This majestic sedan was the top-flight offering from Oldsmobile, situated on the company’s longest wheelbase, and saturated with design and convenience features. The 98 hopped from generation to generation with multiple restyles, but Harley Earl’s penmanship seeps from every curl of chrome. These cars offered plenty of power, too, with a Rocket V8 underhood. This 1958 Oldsmobile 98 sedan, offered here on craigslist for $42,450, is at a premium price. The seller indicates it needs TLC; the new owner can retrieve it from Medina, Ohio. T.J. submitted this tip – thanks, T.J! Let’s figure out whether this car is a good value – or if a potential buyer should keep looking.
The engine bay attests to long storage, with a fine coat of dust across most surfaces. (Are those mousey footprints on the air cleaner?) Equipped with the “factory correct” 371 cu. in. Rocket V8 good for 305 hp, backed by an automatic transmission, the 98 could accelerate to sixty in about 10 seconds. Though the big sedan was known for a comfortable ride best experienced on the open road, contemporary auto reviewers gave it decent marks for handling in the twisty bits as well. The seller notes it runs and drives well.
A tri-tone bench seat reminds us that we’re looking at a luxury car and sure enough, it comes with power steering, power brakes, power seat, and power windows. I’d love to know if all that stuff works! The snappy white steering wheel, hooded instruments, and color-coordinated dash are showing age-related wear. This interior rates a B-, largely because all the pieces are present, but a few hours will be required to bring out the shine.
Convertible versions of the Olds 98 were sold from the git-go, when the brand first came to market in 1941. But then you’d be missing this sexy wraparound rear window, and that slender, stainless-trimmed C-pillar. Speaking of trim – these were the years of ostentatious decor. The aero theme was still hanging on, and as far as bumpers, the bigger the better. The seller’s brief description doesn’t say much about the car’s cosmetic condition, but the photos show it off well. If we give it the benefit of the doubt and call it “good condition”, Hagerty suggests a price in the high teens. Coupes can sell for nearly twice as much, and convertibles can double that yet again. As attractive as this sedan is, if this were on my bucket list, I’d wait for a coupe. What do you think?
My parents separated right before I turned 16 and I had to leave my first car (61 Volvo PV544) in Arizona when we moved to Missouri. When we arrived, Mom purchased a white ’58 98 coupe from her cousin for $250. She only kept it for about four months before trading it for a 66 Impala coupe. But first, she offered it to me. I still had the money from the sale of my Volvo and loved this big chrome and white coupe, but the heater was non-op and I didn’t have the skills at the time to fix it. :-( That was the summer of the Trucker Strike in 1974 and my Uncle Dave drove it and us up to Jefferson City Missouri for a protest at the capital. It was beautiful all waxed and shined up.
Frank, we have similar Olds 98 stories. In 1976, when I was just about to graduate high school, our gentleman spinster neighbor had this exact model/color etc.
Knowing I was in the market for my first car, he offered his always-garaged-kept one-owner car to me for $300. I wanted that car so bad, and my parents agreed to buy it. But a few days later, he reneged on the deal, saying he didn’t want neighborly relations to suffer if something went wrong with the then 18-year-old car. He decided to trade it in to the dealer as he bought a new car.
A week later the beautiful black/chrome GM masterpiece was gone, and he pulled up in his brand spanking new…..orange Vega Kammback. I knew then what a POS that Vega was.
A Lost Vega? You’re right Rex! A true Piece of 💩. Not unlike a 6 ft tall friend of my parents, who traded his 56 DeSoto ADVENTURER for a red 60 Corvair buying nothing but Corvairs after. To each his own. BUT…. ? BTW, Happy Mothers Day to all!
Rex Kahrs, We graduated the same year! I think the big chrome and white coupe had about every option available. I really thought it was cool the way the windows on the frameless doors sealed when closed. Instead of a rubber seal like is used today, there was a 90 degree chromed piece of metal that the window would push open when the door opened and the window was up. When you closed the door, the top of the window would then flip the chrome piece back in the down position to seal the outside of the top of the window closed.
