Hey gearheads, My names Luke Ebel and I live in Phoenix AZ. I work for an autoglass company out here named AZ Glass Company (Best of the best). I work with cars all day so naturally I've become a car junkie. A few months back I was at a customers home and spotted an old vicki in his neighbors garage. After talking with the gentleman I found myself staring at what was indeed a 1931 ford model A Victoria and most importantly a 1930 Oldsmobile Viking sedan 8. The owner of these cars was getting on in years and only wanted what was invested in them... next to nothing!! Neither car has any cancer on it and the Viking still has its ration stickers on the windshield from WWII. For those of you whom aren't familiar with the Viking, it has one of the first V-8 engines and it is a monoblock with horizontal valves (very unique looking). This car has amazing craftsmanship on the interior. The hardest thing for me has been trying to locate another Viking owner, I have so many questions on this car and can't seem to find a Viking guru. If anyone can point me in the right direction I would greatly appreciate it. I'll get pics on here ASAP.

 

Antique Automobile Club of America would be a good place to start.http://www.aaca.org/

 

Post pics of the Viking, would be interesting to see.

 

WOW - I do not think i have seen (or even heard of) one of those - get pics, quick!

They sound pretty original and hope they would stay that way - including the ration stickers!
So did you buy either?

BTW, WELCOME aboard!!

 

Welcome to our site!! Wish I lived in Phoenix..... someday!! Sounds like a cool car - can't wait to see pics!

 

Didn't GM only make the Viking for like 3 years; 39-41 if I remember correctly? I remember reading some car encyclopedia about them once. Wasn't the Viking not "Technically" an Oldsmobile, but it was like a 'parent' or some weird designation. I know Cadillac had the 'Lasalle' which was similar. I think they were designed to fill 'gaps' between lines, as Buick, Olds, Pontiac, and Cadillac all had pretty rigid economic classes, so there were 'gaps' in prices between brands. Like Olds was $100, Buick $200, and Cadillac $300, and the Viking was priced like $135, and the Buick Marquette was like 165$ etc.

 

Sure would like to see pictures of the Viking. Nice score

 

In 1930 the viking cost $1750 going up in cost from the 1929 model. Remember the great depression hit in 1929, so at the birth of this car it was already on GM's chopping block. The cars that survived were the ones that had the most customer awareness... obviously this was not one of them. In 1929 they sold under 6K units, in 1930 just over 2K units were made, and in 1931 the made 350 units from remaining 1930 parts.

 

Here's a ration book and coupons that my mom had saved, I keep it with my automobilia.

 

x3 on posting pics of the Viking. I've never seen one either.

 

Viking was a "companion" make to Oldsmobile the way LaSalle was to Cadillac, Pontiac was to Oakland, and Marquette was to Buick. But it was the only one of these that actually cost more than its parent make.

It was made for only three model years, 1929-1931, but the decision to kill it was made at the end of 1930, so only 353 1931 models were made using leftover 1930 parts. Viking production for 1929 was 5,260 and for 1930 was 2,743. In those same two years, Oldsmobile made 101,149 and 52,445 cars, respectively, so Viking was a drop-in-the-bucket contribution.

The most expensive 1929 Oldsmobile was the Model F-29 Deluxe Landau at $1,165. The least expensive 1929 Vikings were the V-29 4-door sedan, 4-door Brougham and convertible coupe at $1,695 each. For 1930, the most expensive Olds was the Model 30 Deluxe Patrician Sedan at $1,190, and the least expensive 1930 Vikings were the same three as for 1929 at the same prices.

This information comes from "Setting the Pace." The book has only one photo of a Viking, a 1929 DeLuxe four-door sedan. There's also an old magazine ad shown. I've scanned them both, and they're below.







With production of this car being as low as it was (barely 8,000 cars total), it's not a surprise that finding another one today could be so difficult.


Someone would have to be a very serious guru to be a Viking guru. With production as low as it was and the likely survival rate, you'd probably have all of 10 or 20 cars to concern yourself with today!

 

Welcome to CO Luke, glad to have you with us and hope that you do indeed own this car. I manually approve all membership applications and when I saw your user name yesterday I was thinking, hoping that it reflected someone that actually did own a Viking. Looking forward to more information on the car and perhaps some pictures.