Most of you can’t probably remember where you were or what you were doing on April 29, 2004. I can.
As an auto enthusiast , I felt bad that I had missed the birth of the Olds Motor Works in 1903 , but I’d be damned if I was going to miss its death. I sat by the computer all day that day and watched the features and eulogies for what was then America’s oldest nameplate. Then I watched the final Alero GLS roll off the line. Just like that, history turned a page, and Olds began the trip to the GM corporate graveyard. But the end had already come over a year earlier for today’s Curbside Classic. The Oldsmobile Aurora was the final spasm of a dying marque, and some say it was one of its best. We’re not here to bury the Aurora, just to praise it.
Olds had been in terminal decline since the brand’s high water mark of over 1.1 million units in 1985. Remember, there was no Lexus, no Acura, no Infiniti in those days. The near luxury market was populated by lots of GM metal that was fat and happy, and resting on its laurels. A lot of the buy-up real estate was owned by the middle/upper divisions at GM. But a new wind was blowing from the east , and in its wake , there would be a seismic shift in America’s buying habits.
The combined Japanese/German axis had taken most of their conquest near luxury sales right from the sweet spot in GM’s corporate hierarchy. This set off a master alarm that even the most dullard management types on the fourteenth floor couldn’t pretend not to hear by the mid nineties. The mid-upper divisions were where the real money is, then and now. Costs could be spread over models both above and below the target price points, but price premiums were pure gravy. That’s why the Aurora was carrying the division’s hopes on its shoulders when it hit the showrooms in late 1994.
I think that GM already had a death wish for the Olds division for some time, and that the Aurora gives hints that it was not intended to be sold or developed as an Oldsmobile. There were no Olds badges glued to the outside of the 1st gen models. The only Olds logo was on the radio. Brand identity was lacking, to a substantial degree. Or maybe it was still part of that “This Is Not Your Father’s Oldsmobile” fiasco.
Olds had always been the mother ship’s guinea pig (we now call them “early adopters”) division . Innovations like Hydramatic , power steering and high compression ohv engines first found mass market application at Olds. So it was when GM ( tardily) perceived a threat from the upmarket imports from Japan. The Aurora was a belated response to the exquisite fit , finish and attention to detail that was winning “conquest” sales from the Big 3.
There was historical precedent for GM the experimental division of the company to craft a response to the growing threat. The first gen Aurora (1995 -1999, above) was a masterpiece of structural integrity, power, and mechanical reliability.
With styling directly derived from the Olds Tube Car concept of 1989, the new Aurora’s striking new design was unique, lean and powerful. There was literally nothing else on the road like it. With a buttery smooth Northstar derived 4 liter V8 , there was substance behind that style. Sharing a chassis and other bits with the Buick Riviera on a version of GM’s G-Body platform,, it seemed for a moment that GM finally “got it”.
Likewise the interior proved that GM could do a great job – when it wanted to. The first generation surrendered nothing to competitors when it came to the execution of a good design. It was second to none.
But it was all an illusion. After inexplicably skipping a Y2K model, the Aurora reappeared with an all new 2001 edition that added a 3.5L “Shortstar” V6 to the previously exclusive 4.0L V-8 engine (in a nod to rising fuel prices) and a new, shorter body and wheelbase.
The new look was a let down after the stunning 1st generation. The design was sanitized for our protection and cutting off a half foot (mostly in overhang) made the car look like GM’s hungry hippo. Olds also axed the full width taillight fascia that was such a distinguishing feature of the original.
The new Aurora was mechanically more refined and responsive, and more in keeping with the times, but the new “safe” corporate look was never going to woo buyers with the ransom demanded for the Aurora. There were cheaper alternatives for a predictable-looking sedan.
GM finally decided that Oldsmobile’s decline was irreversible and pulled the plug on its oldest division with a terse corporate announcement in December 2000 . Meanwhile , buyers that were considering an Olds worried about buying an orphan make and the death spiral began. Sales and resale value dropped immediately and dramatically as buyers wondered about warranty issues , parts and service for their soon-to-be orphan cars. Despite a steep near -$35K sticker when new, good used ones (with sub 100K on the clock) are now trading hands for less than $5000, if you find a motivated seller.
