(first posted 1/7/2016) The Oldsmobile Intrigue was a volley lobbed right at the heart of the American car market. The best-selling cars in America during the 1990s were the Ford Taurus, Honda Accord and Toyota Camry: all mid-size, front-wheel-drive sedans. Oldsmobile’s rival for them, the 1988-vintage Cutlass Supreme, had become dated. The aim of the new-for-1998 Intrigue was to deliver a family sedan that was not only well-packaged and sensible, but also fun-to-drive and differentiated from the other GM W-Bodies. If it succeeded with buyers, Oldsmobile’s future would seemingly be assured.
Sadly, we know how this story ended. Although Oldsmobile had its best model line-up in years, the 107-year old division closed down in 2004.
It was a sad fate for such a storied nameplate, and it was also a sad fate for GM’s most competitive mid-sized offering in years. The Intrigue was the result of extensive market research in California, the biggest market in the US for imports. Middle America could be left to the Buick Century/Regal and Pontiac Grand Prix: the Intrigue was intended to target the hundreds of thousands of Accord and Camry buyers in North America. Another sign of the Intrigue’s mission? There was no bench seat or column shifter available.
The Intrigue did have one key fault, however: quality control. This was nothing unique to Oldsmobile, as mediocre fit-and-finish, subpar materials and sketchy electrics were common complaints of GM’s other contemporary offerings. To its credit, the Intrigue was more reliable than offerings within its own showroom like the Aurora with its flaky 4.0 V8.
You only get one chance to make a first impression. Were some potential shoppers lured into showrooms by the flashy commercials, only to dismiss this promising new sedan on account of a tinny glove compartment lid or a driver’s door that didn’t close with a solid thunk? Or did they never enter the showroom to begin with?
While the Intrigue appeared to not be as high-quality as an Accord, the divide wasn’t as prominent as it was between, say, a 1995 Camry and 1995 Cutlass Supreme. The 1996 Camry and 1997 Accord had received some cost-cutting, after all. The Intrigue’s interior was quite clean and elegant, with a subtle two-tone treatment available. After an unpleasant bout of cost-cutting earlier in the 1990s, the previous-generation W-Bodies had received almost identical, ugly interiors in 1995. However, the new Grand Prix, Century/Regal and Intrigue had uniquely differentiated interior designs.
If anything, the Intrigue received a disproportionate amount of attention compared to the other W-Bodies. It was originally to launch with the Twin Dual Cam 3.4 as a stopgap engine, but that plan was scrapped as consumer clinics found it too unrefined. Instead, the Intrigue launched with the same Series II 3800 V6 used in the Grand Prix and Century/Regal as a stopgap; it had 195 hp at 5200 rpm and 220 ft-lbs at 4000 rpm. The old Buick mill had been steadily refined over the years and produced competitive power/torque numbers, with a 0-60 time of just under 8 seconds.
For 1999, a unique new engine would be launched in uplevel GLS Intrigues and by 2000 it was standard across the range. This power plant, officially named the 3.5L Twin Cam, was popularly referred to as the Shortstar as it was a modern, double overhead cam 3.5 V6 derived from the Northstar V8. The new engine received critical acclaim and was featured on Ward’s 10 Best Engines list in both 1999 and 2000. Power and torque surpassed the 3800 with 215 hp at 5500 rpm and 234 ft-lbs at 4400 rpm. It was smooth and refined, as well as being torquier than the V6 engines of the Japanese. It even retained the Northstar’s limp-home function that allowed the engine to run even after a sudden loss of coolant.
Although the 3800 is commonly regarded as being a particularly reliable engine, not to mention a surprisingly torquey and fuel-efficient one, those Intrigues so equipped were known for having issues with coolant leaks. The Shortstar, however, appears to have had no major reliability issues, although sourcing parts could be a problem for Intrigue owners as it was only available in the Intrigue and second-generation Aurora.
The Intrigue’s memorable advertising campaign
GM had developed a modern, class-competitive DOHC V6. Why didn’t they offer it throughout the rest of the GM fleet? Was it really about affording Oldsmobile two unique engines (the Aurora V8 being the other)? Surely the cost of developing and continuing to manufacture this engine could have been amortized by putting it in some other vehicles. Instead, much like the Twin Dual Cam 3.4 launched in 1991, the Shortstar was another new V6 that would die years before the old battle-axe 3800 did. An entirely new 3.6 V6, the High Feature, was developed and launched in 2004; unlike the Shortstar, it quickly proliferated across almost all GM divisions, including GMC and Saturn.
Praise of the Intrigue’s dynamics was almost unanimous. The four-wheel independent suspension – with an anti-roll bar up front and a stabilizer bar at the back – delivered crisp handling and a tight, controlled feel. Its magnetic speed-variable power steering was sharp. An Autobahn option package was also available, adding bigger brakes and performance tires. Unlike the Nissan Maxima and Honda Accord though, there was no available manual transmission. Instead, there was one of GM’s smooth-shifting four-speed automatics. Although this was a tick against it for enthusiasts, the manual-transmission mid-size sedan never had broad consumer appeal in North America and there were few left by the end of the Intrigue’s run.
Motor Trend found the Olds to be more liveable than the Maxima while having comparable handling; they also said it was an appealing compromise between the soft Camry and “high-strung” Maxima in a 1998 comparison test. Consumer Guide declared, “If you’re looking for a midsize car with a thoughtful blend of features and performance, don’t decide until you’ve driven this pleasant and surprising new Olds.” Car & Driver even said the Intrigue drove like an import… A European import, no less.
The Intrigue came well-equipped for its approximately $21k base price, with standard air-conditioning and anti-lock brakes. Around 108k Intrigues were sold in the first (long) sales year, over double the number of 1997 Cutlass Supremes sold even though the latter had three bodystyles to choose from. But alarmingly, sales dropped each year: to around 90k in 1999, 64k the year after, and just 39k the year after that. The Oldsmobile division’s death had been speculated on for years and was formally announced in 2002. The Intrigue and Aurora V6 were axed that year, while the Aurora V8 survived until 2003 and the Bravada, Silhouette and Alero were finally killed in 2004. Unlike the later, ignominious death of Pontiac, 500 of the final examples of each Oldsmobile received a special Final 500 package with gorgeous dark cherry metallic paint and unique badging.
Oldsmobile’s death was a sad event but realistically, for a corporation with less than a quarter of market share in the US, having so many separate brands was unsustainable. Let’s look just at GM’s mid-size offerings. A new Chevrolet Malibu is launching for 2016, replacing a model launched in MY2013. This replaced a car launched in MY2008. Those product cycles are what the Japanese were so praised for in the 1980s and 1990s, the same time in which the Intrigue’s predecessor was sold from 1988 until 1997. Having so many brands occupying so many of the same segments is a risky game, especially when you split the mid-size segment in two as Oldsmobile did with the Alero and Intrigue.
Remember the Pontiac G6? It was GM’s heavily-promoted mid-size baby until the 2007 North American Car of the Year, the related Saturn Aura, was launched. The Aura surfed the wave of critical praise until the 2008 Chevrolet Malibu arrived. The G6 and Aura received some improvements during their run, but other than brand loyalty and perhaps styling preference, wouldn’t most buyers have bought the newer, fresher model if all three cars were in the same segment?
