
I don't know if it is the angle or what, but this image is just so striking to me. I am not sure I have ever seen its like in person, but I do like it!
2018 Subaru Crosstrek, 2014 Audi Q7 TDI, 2013 Subaru Forester, 2013 Ford F250 Lariat D, 1976 Ford F250, 1969 Chevrolet C20, 1969 Ford Econoline 100
I've seen a few at car shows, preserved in some cases, not so preserved in others. The flat surfaces really show up on the convertible too. Reminds me of a girl friend in college who part of the time had her parent's white 60 Olds convertible on campus. Nice getaway car in late afternoon for studying.
Old GM showcars that were the model cars... preserved under Welbaum. "One of those, the 1959 Cadillac Cyclone, stunned the crowd when it rumbled up to the podium."
From Automotive News "Classics refurbished under Welburn include: the 1959 Stingray Racer; 1938 Buick Y Job, the industry's first concept car; 1966 Chevrolet Electrovan, the world's first operational fuel cell vehicle; a 1996 EV1, GM's first electric car; several Chevrolet Corvairs; and the 1951 Buick LeSabre, which introduced aircraft features to automotive styling."
I'd love to see some of the showcars that led to the out front Oldsmobile designs of the era documented here by our trip through history.
@benjaminh Thanks for taking time to post all the Olds brochures, very fascinating! I grew up in a family that owned several 98s and remember them fondly. Actually now that I think about it from 1976 through the late 90s someone in my Dad's family always owned one.
I really like the '61 and '62 Oldsmobiles, particularly the '61. Story is that dealers were less than thrilled though, because customers complained that they were smaller than the '60. Apparently they really were not, but the styling made them look smaller.
I think that 60 flat top is photographed at just the right angle to make it look very wide, with the woman in the background at just the right perspective to make the car look huge. Cool cars, those flat tops, and you could get one from every GM brand.
I like the 62 Olds too, esp th Starfire with the unique trim.
Having gone in detail through the Oldsmobile brochures from 1930 to 1966, one obvious thing stands out for me—the absolutely colossal amounts of money that were funneling through the auto industry, and Oldsmobile specifically, for almost all of these years. The brochures are advertisements, of course, but also reflections of some of what was going on each year in terms of engineering, styling, etc. For Oldsmobile alone there were huge numbers of product planners and engineers to think up and engineer these vehicles, and then of course an even larger number of factory workers in the main factories—and in all the supplier factories—to actually make these vehicles a reality. And then these Oldsmobiles were shipped by train and big trucks by the hundreds of thousands across the country each year to local Oldsmobile dealers, where the salesmen were selling these cars one at a time to customers, in part with the help of these brochures.
The brochures themselves, as we've seen, are an amazing mix of aspirational and sometimes silly imagery, combined with practical arguments, and even once-in-a-while somewhat detailed engineering explanations of how these cars work—from the engines, to the electrical systems, to the seats, to all the various options. There were also no doubt each year dozens of people working on the art and ad copy for these brochures. I imagine rooms where people from the advertising agency are meeting with the Oldsmobile executives, Oldsmobile product planners, and sometimes even the GM/Oldsmobile engineers to translate the new product each model year into these glossy brochures.
Sounding almost like Carl Sagan, I'm thinking about the billions and billions of dollars, and millions and millions of man hours that went into these Oldsmobiles over these decades. Oldsmobile was a vital business for decade after decade, and it must have seemed like it would never end. And now all that we have left from this now-dead and gone brand are a few remaining Oldsmobiles from these years in the hands of collectors. And we also have these brochures and advertisements that tell us about the promotional dreams for these Oldsmobiles of the past....
The automotive business is viciously competitive, extremely capital-intensive, and relentlessly cruel to any product that does not consistently re-invent itself.
Every make of car we can point to and say "it was too good to fail" was, honestly, probably not good enough to succeed.
For some reason, the '61 Olds Ninety-Eight always caught my eye, although I prefer it as a 4-door hardtop. I've heard they actually weren't a hot seller, because buyers wanted a car in that class to have more bulk and presence to them, but I think they looked nice. Sleek, trim (for that size of car at least), and with an open, airy feel to them.
