They were called Chevymobiles. Thousands of 1977 Oldsmobiles were equipped with Chevy engines without the full knowledge of their buyers, and they weren’t the least bit happy about it.
Introduced in 1949 and comprehesively redesigned in 1964-65, the famed Oldsmobile Rocket V8 was a major selling point at the General Motors division for decades. As one of the first modern high-compression V8s, ithe Rocket was marketed, justifiably, as a true advance in automotive technology. Oldsmobile’s spicy V8 was even cemented into pop culture with one of the earliest rock ‘n roll songs, “Rocket 88” by Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats in 1951. Oldsmobile and the Rocket V8 were synonymous.
That bubble burst in March of 1977 when a disturbing story swept through the national press. An Oldsmobile owner in Chicago, Joseph Siwek, had taken his ’77 Delta 88 to a local garage for service. There, the mechanic informed Mr. Siwek that his Olds was not equipped with the 350 cubic-inch Rocket V8 he’d ordered. The Olds fan belt and oil filter wouldn’t fit. The engine, as the mechanic had no doubt instantly recognized, was the familiar 350 cubic-inch Chevrolet V8.
Once the news was sprawled across the headlines, more Delta 88 owners took another look under their hoods, and they discovered Chevy V8s too. Around half the Delta 88s produced that year, in fact, were assembled with small-block Chevy V8s. And thousands of owners weren’t happy about it, either. They felt they’d been cheated, the victims of a classic bait-and-switch.
To be fair, there was no overt intent by GM to defraud consumers. Truth was that engine sharing was a common practice at the automaker that dated back to at least 1910. The 1934 LaSalle used a refined version of the Olds straight 8, and the Chevy inline 6 could be found in many brands besides Chevrolet, to name just a few examples. Business as usual.
In the 1970s the practice expanded throughout the GM car brands and there were Pontiac V8s in Buicks, Oldsmobile V8s in Cadillac Sevilles, Buick V6s in everything. Olds division was enjoying a record year in 1977 as production topped the million-car mark, and with the engine plant in Lansing unable to meet the demand, the rather commonplace decision was made to substitute the LM1 Chevy V8 for the Olds-built L34.
The trouble was that despite the engine switch, Oldsmobile continued to mention the vaunted Rocket V8 in its advertising materials, and consumers had taken the boasts to heart. Many automotive professionals and enthusiasts wondered what the fuss was about as after all, both the Olds and Chevy were perfectly fine V8s. Hot rodders would say the Chevymobile owners got the better deal, given the small-block’s performance potential. But Olds had long promoted the Rocket V8 as something special, and buyers naturally wanted what they were promised. The fuzzy language of automotive marketing had collided with the objective reality of automobile production.
GM made several attempts to placate the Chevymobile owners, but the matter was ultimately resolved in 1981 when a jury in an Illinois federal court directed the automaker to pay $550 in compensation to every customer. However, buyers who made their purchases after April 10, 1977 were excluded from the class-action deal, as by then the facts of the Olds-Chevy engine switch were widely understood. The final cost to GM was more than $8 million, not including the loss in consumer confidence.
Chastened by the embarrassing incident, the carmaker stopped the practice of marketing engines as the products of specific GM car brands. The fine print in GM ad materials now declared that the vehicles were powered by “corporate” engines supplied by GM to the various divisions. In 1992, GM’s engine manufacturing operations across the brands were consolidated into a single unit called the GM Powertrain Division. In 2016, GM Powertrain was rebranded as Global Propulsion Systems, then dissolved altogether in March of 2020 as the automaker shifted its focus to an electric future.
Another HUGE automotive topic most of us would love to forget, and did,,until just now. I was there, in the peak of my automotive adventures. Car buyers were still a very loyal bunch, and this was one of the first times we actually felt swindled by our beloved car companies. Going to the auto parts store, was a daily thing for most, and I remember more than one Olds owner returning the parts they claim didn’t fit. Today, where we don’t go under the hood except to add washer fluid, who cares what powers it, but back then it was a really big deal. GM lost a lot of customers, and ironically, AMC had some of their best years then. IH did the same thing, yet few noticed, but Pa was sharper than GM thought. He bought an Olds, because it was an Olds, and that was that.
I remember when that happened & knowing that besides the aforementioned times GM had done it, that Fomoco & Mopar always had used corporate engines, so I failed to see why it mattered. I still fail to see why it mattered.
