In 1939, the Oldsmobile division at General Motors added a third, low-priced model to its lineup, declaring that now there was “an Oldsmobile for everybody.”
Series 80 Convertible Coupe with Bing Crosby
Through most of the 1930s, Oldsmobile stuck to a straightforward product line consisting of two well-equipped cars of six or eight cylinders. Then for 1939 the model designations were revised and a third car was added: the Series 60, which shared the General Motors A-body shell with Chevrolet and Pontiac. With prices ranging from $777 to $889, the Series 60 Olds occupied the same price bracket as Pontiac and nibbled at the top of the Chevrolet range as well.
Series 60 Four-Door Sedan
Meanwhile, the two previous Olds models, now renamed Series 70 and Series 80, continued on as before, but consolidated on a single 120-inch wheelbase. The Series 60 and 70 shared the familiar Olds L-head six, while the flagship Series 80 featured the 257.1 CID straight eight and pricing in the $1,000 range. With this broad lineup of products, GM’s Lansing division could justify the slogan, “An Oldsmobile for everybody.” But in the meantime, GM’s carefully engineered price ladder, “a car for every purse and purpose” in the vision of CEO Alfred P. Sloan, was quickly growing fuzzy at the edges.
While the Series 60 was constructed on a 115-in wheelbase and the Series 70 and 80 on a 120-in wheelbase, the three cars shared a new chassis design for 1939. GM’s Independent coil spring front suspension was joined at the rear by a novel coil-spring system that used two converging trailing arms that were fixed to the rear axle to prevent its rotation. Thus there were no upper links, while a Panhard bar handled the lateral location.
Olds called the new smooth-rolling chassis “Quadra-Coil” and its road properties “Rhythmic Ride.” Then a few decades later, this same twin-arm layout was used on 1960-1972 Chevy pickups to improve the ride. There it was discovered and adopted by the NASCAR crowd for its anti-squat and roll-steer characteristics—useful on oval tracks. The “truck arm” setup, as it was known, was used in the Cup series from the mid-’60s until 2021 and is still found in the junior series, but it was first seen at Oldsmobile in 1939.
Series 80 Two-Door Sedan
Oldsmobile sales and production rose 33 percent in 1939, but there’s a lot going on there. The entire industry was battered by a recession in the previous year, and Oldsmobile responded by cutting prices across the board and introducing the third low-priced model. The Series 60 sold nearly 52,000 units, providing 37 percent of the total volume. Another noteworthy trend: Around 22 percent of the Olds buyers in ’39 opted for GM’s Automatic Safety Transmission, despite its $75 cost (actually it was semi-automatic; see our feature here.) That set the stage for the introduction of the fully automatic Hydra-Matic in 1940.
Have been partial to Oldsmobile because of their ability to be different from GM in general. The fixed trailing arms on rear suspension is one of those. The parameter frame instead the corporate X Is another. Engine and driveline indepence are more. Note the propeller shaft.
Oldsmobiles were always a little bit different. Even little things: the speedometer was driven by cable through the left front spindle, instead of on the transmission like all the other GM divisions. It’s a great way to do it, solves many problems, and Olds had the autonomy to do it.
For many years, Oldsmobile was considered the experimental division of General Motors. The 1939 model is new proof, even though the Hydra-Matic was a year in the future and the Rocket V-8 was a decade down the road
In part because Lansing was 100 miles west of the GM mothership, Oldsmobile had a spirit of independence, its own individual culture not found at the other divisions mcg