Today I stepped outside for a work break and immediately this beauty caught my eye. It is a 1955 Oldsmobile 98 four door sedan. It was in excellent shape. It had been recently painted as I caught a whiff of dying enamel as a did a brief walk-around. I noticed at the center of the vintage wide-whitewall tires were chrome hubcaps that were labelled "Chrysler" but they fit well and you couldn't tell 3 feet away anyway. I guess the real one were hard to get.
Surrounded by Kias, Toyotas, Hondas and Land Rovers, it looks as out of place in this Middle Eastern country as I do. It seemed as if as I was in the presence of a fellow countryman because these cars are so uniquely American.
These dinosaurs represent a time when Detroit Iron set the automotive world standard. General Motors, Ford and Chrysler were then industrial giants that dominated the American economy and were respected and feared. GM is now partly owned by Uncle Sam, Chrysler is owned by Fiat, but Ford is surprisingly doing relatively well on its own. Hell, they don't even make Oldsmobiles anymore, the brand was retired a few years ago. Oh, how the mighty have fallen!
American cars of that era were huge, powerful, fast, reliable, chrome encrusted tanks. They were the ultimate status symbol around the world. Kings and Sheiks drove them. Everyone wanted one!
No one back then in the U.S. would think about buying something foreign. Most imported cars were considered to be uncomfortable, ugly, underpowered machines that only ran properly during the full moon. Repairs and parts were impossible to obtain for them. That was a fact!
Besides VW Beetles, the only other imports that were readily available in America at that time seemed to be English sports cars that were usually owned by the weird old guy down the street. He never socialized with the neighbors because he was always working on the car to keep it running.
American cars seemed to run forever. They were crude and could be repaired with bailing wire and chewing gum. If needed, repairs and parts could be had at the corner gas station. They embodied the independent American culture and soul back then.
The reality now is that the foreign manufacturers have more than caught up in the auto biz. Compared to the modern stuff, these old American cars were unsafe, didn't handle well at all and didn't last more than 50,000 miles. Usually folks bought a new car annually because the body styles changed radically every year to "keep-up with the Joneses". The rollout of the new models in October every year was a big event in most communities. Planned obsolescence is also a Detroit invention.
I know that this post is not much about Abu Dhabi, but the reason I wrote it was that the 1955 Oldsmobile 98 pictured in the photo above was same year, make and model as the first car I remember my father owning. He had that Olds for many years and that car may have be responsible for my being a lifelong enthusiast of all things automotive. My eyes got misty when I saw that big old hunk of steel in the parking lot today!
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