The Oldsmobile Series 70 is a
full-size
Full-size car—also known as large car—is a vehicle size class which originated in the United States and is used for cars larger than mid-size cars, it is the largest size class for cars. In Europe, it is known as E-segment or F-segment.
Af ...
midrange automobile produced by
Oldsmobile
Oldsmobile or formally the Oldsmobile Division of General Motors was a brand of American automobiles, produced for most of its existence by General Motors. Originally established as "Olds Motor Vehicle Company" by Ransom E. Olds in 1897, it produ ...
between the 1939 and 1950
model year
The model year (sometimes abbreviated "MY") is a method of describing the version of a product which has been produced over multiple years. The model year may or may not be the same as the calendar year in which the product was manufactured.
...
s.
Oldsmobiles of this time period were in an unusual "middle" position in GM's hierarchy of automobile brands. Chevrolet and Pontiac were the budget priced models, while Buick and Cadillac were the luxury brands. GM would share their "A" body platforms between Chevrolet, Pontiac, and "B" body on Oldsmobile and Buick, while leaving Cadillac on the senior "C" platform. Oldsmobiles were then branded as "luxury level" Chevrolet's and Pontiac's, while Oldsmobiles using the "B" platform were "budget priced" Buicks and Cadillacs.
Competitors from Ford's
Mercury
Mercury commonly refers to:
* Mercury (planet), the nearest planet to the Sun
* Mercury (element), a metallic chemical element with the symbol Hg
* Mercury (mythology), a Roman god
Mercury or The Mercury may also refer to:
Companies
* Merc ...
and Chrysler's
DeSoto brands would give customers a choice to have Oldsmobile levels of luxury, while not paying as much for a comparable Oldsmobile. GM in later years would discontinue the Series 70 and the budget
Oldsmobile Series 60
The Series 60 "Special" is a full-size car made by Oldsmobile from the 1939 through the 1948 model years. It was their entry-level model using the GM "A" body platform, giving Oldsmobile an entry level product with more standard features that woul ...
, and introduce the
Oldsmobile 88
The Oldsmobile 88 (marketed from 1989 on as the Eighty Eight) is a full-size car that was sold and produced by Oldsmobile from 1949 until 1999. From 1950 until 1974, the 88 was the division's most profitable line, particularly the entry level mod ...
to push Oldsmobile upmarket, giving Chevrolet and Pontiac a better market position for a lower price. It was with this generation that all GM vehicles experienced increased width dimensions to accommodate three passengers on the front bench seat and an additional three passengers on rear bench seat installed vehicles. This was accomplished with the deletion of running board thereby adding additional room inside the passenger compartment and upgrading the floor mounted gearshift to a steering column installed transmission gear selector for the Hydramatic automatic transmission.
1939–1940
Naming standards were in flux at Oldsmobile during the late 1930s and 1940s. From 1932 through 1938 Oldsmobile had two series: "F" and "L". Series F came with a
straight-6
The straight-six engine (also referred to as an inline-six engine; abbreviated I6 or L6) is a piston engine with six cylinders arranged in a straight line along the crankshaft. A straight-six engine has perfect primary and secondary engine bal ...
engine and Series L came with a larger body and a
straight-8
The straight-eight engine (also referred to as an inline-eight engine; abbreviated I8 or L8) is a piston engine with eight cylinders arranged in a straight line along the crankshaft. The number of cylinders and perfect primary and secondary engi ...
engine.
Series F was renamed
Series 60
The S60 Platform (formerly Series 60 User Interface) was a software platform for smartphones that runs on top of the Symbian operating system. It was created by Nokia based on the 'Pearl' user interface from Symbian Ltd. It was introduced at ...
in 1939 and Series L was replaced with the Series 70, with the Series 70 being powered by the straight-6 and the straight-8 respectively. The Series 60 used the
GM A-body and the Series 70 used the
B-body
The B platform (also known as the B body) is a full-size car, full-size rear-wheel drive car platform that was produced by General Motors (GM) from 1926 to 1996. Originally made for Oldsmobile and Buick, all of General Motors's five main makes w ...
.