I never realized that Olds did that trick of having the deep well trunk, with the gas tank between the well and the rear axle, and then the spare over the top of the axle. I know Chevy and Buick did it for a few years, and Ford pretty much made it famous.
Did Pontiac ever do it, I wonder? IIRC, Pontiac used an X-frame in 1958-60 and then a perimeter frame in '61-64, and then they all went with perimeter frames for '65, except for the Caddy 75. I had always thought that '61-64 Chevies and Buicks used the deep well trunk, and Pontiacs and Oldsmobiles used the more conventional shallow trunk with the horizontal gas tank. But, in looking at pics, it looks like only Pontiacs, and Cadillacs, were using the "regular" trunk.
A case can be made that 1966 was a peak year for Oldsmobile. The Toronado was a good looking full-size sports car that had impressive engineering, as well as styling cues from a 1936 Cord. For decades there's been a small collector's cult around these early Toronados. Olds also had that cool VistaCruiser wagon, and the rest of the line-up was good for its era too, all the way up to the almost-as-luxurious-as-a-Cadillac 98.
Maybe stopping with the Olds brochures with 1966 would be better in order remember Oldsmobile in its glory? But in terms of sales, Oldsmobile actually had 20 more years of success before the long and ultimately terminal decline set in. And so for the heck of it I'll post some more images from at least some of these next two decades.
But, as it happens, I can't find anything for the Oldsmobile brochure for 1967, although certainly one was made. But for 1967 there's something unique for Oldsmobile—the custom funeral home cars and ambulances made from Oldsmobiles.
Fairly regularly, I'd see a sort of lavender/blue color '61 Ninety Eight 4W, at the "Das Awkscht Fescht" car show in Magungie, PA, and I think I've seen it a couple times at the Hershey show as well. I went digging through my old pictures, and sure enough, here it is, from 2012...
It's not a #1 show car, but for some reason, it always caught my eye. This probably isn't the most flattering picture angle of it, though. Looking through my pictures, I just noticed it showed up in the background of this pic that I took, of a '56 DeSoto Fireflite that was next to it. This pic shows that wraparound rear window a bit better. Kind of appropriate that these cars would be side by side, as the Fireflite and Ninety-Eight were fairly direct competitors...from 1955-59, at least. By '61 DeSoto was reduced to just a pair of hardtops with no series names, and priced between the Dynamic 88 and below the Super 88.
A 1967 Toronado with a few options could easily have an msrp of c. $5000 (air conditioning alone was a $400+ option on top of the c.4700 msrp). Doesn't sound too bad, but adjusted for inflation that's about $38k today. Still a lot of car for the money.
The Delta 88 with options was about the cost of a mid-level Accord today.
By 1968 Oldsmobile decided it probably had a problem with its name. Rather than teach people that Ransom E. Olds was one of the pioneers of the auto industry, they renamed the cars "Youngmobiles":
For 1969 the "movie" (??) playing at your local Oldsmobile dealer continued with the Youngmobile theme....Those seats sure bring back memories! I remember being in bench seats similar to these when I was a kid.
I can't imagine the c. 20 year old woman standing next to the Oldsmobile 98 owning that car at all. Maybe a VW bug? Are there any Oldsmobiles made after 1970 that are considered collector's cars? Is that pointy-nosed Toronado (which reminds me slightly of a 69 Pontiac) somewhat collectible? The colors and textures for the seats in these years are somewhat trippy imho.
1974....In the early 1970s my great uncle, who was a rancher, got yet another new Oldsmobile 98 that looked almost exactly like the one below. He explained it this way: "I don't often like the kind of people who drive Cadillacs." That was his own prejudice, clearly, but in any case as a kid I was astonished by the luxury of his 98, especially compared with our VW Bus. As this brochure describes it, the 98 was "opulent" but without being "ostentatious." The small Oldsmobile for this year of the gas crisis was the Omega, pictured at the bottom.
For 1975 the tag line was: "It's a good feeling to have an Olds around you." The Omega for the year was said to be "like a European Grand Touring Car." Hmmm. I confess that the optional white leather for the Toronado looks kinda good to me.
