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As we all know to our collective chagrin, GM did not keep dealer invoice records or much of any other kind of record for Oldsmobiles built prior to 1977. Well, my '78 Toro is a post '76 car, so I thought I'd pay the GM Heritage Center the $50 fee and see what I could learn about this car. Below is what I got.
I think it's pretty cool. I can see exactly what options the car left the factory with (and their cost), the color name of the paint, the name and location of the dealer to which it was delivered, and more. I knew from the seller that the car was originally from Florida.
Some of the codes at the codes at the bottom ("NVI", "SHIP") along the bottom I haven't figured out, but the second one, HP, is 190. Is that the engine horsepower? I think that is the correct number, but it seems an odd thing to put at the bottom of an invoice. I think "H'BACK" is the dealer(?) holdback because the number there (267.50) is the same as is shown in the right-most column near the bottom next to "LESS HOLDBACK".
Ship date is obvious as I presume that's the date it left the factory. The time-built code on the cowl tag is 8C, third week of August, so a ship date of mid-September seems reasonable. "EXP. TR. TIME" is, I presume, Expected Transit Time, but then they give a date rather than a length of time. So the vehicle was expected to arrive at the dealer on September 26. No idea what "INT. DATE" is except that it's a month after the arrive-at-dealer date. No idea what "DATE OF EX" is, either, except that it's the same as the ship date.
I had a little fun with Google street view to see what's at the address of the dealer now. It is most definitely not a car dealership any more. Looks like a strip shopping center with apartments or offices above. Very clean and nice and modern, but no Oldsmobiles around that I can see.
I have the original window sticker and protecto plate for my 71 98. I also know the original owner's address. I need to do a Google Maps search. I know Eskridge Oldsmobile no longer exists in OKC, they are a GM / Lexus dealer now.
Yes, having the window sticker would be ideal as that's not only good documentation but also a piece of the car's history that an owner could have. These invoices the GM center sends out are factory-to-dealer type documentation not meant to be part of what the original purchaser received at the time of purchase. But it's far better than nothing.
I'm thinking NVI might be New Vehicle Inspection and 3.0 is three hours that the factory would have paid to perform the NVI. I don't know why that would appear on the invoice, and three hours seems excessive (they don't pay that today). So I could be wrong about that.
I would say HP is horsepower and SHIP would be shipping weight. In some states these figures appeared on vehicle titles. These figures probably would have also appeared on the Certificate of Origin, so this makes them kind of redundant, but I do recall in the past having to refer to the invoice to get weights for trucks that weren't on the COs.
H-back is Holdback.
Int date, I'm assuming, is the date that the vehicle would have started to accrue interest on the dealer's floor plan. Most dealers don't pay for their vehicles until they are sold, but must pay interest on them after the first 30 days they sit on the lot.
March 2nd, 2017, 02:03 PM
