I guess you've never driven in snow. These were very popular in the Northeast. And the entire had huge room because no tunnel was needed for the driveshaft. Putting the heavy motor and driver at the opposite end of the vehicle drive wheels is the definition of stupid.

For some context, FWD was novel at the time - oldsmobile considered it a competitive distinction. Other american automakers did not have the tooling to build something similar. Further while Europe was doing transverse powertrains, this used a longitudinal layout front wheel drive, one of the few cars ever designed that way.