I hope that at least at one point, JC Whitney or someone sold stick-on musical notes for that staff on the rear fenders.
Actually, some car magazine posted a cartoon with a cleft and notes drawn on the staff!
Looks great, but I think I spy some paint peeking out from the chrome. Gosh, there’s a bunch of trim on these.
A girl and her sister in my highschool inherited one of these from their grandfather- it was pink.they could be seen cruising around with the biggest grins- like they were on a Disneyland ride.
This IS *Your Father’s Oldsmobile * in all its Devinely Decadence! Last of Harleys Over chromed OTT excessive luxury Cruisers. Not quite a LAND YACHT, but close enough. I often wonder if Oldsmobile had stayed the course rather than trying to woo younger customers with *YOUNGMOBILE* thinking, would Oldsmobile have survived to move to Bloated SUVS at BLOATED prices 🤔. Guess we’ll never know.
Overly optimistic price. Hagerty puts a #1 concours condition example at $22,300.
Agree. Overpriced especially given condition and representative of Harley in decline
Lordy, lordy, a 4 door over 40?!!!
Again…someone thinks they have a Mopar ..hehehehe..that may be the most overpriced Olds in history..BUT..the chances of passing another one are next to zero.Either way it’s a swanky example of glorious excess and ya gotta love it.
Yes, Harley approved the ’59 lineup in ’56 (ugly) but circa 9/56 Dave Holls peeked through the fence at Chrysler when the Forward Look was to be unveiled. He ran back to Bill Mitchell and Chuck Jordan (Harley was in Europe) and Mitchell said to everyone that the ’59s had to be redone. Harley quietly approved the new styling when he returned, just before retiring.
I did not even know it was a 4 door til you said you would hold out for a coupe , what a dope I am.
All the trim and chrome absorbs the focus of your eyes. I did not notice it was a four door at first either. It was not until the fourth photo that I realized it.
Cool Olds, but it’d be priced pretty high if it were a coupe. With the extra doors, it is grossly overpriced. Good luck to the seller. Unless they reevaluate their ask, they should probably get used to the car taking up garage space.
OK guys! It’s Mother’s Day. Time to remember those special ladies. Although we only have a few here in The BARN, 💕 🌹 🍬 💐 🍫 and maybe a 💎 to them .Now gentlemen, send a little love 💕 to YOUR special one! Remember *You be good to Mama, And She’ll be good to you * 👍
@Rick W
“Happy wife……
Happy life!”
No can do, RICK, mama is long gone. Eric Clapton said it best,”motherless children have a harder time when the mother is dead, Lord”.
Well Howard, my mother is long deceased, but I still visit her and my father at the cemetery, which I keep well decorated year round. Somehow it makes me feel Closer. I also take care of my late brother’s grave. Yesterday, I visited both. Then had dinner with my Nephew and family in from Tennessee. I’m the last of the locals. Keeping up is increasingly difficult (with many health issues) but for now, I keep rolling on, thankful for the good times and memories.
That four door hardtop style had me fooled into thinking it was a coupe also at first. Medina is just a few exits down the freeway from me. I’m surprised I haven’t seen this at any local car shows.
Hurts to look at this car after our family owned a ’57 98 and a ’60 98. ’58 was a miserable year for car design.
Many of us out here love 58’s. Especially Pontiacs. You are entitled to your opinion even if it’s wrong
Spot on, Bob. Ford ruined their lovely 57; Chrysler continued their stodgy post-war designs (albeit with big engines); Chevy had a one year body (which other than the flat front was a pretty nice looking car in the Impala/Belair version); Mercury had wild rear tails and windows; Lincoln looked like a Ford; Olds, Buick, and Cadillac looked like battleships. Change was coming for all of them in 59, although Ford’s change didn’t come until 60 and was that a dog.
As always, IMO.
