Wednesday, August 11, 2021

The Way We Were Wednesday - the Oldsmobile Days


With my first car I was trying to sell real estate, in a two door car, no one wanted to ride with me, I didn't really want anyone riding in my first car.  One of successful people in the office was upgrading to a new Cadillac, I bought her 1972 four door, Oldsmobile Delta 88.  It had enough room in it for a family of six. It had been rebuilt after being nearly totaled.  It had the same engine, and appetite for water pumps as the first Oldmobile.  The air conditioning worked.  It was a much better work car.  It was actually a pretty good car, if a bit large and a bit boring. I drove it a year or so, and had it in for service when the ugly Oldsmobile caught my eye. 

It was much newer, had white leather interior, plenty of space, and from the rear, it was the ugliest car I have ever owned. It got better gas mileage, was more reliable, I felt better driving it.  It was also the first car I ever financed. 

My father hated that I referred to it as the ugly Oldsmobile.  He bought the Buick version of this for my mother when they retired to Florida in 1982.  She hated it. 

The ugly Oldsmobile was the last of my Oldsmobile days, in fact I have only owned one car from a domestic manufacturer since then, the amazing massive Cadillac I had when I moved to DC.  I will get to that someday.  
 

14 comments:

  1. Do they even make Oldsmobile anymore????? Now that you bring up, I can't say I recall seeing any these days. My parents had mostly Buicks...and I don't even see them like I used too, and if I do, it always seems to be a oldster.

    I just turned in my Mazda 2017 for a 2021 Mazda 3 touring last week. And I love it!!!! Plus it gets 30 miles per gallon. I went to "look", I don't keep cars much past 4 years.... but couldn't pass up the most excellent trade in they offered, and with the pandemic and the new car shortage, I wanted to get into something now. Most new car lots are empty. This is my third Mazda.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think Oldsmobile was the first sub-brand that GM killed off, then Pontiac, Hummer (being revived as an all electric GMC) and Saturn. Buick is still around. I have owned two Mazdaa. loved them.

      Delete
  2. Anonymous8/11/2021

    No argument from me. The car is ugly. I look forward to the tale of the Cadillac.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Big Red was like the 13th car I owned.

      Delete
  3. That truly IS an ugly Oldsmobile! Some designs just don’t survive their departure from the factory.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. As if they got to the back doors, and it was 4:00 on Friday afternoon so they just drew a line and said, Done!

      Delete
  4. Wow, I'd forgotten how hideous a car can look, though, the Gremlin wins the title hands down!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. My ex's first ex had a Gremlin, they fought over it when they split up, neither of them wanted it.

      Delete
  5. You've made me want to scour through my old photos for my cars from the past. Your quote "appetite for water pumps" made me laugh out loud.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I have a file of car photos. I think I have all of them, there were a few years when I changed cars more often than shoes.

      Delete
  6. I love cars and I enjoyed looking at the old photos. They were ugly cars weren't they. My first car was a Buick Opel 1900 two door stick shift. I loved that car! Then like a fool, when I started teaching, I traded it in for a Chevrolet Chevette. That was one of the dumbest things I ever did as that car was a piece of junk. In the first year, the stick shift broke off in my hand as I was shifting to go through a toll plaza. I haven't owned too many American made cars after that.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I had some neat little cars, there are a couple more weeks of Wednesday's scheduled, I could go on for 3 or more months with my car history. Currently we have German and Japanese (actually made in Japan.)

      Delete
  7. old cars look so much more 'classy' than today's cars.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Today, they do all have kind of the same shape.

      Delete