There are some ironies in the Aurora story that merit review. For one thing , GM then and now has been savaged for cynically badge engineering too many versions of the same basic car and muddying the image of each. Not with the original Aurora. There wasn’t an obvious corporate twin selling for thousands less in the same showroom.
Of course the first generation Aurora shared parts (mostly with the Buick Riviera, seen here) , but that wasn’t transparent, and by 2000, the long-tailed Riv was gone.
Another irony was the fact that Olds had shipped a lot of crap starting in the mid 80’s, but that did not include Aurora. This was a solidly built car, especially in its first iteration, and it speaks volumes that GM had to see its upmarket customers defect before building something this good. By the time the Aurora hit the market , the target buyer had moved on.
Finally, irony of ironies, just when GM had a car to be proud of in this niche, they mucked it up with an accountant’s redesign. The daring first generation gave way to a car that could have been assigned to any GM division and not looked too out of place. The 2nd generation was a fine car for what it was, but hardly in the image of what had been. No matter. Olds was dead and the Aurora will forever remind us of what might have been.
Never seen one of these but it looks good, Seems to be the trend the last model from dying companies is the best then gone, Shows that GM could build good cars when they bothered
In my mind, there was sim[ply no excuse at all for Oldsmobile to die. My dad fell in love with the F-85 mid-size in the mid-60’s, and, by extension, so did I. My friend and I absolutely drooled over the 1968 Cutlass 442 with the air scoops and all – what a stunning ride.
“Elephant Engine Ernie” was my hero! He still is…right behind Bugs Bunny.
The 1976 Cutlass? In spite of the hated opera window, those coupes were incredibly beautiful, especially with the rectangular headlights. The Aurora? Both the 1st & 2nd gens were great, especially the 1st gen “Robbie the Robot” tail light assembly. I even liked the Intrigue, as it was a lot more attractive than the Gran Prix. The Alero? I think it won an award for having the world’s largest tail lights. With a record like that, what happened?
April 29, 2004? I had finally recovered from all of my eye surgeries and was back at work, about to have my spring, summer and fall explode with business trips, and the beginning of my search for the Impala I would buy on May 29th!
What the murdering of Olds showed was, GM’s commitment to stupidity – to insulting the customers’ intelligence; and their own stupid, wrongheaded, decisions and trends.
The higher-end divisions of GM went into decline with the proliferation of “badge-engineering.” And all this nameplate-swapping while at the same time, having six or more different car lines and styles in Chevrolet stores. So, what to do? Why, prune back divisions! Their ain’t a dime’s worth of difference between any of them…they themselves, the New Suits, had seen to that. So, axe the brands…first Olds, then Pontiac.
Because, of course, everyone knows that we here at GM aren’t making money…because we have TOO MANY DEALERS!!! I guess they figured the high profit at some stores was coming straight out of The General’s bottom line – instead of benefiting both. Large, profitable dealer network equals losses – just ask Studebaker.
So, instead of returning to Alfred Sloan’s vision of GM, that of a car for every purse…the Really Smart Young Guys first badge-engineered the differences out of the brands; and then started executing them for being all the same. Just the way they made them.
Imagine if, instead, the problems at GM were taken by:
–Leaving the small cars over at Chevrolet; along with the Corvette as a “halo” car.
–Sending the performance models over to Pontiac.
–Buick and Olds could fight over what’s now called the “mid-size” market;
–Cadillac could make the land-barges.
And the SUVs would belong under the GMC moniker.
My guess is, all this brand-blending started in the 1970s when the costs of meeting government-required emissions.
The cost was fixed regardless of volume and that antitrust-lawyers in government had forbidden sharing or cooperating on efforts. That may have meant even across divisional lines, or GM’s suits may have thought it so. So…that being the case, why not a GM Engine division, to “buy” engines from? It attacks the problem while avoiding badge-engineering creep.