Had Oldsmobile survived past 2004, odds are the Intrigue would have stuck around for a few too many years. There might have been a heavy cosmetic revision, à la the 2005 LaCrosse and 2004 Grand Prix, and the critical reception would have been much less glowing than in 1998. The Alero would have potentially switched to the G6’s Epsilon platform, maybe received a handsome coupe and convertible, and become Oldsmobile’s core mid-size offering while the Intrigue withered away. And no doubt, Oldsmobile would have then gotten the axe come bankruptcy time.
For many years, GM’s most promising mid-sizers were often still half-baked. The 1982 Celebrity had the hoary Iron Duke standard. The 1988 Grand Prix, Motor Trend’s Car of the Year, had a limp 2.8 V6 that struggled against the W-Body’s weight. The 1997 Malibu was utterly forgettable without having the quality levels of a Camry in which such blandness is forgivable. Although the Intrigue came out with a stopgap engine, albeit a competitive one, it was as close as GM had come in a long time to releasing a mid-size sedan that was full-baked, and it was marred only by mediocre build quality. But while GM invested a huge amount of money in trying to keep Oldsmobile viable, they weren’t committed enough and Olds got the axe at a time when most of its lineup was still fresh. In The Dark Knight, Harvey Dent says, “You either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.” The Intrigue didn’t have the luxury of living quite that long.
Related Reading:
Curbside Classics: 1997 Toyota Camry and 1998 Honda Accord
i liked the look of the final Olds lineup.
As do I. Clean, distinctive, attractive styling.
Unfortunately, the brand was dead the day they came out with the “not your father’s Oldsmobile” ad campaign. Somebody should have told the ad agency when you have to start making statements like that, it HAS become your father’s Oldsmobile.
The cars didn’t matter anymore. The image did. You could have put Oldsmobile badges on that year’s Camry, and sales would have dropped.
And I was pissed the day GM announced that Oldsmobile was being cut. The gall, to kill off America’s oldest automaker . . . . .
Yeah, that ad campaign was catchy, but it only served to reinforce a Olds’ negative image, all but acknowledging that young people regarded Oldsmobile as a stale car suited only for older people. You don’t need ads trying to convince the youngsters that Hondas aren’t just for your parents.
Yeah, that ad campaign was catchy, but it only served to reinforce a Olds’ negative image, all but acknowledging that young people regarded Oldsmobile as a stale car
Buick has been doing the same thing. Remember the ads not long ago about how people couldn’t recognize a Buick…in spite of their horrendous, toothy, 1949 grills?
In one of their current commercials, a 20-something friend of the other young Buick owner exclaims in disbelief of her friend owning a Buick, “My grandfather owns a Buick!”
Another one shows a young woman driving a Buick proudly proclaiming that she’s an “early adopter”, as if Buicks are meant for old people.
It seems that GM has learned nothing
Did you think they would?
Typical, too, staring at her phone and not even looking at the car pulling up until her friend commented on the driver.
I hate those Buick ads, If anything they’re WORSE than the 1980s Oldsmobile ads. When I’d see one on TV, I want to drive a ’76 Electra through the screen! I actually get a headache even thinking about them. P.S. Having once owned a 1950 Buick Super, The current grille looks more like an overdone ’50 (If that’s even possible…) than the comparatively sedate ’49. LOL!
That ad campaign was literally the textbook example of marketing failure in a 300-level communications class I took in 2002. Our conclusions in studying that case were what you say: They, over the course of 60 seconds, told their core constituency to fuck off. Generally, brand loyal buyers are hard to sway, so it was pretty much impossible that Olds was going to immediately sway enough import buyers immediately to make their new offerings a success. In the meantime, their core constituency heard GM’s message and did indeed fuck off, probably right to the imports that GM was so desperately hoping to fight.
The other huge problem with this campaign was the fact that for most buyers, their “father’s Oldsmobile” was actually a better car than what the brand was peddling in the late ’80s and ’90s.
Yeah. Not really sure which genius decided that, of all GM’s brands, Oldsmobile was the one to best fight the imports.
And then their initial volley was the Achieva. The Achieva, which Acheiva’d exactly nothing for anyone except being a dumber-looking Grand Am.
All at the same time they still had the (fantastic but decidedly not import-like) H-Body Eighty Eight, let alone the Ninety Eight, sitting right there in the same showroom.
One does have to wonder how they gathered that much incompetence into one room at GM by 1987.
Remember that the Cutlass Supreme was either the best-selling car, or one of the top three best-sellers, in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Then the Honda Accord became the first “import” nameplate to grab the number-one spot in 1990. I remember reading in USA Today at the time that a high percentage of trade-ins on the Accord were Oldsmobiles.
Given those facts, the decision to go with Oldsmobile as the “import fighter” made some sense.
Everything comes full circle. More last-generation Oldsmobiles were traded on Hondas than on any other brand when the division was wound down, including other GM brands.
I guess they were partially successful in garnering their intended market.
My 55 year old father traded in his Cutlass Supreme for a Toyota Supra in 1980. Another lifetime GM customer lost for good.
I always feel sad every time I see an Intrigue. A respectable effort was made with it to make it different from its siblings and more along the lines of what import buyers sought. It was probably one of GM’s best
But underneath it was the same old W-body and the fact that it was initially launched with the ubiquitous pushrod 3.8L V6 only solidified that the Intrigue was largely the same old formula in more *intriguing* clothes.
Had the Intrigue or another serious Camry/Accord fighter come along a few years earlier, it would have had a better chance. But by the late-1990s, no one knew what Oldsmobile was supposed to be anymore.
Elderly buyers were confused by the disappearance of their Ninety-Eights, Eighty-Eights, and Cutlasses and went elsewhere, many over to Buick. From personal experience, middle-aged and younger Oldsmobile owners often bought a Honda or Toyota next.
The new “Aurora-inspired” Oldsmobiles were mostly rebadged versions of other GMs (as they’d always been) in sheetmetal meant to appeal to offer an import vibe. Likewise, interiors, while more tastefully interesting in design, were still marred by cheap-looking plastic, leather, and other components.
As you’ve addressed in the article, by this point GM simply had too many brands with too small a market share. The Intrigue, as better as it was compared to its siblings, was merely a small fish in the big GM pond. It would never be a truly unique vehicle among other GMs, and as a result, was just another flavor at the mid-size GM ice cream shop.
Had Oldsmobile been kept around, I’ve always felt that the Saturn Aura would’ve been the next Intrigue.
Agree that the Intrigue was the best of these W-bodies. I had one as a rental when they came out (never a good sign but the lots were filled with them) and I was quite surprised and impressed at how nice I thought it was. Part of the problem, though, was my expectations were so low, because it was a GM car, that the Intrigue really only excelled versus its corporate siblings. It still wasn’t as good as it should have been, and even as a new car I remember thinking the plastics felt extremely flimsy and there were huge gaps between interior panels (and exterior panels too for that matter) indicating really lazy, cheap build quality.
That said, I am with you in mourning Olds and feeling that this car should have/could have been so much more. I also wish it had come (much) earlier, and been a slightly more manageable “true” mid size car. If it had been introduced around 1990, and if the Ciera had been put to rest, it might not have been too late.
