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Ten years ago, Oldsmobile built its final car
On April 29, 2004, the last Oldsmobile rolled off the line and took the century-old badge with it.
Since its founding in 1897, Oldsmobile has enjoyed a beloved and storied past in the tapestry of American industry. So many luminary products arose from its Lansing, Mich., home!
-- The Curved Dash Oldsmobile, the world's first mass-produced car and the first to show some semblance of thought into its interior design, a legacy GM has since squandered and recovered.
-- The front-drive Toronado, which helped GM scientists discover and harness the rare, wildly dangerous meteorological phenomenon of "psychosteer." (The Toronado later spawned the eight-doored, tri-axled, 15-passenger Jetway airport bus, which may or may not have set the template for either GM's "Dustbuster" minivans or one Los Angeles apartment complex.)
-- A rich musical legacy: "In My Merry Oldsmobile," a song about knocking boots in a car, which later spawned "Rocket 88," which later spawned the Public Enemy lyric, "Suckers to the side, I know you hate my 98."
-- The Silhouette, the "Cadillac of minivans," embroiled in its own sibling rivalry.
-- The Vista Cruiser.
-- The Aerotech.
-- The Achieva, which set the template for a thousand underachieving jokes about underachievement.
-- About 1,500 individual models named "Cutlass."
-- Cars named after jets.
So many possibilities, so many permutations, so much optimism translated to badges that spoke to American ingenuity, American comfort, American needs. And then the Aurora came out.
The Aurora set the template for all succeeding Oldsmobiles. It arose from the fertile grounds of the late 1980s that saw engineering ingenuity as diverse as the Ford Taurus and the Acura NSX, itself stemming from the Tube Car concept -- a styling exercise that combined an impossibly sleek Coke-bottle shape, wheels pushed to the corners, and frameless, pillarless windows that were more painted on than installed. It looked, simply, like it had fallen out of the sky. The nameless car sat in the lobby of GM's headquarters for half a decade before starving Oldsmobile, desperate for reinvention, took it.
On April 29, 2004, the last Oldsmobile rolled off the line and took the century-old badge with it.
Since its founding in 1897, Oldsmobile has enjoyed a beloved and storied past in the tapestry of American industry. So many luminary products arose from its Lansing, Mich., home!
-- The Curved Dash Oldsmobile, the world's first mass-produced car and the first to show some semblance of thought into its interior design, a legacy GM has since squandered and recovered.
-- The front-drive Toronado, which helped GM scientists discover and harness the rare, wildly dangerous meteorological phenomenon of "psychosteer." (The Toronado later spawned the eight-doored, tri-axled, 15-passenger Jetway airport bus, which may or may not have set the template for either GM's "Dustbuster" minivans or one Los Angeles apartment complex.)
-- A rich musical legacy: "In My Merry Oldsmobile," a song about knocking boots in a car, which later spawned "Rocket 88," which later spawned the Public Enemy lyric, "Suckers to the side, I know you hate my 98."
-- The Silhouette, the "Cadillac of minivans," embroiled in its own sibling rivalry.
-- The Vista Cruiser.
-- The Aerotech.
-- The Achieva, which set the template for a thousand underachieving jokes about underachievement.
-- About 1,500 individual models named "Cutlass."
-- Cars named after jets.
So many possibilities, so many permutations, so much optimism translated to badges that spoke to American ingenuity, American comfort, American needs. And then the Aurora came out.
The Aurora set the template for all succeeding Oldsmobiles. It arose from the fertile grounds of the late 1980s that saw engineering ingenuity as diverse as the Ford Taurus and the Acura NSX, itself stemming from the Tube Car concept -- a styling exercise that combined an impossibly sleek Coke-bottle shape, wheels pushed to the corners, and frameless, pillarless windows that were more painted on than installed. It looked, simply, like it had fallen out of the sky. The nameless car sat in the lobby of GM's headquarters for half a decade before starving Oldsmobile, desperate for reinvention, took it.
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- Correo electrónico
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