No one thought that the various FoMoCo and Mopar brands were “better” than each other. They were variations of size and trim. The various GM brands had been sufficiently different mechanically that you could tell yourself that a more expensive brand actually was a better car.
Sure the Chevy engine could be hopped up more easily and for less money but the olds engine was arguably the better, more durable engine which is what was most important to our fathers who bought Oldsmobile
You are absolutely correct. There was a reason that GM tried to make a diesel out of the Olds V8 and not the Chevy. Even though it failed, it was a stronger engine. Much stronger.
I couldn’t have said it better!
The Olds diesel block became a favorite of hardcore drag racers for its strength. Ironic, considering it is remembered as failure for general consumer use.
In the late 70’s/early 80’s, Olds leadership (Sanchez, before his untimely passing) sought to restore an Olds-based engine to NASCAR, which had instituted a 358 ci. engine size limit some years prior. The main components were a racing block based on the 350 Diesel architecture, and a revised Olds cylinder head developed by C.J. Batten. Alas, Olds ran into the same snares that Pontiac did with their NASCAR 355 program a decade prior – lack of budget for a full-on speedway engine development program that could match or eclipse what Chevy had been doing since the late ’50s.
You are completely right . The Olds block was stronger and a diesel puts more strain on a block. SB Chevy they said was not strong enough. My buddy has the diesel pickup. Dual exhaust with blue bottles. Alot of cool rap but no performance. But we all moved it.
Loved it 😄
I agree Oldsmobile enthusiasts want Olds engines in their cars,and that’s just how it is,nothing sounds like a rocket V8
Starting with the 1976 model year Olds was supplying (selling) its 350 engines to Cadillac for use in the Seville which further taxed Old’s ability to produce enough for its own brands. GM’s other option for Seville would have been to use Chevrolet 350s which might well have led to an even bigger fiasco!
Which is kind of funny, since by 1991, the Cadillac Brougham came equipped with one of two Chevy V8s, the standard 305 (by then upgraded with electronic fuel injection) or the optional 350.
The big deal to many was that the Olds engine got better gas mileage, and that is the reason many specifically bought an Olds. I first heard about the issue at the time through a friend whose father had bought one with the Chevy motor. Milage was the reason he was upset.
If both engines were properly tuned I doubt there was much difference in mileage.
“Caveat emptor” , an old Latin statement meaning “buyer beware”. If a buyer had traditionally bought Oldsmobiles, he or she would likely expect the product to be the same, unless told differently…or unless he or she asked, and would “assume”, and trust, that a salesperson knew the product, and answered honestly. The ’77 Olds sales literature listed two 350 V8s, but it does not tell us that they are from different sources, nor does it include the designations LM1 (Olds) and L34 (Chevy). Thus, how would a buyer know?
Were salesmen aware of it? Sometimes they don’t know the product well, they only know selling, and they are good at that. During the same period, there were engine manipulations throughout GM. A customer drove in to the Service station I managed. He left his El Dorado running, and went inside to buy cigarettes. When he came out, he asked “what’s that noise?” It’s your car, sir, it’s a diesel. He didn’t know he had purchased a diesel! I can understand possibly not hearing the clatter inside with sound insulation, windows closed, air conditioning and music on. But I wondered what kind of fuel he had been putting into the tank if he was unaware of the type of engine
his car had.
The top photo appears to be a Buick LeSabre two-door with a Delta 88 front end. Is this a retouched photo? All 88 two-doors I have seen from the 1977–79 period have the upright, rectangular quarter window. Can anyone confirm the existence of a Delta 88 two-door with triangular quarter windows like this car? If so I would love to know more.
I believe the standard 88 coupe roofline was the large triangular window, same as Catalina/Bonneville and LeSabre coupes. Few were apparently sold that way, as 90% of them that I ever saw had the landau roof with upright, rectangular “opera” window configuration.
I could be wrong, however. Anyone have any better knowledge of this?
Yes, good catch. That’s a press kit photo and these are often pilot production cars. I don’t know that any were actually produced for retail sale with that greenhouse. As they always like to say, “Prices and specifications are subject to change without notice.”