Lastly, I agree the Aura would have made a nice Olds. I’d have called it a Cutlass…
But then again, “Aura” would’ve gone great with “Aurora” 🙂
Aura (Saturn) in euro terms was/is a last gen Opel/Vauxhall Vectra…with slight cosmetic changes. The Vectra was a top-seller in Europe and UK. The “what if” question if the Aura/Vectra would have wore the Oldsmobile’s (New) Cutlass nameplate is an “Intriguing” question! So…everybody from the Family is here… 🙂
Nope, Szilard. It was on the LWB version of the Epsilon platform (like the Pontiac G6 and Chevrolet Malibu Maxx) but was styled to look extremely similar to the Opel Vectra. It was a neat trick but other than the basic platform, nothing was shared with the Vectra: different engines, different interior…
It helped build the Euro cachet Saturn was aiming for though.
🙂 Thank You for the missing info! So the “genuine engineering” was behind the Aura! It’s good to know. By the way was this the (almost) same situation with the Ascona/Cavalier and Sunbird/Firenza/Cavalier/Skyhawk (J-Cars)? I mean the bodies looked similar BUT the suspensions, engines, etc. were different!?
One more thing about the discontinuation of the Oldsmobile (and Pontiac) as a brand/division: GM should have follow the Japanese, Korean and European marketing and public relations patterns and to keep on internationalize its North-American car brands during the decades. But what we have that they failed even with the Chevrolet in Europe till 2014. The main problem with the discontinued traditional brands is that these had been limitedly sold in their so called domestic markets what wasn’t enough to reach reasonable selling quantities. Just take a look at Honda, Toyota or Kia… You can buy them all over the globe even in the smallest sometimes unrecognizable countries. Personally I should be a happier car consumer if I would have access to kinda 3, 4, 5, etc. cylinder, hybrid mini or midi economic Oldsmobiles or Pontiacs rather than for example to a Kia Picanto or a Honda Jazz. Don’t misunderstand me…these are good lil’ cars BUT for a customer like me Oldsmobile and/or Pontiac meant whole lot more…and I think there are so many folks out there who thinks like me…even when absorbing 0-24 advertisements of the other too commercialized car manufacturers.
I think the main thing is that this was too late for Oldsmobile. I don’t think the average American gave a poop about the pushrod engine; they wanted a reasonable sedan attractively styled, and this was that.
The 3800 had such a different feel from what import OHC drivers expected and they certainly did give poops. (This was usually articulated in reviews as “NVH” or “indirect throttle response”.) GM knew it too, they didn’t develop the Shortstar for kicks, they must have a had a solid market analysis showing ye old pushrods weren’t cutting it any more.
However, by ~2000 GM had practically given up on the retail market and was focused selling to fleet managers and GM lifers, and they’re the people who liked the pushrod V6s. They even extended 3800 production so they could sell a few last cars to Buick loyalists. Only with bankruptcy and new CAFE standards staring them in the face did GM wake up from their long slumber and get their midsized powertrains in order around 2008.
+1. I was working for a dealership that had Olds as one of it’s 4 lines, and was impressed by the new Intrigue. Nothing wrong with the 3800 engine, it was a good running powerful unit. Too bad it turned out to be too little, too late.
Olds was in a bad way by this point. To justify it’s existence, it had to charge a premium over the same size Chevy, and still have enough volume to keep alive the vast dealer network. In the nineties, the Accord and the Camry grew to American midsize proportions and were no longer supply constrained as they had American assembly plants. They were succeeding in large part both due to their good cars and also due to the fact that the baby boom generation did not want to buy the same cars their parents did. The volume the Japanese sold was directly coming out of the big three as the market for midsize cars was not growing.
Given this situation, what was Olds to do. The situation is further complicated by Olds having two older mid size platforms and there was only budget for a reskin. So Olds reskinned the newer of the two W body and tried to raise prices by selling at one price with no cash on the hood. In my opinion, there was no way that could work.
It still probably would have failed, but I would have reskinned the A body instead with Cieras with old people trim and Cutlases trimmed out like the departed STE Pontiacs. These cars were lighter and trimmer, and still hailed from a period when GM thought of themselves at least as the mark of excellence. I don’t think it would have attracted many import buyers, but I don’t think those buyers were ever a possibility.
There would have been enough volume to fill an American factory and the size was such as to not directly take on Chevy. The weight of the A body was low enough that the ecotech fours could have been offered, therefore not closing off economy minded buyers, as did the V6 only W body.
There was commentary that the only thing keeping Mercury going it’s last years was the profitable Grand Marquis. A reskinned A body just might have done the same thing for Olds. After the reskin, there might have been time to make a CUV out of it and move production to Mexico to survive even the 2008-2009 slowdown.
I completely agree that the W-body was too big, which did not help the Intrigue at all. It really came across as a “full size” car at a time when that was not seen as a good thing by most younger (under 50) sedan buyers. The A-bodies were the right size, but way too old. The N-Body spawned Cutlass was the right size, but a horrible badge-engineered dog.
+1 on the A-body being way to old.
John, I respect your ideas, but I must politely disagree:
The existing A-bodies didn’t have the structural integrity and rigidity to withstand newer crash safety standards. Merely re-skinning them to look more modern wouldn’t have been enough. Logistically, trying to blend modern technology and features with a 20-year old vehicle would’ve been a nightmare. A total redesign would’ve been the only option, and who knows how many costly improvements would’ve needed to have been made to the chassis.
Additionally, keeping an old car around like that would’ve been the biggest image killer to Oldsmobile yet. The thought of GM having done that actually makes discontinuing Oldsmobile seem like the kind, honorable thing, putting it out of its misery.
I think the W-body was both too big and too small. It was too big for a mid-size car, especially when the previously-compact N-body moved up to mid-size in the late ’90s and crowded the field. And the LWB (110.5″) version was too small to really be a proper full-size car as the Impala and Grand Prix.
The N-body Cutlass was indeed uncompetetive, but its replacement Alero (also on the N-body but half a generation newer) was actually a hit, at least in Olds terms. Good looking, not bad at all to drive. It didn’t save Oldsmobile from the chopping block either, but it was a nice effort. (Until it started to fall apart, they weren’t the best-built things ever…)
They really nailed the styling, too. I’ve always thought the Intrigue was really nice looking.
In this era I came to think that they designed an Oldsmobile first and added either cladding, spoilers and cheesegrater alloys to make a Pontiac, or chrome, whitewalls and other Brougham accoutrements to make a Buick with Chevy getting to design their own skin off the Olds hard points.
With Oldsmobile gone, Buick and Pontiac simplified their exterior trim as if to fill in the gap.
The only thing intriguing about this car was its name. I recall it as a rental-fleet queen, only a small step above the Taurus. “Another sign of the Intrigue’s mission? There was no bench seat or column shifter available.” – this was endemic of how Oldsmobile thought at this point. Imports don’t offer three-across seating, so why should we? Imagine if Toyota thought that way when they were getting huge in the ’70s – ‘hey, the VW Beetle isn’t available with 4 doors or a heater that works, so we should offer those features in our Corolla either”. How big would they be today? You stay ahead of your competition by offering things they don’t, not by carefully not offering anything they don’t.
