Labor Fest of Detroit

Oldsmobile is the oldest passenger car manufacturer in the United States, and one of the world’s oldest. Everything came about when Frank Clark and Ransom Eli Olds agreed to produce a “horseless carriage” with Olds supplying the engine and other mechanical components (his father built immobile gasoline engines), and Clark providing the carriage (his father had a carriage business). After making the vehicle run successfully, Olds and some Lansing businessmen established the Olds Motor Vehicle Company in 1897. Olds relocated to Detroit in 1899 and became the Olds Motor Works. They built a new factory – the first specifically designed to manufacture vehicles – on the Detroit River banks. The facility at Lansing was maintained as an engine factory.

After moving to Detroit, the Oldsmobile Runabout was developed. Its wheelbase measured 66 inches, its weight was 700 pounds, and it had a single-cylinder, seven-horsepower gasoline engine. Olds started by selling only 425 cars in 1901, but sales steadily increased to a stunning 5,508 units in 1904. Olds Motor Works was at that time selling more cars in America than anybody had ever sold before. Oldsmobiles were finding their way to the royals of Italy and England, and even to the Middle East and Russia. In 1908, the Olds Motor Works was absorbed into the young General Motors Corporation, which had the Buick Motor Company as its principal asset. Olds continued to thrive under GM and increased its production to nearly 8,000 cars in 1915.

The Roaring Twenties saw an economic boom that pushed Olds production to 45,000 in 1925, the same year when Olds introduced the use of chromium-plating as trims on cars. Then Depression came and sales lowered, but still new Oldsmobile sales reached 183,000 cars in 1935 and production marked the 1 millionth Oldsmobile. 1939 saw the introduction of first completely automatic transmission, the Hydra-matic, which drew considerable sales; allowing the production of the 2-millionth Oldsmobile in 1941.

General Motors Corporation officially made Olds Motor Works its Oldsmobile Division on January 1, 1942. Oldsmobile continued to make milestones after the war. It pioneered the first overhead valve, high-compression V-8 engine. Then came power brakes and air conditioning in 1958. The 5-millionth Oldsmobile rolled out in 1955. Olds introduced the “Trans-portable” radio in 1958. To achieve greater fuel economy, a new carburetor, the “Econo-o-Way” in 1958, and a split choke system in 1959, were introduced.

Oldsmobile’s compact F-85 came in 1960. It was designed to combat imports, rated at 18 mpg on the highway, and geared for people who sought a small, inexpensive car but disliked the austerity of the current imports. In 1966 Olds introduced one of that decade’s most essential advances; the use of front-wheel drive on the Tornado. Although this move came as strange to many viewers, it permitted Oldsmobile to achieve something it had always wanted: a flat floor for more space and comfort, and a chassis/drivetrain assembly which permitted finer traction and handling unattainable in cars of this bulk. The “muscle cars” like the 4-4-2, the Hurst Olds, and the W-30, 31 and 32 were also introduced during this time. 1978 saw the first V-8 diesel engine for an American passenger car and in 1982 Olds launched the Cutlass Ciera, which used front-drive, and had a new V-6 diesel engine.

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