Chillkoot Markowee Saturn too. They were unique in the beginning. Saturn could’ve been more successful then Buick if it had been saved instead and remarketed properly
Of course, Chillkoot. Both makers could have become freelance of GM and still producing good cars. Too bad their financial problems and low sales to then say goodbye
Unlike Pontiac and Oldsmobile, RAM trucks become independent from Dodge and took away the ram head logo to identify themselves in every model of its lineup
Lansing Michigan Oldsmobile plant 35 years. Retired 2002. As a former employee when the last rolled off the floor. Tear's was a understatement. In my opinion GM worst mistake of many! Thank you
he should have changed his name to Elon instead of ELI. Then, he can make bad cars, miss production, and is a shit person and still have stock that is worth billions.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart for building my 1993 Cutlass Supreme Convertible that I am sitting in as I type this. It is 2021 and she has 199,201 on thr clock. I have had her for 11 years. I first saw this car in the October 1992 Car & Driver when I was 15 years old. I am 43 now. I still have that magazine. 💙
Watching a story like this years after it’s release helps a person appreciate just how one sided reporting can be. You listen to this and think GM was making the only decision it could make. Olds was loosing money, right? BUT THE REST OF THE STORY is that GM was run by clowns for years! Fools set on quick profits with pathetic quality standards. Olds wasn’t the problem, GM was
Finally. Someone with some common sense. The media frames it as if GM is a victim to market trends. The truth is, they’ve made crappy cars for decades. That’s what happens when you have short-sighted, greedy corporate clowns running the show. The opposite of Toyota.
he should have changed his name to Elon instead of ELI. Then, he can make bad cars, miss production, and is a shit person and still have stock that is worth billions.
Even though I never had one of them, I used to love Oldsmobiles. My favorite models of theirs were the Toronado, Aurora, Cutlass Supreme, Bravada (the SUV), Delta 88, and 98 Regency. I miss Oldsmobile.
@@WhiteSlift That's right, give him some bonuses by laying off some workers and diving into their benefits. The man needs his rest and relaxation otherwise he might lose more.
Years ago, I inherited a 03 Aurora and 01 Intrigue. I know now why parents loved Olds. The Intrigue was one of the best cars I or anyone in my family has ever owned. Very reliable and very little trouble with it.
Still a huge mistake !! GM killed Oldsmobile by not allowing them to produce the cars they wanted !! but yet Buick is still here ?? old persons car , Buicks suck !!!
SJC Cobra Buick is not an old person's car anymore and hasn't been for over a decade. Even if that was the case, what did that make Oldsmobile since they competed for the identical market position as Buick? lol. Buick is still around because it is modern and relevant, and it's sales are strong worldwide now, not just in China. Olds couldn't keep up and since Olds and Buick were duplicate products, GM went with where the money was. Why wouldn't they?
Your very correct , we had the incompetent man running GM at the time Rick wagoneer who knew nothing about the cars, and just wanted money and then buying Hummer, and Saab, and never made a profit, and said to Olds u are not getting any money we spent it on our other divisions. There was only 2 execs that was agreeing to axe Olds while the other execs said it was a bad and costly mistake and it cost GM over 2 billion to end the brand.
Buick is only here because of China really, and the sells here in the usa are low. and Olds was keeping up but not given the platform to shine like it was! Oldsmobile would have outshine Buick. Olds was more performance, technology luxury oriented while Buick was traditional luxury. Buick was not doin great at all really when Olds was gettin the axe, and was phased out because they thought it was cheaper and they aquired the Hummer and Saab brand thought they were gonna make money but wrong! but in the end it cost them quite a bit of money. Oldsmobile was not the cheapest brand to phase out. It did take Buick a decade to leave off where Olds did, there now luxury performance oriented now as olds was, and the same with Cadillac gotta fill in the Oldsmobile niche
Myaurora2001 And if in 2000 they, as well as everyone else, had clear foresight, everyone would have realized then what the outcome would be--a good business decision. I liked Oldsmobile very much myself, but at the end of the day Buick was the money maker. Yes, they were and still are a money maker in china, but so what? Who cares? They are now a money maker again in the US and I think it's great. Buick and Olds were essentially the same brand. This is GM's fault, not each respective brand's fault. And while you say sales are slow, I'm going to disagree with you in that they have not been consistently slow. Buick sales have been up and down just like most other automakers. I understand in May 2017 their sales in the US increased 28.5% and that's nothing to dismiss as unsuccessful. Either way, Olds lost ground, Buick gained it and is maintaining it. Let them do their thing. It's working for them. GM stock is up. What's so bad about this?
I grew up in a Oldsmobile family. Mom always had Custom Cruiser station wagons as our family car & Dad drove Delta 88’s As a little kid, I can still remember the sound of the 455 engines in those cars back then.
Still drive a 98 Olds Bravada. At a quarter million miles as of yesterday and it’s the most reliable car I’ve ever seen. Has not been in the shop in almost two years.
Must have the 4.3L V6 in it. I drove a 2001 Chevy p.u. with the V6 and put over 1 million miles on it in 11 years time. I was a delivery driver, hard life for a vehicle. I still remember the day the digital dash stuck at 999,999 and stopped, didn't flip back over to 000,000 like I thought it would.
