The Oldsmobile 98 (originally Series 90; a.k.a. Ninety-Eight) was a full-size automobile and the flagship of the Oldsmobile division of General Motors. The name first appeared in 1941 and was used again after American consumer automobile production resumed post-World War II. It was, as it would remain, the top-of-the-line model, with lesser Oldsmobiles having lower numbers such as 66 and 76. These were replaced by the Oldsmobile 88 in 1949, and the two number-names would carry on into the 1990s as the bread and butter of the full-size Oldsmobile lineup until the Aurora would replace it for 1996.
General Motors developed a system of sharing body panels between models of its different makes, but the Ninety-Eight broke ranks several times with this system. Its second body makeover did not share body panels with the other senior makes, Buick and Cadillac. It did not even have its model-changeover synchronized with the same year as the Eighty-Eight in the mid-1950s.
Of the Ninety-Eight series, the 1969′s were the only models to have an attached hood extension. After receiving numerous complaints from dealership mechanics about hitting their heads on the extension, Oldsmobile changed the style of the hood in 1970, removing the extension, which resulted in a flat hood design