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OK, maybe not THE darkest day, but certainly one of them, and I'm not talking about Al Gore's problems.
I was cleaning out a closet and came across this, the December 13, 2000 issue of the Columbus Dispatch. I kept it because of the article about GM's announcement about the phaseout of Oldsmobile. It's in the lower left corner of the front page. In addition to an article about the closure in the main section of the paper, there was an article in the business section about the reaction of local dealers.
I like the comment in the last paragraph of this article. The dealer speaking is clueless. "The bigger frustration with Old was repositioning the brand to get away from the stodgy image it had in the 1970s and 1980s." Stodgy image? Really? This is the image that helped Oldsmobile sell more than a million cars a year for several years in that period. Those years were Oldsmobile's best in terms of sales, and if that was due to "stodgy," then Olds needed all the stodgy it could get.
I looked it up. The first model year in its history that Olds sold 1 million or more cars was 1977. It sold 1 million or more that year plus 1978, 1979, 1984, 1985, and 1986. For the years between (1980-1983), sales hovered just below 1 million. Even 1976 sales were almost 900,000. All in all, the 1976 to 1986 period was THE high water mark for Oldsmobile. How quickly they forget.
In a nutshell.............they decided to screw up a good thing. GM kept Buick that never outsold Oldsmobile or Pontiac. They kept GMC and its main completion is Chevrolet. Saturn is gone isn't it ?
I think we are living in our darkest days of history right now.............
It always seems that way. When, for example, the bubonic plague, otherwise known as the "Black Death," was wiping out 60% of Europe's population back in the 14th century, I imagine those people thought it was the darkest period in history.
It may have been for convenience that the company chose Oldsmobile to do away with. I've read that around that time the division was without a leader, and with the sales like they were it was easier to kill the division than try to get someone to run it. I think that's BS, I'm sure a number of people would have liked to try their hand at it. I also think it was planned for some years. Purposely build cars that no one wants, then pull the plug and act the victim. "We had no choice. No one would buy the cars."
When you see a company start hacking off body parts and loyal customers you have the company you have today.The company still hacking parts off and not concentrating on high quality product like Toyota, Honda, .The management at GM in the last 40 year has put short term profits over long term goal.I live in Ohio and a Honda built in Maryville is just a better made car .I hate to see that factory shut down in lordstown a lot pain and suffering coming but the company never really brought into making top of the class car.Now the car market has collapsed so their out of the sedan game petty much sending them to their competitors. The next big hope for GM is on EV vehicles with a Infrastructure not ready for prime time and gas prices at $2.00 gallon.The only way their going to get massive adoption is by regulation and taxation by the government on ICE and fossil fuel use.
In 10 years, GM will join the ranks of Hudson, Studebaker, Packard, and all the other brands that are only seen on the field of collector cars, not in showrooms. Many expected the turn around after the bankruptcy, however, they still don't know how to build cars that the American public wants to drive and buy. They lost their way a long time ago, and now, I see that Ford is going to follow in the same foot steps that has caused GM to fail.
I think Ford, Chevrolet, GMC, and RAM are going to concentrate on trucks and SUV's. Buick, Lincoln, Dodge, and Cadillac will be the car lines. It will do away with the redundancy of cars competing against one and other within the same brands.
I think Ford, Chevrolet, GMC, and RAM are going to concentrate on trucks and SUV's. Buick, Lincoln, Dodge, and Cadillac will be the car lines. It will do away with the redundancy of cars competing against one and other within the same brands.
I asked you one question what in their history will make you believe they will get that right? My fellow brothers here on classic oldsmobile and other bands that are orphan get no love and is told you don't count anymore is walking into Toyota ,Honda ,Kia dealership . The children of these orphan band owners have no reason to shop GM,Ford or Dodge.Their is coming a time when they won't have the truck market when there a spike in gas prices. But the end game is to import all cars from Asia to fill their needs. The bottom line is they had 40 years and bailouts to get in the game now their in the locker room heading to the bus.
Location: Sherwood Park, Alberta, in the Great White North
Posts: 359
GM is using the same excuses now to get out of North America. Fine, if they'd like to become an Asian car manufacturer, that's Ok with me, they'll never sell me another one. Instead of responding to the market and building what people want, they build stuff that sells to leasing and rental car outfits and then have the gall to wonder why people aren't buying. There used to be a time when GM dictated the trends, and was the leader; and that is because they followed Sloan's Dictum and built a car for every market. By selectively killing a few lines to try and consolidate a failing product line is bad business and kinda stupid. GM is guilty of all of that and more. Let 'em go broke. The writing was on the wall when they killed Olds; and by the way, there was never a time when Olds outsold Buick.
Was Olds "old and stodgy"? Well, by the late 80s, yes. They had lost their way in the late 60s; just look and see how many of the senior series cars are still around. Not many. They sold a ton of Cutlass's and 442s, but their bread and butter cars were 88s and 98s, and these went to grampa who drove them until they expired. They never capitalized on the Cutlass line until it was way too late.
