My folks were loyal Olds people through the 50's and most of the 60's. There was the '50 88 coupe that was their first second car; I remember the starter button from when I was two or three. There was the used '53 98 with the auto-dimming eye on the top of the dash; it was Mom's for six years or so. Dad's '57 with the three-piece rear window; the F-85 he drove later; his '63 wagon, her Toronado, my '72 Cutlass (first car). My wife's had seven since we met in '77. My inlaws drove them too; I especially liked, in a slightly perverse way, the diesel 98 that was the next-to-last car my father-in-law picked out.

Oldsmobiles carried me around in my earliest years, as a learning and then ever more confident driver, on ski trips in high school, around town with friends. The Toronado was the first car I drove over 100--up to 125 indicated on a deserted freeway, and somehow to my slightly guilty 17-year-old ear the muffler never sounded quite right after that. The Cutlass got me through undergrad, med school and internship. Though I've driven a number of other marques, my wife's Oldsmobiles carried the two of us with our baby commuting every day, on vacations, to piano recitals, to funerals and weddings. An '85 98 was her first luxury car, and her '91 was the "Big Bertha" she and our daughter both loved. Her Aurora carried us to Boston and back checking out colleges, and to Notre Dame to take our daughter off to the next phase of her life.

Family story from maybe '55 or so: My grandfather drove a '48 Chrysler Town and Country convertible into the mid-50's. My grandmother was used to that when she borrowed Mom's '53 98 for a round-trip run on two-lanes, about 40 miles each way, and returned partly bemused, partly amazed: "Esther, that car's just too quiet and too steady--I scared myself. I was just getting going on the highway and it felt like I was up to about 50; I looked down and saw I was doing 85!"

That's how I'll remember Olds: solid road cars, often quieter or better-handling or better-riding than many of their American competitors, rarely demanding, and simply part of the family.

__________________
Craig Bethune

'97 SL500, 40th anniversary edition

'04 Olds Bravada (SWMBO's)
'06 Lexus ES330
'89 560SL (sold)


SL--Anything else is just a Mercedes.
(Kudos to whoever said it first)