In 1940 the even larger
C-body was introduced to Oldsmobile and it alone was powered by the straight-8. In order to differentiate it as Oldsmobiles senior level vehicle it was named the
Series 90 while remaining below the
Buick Special
The Buick Special was an automobile produced by Buick. It was usually Buick's lowest-priced model, starting out as a full-size car in 1936 and returning in 1961 (after a two-year hiatus) as a mid-size. The Special was built for several decades and ...
. The series were also given names for the first time that year with the Series 60, 70, and 90 being called the Special, Dynamic, and Custom Cruiser respectively. The
Hydramatic transmission, a fully clutchless automatic, debuted in the 1940 model year.
1941–1948
In 1941 both straight six- and straight eight-engines were offered on each series so to differentiate between the two the second digit was used to denote the number of cylinders, so the Dynamic 70 was replaced with the Dynamic 76 and 78. In 1942 sales literature started referring to the Series 70 as the Dynamic Cruiser 76 and 78.
Production was delayed from 1942 until 1945 due to manufacturing efforts being devoted to World War II defense production. To celebrate the company's 44th anniversary at the time, all Oldsmobiles were installed with a small badge on the grille with "B44" attached. This was not a model designation.
In 1946 the Dynamic Cruiser Series 70 was Oldsmobile's mid-priced model, and offered both a 2-door Club Sedan and 4-door Sedan, and the second number in the series designation continued to identify if it had a straight six- or straight eight-cylinder flat-head engine.
Some of the optional equipment included a choice of a 6-
tube
Tube or tubes may refer to:
* ''Tube'' (2003 film), a 2003 Korean film
* ''The Tube'' (TV series), a music related TV series by Channel 4 in the United Kingdom
* "Tubes" (Peter Dale), performer on the Soccer AM television show
* Tube (band), a ...
or DeLuxe 7-
tube
Tube or tubes may refer to:
* ''Tube'' (2003 film), a 2003 Korean film
* ''The Tube'' (TV series), a music related TV series by Channel 4 in the United Kingdom
* "Tubes" (Peter Dale), performer on the Soccer AM television show
* Tube (band), a ...
radio, electric clock, plastic steering wheel, rear window wiper for both sedans, and auxiliary driving lights. Prices listed for the Dynamic 70 DeLuxe 4-door Sedan were US$1,678 ($ in dollars ) and 5,118 were assembled while the Dynamic 70 4-door Sedan was much more popular, selling 25,528 with a listed price of US$1,568 ($ in dollars ).
Electrical equipment was modest as the cars of this time only used a 6-volt system.
The standard equipment offered
Bedford cord
Bedford cord, named after the town of New Bedford, Massachusetts, a famous 19th century textile manufacturing city, is a durable fabric that resembles corduroy. The weave has faint lengthwise ridges, but without the filling yarns that make the d ...
or
broadcloth
Broadcloth is a dense, plain woven cloth, historically made of wool. The defining characteristic of broadcloth is not its finished width but the fact that it was woven much wider (typically 50 to 75% wider than its finished width) and then hea ...
upholstery, front seat retractable center armrests, rubber floor mats, painted woodgrained instrument panel, dual sun visors, dual electric windshield wipers, and an
automatic choke for the
carburetor
A carburetor (also spelled carburettor) is a device used by an internal combustion engine to control and mix air and fuel entering the engine. The primary method of adding fuel to the intake air is through the venturi tube in the main meteri ...
for easier starts for a cold engine.
Buyers who chose the DeLuxe trim package were given carpeted inserts in the rubber floor mats, a deluxe instrument with full gauges, a retractable center armrest for the rear seat, the E-Z-I
anti-glare rear view mirror and an electric clock.
Curiously, the Standard Series 70 had 16" wheels while the DeLuxe had 15" wheels as standard equipment.
1947 was Oldsmobile's fiftieth anniversary and other than some new two-tone exterior paint options, the standard and optional equipment and features remained carryover from previous years. A heater and windshield defroster was added to the options list for US$32 ($ in dollars ). New branch assembly locations were added at Atlanta and Wilmington. Due to the American public taking the opportunity to purchase new vehicles to replace cars kept in service due to WWII production suspension, 38,152 2-door Club Sedans and 30,841 4-door Sedans were built, more than the Special 60 Series or the larger Custom Cruiser 98.