Good catch! With the “1977 ” on the license plate, I’m guessing this is a photo from GM…probably before the cars were finalized for 1977. It definitely has the window treatment of the Buick LeSabre. Kind of like the early brochures for the 1957 Chevy 210 with trim that never made it to production (https://www.macsmotorcitygarage.com/video-a-57-chevy-that-never-was/)
I worked final assembly at Oldsmobile in Lansing. It was disappointing to see the Chevymobiles going down the line. Another issue was that they put the TH200 behind the Chevy engine. I bought one of those cars in 1986. I owned another ’77 that had the 403/TH350 which was a much more satisfying car.
Happened to.my dad as well with a Delta 88.Wound up with a broken crankshaft. GM got him a 98 with the 403.
In general, the olds was aore expensive car than the Chevy, if comparing apples to apples size wise..Olds fans were correct to complain about having a Chevy engine. While the olds rocket 88 was the darling of v8 aficionados with GM as early as 1950, you couldn’t even buy a Chevy with a V8 in it until 1955. Chevy was GMs “economy” brand ( ie. Cheap)
Harvester used the AMC 6 in certain models in the 70s.
Worked in the piston ring business that very model year. Could hardly keep up with the Chevrolet and Oldsmobile orders. We had almost 100% of their production along with Cadillac. Cadillac, of course, had far less volume.
Our company hardly had any business with Buick, Pontiac, Ford or Chrysler! I guess it did not matter. There were about 400 people working hard just supplying Chevy and Olds.
Olds was so desperate for parts that we sometimes sent them by taxicab so their lines did not go down. They gladly paid the extra fees.
Olds had WONDERFUL people to deal with.
Cannot believe it’s been almost 50 years ago.
My 76 Buick Century had the 3.8 in it and it was a great engine. My parents had a 77 Olds with the 3.8 and it was pathetic in comparison!
The beneficiary of all of the GM corporate engine scenario was NASCAR. It now became legal for any of the GM teams racing Chevrolet to run Oldsmobile, Buick, or Pontiac bodywork. The Oldsmobile Cutlass 442 became the car of choice for the big tracks because of aero, while the Monte Carlo continued to be used on the short tracks.
In subsequent years, this allowed the teams the opportunity to partner with any of the GM division s for sponsor and manufacturer support while sticking to the tried and true SBC under the hood.
Quite so. Oddly, the four GM divisions in NASCAR — Chevy, Pontiac, Olds, and Buick — all had separate NASCAR engine programs, all based on the SB Chevy, all using different cylinder heads. Olds also had a program using the Olds block.
My first new car was a 1969 Pontiac Beaumont
I was into drag racing back then & ordered a 350 with a 4 speed. I didn’t know until the car was delivered whether it would have the big block Pontiac 350 or the small block Chevy 350. It depended where the car was built
It came with the Chevy small block,
Oldsmobile’s big faux pas was in not updating their 88 owner’s manual to “equipped with a GM engine”. 1977 was the model year of the “Big Downsize” of all the GM B and C size bodies and Olds 88s used 350ci “Rocket” engines. Their sales were very good for the ’77 model year but they didn’t have enough engine plant capacity to meet production demand, so to keep the line running and sales booming, they called on Chevrolet to provide 350ci engines. This created a problem for Chevrolet in that its B body cars, also selling well, were mostly only available with the 305ci engines. It was about this time that the paint color on Chevy V8s was changed from orange to blue so the engines better matched the other divisions.
In the back of my mind is a tale that the “swap” in some way involved a shortage of Oldsmobile “California” engines.
The Hallmark of General Motors and it’s five distinct families of primary sheet metal and powertrains had produced the huge market share GM enjoyed for so long.
Chrysler and Ford also produced their “family” of engines but at the same time could charge less for their cars. Other than GM, all manufacturers had historically shared powertrains.
Consumers had always insisted/believed that the difference in the Bodies and Powertrains were “intended prestige,” Customers were willing to pay more for a car powered by a Rocket V8 in stead of a “Small Block Chevy”,.. or a “Super Duty” powered “Wide Track Pontiac!”
As a “public” corporation,.. GM caved in to the behest of stock holders demanding bigger dividend checks, and a resulting loss in market share never recovered. Biggest mistake they ever made.
Investors got their dividends, as GM and their customers took the hits!
I worked for an Oldsmobile dealer during this time period, and in all this correspondence I fail to see any mention of a full size Oldsmobile powered by a Pontiac V8. We sold one – the only one I ever saw. Wish I knew where it was now!