The Oldsmobile Six, also known as the Model 53, 54 and 55 (1913-1915) then a brief cancellation until it reappeared as the Model 37, 37A and 37B (1917-1921) was a top level sedan along with the

Oldsmobile Series 40 The Series 40 Defender was a four-seat passenger car produced by General Motors for its Oldsmobile division in 1912 and 1913, and was manufactured at Lansing Car Assembly in Lansing, Michigan. It continued to be the entry-level model for Oldsmobil ...

junior vehicle produced by GM's

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 ...

Division and was manufactured at

Lansing Car Assembly Lansing Car Assembly was a General Motors automobile factory in Lansing, Michigan. It contained two elements, a 1901 automobile plant in downtown Lansing, and the 1920 Durant Motors factory on Lansing's Far Westside. The Lansing plant was the ho ...

Lansing, Michigan Lansing () is the capital of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is mostly in Ingham County, although portions of the city extend west into Eaton County and north into Clinton County. The 2020 census placed the city's population at 112,644, making ...

. It replaced the Series 28 also known as the "Oldsmobile Autocrat" and was replaced by the

Oldsmobile Model 30 The Oldsmobile Model 30, which continued to be known as the Oldsmobile Six, was built from the 1923 through 1927. Each year it was built, it was given the suffix 30-A, 30-B, 30-C, 30-D and 30-E for the last year of production, all having been man ...

in 1927, and shared wheelbases with the

Buick Six The Buick Six was a top level automobile produced by GM's Buick Division which was first introduced in 1914, and was the senior vehicle to the Buick Series B Four. It was an all new platform which was shared with the Oldsmobile Six and was the f ...

.Clymer, Floyd. ''Treasury of Early American Automobiles, 1877-1925'' (New York: Bonanza Books, 1950), p. 121 It continued to use the

T-head engine A T-head engine is an early type of internal combustion engine that became obsolete after World War I. It is a sidevalve engine that is distinguished from the much more common L-head by its placement of the valves. The intake valves are on one ...

for two years. The various bodystyles were supplied by

Fisher Body Fisher Body was an automobile coachbuilder founded by the Fisher brothers in 1908 in Detroit, Michigan. A division of General Motors for many years, in 1984 it was dissolved to form other General Motors divisions. Fisher & Company (originally Allo ...

of Detroit, MI. It competed with the

Chevrolet Series C Classic Six The Chevrolet Series C Classic Six is the first automobile produced by American car manufacturer Chevrolet. It is one of the few Chevrolets made while record-setting Buick race car driver Louis Chevrolet was with the company. This Brass Era Chev ...

as Chevrolet was an independent company before becoming a division in 1917. Oldsmobile also shared technology with GMC for commercial and industrial products.

History

Original six

The Model 53 was equipped with an enormous side-valve, in-line

six-cylinder engine The engine configuration describes the fundamental operating principles by which internal combustion engines are categorized. Piston engines are often categorized by their cylinder layout, valves and camshafts. Wankel engines are often categorize ...

developing 50 bhp. It had a wheelbase of based on the bodystyle offered of a

touring car Touring car and tourer are both terms for open cars (i.e. cars without a fixed roof). "Touring car" is a style of open car built in the United States which seats four or more people. The style was popular from the early 1900s to the 1930s. Th ...

, phaeton, or a four-door sedan, with the ability to accommodate between five and seven passengers. The Model 54 appearance was essentially unchanged from the Model 53, while the engine displacement increased to and the wheelbase was reduced to . The retail price for the Model 54 with seven-passenger

limousine A limousine ( or ), or limo () for short, is a large, chauffeur-driven luxury vehicle with a partition between the driver compartment and the passenger compartment. A very long wheelbase luxury sedan (with more than four doors) driven by a prof ...

coachwork was US$4,300 ($ in dollars ) which was close to the price of a

Cadillac Type 51 The Cadillac V8, introduced as the Type 51, is a large, luxurious automobile that was introduced in September 1914 by Cadillac as a 1915 model. It was Cadillac's first V8 automobile, replacing the four-cylinder Model 30, and used the all new GM ...

and more than $1000 over a

. The Model 55 offered the most advancements, changing the steering wheel position from the right to the left side and relocating the handbrake and gearshift from the outside right to the middle of the passenger compartment. Around 500 units of the Six were made in 1913, and around 1,000 in 1914. In 1915 only 114 luxury tourers were made.

Reintroduction

The Oldsmobile Six was reintroduced in 1917 with a new designation, called the Model 37 as a senior platform to the

Oldsmobile Light Eight The Oldsmobile Light Eight was an automobile produced by the Oldsmobile Division of General Motors in roadster, two-door coupe, four-door sedan from between 1916 and 1923. It was powered by a sidevalve V8 engine, the maker's first, and share ...

, and was positioned below Buick where it would remain. The engine displacement was reduced to a more efficient , and the overall size was reduced with a more manageable . For a brief time as the four-cylinder Oldsmobile Model 43 was not offered, the Model 37 was Oldsmobile's entry-level product. 1918 saw the Model 37A with more bodystyle choices, adding a roadster, two-door coupe and four-door sedan, and a naming convention changed designating the Model 37B as closed body sedans and coupes, with a retail price of US$1,850 ($ in dollars ) for the closed body sedan. Starting in 1921, all models were again referred to as Model 37 until it was replaced by the updated Model 30. 59,938 of the 37/37A/37B models were produced in five years. Production was not interrupted when the United States entered

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

starting in 1917.

History

Original six

Reintroduction

See also

References

Further reading