I miss Oldsmobile at that time before Oldsmobile was discontinued called the company asked the man if '03 was the last year they would stopped making Olds... he told them for 2004 they were making three models Alero/Bravada/ Silhouette. Doing one summer saw Oldsmobile commercial with Billy Preston song in it think saw the Oldsmobile lineup for '03 all except for Intrigue asked my mother wonder what to Intrigue so knew something was wrong right there. Oldsmobile made some of the best cars look luxury a older man that was like our relative owned few Oldsmobiles he had a pretty one it was a Green '94 Regency 98 for a car back in the day it was up to date we rode with him picking up a lady across town they were going visit somebody in nursing home my mother and I was sitting in the back another man who attended our church was back there with us the man that was like our relative told the guy his door wasn't closed all the day he couldn't figured out how to open the inside latch, he was about to tear the man's door up... lol our closed relative/friend told him wait a minute you get ready tear it up other guy still couldn't figure how to open the door both of them cursed, it was so funny at time I was little my mother laughed all that day about it, I wish he could had kept that beautiful car. Though was a teenager at time when Oldsmobile rode off the Alero, if was a middle aged guy back than would had bought either Intrigue or Aurora did want a Alero wonder if few years after got back license at 17 how would the 2007 Alero looked or if Intrigue as well would had bought a 2007 Oldsmobile. Still see few Oldsmobiles around two Bravada's, Intrigue which saw one passing by almost broke my legs rushing to the window and Cutlass rebadged Malibu. The problem was GM didn't advertised Olds enough though the brand was old they sure made great cars from Oldsmobile my favorites are (Aurora, Alero, Intrigue, Bravada). Even Saturn and Pontiac was get ready be discontinued can't talk about it anymore so sad but at end Pontiac was boring they wasn't fun anymore like 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s Grand Prix, Grand Am and Bonneville were some beautiful sportier sedans - Saturn started getting better toward end sadly they were discontinued liked those cars R.i.P. Oldsmobile Pontiac Saturn The legacy lives on 😥😢 still see some of these models from this brand.
@0:49 WAS the PROBLEM. Rebadged Chevy Blazers, vans, etc. Each brand should have had their own vehicles, not just rebadged Chevys with slight differences. BTW we love our 2001 Oldsmobile Intrigue, even today is 2021, still going strong.
Yeah i dont know what gm was doing in the 90s. If cars are going to use the same platform make them unique because rebadging doesn’t work. But yeah those late 90s early 2000s gm products have great reliability you still see those products on the road today
I just hated that insulting "This is not your father's Oldsmobile" campaign. I grew up riding in my father's Oldsmobiles. I just thought it was stupid--biting the proverbial hands that fed the division for so many decades. Anybody think that contributed to its slide? They went from Hero in the '70s to Zero in the '90s.
Terry Meadows the Aurora was a right choice but between the announcement of phasing out olds and it's lack of originality when compared to the first gen. It was doomed to fail because of GM. despite that it was an amazing car that was way ahead of it's time. I've had mine for the last 7 years and while it is running on fumes so to speak at this point it's been with me through everything and has outlasted all the other cars I've owned, just goes to show how great of a think Olds has going with the Aurora
I disagree. Heavily. That campaign kept the brand afloat, and brought in a brand new generation of drivers for the 1987 model year. Its exactly what Olds needed to get the Quad 4 off the ground.(And they did in 1989, once GM stopped being dickheads and cutting costs on crucial design parts and gaskets) . And it also brought in some fresh new ideas that the brand desperately needed after almost a decade of boring and unreliable cars. They were way ahead of their time with this campaign. And a1,000HP 4 cylinder passenger car is still very far off into the future.
I was born in the 90s but distinctly remember my family owning at least two Oldsmobiles when I was a kid. The first "family" car I ever remember was a maroon Olds Cutlass Ciera Brougham (don't know the model year), and I remember my gma had an 88 that was a similar color (and I think a later model). I remember when this news story aired, and while I was only seven at the time, it was sad to think that the auto brand that I had spent so much time riding in would soon be a thing of the past.
Nah. He was a smart guy dealt a bad hand. Because of GM's push into China, a move initiated by Wagoner, they're still around today. GM was quickly returning to an operating profit until the great recession.
In the past 15 years, GM has lost Oldsmobile, Pontiac, Saab, and Saturn. GM still has its head up its ass. This year, Buick, Chevy, and Cadillac are losing their large sedans...while the foreign brands still sell loads of sedans. Next to go will be GMC trucks and then either Buick or Cadillac.
@@sil80d Seems like the Big 3 never completely learn this particular lesson (latching on to whatever the hot new thing is to the extent of ignoring the rest of their product line), and one would think these companies would have caught on at some point, especially in the cases where the blunder nearly killed the company altogether (GM in the events leading to the government bailout & the near-collapse of Chrysler in the late 1970s being the most prominent examples)
@@sil80d like the Ford Pinto gas tank debacle of he 1970.'s and the Ford/ Firestone Explorer Tire Debacle with the ATX II ATX and Wilderness A./T Tires. Can we learn from these disasters and let's not for get the Chevrolet Vega
The 2nd oldest car company after Mercedes. This is just typical GM: too much division infighting and mediocre product are what killed Olds. Honestly they should have killed GMC and Buick imo.
I wasn't even born when this aired and this still makes me cry, I still grew up around Oldsmobiles and it makes me sad I'll never be able to buy one fresh off the dealer lot.
Olds 88’-92’ Trofeo/Toronado was my favorite car by.......This car was ahead of its time, and alongside the Buick Riviera and Reatta, were the first cars to implement the CRT/infotainment screen back then.....
And with that began the shrinking of GM followed by Saturn, Saab, Hummer, Holden and Pontiac. Down the drain when product reliability as far as drivetrains and structural body integrity. 2006 was GM's last good year before bankruptcy reorganization. Their 2000-2009 trucks rusted as bad as Dodges which were way less in price. Agree..GM worst mistake of many!
I was just saying the same thing.....GM cars from 2005 and older were pretty damn easy to work on and diagnose yourself. Since then GM engine bay design has become much too complex and very expensive, maintenance wise.
Oldsmobile left the scene on April 29, 2004. That day, a black Alero sedan rolled off the line, the last vehicle to bear the Oldsmobile name. As it was, Olds just could not adjust to the constant change, and therefore, GM made the difficult decision to drop the 107-year-old brand.
When Oldsmobile ended production in 2004 they were the longest running American brand. The first Oldsmobile was built in 1896. The first Ford did not come until 1908.
GM was under OC ( organize crime ) , since 1979 , the problems were in cut cost, lowering Quality ( as a they fools consumers ) - the computers were gaining and they only watched .
It suffered the same way Pontiac and Saturn did. Lack of funding to make real cars for Oldsmobile and a route of rebadging instead. Like Oldsmobile Bravada.
Kia's Hyundai, not to mention Honda's, Toyota, and Nissan's. That's where everyone went..Olds were your mom's and dads and grandparents cars..I'll never forget the Olds 442..