@Bobhess & Eric_13cars
Both are saying 1958 was a dog year for cars. It was supposed to be the flashiest except no one saw the recession coming. Odd.
In General Motors this was basically Harley Earls swan song as the 59s were really designed by Bill Mitchell, although Earl took credit for them as he retired in 1959.
Chrysler introduced the forward look in ’57, which in my opinion was a gorgeous improvement over the stoggie Keller designs. “The roof should be high enough that a man does not need to remove his hat.” I also believe the 1959 Cadillac by Bill Mitchell was copied from the 1957/58 Imperial by Virgil Exner.
Ford was alway sedate, but the 1958 through 1960 Lincolns looked nothing like their Ford counterparts.
Respectfully, of course.
You’re right, Angel. As my brother likes to say, I got my mords wixed. I don’t know what I was thinking about the Chrysler’s in 57 and beyond. For some reason I was picturing the 56 (dementia impending). And the 58 Lincoln didn’t look anything like the 58 Ford (although it and the new T-Bird shared some strong design elements). Again I was thinking of the 56s. However, the 59 GM lineup was significantly different from the earlier designs, to their credit I might add, with the 59 Catalina convertible being my personal favorite.
Many of us out here love 58’s. Especially Pontiacs. You are entitled to your opinion even if it’s wrong!
Angel makes an excellent point about the ’58 Imperials as inspiration for the ’59 Caddies. I never thought of it in that way. But of course, everybody copies everybody in the auto industry. And as much as I like the Imps and the Chryslers of the era, I think the ’59 Caddie did it best. Such an iconic design that still screams the fabulous fifties to this day.
Rex, operative word ‘screams’!!! LOL
A rather rare find today, this `58 Olds represents all the excess Harley Earl wanted on his designs for his retirement year. However, one omission on this Olds has me wondering. There should have been a chrome strip atop the rear fenders that ended on top of the taillamps–I see that missing on this one for whatever reason. That trim piece on the driver’s side taillamp was actually the “handle” that opened the gas filler under that taillamp like Cadillacs had! I can only assume the gas door still operates normally.
VERY nice to look at a adn see but the price is a bit heavy for me..
Dad had a ‘58 Olds 88 . Then went to a ‘62 Old F85. What a difference in weight!
He’d come to the Olds after a ‘56 Chev Bélair Deluxe convertible.
Both the 88 and Chev had the gas cap behind the left rear light assembly.
I can’t think of any other cars that had that, maybe the ‘58 Buicks too?
Will you are right, my maternal grandparents had a car just like this in 1960, I definitely remember them.It seems I was chasing my little brother and grabbed the top of tail light to turn corner faster, pulled chrome piece loose. We both went and hid, knowing we were in big trouble.Grandpa took it to body shop to have re-attached, and I couldn’t sit down for awhile, so yeah I speak from experience about those chrome spears.Went back and enhanced picture of rear quarters, I do believe car may have replaced quarter panels, spear on door doesn’t quite line up with character line on quarter panel on right side, probably chrome was damaged and they couldn’t find replacements, so just filled clip holes and contoured top of quarters instead.
Went and looked at front picture looking down right side and it looks like chrome mesh on quarterpanel doesn’t quite line up, and there is .I know that Fisher Body was proud of fit and finish at this time, so just enough off to suggest something a little off here, also tail light chrome housing, on right side has more end of quarter showing than left, so IMHO right quarter, may have been replaced somewhere down the years
The 57 Olds body style was my favorite of that era, no gins, wrap around windshield and back glass, a potent V8 and minimum chrome. The 57 2 door hardtop is a hard one to beat.
1958 was GM’s 50th Anniversary year.
The tweed upholstery job looks non-authentic.
My parents 58 had the J2 motor (3duces), good acceleration after 30 MPH If held to floor trans would shift at 5200 rpm. At high speed it would get light feeling. Fun party mobile almost as big as my first apartment. At todays gas prices it would be expensive to enjoy, but each to there own
I would call that olds a FOUR DOOR HARDTOP not a SEDAN
To use Olds terminology, it’s a Holiday Sedan.