I’ve gotten a bit windy on this, but the issue remains: GM killed its own in the ultimate follow-through to its own mistakes, and continues on the same path of false premises. They’re going to rue the day they shuttered those dealers, aborted those brands…
You make some excellent points about branding. It wasnt just a GM thing, all of the Big 3 started cannibalizing each other, Poor Mercury got eaten alive by upmarket Fords and downmarket Lincolns. Poor Plymouth got taken out by an ambitious downmarket Dodge and then brought Chrysler (which had eaten De Soto) down into near entry level status. Too much inter-company competition, and making every division put out a car in every class. I could never really figure out the difference between an Oldsmobile 98 and a Buick Electra in concept. I mean I get Pontiac = sporty upmarket Chevy but what was the difference especially by the 70’s-80’s between Oldsmobile and Buick. The Chrysler Newport killed the DeSoto, and the Dodge Dart started pecking away at the Plymouth. In a way the dealer consolidation may work to bring about a more defined seperation of the makes, Now that Dodge and Chrysler share the floor it forces them to seperate them which they are trying to do now, Sporty vs. luxury. Cadillac is suposed to be German equivalent Luxury , while Buick is Japanese equivalent luxury, and Chevy is suposed to be what Honda/Toyota/Hyundai?
Here’s the thing: GM’s mid-price divisions had been actively and aggressively competing with each other throughout living memory, with occasional back-and-forth sniping with Chevrolet and Cadillac, as well. Buick’s spectacular sales performance in the early and mid-fifties, for instance, was achieved by positioning the Special down in the thick of Olds and Pontiac territory.
the fifties, the B-O-P divisions commanded a combined total of about 1.2 million units, something like 20% of the entire U.S. market. Even in their best years, Mercury, Dodge, and DeSoto might approach the volume of the weakest of that trio (which, before Bunkie Knudsen, was frequently Pontiac); they couldn’t match the brand value or, significantly, the dealer base. Each of the B-O-P brands had a large, strong dealer base with significant buyer loyalty (which is why each brand kept getting its own version of every product). and none of their nominal direct competitors was really a rival. Honestly, the biggest threat was Chevy and Ford, with models like the Impala and the LTD. Even in the seventies, when the corporation began imposing a much greater degree of commonality than they had before, it didn’t seem to hurt their market share at all.
From that standpoint, internecine rivalry and cannibalization really hadn’t done GM any harm in the past. The problem was their ability to compete with the Germans and the Japanese, which previously Detroit hadn’t really taken seriously. At that point, GM was caught with three, four, five, or six variations on the same products, none of which was really competitive with the emerging rivals.
I grew up in an Oldsmobile family and I will always remember my Cutlass (1987 last of the RWD sedans.) The Aurora is the last new car I can recall my dad being truly EXCITED about – that got his blood pumping. I think both generations are beautiful and I’ve always been suprized how much more reliable the 4.0 Northstar derived engine seemed to be then the actual 4.6ltr Northstar.
What killed the “Shortstar V6”? I recall that GM dropped a huge chunk of change on that development program and then they hardly used the engine at all.
We need to extend an invitation to Doctor Olds next time someone sees him show up on TTAC. He needs to be here, too!
Yeah – the Aurora was a stunner, indeed. I wish I could have owned one back then.
You mention you grew up in an Oldsmobile family, brand loyalty is an interesting concept to me. My family was never particularly loyal to one brand although there was repeated purchase of Fords and Chevys, which really goes against the concept of brand loyalty. We did have a 62 Oldsmobile 88 from 1984-1990 or so which probably did more to turn me into an old car nut than anything else. I was Lincoln loyal for a while had classic lincolns then Town Cars, LS, Aviator but have moved on to Chrysler. But my In laws have a decent 95 Olds Cutlass Supreme sedan with the groovy wraparound backlight(kinda like a giant Saturn), they bought it about 3 years ago with like 60k miles on it and it just plugs along, most of the accessories no longer work but the powertrain is strong and it is a really comfortable car- the ride is so so, not like I remember classic Oldsmobiles. 90’s cars are starting to grow on me as fascinating aero-futurustic sort of things in contrast to todays heavy handed high hooded high trunked small windowed cars.
@ EducatorDan
The Shortstar died because GM had a better engine coming down the pike, the high feature 3.6. The Shortstar had less horsepower, 215 IIRC, and lower fuel economy.
The first generation car is a real stunner. Destined to be a classic if anyone remembers it in twenty years. While the second generation is probably a better car it doesn’t get any passionate feelings from me one way or another.
