Oldsmobile has/had a long history as an innovator. It introduced “Knee-Action” independent front suspension in 1934, the legendary and revolutionary Hydra-Matic automatic transmission for model year 1940, along with Cadillac the first modern overhead-valve engine in 1949, the first production turbocharged V-8 in 1962 and the first US front-wheel drive vehicle in almost 30 years for model year 1966. Oldsmobile is the only American company that produced automobiles in the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. In all, over 35 million Oldsmobile vehicles were produced.
So, which of these cars is the most valuable? According to 2019 Collector Car Price Guide by Krause Publications this gorgeous car holds that honor:
From supercars.net a picture of a 1953 Oldsmobile Fiesta convertible, technically part of the 98 series for that year. Only 458 Fiesta convertibles were produced. This car was one of three limited-edition General Motors convertibles built for model year 1953; the Buick Skylark (1,690 produced) and the Cadillac Eldorado (532 made) were the other two. This list does not include the Corvette, of course.
According to the 2019 Krause book a Grade 1, concours-quality example is worth $200,000. The collector car market is softening, though.
Is the softening of the collector car market a portend of bad economic times ahead? While, technically, economics is the study of the allocation of resources, it is also about human behavior. Self-fulfilling prophecies are hardly unknown. If enough people think an economic downturn is ahead, they could change their behavior in such a way that could create the downturn. Government fiscal and monetary policy can only do so much.
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Disaffected Musings 
I’ve always found it to be curious that Oldsmobile only built the Fiesta (in that format) for ’53 and Buick only built the Skylark (in that format) for ’53 & ’54 while Cadillac’s Eldorado had a long run. The Eldorado/Skylark/Fiesta trio of special convertibles was joined in ’53 by Packard’s Caribbean which continued to the end of the ’56 model year – and was planned for the ’57-’58s we never got. (But you know all of that …)
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Yes, it’s far from implausible that a steady, if not large, market could have existed for the luxury convertibles. Oh well, what might have been.
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” Is the softening of the collector car market a portend of bad economic times ahead? ”
I don’t think so. My opinion is it is cycling: As some of us grow older we are buying less and selling into a fairly saturated market for certain vehicles. Same thing happened with Model ‘s a few years back, now they can be bought for 1/2 the cost of a restoration. Porsches are still a hot item, but the big movement now seems to be 80’s/90’s hot imports, Supras, GTIs, 320i’s, etc. That’s what the guys in their 40’s grew up around and lusted for as a young driver.
Just my opinion, YMMV.
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Thanks for joining the conversation and thanks for your insights.
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