About as light a blue as you’ll find on a vehicle, this 1970 Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight Luxury Sedan is Azure Blue. It almost looks white in some of the photos, or maybe because I’m used to white looking blue when it’s in the shade. If any of that made sense, you can find this big, heavy, luxury car here on craigslist in Wheat Ridge, Colorado, and the seller is asking $19,500. Here is the original listing, and thanks to T.J. for the tip!
This is the 117,435th Olds Ninety-Eight, made for the 1970 model year in Lansing, Michigan, where all of them were made that year. This body style is a Ninety-Eight Luxury Sedan Hardtop, and it’s 4,500 pounds of luxury, with full power accessories, and an impressive and beautiful brocade interior that Olds referred to as “lustrous Odessa cloth.” This is the last year of the eighth generation 98, or Ninety-Eight, which was made from 1965 through the end of 1970. $19,500 is a very, very, very big asking price for this car, with dents, dings, scratches, creases, etc. Hagerty is at $16,500 for a #3 good-condition convertible, so I can’t see this car even remotely approaching the seller’s asking price.
You can see a few dents and dings in the body of this big beauty, by far my favorite of the Olds Ninety-Eight designs. I’ve mentioned too many times that my dad bought one (used, of course) back in the mid-late-’70s, and it was a stripper, as in not having any power accessories, which even then I thought was weird for a luxury car. By the time I had my license, it was the go-to car for driving around and losing wheel covers due to the incessant and reckless spinning of the rear wheels. Ours rusted out at the bottom of the trunk lid, and it looks like this one is starting to head in that direction. The trunk looks great and is more than big enough for $10,000 worth of groceries (six bags in 2025).
The interior appears to be in outstanding condition, other than a small rip on the vinyl trim on the side of the driver’s side. This is the Luxury Sedan Hardtop model, and there was also a Luxury Sedan model. Both had additional touches, as seen in this photo of the rear seating area. A “divided front seat” was available in the Luxury Sedan and Holiday Coupe, and leather seating was available on those models as an option. Make mine a nice, 1960s/70s brocade fabric every time.
This engine is Oldsmobile’s 455-cu.in. OHV V8, which was rated at 365 gross horsepower and 510 lb-ft of torque when new. With a THM-400 three-speed automatic sending power to the rear wheels, I can attest to these cars being able to burn the rear wheel and/or wheels from a standing stop. Not that I condone such driving antics (cough). The seller says this one has just under 49,000 true miles, and it was a one-owner car before they bought it from the original owner’s family after it had been stored for 30 years in Colorado. It starts and runs smoothly with no smoke and cruises at 75 mph all day long. How much would you pay for this one?
Yeah, it would be neat to see at a car show, and probably fun to drive, but not at that price. Most of these were bought for the engine and tranny to be put in Cutlasses, or other lighter cars. I’d like to see it go to a good home, but at that price, he’s gonna have it a long time. Also, the front end looks lowered to me.
There’s way too many dings and creases for it to command 19k, but acceptable for a driver grade car, for less of course.
A Luxury Sedan with no cornering lamps?!?
Criminal. Check out the size of the gas pedal. Like it’s out of a Greyhound bus.
I wonder which car had the biggest brake pedal. The size of brake pedals on new automatic vehicles is a joke. My ’76 Chevette had a small terribly uncomfortable accel pedal.
Cornering lights were more a Cadillac thing at GM in the 60s. I’m not sure but thinking Olds probably didn’t get them until 1971 with the new body.
Olds offered cornering lights back to possibly ’66, ’67 for sure.
My great-grandfather was an executive at Oldsmobile and had a 1970 Oldsmobile 98 Luxury Sedan as an executive car. My mother’s parents bought it when he got his next executive car. My brother and I got it as a hand-me-down in 1984. It did not have cornering lamps either. But, unlike this car, the executive sedan had every option except cruise control and automatic air conditioning. The rim blow horn was a neat feature and the 8 track player worked well with a cassette adapter. Considering my brother is 8 inches shorter than I am, the 40/60 split bench seat in ours was much nicer than the solid bench in this gem.
Scotty!! You did it again. We both have a ’70 Olds Ninety Eight in our pasts. And we both most certainly learned how much rubber you could easily burn off with no problem. Finally!!! A listing that I can get a good image of what I like to refer to as “The biggest gas pedal in the business” Lets face it folks, what other car have you ever seen with a gas pedal THAT LARGE!!! Somewhere, an Oldsmobile engineer must’ve been in a Freightliner and said…… Yep…… I got our new Gas pedal design figured out, let me take some measurements……Our Ninety Eight actually had rust issues in the trunk along that lower lip moulding by like 1973 or ’74. It was a common problem for sure. I actually have a few of those Oldsmobile emblems ( the trunk key one and some script). Ours was like yours. It was a regular Holiday Sedan ( 4 door hardtop) roll up windows, no power locks, no cruise control, but it did have a/c ( was it standard in ’70?) And we had an AM radio and of course my Moms favorite feature, the trunk release button in the trunk. Our back seat was plain compared to these Luxury Sedans, these definitely were right there with the Buick Electra in my opinion. Really nice write up Scotty, and great tip T.J. I saw your tip when it hit fast finds and was hoping this would get written up.