Dunno how collectible they are, but there's a lot of Oldsmobiles made after 1970 that I like, and wouldn't mind owning. I always liked the '71-78 Toronado. The earlier models seemed a bit sporty and exotic. I remember as a kid, being fascinated by them, partly because I thought the name was "Tornado", and also, a car that was mostly "grille-less" was a pretty exotic thing back then. I also liked the fact that, in '71-74 at least, it was offered as a true hardtop, although by '74, I think they started offering the landau roof/opera window treatment as an option, and it took over for '75.
Even though they started going more the luxury route for '75-78, I still preferred them to the Eldorado. Something about the Olds style just seemed less chunky. They also seemed better built to me, in the fit and finish department, although I've sometimes wondered if that was simply that the Toronado didn't use as many pieces, so there was less opportunity to mis-align. I specially notice this from the rear, where Eldorados often look sloppily finished, but the Toronado seemed better assembled. Those "XS" (Excess?) models with the wraparound rear window were really cool, too!
1976....A computer programmer tells why he buys a Toronado. The naval architect wants a land yacht, etc. The first page explains in detail "Who buys an Oldsmobile and why?" People who buy Oldsmobiles are achievers, it says, whatever their age or walk of life, and they want that reflected in their car.
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They also claimed the the "Dome" shaped combustion chamber prevented carbon buildup, whereas the Olds engine would have to be cleaned out every so often. Dunno how realistic that claim is, although I've heard that at the time, the Hemi engines did run cleaner, and more efficiently, than other engines. Supposedly though, they would not adapt well to emissions controls...or maybe that was just listed as one of many excuses to dump the 426 Hemi in later years?
I also recently got an old Motortrend magazine that did a comparison test of a '55 Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight, DeSoto Fireflite, and I forget which Mercury, but I think it had 197 hp. I just glanced through it quickly, but noticed it didn't seem like they picked a clear winner. I do remember the DeSoto doing 0-60 in 12.8 seconds, and that was the slowest of the bunch. The Mercury was the quickest. I'll have to look through it a bit more deeply, and see what the pros and cons were of each car.
And, packed away somewhere, I have an old Consumer Reports that someone gave me back in the late 80's. A neighbor who knew I liked DeSotos had come across it, and gave it to me. It was a 1955 issue and also tested a Ninety-Eight, as well as a Fireflite, and I think the third car they tested was actually a Kaiser! I might have to dig that one out, too. About all I remember from that one was that the DeSoto did 0-60 in about 13.3 seconds, 11.8 for the Olds, and I think the Kaiser was 15.4. Or, was it a Hudson? All I remember is that it was a car with a straight-six, and CR said it wasn't a fair test because it just couldn't compete with the more modern V-8s.
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In the small town where my mother lives, there was a MG/BMC dealer back in the day. The owner operated it as a garage long after new car sales stopped, and I think the old MG sign with a BL logo was up until 2005 or later. At one time, there was a junkyard behind it with mostly 1100/America cars, quite interesting at the time.
I think the '59 Plymouth and Dodge were probably about the most outdated looking of the '59 lineup, looking like heavy-handed facelifts, but without really advancing the style, any. At least Chrysler/DeSoto squared-off a bit up front, and moved the headlights down a bit, and raised the grille a bit as well.
I thought the '59 Pontiacs looked downright futuristic, for the time. Heck, shave off the fins and take the dogleg out of the windshield, and it was the basic proportions of your typical 60's big car...at least until they started porking up in later years.
https://ateupwithmotor.com/model-histories/1959-cadillac/
Chrysler's attempts to refresh the '57 designs were not totally successful, and Ford did a decent refresh of the '57 body that modernized it quite a bit but seems to be either a love it or hate it thing. But the big 3 were all pretty much on the same page design-wise for the first time in a while.
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2017 Cadillac ATS Performance Premium 3.6
1961....Airplanes at an airport was part of the visual for the first brochure that was posted, way back for the year 1930.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_Technical_Center
The 62 odds a year I really like. The rear lights and layout are perfect.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
Old GM showcars that were the model cars... preserved under Welbaum. "One of those, the 1959 Cadillac Cyclone, stunned the crowd when it rumbled up to the podium."
