Here's a good video about Oldsmobile's demise.

 

Interesting watch, thank you for posting.

 

Yep, so many mourn GM killing Oldsmobile but really in the end the only difference between a "Oldsmobile" and a Pontiac or Chevrolet, Buick or sometimes even a GMC was the emblems on the cars. It was a slow killing that started in the early 60's when all shared suspension pieces, then transmissions, then engines, on and on...

 

Great post, thank you for sharing. What I was puzzled at was the not-so-good reception of the W-body Cutlass Supremes from 1988 on. I thought they were a nice design, and I thought they improved during the life of that model and I did buy one new in 1994. I always thought the 90's CS most closely resembled a NASCAR race car of that day. But, I'm only one man with one opinion who bought one car. I guess many others did not share my outlook.

 

Maybe the 88 Cutlass didn't do well because it was FWD like the 88, 98 and Toronado at the time. The only RWD car Oldsmobile had in 88 was the Custom Cruiser.

 

"Badge Engineering". The shared suspension, frame, chassis and common pieces was a good thing. By '71 model year for the big cars. The placing of other division's engines in your division's not so much. Have to wonder what was going through their minds, at the time? Were they even car people, or robots?
The '78 - '88 A/G cars had a long run. But they replaced them with yet another FWD chassis, at that time. Why didn't they consider a unitized RWD design, with appearance resembling the cars they replaced? Would have certainly given them a leg up on both Ford and Mopar, at that time. Ford did have such a car, at that time. Thunderbird/Cougar. But no four door or wagon variants.

 

So you're saying keep the RWD but place them in the 88-94 restyled bodies for the CS? If so that would have been great. I would much rather have preferred RWD in my 94.