1973 Oldsmobile Omega

Welcome to another edition of A Car A Day!

As if Oldsmobile wasn't selling enough Cutlasses in the '70's already, GM must have felt that they needed a smaller car to bolster sales and EPA ratings. In what would later become a hallmark of GM engineering, Oldsmobile simply took the Chevy Nova, added a few unique trim pieces, and made an "upscale" smaller car. I find it hard to believe any vehicle that comes standard with an inline 6 and three speed manual transmission "upscale", but people must have bought these cars on badge names alone. 

Could it be anything else but a mid-70's X-body? Not much was done (or could be done) to change that C-pillar shape. At this point, at least Cadillac was spared having one of these shoved onto their dealerships. 

From this angle, it doesn't look half bad, and if you squint, you can even see hints of the '73 Cutlass that was just around the corner. Behind that grille you might have found a Chevrolet sourced inline six putting out an even 100 bhp, or an upgrade to a Olds 350 giving you a healthy 180 bhp. If you coupled it with the standard four-speed, you might have had a somewhat interesting ride. 

The evenly spaced vertical bars mark this as a '73. The grill would be the major change from year to year, at least until a major refresh came down the line in '76. 

Even in Kentucky, rust can appear, although I'm not sure if that speaks more to the weather conditions of the upper South or to GM's build quality.

For 1973, you could have your Omega in three styles: 2 door coupe, 4 door sedan, or a 2 door hatchback. This would be the top of the line, 4 door sedan. Surprisingly, for a four-door Oldsmobile, this model sold the poorest out of the three, at a rate of about 50% of the other two models. 

Don Jacobs is still in business, although as you can surmise no longer selling Oldsmobiles. Now they selling Volkswagens and Hondas. Take a look here for a recent article on Don Jacobs Oldsmobile. An interesting side-note is that the year this car was originally sold, the dealership moved to a larger property on what was then the outskirts of Lexington. If I had to guess, I would say that it wasn't on the strength of Omega sales that prompted the move.

A few interesting Omega links:

Omega owners Registry based on a Pontiac Ventura site

A few original Omega advertisements