I won’t go into a huge post-mortem of GM since the reasons are well know but I must chime in on one point: the Aurora was hardly what I would call reliable. I base this observation on having worked as a Service Advisor at a Chevrolet-Oldsmobile dealership. The cars had loads of problems and did not age well. The proof? Well, how many are there left on the road? There are loads of early Lexus and Acura cars on the road but hardly any Auroras left.
Some notable problems:
-Strut mounts were finished one second after the warranty was up and the entire unit had to be replaced. Both sides was like $2000 all in. If you bitched enough there was a one year secret warranty.
-The Northstar was infamous for oil leaks because of crappy and/or no gaskets. Your driveway would be a mess one km after the warranty was up.
-A/C was a nightmare on these cars.
-Electrics broke with alacrity due to their ancient design.
-Steering racks failed regularly. The main symptom was no assist turning left. Common to all GM cars of the era and Aurora was all parts-bin GM anyway.
-Starter failures were rife and replacement was like a ten hour job.
-The Northstar also featured GM’s WONDERFUL intake manifold gasket, designed to fail at 60,0001 km or 36 months 1 second and get the service department a dozen hours of retail labour. The district manager told me this personally and was well known in GM circles.
This car was such a typically horrible GM POS there is no reason to go on here but suffice to say that practically NONE of the first Aurora buyers bought a second one. The either passed on to the nether world or went to Lexus and Acura.
I feel better now after my rant but imagine telling a well-to-do older gent that his expensive car was going to need big money repairs with like 37,000 km on it. More than a few told me they were going to buy Japanese. You’d get big retail out of Aurora owners ONCE and then they’d trade the cars on a Lexus and eat their HUGE loss. A four year old Aurora was worth like 1/3 the transaction price because everyone in the industry knew they were crap.
Wow they really do engineer cars to fail right at warranty expiration? Thats incredible I thought it was just a “It sure seems like” sort of thing I didnt know it was actual policy. That is so short sighted, I peronally have never owned a GM car, and the last one my family had was an 84 Cadillac, and an 85 Camaro. Drove the wheels of the Camaro but the Cadillac died at 10 years and less than a 100k miles. Wow, will make my “no one sets out to design a bad car sentiment” seem really naive. Guess thats why my Dad now drives a 03 Mazda with a gazillion miles on it. Best car he has ever owned from a reliability standpoint, but to befair it’s the only car he has ever changed the oil on in 46 years of car ownership.
Yes, cars, GM and Chrysler anyway, are designed to fall apart right after the warranty was up. This became particularly true when CAD came into the system. Parts could be designed to fault at precise intervals, saving money in manufacturing and making for fat retail labour for stealerships.
The Camaro was one of the worst pieces of junk I have ever had the displeasure of meeting, btw. Horrible cars. Imagine the stress of dealing with people who swore GM Was The Greatest Company on Earth watching their $35,000 Z-28 disintegrate before their eyes, when they still had two or more years on the note. We were, as service people, trained to steer irate customers to the sales department to buy a new car instead of fixing their old one. That strategy only works for so long and GM’s belly-upism was the result. It was 100% about awful, decrepit product, unadulterated junkola. The Japanese were not spiking our water. Fortunately who spouted that nonsense are now in the Other World and their GM trash has been recycled as Hondas. Oh the irony!
My sister in law had a 96 Camaro Z28 that was ALWAYS in the shop, Im sure it didnt last throught the note. The 85 IROC we had was fairly strong, never had any real problems although it was a T-Top that someone converted into a Targa so it leaked like a sieve. Luckily the interior was all black so it always looked real sharp even though it was dank most of the time. The car would get stolen all the time(3 different times!) until my Dad gave up and had the IROC wheels replaced with RS wheels and then nobody touched it anymore. Traded it in for an 87 Town Car.
I always consider an Aurora as the next random used car, but a quick glance at carsurvey.com and all of the hell stories about it scare me away. Most owners decry it as a fatal beauty, with all of the faults canuklehead lists above.
It’s odd because it doesn’t seem that the concurrent Rivieras have as bad as a legacy (by using the 3800?).
I know EXACTLY of what I speak; I was the one who was on the receiving end of irate, portly old men who invariably wore white belts and shoes.
Alas, they, like their cars, are now gone.
The Riv never sold in any numbers and this probably accounts for the data.
