Oldsmobile’s entry-level cruiser came with plenty of style, and this 1960 Oldsmobile Dynamic 88 Holiday Sport Sedan comes “ready to drive and enjoy,” according to the listing here on eBay. The Rockville Centre, New York classic enjoyed seller-described “careful” maintenance for the prior 17 years. General Motors saw 1960 styling step back from the bold lines of this platform’s 1959 debut, leaving fans polarized on which is better. Personally, I like the wild and crazy ’59s. This car’s $19,000 asking price suggests an earnest attempt at sale, and the Make Offer button may net an even lower price point. Considering that’s slightly above what people often drop on a rusty needs-everything muscle car, this purported turn-key beauty looks better by the minute.
The broad, symmetrical dash blends rich color with white painted metal and plenty of polished brightwork. The thin, two-spoke steering wheel helps maintain instrument visibility as you pilot your family to church or get your kicks on Route 66.
Sculpted bumpers blend style with function from a time when parallel parking regularly implied a slight touch front and rear as you worked your way into or away from your space. Try that today and you might get flagged for roughing. Note the snazzy Olds emblems between each set of headlights.
Twin horns front and center stand prepared to warn others to make way as this road schooner charts its course. Modern cars have abandoned metal core supports for plastic, leaving nothing of substance preventing an impact from crushing your engine. Meanwhile this Dynamic 88 presents four layers of metal before a frontal impact (bumper, die-cast grille, grille support, and core support) reaches the V8. Even this budget-minded Dynamic 88 got a 371 cid (6.1L) V8, fitted with lower compression to run regular gas and the Econ-O-Way two-barrel carburetor to sip less fuel than the Super 88 and Ninety-Eight’s 394 cid (6.5L) mill. Thanks to lov2xlr8’s library of factory brochures for some details.
Though not as wild as the prior year, the 1960 Olds maintained plenty of space-age character aft, emphasizing the low and wide Interstate cruiser look. It might not swallow a pool table, but the 88’s trunk offers plenty of room for that family vacation or smuggling friends into a drive-in theater. The Holiday Sport Coupe roof line brings a second wraparound window rearward for the ultimate in 360 vision. Somehow people survived driving without Blind Spot monitoring by simply taking a look with their actual eyeballs before executing lane changes. Will you trade $19k for this tidy-looking highway cruiser?
Todd – please correct the heading. The one for sale is a 1960, not a 1959. And I agree, the 1959 is waaay cooler, but then I’m biased as the owner of a 1959 Impala 4-door hard top sport sedan.
Got it – thanks, jageater!
Funny how the concept of a sport sedan has evolved from this to the Bimmers and Mercedes in the eighties. But this beauty is plenty sporty, just don’t try to take a curve too fast.
There’s a story behind this as well. In the late 30’s and up to the 1950’s Oldsmobile went to a coil spring rear end for a much better ride. Then when the performance era hit with the new Rocket engine, Oldsmobile was criticized for the rear coils not giving the car good handling around curves and turns. So Olds went to rear leaf springs, and kept them right up to 1960 in this example we’re looking at. So the 1960 Olds has much better cornering and handling that what you’re thinking.
A friend of mine has a ’59 98 in very dire condition. It’s so massive that I took a tape measure to it. It was a hair under 19 feet.
Beautiful car. Back when cars had character, unique details, styling, and chrome trim inside and out. You could distinguish makes, models, and model years from one to the other…even as a young kid.
No matter how nice it is, there aren’t many people left willing to drop nearly $20,000 on a 4 door from that era. Someone that will spend that much isn’t a casual buyer looking for just any cool old car, there are too many other options available for significantly less. The person who eventually buys this car, close to the asking price is doing so because this is their dream car. Unfortunately there aren’t many of those people.
There are a lot of people predicting the collapse of the “collector/enthusiast” car market, cars like this are going to lead the way down. You can see it in 1930’s through 1950’s, even some 1960’s makes and models that don’t have strong followings.
The ad doesn’t help, it’s a listing platform, which seems more interested in promoting itself than actually selling its featured cars. There is only one paragraph in its description dedicated to describing the car and it does so with generalities, not specifics. That’s why of the more than 700 active listings only 11 have been sold over the last 90 days.
Steve R
It looks a lot like the car driven by Brad Hamilton (Judge Reinhold) in Fast Times at Ridgemont High but that was a Buick. “ Six more payments, gentlemen, and this beautiful blue, four-door, luxury sedan is all mine!”
Before I was born, my Dad used to buy older cars to get to the jobsites. He had a ’60 Olds 4 door. I just cant remember if it was an Eighty Eight or a Ninety Eight. I’ve seen it in an older photo or two, it was blue. He used to call it the Oldsmobubble because of all the glass. These were beautiful 4 door hardtops. Thank you for writing this up Todd. You definitely jogged my memory today!! I enjoyed it.