You don’t see too many Oldsmobiles from this era. Cadillacs, Buicks, yes, but rarely Olds. Oldsmobile pretty much was your father’s car. Small unobtrusive fins. The ’59 was pretty much non discript.
Uncle Bills car. You’ve heard me talk about the dairy farm in N.Wis. Uncle Bill was the single kid of 8 children that never left the farm. His brother married and had 3 kids on the farm, but Bill remained single his whole life, and actually made the farm run. When I first started going up there in the late 70s, there were all kinds of cars and trucks laying in the weeds. One was Bills purple ’58 Olds 4 door, very low mileage, and aside from faded paint, in perfect shape, I believe he bought new. Fast forward to a few years ago, before I moved to Colorado, I stayed at the farm for a few months. I hadn’t been there in years. My 1st question, where is Bills Olds? Oh that, ( the nephew said), we had a farm scrap drive and the Olds went. :0, WHAT?? Yeah, he said, that and dads Model AA dump truck , but that’s another story.
Obviously, the front designers never met the ones responsible for that rear.
I was born in the backseat of a Pink 59 Olds 98! Mom and dad kept it until i was 5 yrs old when mom totaled it. I was standing in the front seat when all of a sudden, her right arm swung wide and knocked me into the rear seat and upon contact with the 59 Apache.. in the floorboard. Nothing like the ol’ auto-restraints! We have pictures somewhere of it inside the Chandelier Redwood in 1964. Dad had to take the mirrors off.
I’d love to have this “King Chrome” ’58 – at 1/8th of the asking price.
The Tri-Five designers got it right. Then a new bunch took over and came out with these gun-boats! Just look at that excess chrome, lumps, and bumps. Ugh.
Needs McLovin’
Perhaps, though not from me!
Fugly.
Sorry, I just don’t think so. Maybe standing up for my generation, and perhaps the one previous, I suppose from a 2025 perspective, it could be considered unattractive, but in 1958, this was the pinnacle of advancement. Remember, we had shoebox Fords and Hudsons, this, and the entire 1958 GM line was considered groundbreaking. The dual headlights alone spawned a generation of design. It perpetuated an element of excess that resonated throughout our society.
Howard…It’s called DEVINE DECADENCE and I love every bit of OTT excessively chromed luxury!
If you love wretched excess, 1958 is your year. Weird how black makes everything look better! I can’t get over the view of that rear!
Howard,
Don’t take it personally. We do have youngins on her from Gen X & Gen Y & Gen Z. Although their idea of taste and “cool” is questionable they did grow up in eras of boxy, bland, non-chrome vehicles.
If you notice, all black vehicles are cool. Absolutely no chrome whatsoever, no WSW tires, black rims. Even Cadillac joined that disgusting phase. What they think is cool is actually reminiscent of the extremely cheap base models of yesteryear. The only difference is yesteryear models at least had some chrome on them. Around the windows, maybe a strip down the side and dog dish hubcaps.
As always, this IMO, and respectfully, of course, they are entitled to their opinions, but they will NEVER experience the panash, gliz and glamor that our generation had.
If you think about it, and why would you, the two generations before us in the Victorian era was even more glamorous than ours. Obviously not vehicle wise but could you imagine if they had cars back then? Velvet curtains, mini crystal chandeliers, gold everywhere.
Boggles the mind.
Well ANGEL…Per Charlie Pride 🎵 The crystal chandeliers light the paintings on my walls 🎶 marble statuettes are standing in the halls 🎵red velvet drapes you will see🎶if you ever visit me! 🎵 OLD Dog, OLD style! All the way. You know Mafiosa Magniico! Hey how are YOU doin?
I’m good, boo! Thanks for asking.
Finally got approval on my apartment so I’ll be moving soon. Still in Baltimore.
Anything new on the homefront?