Finally, if you want a good used near luxury car, look for a clean, low mileage Acura or Lexus. Take some time and when you see a good one, snap it up. I got a 2000 TL with 65,000 km on it last year for $8,000 ($8400 US dollars) and it is a great ride. Just make sure the transmission was replaced under warranty after 2006. Mine was and no problems.
Current ride is a 1981 Mercedes 280E, which was an emotion/familiarity purchase after being given a 1982 300D Turbo that was not long for this world (the adage that W123s last forever *if* you take care of them was never so true). Being the bay area all of the Diesels are overpriced, and I scored an excellent deal because no one wants a gas one.
So knock on (early mileage, I replaced all the rubber bits) wood I won’t be looking for another 18-24 months. And at that point I might indulge my Corvair fantasy finally. Or look for the last elderly woman holding onto a 1999 Olds Eighty Eight.
I know of a few Auroras that have well over 100k and run and drive fine.
They are good cars and ahead of their time in the mid 90s IMHO.
As with any car , maintenance and care is critical , but I have not even heard of some of the defects you talk of. I am pretty knowledgeable in Olds stuff and am curious, not trying to insult you.
Seems GM has not been good to you.
The Aurora and the Riviera were really sharp cars- especially the Aurora-I love how Curbside Classics gives every car a fair shake, automobiles like any designed object represent alot of peoples hard work and even if it doesnt work out or sell a million copies or save the company I don’t think the designers went in thinking how can I do a bad job. They all represent the best effort under the circumstances of the time and the enthusiasm of everyone here for what seems like every single car I hope is some small consolation.
There is a Maaco comercial running right now and it has some teenager all excited about the repaint of his turn of the century Riviera(Which makes me feel old as I have a hard time thnking of any late 90’s or early 00’s car as “old” but a I guess it is gonna happen when you are born 40.) I think they are implying that it will breathe life into your old car. I did some work for a guy in the late 90’s who had one of those Riviera’s in eggplant. After the disasterous downsizing of GM cars in the 80’s it was really something to see them return to larger cars in the 90’s with cars like the Aurora and the Riviera/Park Avenue it looked like they could have really turned things around but I guess in many ways it was too little too late.
Scott, the major issue GM had in this era was costs; their legacy costs (among other things) crippled their ability to make really good stuff. The result of this was there was not really enough extra content an Aurora to make it worth the asking price. It was all GM parts bin stuff. There is a reason to go from a Toyota to a Lexus or (even more reason) to go from a Honda to an Acura. Added to this was the horrible culture GM had at the time, “If we build it, they will buy it.” They really did think they made good cars but when I talked to my zone rep one day, he proudly told me he had, and never would, drive a Japanese car. The results speak for themselves.
“…the major issue GM had in this era was costs; their legacy costs (among other things) crippled their ability to make really good stuff.”
Agreed.
It will be interesting to see if GM and Chrysler start making better stuff now that their legacy costs have been reduced by the “cleansing effects of bankruptcy”, and now that the Japanese are hit by rising costs due to the strong Yen as well as falling revenues due to their inability to manage risk in their supply chain (e.g., not qualifying second sources for critical components that lead to them loosing production capacity for longer than they should after the tsunami).
The perceived quality of cars like the Focus, Cruze, and Elantra seems to be a cut above previous class leaders like the Corolla and Civic, but we won’t see how any of the new cars hold up in the long run for a few years.
canucklehead, I wish you would speak about the Cadillac CTS – I just bought a 2005 with the 3.6, and your insight on what I have to look forward to would be welcome.
The first generation Aurora was a beautiful (for the times anyway) car, an “executive car”, even, at least in terms of looks. A couple of senior executives at the company where I worked, too old for the BMW 3 – or 5-series demographic I guess but not yet ready for a Deville or Town Car, had them, and they always looked nice. (This ignores the service issues, I admit.)
The second generation, like so many other GM offerings, looked like it should have come from the factory with “Avis” stamped all over it.
My carpool driver’s dad was an Oldsmobile fanatic whose meticulously maintained 1987 Cutlass Ciera repaid his concern by mixing its water and oil at around 60,000 miles. So what did he do, but go out and buy another Oldsmobile, a 1990 or so horrible little crapwagon with manual windows and an Iron Lump (Olds called it Iron Duke) motor. I got to ride a lot in both of these pos’s because each of them got passed on to my driver when dad was sick of them. The Ciera was actually fairly reliable with its second engine, but became a yard ornament when enough switchgear and such had failed. The little four-banger sedan was a serial road lubricator.