@@chargermaster586 actually no they didn't have to, in fact they could've done what Cadillac and Chevy did with the Fleetwood and caprice and redesign it. Instead all we got was the custom cruiser.
I remember in the 70's in grammer school, my aunt had a 73 Olds Custom Cruiser. She would take her two sons to school, I would ride with them , since I lived next door. The youngest son was in kindergarten at the time. She would pick us up in the evening at school, the kindergarten son ,would always start wanting potato chips, sometimes he would start crying wanting those potato chips, she would say ,young man , I'm gonna give you something in a minute, but it won't be no dead blame potato chip.
When I heard this in 2000, honestly, I was very upset. I did not think it was a proper ending for the brand, knowing the only 5 years earlier, it released the Aurora, which definitely was a unique niche like brand of vehicle given Oldsmobile's prior models. It was after this that I really began to realize the implication of having so many supply chain companies involved in the proudction process that made making elemental changes at GM difficult and cumbersome.
The best car I ever owned was an Oldsmobile Cutlass 1999 the last year they made the Cutlass. I got 14 years out of it an nearly 180 thousand miles. It never, I mean never left us on the side of the road. I got rid of it because I wanted more airbag protection, the Olds only had front bags, otherwise who knows how long I could have kept it. Today I still see one every once in a while.
After all of the repair issues and and poor quality issues on various General Motors cars and trucks that I’ve owned throughout my life...it’s too bad the whole company couldn’t just disappear!
A few years after the last Alero rolled off the line, Pontiac has suffered the same fate. All this while keeping Buick alive, because of its sales in China. The last great Buick was the Grand National GNX in my opinion. If I could get my hands on a Pontiac G8 GT, I would be a happy man, but the reality is that nobody is buying sedans anymore...
Oldsmobile became indistinguishable from Buick...and Buick had become a "fad" in China...so GM decided to cut Olds. Since then, pretty much all mid-level cars are gone...Pontiac, Mercury, Chrysler and Dodge (no large cars) .
Big Wheel what I meant by "pretty much" was that Chrysler now builds only one car...the 300, and Dodge has no large cars, unless you consider the Charger a large car. It's actually midsize.
So they kept Pontiac, which were basically Chevrolets with gaudy plastic body cladding tacked on, and Saturn, which had to be the lamest GM brand ever. Buick was of course kept because of sales in China, I get that. But Olds had a couple of interesting cars at the time of its cancellation, the Aurora and the Intrigue, and I think GM could have turned it into an outlet for Opels instead of using Saturn (eventually) for that purpose. They could have resurrected interesting model names from Olds history too, whereas Saturn had NOTHING worth reviving. Anyway, GM was retarded so why should we have expected anything better? I'm not sure they're much better now either.
What a shame. I can only imagine what the 2019 Oldsmobile Cutlass would look like that I would be buying while trading in my 2014 Oldsmobile Cutlass to buy.
They were nice cars but they had to go for example the name itself sounds dated & plus they didn’t make very exciting cars later on but I do wish they kept Pontiac & Saturn because Pontiacs were sporty & Saturn were very fuel efficient & clever with the dent resistant doors
What was a big turning point for Oldsmobile was in 1985-1986 when they downsized most of their cars and all their cars look like ugly cookie-cutter of all the other GM brands. All the other GM products still had appeal from certain other models and Oldsmobile really did not have anything else to offer.
it’s a sham these car brands went away all because people just weren’t into em anymore or just because they just weren’t into them anymore like they used to be
Olds owned the 70s-mid 80s in sales, problem is they stopped making the midsize & fullsize rwd V8 cars. I bet if olds had made V8 Cutlasses & 88/98s well into the 90s they would have been a hit.
THE truth is I'm dropped the ball hard they didn't even give the badge and bigenough face lift for unique body styling it was always and had always been cookie cutter body's they gave it
I was 80 earlier this year. I have owned & driven Oldsmobiles since 1961.....88s, 98s, Cutlasses, F85s, 442s, a Toronado & now an Aurora. All great cars!!!! GM didn't know a good thing when it saw it!!!!
I was eight years old when Oldsmobile was discontinued. I remember a lot of older people being upset at the news, but the fact was that they just weren't selling, whether due to competition from abroad, badge engineering, redundancy, a lack of innovation, or any combination. The brand had been moribund since the eighties. I just thought of them as economy cars with fancy exterior trim and a lot of extra buttons.
In case nobody noticed Oldsmobile is back in 2025/6 with a Oldsmobile 442 based on the Camaro platform with 6.2 LT V8 . There is officsl presentation if you look it up , it looks very nice , like old 442s.
Imagine if you will...a 2024 Oldsmobile 442 or Cutlass supreme with a fuel injected 455 Rocket producing a savage 600HP to the rear wheels and AWD available, all the tech, to directly compete with Mopar Muscle, if they had todays tech they would have had a better chance .....I still own 2 early mid 90s Cutlass supremes, and my first car was a 1986 Oldsmobile cutlass supreme in 1998.
Damn, Anthony Mason must be a vampire, he looks exactly the same, now. Too bad we can't say the same about Dan Rather, he looks like Yoda, with a bad toupee. Lol
Honestly, I do wonder if GM will Axe Buick one of these days? I see similarities to what olds went through in the late 90s to what Buick is trying to do now. It seems like, no matter how hard they try to revive the brand, people still see it as an old persons car.
Was not the brand name.The quality of these cars went down hill.Make them cheaper,slap in made to fail parts and make them unreliable front wheel drive was that final nail in the coffen.Cadillac will soon parish.Mercedes Benz is even showing a decline because of the adherence to American motor companies lack of quality.