The Buick Series II 3800 was a great engine by the way – it may have looked antiquated on paper, but in real use it was smooth, quiet, powerful, torquey, and reliable. No shame in offering it in this car.
“You stay ahead of your competition by offering things they don’t, not by carefully not offering anything they don’t.”
Sorry I got stuck on that line and had to read it several times to get your meaning. In a nutshell, if you offer nothing new then what’s the point? And that’s basically it for GM isn’t it? They offered nothing new that the competition wasn’t already offering. I still think GM is largely doing that today.
I had a chance to test drive a Silhouette based euro-Trans Sport with a 3800 ccm V6. I really don’t know if it was a “3800 Series II” BUT IT’s been accelerated as a “Mean Street Machine”! What a Ride dude… 🙂
A very good / traditional car brand had to be axed for what!? Some other models like the Alero could be sold as renamed Chevys in Europe at all. The Intrigue could be able to fit the euro requirements for example as the Alero did as well as Chevrolet Alero…or the Pontiac Trans Sport Montana as Chevrolet Trans Sport. Some euro-Aleros were still wore their genuine Rocket badges only the licence docs had showed the renamed status as Chevy. We got also the latest Bravada wearing Saab’s “skin” which’s high-end variant even had the 5.3 Litre V8 engine. So my observation is that at least the engineering behind the Oldsmobile brand could have find its way to succeed in commercial terms on other continents. Pontiac should be added to this as well.
The Bravada body was also shifted over to Buick after Olds’s demise as the Buick Rainier.
Yeah… Like after the Olds. Silhouette, Buick came out with the Terraza mini-van in 2005. By the way…China still has it as the Buick G8 mini-van (not have to be mixed with the Pontiac G8).
I honestly can’t remember — was the Shortstar a 60-degree V-6 or another 90-degree engine like the 3800? I know it was architecturally related to the Northstar, but I don’t recall if it was a cut-down Northstar or similar architecture applied to a different configuration.
90 degree V6. But according to Wikipedia, it was not just a “cut-down” Northstar block and supposedly had different bore centers. But clearly that was the starting point.
If it was going to be a 90-degree engine, what on earth was the point of giving it different bore centers? (That’s a rhetorical question — I don’t expect you to answer for GM!) All the balance compromises with half the tooling commonality? I understand production expediency; I may criticize it, but it at least makes sense. The idea of investing a bunch of extra resources into making something different to no obvious benefit, on the other hand…
Wikipedia also says the V6 was expensive to build. I think that the timing of its introduction limited its expansion to other divisions. By the time it might have been available on other cars, Oldsmobiles fate had been decided. Also it was probably not seen as a good choice for the CTS, and the 3.6 L V6 was in development. The 3.6 started out at about 250 HP, not 215.
But the 3.6 had timing chain problems the 3.5 didn’t. Somehow, the Shortstar also avoided the 90s Northstar’s head gasket “issue.”
You know what I remember most about the Intrigue? The advertising featuring an Amtrak Superliner passenger train out west somewhere with an Intrigue on a road parallel to the track with some sort of a spy/mystery theme as the plot for the ad.
Intrigued?
I wanted so bad to be aboard that train!
For the record, my avatar is Wifey & I aboard the Coast Starlight along the Pacific Ocean in September, so I finally got my wish!
Still, those were nice-looking cars and really felt that Olds would survive and thrive. Alas, it was not to be.
+1 I loved that train commercial!
Oldsmobile as an “International Seller”. “Rocket” badged Chevrolet. A big big “what if?”.
The tacked on Chervolet badge was très galant,
http://tinyurl.com/zt2kuzg
Yeah! 🙂
I worked for a supplier to GM at this time and the big issue with the so-called High Feature DOHC V6 is that it cost as much to manufacture as an LS V8.
Of course there was no way to charge more or even an equivalent amount, so it caused considerable marketing problems, having a base/mid-level powertrain that cost more than the top option. The LS was a real winner for GM at that time, a great performance engine that was relatively cheap to manufacture.
The 3800 was in many ways the ideal base powertrain for a mid/full size FWD car of that era – cheap to manufacture, reliable, and a decent mix of performance and MPG.
I thought it was a real shame when Olds was killed off. That division finally had cars that did not look like rebadged versions of the same cars the other divisions were selling. (Showing my age calling them divisions and not “brands.”). With that product differentiation I thought they might have a chance.
I still see many Olds Aleros around here (north east Ohio) most still looking really good, and those that don’t seem to look OK except for the typical GM rusted out fuel filler door area. I rarely see an Intrigue. I see more Oldsmobile Malibus uh Cutlasses than Intrigues, and not many copies of that poor excuse for a Cutlass were sold around here.
At the moment of my reply in Finland there are 15 available used (Chevrolet) Aleros. In Belgium 3, in Austria 8, in The Netherlands 132 Chevy Aleros and only 1 Oldsmobile Intrigue. What to say?
The weeding out of brands we have seen in the big three was probably baked in with the collapse of Sloanism in the 60s. The old ladder broke down when you could get an Olds or Buick that was smaller and cheaper than a “full size” Chevy.
The bean counters probably stepped in and demanded that, since each division was offering a model that was about the same size, they all actually be the same car. It wasn’t just GM. You could hardly tell a Volare from an Aspen or a Granada from a Monarch. Then there was the Omnirizon line. When the Neon came along, Chrysler didn’t even try to make up separate names for Dodge and Plymouth versions.
Even if GM had maintained a 50+% market share, the beancounters would probably have demanded the brands be weeded out because they could not justify the separate styling and sales organizations, when the different brands were competing with each other across the board.
VW has gotten itself into the same situation with Skoda and SEAT models all built on VW platforms and all three brands competing against each other in several markets.
To my eye, the only big three brand that is really differentiated now is Cadillac.
One problem was that the bean counters were demanding greater commonality of parts under the skin, and even the sharing of exterior panels when possible, but top management and the marketing people operated on the assumption that the public still viewed each division as having a different “status” position on the GM brand ladder.
Couple that with dealers who don’t want the division to be discontinued, and also want as many different models to sell as possible (as insurance against both sudden and long-term shifts in customer preferences), and you get a real mess.
Couple that with dealers who …want as many different models to sell as possible (as insurance against both sudden and long-term shifts in customer preferences), and you get a real mess.
I suspect the corporate/dealer conversation in the 60s went something like
Chevy “we’re losing business to Rambler and Studebaker. We want a compact too”, thus the Corvair and later Chevy II.
Pontiac/Buick/Olds; “we’re losing business to Chevy dealers because we don’t have a compact”….which gave birth to the Tempest and F-85, in accordance with Sloanism, larger and nicer than the Chevy compact.
Chevy: “we’re losing business because people want something larger and more conventional than a Corvair, and they’re going down the street to the Olds dealer for an F-85″….which gave birth to the Chevelle.
Beancounters: “why are we building so many different cars the same size? Get rid of the half a V8 4s. Get rid if the V6s. Get rid of the flexible driveshafts and rear transaxles. We decree everything in a size class will use the same platform, with a straight six and Hotchkiss rear end, because that is what is cheapest.”
With GM’s market share over 50%, half of the sales at any brand except Cadillac would have been sales lost by another GM brand.