I thought that it was entirely fitting that the last Oldsmobile was an Alero, because my workplace had thirty or so of them courtesy of GSA, and it seemed that nearly every other one I saw belonged to Mr. Hertz or Mrs. Avis, cementing the image of Oldsmobiles as cars that were rented or donated rather than bought.
Sorry to have nothing to say about the feature car…as you may have guessed from the above I wasn’t looking at Oldsmobiles much in those years.
sorry to hear about the bad experience you had with Olds.
… as a way of perspective I’ve owned several and most of them were very reliable and ran well and stayed together for a long time ; 84 Cutlass180k, 86 Ciera150k, 85 Cutlass165k miles to name a few examples … that were good to me right up to that point .
To be fair I’m a Olds fan and I do have one that has been problematic for some time now : 91 98 130k miles.
The one thing I remember about the early Aurora (and its Riviera platform mate) was how GM engineered the body to a certain frequency which supposedly resulted in an ultra-stiff structure. This was supposedly the Mercedes-Benz secret unlocked, but I never heard a peep about this design philopsophy after the Aurora came out.
I too kind of liked the Aurora, but was also scared away by the horror stories about their maintenance and repair. If a guy wanted a big GM sedan, the Park Avenues with the 3800 seemed a better bet. I always thought that it was a mistake to mess with the Oldsmobile Rocket logo. There was nothing wrong with the logo, it was the CARS!
I remember that from 97-2001 I owned an 84 98 Regency 2 door. About the summer of 2001, I finally gave up and went to an Oldsmobile dealer to try to get the automatic temp control working after it started blowing 150 degree air at me. The dealer had been a really big Olds dealer with a Nissan sideline. But by 01, the Olds service facility had been moved to the little adjunct outbuilding while Nissan got the big first-class area. It was really sad, remembering the huge gleaming Oldsmobile dealerships of my youth.
Wow an 84 98 Regency coupe, sharp ride! Now I love Oldsmobiles and Buicks but didnt totally get the difference between the top line models they seemed like a lateral move rather than a move up, but then maybe a Buick owner would object to that. My wife’s first car was an 80’s Ciera, she has very fond memories of it, when my folks DeVille was in the shop they loaned us an 84 Delta 88 and my Dad really liked it, but then they had just bought the DeVille for my Mom, and we didnt really need to replace his car. It was maroon, with maroon velour upholstery(same as my wifes car actually, seemed like most Oldsmobiles were red or maroon and most Buicks were blue or silver so maybe that was the diference!). My godmother swears by Buicks’s, bought her first one in 1953, and her latest ride is a 2003 Lesabre. They even sent her a letter thanking her for her repeat business.
A manager where I work had a 1st gen Aurora. He said he liked driving the car, but got rid of it because repairs were starting to get frequent and expensive. His next car was a Volvo. I think he may have bought a second Volvo after that; currently he has a BMW. That agrees well with the article and followup comments on how Olds dropped the ball and where their customers went.
“New car?” I parked my 2000 Jade Green Chevy Malibu at home and picked up a 2000 Jade Green Aurora from one of the Las Vegas Rental fleets (Alamo?). It was the same dash with 2 inch inserts on each side between the dash and the door.
My local Olds dealer insulted me telling all that was wrong with my 105K Buick and how he could NOT give me ANY trade allowance. No duh, Sherlock. Why did you think I wanted a new car? The Chevrolet dealer was excellent even offering warranty assistance when I moved to Las Vegas 3 years later.
The Olds dealer ceased to exist because of lack of service. I would to this day do business with the Chevrolet dealer again in a moment.
There is no resemblance between an Aurora dashboard and a Malibu dashboard.
There is also no such thing as a 2000 Aurora.
I’m a fan of these cars, and have toyed with buying one several times, but as mentioned they suffer from poor reliability.
I personally wouldn’t mind that so much, but I’ve also read that parts are costly and they are much harder to DIY on than most non-Cadillac GM vehicles of that era.