Here’s my Grandmother with her ’60 Olds. I loved that steering wheel.
That’s such a cool vintage picture Rex, thanks for sharing.
My Dad had a 98 version of this car, white over maroon. Amazing how fast that big car was.
I had the 98 convertible of this car. Same color too. Both fast and powerful, great road car and pulled my 16 ft mahogany inboard like it wasn’t even there. Great memories!
Great looking Olds.. I like 60 Oldsmobiles (I have one) and I like 4 doors but 19-20K sounds little steamy; saying that- if it was a Chevy flat top 4 door the ask would be the same or more… the 371 automatic in the 59/60 old was/is very reliable ; not to pick on the car- it’s great – but it is the wrong cloth pattern for a 60 dynamic 88.. tough to find the original material, especially in specific color
i get the idea the seller is a dealer but describes themselves as a private collector largest classic car wholesaler. in other words, a dealer. nice car but as said in other comments this market for this type of car is small and getting smaller.10-15k this would find a home
I agree on the max price for this 4-door.
And when I see, how poor someone has installed the (obviously new) door gaskets one A- pillar on the driver side, I wonder, what else needs to be fixed elsewhere…
A neighbor had a white ’60 Olds 4 door. She would carry us kids to school and back in bad weather. Otherwise, we walked.
I’ve been thinking about getting a car from 1960 (my birthdate)….Now my hairbrained wife wants one from her birthdate (1974)
I’m having trouble just deciding what to get from 1960 thats cool and collectible. Maybe an XKE? I can’t really afford that or Vette also pretty high.
Corvair?
“Twin horns front and center stand prepared to warn others to make way as this road schooner charts its course.”
LOL that cracked me up!
I checked up on this seller, and he/she has over 700 cars for sale on ebay, and in different cities all over the US. He’s either a cut and paste’r or he’s quietly offering to sell these vehicles for the individual. In either case, someone could take a loss dealing with ’em.
Land yacht. The father of one of my childhood friends had a 2-door hardtop he used as a traveling salesman covering great distances. Every time I rode in that car, I was astounded at the quiet and comfort — especially since our family car was a noisy, drafty Studebaker Lark VIII station wagon!
I know 4-doors aren’t popular in the collector world, and maybe this car isn’t worthy of $20K, but the 4-doors were what we saw day in and day out when these cars were current. They were family cars, for people who could afford more than a Chevy.
I view this car as a survivor, not a museum piece. It’s a car you could drive, whether some of the details are correct or not.
Substitute dark blue for light, and you’ve got my Mom’s car through the mid ’60s–until it was stolen right out of the parking lot for the grocery store Mom always patronized. There she was, shopping cart full, and—Dad had to come and get her in his company car (1968 Plymouth Fury, eventually mine). The police did eventually recover it. It was being used to smuggle people from Mexico over the border. It was a wreck. Memories…
Contrary to the advertising, this IS your father’s Oldsmobile. It had little to recommend it back in the day, even less to recommend it today.
The pillarless hardtop was the single most important factor driving today’s interest in chassis rigidity. These cars, with regard to chassis strength, were ground zero. Anything the owner did would stiffen it. An extra coat of paint made measurable improvement in rigidity. Window decals improved its safety. When you turned its front wheels, there was only a vague chance that the rear wheels would follow in the same direction. Seatbelts had not yet been invented. If they had been, there would have been nothing but sheet metal to anchor them to.
And then there was the subject of gas mileage…
There are some things which should be allowed to remain just soft and fuzzy memories.
The 1960 Oldsmobile was a very well built car, and the chassis design was one of the best, probably the best of GM products. Not only was there a X member, but also a perimeter frame. Chrysler products had to go to a unibody in 1960 to achieve any body rigidity,(except Imperial), for example. Longevity counts a lot too, the 1960 Oldsmobile survived in high numbers as compared to other cars of that era. I can drive my 1960 Olds and directly compare to my 1980 98, in many ways the 1960 is superior. John is forgetting completely, that as time marchs on, car manufacturers are forced to build their products with, “less product” (material, steel, iron, chrome,), as well as build them with much less labor. Because all these costs are up 20 times, as compared to the costs of 1960.
John’s last name must be Nader. lol. I own a ’68 Mustang coupe, ’72 Cougar convertible, and an ’08 Mustang hardtop. The two Mustangs I bought new, the Cougar 10 years ago. God forbid, but if I were to be in an accident, I just hope it would not be in the ’08 Mustang (air bags or not).