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| This 1959 Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight four-door sedan wears the optional Colour-Accent Wheel Discs that co-ordinated with body paint. |
It was billed as “so
totally new…so typically Olds!” For the second year in a row,
GM’s mid-priced luxury liner was completely original; new from the
ground up. Oldsmobile’s low, sleek lines were the result of a crash
programme undertaken by designers. Once they had seen the
breathtaking 1957 Chrysler lineup, everything currently under
development in the Oldsmobile studio was immediately scrapped.
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| Chrysler Canada's De Soto was Oldsmobile's direct competition. The 1957 De Soto was breathtaking. |
Virgil
Exner, Chrysler’s design chief, had suddenly raised the bar for the
entire industry with his “birds in flight” studies that
translated into sweeping fins on automobiles. Oldsmobile stylists
buckled down, working nights and weekends to come up with fresh
designs that would compete. The final result was a long, linear look
hailed as “the new phase in Oldsmobility.”
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| The 1959 Oldsmobile 98 Convertible. |
Very widely spaced
headlamps were moved from the fender into the dumbbell-shaped
aluminum grille. This gave Olds a much slimmer front end. A slab
sided profile carried a heavy eyebrow crease that wrapped around from
the headlights and ran along the top of the front fender until it
disappeared at its trailing edge.
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| The 1959 Oldsmobile Dynamic 88 Holiday Sport Coupe was at home in snow. |
Chrome jet-look ornaments were
poised for takeoff on the front fenders. From their tails, highly
stylized “flares’ of jet exhaust were captured in the sheet
metal. They swept dramatically rearward, nearly forever, in sharply
defined fins that were capped with a complex ovoid and trapezoidal
taillights.
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| The 1959 Oldsmobile 98 Sportsman. |
From the rear, the envelope was given a gently sloping
rear deck that ended in a long, narrow concave lip. The word
OLDSMOBILE was spelled out in the depression and higher lines wore
finely ribbed brightwork under the lettering. The gas port was
concealed in the centre of the rear bumper.
“Pencil thin” was
the watchword for the rooflines. Oldsmobile boasted 40 percent more
glass in its greenhouse. The Vista-Panoramic windshield cut high into
the roof and wrapped ever so gently into the door. Advertising
bragged, “There’s nothing but tinted, heat resistant glass
between you and the sky.”
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| Consumers could choose from a full half-dozen Rocket Engines for their 1959 Oldsmobiles. |
Owners could choose
engines with six different horsepower ratings: 270, 300, 315, 394,
410 and 435. All were derived from the 90-degree, high compression
V-8 mill whipped up by Oldsmobile’s engineers. For 1959, engines
were given a new Free-Flow intake manifold, larger intake valves and
a redesigned automatic choke created especially for buyers concerned
with pinching the beavers on their nickels at the filling station.
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| This is one Oldsmobile styling exercise that was scrapped. |
While a Synchro-Mesh
manual transmission was standard equipment on Dynamic 88 and Super 88
series, there was the self-shifting Jetaway Hydra-Matic transmission
for ease in driving.
Wheelbases grew longer.
The junior Oldsmobiles were now 3 124 millimetres (123 inches), sharing their B-bodies
with Buick. Senior Olds were assigned to a 3 200-millimetre (126-inch) wheelbase,
sharing C-bodies with Buick and Cadillac. Trunk space was now a
whopping 64 percent larger than before.
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| The 1959 Edsel, from Ford, competed against Oldsmobile. |
The 1959 Olds was
blessed with a new Guard-Beam chassis. Consumers were told they would
enjoy gliding along on the strongest, most stable frame in the
company’s history. U-channel and box-member side rails were mated
to a huge centre x-member. It promised to reduce vibration and
deliver an unforgettable “Glide” ride. The chassis couldn’t
take all the credit, a wider stance and a new king pin angle improved
roadability, too.
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An Oldsmobile could be
ordered in sixteen different Magic-Mirror colours, of which many were
“hi-metallic.” There was a proliferation of trendy two-tone
variations for those who desired them. All of the paints were of a
space-age, durable acrylic-base finish.
