Oldsmobile
USA · Founded 1897
GM's innovation lab. Automatic transmissions, Rocket V8s, front-wheel drive muscle — and then they killed it.
Heritage
Oldsmobile was America's oldest surviving automotive brand when GM pulled the plug in 2004. That 107-year run included some genuine firsts: the first mass-produced car with a fully automatic transmission (1940), the first modern overhead-valve V8 (the Rocket, 1949), the first front-wheel-drive American car in decades (Toronado, 1966). The 442 was genuine muscle car royalty — the 'W-30' package was one of the fastest things on the street. But GM's brand mismanagement turned Oldsmobile into a badge-engineered wasteland by the '90s. The brand that pioneered innovation died building rebadged Chevys. The good news: those '60s and '70s Oldsmobiles are finally getting the respect they deserve.