Couple that with dealers who don’t want the division to be discontinued,
Then there was the cost of closing down divisions. I don’t recall the exact number, but shutting down Olds cost GM millions in compensation to dealers that were put out of business. I heard in the late 2000s that GM was encouraging Pontiac and Buick dealers to merge, so I expected another brand to be axed and the mergers intended to avoid putting dealers out of business and avoid paying restitution, but I expected it to be Buick as it’s line was much thinner than Pontiac’s. Of course, the bankruptcy offered a golden opportunity to shut down divisions, including Roger Smith’s boondoggles at Saturn and HUMMER, without making the kind of restitution that killing Olds cost.
… top management and the marketing people operated on the assumption that the public still viewed each division as having a different “status” position on the GM brand ladder.
And yet, it was management’s own actions that undermined the ladder. Looking at the 82 A bodies, which vary little externally other than grill and taillights, it looks like they tried to do all the differentiation with trim, with the Celebrity and 6000 having rather cheap and nasty looking interiors to differentiate them from the nicer trimmed Century and Ciera. Again, GM was competing with itself as a customer, turned off by the cheap Celebrity interior, goes down the street and buys a Century.
By eliminating the redundant divisions, GM can focus on producing the one best option for each size class, without trying to force differentiation between five divisions with questionable styling and trim choices. Remember the late 70s “aeroback” models that Buick and Olds got in an attempt to differentiate them from their Chevy and Pontiac cousins?
the cost of shutting down Olds was nearly 1 Billion Dollars, as shown in GM’s financial reports.
It was more like:
Buick/Oldsmobile/Pontiac dealers, during the 1957–58 recession: Nothing seems to be selling! People are jumping ship for them little furrin cars. Can’t you do something? Result: senior compacts.
Ed Cole of Chevrolet: I really like the idea of a sporty, European-style rear-engine compact. Let’s do that and use the recession to justify building it. Result: Corvair.
Chevrolet dealers, after the Corvair debuted: Why can’t we have a normal compact like the Falcon? Result: Chevy II.
Chevrolet dealers, a little later: The Ford guy down the street has a car for people who want something bigger than a Falcon but smaller than a big car! Why can’t we? Result: Chevelle.
…but pretty much, yeah.
I really liked the Intrigue when it debuted. A co-worker bought one of the first ones in our area in the summer of 1997. It was painted medium-metallic blue, and looked quite sharp. We went out to the parking lot to look at it over lunch, and…it failed to start because of a glitch in the security system. She had to call a flatbed truck to haul it to the dealer. The rest of her experience with the car wasn’t much better.
In the fall of 1999, I looked at Intrigues at the local Oldsmobile dealer. Several of them had a sticker price of $28-30,000. Remember that this was in the fall of 1999. There was no way that people were going to pay that much for an Oldsmobile family sedan at that time.
It was as though GM still thought that the Accord and Camry were just two “niche cars” that could be tackled with one, special (more expensive) model. By 1995, the Accord and Camry WERE the family-sedan market. The Chevrolet offering in this segment should have received as much attention to detail as the Intrigue and then been aimed squarely at the Accord and Camry.
Ultimately, the real problem with both the Intrigue and Oldsmobile was that the old Sloan brand structure was hopelessly obsolete by the mid-1990s. In that regard, Oldsmobile’s struggles were the canary in the coal mine.
So many people talk about “Oldsmobile should have done this or that”, but we have to understand that by the time this car was developed, there really was no such thing as “Oldsmobile”, other than as a marketing channel. Unlike in the 60s and before, the cars were designed by GM and built by GM. To the extent that Oldsmobile had a role, it was to sell the cars.
John DeLorean outlined how each Divisional chief was being micromanaged to death even in the mid 1960s, a situation that would become terminal by the early 70s (when the new Vega was designed by GM’s central engineering staff, and not by the Chevrolet Division.)
So, in this light, it is easy to understand that the Intrigue was GM Central’s way of offering a car to battle the imports. The problem was that GM Central was so isolated from the dealership floor that it offered a halfway appealing car but missed finding a significant market. On the one hand, they should be commended for the effort that went into it, but the end result was a poor competitor for the Accord or Camry.
GM’s divisions made some sense in the 50’s, where Chevrolets were smallish cars. Where I think things went off the proverbial rails was the introduction of small cars for everyone but Cadillac (till the mid 70’s), which made the whole lineup a mess.
GM’s divisions made some sense in the 50’s, where Chevrolets were smallish cars.
Same thing at Chrysler. A 56 Plymouth is quite small. A Dodge a bit bigger and more flamboyant. Chrysler larger still. Only division that did not look unique was DeSoto, which was too obviously a retrimmed Chrysler. And DeSoto died as the 60s dawned.
In the 70s, you could barely tell the difference between a Coronet and a Satellite, barely tell the difference between a Volare and an Aspen, or Reliant vs Aries…and by the end of the 90s, Plymouth died.
Now the talk around FCA is which of the minivans will be killed, the Caravan or Town and Country. They are the same vehicle and, since the bankruptcy, many dealers carry both Dodge and Chrysler, so one of them is redundant. So far, the betting is they will dump the Caravan, because the selling prices on the Town and Country are higher, and more profitable.
Did you realize there are only three vehicles being made with the Chrysler nameplate now? 200, 300 and Town and Country. No SUVs, no CUVs, no sporty cars.
If I ran FCA? I think maybe I would drop the 200 in favor of the Dart, drop the Town and Country in favor of the Caravan, and drop the Charger in favor of the 300. Then do a “personal luxury” coupe and a high end SUV on the 300 platform, so Chrysler would be positioned as exclusively a high performance, high end brand with all the V8s, while Dodge would be the ride for grocery getters, commuters and soccer moms.
No, Dodge should stay sporty/muscle/performance oriented. Chrysler should finally take the step up with both the 200 and 300 and go full American luxury and don’t make any fleet strippers. They should probably either let Dodge go with the van or just make nicer Town and Country’s-that’s a tough one as they don’t necessarily fit in either. Too bad they still didn’t have Plymouth to make vans and dedicatedly lower end family cars.
No, Dodge should stay sporty/muscle/performance oriented. Chrysler should finally take the step up with both the 200 and 300 and go full American luxury and don’t make any fleet strippers. They should probably either let Dodge go with the van or just make nicer Town and Country’s-that’s a tough one as they don’t necessarily fit in either. Too bad they still didn’t have Plymouth to make vans and dedicatedly lower end family cars.
Well, Plymouth is gone, so that makes Dodge the low end brand by default.
Currently the 200 is outselling the Dart and the Charger is outselling the 300, so I would run an analysis of those buying patterns. My suspicion is people prefer the 200 as it’s a little larger and finished nicer, so I would make the 200 the “improved” Dart and drop the smaller platform. If the Charger is selling because of a “performance” image, I would remind people that the Chrysler 300 was at one time the “performance” Chrysler. Then split the line so the 300 platform with a V6 would be a New Yorker and a 300 Platform with a V6 and higher trim would be a LeBaron, while the personal luxury coupe version would, of course, be a Cordoba. Town and Country would be the best fit for the SUV, but it’s been attached to a minivan too long. Maybe revive the Pacifica name?
