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I own a 59 Dynamic 88 two door with the original three speed manual. I've never seen another 59 two door 88 at any car shows and have never seen one with a manual transmission anywhere. This had me wondering if there is a database of cars still on the road? Is there a way to find out how many of a particular model are still out there in the wild? Do I perhaps have the only 1959 2 door Dynamic 88 manual shift in existance?
I own a 59 Dynamic 88 two door with the original three speed manual. I've never seen another 59 two door 88 at any car shows and have never seen one with a manual transmission anywhere. This had me wondering if there is a database of cars still on the road? Is there a way to find out how many of a particular model are still out there in the wild? Do I perhaps have the only 1959 2 door Dynamic 88 manual shift in existance?
I dont have an answer for you, but I have got to say I didn't know I needed a 59 until right now. Your car is gorgeous. I love the color combination as well.
I also don't know the answer to your question(s); we do have a member, 5998DownUnder, who owns a 59 98 & may have information which might help assist you. Nice car.
I own a 59 Dynamic 88 two door with the original three speed manual. I've never seen another 59 two door 88 at any car shows and have never seen one with a manual transmission anywhere. This had me wondering if there is a database of cars still on the road? Is there a way to find out how many of a particular model are still out there in the wild? Do I perhaps have the only 1959 2 door Dynamic 88 manual shift in existence?
I don't think 1959 was a huge year for car sales. Of all the 1959's, Oldsmobile and Cadillac had the best body styles. A '59 Olds two door sedan (post) with manual transmission and rubber mats (no carpeting) was the"entry level" model. Most everything else was an "extra cost option".....carpet, radio, two tone paint, 394 engine, etc.
The only "data base" you'll find is how many cars were sold. A breakdown of what options or car colors were ordered on those cars is non existent. Any tabulation of options and colors could have been kept for "1960 product planning" and discarded later.
I seriously doubt you have the only '59 Olds with manual transmission. Because you don't see one at car shows in your area doesn't mean there aren't any in existence. Have you ever seen a '59 Olds two door "flat top" ? Have you ever seen a '59 Olds station wagon ? They are out there.
I seriously doubt you have the only '59 Olds with manual transmission. Because you don't see one at car shows in your area doesn't mean there aren't any in existence. Have you ever seen a '59 Olds two door "flat top" ? Have you ever seen a '59 Olds station wagon ? They are out there.
I'm not denying the possibility that there are other cars with a 3 speed like mine out there I'm trying to find out if there are and how many. I've done a lot of searching online in sold listings and mine is the only one I've found. I was hoping that posting here I'd get a few people saying they have one.
Just for my edgeumifcation, does "flat top" refer to a roof that extends out over the rear glass? If so, I had no idea that feature was an available variation and not a standard part of all models (all sedans for example).
Just for my edgeumifcation, does "flat top" refer to a roof that extends out over the rear glass? If so, I had no idea that feature was an available variation and not a standard part of all models (all sedans for example).
Yes, it extends past the rear glass. I know it was '59 two door, and all white. I am starting to question my memory on the "flat top". I know they made "flat tops". A 1959 Fisher body manual could confirm the existence.
I don't know if it was an 88, Super 88 or 98. It was all white and sat back a couple hundred feet on the south side of highway 23 between Foreston and Foley, Minnesota. It was behind a gated driveway. One day, it was "gone".
There is no way to know how many cars of a given spec are still around or on the road. Any database that claims to have that info is estimating at best, and the estimates can be +/- 100% or more. Historical averages are that for cars from the 50s and 60s, somewhere between 0.5% and 1.0% survive 20 years after production. Obviously this is a fleet-wide average and cars that were desirable when new likely have a higher survival rate. Heck, at least 147% of all W30s ever made still survive...
Seriously, don't lose any sleep over this. Any database or registry is only as accurate as the number of owners who have responded . I can tell you with certainty that none of the cars I own are documented in any registry. DMV records were kept on paper, so those were destroyed long ago since there was no point in paying to store them. As for the 3spd manual trans, that was base equipment in your car. They were a lot more common than you think when these cars were new. People knew how to actually drive cars then.
I own a 59 Dynamic 88 two door with the original three speed manual.
