Here’s a well-preserved 1962 Olds Ninety-Eight Holiday Sports Coupe (that’s a mouthful) that looks pretty shiny and spiffy to be 60 years old. It’s had one recent repaint to its original Cirrus Blue and Provincial White, its interior is said to be original, and the seller thinks the 43,000 miles on the odometer could be actual, although nothing is mentioned about documentation. The seller’s listing is a bit confusing because it’s described as both a Dynamic 88 and a Ninety-Eight, but it clearly has Ninety-Eight badging. This baby blue Olds is currently residing in Spokane, Washington and is offered for sale here on eBay. As of this writing, 24 bids had been received but hadn’t met the $16,999 reserve. Thanks again to our Barn Find friend, Larry D, for bringing this nice Oldsmobile to our attention.
After a major restyling in 1961 (one of the best styling years across the board for GM in my opinion), the ’62 Oldsmobile models received modest exterior revisions to their front ends and rears, now sporting four oval-eyed taillights. The biggest styling change to the Ninety-Eight coupe in ’62 was the conservative-looking hardtop which replaced the previous year’s sporty “Bubble Top.” I guess Oldsmobile wanted to rein in the design team a bit since Oldsmobile buyers tended to be older. The ’62 sales brochure positioned the Ninety-Eight to their somewhat older customer base by describing it as having “Crisp new body lines…Luxurious interior tailoring…Impeccable appointments.”
The seller states “there are no dings, chips, or scratches on that recent repaint and that the car’s exterior is very straight with no rust. All glass is excellent and their’s one very small dent on the front chrome bumper.” Other details shared are that the Olds is a winner at regional shows and has always been garaged. Even though it has new BF Goodrich tires, the whitewall width is too wide for 1962, plus it’s missing the full-sized wheel covers that came standard on Ninety-Eights. Those two details would make this Olds look even more classy and period correct.
The Ninety-Eight’s blue and white interior is listed as original and is in good condition for being 60 years old, but it’s not perfect. For starters, the cloth pattern on the front seat differs from the cloth pattern on the rear. The supplied photos show a light blue headliner in good share but also shows cracks in the steering wheel and dash pad, worn kick panels, and it could use a good cleaning overall. There are also aftermarket gauges and electronic equipment mounted under the dash.
These flagship Oldsmobiles were well appointed and came standard with power steering, power brakes, power windows and vents, and power seats. This survivor also has cruise control (not currently working), factory AC (runs but needs a charge), and an automatic headlight dimmer perched on the dash.
Hands down, Oldsmobile had the most colorful, creative names for their cars and engines. Under that baby blue hood is the 394-cubic-inch Starfire Ultra High Compression V8 that their brochure claimed generated 330 horsepower. All the seller tells us is that it runs great and the automatic transmission “shifts just right.” It’s had a recent carburetor rebuild and the seller confesses it has a small exhaust leak in the right exhaust manifold. Of the five Ninety-Eight models offered in 1962, only 7,546 of these Holiday Sports Coupes were produced (not surprising since most Ninety-Eight customers were the four-door type). Fortunately for us today, owners who could afford these cars when new tended to be older, had garages, maintained them, and held on to them. I wish we knew the story and history behind this Holiday Sports Coupe. Hopefully, the next owner can baby this baby blue Olds to a higher level of restoration and enjoy the journey every step of the way.
So, a $17,000 reserve for an “original” car with mismatched seats, new original paint lol, incorrect hub caps and whitetails (I do like the look, buy still not correct, which for the price it should be correct), air inop, cruise inop, who knows what else is wrong with it.
Am I too hyper critical? Or are these prices a joke?
Didn’t you see the Mecum auction this week? Prices were crazy this last week. Everyone has a big buck car.
Yes and yes.
Indeed, the prices are a joke. Especially on this one – too many things wrong.
Just think what you can get for a Junk Yard car these days.
Those are era original Sears seat covers!
Nice write up and yeah smaller whites were in style by then. But decent looking car. Doubt the 98 had dog dish caps Front seat is different bottom for some reason.
So called narrow whitewalls quickly became the rage around then and the wide ones became passe. There were even “adaptors” you could buy to convert your wide whites to narrows.
Many cars in 62 still had wider white walls. In 63 everybody had gone to the narrow white walls.
I think the 1961 Continental started, or at least contributed, to the popularity of the thin white-wall tire. By 1962 even Cadillac and Imperial followed suit.
Front & Rear Seat covers are the same (stock, I believe), but the view & lighting are slightly different.