The Dynamic 76 was produced in Australia with fewer than 120 thought to have been produced during 1947.
In 1948, when the Series 60 was renamed the Dynamic the "Cruiser" tag was dropped from the Series 70 and it was once again named the Dynamic 76 and 78.
1949–1950
The all new post-war Futuramic styling that had been introduced to the C-body Oldsmobile 98 in 1948 was brought to Oldsmobile's
A-body which it now shared with Pontiac and Chevrolet in 1949, and the new name Seventy-Six, with the numbers now spelled out, became Oldsmobile's entry level model when the Series 60 was discontinued. The wheelbase was now and was only available with the
Oldsmobile straight-6 engine.
The previous 78 model was retired with the 1949 introduction of the
Oldsmobile 88
The Oldsmobile 88 (marketed from 1989 on as the Eighty Eight) is a full-size car that was sold and produced by Oldsmobile from 1949 until 1999. From 1950 until 1974, the 88 was the division's most profitable line, particularly the entry level mod ...
, which shared its new Futuramic A-body platform with the Seventy-Six but was equipped with the new overhead valve
Rocket V8
The Oldsmobile V8, also referred to as the Rocket, is series of engines that was produced by Oldsmobile from 1949 until 1990. The Rocket, along with the 1949 Cadillac V8, were the first post-war Overhead valve, OHV crossflow cylinder head V8 engin ...
. The nameplate "Futuramic" identified an Oldsmobile approach to simplified driving, and the presence of an automatic transmissio
1948 Oldsmobile Futuramic introduction In its final year of 1950 the Seventy-Six continued to offer the DeLuxe trim package that was only offered on the all-new station wagon with wood exterior panels, while the Holiday hardtop coupe was briefly offered, manufacturing only 144 with the standard trim package and 394 with the DeLuxe package and a listed retail price of US$2,108 ($ in dollars ). This particular model is particularly rare to find as it was the only time Oldsmobile offered a six-cylinder engine with the upscale hardtop feature.
The hardtop was built by welding a steel roof onto the convertible body style which simplified assembly line operations.
The Seventy-Six was available in the following body styles:
*
Station wagon
A station wagon ( US, also wagon) or estate car ( UK, also estate), is an automotive body-style variant of a sedan/saloon with its roof extended rearward over a shared passenger/cargo volume with access at the back via a third or fifth door ( ...
*
Convertible
A convertible or cabriolet () is a passenger car that can be driven with or without a roof in place. The methods of retracting and storing the roof vary among eras and manufacturers.
A convertible car's design allows an open-air driving expe ...
* Holiday
hardtop
A hardtop is a rigid form of automobile roof, which for modern cars is typically constructed from metal. A hardtop roof can be either fixed (i.e. not removable), Convertible#Detachable hardtop, detachable for separate storing or retractable ha ...
coupé
A coupe or coupé (, ) is a passenger car with a sloping or truncated rear roofline and two doors.
The term ''coupé'' was first applied to horse-drawn carriages for two passengers without rear-facing seats. It comes from the French past parti ...
(2-door)
*
Club
Club may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* ''Club'' (magazine)
* Club, a ''Yie Ar Kung-Fu'' character
* Clubs (suit), a suit of playing cards
* Club music
* "Club", by Kelsea Ballerini from the album ''kelsea''
Brands and enterprises
...
coupé
A coupe or coupé (, ) is a passenger car with a sloping or truncated rear roofline and two doors.
The term ''coupé'' was first applied to horse-drawn carriages for two passengers without rear-facing seats. It comes from the French past parti ...
(2-door fastback)
*
Club
Club may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* ''Club'' (magazine)
* Club, a ''Yie Ar Kung-Fu'' character
* Clubs (suit), a suit of playing cards
* Club music
* "Club", by Kelsea Ballerini from the album ''kelsea''
Brands and enterprises
...
sedan (4-door fastback)
* Town Sedan (4-door fastback)
References
{{Oldsmobile postwar timeline
70
Cars introduced in 1938
Rear-wheel-drive vehicles
Sedans
Coupés
Convertibles
Station wagons