There was a period of time when some of the most American of American cars desperately wanted to seem more exotic, more cosmopolitan, more, oh, international. Often this would be expressed by a company blacking out all the chrome on a car to make it more “European,” but sometimes companies just slapped a lot of flags on the car.
That’s what Oldsmobile’s approach was for their “International Series,” a trim level for Cutlass Cieras and Cutlass Calais that emphasized performance, with five-speed manual transmissions and 160 horsepower quad-four engines and, most importantly, badges all over the car with a series of flags on them.
Let’s look at these flags!
Oh yes, this was also the era when Oldsmobile felt it was important to remind you that you weren’t buying your dad’s car. But let’s look closer at the badge:
Okay, so what countries were lucky enough to be included in Oldsmobile’s idea of “international?” There’s 14 countries represented here, vexillologically. They are, going clockwise:
United States of America
United Kingdom
Mexico, I think?
Sweden
Portugal (?)
The Netherlands
Switzerland
Belgium
Denmark
Italy
Spain (Franco era)
France
Germany
and Canada!
So, almost all European countries, save for the US, Canada, and Mexico; zero representation for Asia, and if this was supposed to represent notable car-making countries, Japan’s absence is pretty significant, and you know, Belgium or Denmark is kinda questionable. And there’s no African representation, or Middle Eastern or South Pacific or South American or most parts of the Earth. So, it’s less international and more European/North American, really.
That Portugal flag is maybe the most compromised one, too.
The bar version of the badge had a slightly different order:
This bar version actually has 15 flags, with what looks like another Italy, but I suspect may be Ireland? If the red is sorta more orange?
I guess they tried, at least?
Irish flag has a stripe of orange, not red. Based on the round badge, the first ‘italian looking flag’ has to be Mexico. The person designing these flags however, should have been fired before they could have picked up a pencil.
It is almost insulting to have such low quality designed flags on an “international” branded US car.
The third flag in the second picture is the Romanian flag to honor the count
Say what you want about the flags; my ’88 Calais International Series with the Quad 4 and the five-speed was FUN to drive. Even more so because it looked like grandma’s car.
My dad had a late 80s olds wagon that was pretty stripped I think it had a/c or him and his buddy put it in but that was about it. It didn’t even have the rear facing seat. It was totaled so he took the bar flag badges off along with the hood emblem. They were on there pretty good. It took some serious prying to get them off. It always confused me why the just about most American car at the time had the international flags. Maybe it had to do with the very American coffee products marketed as “international” that were starting to become popular at that time.
I recall reading somewhere that this strip of flags was to signify all the countries that given model was sold in… which is what made it ‘international’.
Not sure how true that is. But I can tell you that those FWD A-Bodies were definitely sold in Canada and in at least some markets in the EU.
Which countries in Europe got these Oldsmobiles? I strongly doubt these were exported to Europe. GM had Opel in Europe and Vauxhall in the UK.
Pretty sure none made it to Italy or Germany. You saw them in Switzerland, also because of some local GM assembly and almost no local car production
There’s currently 321 Oldsmobiles on the road in the UK, and from the mixture of model years, I’m pretty sure those are all private imports (and probably some US military types bringing their car over).
As far as I know I’ve never seen an Oldsmobile in the metal.
You’d be surprised to see the export versions of many GM North American vehicles in Europe. Not all of them were sold in every country. Switzerland has been very popular with American vehicles while the pick-up trucks are popular in the Scandinavian countries and Austria.
1977–1985 were “peak years” for Cadillac, Buick, Chevrolet, Oldsmobile, and Pontiac in Europe due to weakened US dollars. Many Europeans could afford to visit the US and came home amazed at how comfortable the American vehicles were. The downsized GM B-Body came at perfect time and were perfect for European roads (no larger than Mercedes-Benz S-Class and BMW 7-Series). They were cheaper and better equipped and appointed with many standard features that would be extra cost options in European vehicles
However, many Europeans didn’t know the difference between those four brands other than Cadillac being notoriously linked to Elvis and the 1959 “Batmobile” and Chevrolet to Camaro and Corvette. That caused the poor sales for some of the models.
After the strengthening of US dollar against the European currency, the model range shrunk greatly to fewer from Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, and Pontiac while Oldsmobile was eliminated. The number of brands was then reduced to Cadillac and Chevrolet in the late 1990s then to Cadillac only in 2020s (with exception of Corvette, which wasn’t even badged as Chevrolet).
To my knowledge, the Oldsmobile models that were sold through the official sales channel (usually Opel) in Europe from 1977 to 1985 were Omega (four-door FWD), Cutlass Supreme (two-door RWD), Delta 88 (four-door RWD), Custom Cruiser wagon, 98 Regency (four-door RWD), and Toronado (third generation). They have export taillamps with amber turn signal indicators.
I vaguely remember an urban legend surrounding these emblems that highway road crews were finding so many of them in highway roadside trash GM was pressured to stop using them.
Sounds like BS to me.
I will throw in that I seem to remember my dad’s Cutless Ciera having the bar type flag badge, but it definitely wasn’t an International edition – it had the Iron Puke and a automatic.
Yeah there were a few years where all Cieras had the bar emblem
Yeah but how do you know that the ‘i’ in ‘Ciera’ didn’t stand for ‘international’, eh? EH???
/jk
Hey, a lot of Fords and Volvos were built in Belgium!
The ad copy is technically right- my grandfather had one, but my father did not.
The copy in that ad is a red flag in itself.
I thought maybe the Mexican and Portuguese flags were slightly different at the time, but no, it’s like somebody drew them in simplified form from memory.
Combining vexillology and cars is why I am a member here.
We had a family friend who had one of these except it was even weirder and used one of GM’s modernized 4 cylinder diesel engines in it. I remember it stank inside. But once it got up and going it got pretty decent ( for the 80’s ) fuel economy. He drove it for years. Then one day decided to leave it outside when it was forecasted to rain so in his words- “clean the car” only for there to be a hail storm that smashed all of the windows and totaled the car.
I don’t know if any one flag provides the gravitas of an “International Series,” but the Swiss flag is a big plus.
Please, make like the Canadian flag and leaf.
Just like Sweden, you’ve made me cross.
The flags predate everything mentioned so far; per my memory & Wiki:
“The new Salon package was offered first as a 4-door Colonnade sedan, which was joined in 1974 by a 2-door hardtop coupe. It was an upscale “European” style luxury/sports package, similar in concept to the Pontiac Grand Am, and was the first Oldsmobile with the international-flags emblem.”
Remember when Oldsmobiles were seen on every street in Portugal and Denmark in the 90’s? The good old days…
Overheard on the streets of Porto and Billund, “The new Oldsmobiles are in early this year!”
Also heard frequently: “Este não é o Oldsmobile do teu pai” and “Dette er ikke din fars Oldsmobile.”
All over Nice you could hear “Ceci n’est pas l’Oldsmobile de ton père” jumping from lip to lip.
Pepperidge Farm remembers.
My first car, a 1985 Oldsmobile Cutlass Cruiser had the flag badge. It also had Fuel Injection emblems, a little flair on an otherwise malaise car.
I had forgotten about that — as we tapdanced away from the Malaise Era, suddenly certain design features or options warranted an external emblem!
We had a VW sedan of some sort with “Fuel Injection” on the trunk lid, and I remember other imports in the 80’s like the Suzuki Samurai had a “5-Speed” emblem, while early Toyotas proudly stated AUTOMATIC on the trunk lid!