One thing is for sure, FCA has to clean up it’s act. FCA’s five brands dominate the bottom of the lists for reliability, customer service and dealership experience. If a reinvigorated Chrysler was going to take on the big Bimmers and Mercs, their customer experience is totally unacceptable.
With that, I’d say we are in fundamental agreement. I liked that Chrysler brought out a heritage name with 300, but with that name it should have been reserved for the SRT and 300s versions. I doubt they wanted to bring back names like New Yorker and LeBaron or Imperial (I’d love it) but they needed to name the near luxury/luxury something else. A Córdoba would be sweet. I have a feeling that they don’t want to bring Chrysler up too high because they have Maseratti, and let’s be honest, I think the Chrysler name is too storied to move it much beyond Buick or Lincoln and Cadillac. No one seriously in the market for Bimmer and Benz heavies are ever going to cross shop Chrysler.
However if that is the idea, that Masserati is the tier over Chrysler, they need to get them over here with more exposure.
I really like my 300c and have had no serious problems with it and my dealer/service experience has been good but I have heard bad stories too. With Mopars’ reputation, they need to make it priority one to put out a product that is impeccably reliable and well screwed together. They also need to take a lesson in dealer experience from Lexus and Mercedes. If they want to even compete with Ford and Chevy, let alone American luxury never mind import luxury, it needs to be exceptional. There is no “good enough” for them anymore.
“GM’s divisions made some sense in the 50’s, where Chevrolets were smallish cars”
The 50’s Chevys were true full size cars, especially the 58’s. And they were same size as Pontiacs and base Buick/Olds models, shared the A body of the time. Ford and Plymouth were also same size.
Now the Corvair, that was a “small car”.
My comments were for pre-1957 Chevrolets, when they were smallish (not compact, but possibly mid-sized or so).
> the Intrigue was GM Central’s way of offering a car to battle the imports
Suspect there were some real myopic organizational politics going on. You could just imagine the Chevy sales managers saying “Toyota? We’re lazer-focused on Ford! Toyota is Oldsmobile’s and Saturn’s problem.”
The high prices were to add rebates to say “look how much off you are getting!”
Really though, the cars were made for GM employees and rentals. thinking that new products could be ‘good enough’ and GM could “rest easy from now on” was what got them in trouble.
If only the darn thing had stayed together.
As a Federal government employee; I drove several brand new to 30K Intrigues as fleet cars.
Although hard to get in and out of; once inside they were comfortable, pleasing cars…esp when compared to GM crappppp of the past 15 years.
Unfortunately, their quality control would make most Mopars look good by comparison. They broke down a LOT, squeaked, rattled, ran bad and fell apart. The best things about these cars were the darn fine sounding factory radios and excellent HVAC.
No match for a Camry or Accord.
I always thought that these were pretty good looking cars. the upgraded Autobahn suspension was a good choice. That two tone leather interior looks great in those pictures but most I had seen were a blander cheaper version. Never drove one. Rented a V6 Alero sedan and was quite impressed. I drove down to So Cal for a car show at 85 mph. with the a/c full blast and still averaged 28 mpg. I put 900 miles on that car over a three day weekend. I guess that’s why they don’t provide unlimited mileage on rentals anymore. This car reminds me of another favorite of the time, the Eagle Vision.
I had a 1999 with the 3800. I have no complaints about that engine. We took that car from Wisconsin down to Orlando at least once. Plenty of power, really good handling for a longer car (other car at the time was a 87 BMW 325es), and more space than the 2002 Passat wagon that replaced it. When you drive from Wisconsin to Florida in one day you get a good feel for a vehicle. Seats were very comfortable, kids/wife slept most of the way, AC kept us cool in early September Florida without strangling acceleration, no problems through the mountains in Tennessee. Towards end of ownership we had one electronic engine issue that was covered under extended warranty. Sold car to sister-in-law soon after and she promptly had an accident.
Few more thoughts…
The 3800 was the preferred engine back then among many because the 3.5 was unproven. Visually the car looked great at many angles, especially front 3/4, but I always thought the wheels should have been pushed out a little more. Seemed like body was too wide for the wheel base, especially in the back. Pretty standard at the time though.
Kind of thought this Olds lineup (Aurora, Intrigue and Alero) looked a little like the Custom Otto which was the car on old Hot Wheels car packages from the late 60s/early 70s. Really liked the front ends on these.
Lastly, when we purchased this Intrigue (dealership driven vehicle with 19,000 miles) in 2000 we were also looking at a new Hyundai Sonata. Guys at Hyundai dealership said we would be sorry if we got the Olds because of resale. They never straight up said Olds was going to close, but gave us a pretty strong indication it wouldn’t be long. Although Sonata had all the bells and whistles, in no way was the interior quality anywhere near that Olds. Wife wanted the Olds and that proved to be a good decision. Neighbor also got one after us with the 3.5 and they liked it too. Olds sold pretty well in this part of the Midwest.
“Olds sold pretty well in this part of the Midwest.”
That was Olds’s problem. Declining population areas it was still selling OK, but in South, East and West coast, which are growing, only in rental lots.
I only mention the midwest because Mr. Stopford mentions “The Intrigue was the result of extensive market research in California, the biggest market in the US for imports. Middle America could be left to the Buick Century/Regal and Pontiac Grand Prix:”.
It would be interesting to see how well these cars sold state by state. Any references for that kind of info anyone?
Very few of these larger domestic sedans were sold in California, and Intrigue would have been a very rare car. My guess is the only Olds selling at retail in CA at this point would have been the Bravada.
80-90% of Accord/Camry class cars were sold with 30MPG+ 4 cylinder engines, and the “middle class” in California had been taken over by BMWs on lease deals and SUVs and so on. So this kind of car really did not have a good market fit in California. It probably would have done better as a Saturn though.
When I saw a Volt barely fits the parking space in Cisco, probably it explains why larger cars don’t sell well in California. All my cars won’t fit because none of them is shorter than 200in, narrower than 73in, and none of them has displacement lower than 3.7.
Oddly, pickups and big SUVs seem to sell at least as well in California as they do in most states. California tyrants dictate parking spaces for the cars they want people to have rather than the ones they do though.
I worked at an Oldsmobile/Cadillac dealer in the early 2000’s when these things were new. Every one of them that came into the service department for warranty work smelled like mothballs and old people–even the ones driven in by “young” owners. Must have been the adhesives used in the interior, but it was strangely unique to the Olds Intrigues.
I had a 2000 GLS 3.5. Nice looking car at the time but unfortunately was probably the worst car I had ever owned. Rattles, squeaks and mechanical issues made the dealership it’s second home. A guy ran a red from the blind spot of a large truck, broadsided me and totaled the car. I wasn’t hurt and could have kissed that guy. That moved me on to Honda Accords and Toyota Camrys and I’ve never looked back.
This may be my favorite version of the W body. I would really like to drive one of these. I am curious if its good handling is in comparison to other Ws or to an Accord. I suspect that the verdict would be “this drives really nice for a W body.”
Having much experience with these cars I would say that they didn’t drive or feel like any other W-body. The more you pushed one into a corner the better it felt. The steering was near perfect, the driving position well chosen and the ride a great compromise of firm but comfortable. That was a trick that no other W-body could quite pull off. Even my 2013 Impala doesn’t quite have the feel these cars did.
