Olds news: Oldsmobile’s fans, workers lament the auto’s passing

Wednesday, March 28, 2001 | 8:29 a.m.

Nearly every day Russell Japzyk fires up his '52 Oldsmobile Rocket 88 and takes a spin around his northeast Las Vegas neighborhood. Or he heads for the store, or runs some other errand that he uses as an excuse to get behind the wheel of the car his cousin in Arkansas restored and gave to him as a gift three years ago.

Japzyk, a 56-year-old disabled ironworker, basks in the glow of the smiles of motorists and pedestrians who cast admiring glances as he drives past them, returning their waves and thumbs-up salutes.

"I just love driving it. Every day I make a run around the streets," Japzyk said. "Every time I take the car out I get a thumbs up from somebody. Once I get that, I say to myself, Well, I can go home now. That's made my day.'"

Japzyk's love affair with Oldsmobile began at age 16, when he bought his first car a 1950 Oldsmobile Rocket 88. Since then he has owned every Oldsmobile model that was made in the '50s, but for a '51.

"I've had lots of Oldsmobiles in my time. I've always loved them. They ride smooth, like a Cadillac, and they've got lots of power."

Unfortunately for Japzyk and other devoted Oldsmobile fans, America's oldest car manufacturer has run out of gas.

Executives with General Motors, Oldsmobile's parent company, announced in December that the famous line of cars was being discontinued because it was not making enough money.

Nostalgia, it seems, isn't worth much when it comes to a business's bottom line.

"I couldn't believe it when I heard it was going out of business," Japzyk said. "I just couldn't believe it."

Japzyk's friend, a fellow Oldsmobile fanatic, was equally stunned by the announcement.

"I was disappointed, and kind of shocked, really," Las Vegan Charles (Chuck) Toftey, 60, said. "In my opinion they are really good cars. I don't understand why they're not more popular."

Toftey, also a retired iron worker, bought his first Oldsmobile a 1949 Fast Back Rocket V-8 in 1957. "I paid 275 bucks for it," he said.

He said Oldsmobiles are "good, dependable, strong running cars. A lot of people like Ford or Chevy. I like Olds. A few people call me Mr. Oldsmobile. I'm pretty knowledgeable in motors and stuff. I've restored them from the ground up. I've probably restored at least 15."

Toftey has three Oldsmobile Cutlasses a 1970 he bought new, a 1981 and a 1967 he is restoring with the idea of racing.

"I built the engine for the '67," he said. "It's 462 cubic inches and according to the manufacturer it puts out 620 (horsepower), but I think that's exaggerated. I think 500 is pretty honest."

Toftey prefers older cars to newer ones, which have a lot of computers. "An old backyard mechanic like me can't work on the newer ones," he said.

Toftey said the demise of the Oldsmobile line might make his old cars more valuable, but that isn't a consideration for him.

"I don't look at it as an investment," he said. "I just like the car, rebuilding it, driving it. "The '70 I bought was the strongest Olds ever made. It had a god-awful lot of torque that could put you sideways real easy if you weren't careful."

Japzyk's cousin, Michael Japzyk, of Eureka Springs, Ark., is also an Oldsmobile enthusiast and owns 15 of the cars.

"He likes to go to old junkyards and find cars to restore," Japyzyk said.

That's how Russell Japzyk ended up with his 1952 model. "He found this one out in a field somewhere and restored it. I told him I was having trouble with my '57 Olds and he said he was going to leave this one to me in his will anyway and I could come and get it if I wanted it.

"The next day I was on my way to Arkansas."

Too few, too late

Unfortunately there are not enough Oldsmobile fans as devoted to the product as Japzyk and Toftey.

Gus Buenz, director of communications for Oldsmobile in Lansing, Mich., said years of declining sales forced GM to make the decision to discontinue the line.

The decline, executives said, was because Oldsmobile appealed to older people.

"We were not making enough money for GM," Buenz said. "We thought 2001 might be the breakthrough year for us, but General Motors took a look at its financial resources and felt it better to devote them elsewhere.

"The irony of the thing is, we were getting to the right people. We reduced the average age of our buyer from 60 to 49 in just four years. We just weren't getting to enough of them.

"GM has a limited amount of resources. In this business, if you're going to succeed you have to succeed in selling what you have right now. GM didn't have enough money to develop all of its products."

Buenz said Oldsmobile is too close in design to Buick, another GM product.

"And Buick was doing a much better job (marketing to younger buyers)," he said.

Buenz said while Oldsmobile was going through a transformation geared toward attracting younger people, the target market was unaware of it.

"Only about 35 percent of the marketplace knew about it," he said. "We were about to launch a new marketing and advertising campaign to increase those numbers, but we didn't get to."