I have to look for it. But burried somewhere I have the original window sticker for ours. I think the air conditioning was an option.
Sorry but not to nitpick but I remember the trunk release button was in the glove box.My Dad was an Olds dealer back when and you are correct these had the largest gas pedal I can ever remember!
By the way, this was the view I had of that huge gas pedal that I had as a little kid ( that is, if I was fortunate enoughto ride in the front seat by Mom and Dad)’
I judge these cars on whether or not all the cigarette lighters work. That 70 455 packs a punch
Alfred Sloan’s idea of creating five different brands at different price points was genius, and it worked for decades – until it didn’t. In this case, I think you could have bought a Buick Electra 225 Custom 4 dr. hardtop for about the same price as this Oldsmobile – they are similar cars but you would have had a little more panache with owning the Buick under GM’s “ladder of success” strategy.
I had one also, Turbo 350 wasn’t enough for the 455 and was generally the weak link. Limited slip differential was a big plus for winter, but not for the tranny. A true American Land Yacht.
I didn’t think they ever used anything buy a THM400 behind the Olds 455 (?). Did your car have an engine swap?
We had a 1970 Buick Electra 225 Convertible with a 455. So I can relate to the power and speed here. In fact, my dad warned me (in 1987) that you’ll be doing 90 and not realize it. It was a good excuse when I got pulled over doing 90…
i agree with the others here 19.5 is too much. it nice fairly clean and original but seller need to be realistic. this style car only appeals to a small group of people. if they want that kind of money then maybe they should take to an in-person auction. at least have all the hubcaps on it.
I bought a 1969 two door for my wife’s first car right after we were married in 1982. I paid $500 for it and it was in nearly perfect shape. Fully loaded too. My wife was flabbergasted as to how big it was but she learned to drive on it and passed her driving test on the first try thanks to my Dad teaching her while I was at work. What a great road car and you could put amazingly big things in the trunk like furniture. Room for six adults too. The only downside was it barely got double digit mileage and liked premium. But for what I paid for it the car was still a bargain. I actually sold it for more than I paid for it a year later and we bought a new Toyota Corolla station wagon with a manual. My wife had one week to learn to use a clutch. Trial by fire but she made it. Took a while for her to stop avoiding steep hills though. Great memories.
Remember when folks couldn’t give these away? I do. My friend had a convertible that was the smoothest riding vehicle I’ve ever been in. He could steer it with his pinkie finger.
Finally, a true land yacht on BF again. I love these. Not only a huge car which rides like a cloud but enough power to blow the doors off of just about anything else in its class. Notice I said in its class cause I know ya’ll are gonna jump all over me with, “nah, this will beat that.”
I had a 1972 Olds 98 LS 4 door. I know, detuned a little but still powerful. It supposidly was in the movie Carlitos Way with Al Pachino. He supposidly sat in the passenger seat, but apparently it got edited out. I can believe it because this guy I bought it from had quite a few vintage cars he rented out to movie companies when they film in NYC or east coast.
Hi Angel, I had a ’73 98 LS. Red in & out with a white vinyl roof. Sharp car. A real road floater. Bech seat.
I’ve told the story on here before about buying the car a year after I saw it in a Tradin’ Times want ad only because I’d saved the paper to cushion pants on a hanger to keep them from creasing!
THE OLIDS WOULD BE A GREAT CAR FOR ME, i DONT DRIVE MUCH EXCEPT ROAD TRIPS. IT HAS ONE THING MY 2001 SABLE LACKS INTERIOR SPACE. THE SABLE IS NOT AN ECONOMEY CAR ANYWAY.
As I’ve said before, I bought one of these for a year around car to keep my ’72 Caprice out of winter. Green in & out with a black roof, and basic cloth. P-seat & trunk & Comfortron air. Put 136k miles on it before I sold it for $325.
The wheel covers fastened to the lip of the rim rather than inside like most. Easy to lose them. Also, the speedometer cable fastened to the left front hub rather than the transmission.
I think mine had the 390 hp 455. Olds offered about 4-5 versions of the 455.
I love the light blue color! A 1970 Oldsmobile 98 would have a powerful V8 before pollution controls and detuning to squeeze more miles per gallon out of a big car . It wasn’t as classy as a Lincoln or Cadillac, but the 98 was an outstanding luxury car in its day.