Nice find We knew someone who had an Alero. It was very unreliable but a nice small car

 

The earlier Buick Specials were as you indicate. The later 60's-vintage Specials were smaller compact and intermediate-size cars.

The Dynaflow lasted until the early 60s. For a relatively brief time in the 60s (including the '65 Electra I owned) Buick used its own version of the GM 3-speed Turdo-Hydra-Matic (and the smaller 2-speed Chevy Powerglide). In 1967, GM standardized all the 3-speed automatics in the latest THM.

 

I addressed that, if you read my post #15.

 

I liked the Alero. Had a girlfriend with one. Or perhaps she had an Intrigue. I may be getting them confused...

I remember one time my dad took me on a test drive of a new Achieva SCX with the quad-4 engine and a manual transmission. 190 horsepower was quite a lot for a 4 cylinder at the time. It was a fun drive, but very noisy, with a loud exhaust as I recall.

My folks ended up deciding the Achieva was too small and bought a new 94 Cutlass Supreme instead.

 

really? since you can't does that mean you don't enjoy the present? i just listened to an audiobook called The Power of Now. very very good.

anyway, i liked oldsmobiles. the FIRST car i ever rented was an olds '88 around 1982. it was huge, handled like a boat, gobs of power though and a roar from that v8. it was a HOOT to drive!

 

And the goal posts keep moving...

Anyways, the 98 was a dying breed for sure. GM had plenty of divisions that would continue to sell the large boats, like Buick. The Aurora which had come out in the mid 90s was a valiant attempt to pivot the brand. It was one of the first domestic cars that my friend's dad took for one of his corporate leases at the time. He had a Diamante before going into a 1st gen GS and then had an Aurora. Which was later replaced by the 2nd gen GS.

 

The problem was that the Aurora was a mistake. I'm not just Monday-Morning quarterbacking....I said so at the time, though that was before I was at CL. It not only had reliability problems, but was simply too great a departure from the 88 and 98. I'm not one of those who believe that the 98 was necessarily a dying breed, if Olds had simply marketed it better. The changeover to a digital dash, an over-reliance on row after row of identical buttons, and ever-cheapening interior trim not worthy of a luxury sedan in that class all did their parts in driving away buyers. It was interesting, though, that, after several years of the digital gauge-panel, Olds converted the panel back to analog....but, by then, the damage had been done.

 

Video brought back memories.
I'm an Olds fan as well. Learned to drive on a 1958 Olds 88 (what a solid tank). First new car I bought a couple of years out of college was a 1977 Cutlass Salon (silver with red vinyl landau top w/red interior). Last Olds was a 1989 98 Regency.

 

The only memories I can remember about the 98 was the Public Enemy song about their Olds 98 but I personally never like Olds. So now I'm going to have that song in my head for a while now.

 

This thread needs more nostalgic pics

 

My first car was a 1950 Olds 2 door coupe. It had the Rocket 88 engine with Hydramatic transmission. Back in the day, it was pretty fast but in hindsight it was also a bit of a junker too. Good memories though.

 

Oldsmobile invented the Hydra-matic transmission, in 1940. It was the first widely-produced transmission without a clutch pedal.

 

Very nice exterior style.

 

I'm betting it was the Alero, they looked great.

 

Possibly John Rock's worst decision was the Shelby Series 1 car.