CUTLASS and CUTLASS SUPREME models went downhill in the 1990's and in the end were simply badge-engineered Chevys or Buicks with no spirit of Oldsmobile left. Pride of ownership was gone. Most models had been badge-engineered since the 1970's but maintained their Oldsmobile identities very well for many years. The Olds 88 and Olds Ninety-Eight shared a lot with their Buick and Cadillac counterparts, but were still clearly Oldsmobiles with strong identity. A Cutlass Supreme was a status symbol that held more weight than owning a Monte Carlo or Grand Prix or Regal. And an Olds 442 was always classier than a Chevelle or Camaro or a Skylark. Cutlass was once the sales leader among ALL General Motors nameplates. But once Cutlass lost its way, all the other Oldsmobile models followed suit and the entire brand got lost in the weeds. Introducing new model names did nothing to save Oldsmobile, especially when some of the new names were made-up nonsense names like Firenza, Achieva, Alero, Aurora, and Bravada. By the late 1980's, Oldsmobiles became the cars that buyers "settled for" on dealers lots and were not first choices. The prestige that Oldsmobile once had of being just a bit below that of Cadillac and better than a Pontiac or Buick became the moan of, "well, this is what was available or what I could afford." The last Oldsmobile that had any prestige left was the Aurora, but it came with such a high price tag and lousy fuel economy that owners were often unhappy with them and eagerly traded down to a Chevrolet or up to a Cadillac. I drove Oldsmobiles for many years and loved every one of them. My last Oldsmobile purchase, however, was a disappointment and after only 6 months I traded it for a new Buick (which I still drive 18 years later). But before that, my '82 Delta 88 Royale and my '86 Cutlass Supreme lasted me about 20 years each and they were great cars that I should have kept. My father kept his '82 Old Ninety-Eight on the road until he replaced it with a 1999 Eighty-Eight which he kept on the road for nearly 20 years.
Dan rather 1923 production numbers was one hundred thousand a year spare. Buick after Durant dort carriage co went bust until Oldsmobile bought Durant motors in 1933
i want to point out 2 fact in 1978 my dad brought a old and with in 55K the eng blew up ! Then he order a 1982 and 3 days later the Tran blew up then the clock stop working then he was force to ride around with a hole in the dashboard for 7 months he said if he would have done it again he would have been better off with a Pontiacs
Its really sad to see Pontiacs and Oldsmobiles go, they made some very cool cars.
Chillkoot Markowee Saturn too. They were unique in the beginning. Saturn could’ve been more successful then Buick if it had been saved instead and remarketed properly
@@drewg7036 don't forget Hummer and Saab.
Chillkoot Markowee GM should have dropped Buick and Chevrolet instead. They should have kept Oldsmobile and Pontiac.
Of course, Chillkoot. Both makers could have become freelance of GM and still producing good cars. Too bad their financial problems and low sales to then say goodbye
Unlike Pontiac and Oldsmobile, RAM trucks become independent from Dodge and took away the ram head logo to identify themselves in every model of its lineup
Lansing Michigan Oldsmobile plant 35 years. Retired 2002. As a former employee when the last rolled off the floor. Tear's was a understatement. In my opinion GM worst mistake of many! Thank you
he should have changed his name to Elon instead of ELI. Then, he can make bad cars, miss production, and is a shit person and still have stock that is worth billions.
Oh, you came back in 2004 when this happened:
www.nbcnews.com/id/4862841/ns/business-autos/t/final-oldsmobile-rolls-assembly-line/#.Xi2p1chKjIU
"GM tried everything to revive Oldsmobile." Uhhhh no they didn't when all they did was rebadge.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart for building my 1993 Cutlass Supreme Convertible that I am sitting in as I type this. It is 2021 and she has 199,201 on thr clock. I have had her for 11 years. I first saw this car in the October 1992 Car & Driver when I was 15 years old. I am 43 now. I still have that magazine. 💙
@@northsidediva6465 I've always wanted a olds cutlass supreme but they're pretty much wiped off the planet.
GM screwed up badly when they killed Oldsmobile. How could you kill off such an iconic car brand?
Right just like GM killed Pontiac as well.
Blamed the government
Low sales
Didn’t you watch the video? They didn’t screw up, it wasn’t making money and had to go. Couldn’t afford to be sentimental.
They could’ve merged Oldsmobile and Pontiac into ONE DIVISION…sold them both at the SAME DEALERS to SAVE MONEY.
Watching a story like this years after it’s release helps a person appreciate just how one sided reporting can be. You listen to this and think GM was making the only decision it could make. Olds was loosing money, right? BUT THE REST OF THE STORY is that GM was run by clowns for years! Fools set on quick profits with pathetic quality standards. Olds wasn’t the problem, GM was
Amen
Finally. Someone with some common sense. The media frames it as if GM is a victim to market trends. The truth is, they’ve made crappy cars for decades. That’s what happens when you have short-sighted, greedy corporate clowns running the show. The opposite of Toyota.
I can’t agree more…I used to like GM but after owning a Pontiac Montana van, that was enough for me to say never again.
@@RamiroR13 What about GM cars from the 50s, 60s, and early 70s?
@@CJColvin Back in the day they were much better.
It's so sad :'(. Rip Oldsmobile!!
Do you want to really know what killed olds?? *Rebadged bull crap!*
he should have changed his name to Elon instead of ELI. Then, he can make bad cars, miss production, and is a shit person and still have stock that is worth billions.
@@Underappreciatedclassics It would have been all crossovers Suvs today had it been alive today electric to come
Even though I never had one of them, I used to love Oldsmobiles. My favorite models of theirs were the Toronado, Aurora, Cutlass Supreme, Bravada (the SUV), Delta 88, and 98 Regency. I miss Oldsmobile.
And soon Rick Wagoner would be history too.
Maybe not soon enough. I like this line from the wikipedia page on him: "Under his leadership, GM suffered more than $85 billion in losses."
@@MaestroTJS A good day's work for a CEO. Better raise his salary.
@@WhiteSlift That's right, give him some bonuses by laying off some workers and diving into their benefits. The man needs his rest and relaxation otherwise he might lose more.
Oldsmobile Aurora was my favorite and an excelent car !!! Too bad !!!😔
Victor Musat I will never forget the Aroura! I hope to own one soon before there gone.
Awesome car
That’s the day I passed out on the couch And paramedics had to rush me to the hospital when I heard this news😪
What is funny is Oldsmobile stayed till 2004’ish before complete collapse, too bad it never recovered
Years ago, I inherited a 03 Aurora and 01 Intrigue. I know now why parents loved Olds. The Intrigue was one of the best cars I or anyone in my family has ever owned. Very reliable and very little trouble with it.
