Editing Oldsmobile (section)

===1950s===
[[File:50 Oldsmobile 88 (5996149524).jpg|thumb|right|1950 Oldsmobile 88 badge]]
[[File:Oldsmobile 98 Convertible 1953.jpg|thumb|right|1953 Oldsmobile 98 convertible]]
[[File:Oldsmobile NinetyEight 1957 2.JPG|thumb|right|1957 Oldsmobile Starfire 98 Holiday sedan with "StratoRoof" rear window]]

Oldsmobile entered the 1950s following a divisional image campaign centered on its 'Rocket' engines and the [[Space Race]], and its cars' appearance followed suit. Oldsmobile's Rocket V8 engine was the leader in performance; its cars were generally considered the fastest on the market; and by the mid-1950s their styling was among the first to offer a wide, "open maw" grille, suggestive of fighter jet propulsion. From 1948 to 1957, Oldsmobile adopted a ringed-globe emblem depicting North America to stress what marketers felt was its universal appeal. Starting in 1958, the grille logo changed again to reflect the rocket image, that was used throughout the late 1950s, the make used twin jet pod-styled taillights as a nod to its "Rocket" theme. Oldsmobile was among the first of General Motors' divisions to receive a true [[hardtop]] in 1950 called the "Holiday coupe" (Buick's version was called the "Riviera", and Cadillac's was called the "Coupe De Ville"), and it was also among the first divisions (along with Buick and Cadillac) to receive a wraparound windshield, a trend that eventually all American makes would share at sometime between 1953 and 1964. New for 1954 on 98 coupes and convertibles (Starfire) would be front and rear "sweep cut" fender styling, which would not show up on a Chevrolet until 1956 and not until 1957 on a Pontiac. 1953 models changed to a 12 volt electrical system that made starting easier.
[[File:Oldsmobile 98 Coupe 1957.jpg|thumb|right|1957 [[Oldsmobile Starfire]] Ninety-Eight Holiday coupe]]
In the 1950s the nomenclature changed again, and trim levels also received names that were then mated with the model numbers. This resulted in the [[Oldsmobile 88]] emerging as base [[Oldsmobile Dynamic 88|Dynamic 88]] and the highline [[Oldsmobile Super 88|Super 88]]. Other full-size model names included the "Holiday" used on hardtops, and "Fiesta" used on its station wagons. When the 88 was retired in 1999 (with a Fiftieth Anniversary Edition), its length of service was the longest model name used on American cars after the [[Chrysler New Yorker]]. Mid-1955 also saw the introduction of the four-door Holiday pillarless hardtop, the industry's first (along with Buick).

General Motors' styling as a whole lost its frontrunner status in 1957 when Chrysler introduced [[Virgil Exner]]'s "[[forward look]]" designs. When compared side to side, Oldsmobile looked dated next to its price-point competitors [[DeSoto (automobile)|DeSoto]] and [[Mercury (automobile)#1960s|Mercury]]. Compounding the problem for Oldsmobile and Buick was a styling mistake which GM called the "StratoRoof", which was reminiscent of the "greenhouse" canopy used on the [[Convair B-36 Peacemaker]] high altitude bomber. Both makes had models which contained the heavily framed rear window, but Detroit had been working with large curved backlights for almost a decade. Consumers disliked the roof and its blind spots, forcing GM to rush a redesign into production on some of its models. Oldsmobile's only off year in the 1950s was 1958. The nation was beginning to feel the results of its first significant post-war recession, and US automobile sales were down for the model year. Oldsmobile, Buick and Cadillac received a heavy-handed makeover of the 1957 GM designs. The Oldsmobile that emerged in 1958 bore little resemblance to the design of its forerunners; instead the car emerged as a large, over-decorated "chromemobile" which many felt had overly ostentatious styling.

Up front, all 1958 Oldsmobile's received one of General Motors' heavily styled front facias and quad-headlights. Streaking back from the edge of the headlights was a broad belt consisting of two strips of chrome on regular 88s, three strips on Super 88s, and three strips (top and bottom thin, inside thick) on 98s that ended in a point at mid-body. The bottom of the rear fender featured a thick stamping of a half tube that pointed forward, atop which was a chrome assembly of four horizontal chrome speed-lines that terminated into a vertical bar. The tail of the car featured massive vertical chrome taillight housings. Two chrome stars were fitted to the trunklid.

[[Image:Oldsmobile eighty-eight 1958.jpg|thumb|right|1958 Oldsmobile Super 88 Holiday coupe]]

Ford styling consultant [[Alex Tremulis]] (designer of the [[Tucker 48|1948 Tucker sedan]]) mocked the 1958 Oldsmobile by drawing cartoons of the car, and placing musical notes in the rear trim assembly. Another Detroit stylist employed by Ford bought a used 1958 Oldsmobile in the early 1960s, driving it daily to work. He detached and rearranged the ''Oldsmobile'' lettering above the grille to spell out ''slobmodel'' as a reminder to himself and co-workers of what "bad" auto design meant to their business.

In 1959, Oldsmobile models were completely redesigned with a rocket motif from front to rear, as the top of the front fenders had a chrome rocket, while the body-length fins were shaped as rocket exhausts which culminated in a fin-top taillight (concave on the 98 models while convex on the 88 models). The 1959 models also offered several roof treatments, such as the pillared sedan with a fastback rear window and the Holiday SportSedan, which was a flat-roofed pillarless hardtop with wraparound front and rear glass. The 1959 models were marketed as "the linear look", and also featured a bar-graph speedometer which showed a green indicator through {{convert|35|mph|km/h}}, then changed to orange until {{convert|65|mph|km/h}}, then was red above that until the highest speed read by the speedometer, {{convert|120|mph|km/h}}. Power windows were available on the 98 models, as were two-speed electric windshield wipers with electrically powered windshield washers. The 88 still relied on vacuum-operated windshield wipers without a washer feature. 1959 Oldsmobiles were offered with "Autronic Eye" (a dashboard-mounted automatic headlight dimmer) as well as factory-installed air conditioning and power-operated front bench seat as available options. The 1959 body style was continued through the 1960 model year, but the fins were toned down for 1960 and the taillights were moved to the bottom of the fenders.