Buenz said after the Dec. 12 announcement, market recognition jumped to 75 percent.

"It created a lot of curiosity about us," he said.

Sales have been strong since then.

"We were up 11 percent in December, 30 percent in January and 7 percent in February," Buenz said. "We've gotten to a point now that we are really low on product."

He said Oldsmobile will continue to produce cars through what is called the line's "natural life cycle."

"That will probably be till 2003 or 2004. We are scheduled to build some cars in 2004," he said. "How long we stay in business depends on how many dealers we have selling cars over the next couple of years. In a bit of conundrum, we're trying to sell as many cars as we possibly can, but on the other hand, parts of GM (plants) are trying to wind down.

"We need a critical mass of product and a critical mass of dealers. It is a dynamic situation, to say the least."

Dealers' choice

As of Jan. 1 there were 2,801 Oldsmobile dealerships in the nation, according to Buenz. Of that number, 2,600 also had other franchises. Those will not go out of business when Oldsmobile finally shuts down.

There are two Oldsmobile dealerships in the Las Vegas Valley -- Findlay Oldsmobile in Henderson and Courtesy Oldsmobile in Las Vegas. Both companies have other franchises -- Courtesy has Mazda, KIA and Isuzu dealerships, and Findlay has Subaru and Saab.

Sean Brady, director of operations for Findlay, said because of weak sales it was not a complete surprise that the car was being discontinued.

"But it was kind of a shock," he said. "There was no warning (from GM or Oldsmobile).

"GM's focus was to change from an older person's car to a younger person's car. That they did. They took away certain models, and they gave us some new models. But it was too little, too late."

Findlay Oldsmobile has been a fixture in Southern Nevada since 1961. Brady said he expects GM will give the firm another dealership, "more than likely, Cadillac."

After the announcement by Oldsmobile, Brady said a few customers were concerned. "They were worried they were going to be stuck with an Edsel."

But most GM parts are interchangeable, he noted, and so there will not be a problem making repairs or having warranties honored.

"That's what GM has been trying to get out, that it is safe to buy an Oldsmobile," he said.

GM also is offering a variety of incentives to potential customers, such as a five-year/60,000-mile warranty and a deferred payment program, which includes no money down, no interest and payment for 12 months.

"This is a great time to buy an Oldsmobile," said Harold Drezner, vice president and general manager of Courtesy Oldsmobile on West Sahara Avenue.

Drezner has been selling Oldsmobiles since 1980, when he went to work for a dealer in Chicago. Although he will still be in business when Oldsmobile ends production, he is disappointed about the turn of events.

"GM did not do a good job of marketing," he said. "There was a lot of disappointment among our loyal, older customers."

Old Olds

Oldsmobile has been around 103 years, making it the oldest auto manufacturer in the country and the second-oldest in the world, behind Mercedes-Benz.

Helen Earley co-authored the book, "Setting the Pace: Oldsmobile's First 100 Years," for the Oldsmobile Heritage Center in Lansing.

"In 1897 the Olds Motor Vehicle Co. built four cars at its Lansing plant," Earley said.

Ransom Olds developed an assembly line manufacturing operation nearly three years before Henry Ford did the same in 1904.

That was the same year Olds quit the company he founded. He had lost control of the company after selling off large amounts of his stock and left following a disagreement with Oldsmobile executives.

After resigning, Olds founded the Reo Motor Co., which built Reos until 1936. Olds left that company in 1932.

"He was a strange man," Earley, who started working for Oldsmobile in 1942, said. "He was excited to get something going, then he lost interest. He would turn the management over to someone else."

The Oldsmobile company he left behind had a loyal army of employees throughout its history.

Earley retired from the company last year after 58 years in public relations and other front-office jobs. Most of her family, including her father, brothers, aunts, uncles and cousins worked for Oldsmobile.

"We have a unique labor-management situation," Earley said. "We've had only one local strike in our over-100-year history -- and that was only for one day. That one time we had to go out was because we were bound by the tenets of the national union."

She said fiercely loyal employees turned out excellent cars -- some of the best in the business during its heyday.

"We were innovative -- we had the rocket engine, the V-8 in the '50s, '60s and into the '70s. We introduced the automatic transmission in 1940."

She said GM reorganized in 1984, which started Oldsmobile's downfall.

"Oldsmobile suffered more than other divisions because we are located 100 miles from Detroit. Our engineers did their own thing," she said.

Plants that now turn out Oldsmobiles will turn out other lines in the future, such as Cadillac. But it won't be the same.

"It's sad, very sad," Earley said. "The employees gave it their best. And a lot of it was a labor of love. That's why it hurts.

"There's a loyalty here you don't have at any other auto plant in the country."

archive