I’m not a “car person,” but I am a “history person,” and this gave me a little shiver of regret:
LANSING, Mich. (AP) - It’s the end of the line for the oldest automotive brand name in the United States. The last Oldsmobile rolled of the line Thursday morning at the Lansing Car Assembly plant, which has produced the venerable vehicles for nearly a century. Employees watched as the last Alero rolled off the assembly line. The last car will feature the signatures of the plant employees on the inside of the hood and be displayed at the R.E. Olds Transportation Museum in Lansing for about four months, said Rebecca Harris, a spokeswoman for General Motors Corp.
Oldsmobile, the brand that pioneered chrome-plated trim and gave drivers the Eighty Eight series, the front-wheel-drive Toronado and the Cutlass, was named for its founder, Ransom E. Olds, who started the Olds Motor Vehicle Co. in Lansing in 1897. It became part of GM in 1908. Of the 35.2 million Oldsmobiles built during the nameplate’s existence, more than 14 million were built in Lansing. GM announced in December 2000 it would end production of the struggling Oldsmobile line with the 2004 model year. The Alero is the only remaining vehicle in the brand’s once diverse lineup.
Oldmobile died because GM couldn’t find a market niche for it. Historically, Chevy has been their economy brand, Pontiac the sleek sporty brand, and Cadillac the high-end brand, with Buick and Olds somewhere in between Pontiac and Cadillac. (GMC is, of course, trucks, and was originally a strictly utilitarian brand. Saturn was created to compete against the rice burners.)
It turned out that there wasn’t enough room in the “sorta luxurious” niche for two brands, so Oldsmobile got the axe. Sucks
My grandmother, who was more than a little car-proud, had a candy-apple red 1963 Olds Starfire convertible. The first car I ever saw with power windows. I remember riding in it with her on various occasions…
She had other cars through the years, but she kept the Starfire. When she died in 1985, it was sold to a collector, who was damned glad to get it…
