Start with what the Oldsmobile Series 70 is: a 2-door Business coupe / 2-door Club coupe / 4-door sedan / 2-door convertible with 215 cuin Oldsmobile Straight-six engine, built from 1938 to 1950, when streamlining and independent suspension were arriving together. What it meant takes a little longer. The shape is credited to Harley Earl.
The story
The Oldsmobile Series 70 is a full-size midrange automobile produced by Oldsmobile between the 1939 and 1950 model years. Oldsmobiles of this time period were in an upwardly-shaded "middle" position in GM's hierarchy of automobile brands. Chevrolet and Pontiac were the budget priced models, while Buick and Cadillac were the high-end brands. GM would share their "A" body platforms between Chevrolet and Pontiac, and midrange "B" body on Oldsmobile and Buick, while leaving mainstream Cadillacs and senior Oldsmobiles and Buicks (such as the Oldsmobile 98 and Buick Roadmaster and Limited), and even the Pontiac Streamliner, on its top production luxury "C" platform.
Leaving its largest and most prestigious D platform to senior Cadillacs and the 1936–1942 Buick Limited. Competitors from Ford's Mercury and Chrysler's DeSoto brands would give customers a choice to have Oldsmobile levels of luxury, while not paying as much as a comparable Olds. GM would discontinue the budget Oldsmobile Series 60 in 1949 and the Series 70 in 1950, while introducing the Oldsmobile 88 in 1949 to push Oldsmobile upmarket and leaving the lower priced market position to Chevrolet and Pontiac. It was with the 1940s on that GM vehicles experienced increased width to accommodate three passengers each on front and rear bench seats, accomplished by deleting running boards and moving the floor mounted gearshift to the steering column, including the Hydramatic automatic transmission.
What is underneath
The engine is 215 cuin Oldsmobile Straight-six engine; other versions carried different engines, listed in the specification table below. On the scales it comes to 3200 -. Drive goes through a 3-speed synchromesh manual / 4-speed Hydra-Matic automatic. The layout matters: a front engine drives the rear wheels, the classic proportion — long bonnet, cabin set back — that most people picture when they picture a sports saloon or a grand tourer. The wheelbase is 120.0 in. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
Its place in the line
In the Oldsmobile line-up the Oldsmobile Series 70 has a clear place: it replaced the Oldsmobile G-Series 70; it handed the line to the Oldsmobile Cutlass; the factory was Lansing, Michigan. The cars a buyer would have weighed it against include the Volkswagen Beetle, the Lincoln Continental, the Toyota Toyota. Nearby in the Oldsmobile catalogue sit the Oldsmobile 442 and the Oldsmobile 88.
Owning one today
MotorJury scores cars on the United States complaint and recall record, and the Oldsmobile Series 70 has none: too old, too rare, or never sold there. Its value today is a collector's question, decided by provenance and condition rather than by a class average.