delta88_frankfurt

Hi everybody,
I have a 1966 Delta 88 sedan. I truly love my car, just because it isn't one of the famous models of its time. I lived in the SF bay area as a kid and I simply admire the cars that were part of the normal street scene, then.

Luckily my 88 came to me by accident because I could never have chosen it.

After a while I got familiar with history, parts supply a.s.o. and saw that obviously I chose a very rare car, compared to the Oldsmobile years before and after, and compared to other GM brands.

I would love to learn more about the circumstances of the '66 88, maybe you can tell me a bit more about it.

Oldsmaniac

"Lemons" never in my opinion. The 425 was a very strong and dependable engine as well as the Turbo 400 trans. The body was sturdy along with other mechanicals. I would say the single reservoir master cylinder which was common to most if not all 1966 GM cars may have been a weak link. I had a 66 Delta convet that was a daily driver for at least 10 years and I never had a major mechanical failure with only regular routine maint items needing replacement.

jaunty75

A "lemon," by definition in this context, is a particular car that has an unusual number of problems or sample-specific defects early in its life. It doesn't refer to an entire model line or an entire production run of a particular car.

'66 Delta 88s aren't any more or less rare than other full-size Oldsmobiles of that era considering the circumstance at the time. Production of '66 Delta 88s totaled about 87,000. That's pretty healthy considering that, like they had for many years, buyers had three 88 models to choose from. Production of the Dynamic 88, a name that had been around for many years and was probably much more familiar to buyers at the time, totaled about 90,000, and Jetstar 88 production totaled just under 30,000. Added together, that's a bit less than 210,00 88s built for 1966. Nothing to sneeze at about that number.

Now imagine that Olds had offered only one version of an 88 in 1966, as it did beginning in 1969, and that it was called a Delta 88, as it was beginning in 1969. All of those "88" sales would have been Delta 88s, and production would have been huge. In fact, and interestingly, total 1969 Delta 88 production, which includes Delta 88, Delta 88 Custom, and Delta 88 Royale, totaled just over 252,000 cars, exceeded all 88 production in 1966.