Never read the book but I will look into it.

 

Olds Utes.

 

I like both of those utes.

 

Read the following article from 1997 regarding General Motor's Project 2000 and it seems to be telling dealership owners with stand alone Pontiac or Oldsmobile franchises to purchase an additional GM division line to sell. The writing was on the wall.

 

Um they {GM} violated there own deal with dealerships by sell cars in a what was described as superstores.These super stores were placed one or two miles away. Dealer ships had to remain X miles away from each other. Then here comes gm and screws them and sell cars cheaper than what dealers can which ran them out of business. Why would anyone want a corvette with a 6 cylinder when they could of had a F88 with a v8 that would out run any chevy car period in 54? Oh there was a plan!

 

This is the one referenced in the above post about texas442.com It is, or was, owned by a NTOC member.

 

Thanks edzolz,

I'm not a 70's muscle car guy but I really thought the conversion on this one was really well done. Most 'Ute' conversions they just chop off behind the pillar and go straight down and don't do the lines of the thing justice. I guess they have used a similar era el camino roof to do the conversion. its very smick

Unfortunately our local ute manufacturing is coming to an end this year. Ford bowed out of local manufacturing last year and Holden ( GM ) is doing so this year. I'll miss the local utes.

somewhere I have a picture of a 48 Olds ute, looks great. based on the chev body but nicer than the above 52 or so model

 

Back when there was only Mopar/amc/ford/gm and a few small makes you could have 6 brands .
By 1990.. that business model was on death row..
The cost of testing drivetrains killed many brands own engines by 1980.
G.m. for decades build badge engineered vehicles..
By 1990 what had olds brought to the table.. The quad 4, a decade to late.. As it was a ruff and noisey 4 banger that by the time it came out needed to be smooth and quite..
Same with Pontiac.. Did anyone care what they sold after the firebird died.. The g/p sold.. but not much else..
Someone had to win and someone had to loose. It wasn't going to be Chevy.. that be like ford killing ford but keeping merc.
If I was king, lol
I'd have kept buick as the overseas brand, and kept olds as the midway between chevy and caddy..
I'd have also never build the arora FWD v8 I'd have brought the 2 and 4 door holdens over as olds.. once the rear drive g body was killed..
G.m brass should've been shown the doors in the 80's.. as they made a habit of dragging out getting a model good then killing it..
Why they waited till 2004 to try bringing over rear drive holdens.. was a big mistake..
But there is no way g.m. could keep 6 brands.. I think GMC needs to die..
or be the truck brand leg of chevy and stop with the chevy and gmc trucks twins.. let caddy have the upscale truck..
They are running down the same badge engineered road they did with cars..
I was sad to see olds go, then Pontiac.. but I was not shocked ..
I can honestly say, olds had nothing to make me go to their dealership after the read drive cutlass was history..
Between 88 and it's death what would you buy or did buy? only thing out of g.m. that was of some interest to me,was the 3800s/c bontie and then the g8 , .. olds was not even on my radar for a new vehicle..
a used mid 80's cutlass sure.. but new..

 

Toronado and Cutlass concept drawing from 1972. Tornado has some 80's F body cues, Can see 80's C body and maybe some G in the Cutlass sketch.

 

Chevorlet was like a shitty, spoiled sibling to Oldsmobile. The F-88 is probably the biggest what if, it would have embarrassed the Corvette in every way. Imagine a F-88 with a Hemi 455, the ZL1 wouldn't look so impressive.

 

I saw this at the Pate Swap Meet this weekend on the car corral. When I first saw it, I assumed that it was a funeral flower car because the coach work was very good. After speaking with the owners found out that it was built by their father who was a body man by profession. Once he had accomplished the hard portion of the fabrication, he let the project stall. The tailgate and doors open an shut perfectly. The plate in the bed is the only thing that needs to be swapped for a traditional bed metal. Maybe he had intended to do a wood lined bed. Original ‘59 driveline with column shifted manual. If it were finished, I believe it would be spectacular. They are asking $17,5... I have a phone number if any interest. Located in west Texas

 

Fascinating.
Looks like he might've been inspired by the '59 El Catalina prototype.

 

I have seen a few of the Pontalinas over time. Each and every one claims to be a 1 of 1?

 

This is the one I saw last year at Mecum Indy.
Seemed to have at least 'some' doc to support it.

https://www.mecum.com/lots/SC0518-32...ina-prototype/

 

Well put. I've been saying something similar to that for years, but that pretty much sums it up. Olds built everything and everyone else copied it and tried to claim it as there own, they never got the deserved credit then and now.

I like it, just don't have the 17K.

Someone needs to explain the "ute" thing.

 

Someone needs to explain the "ute" thing.[/QUOTE]

Aussie slang for “utility”