Rip Oldsmobile 😭
Still a huge mistake !! GM killed Oldsmobile by not allowing them to produce the cars they wanted !! but yet Buick is still here ?? old persons car , Buicks suck !!!
I think that Oldsmobile was gone too soon. But I know that it is up to General Motors because they do what they think is the right decision
SJC Cobra Buick is not an old person's car anymore and hasn't been for over a decade. Even if that was the case, what did that make Oldsmobile since they competed for the identical market position as Buick? lol. Buick is still around because it is modern and relevant, and it's sales are strong worldwide now, not just in China. Olds couldn't keep up and since Olds and Buick were duplicate products, GM went with where the money was. Why wouldn't they?
Your very correct , we had the incompetent man running GM at the time Rick wagoneer who knew nothing about the cars, and just wanted money and then buying Hummer, and Saab, and never made a profit, and said to Olds u are not getting any money we spent it on our other divisions. There was only 2 execs that was agreeing to axe Olds while the other execs said it was a bad and costly mistake and it cost GM over 2 billion to end the brand.
Buick is only here because of China really, and the sells here in the usa are low. and Olds was keeping up but not given the platform to shine like it was! Oldsmobile would have outshine Buick. Olds was more performance, technology luxury oriented while Buick was traditional luxury. Buick was not doin great at all really when Olds was gettin the axe, and was phased out because they thought it was cheaper and they aquired the Hummer and Saab brand thought they were gonna make money but wrong! but in the end it cost them quite a bit of money. Oldsmobile was not the cheapest brand to phase out. It did take Buick a decade to leave off where Olds did, there now luxury performance oriented now as olds was, and the same with Cadillac gotta fill in the Oldsmobile niche
Myaurora2001 And if in 2000 they, as well as everyone else, had clear foresight, everyone would have realized then what the outcome would be--a good business decision. I liked Oldsmobile very much myself, but at the end of the day Buick was the money maker. Yes, they were and still are a money maker in china, but so what? Who cares? They are now a money maker again in the US and I think it's great. Buick and Olds were essentially the same brand. This is GM's fault, not each respective brand's fault. And while you say sales are slow, I'm going to disagree with you in that they have not been consistently slow. Buick sales have been up and down just like most other automakers. I understand in May 2017 their sales in the US increased 28.5% and that's nothing to dismiss as unsuccessful. Either way, Olds lost ground, Buick gained it and is maintaining it. Let them do their thing. It's working for them. GM stock is up. What's so bad about this?
Oldsmobile could've stayed if GM didn't spend money to create Saturn, it wasn't needed and buy Hummer
R.I.P.
Oldsmobile
August 21, 1897 - April 29, 2004
I grew up in a Oldsmobile family.
Mom always had Custom Cruiser station wagons as our family car & Dad drove Delta 88’s
As a little kid, I can still remember the sound of the 455 engines in those cars back then.
Still drive a 98 Olds Bravada. At a quarter million miles as of yesterday and it’s the most reliable car I’ve ever seen. Has not been in the shop in almost two years.
Must have the 4.3L V6 in it. I drove a 2001 Chevy p.u. with the V6 and put over 1 million miles on it in 11 years time. I was a delivery driver, hard life for a vehicle. I still remember the day the digital dash stuck at 999,999 and stopped, didn't flip back over to 000,000 like I thought it would.
I miss Oldsmobile at that time before Oldsmobile was discontinued called the company asked the man if '03 was the last year they would stopped making Olds... he told them for 2004 they were making three models Alero/Bravada/ Silhouette. Doing one summer saw Oldsmobile commercial with Billy Preston song in it think saw the Oldsmobile lineup for '03 all except for Intrigue asked my mother wonder what to Intrigue so knew something was wrong right there. Oldsmobile made some of the best cars look luxury a older man that was like our relative owned few Oldsmobiles he had a pretty one it was a Green '94 Regency 98 for a car back in the day it was up to date we rode with him picking up a lady across town they were going visit somebody in nursing home my mother and I was sitting in the back another man who attended our church was back there with us the man that was like our relative told the guy his door wasn't closed all the day he couldn't figured out how to open the inside latch, he was about to tear the man's door up... lol our closed relative/friend told him wait a minute you get ready tear it up other guy still couldn't figure how to open the door both of them cursed, it was so funny at time I was little my mother laughed all that day about it, I wish he could had kept that beautiful car. Though was a teenager at time when Oldsmobile rode off the Alero, if was a middle aged guy back than would had bought either Intrigue or Aurora did want a Alero wonder if few years after got back license at 17 how would the 2007 Alero looked or if Intrigue as well would had bought a 2007 Oldsmobile. Still see few Oldsmobiles around two Bravada's, Intrigue which saw one passing by almost broke my legs rushing to the window and Cutlass rebadged Malibu. The problem was GM didn't advertised Olds enough though the brand was old they sure made great cars from Oldsmobile my favorites are (Aurora, Alero, Intrigue, Bravada). Even Saturn and Pontiac was get ready be discontinued can't talk about it anymore so sad but at end Pontiac was boring they wasn't fun anymore like 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s Grand Prix, Grand Am and Bonneville were some beautiful sportier sedans - Saturn started getting better toward end sadly they were discontinued liked those cars
R.i.P.
Oldsmobile
Pontiac
Saturn
The legacy lives on 😥😢 still see some of these models from this brand.
Amen
A SAD DAY IN AMERICAN CAR HISTORY. TODAY IN 2017 CAN'T SAY IT HELP THE COMPANY ONE BIT.
MICHGO1 I want to start a car building business to be a spiritual successer to Oldsmobile and the Aurora especially.
It didn't, they did worse without Oldsmobile
@@commandertaco1762 the Aurora was very iconic
@@tonym3598 maybe they will decide to bring back the brand one day? Call the comeback car the borealis or something lol
Please turn Caps Lock off before you comment.
@0:49 WAS the PROBLEM. Rebadged Chevy Blazers, vans, etc. Each brand should have had their own vehicles, not just rebadged Chevys with slight differences. BTW we love our 2001 Oldsmobile Intrigue, even today is 2021, still going strong.
