"A new way of going places in the Rocket age! Meet OLDSmobility, as only Oldsmobile's sparkling new Eighty-Eight for '58 can express it! Those lean, low new lines tell you at once - there's no limit on Eighty-Eight luxury, no finer expression of distinguished good taste!"
"No limit" indeed was the parole for the whole GM lineup in 1958. Bigger and heavier than ever, the cars were Detroit-excess at its best, and the applied chrome-decor had to be counted in tons. Oldsmobiles were no exception now, although their styling had been the most conservative and graceful of GM's divisions in the years before. Now somehow the proportions went out of control, and even the excessive use of chrome couldn't hide the heavy looks.
Customers didn't honour the new styling direction. In addition, the first postwar-recession in the U.S. lead to sluggish sales. "Compact" was the new trend to which all divisions of the "Big Three" had no answer, and which boosted sales for smaller "Independents" like Studebaker. Oldsmobile reacted quickly and introduced the new "Linear look" for 1959 and 1960, with a much leaner styling, but still big in scale.
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