I think I like the Intrigue and Riv more anyway.
The moment of Oldsmobile death IMHO was the launch of the Saturn division. What was the point of creating an entirely new dealer network only to sell the car that should have been the new Firenza? Those gen1 saturns were 3/5 scale W body Cutlasses, and the 1st gen Aurora was just more of the same styling. And BTW these 2nd gen Auroras just looked too much like Tauruses from the back.
One of these days I’m gonna get that bug!
The secind generation Aurora wasn’t really an Aurora. it was originally meant to be an Eighty-Eight. After the Riviera was axed, the Aurora alone didn’t justify the platform, so GM killed it, and took the car intended to be the Eighty-Eight, improved its appointments a little bit and increased its sticker price a lot, and called it an Aurora.
It does not surprise me that very few customers fell for this shameless maneuver. As I recall, the second-gen Aurora stickered within pocket change of a base DeVille, but looked outside, and especially inside, more like the midmarket Eighty-Eight it really was except for badging. And if you bought the Cadillac, you got a real Northstar, not its baby sister.
I remember the first time that I saw a first generation Aurora, NOV 1996. I was so impressed that I purchased a 1997 Black exterior / Black interior from the local Cadillac/Oldsmobile dealer. I also purchased an extended GM warranty.
This was my first GM car; my prior car was a 1988 Lincoln LSC, also Black / Black. Prior cars were Cougar XR-7s (1967, 1969 and 1973) so this Aurora was a “conquest” sale for GM.
All service was done at the dealership. The mechanic who worked on my car, Tony, was specially trained for the Aurora and was a very good mechanic.
The first five years were great, no problems. The only challenge was that the car needed to aligned on a Hunter GSP9700 to ensure a smooth ride over 65mph.
But then the engine started to leak oil. The dealership recommended that the seals be replaced. The engine rebuild lasted last than a month. It turns out that the aluminum block became brittle. The service manager convinced GM that I should receive a new engine because I had complete service records and all service was done by the dealer.
Two months later the radiator started to leak. GM replaced the radiator under warranty.
However at 77,500 I decide to sell the Aurora.
My replacement car? I wanted to give the dealer a chance for my business, but I did not care for the 2nd generation Aurora or the Cadillac Seville.
I ended up with a 2004 Audi A6 Avant Quattro, also Black on Black. It is the best car that I have ever owned.
Forbes article: ” Oldsmobile’s Last Car”
http://www.forbes.com/2000/12/29/1229flint.html
Interview: John Rock, Oldsmobile General Manager
http://www.motortrend.com/classic/features/c12_0606_john_rock_general_motors/index.html
I just returned from Canada, and saw one of these on the highway and thought, “That would be a perfect car for a Curbside Classic article!”.
I remember loving the first Aurora when it debuted, but, as others have noted, it was rife with problems. The car simply did not age very well. I was a member of the Oldsmobile Club of America at the time, and members who had the car experienced problems with the air conditioning and the transmission around 50,000 miles that resulted in four-digit repair bills for each.
Two minor nitpicks – the Oldsmobile division dated to 1897, not 1903. It celebrated its centennial in August 1997. And power steering first debuted on the 1951 Chrysler. The first GM car to receive it was the 1952 Cadillac, if I recall correctly. It was developed by GM in the 1930s for the big Cadillacs, but shelved because of the cost. After the war, the GM patents expired, so Chrysler introduced power steering.
I never thought of this car as an Aurora. It is an Antares. It was to occupy the space between the Intrigue and the Aurora, similar to the Chrysler 300M and LHS to the Concorde. It was also be to sold in the Euro markets (note the rear fogs) alongside the Chevy Alero (not a typo). What really bugged me was that the front end looked similar to the GM10 Grand Prix.
Yeah, the Antares was supposed to be a direct replacement for the Eighty Eight, and followed the practice that it used a shortened G Chassis (Shared with the then New Bonneville and Buick LeSabre). That the old Eighty Eight H body followed as a shortened version of the FWD C bodies.
I always wondered what the sketches of the planned Aurora that was scrapped looked like.
I’ve had both Auroras. I got one of the first 15,000 off the line in 1995. It was a rock solid ride, but needed the real Northstar to be a great performer…but of course Cadillac would not allow that. I got rid of it in 1997 when I went overseas, but never had a problem.