I owned two Intrigues, a blue 1999 base with the optional 3.5 Shortstar and later a 2002 white GL with cloth seats. My friend was so impressed by mine that he bought a white 1999 GL with leather and my folks had a 2000 base in the same shade of blue as my 1999. All were fantastic cars with very few issues. My 1999 and my folks 2000 needed the upgraded ISS grease but my 2002 and my friend’s 1999 strangely never had an issue with this. They were some of the tightest, best handling cars I have owned to date and loved to be flung around corners while also offering a firm but comfortable ride. Other than the upper portion of the dash lifting away from the center air vents I had no other interior issues or complaints and neither did my friend or folks. I was able to fix that by removing the center vent assembly and applying a generous amount of pliobond to both surfaces and mating them together in the hot sun and that easily fixed the problem. keep in mind this was with 100K on the first car and 150K on the second. Those Shortstar engines were terrific. Much smoother and quieter than the old 3800, more midrange and top end power and the same excellent gas mileage, especially on the 2002 which switched from a 3.29 axle to a 3.05.
My mom still talks about her 2000 to this day and said it was one of her favorite cars she ever owned. I concur. Despite all the speculation of the demise of Oldsmobile and which car was responsible I would say that this car should be on the “greatest hits” list.
“Although the 3800 is commonly regarded as being a particularly reliable engine, not to mention a surprisingly torquey and fuel-efficient one, those Intrigues so equipped were known for having issues with coolant leaks.”
The coolant leaks on the 1995-2005 3800 Series II were a bit overblown. it was a case of upper intake plenum and lower intake gasket leaks. The upper intake leaks near the EGR valve because the heat coming from it causes the plastic around it to be become brittle and leak. There was a revised upper intake that features a metal sleeve that prevents the plastic from being brittle. That stopped the leaks.
The lower intake gaskets were known to leak due to the fact the gaskets were composite gaskets that they cracked under heat or if the intake bolts were torqued to high. The current gasket is a aluminum gasket(which they should have done that in the first place) set and no more leaks (yes people blame Dex-cool but I have seen pre Dex cars have the same leaks and it is due to the use of plastic gaskets and coolant)
Once those are changed out the issue never happens again.
Olds was beginning to make some appealing cars in this era, and I had a growing urge to buy American again after driving imports for 30 years. My very first car was a ’70 Olds. But I had stopped subscribing to car magazines by this point and lost track of when new models were rolling out, the market segment in which they were intended to compete, and so on. So as a somewhat detached observer, the Alero seemed to shade into the Intrigue a little too much, which shaded into the Aurora. With a little more time and another generation of these models, maybe I’d have gotten up to speed and come back into the fold. This is something many manufacturers don’t realize…many people aren’t ready to buy an unfamiliar model name in the first generation, even if the brand itself carries some equity. Had Olds stuck around, I might be driving one today.
“Or did they never enter the showroom to begin with?”
True, only if this car was a Saturn, would it have gotten some conquest sales. But at same time, Pontiac and Chevy needed some fresh designs. “You can sell an young man’s car to an old man, but not vice versa.” was why Olds tanked. No loyal Accord owner was going to bother.
So many auto writers say “Olds had best cars, then they were canned”. Really? They were reskinned older designs. GM simply could not prop up all the brands with such small style differences, with +/- 20% share and declining.
The 1995 Aurora was an all new body design as well as new style. Also got a double overhead cam engine.
It was only one car, and not enough to save a whole brand.
The 2nd generation Aurora was watered down and seemed like a LeSabre with Olds badge, oh wait, that’s what it was.
And yet critics found it handled better than the first generation, it had a nicer interior and offered a V6 to broaden the lineup. It may have been on the same platform but it was extremely differentiated: no panels were shared, the ride/handling was dramatically different, the interior was much, much nicer, the powertrains were different…. To say it was a LeSabre with an Olds badge is very disingenuous.
I would agree. I guess I must have fallen into the “not your father’s Olds…” category. I was early 30s when I bought my 99 Intrigue and really would not have had any interest in any of the previous Olds models. The new lineup was really appealing to my wife and me. We had test driven an Alero too, but that was a little on the small side for family roadtrips. The Intrigue did not handle like the typical American car. It really did have a certain Euro feel to it even if Olds was going after Toyota and Honda.
The second generation Aurora was designed to be a replacement for the Olds 88, but at about the time it was to go into production Oldsmobile was scheduled for termination. So it became the Aurora.
I did own a 98 Aurora, and while an interesting car, I think that my 95 Riviera was better.
Well, yes and no. There was supposed to be an 88 replacement apparently, called the Antares, and a premium Aurora. These were merged onto one car. However, from what I’ve heard, Oldsmobile’s shutdown caught Olds project people by surprise. Despite the rumor mill having been churning for years, contemporary reports said that a lot of Olds people heard for the first time when they announced it at the third-gen Bravada’s launch.
It seemed to be a rather hasty decision as the second-gen Aurora was only sold for three model years. Maybe GM was taking baby steps by merging Aurora/Antares, but one would think they would have just frozen development of the second-gen Aurora and third-gen Bravada entirely if Olds’ termination was scheduled early in the decade/late in the previous decade.
I don’t know any inside information, but I do know that the Bonneville and LeSabre were moved to the short wheel base G-body for the 2000 model year. The 1999 Olds 88 would have ended production too. A replacement for the 88 should have been a short wheel base G-body. I would have thought a second generation Aurora would remain on the long wheelbase G-body. Otherwise, what would be the point of the Antares?
My opinion is that when GM’s top management decided that Buick should become an “American Sedan” while Oldsmobile’s should become “European Sedans”, they (upper management) probably were thinking that one of the two divisions had to go. Now it is probably true that no one actually said so out loud.
I like the styling of the Intrigue very much, and I’ve heard that of all the W-bodies, these were the best in terms of dynamics and mechanicals. I think this car signifies a problem with GM during the 90s though, forget the import buyers and the Japanese brands for one second. When you have several different versions of car that are all based on the same platform, and the best out of those examples is Oldsmobile, a brand that lost all cachet and prestige by the time this car came out, that’s a bad sign. While I mourn the loss of Oldsmobile, I can’t change history and bring them back or go back in time and prevent the factors that led to its downfall from happening. But, I will say, that Oldsmobile was one of the few brands to go out with a sense of dignity in its final product line. When you look at their cars, for the most part, not all of them were shameless rebadges (Unlike Plymouth and Mercury), and they didn’t languish on longer than necessary when their time was called (Unlike Pontiac, and eventually Buick if they don’t get their act together)
I absolutely agree with you except your last point on Buick. I wouldn’t say any of Buick’s lineup has been languishing this decade. The Lacrosse, Enclave and Regal received fairly extensive mid-cycle enhancements, and all three will be replaced over the next year. The Verano’s sales have been falling quite sharply (although Regal has rebounded somewhat) but it is also due for replacement soon too. GM’s product cycles seem to be getting shorter and shorter. And I doubt Buick is in any danger anymore of getting the axe considering how Buick US/Buick China/Opel are consolidating so much.
