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Goodbye, Oldsmobile
America's oldest car brand made history for over a century but couldn't keep up with the times. The last Olds rolls off the line today.
By MSN Money staff
The final Oldsmobile rolled off the assembly line today in Lansing, Mich., the city where America's oldest car brand was founded in 1897. It joins such storied badges as Hudson, Studebaker, Packard and DeSoto on the automotive scrap heap, the grandest name, perhaps, but just as dead.
The last of 35,229,218 production Oldsmobiles was a metallic cherry red Alero compact bearing the signatures of 4,500 workers at Lansing Car Assembly under its hood and trunk lid. It will be sent to the R.E. Olds Transportation Museum in Lansing, General Motors (GM, news, msgs) says.
On a dealer's lot, that final Alero would have carried a $3,500 rebate.
"Phasing it out was sad," Doug Stott, a production manager for Oldsmobile who has owned more than 30 Oldsmobiles himself, told the Associated Press. "At the same time, it’s like a graduation.”
The car for the middle class
GM pulled the plug on Oldsmobile in December 2000 after two decades of decline, saying the company needed to concentrate its resources on nameplates with better chances in an increasingly competitive marketplace, like its fresher Saturn nameplate.
Since then, the company has added two additional brands -- Saab and Hummer -- even as it worked to buy out the 2,800 dealers who were still selling Olds models. The company took a $939 million charge in 2001 to cover the costs associated with shutting the brand down. Those costs included big rebates, dealer incentives and "loyalty rewards" to keep buyers coming until the shutdown was complete.
At one time, Oldsmobile was the country's third biggest brand, with more than 1 million a year sold in the mid-1980s. Fewer than 130,000 were sold in 2003, the last full calendar year of sales. In the General Motors pantheon of brands, conceived so that buyers could move up without ever leaving GM, Oldsmobile occupied the middle ground, more prestigious than a Pontiac but less snooty than a Buick.
Olds leaves behind some lasting contributions to the automotive scene, among them the first assembly line in 1901, the first fully automatic transmission in 1940, the first air bag in 1974, the first chrome trim and, of course, the "Rocket 88" engine widely credited with having inspired the first rock 'n' roll song, Ike Turner's "Rocket 88" in 1951:
You may have heard of jalopies
You heard the noise they make
Let me introduce you to my rocket 88
Yes, it's great, just won't wait
Everybody likes my rocket 88
Gals will ride in style, moving all along
V-8 motor and this modern design
My convertible top and the gals don't mind
Sportin' with me,
Ridin' all around town for joy
Step in my rocket and a-don't be late
We're pullin' out about a half past eight
Goin' on the corner and a-havin' some fun
Takin' my rocket on a long hot run
Ooh, goin' out, oozin' and cruisin' along
Now that you've ridden in my rocket 88
I'll be around every night about eight
You know it's great, don't be late
Everybody likes my rocket 88
Gals will ride in style, moving all along.
http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/invest/extra/P82349.asp?GT1=3256
America's oldest car brand made history for over a century but couldn't keep up with the times. The last Olds rolls off the line today.
By MSN Money staff
The final Oldsmobile rolled off the assembly line today in Lansing, Mich., the city where America's oldest car brand was founded in 1897. It joins such storied badges as Hudson, Studebaker, Packard and DeSoto on the automotive scrap heap, the grandest name, perhaps, but just as dead.
The last of 35,229,218 production Oldsmobiles was a metallic cherry red Alero compact bearing the signatures of 4,500 workers at Lansing Car Assembly under its hood and trunk lid. It will be sent to the R.E. Olds Transportation Museum in Lansing, General Motors (GM, news, msgs) says.
On a dealer's lot, that final Alero would have carried a $3,500 rebate.
"Phasing it out was sad," Doug Stott, a production manager for Oldsmobile who has owned more than 30 Oldsmobiles himself, told the Associated Press. "At the same time, it’s like a graduation.”
The car for the middle class
GM pulled the plug on Oldsmobile in December 2000 after two decades of decline, saying the company needed to concentrate its resources on nameplates with better chances in an increasingly competitive marketplace, like its fresher Saturn nameplate.
Since then, the company has added two additional brands -- Saab and Hummer -- even as it worked to buy out the 2,800 dealers who were still selling Olds models. The company took a $939 million charge in 2001 to cover the costs associated with shutting the brand down. Those costs included big rebates, dealer incentives and "loyalty rewards" to keep buyers coming until the shutdown was complete.
At one time, Oldsmobile was the country's third biggest brand, with more than 1 million a year sold in the mid-1980s. Fewer than 130,000 were sold in 2003, the last full calendar year of sales. In the General Motors pantheon of brands, conceived so that buyers could move up without ever leaving GM, Oldsmobile occupied the middle ground, more prestigious than a Pontiac but less snooty than a Buick.
Olds leaves behind some lasting contributions to the automotive scene, among them the first assembly line in 1901, the first fully automatic transmission in 1940, the first air bag in 1974, the first chrome trim and, of course, the "Rocket 88" engine widely credited with having inspired the first rock 'n' roll song, Ike Turner's "Rocket 88" in 1951:
You may have heard of jalopies
You heard the noise they make
Let me introduce you to my rocket 88
Yes, it's great, just won't wait
Everybody likes my rocket 88
Gals will ride in style, moving all along
V-8 motor and this modern design
My convertible top and the gals don't mind
Sportin' with me,
Ridin' all around town for joy
Step in my rocket and a-don't be late
We're pullin' out about a half past eight
Goin' on the corner and a-havin' some fun
Takin' my rocket on a long hot run
Ooh, goin' out, oozin' and cruisin' along
Now that you've ridden in my rocket 88
I'll be around every night about eight
You know it's great, don't be late
Everybody likes my rocket 88
Gals will ride in style, moving all along.
http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/invest/extra/P82349.asp?GT1=3256