By the way, the last Alero I had was actually a wonderful well built car, one of the best I'd ever owned. We had a 2004, one of the last to come of the line. It certainly was better than anything else made by Pontiac or Buick. I still see Aleros around, don't see too many Grande Ams or Grand Prix around anymore. They shouldn't have killed the Olds.
For those that say GM and other car makers are not building what people want, you are wrong. Trucks and SUV's out sell cars probably around 7-1 to where cars used to outsell trucks and SUV's. They are changing by doing away with unprofitable car lines. The public is not buying cars because small SUV's get pretty close to the same fuel economy as a car.
For those that say GM and other car makers are not building what people want, you are wrong. Trucks and SUV's out sell cars probably around 7-1 to where cars used to outsell trucks and SUV's. They are changing by doing away with unprofitable car lines. The public is not buying cars because small SUV's get pretty close to the same fuel economy as a car.
I ask you one question what in their history will make you think they managed that right?We are members of a orphan brand that sold a million cars a year in the 70 and 80 and they figured a way to screwed that up.They was given a clean slate from bankruptcy and unloaded their pension on to the union to manage. They screwed over bondholders and suppliers .They came to the taxpayers and got bailout that me you would never get .They are the biggest producers in Mexico and the new trailblazer is being produced their, that could've been produced in the states or Canda. To gain entry onto China market they have to produce their and use suppliers there. But when asked about the home market investment and concerns they have a deer in the headlights look .Honda and Toyota have more domestic content in their vehicles then the Big 2 ! Mary and the band of misfits have watch market share shrink like a g string on stripper.One more gas spike and this company will be back with their hat in thier hand looking for a hand out.
Jaunty, that's cool that you have that news article. It's good that you made a high quality scan of it too. Newsprint is about the cheapest paper available and you can already see the yellowing in the pics you posted. Too bad Oldsmobile died.
I have long maintained that Oldsmobile was sacrificed at the altar of Saturn. Oldsmobile sold about 1.2 million cars in 1986 and fell to less than 300,000 in 1993. What happened in between, I ask you? The answer is simple--Saturn. The resources to launch and promote that ill-fated brand had to come from somewhere and there just wasn't enough to go around. At the same time they were promoting the hell out of Saturn, you almost never saw an Oldsmobile ad on TV. And just to make things a bit weirder, a lot of the styling cues on early Saturn models came straight from Oldsmobile. The front clip on the early Saturn sedans and wagons look a heck of a lot like a '66 Toronado--just substitute the Saturn's composite headlights for the Toro's hideaways. Saturn's use of a split grille with a vertically oriented rectangular emblem in the center also reflected styling that Olds had been using consistently for about twenty years. It's also interesting that almost as soon as Oldsmobile was gone, Saturn abandoned the Olds-like split grille in favor of a more conventional (and uglier) grille design.And if you look at the exterior body lines of the first Saturn sedan, it's a perfectly scaled down iteration of the Cutlass Supreme sedan that was in production at the time. I think this was all calculated to cause brand confusion at Oldsmobile's expense.
Saturn the great money pit in the sky .That why i ask the question what gives you any Confidence in Mary and Russ to Steer the ship call GM from hitting the iceberg?There given praise for getting stock prices up and short term gain.They have done everything to send loyal GM customers to Honda and Toyota ,which means their kids won't visit a GM showroom .Great for bonus packages this quarter and the hell with the future.What ad campaign that running for their bands make you want buy a car from them?.
Last edited by eric66; January 16th, 2019 at 06:44 PM.
Reason: Spelling
Dinosaurs are by far the most successful large animal life form to have inhabited this planet. 200 million years of warm weather, plentiful food. Why shouldn't it go on forever?
Then a catastrophic change in circumstances meant they couldn't compete in the modern era and mostly couldn't change fast enough to stay viable. A few could, and became modern day birds.
American cars were by far the most successful cars North America had ever seen. 50 years of state of the art manufacturing facilities, a large market of eager buyers, cheap gas, plenty of room for new roads. Why shouldn't it go on forever?......
When I bought my first American car (an Oldsmobile, btw) I had a T shirt that read; "I ❤ my Detroit dinosaur" Ok it should say Lansing, but most Brits have never heard of it, and Detroit is more alliterative.
Dinosaurs are by far the most successful large animal life form to have inhabited this planet. 200 million years of warm weather, plentiful food. Why shouldn't it go on forever?
Then a catastrophic change in circumstances meant they couldn't compete in the modern era and mostly couldn't change fast enough to stay viable. A few could, and became modern day birds.
American cars were by far the most successful cars North America had ever seen. 50 years of state of the art manufacturing facilities, a large market of eager buyers, cheap gas, plenty of room for new roads. Why shouldn't it go on forever?......
