1983 Oldsmobile Design and Assembly Footage with Bobby Unser

[91 s-10baja]

In this clip Indy racer Bobby Unser explains the rigors of quality control that all Oldsmobile’s went through, before buyers took their new cars home. From design studio, scale models, to assembly line, and dealership lots, this video unveils the entire process, or at least what Oldsmobile wanted you to see, and what potentially could have translated into some of their victories on the sales floor! Enjoy!

1983 Oldsmobile Design and Manufacturing Footage - Bobby Unser

[bmwboy2007]

Oldsmobile in 1983 had the same problems all GM cars of that era had.. Designs were dated, technology had stalled, and build quality was questionable.

[fastball]

Watching the line crews joint the body panels by hand, those cars could not possibly have had consistent joints and seams.

[69project]

Oldsmobile in 1983 had the same problems all GM cars of that era had.. Designs were dated, technology had stalled, and build quality was questionable.

That maybe so, but Oldsmobile was one of the best selling nameplates in the US back then. In fact all the G bodies were big sellers but in 1989 GM said screw it and went with the FWD chassis instead of refining what they had. Look where it eventually got them...BK. GM stopped investing in technology in the G bodies because they decided to kill it off. Build quality was a domestic problem, not just a GM problem, industry wide arrogance will get you that.

Makes you wonder how GM would have turned out if they had remained mostly RWD, maybe something along the lines of MB or BMW, which are two manufacturers who never went the FWD route? There will always be a market for a RWD car, so I found it really disappointing that they almost completely turned their backs on RWD in the late 1980's and finally gave up in the mid 1990's (other than the Camaro/Corvette/trucks) in the mid-1990's.

[sonjaab]

GM didn' turn their backs on RWD. Folks on forums like these CRYING and WHINING about
ancient and outdated GM NOT offering the then "current and modern rage of FWD vehicles"
that some other mfrs offered at the time.

So GM changed and they STILL complain...........................

Also.......Hand welding was common among ALL auto makers in the early 80s!
No robots were advanced enough to do the complete job..........unlike today!

I love watching the body guys using LEAD on the body seams................
That was a art working with that stuff back in the day!
Toxic as heck tho..................

[fastball]

Also.......Hand welding was common among ALL auto makers in the early 80s!
No robots were advanced enough to do the complete job..........unlike today!

When Honda opened the Marysville, Ohio Accord plant in 1982 it had complete robotic welding on all body and unit construction. Same for priming and paint.

Mercedes had complete robotic welding in the early 1970s.

It's not such a new technology.

[georgewerr]

GM didn' turn their backs on RWD. Folks on forums like these CRYING and WHINING about
ancient and outdated GM NOT offering the then "current and modern rage of FWD vehicles"
that some other mfrs offered at the time.

So GM changed and they STILL complain...........................

Also.......Hand welding was common among ALL auto makers in the early 80s!
No robots were advanced enough to do the complete job..........unlike today!

I love watching the body guys using LEAD on the body seams................
That was a art working with that stuff back in the day!
Toxic as heck tho..................

I didnt know there were forums back then

[richmond2000]

in the 80, 90 FWD was a NEADED feature and was advertised was such I think the market would have left GM even worse if BODY ON FRAME RWD cars was the norm from GM
and look @ the early 2000 BMW 1 series RWD Hatch VS a golf the golf ATE the 1's lunch mostly on packaging because partly FWD

[91 s-10baja]

in the 80, 90 FWD was a NEADED feature and was advertised was such I think the market would have left GM even worse if BODY ON FRAME RWD cars was the norm from GM
and look @ the early 2000 BMW 1 series RWD Hatch VS a golf the golf ATE the 1's lunch mostly on packaging because partly FWD

agreed! People get hung up on the whole FWD vs RWD thing, to an almost annoying level. You cant change the past. Cope.

[Chevy Ryan]

1978-87 2-door Cutlass Supremes were beautiful cars! My favorite G-body by far. A friend of mine had an 82 Cutlass Supreme. When the factory 350 diesel died, he put in a 403 Rocket. What an awesome engine.

