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....so I kinda chalk it up as not having the luxury of being Chevrolet or Pontiac under the GM umbrella. Olds had to fight its way to be recognized because of this.
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Actually, it was the brilliance of Bunkie Knudsen, Pete Estes, and John DeLorean that MADE Pontiac what it was. No one GAVE them anything, they did it all themselves. They built NHRA and NASCAR winners in the early 1960's, while Buick and Oldsmobile had their collective thumbs up their butts, not knowing how to make a performance car. In 1964, Pontiac broke corporate policies and brought out the GTO, a huge sales success thanks to brilliant marketing by Jim Wangers. John DeLorean stated that Ed Cole (Chevrolet General Manager, then promoted to GM President) continually thwarted Pontiacs efforts because Cole favored Chevrolet, so Pontiac was always fighting an uphill battle. Even working in this environment, Pontiac flew past Buick and Oldsmobile in sales, and they did so based on their performance image.
Oldsmobile just didn't have a clue how to attract Musclecar buyers until 1968. The 66/67 400's were superior, but it was the 1968 models where Oldsmobile finally realized they needed an advertising camapaign to attract young people that wanted performance. Olds had a major change to their advertising campaign in 1968, taking a page from the "book of Jim Wangers". They began to put together aggressive ads, and they hit all the youth oriented auto magazines. Oldsmobiles 1967 auto show display consisted mostly of hubcapped Cutlasses and Delta 88's. Their 1968 auto show display had girls in go-go boots talking about 442's.
But unfortunately, 1968 was too late for Olds. The Camaro and Firebird were huge sales successes, and those cars attracted a whole new audience. Pontiac, which was on the verge of being discontinued in 1956 (they were last in sales), had now flown past Cadillac, Buick, and Oldsmbobile in only 12 short years. When GM launched the F-body project, Chevrolet would be the chief architect, and Oldsmobile petitioned to get an Oldsmobile F-body. GM upper management decided that Pontiac had a far more youthful image, and were far more equipped to sell sporty cars than Oldsmobile was. To appease Oldsmobile, GM gave Olds exclusive rights to their FWD platform (1966 Toronado) for a few years, but the Toronado didn't break any sales records, and while powerful, was never marketed as a performance car.