When I bought my first American car (an Oldsmobile, btw) I had a T shirt that read; "I ❤ my Detroit dinosaur" Ok it should say Lansing, but most Brits have never heard of it, and Detroit is more alliterative.
Roger.
Roger.
I understand were you coming from ,GM had a great ride just like Leyland Motors in Great Britain. But these jokers want to keep telling people that that they invented a new wheel.But hey I would keep saying it and collect millions in Bonuses If I could🤨😀.
I believe the last Oldsmobile left the factory sometime in 2004 right? Then Pontiac was somewhere in 2010 maybe? As a kid my Dad always had an Oldsmobile in the driveway which is how I got my addiction! My question is if GM's excuse for killing off two divisions was the car's weren't selling! The not selling didn't happen overnight! If the execs had their finger on the pulse of their products they could and should have seen the market changing for YEARS! But we can't change that now so that's a dead issue. My question is "WHY THE HELL DID THEY KEEP THE UGLY BUICK DESIGN"? Buick at the time was and in my opinion is still the UGLYEST GM offerings to exist! They didn't keep Olds because it was geared towards STODGY Old People? Then Pontiac remember "WE BUILD EXCITEMENT"? They offered Trans-Am, Grand- Am, G8 late model GTO's and they all looked better than any Buick! Buick did and still does remind me of the bingo parking lot down the street at the church! Now they are going to stop selling sedans for the most part. I say "WHO CARES!" The are all UGLY anyway! If GM would get their head out of their butt and would have built a GOOD LOOKING 2door vehicle of some sort people would have probably bought them! The masses have spoken and most don't want need or desire a 4 door all the time! When GM killed off Oldsmobile I was pissed and said I guess I have to look to Pontiac when and if I purchase my next new car. Well then they killed off Pontiac so I haven't visited a GM new car showroom since and will probably not. I'm probably not the only person in the country that feels that way. GM in my mind is the dinosaur of the car world it won't be long and they will all be gone. They build NOTHING that a working class young family can afford. That is why we see KIA HYUNDAI and others taking over the market. Sad to see a once great American Corporation go down the toilet but it won't be long and they will be wiped and flushed! Joe
I understand were you coming from ,GM had a great ride just like Leyland Motors in Great Britain. .
BMC, which later became British Leyland at one time commanded over 50% of the British car market, and in the early 1950s were the worlds biggest exporter of cars.
Like GM they badge engineered a lot of models, you could buy basically the same car with different trim and engine tune in Austin, Morris, Riley, Wolesley, MG, or Vanden Plas forms.
Also like GM in some ways it was manged with awesome incompetence. Irresponsible unions frequently halted production with strike action.
Less like GM, it was always strapped for money to invest in R&D, which resulted in some very cleverly designed cars leaving showrooms with lots of bugs not fixed, Although it also resulted in some antedeluvian engines refined and developed to match modern designs from other makers.
Much more like GM it was bailed out by the taxpayer, at least until Margaret Thatcher became prime minister.
Now the UK's biggest car manufacturers by volume are Nissan, Toyota, and Honda.
Roger.
Last edited by rustyroger; January 22nd, 2019 at 07:15 AM.
From what I understand the reason GM cut Oldsmobile and Pontiac and kept Buick was due to sales volume of the Buick in China and other European countries, I have always owned American cars mostly GM products and tried to instill it in my children, my daughter has only GM but to my sadness after my son moved away from our rural area he bought a used Honda and now a new Hyundai. I hope it never comes down to the point that some here have made that GM or any American auto company’s become a thing of the past as for me I will stay true to the GM name be it my GMC,Cadillac and my classic Oldsmobile’s
From what I understand the reason GM cut Oldsmobile and Pontiac and kept Buick was due to sales volume of the Buick in China and other European countries, I have always owned American cars mostly GM products and tried to instill it in my children, my daughter has only GM but to my sadness after my son moved away from our rural area he bought a used Honda and now a new Hyundai. I hope it never comes down to the point that some here have made that GM or any American auto company’s become a thing of the past as for me I will stay true to the GM name be it my GMC,Cadillac and my classic Oldsmobile’s
I own 5 oldsmobile and have own many other GM vehicles I was a loyalist but I just can't keeping giving incompetent Management a pass . I want success for the Big 2 and the jobs and the communities that depend on them . The competition didn't sneak up on them and given a clean slate by the government bailouts ,why are you still not Competitive in certain segments of the market? I keep hearing about how great the trucks and SUV are selling and that great what about your customers base that don't want one ? The push that GM and Ford wants to do is import more cars from Asia that okay if you lower price of those cars.I hold my breath on that one , why should I buy their vehicles when I can get a Honda or a Toyota made in the states that is better quality?
It's a common thing at Toyota to read a story of record profits in one email, then a new cost cutting measure in the next. Those people are serious about penny pinching.
January 13th, 2019, 11:20 AM