From Automotive News
"Classics refurbished under Welburn include: the 1959 Stingray Racer; 1938 Buick Y Job, the industry's first concept car; 1966 Chevrolet Electrovan, the world's first operational fuel cell vehicle; a 1996 EV1, GM's first electric car; several Chevrolet Corvairs; and the 1951 Buick LeSabre, which introduced aircraft features to automotive styling."
I'd love to see some of the showcars that led to the out front Oldsmobile designs of the era documented here by our trip through history.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
2017 Cadillac ATS Performance Premium 3.6
I don't think the turbo was very effective back then.
I like the 62 Olds too, esp th Starfire with the unique trim.
The brochures themselves, as we've seen, are an amazing mix of aspirational and sometimes silly imagery, combined with practical arguments, and even once-in-a-while somewhat detailed engineering explanations of how these cars work—from the engines, to the electrical systems, to the seats, to all the various options. There were also no doubt each year dozens of people working on the art and ad copy for these brochures. I imagine rooms where people from the advertising agency are meeting with the Oldsmobile executives, Oldsmobile product planners, and sometimes even the GM/Oldsmobile engineers to translate the new product each model year into these glossy brochures.
Sounding almost like Carl Sagan, I'm thinking about the billions and billions of dollars, and millions and millions of man hours that went into these Oldsmobiles over these decades. Oldsmobile was a vital business for decade after decade, and it must have seemed like it would never end. And now all that we have left from this now-dead and gone brand are a few remaining Oldsmobiles from these years in the hands of collectors. And we also have these brochures and advertisements that tell us about the promotional dreams for these Oldsmobiles of the past....
Every make of car we can point to and say "it was too good to fail" was, honestly, probably not good enough to succeed.
I never realized that Olds did that trick of having the deep well trunk, with the gas tank between the well and the rear axle, and then the spare over the top of the axle. I know Chevy and Buick did it for a few years, and Ford pretty much made it famous.
Did Pontiac ever do it, I wonder? IIRC, Pontiac used an X-frame in 1958-60 and then a perimeter frame in '61-64, and then they all went with perimeter frames for '65, except for the Caddy 75. I had always thought that '61-64 Chevies and Buicks used the deep well trunk, and Pontiacs and Oldsmobiles used the more conventional shallow trunk with the horizontal gas tank. But, in looking at pics, it looks like only Pontiacs, and Cadillacs, were using the "regular" trunk.
Caddy had one:
It appears Buick did too, but I've never seen one before, I think most were 6 window rather than this:
Maybe stopping with the Olds brochures with 1966 would be better in order remember Oldsmobile in its glory? But in terms of sales, Oldsmobile actually had 20 more years of success before the long and ultimately terminal decline set in. And so for the heck of it I'll post some more images from at least some of these next two decades.
But, as it happens, I can't find anything for the Oldsmobile brochure for 1967, although certainly one was made. But for 1967 there's something unique for Oldsmobile—the custom funeral home cars and ambulances made from Oldsmobiles.
Behold:
It's not a #1 show car, but for some reason, it always caught my eye. This probably isn't the most flattering picture angle of it, though. Looking through my pictures, I just noticed it showed up in the background of this pic that I took, of a '56 DeSoto Fireflite that was next to it. This pic shows that wraparound rear window a bit better. Kind of appropriate that these cars would be side by side, as the Fireflite and Ninety-Eight were fairly direct competitors...from 1955-59, at least. By '61 DeSoto was reduced to just a pair of hardtops with no series names, and priced between the Dynamic 88 and below the Super 88.
The Delta 88 with options was about the cost of a mid-level Accord today.
Even though they started going more the luxury route for '75-78, I still preferred them to the Eldorado. Something about the Olds style just seemed less chunky. They also seemed better built to me, in the fit and finish department, although I've sometimes wondered if that was simply that the Toronado didn't use as many pieces, so there was less opportunity to mis-align. I specially notice this from the rear, where Eldorados often look sloppily finished, but the Toronado seemed better assembled. Those "XS" (Excess?) models with the wraparound rear window were really cool, too!
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