AUBURN – Across the country the Oldsmobile, once a symbol of respectability and success, is taking its final ride into the setting sun.

Except here, where the last Oldsmobile to be sold from a Lee dealership headed east to Portland this week.

“It’s a very sad day,” said John Isaacson, CEO of Lee Auto Malls. “People in the sales department were sentimental … talking about the time we sold 50 Cutlasses in one month … remembering when we used to have 150 to 200 in stock.”

The last new Olds to be sold from the Lee dealership was a 2004 Bravada, bought by Steven and Jeanette Carr of Portland. It was the final sale from a line of cars that had once been the strongest seller for the dealership.

“There were times in the mid-’80s when we sold 100 Olds a month in Auburn,” said Isaacson.

By December 2000, when GM announced it was discontinuing the venerable line, Oldsmobiles were less than 2 percent of new car sales at the Auburn dealership. Although the dealership won’t be offering any new Oldsmobiles, it still can service them and will honor Olds warranties. GM stopped making Oldsmobiles in May of this year.

The auto manufacturer had run into a double whammy: It failed to attract younger drivers and it came to the SUV/truck market late.

“The It’s not your father’s Oldsmobile’ (ad campaign) didn’t work,” said Isaacson.

Oldsmobiles had been steadily losing market share in Maine, where about 50 percent of vehicles sold are trucks.

“Oldsmobile was a car company, it wasn’t known for trucks or SUVs,” said Isaacson.

Still, it was a good ride while it lasted.

“Sometime around 1986 the Toyota dealer in town then went out and bought eight new Olds to put on his Toyota lot because they were so popular,” said Isaacson. “Today the Olds is gone and Toyota’s doing pretty well.

“I guess times have changed.”