Yeah i dont know what gm was doing in the 90s. If cars are going to use the same platform make them unique because rebadging doesn’t work. But yeah those late 90s early 2000s gm products have great reliability you still see those products on the road today
I just hated that insulting "This is not your father's Oldsmobile" campaign. I grew up riding in my father's Oldsmobiles. I just thought it was stupid--biting the proverbial hands that fed the division for so many decades. Anybody think that contributed to its slide? They went from Hero in the '70s to Zero in the '90s.
TM, Very well said.
Terry Meadows the Aurora was a right choice but between the announcement of phasing out olds and it's lack of originality when compared to the first gen. It was doomed to fail because of GM. despite that it was an amazing car that was way ahead of it's time. I've had mine for the last 7 years and while it is running on fumes so to speak at this point it's been with me through everything and has outlasted all the other cars I've owned, just goes to show how great of a think Olds has going with the Aurora
I disagree. Heavily. That campaign kept the brand afloat, and brought in a brand new generation of drivers for the 1987 model year. Its exactly what Olds needed to get the Quad 4 off the ground.(And they did in 1989, once GM stopped being dickheads and cutting costs on crucial design parts and gaskets) . And it also brought in some fresh new ideas that the brand desperately needed after almost a decade of boring and unreliable cars. They were way ahead of their time with this campaign. And a1,000HP 4 cylinder passenger car is still very far off into the future.
I was born in the 90s but distinctly remember my family owning at least two Oldsmobiles when I was a kid. The first "family" car I ever remember was a maroon Olds Cutlass Ciera Brougham (don't know the model year), and I remember my gma had an 88 that was a similar color (and I think a later model). I remember when this news story aired, and while I was only seven at the time, it was sad to think that the auto brand that I had spent so much time riding in would soon be a thing of the past.
Oldsmobile!! Oldsmobile! Oldsmobile! Haha..
Joe L are you saying this in a good way or a bad way because Oldsmobile is a great company ford is found on road dead
@@airpik8766Ha who said anything about ford? Dumb…
Oldsmobile was my favorite flavor from GM
Rick Wagoner was a terrible CEO.
Nah. He was a smart guy dealt a bad hand. Because of GM's push into China, a move initiated by Wagoner, they're still around today. GM was quickly returning to an operating profit until the great recession.
I own and drive and love my 99 Oldsmobile Aurora
In the past 15 years, GM has lost Oldsmobile, Pontiac, Saab, and Saturn. GM still has its head up its ass. This year, Buick, Chevy, and Cadillac are losing their large sedans...while the foreign brands still sell loads of sedans. Next to go will be GMC trucks and then either Buick or Cadillac.
That decision will bite them at the end. Not everyone wants SUVs.
@@sil80d Seems like the Big 3 never completely learn this particular lesson (latching on to whatever the hot new thing is to the extent of ignoring the rest of their product line), and one would think these companies would have caught on at some point, especially in the cases where the blunder nearly killed the company altogether (GM in the events leading to the government bailout & the near-collapse of Chrysler in the late 1970s being the most prominent examples)
@@sil80d like the Ford Pinto gas tank debacle of he 1970.'s and the Ford/ Firestone Explorer Tire Debacle with the ATX II ATX and Wilderness A./T Tires. Can we learn from these disasters and let's not for get the Chevrolet Vega
The 2nd oldest car company after Mercedes. This is just typical GM: too much division infighting and mediocre product are what killed Olds. Honestly they should have killed GMC and Buick imo.
Amen
Oldsmobile was a high-class buick but belwo the Cadillac
I wasn't even born when this aired and this still makes me cry, I still grew up around Oldsmobiles and it makes me sad I'll never be able to buy one fresh off the dealer lot.
Pontiac, Oldsmobile, and Saturn should of been sold into private hands to interested parties.
It would have been All Electric crossover SUVs had stayed along wit Pontiac.
Olds 88’-92’ Trofeo/Toronado was my favorite car by.......This car was ahead of its time, and alongside the Buick Riviera and Reatta, were the first cars to implement the CRT/infotainment screen back then.....
Well. I'm still driving one, so there's that.
Me too!
And with that began the shrinking of GM followed by Saturn, Saab, Hummer, Holden and Pontiac. Down the drain when product reliability as far as drivetrains and structural body integrity. 2006 was GM's last good year before bankruptcy reorganization. Their 2000-2009 trucks rusted as bad as Dodges which were way less in price. Agree..GM worst mistake of many!
I was just saying the same thing.....GM cars from 2005 and older were pretty damn easy to work on and diagnose yourself. Since then GM engine bay design has become much too complex and very expensive, maintenance wise.
Oldsmobile left the scene on April 29, 2004. That day, a black Alero sedan rolled off the line, the last vehicle to bear the Oldsmobile name. As it was, Olds just could not adjust to the constant change, and therefore, GM made the difficult decision to drop the 107-year-old brand.
that's messed up Ford older than Oldsmobile
Joseph Rosales yes. but, Oldsmobile were REALLY GOOD CARS! Very Reliable.
I think that Oldsmobile was gone too soon. But I know that it is up to General Motors because they do what they think is the right decision
I think that Oldsmobile was gone too soon. But I know that it is up to General Motors because they do what they think is the right decision
When Oldsmobile ended production in 2004 they were the longest running American brand. The first Oldsmobile was built in 1896. The first Ford did not come until 1908.
GM was under OC ( organize crime ) , since 1979 , the problems were in cut cost, lowering Quality ( as a they fools consumers ) - the computers were gaining and they only watched .
It suffered the same way Pontiac and Saturn did. Lack of funding to make real cars for Oldsmobile and a route of rebadging instead. Like Oldsmobile Bravada.
Kia's Hyundai, not to mention Honda's, Toyota, and Nissan's. That's where everyone went..Olds were your mom's and dads and grandparents cars..I'll never forget the Olds 442..
Should of built the 98 and 88 on the B-body platform, and they should of brought back the cutlass supreme and 442 and kept iy RWD with a V8 option.
True
They Had to start making more efficient FWD Cars In the 80s to comply with regulations And compete with the Japanese
@@chargermaster586 actually no they didn't have to, in fact they could've done what Cadillac and Chevy did with the Fleetwood and caprice and redesign it.
Instead all we got was the custom cruiser.
