Oldsmobile had the mid-priced field covered for 1963 with a complete lineup of 88 and Ninety-Eight full-sized cars, and the F-85 compact, too.
The top line in Oldsmobile marketing for 1963 was “There’s something extra about owning an Oldsmobile.” And really, that was the presumptive goal of every carmaker in the crowded and competitive mid-priced field in the ’60s: to offer something extra. Across the Motor City, the search was on to land on just the right combination of styling, features, and pricing to strike a chord with American car buyers. Here’s how the Oldsmobile division at General Motors answered the challenge in ’63.
Ninety-Eight Town Sedan (top) and Luxury Sedan
The Ninety-Eight Town and Sedan and Luxury Sedan, elegant six-window hardtops built on the GM C-body platform, represented the top of the line in sedans at $3,982 and $4,332, respectively. New for ’63, the Luxury Sedan offered almost Cadillac-like cabin appointments in five fabric combinations, while power windows and power seats were standard. All Ninety-Eights included standard Hydra-Matic, power steering, and power brakes, with pricing nearly right on top of the Buick Electra 225. The traditional boundaries in the celebrated GM price ladder continued to blur.
Ninety-Eight Custom Sports Coupe
Another addition for ’63 was the Ninety-Eight Custom Sports Coupe. Here was the same 126-in wheelbase platform of the other Ninety-Eights, but in the form of a sporty two-door hardtop with bucket seats and a sport console, and with the same 394 cubic inch, 345 hp Rocket V8 found in the Starfire. List price was $4,381. There was a Ninety-Eight Holiday Coupe as well for a few hundred bucks less, with more modest appointments and powered by a 394 CID, 330-hp V8.
Dynamic 88 Celebrity Sedan
The Dynamic 88 series was directed to the value-minded buyers, starting with the Celebrity, the only post sedan in the big Olds lineup. Priced at $2,995, it was the lowest-priced full-sized Olds, and also Oldsmobile’s best seller in ’63 at nearly 69,000 units. Here the 394 CID Rocket V8 sported a two-barrel carburetor and 280 hp, and a full range of body styles was offered, including a convertible. One step up from the Dynamic 88 was the Super 88, offering fancier trim and the 330 hp V8, but in fewer body styles.
Starfire Coupe
The sportiest Oldsmobile in ’63 was the Starfire, based on the GM B-body shell with a 123-inch wheelbase. With distinctive exterior trim, bucket seats and console, and the 345-hp V8, it lined up against the Pontiac Grand Prix, more or less, but at a significantly higher price. The Starfire also happened to share the same reverse-scoop backlite as the Grand Prix, but it was also offered as a convertible. At $4,742, the Starfire Convertible was the most expensive model in the ’63 Olds line.
F-85 De Luxe Sedan
The F-85 senior compact continued in ’63 on the same 112-in wheelbase platform, but with squared-off styling and four inches more overall length. Three trim levels (F-85, F-85 De Luxe, and Cutlass) and the full range of body styles were offered, all powered by the 215 CID aluminum V8 in 155 hp or 185 hp tune. This was the final year for the F-85 in unit-construction form, and the curtain call for the aluminum V8 as well (at GM, anyway). At 95,000 cars, the compacts contributed around 20 percent of Oldsmobile’s total volume in ’63—not quite 477,000 vehicles, a decent year for the Lansing carmaker.
This was also the final year for the groundbreaking Jetfire, powered by a turbocharged version of the aluminum V8. (See our feature on the Jetfire here.) The only F-85 produced as a true hardtop, it boasted 215 hp—one hp per cubic inch. Major changes would come to Oldsmobile in 1964 as the F-85 was moved up to the intermediate class, a new 330 cubic-inch V8 was introduced, and a hot new performance model was launched that would shift the image of GM’s oldest division: the 442.
Jetfire Hardtop Coupe 
The 2nd car I remember my folks had after the ’59 DeSoto, was a, must have been, rather new ’63 Olds 98 4 door as I was just a lad. I don’t remember much about the car itself, except it was big. We used to lay on the rear package tray, the old man would hit the brakes, we’d go flying. We had fun, he didn’t think so. Also on cold Wisconsin morns, I remember us freezing, staring at the “cold” light, and it would finally go out with a “plink”,,,,just as we arrived at school. Also, I remember the old man giving the car the “Italian tuneup”, as the engine would load up, he’d floor it until it “cleaned out”, with no apparent damage ever. After that, he stayed with Olds, and bought a ’65 98 4 door, an equally nice car. Brother got his 1st ( and only?) speeding ticket with that car. they were great cars.
Meh, like the nose w/the double lip on the 62 much better.
My Dad needed a smaller car in 1963 after he made a driveway alongside our house in Brooklyn NY. The 60 Olds 88 he had would never fit, so he bought a gold colored F-85 station wagon with the all aluminum 215 cu. in. engine. Our family of five and two cats would squeeze into that car with the back packed to the gills every summer when we traveled to upstate NY for vacations. At some point, he added AC to the otherwise sparsely optioned car, but before that, traveling so packed in with vinyl seats was not a lot of fun. In all these years, I can still count on the fingers of one hand the 63 Olds F-85 station wagons I have seen. Truly a rare, if unexciting car.