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| Ford of Canada brought back the Monarch in 1959 to compete with Oldsmobile when its Edsel failed to live up to sales expectations. |
Four series filled out
the Oldsmobile range: The top-of-the-line Ninety-Eight Holiday was available as
a swanky two-door hardtop called the SceniCoupe, a posh four-door
sedan and a very ritzy convertible. The Super 88 Holiday cost a
little less and offered a SceniCoupe hardtop, a four-door Sport Sedan
and a Fiesta four-door station wagon. A pair of lesser trimmed Super
88s were available, too; a four-door sedan and a convertible. For the
budget minded, there was a quintet of Dynamic 88 Holiday offerings
including a SceniCoupe two-door hardtop, two and four-door sedans, a
Fiesta four-door wagon, and a low-bucks convertible.
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| Oldsmobile’s Twin-Contour Instrument Panel was high style for 1959. The Vista-Panoramic Windshield was 46 percent larger than in the 1958 models. |
Designers gave great
attention to the cabins. Passengers sat in a newly enlarged “margin
of comfort.” A Twin-Contour Instrument Panel gave owners a larger
glove box and placed controls and gauges in front of the driver. A
Safety-Spectrum Speedometer used “a new colour bar to replace the
old speedometer needle.” From 0-35 miles per hour (ancient Canadian
units of measure) the colour bar was green. From 35 to 65 miles (60 to 100 kilometres) per
hour, the bar turned amber and at speeds above 65 miles (100 kilometres) per hour the
colour bar turned red.
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| Upholstery in the 1959 Oldsmobile Super 88 SceniCoupe exuded luxury. |
Fashion-Firm seats were
“ruggedly upholstered” in the Dynamic series, upgraded to
“special upholstery and rich trim” a.k.a. Morocceen and given
padded twist carpeting in the Super 88 series. The flagship 98s were
upholstered in hand-buffed leathers and promised to be in “good
taste” for those who required elegance. Safety reflectors were
built into the arm rests so that an oncoming driver could spot an
open door at night.
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There
were as many options for Oldsmobiles as there were Diefenbaker Tories
sitting in the House of Commons in 1959. Roto-Matic power steering,
Pedal-Ease power brakes, a power convertible top, a Six-Way power
seat and an electrically controlled radio antenna were a good start.
Then there was Air conditioning, a Dual-Range Power Heater,
Colour–Accent Wheel Discs, trim rings, electrically operated
Wide-Arc Wipers, an adjustable dome light and a De Luxe five-tube
radio with Wonder Bar Station Selector and a convenient foot-operated
pedal for changing stations. For high quality listening pleasure,
there was the Bi-Phonic Speaker System.
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| The 1959 Oldsmobile Super 88 Fiesta wagon offered eight more inches of cargo space than previously and featured a new electric rear window. |
Power
Window Lifts were optional and--on Fiesta wagons, convertibles and
all Ninety-Eights--two extra buttons could be installed to operate
the Venti-Pane windows as well. Advertising called it “the ultimate
in power assists.” Wagons could be had with a novel, new, extra
cost, power rear window that operated by a key from the rear or with
a button on the instrument panel by the driver.
Other
neat “advanced accessories” included a dash-mounted Autronic-Eye
that automatically dimmed headlights for oncoming traffic and the
Safety Sentinel, an orange light built into the speedometer that
flashed annoyingly should the driver exceeded the pre-set speed
limit.
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| The Trans-Porter all-transistor radio was a unique Oldsmobile option. |
The ultimate option had to be the Oldsmobile Trans-Portable
Radio, a completely transistorized, light, compact radio that
operated on the car’s electrical system or on its own 160-hour
battery. When not in use, the radio stored neatly on a lockable tray
in the glove box and was said to be“double locked” for
safekeeping. Sales brochures made no mention of the New-Matic air
suspension ride for Canadians, though it was available on American
Oldsmobiles.
General Motors of Canada
started the model year with 1,280 dealerships for its six divisions.
Its payroll was $93 million and 21,000 people were in its direct
employ. On December 12, 1958 the company marked a milestone as the
3,500,000th passenger car rolled out the doors of the
Oshawa plant.
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| This is the view of a 1959 Oldsmobile most often seen by other drivers. |
Production records show
that 16,270 Oldsmobiles were built in Oshawa during the 1959 model
year. That was a healthy increase over the 13,124 units produced in
the 1958 model year; a year of economic recession. Records show that
the climb was long term, too. In 1957, a total of 14,177 Oldsmobiles
were built by workers at GM Canada. As a result of a 114-day strike, only 7,986
units produced in 1956.
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Copyright James C. Mays 2004
All rights reserved.