I remember in the 70's in grammer school, my aunt had a 73 Olds Custom Cruiser. She would take her two sons to school, I would ride with them , since I lived next door. The youngest son was in kindergarten at the time. She would pick us up in the evening at school, the kindergarten son ,would always start wanting potato chips, sometimes he would start crying wanting those potato chips, she would say ,young man , I'm gonna give you something in a minute, but it won't be no dead blame potato chip.
But seriously that Oldsmobile Bravada was something we forgot. I used to think it was just in GMC and Chevrolet form.
R.I.P Oldsmobile 1897-2004.
When I heard this in 2000, honestly, I was very upset. I did not think it was a proper ending for the brand, knowing the only 5 years earlier, it released the Aurora, which definitely was a unique niche like brand of vehicle given Oldsmobile's prior models. It was after this that I really began to realize the implication of having so many supply chain companies involved in the proudction process that made making elemental changes at GM difficult and cumbersome.
The best car I ever owned was an Oldsmobile Cutlass 1999 the last year they made the Cutlass. I got 14 years out of it an nearly 180 thousand miles. It never, I mean never left us on the side of the road. I got rid of it because I wanted more airbag protection, the Olds only had front bags, otherwise who knows how long I could have kept it. Today I still see one every once in a while.
After all of the repair issues and and poor quality issues on various General Motors cars and trucks that I’ve owned throughout my life...it’s too bad the whole company couldn’t just disappear!
A few years after the last Alero rolled off the line, Pontiac has suffered the same fate. All this while keeping Buick alive, because of its sales in China. The last great Buick was the Grand National GNX in my opinion. If I could get my hands on a Pontiac G8 GT, I would be a happy man, but the reality is that nobody is buying sedans anymore...
David Velazquez Me too, I would be content with a 2001 Aurora. It's got so much history for me, I hate to see the cars slowly dying out
I liked the Century imo
I hear you my brother, not only Pontiac was GM's Mopar but also America's BMW as well and the same thing goes with Oldsmobile.
My favorite Oldsmobile is definitely the Cutless 442.
You should learn how to spell “cutlass” If you like the car so much😂
@Challenger 1970 Sorry mate I meant Cutlass.
Well I LOVE my 1996 Oldsmobile 88 LOL😎
Oldsmobile became indistinguishable from Buick...and Buick had become a "fad" in China...so GM decided to cut Olds. Since then, pretty much all mid-level cars are gone...Pontiac, Mercury, Chrysler and Dodge (no large cars) .
Chrysler and dodge are still around and they pretty much make only big cars
Big Wheel what I meant by "pretty much" was that Chrysler now builds only one car...the 300, and Dodge has no large cars, unless you consider the Charger a large car. It's actually midsize.
@@dashriprock3468 the charger is considered full size and is on the same platform as the 300.
Chrysler also makes the Pacifica
So they kept Pontiac, which were basically Chevrolets with gaudy plastic body cladding tacked on, and Saturn, which had to be the lamest GM brand ever. Buick was of course kept because of sales in China, I get that. But Olds had a couple of interesting cars at the time of its cancellation, the Aurora and the Intrigue, and I think GM could have turned it into an outlet for Opels instead of using Saturn (eventually) for that purpose. They could have resurrected interesting model names from Olds history too, whereas Saturn had NOTHING worth reviving. Anyway, GM was retarded so why should we have expected anything better? I'm not sure they're much better now either.
What a shame. I can only imagine what the 2019 Oldsmobile Cutlass would look like that I would be buying while trading in my 2014 Oldsmobile Cutlass to buy.
The all new 2019 Oldsmobile Bravada
The closest thing wed have to a modern cutlass would either be a malibu or it would be a curvier cts
The aurora would be a beast though
It would all have been crossover SUVs
Very sad that Oldsmobile was rolled out in 2004 for good.
They were nice cars but they had to go for example the name itself sounds dated & plus they didn’t make very exciting cars later on but I do wish they kept Pontiac & Saturn because Pontiacs were sporty & Saturn were very fuel efficient & clever with the dent resistant doors
Oldsmobile was still selling cars. Very good cars. Who cares about being sentimental.
"Do you think yiu drive as good as your husband" lol wow only the typical 1950's. Looking down at women lol
it's like giving up your children for adoption
to save on your grocery bills
sad and heartless
Well i own 5 of them under 70k miles.....its not over yet
What was a big turning point for Oldsmobile was in 1985-1986 when they downsized most of their cars and all their cars look like ugly cookie-cutter of all the other GM brands. All the other GM products still had appeal from certain other models and Oldsmobile really did not have anything else to offer.
Cultass Calais versions were piles of sh÷÷
I was sad as I am a Detroit resident
it’s a sham these car brands went away all because people just weren’t into em anymore or just because they just weren’t into them anymore like they used to be
Still have my 1990 custom cruiser. Quiet smoothest V8 ever.
Olds owned the 70s-mid 80s in sales, problem is they stopped making the midsize & fullsize rwd V8 cars. I bet if olds had made V8 Cutlasses & 88/98s well into the 90s they would have been a hit.
Exactly mate
Oldsmobile 1897-2004
My favorite Oldsmobiles ,were the 76 and 77 Cutlass Supreme coupe. Had a 77 in mid eighties.
THE truth is I'm dropped the ball hard they didn't even give the badge and bigenough face lift for unique body styling it was always and had always been cookie cutter body's they gave it
It was already over for Olds at this point and had been for a while. During the 70s GM's best selling car was an Oldsmobile.
And 80’s
@@440_SIXPACK What was it in the 80s? I think it peaked in the late 70s with the Cutlass Supreme.
The Cutlass Supreme was the #1 selling car in the mid and late 70s. I had one in 1976.
Should have phased out CBS instead, no need for fake news.
I was 80 earlier this year. I have owned & driven Oldsmobiles since 1961.....88s, 98s, Cutlasses, F85s, 442s, a Toronado & now an Aurora. All great cars!!!! GM didn't know a good thing when it saw it!!!!
Sad to see it go. I had two Oldsmobiles over the years - really nice cars!