[iluvcamaros]

The 80s were just a bad decade for GM. They should have been introducing world class products to maintain their dominant market status. Instead they rode their reputation and laughed off the idea that the Japanese or Europeans would ever be a real threat.

[sonjaab]

When Honda opened the Marysville, Ohio Accord plant in 1982 it had complete robotic welding on all body and unit construction. Same for priming and paint.
Mercedes had complete robotic welding in the early 1970s.
It's not such a new technology.

Like I said...............DON'T SEE ANY of those "superior" 80s honduh or benz cars around.....................
Plenty of those "junk" 80s GMs tho....................

[LARSONEM]

All of the manufacturers built junk in the 70's and 80's. My dad worked as an accountant at an Oldsmobile dealer. In about 1970 the Oldsmobile dealer took on the Datsun line (now Nissian). Talk about junk. The Datsun's were just that. A soup can on wheels. The domestic manufacturers, while not producing any better quality vehicles, did produce a much more solid and hefty car. Fast forward to 1973 and the Arab oil embargo. The soup can foreign cars where much lighter in weight and had much smaller engines and therefore did much better on fuel. During 1973 and 1974 the American public turned to these vehicles to get better gas mileage. The Japanese and American manufacturers were still building some pretty crummy cars by todays standards. However the Japanese beat the Americans to the punch by improving quality in the late 1970's and early 1980's. My dad continued working for a GM dealer until retirement in about 2002. He drove a company furnished demo and they frequently switched his cars. I have always been facinated with cars and can remember always going over each different car he brought home as a kid with a fine tooth comb. It still amazes me that GM and the other domestic manufacturers got away with murder for so long in terms of squeaks and rattles, poor paint with runs, body panels not fitting together, engine and transmission problems and the list goes on. In reality, before the Japanese competition, the American people had little choice. And they bought domestic vehicles by the masses. The american manufacturers had made leaps and bounds strides in quality. I've always driven GM (except my Jeep Wrangler) and have noticed a steady improvement in quality. My cars and trucks from the late 1970's (2 Chevrolet pickups and an Oldsmobile Cutlass) and throughout the 1980's (an Oldsmobile Cutlass, a K-1500 Jimmy and a Pontiac Phoenix) was horrid. I had a new 1991 GMC 4 door Jimmy and that was the first vehicle I had from GM that showed significant quality improvements. It was amazing to watch the video and see just how advanced manufacturing was at the time in 1983. And to think where we have gone today with quality. Now if we could just figure out how to bring some of the people back from their staunch Japanese ideas and convice them that the domestic manufacturers really do build quality vehicles.

[LARSONEM]

The 80s were just a bad decade for GM. They should have been introducing world class products to maintain their dominant market status. Instead they rode their reputation and laughed off the idea that the Japanese or Europeans would ever be a real threat.

Very true.

[geozinger_again]

GM didn' turn their backs on RWD. Folks on forums like these CRYING and WHINING about
ancient and outdated GM NOT offering the then "current and modern rage of FWD vehicles"
that some other mfrs offered at the time.

So GM changed and they STILL complain...........................

Also.......Hand welding was common among ALL auto makers in the early 80s!
No robots were advanced enough to do the complete job..........unlike today!

I love watching the body guys using LEAD on the body seams................
That was a art working with that stuff back in the day!
Toxic as heck tho..................

Yes, I remember (back then it was letters to Car and Driver and Autoweek, not forums!) about how backward GM was for not offering a full line of FWD automobiles. I've often thought the same thing, if GM had stayed with a solid line of RWD cars instead of cramming everything down to FWD to satisfy EPA and market regulations, at least for the larger cars like the C bodies and Caddys.

And yes, in the intervening 30 years, robots and changed manufacturing processes have come a long way. But don't let that stop the uninformed people from complaining about stuff they're not aware of... LOL!