The price is high because this dude watched Mecum this past weekend. Insane money for useless 50 year old Ford Broncos. Yet nobody ever drives them. Really stupid.
Someone thought it was worth 17K as it is now marked Sold.
I like the car. It’s nearly a continent away from me and I would never buy sight unseen but I could certainly see myself tooling around in it.
Good luck to the buyer.
I’m not so sure that the 98s came with the Deluxe wheelcovers. From 59-62, the Olds Deluxe caps (spinner style) were the only full cover. They mounted with clips and there was no valve stem hole, so they were a bitch to check the air and also to install. Instead, a chrome trim ring was added to the standard ‘dog dish’ cap as the first ‘upgrade’. That’s what this car wears. The Deluxes were another option, which some had and some didn’t.
it has the same roof as the later ’62 Chevy sport coupes. The early ’62s still had the bubble top.
The only ’62 GM car with the ’61-style bubbletop was the Bel Air.
I was always under the impression that the “Ninety-Eight Sports Coupe” had buckets and console, compared to the Holiday coupe which I believe this car for sale is.
Not true. Pontiac Catalina.
I happen to think the ’62 Olds was the nicest Olds EVER!. A hefty claim, I know, ’57 was a nice car too, but in ’63, they went to “barge” status, and never returned until “downsizing”. I read, this car was just a few boxes away on the order form from being a Starfire. In fact, this car was the 3rd most expensive Olds in ’62, behind the 98 and Starfire convertibles. The old man had a ’63, 98, and a ’65, 98, 4 doors and they were both BIG cars. The 394 had to be bulletproof, considering what my old man did to them. Regular gas( when the gas cap CLEARLY stated premium), never changed the oil, and a thing I called “the Italian tuneup”. When the motor became plugged with carbon and began misfiring,, he’d floor the thing in Park, until it cleared out, filling the garage with fumes, as me and my brother covered our ears, expecting a push rod to come through the hood, but it never did. They were great cars.
In my day that was called a one minute tune-up. The air filter was removed, engine started and then the gas pedal was floored and the mechanic would slam his hand down on the carb venturi until the motor nearly died, then he would remove his hand, the motor would spool up again until nearly peak revs before he would do it all over again, and again etc. That always seemed to cure the problem.
I knew a guy who would rev the engine while slowly pouring a can of ATF into the carburetor. He claimed it cleaned the combustion chambers. I remember how it created a smoke cloud that enveloped a city block. Even had the fire department once. The truck captain advised him to do his tune ups out in the country after that,
Funny………that’s how I start the woodie from the engine when she’ll kick over but not catch from the inside……..a bad habit left over from my youthful days with carbonized engines needing ring jobs ;)
The Olds is a beauty too…………anybody want to buy tulips?
All it needs now is a DePasto Oldsmobile plate on the front. Go Faber College!!
Thanks, Ron.
62 Olds. I remember it well. Somewhere around 1970-71 I bought a 62 Starfire two door hardtop. It was white with red interior. I pai $125.00 for it. The previous owner had put chrome reversed wheels with baby moons on it. Eventually(within a few months) the brakes went out and the transmission started shifting slowly. I scrapped it out for parts.
God bless America
The ’61 & ’62 Olds were really trend-setting designs.
A neighbor had a ’61,in that cool medium Purple color.
Some cars always seen to stay in your mind.Nowadays-
not so much.
That’s a really nice car, could have 43,000 original or it could’ve flipped over & was well taken care of, it might have a lot of highway miles.
My first experience in a cool American “muscle car” was my buddy’s Dad’s brand new 62 Starfire, same color with white buckets and a console. As a teenager I caught the car fever, can’t shake it… Starfires were shorter than the 98’s, don’t know if I ever saw a 98 with buckets
My uncle had a ’63 98 coupe with bucket seats.
Ah, if only we could return to the days when each brand had its own distinctive look. Alas, it’s not to be.
I really like this vintage Oldsmobile. My father bought a 62 Cutlass convertible, white, white top, dark red interior. I thought we had the coolest car in town. I found one in a shed neat me a couple years ago and talked to the owner to see if he would consider selling it buy he had no interest in doing so. Two months later it was gone, I heard that he sold it. Maybe he didn’t like the 1930 Model A streetrod that I showed up in.
I would have done the same if I was the Oldsmobile owner.
We had a Plain Jane ’62 88 and that car would haul us down the highway with my mother pegging the speedometer, which in that case meant the red line was bouncing off the right side of the speedometer.
The speedometer was my favorite thing about the car. It started out green, changed to yellow around 45, I think, and then to red. My mom preferred it on the red, of course.
SOLD for $16,999.