early/mid 1950s sedan - hood decor is a large circle with horizontal line

[enthusiast]

My grandpa's car at the entrance to the Everglades sometime in the mid-1950s.  Interesting hood decoration, reminds me of the Opel symbol, but I'm sure my grandpa must have had an American sedan.  Anyone recognize this?

[keiser31]

1955 Oldsmobile.

[bryankazmer]

Oldsmobile, I think 1954

[keiser31]

2 minutes ago, bryankazmer said:

Oldsmobile, I think 1954

Yep. I was mistaken. I didn't realize the '54 and '55 looked so similar.

Edited March 8, 2022 by keiser31 (see edit history)

[enthusiast]

Wow, that's great.  Thanks so much!

[rocketraider]

Sounds like your dad was an Oldsmobile man! 👍

 

All these knotheads who insist that an old car has to have modern drivetrain and suspension to be drivable and reliable-

 

Here is a 1954 Oldsmobile from OHIO, touring in SOUTH FLORIDA.

 

These "unreliable" cars took their owners where they wanted to go, when they wanted to go.

 

Course if you're too stupid and lazy to learn how to operate and maintain old machinery, I suppose you would consider it unreliable- when the problem is not the machine, but the operator.

[enthusiast]

He was loyal to Oldsmobile for twenty years, until 1970, when the transmission suddenly gave up in his 1969 Olds 98 at an intersection in Phoenix in 102 degree heat.  That one, too, he had driven across the country.  It was still under warranty and so only cost $1.04 to repair.  Apparently a snap ring had been installed improperly at the factory and had scored the drum.  Not sure I understand what all that means, but that's the story I was told.  Anyway, a few months later, he traded it in for a 1971 Chevy Monte Carlo and never went back to Oldsmobile. 

[rocketraider]

Wayal... a 1st gen MC is a nice enough car- but it ain't an Oldsmobile!😁

[Ben Bruce aka First Born]

13 hours ago, rocketraider said:

Wayal... a 1st gen MC is a nice enough car- but it ain't an Oldsmobile!😁

 

  Agree, Glenn.    One problem after twenty years!  Then go second rate.

 

  Ben

[8E45E]

13 hours ago, rocketraider said:

Wayal... a 1st gen MC is a nice enough car- but it ain't an Oldsmobile!😁

That was true in 1970. 

 

Not so true starting ten years later when GM didn't learn from BMC/British Leyland and thought the public wouldn't fall for 'brand dilution' with sharing engines and other componentry that hardly differentiated each brand.

 

Craig

[rocketraider]

1 hour ago, Ben Bruce aka First Born said:

 

  Agree, Glenn.    One problem after twenty years!  Then go second rate.

 

  Ben

Even then the issue was not an Oldsmobile fault, but a HydraMatic Division fault. But most people don't know HydraMatic was a kind of captive outside supplier to all the GM Divisions.

[8E45E]

4 hours ago, rocketraider said:

But most people don't know HydraMatic was a kind of captive outside supplier to all the GM Divisions.

And Lincoln, Nash, Hudson, Kaiser, Jaguar, Ferrari, and Rolls-Royce who assembled it under licence.

 

Craig

[rocketraider]

Craig, I was thinking more of the TurboHydraMatic years since until 1964-66 timeframe Chevrolet and Buick built PowerGlide and DynaFlow in-house, and HydraMatic Division supplied Olds/Pontiac/Cadillac with fluid coupling HydraMatics.

 

Now, a four-speed HydraMatic with a torque converter instead of a fluid coupling would have been a formidable transmission indeed!

 

As ornery and overcomplicated as a Triple Turbine Dynaflow could be, we can thank its development for giving GM a torque converter transmission that actually shifted.

[Larry Schramm]

8 hours ago, rocketraider said:

Even then the issue was not an Oldsmobile fault, but a HydraMatic Division fault. But most people don't know HydraMatic was a kind of captive outside supplier to all the GM Divisions.

 

Hydramatic was always a GM division.  It never was an outside supplier.

 

Hydramatic (also known as Hydra-Matic) is an automatic transmission developed by both General Motors' Cadillac and Oldsmobile divisions. Introduced in 1939 for the 1940 model year vehicles, the Hydramatic was the first mass-produced fully-automatic transmission developed for passenger automobile use.

[rocketraider]

11 hours ago, rocketraider said:

...HydraMatic was a kind of  captive outside supplier to all the GM Divisions.

It was independent of any Division, I think? But supplied to all after TurboHydraMatic came on board? That's where I was going with that.

[Larry Schramm]

By reading the information, HydraMatic was a joint venture between Cadillac & Oldsmobile.  From my understanding after the war, WW2 it became a stand alone division like AC Spark Plug, Delco, Moraine Brakes, etc. 

 

Eventually I believe in the 80's it was folded into the new GM Powertrain Division when the divisions lost control of their individual engines.  Think each division had a 350 Cubic inch engine and the parts did not interchange.  GM went to corporate engine & transmissions because of fuel economy requirements not to mention emission requirements.  It did not make sense to validate four different 350 engines.  And the rest of the bean counters made the decisions.