1970 Oldsmobile Ninety Eight Interior Hardware

– Posted on Nov 22, 2019

Here is another 1 that I accept been sitting on for awhile.  Since August of 2011, in fact.  Why did I take pictures of this auto?  I don't really like (he said politely) these 1971-76 B and C body cars from GM.  And I certainly don't revel in cars that find themselves in this condition.  Only in that location was that one matter that spoke to me.

These cars made a stiff impression on me when they were new.  It is true that any Oldsmobile was liable to make an impression, if only because at that place were so many of them in my family.  And as i who liked luxo-boats, if I was going to find an Oldsmobile to beloved it would be one of these bruisers.

And then there was the "Regency" model itself.  I felt like someone who got in on the footing floor of the Ninety-Eight Regency.  When my female parent was shopping in hostage for a 1972 Cutlass, I spent hours in Oldsmobile showrooms.

The Regency was a limited edition super-luxe package offered on the Ninety-Eight that twelvemonth, Oldsmobile'south fashion of celebrating its 75th anniversary.  It was offered in a single color combo – "Tiffany Golden" paint with a matching vinyl roof and a black velour interior.

On the outside, it was an attractive package.  The 1971-72 Ninety-Eight was one of the best looking of a good looking family unit of cars, and the new Regency showed the car in its most elegant low-cal.

But it was on the inside where this car made its money.  Those seats.  I had never seen seats like this in a motorcar.  Empathise, at the age of 13 I was a connoisseur of big American luxury cars.  This was where my tastes naturally ran, and I had the bonus of a Dad who was on his second Continental Mark (a 1972 Marker Iv).  So I knew what the inside of a high end U.Southward. car was supposed to await like.  But this!  This was new.

A petty research shows that Cadillac as well offered velour-upholstered seats equally a option in its Fleetwood Brougham that year, merely I recollect it is fair to say that Oldsmobile's version was the i that fabricated you want to jump in and endeavor them out.  Could the "Tiffany inspired" Ninety Viii Regency have been the car that ignited the Velour Wars of the Great Brougham Epoch?  By 1974 the stuff was everywhere and the "loose pillow" upholstery style was spreading in the higher toll classes.

When the '73 model came out, I was not sure that the look of the outside was an upgrade.  It did not suffer the style the cars from FoMoCo did, but it was not an comeback either.  I volition admit that the rear end came off as one of the better looks of the big-bumper era.  The Regency at present held top spot of the regular lineup and was not some kind of limited edition.

Merely The Seats were notwithstanding there.  Is information technology just me, or did Oldsmobile re-utilise the 1972 artwork here, only with a alter in background scenery?

I got to experience The Seats a few times.  In 1971-73 I was attending canon classes at a local Lutheran church building.  It was an odd situation, information technology was not our own church because their classes conflicted with my sentry meetings.  And so I was at an unfamiliar church, but one where some of my friends from school attended.  This was Fort Wayne, Indiana, where there were more than German Lutherans per capita than anywhere outside of Minnesota.  Or Federal republic of germany too, I suppose.

Various parents took turns machine-pooling us and one of the Dads was driving a brand new 1973 Ninety Eight Regency in emerald greenish.  And yes, it had The Seats.  They felt only as comfy every bit they looked.  In that location was a lot of cheap in the interiors of these big GM cars of the menstruum, only none of it was in these fabulous, fabulous seats.  For a kid used to slick vinyl demote-fashion back seats, those tufted velour pillows seemed to envelop the rider in a soft, gentle hug.  I can't say I enjoyed those canon classes much but the rides in the back of that big Regency made getting out of the machine less enjoyable than usual.

Could these be the most famous seats of whatsoever American auto ever?  Yes, at that place was the "Corinthian leather" of the Cordoba, only the seats themselves were non all that memorable.  I would contend that this upholstery manner lit the flame that would not burn out for a generation.

Merely for comparing, take a wait at what passed for luxury seating in a not-Regency Ninety 8 of 1972.  Does anyone remember these?  Of grade not.  Loose pillows and velour were "where it's at" and would be a combination that would take a long fourth dimension to become away,  For my money none of the imitators ever did the task equally nicely every bit Oldsmobile in these large sleds.

Olds was still doing seats in this style (though not quite as thick and corrupt) in the 1984 Ninety Eight I was driving in the late '90s.  It would not be a stretch to say that those seats were my favorite part of the motorcar.  I found them very comfortable, and that chocolate brownish velour wore like iron, never showing the effects of wear or historic period.  There were things I griped almost with that car, but those seats salved my hurts and made me experience ameliorate about the whole thing.

But let the states return to this poor wrung-out Oldsmobubble.  The Moss Gold lacquer pigment (a 1973-merely colour) did its best against the elements but eventually gave upwardly.  The plastic bumper fillers are toast.  The wheelcovers and fender skirts have gone AWOL and who knows what kind of maladies lurk beneath this car'south deteriorated skin.

Merely The Seats are still at that place and looking mahhvelous.  My early on experience was that these automotive velours were as tough as cast iron and this auto confirms that stance.

I don't think its a stretch to say that the Ninety Eight began its glory years in the early 1970's, earning a quiet luxury cred that it would hold onto all through the fourscore's.  The Ninety Eight broke a product record in 1973, with 138,462 cars existence welcomed into garages everywhere, a figure well above 1972's record year of 121,568.  For some perspective, the 1973 Ninety 8 was only about 20,000 units shy of the what the entire 1971 Chrysler line had managed to sell, Newports and all.  Add in 88s and Toronados and you lot can encounter that Oldsmobile was hot (and Chrysler was non).  And this ignores the Cutlass altogether, something very few were doing in 1973.

In my eyes the Olds Ninety Viii was every chip the equal of the Buick Electra 225, something that had seldom been true in previous decades.  And information technology seemed to hold its own confronting its Flint-built cousin until the oddly styled 1991 model which was the terminal version.

I look at these awful pictures and marvel that I was immune to post them hither in the site's early days.  But though I have much better pictures of other cars, these are worthwhile to highlight the peak of 1970s' Brougham Decadence.  I think it is safe to say that few were better than Oldsmobile at understanding what eye-class America wanted in the 1970s.  We had no thought in 1971 that what nosotros really wanted was a pair of fabulously opulent pillow-tufted velour seats.  It was Oldsmobile that showed us that what we wanted was exactly that.

Further Reading:

1972 Oldsmobile Xc Eight (Paul Niedermeyer)

1972 Oldsmobile Ninety Eight Coupe (LongRoofFan)

1975 Oldsmobile Ninety 8 Regency (Jim Grey)

1976 Oldsmobile Ninety 8 (Jason Shafer)

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