I was eight years old when Oldsmobile was discontinued. I remember a lot of older people being upset at the news, but the fact was that they just weren't selling, whether due to competition from abroad, badge engineering, redundancy, a lack of innovation, or any combination. The brand had been moribund since the eighties. I just thought of them as economy cars with fancy exterior trim and a lot of extra buttons.
oldsmobile rules
GM sucks
Rip Oldsmobile
The worst news they ever broadcast in human history. Oldsmobile was legendary.
Shoula dumped Buick......and kept Olds and it's equally as cool brother, Pontiac.
Everything about this is bullcrap.
Oldsmobile is the best
I still drive mine
Keep driving it, let the legacy live on
Pontiac and Oldsmobile were the best divisions that GM ever had,yet the left worhless and changing only to worst chevy
R.I.P Oldsmobile hummar and pontiac and saturn
In case nobody noticed Oldsmobile is back in 2025/6 with a Oldsmobile 442 based on the Camaro platform with 6.2 LT V8 . There is officsl presentation if you look it up , it looks very nice , like old 442s.
Imagine if you will...a 2024 Oldsmobile 442 or Cutlass supreme with a fuel injected 455 Rocket producing a savage 600HP to the rear wheels and AWD available, all the tech, to directly compete with Mopar Muscle, if they had todays tech they would have had a better chance .....I still own 2 early mid 90s Cutlass supremes, and my first car was a 1986 Oldsmobile cutlass supreme in 1998.
THEY COULD REVIVE THEM NOW! THEY HAVE THE MONEY BUT WE NEED TO MAKE A STAND ON AND OFF OF THE MEDIA!
On this Day April 29th, 2024, marks the 20-year anniversary of the death of the Oldsmobile brand. after 107 years in business.
It’s a shame that so many iconic American automobile brands went out the door. Not just Oldsmobile, but Plymouth, Pontiac, and Mercury.
Damn, Anthony Mason must be a vampire, he looks exactly the same, now. Too bad we can't say the same about Dan Rather, he looks like Yoda, with a bad toupee. Lol
I wish GM didn't stop making Oldsmobile and Pontiac. I have a 1976 Oldsmobile Delta 88 and it looks better than all this new stuff on the road now.
Honestly, I do wonder if GM will Axe Buick one of these days? I see similarities to what olds went through in the late 90s to what Buick is trying to do now. It seems like, no matter how hard they try to revive the brand, people still see it as an old persons car.
I still have a 2003 alero in 2024. Sadly I don’t think I will last much longer though it is starting to have rust issues and electrical issues.
This should be renamed how many bad decisions can GM make?
Was not the brand name.The quality of these cars went down hill.Make them cheaper,slap in made to fail parts and make them unreliable front wheel drive was that final nail in the coffen.Cadillac will soon parish.Mercedes Benz is even showing a decline because of the adherence to American motor companies lack of quality.
Saturn should’ve gone first.
And they keep Buick? How do you go from selling 400,000- 500,000 Cutlasses a year in the late 70s- mid 80s to oblivion?
I loved oldsmobile. however they started making their cars smaller, uglier, I didn't like the newer Cutlass, The earlier 80s model was great.
They could have killed GMC since its a premium chevrolet anyway and buick can't seem to even attract the young buyers . Pontiac man , and saturn man😢
CUTLASS and CUTLASS SUPREME models went downhill in the 1990's and in the end were simply badge-engineered Chevys or Buicks with no spirit of Oldsmobile left. Pride of ownership was gone.
Most models had been badge-engineered since the 1970's but maintained their Oldsmobile identities very well for many years. The Olds 88 and Olds Ninety-Eight shared a lot with their Buick and Cadillac counterparts, but were still clearly Oldsmobiles with strong identity. A Cutlass Supreme was a status symbol that held more weight than owning a Monte Carlo or Grand Prix or Regal. And an Olds 442 was always classier than a Chevelle or Camaro or a Skylark.
Cutlass was once the sales leader among ALL General Motors nameplates. But once Cutlass lost its way, all the other Oldsmobile models followed suit and the entire brand got lost in the weeds. Introducing new model names did nothing to save Oldsmobile, especially when some of the new names were made-up nonsense names like Firenza, Achieva, Alero, Aurora, and Bravada.
By the late 1980's, Oldsmobiles became the cars that buyers "settled for" on dealers lots and were not first choices. The prestige that Oldsmobile once had of being just a bit below that of Cadillac and better than a Pontiac or Buick became the moan of, "well, this is what was available or what I could afford." The last Oldsmobile that had any prestige left was the Aurora, but it came with such a high price tag and lousy fuel economy that owners were often unhappy with them and eagerly traded down to a Chevrolet or up to a Cadillac.
I drove Oldsmobiles for many years and loved every one of them. My last Oldsmobile purchase, however, was a disappointment and after only 6 months I traded it for a new Buick (which I still drive 18 years later). But before that, my '82 Delta 88 Royale and my '86 Cutlass Supreme lasted me about 20 years each and they were great cars that I should have kept. My father kept his '82 Old Ninety-Eight on the road until he replaced it with a 1999 Eighty-Eight which he kept on the road for nearly 20 years.
GM killed oldsmobile, yet kept Saturn. Genius level stupidity. I will never buy a GM product made after 2007. If I want new I'll get a Toyota. 👎👎💯
They said Oldsmobile would be gone in about 2 years, but their final car was built in April 2004.
Dan rather 1923 production numbers was one hundred thousand a year spare. Buick after Durant dort carriage co went bust until Oldsmobile bought Durant motors in 1933
i want to point out 2 fact in 1978 my dad brought a old and with in 55K the eng blew up ! Then he order a 1982 and 3 days later the Tran blew up then the clock stop working then he was force to ride around with a hole in the dashboard for 7 months he said if he would have done it again he would have been better off with a Pontiacs
I honestly think Buick is next to be on the chopping block, sad
And Cadillac
I wish that Buick will be shutdown, but because of popularity in China, it’s not gonna happen.
Bring back the Oldsmobile brand and Pontiac and Saturn
1:03
Old Guy’s Mobile!!!
Old Guy’s Mobile!!!
Old Guy’s Mobile!!!
GM is killing all of the good ones
Oldsmobile was a great brand, sad GM killed it.