Car vs. train has long been a theme used in automobile advertising. The goal has always to get some of the glamour, mystique, strength and power of the train to rub off onto the car. In the earlier days of the auto, merely being able to keep up with the train was an achievement.
And here is where the Intrigue/train ad failed, IMO. Although you never see the name on the train, it’s obviously Amtrak. That association doesn’t really help sell the car — especially a car that was supposed to be an import fighter. Even many people who like long distance trains will acknowledge that Amtrak is a half baked attempt at something the Europeans and the Japanese do a lot better. Seeing an Amtrak train gets the viewer thinking about American mediocrity. It would have been better to have the Intrigue pacing a TGV through the French countryside, or something like that,
I was quite impressed with the styling of these when they came out. Then, a year later, the Alero came out looking almost exactly like it, except smaller. While they’re both attractive cars and it did a fantastic job of establishing a brand identity, I wonder if that was a mistake as a casual observer would probably have trouble telling them apart unless parked side by side.
In 1997, I needed to replace a 14 year old Cutlass Supreme. I couldn’t wait any longer for the A/C went bust and the rear seal was leaking a quart of oil per 500 miles. I ended up buying a new Camry.
If the Cutlass had lasted another year, I would have bought the Intrigue because I was very impressed with its design when it debuted in 1998. In the long run, maybe it was better to get the Camry.
I would have gotten a Regal at the end of ’98 when I smashed the front of my beloved ’88 Bonneville, but there was no comfortable place for my left foot. I got an early 3.5 GL for $23k that they shipped from the next state because I wanted cloth seats. Said seats were quite comfortable once I slapped a knit cap above the lumbar bulge.
My only engine problem in 9 years and 130k+ miles was a crank position sensor. Because of the gearing, it was sluggish at 55-60, but once at 65 it liked to keep going. Amazing I got only one ticket in it, but it was an 80 in a 55 zone. Brake pulsing and the intermediate steering shaft clunk were recurring irritations, and it ruined two batteries. The firm ride was tiresome on our old roads, so it was replaced by a 3 y.o. 04 Deville when the A/C started to go. No way I was going to shell out even $500 to fix it after years of niggling problems.
“Olds made the best cars when they were cancelled”
No, GM built the cars, Olds wasn’t an independent company. This trope has been beaten to death. If “so great”, where were the buyers? No way were any “import intenders” going to set foot in their Grandparent’s favorite car dealer. Only if Saturn got Olds’ “great products”? Maybe, but BK would have killed it still.
And what was the big deal about the styling? Intrigue could have been a Pontiac or Chevy. The whole “mid-lux brand hierarchy” ended with boxy Centurys/Cieras sold cheaply. Buick now is just CUV’s and who cares?
” Fantastic but decidedly unimport-like H-body Eighty-Eight.” The ’86 H-body Olds was replete with Oldsmobile styling cues, along with sportier looks than its cousin, the Buick Le Sabre. GM could have done the same thing with the Intrigue (renamed the Ciera in this scenario). This Ciera (replete with traditional Olds styling cues) would be a sportier version of the Century. Such a car would have appealed to Old’s traditional base while garnering attention from import buyers. Oldsmobile could then have successfully squared off against the Accord and Camry- by returning to its traditional spot in GMs line up, as a sportier Buick.
I had a comment here today that disappeared.
Thanks for letting us know… it somehow got labeled as spam. It’s been restored now and is above.
A friend of mine got one of these super cheap in the mid 2000’s for his wife. They were in a rough spot and her car conked out. They had it for 5 or 6 years before someone rear ended it and totaled it. They both really liked the car and were sad to see it go. It gave them no major problems. I think at the time it was wrecked it only had one power window working though.
I’d forgotten that. One of my rear windows wouldn’t work for months at a time.
“I worked for a supplier to GM at this time and the big issue with the so-called High Feature DOHC V6 is that it cost as much to manufacture as an LS V8.
Of course there was no way to charge more or even an equivalent amount, so it caused considerable marketing problems, having a base/mid-level powertrain that cost more than the top option. The LS was a real winner for GM at that time, a great performance engine that was relatively cheap to manufacture.”
Here in a nutshell is why the US auto industry is on life support. So what if a good world class V6 costs more to build than your V8! make a little less profit on the V6 and get market share and have people buying your cars because they WANT them not because they are loyal or are getting rebates. I’m sure it costs Toyota almost as much to build a Corolla as it does a Camry but so what? The old GM knew this and that’s why they had 60% of the US market. The new management was only concerned with next quarters share price. Toyota never built mainstream cars that you could stare at all day, GM did. People desired Cutlass Supreme coupes, Park Aves and Firebirds, No one ever daydreamed about cruising the miracle mile in a Camry.
Not a bad looking car considering its DNA but it seems nobody wanted them they bought Camrys instead.
Wow over a hundred comments on what is a forgettable car. Maybe they sold better than indicated judging by the amount of people that has experience with them.
There seems to be three types of commentators. The first which owned the car and for the most part liked them. The second were those who drove as rentals, fleet cars etc and did not like them because they rattled and did not hold up well.
The third group are the fanbois. GM fanbois who think all this talk of poor quality is fake news and the Toyota\Hondas fanbois who think if it does not have a T or an H on the front then it is a POS.
I owned and did a lot of wrenching on a ’01 Intrigue with the LX-5 “short star” engine. My parents had bought it new and later downsized to a senior living place and one car. After about 12 years of ownership, they were both unable to drive. So, I bought it at about 50k mi. I went through all that had been somewhat neglected, other than oil changes. Dad had a transmission failure at 30k. Something not uncommon with that unit. I replaced the Int. steering shaft which was a chronic problem with them. Dorman made the original and was also the only part available. The usual electric window lift problems. I soon discovered that the Intrigue did not want to warm up, barely providing any engine heat until it was driven 10 or 15 miles. I vaguely recalled my parents complaining of that on the past, but they never had it checked out. I checked and discovered that there never had been a thermostat installed in the engine since new. At any rate after going through everything, it was a fine handling car and tight. The LX-5 has a nice mid-range power band with something on top. A couple of long road trips revealed a steady 30 mpg average @ 70 mph on E-O fuel.
The Bad: The LX-5 short star suffered from the same design common failure as the Caddy/Olds northstars. Terribly undersized cylinder head bolts that would strip out and spring. Not necessarily from overheating, either. The GM fix was an uber expensive Heli coil or timesert repair with the same terrible head bolts again. One specialty shop in Ontario and perhaps a few in the states came up with better, but very pricing fix using larger and slightly longer bolts. After all my work and getting attached to the Intrigue, I too spring the head bolts. In my case, it happened when I drove through a somewhat deep mud puddle. The water hitting the all-alloy engine made it do a metallurgical dance. That was a sad day.
I still drive and still in love with my 98 GLX. Call her Edna but shes the most faithful car I have ever owned. At 70 I have owned a lot of cars, and this Olds is outstanding. .
If this is the last car I ever own. Great, but I will never buy another GM product. Chevys and Over hyped golf carts er Buick don’t appeal. GM also swept their history away. Who taught Buick how to build cars, Olds, who put the first chrome on a car, Olds. First auto transmission, Olds, first muscle car, Olds…..Buick?…………….. waiting…….