1955 Oldsmobile Super 88 Holiday Coupe from North America - Comments

The starter locked up and needed a new bendix at about 52,000.

The leather seat tops cracked near the windows.

This was my favorite car of all time. It had a lot of power, thanks to the 324 V-8 and the hydramatic transmission. It downshifted when you needed extra power, and took off like a rocket.

It was fairly economical for those days of the early mainstream V-8's, getting 19 mpg.

The instrument layout was simply gorgeous. I recall the steering wheel center ornament, a silver world, split in half and mounted on a mirror, which looked like it was suspended in space.

The car was red and white with wide whitewalls and fender skirts.

The design of the side windows provided a pleasant view for back seat riders. The window sills of the front doors sloped down quite low past the door jamb. There was no "post" to obstruct the view, so when all the windows were rolled down, it was great!

This was probably the most trouble-free car I ever owned.

Yea, those old Oldsmobiles were great. Was really sorry when GM cancelled the brand after it had been around for over a hundred years. Now there is talk they will do the same thing to Buick.

Somehow I doubt that anyone will have such fond memories of their Honda or Scion, fifty years from now...

No Joke. I guess sometimes we assume things like music and styles will always be something beautiful to behold. Just look at what has happened with those. Remember all the two-tone paint jobs? They're gone, just like the chrome ball louvers on dashboards for factory air. Look at the cheap plastic louvers (that don't work) now. Those original chrome ball-style louvers embedded in felt worked better than anything since. They provided an infinite choice of positions to direct the air, and one could manipulate them without any distraction from driving. I never recalled them getting dusty, either. Oh, well. I'd love to take just one more spin in a real car with a good ol' push-button radio that has some good music coming from it.

Just remember today you can get any interior color combination you want so long as it is tacky tan or boring grey. Henry Ford would be proud. Contrast that with Oldsmobiles combinations in 1955. Its no wonder GM can't sell cars today except by giving them away. What ever happened to a white ragtop with a red (and chrome) interior. Or a red hardtop with a jet black interior. Or engines specific to the nameplate. In other words cars we could (and would) lust over. I owned several '55 Oldsmobiles. Loved them all. I still think they were great looking and running cars. If GM wants to regain market share they might look back to when style and independent engineering played a roll in grapping a car shopper's eye (and pocketbook).

I remember on a fri or sat night on the lonly back roads when a 49 or 50 olds pulled up it scared the pants off of the fast boys, never knew what was under the hood, then the J-2 showed up wow!! don't remember any bow ties sticking around,and if a 50 with a j-2 showed up nobody would play with him. now I see buick and gmc going down the path that gm sent olds, shame shame shame on you gm, i see it now dodge chrysler--ford lincoln--cad and chev, big names will be toyota, nissan mazda etc.that's what happens when non car guys are allowed to run car co. s ps glad I'm old might not see the death of those cars, but its comming.

I bought a 1955 Rocket 88 in Anchorage, Alaska in 1962 for $300, performed the needed body work, rebuilt its awesome 324 c.i. V-8 engine with its hydraulic lifters, had the two-tone aqua/white body painted all-white, and when I was discharged from the USAF I drove it across the largely unpaved Al-Can (Alaskan-Canadian) Highway into Montana and down to Florida, then across to California in July 1963. It started to smoke. As a poor college student I could not afford to have the engine rebuilt so I gave it to a wreaking yard in 1965. I had also replaced the hood liner, sun visor, and both seats with hand-sewn covers that I made. That was the first, and the most beautiful, most spectacular, and fastest car I ever owned. My brother used to boast that he wiped out every car, including Corvettes, off the line at stop lights in Tampa.

I used to have dreams that I still owned that beauty. A few weeks ago I made a wrong turn in San Jose, California, and I was amazed to see my ol' Olds Rocket 88 parked at the curb in front of a house. I confirmed that it was the same car that I drove to California 43 years ago. It still has the lap-type seat belts that I installed and anchored to the foot wells of the back seat. The spare wheel, that was also aqua and not painted with the other four, was mounted on the car.

I returned to take photos and spoke with its owner, who has owned it for 30 years. He is asking $4500 for it in its deplorable condition. It its heyday that car took off like its namesake, Rocket, and the hood emblem of a "Destination Moon" type of rocket served as a reminder of its awesome unbridled power and might.

I thought about buying it and restoring it, but like all things dear and beloved to us there has to be a time to make a clean, but memorable, separation.

Yousef Salem

Sunnyvale, CA.

I recall not needing air conditioning. My first car 50 Plymouth (not an Olds yet... I had them later) had a center push down handle under the dash that activated the center hood scoop that vented air to the interior. Also the 50-60' s cars had small tilt in vent wing windows for the driver/passenger something not seen today. Air Conditioning was for the rich in the 50's! My uncle owned a 50 Olds with the Rocket V8 which was a known hot rod favorite in the day.

I have to say that cars from the 49-59' era had the best styling of any era to date.

I'm 19, and my first love was a 1950 4-door rocket 88 holiday hardtop. Unfortunatly the engine looked like it had been recovered from the bottom of a lake, and 40+ years of salt air (eastern N.C.) had taken its toll on the body.

These old cars were and still are moving, driving artworks, back when companies actually put effort and quality ahead of profit, back when every company had their own engine designs and you could actually tell a Pontiac from a Chevy from a Buick, something that's hard to do with GM's pieces of crap that they're selling now. Oldsmobile was the most respected name in GM, the very father of fast cars, considering the rocket 88 V8 was the first OHV engine in a production car, removing Oldsmobile was a huge mistake.

GM should really steer away from mass producing useless gas sucking SUVS and trucks, and make more 2 and 4 door sedans and coupes with some style and effort, and rather than share platforms frames and engines, the remaining makes in GMS lineup should define themselves from the mainstream market by making bold unexpected moves. Sure, Ford's Thunderbird retro remake sold like crap, but it was overpriced, overweight and underquality, but if GM took cues from previous styles of the 50s and muscle-cars of the 60s, and revived familiar nameplates (Riviera NEEDS to make a return), put more effort into quality, they might be able to stand on their own two feet and not worry about selling out to some damn foreign company. I DO NOT want to lift the hood on a vette' 10 years from now and find more korean writing than the subtitles of a cheap kung-fu movie...

I support American made cars, and stand behind GM wholeheartidly, but they need to get their heads out their asses and hire some car guys with more than half a brain to come up with something other than look-alike 4cyl runabouts and drab, boorish sedans that look like every other sedan GMs made since the 80s. Sure, there were good ones here and there (the Bonnevile and Riviera, from a personal standpoint), but until they come up with something that makes me drool as much as a Rocket 88 or a Starchief, or even a Bel Air, I won't give GM a cent of my hard earned cash, I'll just stick with my 300zx for now...

Anyways, I can only dream of what it was like to drive a REAL car back in my grandparents time, so in the meantime try and make a date with a Rocket 88!

I Own a 1955 Old S88, When you see GM before and Now, you can see why they ain't selling cars like they used to.

I am trying to help a guy in MN sell a 1950 rocket 88 4-door like you mentioned. Here's the ad if you know anyone interested. Thanks!

Minneapolis.craigslist.org/car/422534930.html.