Hey C3RVETTE, did you follow me here? The reason they killed Oldsmobile was because GM management screwed up. They started giving the Olds steering wheel to the non-car guys. These are the guys who don't care about cars, they care about position. In the past Olds was the engineering division of GM. Olds came out with the chromed bumpers (1927), high performance V8 (Rocket)(1949), semi automatic transmission (1937), automatic transmission (1939), reintoduction of front wheel drive (Toronado 1966), best handling muscle car (1964 442), (corvettes are not muscle cars, they're sports cars),air bags (1974 Toronado), HUD heads up display and On Star system (1995). And these are just the ones I remember.

In 1954 Olds even had what some saw as a Corvette clone. However with a 324 V8 under the hood it was a lot faster than the Vette...so the F88 was killed. In 1966 Olds came out with the 442 W30. The W30 were factory hand built balanced and blueprinted engines. It had a tri-carb set up. When it dethroned Pontiac as the racing champ, John Delorian complained to GM. The verdict? No one would be allowed to offer a tri-carb set up as standard equipment (except Corvette). Pontiac offered the 389 tri carb as an option, Olds developed the 455.

So GM scrapped the oldest surviving car company after Mercedes. Even the Intregue, Alero and Aurora were on track in the late nineties until a strike put the final nail in the coffin. Olds asked to build a two door Aurora... "No, it will compete with the Riveria"

In racing, Olds had to quit NHRA because it was continually beating Pontiac, so it was moved to SCCA racing to compete with the foreign makes. GM didn't want GM cars competing against each other.

I suspect Buick is the next in line on the block, then Saturn. But that's just my prediction.

Ken

|UPDATED|9/19/2003 7:30:11 PM|/UPDATED|