Your car, which is very nice, by the way, was the very bottom model offered by Oldsmobile in 1959. It is called Dynamic 88 2-Door Sedan. Production was 16,335. Original base price was $2,837 (equivalent to about $31,000 today).
Production of all of the '59 Dynamic 88s. Yes, Oldsmobile really did spell SceniCoupe and SportSedan just this way.
Thanks for the info. I know my car is a base but I love it. I actually have a lot of info about my car. Each previous owner left notes in the manual going back to the original owner who announced he bought it "without nothing cause I'm cheap and don't need it". Luckily I have carpets and a 4bbl.
What kind of a "book" is this? A diary of some kind started by the first owner and kept with the car all these years? Later owners added their own comments as the years went by? Such a thing is very unusual.
Here's a link to a thread on a 1963 Olds plant tour guide.
In the tour guide, Olds bragged that more than 99 percent of new Oldsmobiles were equipped with Hydra-Matic.
That would mean that less than one percent were stick shift.
I would imagine that the 1959 might have similar figures.
Olds dealers really pushed the Hydra-Matic. Ever since they introduced it in 1940.
Even back in the day, it was rare to see a stick shift Oldsmobile.
What kind of a "book" is this? A diary of some kind started by the first owner and kept with the car all these years? Later owners added their own comments as the years went by? Such a thing is very unusual.
The original owner wrote notes in the original owner's manual for the car. When he bought the car, some paperwork associated with the sale was stuffed in there too. The presumably second owner wrote on paper and stapled it into the manual. He was more about repairs and wrote a few notes about conversation with the original owner. Then there's information written by the guy I bought the car from pertaining to restoration, clutch replacement and flywheel issues. Everything was stuffed into the owner's manual.
I would think that Chris's car was a special order by the original owner. I doubt the car was bought off the lot because it's unlikely, as you suggest, that any dealer would order a stick-shift car just to have on the lot since there was so little demand for them.
I don't have information before 1964, but, in that year, manual transmissions were still standard on all of the 88s. For the Super and Dynamic 88s, a Hydramatic was a $230 option. Assuming that that the price hadn't increased that much since 1959, you could figure that an auto trans cost about $200 in 1959. On a car with a base price of about $2800, like the Dynamic 88 here, a $200 option added about 7% to the car's price. Not a huge increase, but not trivial, either. But I would guess that most Olds buyers were of some substantial financial means, or they wouldn't be looking at Oldsmobiles in the first place. If they had the means to buy an Oldsmobile, they had the means to buy one with an automatic transmission.
For the 1964 Ninety-Eight, by the way, automatic transmission was standard, and the only option was a "heavy-duty" Hydramatic for all of $16.
The original owner wrote notes in the original owner's manual for the car. When he bought the car, some paperwork associated with the sale was stuffed in there too. The presumably second owner wrote on paper and stapled it into the manual. He was more about repairs and wrote a few notes about conversation with the original owner. Then there's information written by the guy I bought the car from pertaining to restoration, clutch replacement and flywheel issues. Everything was stuffed into the owner's manual.
Your car, which is very nice, by the way, was the very bottom model offered by Oldsmobile in 1959. It is called Dynamic 88 2-Door Sedan. Production was 16,335. Original base price was $2,837 (equivalent to about $31,000 today).
Production of all of the '59 Dynamic 88s. Yes, Oldsmobile really did spell SceniCoupe and SportSedan just this way.
They were made from 1959 at least through 1962. Olds continued to make four-door full-size hardtops all the way through 1976, but the 1963 and later four-doors didn't have the obvious flat roof.
1959 Dynamic 88 SportSedan
1960 Super 88 Holiday SportSedan
The 1961 Super 88 Celebrity Sedan, which is a four-door pillared model, is not a hardtop, but it did have the roof extension over the rear window that was characteristic of the flat tops.
The 1961 Super 88 Holiday Sedan, which is a four-door hardtop, had a flat-ish roof, but there was no roof extension over the rear window. Don't know if this counts as a flat top.
The 1962 Dynamic 88 Holiday Sedan appears to have a flat roof and roof extension.
But the 1962 Super 88 Holiday Sedan did not have this feature.