I got a 2001 in June of 2000 and the odometer just tipped over 90,000 miles. I drove it for 2 years and put almost 40,000 miles on it and then my wife took it over. I’ve had 2 crank sensors go bad (in the first 2 years) and replaced the water pump 2 years ago. Other than the heated seats going out, I’ve only had to replace tires, brakes, struts and shocks. It still runs great and we’ll have it until it drops, or the motor grenades.
It’s a nice car, rides well, gets 25mpg on the highway and best of all it’s paid for. Sure, it’s not in the class of a Lexus, but try working for a Big 3 supplier in Detroit and driving about in one.
One of the most distinguishing features of the Aurora was it was one of the few (if not the only) domestic car to come with rear fog lights. It’s an easy way to tell an Aurora from the rear because most of their drivers mindlessly tool around with the bright rear fogs on all the time, regardless of the weather.
It’s a shame American drivers are such morons about using fog/driving lights, in general. They’re actually quite a useful feature (if used properly, that is).
I concur with everything Canucklehead said above. I worked at three different Chevrolet / Olds dealerships over the years and the first-gen Auroras were absolute garbage. Oil / coolant leaks, electrical problems, glitches with the climate control systems. They were a mess.
One other thing on badge engineering. Cadillac’s decline began in 1971 with the significant cheapening of its Fleetwood and Deville models over previous years. When Chevrolet introduced the posh Caprice Classic, paying the extra cash for the Caddy made little sense for a savvy buyer. You were paying for the name and little else.
I was pissed ! having just bought a 99 Aurora, Sterling Silver with Charcoal leather.The first announcement cost $5 grand in depreciation. When the hommies stole it from in front of my now wife’s house in Detroit in 2003 it had lost another $7 grand. But it remains my favorite of all the cars I have owned(which includes a 97 Mercedes S 420). When I last saw it It had been detailed, it only had 37,000 miles and was immaculate. I also had a wood dash,chrome exhaust & HIDs installed. Detroit was getting full of 95s & 96s for cheap and when I drove it she got plenty of eyeballs. When the police found her it was nothing but a shell, not a part left. That’s how my relationship with GM is… Not A Part Left!
Same thing happened to my 1987 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme when it was stolen during Thanksgiving weekend of 2000, in Southfield, MI. The shell was found right around Christmas.
I have to agree with a few of you – Gen 2 was a much better looking car; at least Olds had added some sort of ‘face’ as opposed to Gen I’s grill-less look….GM learned the same lesson that Infinity did with the original Q45.
The first Aurora was a sharp car, as was the Intrigue. Too bad they were built like crap and were the poster children for what a disaster the Zarrella era was at GM.
I rented a 2001 Aurora V6 and while it looked nice and seats felt good, the car still was too ‘Cutlass Ciera’ to me. It drove and floated just like the ’92 Ciera I rented for a week long trip in LA, which screamed ‘rental’ on Hollywood Blvd!
BTW, one other reason the Shortstar V6 was killed was emissions regs. GM didn’t want to spend $$ to update it.
The 1995 -1999 is amazing, simply stunning… exterior, interior, those frameless doors, standard V8… only thing wrong would be FWD but with all of the above I could live with it. I’d like one so much…
bought a 2002 aurora brand new in fall of 2001. change the oil and followed all the maintenance in the owners manual. loved it from the beginning and when my daughter graduated university I offered to get her a 2012 CTS of her choice. (Not the V models). instead she wanted the aurora. it is fully loaded with the 4.0. has 200,000km and looks like brand new. I bought the 2012 CTS coupe for myself and it’s a great car but I sure miss the Aurora. I love the large gm cars and will be purchasing the new cadillac xts in the new year. Also have a 76 Coupe de Ville with the 501. Only 16,000 miles. now that was a big car. It’s all original and will never sell it.
I just purchased a 2002 a few months ago with just over 81,000 miles. I was extatic when I found it online and snapped it up less than a week after it was put online. So far, my only complaint is the air pump. I think the dealer tampered with it so that it wouldn’t be noticeable during test drive but a day after owning the vehicle, the light came on. I was livid, but a $150 part beats what the 2001 Taurus’s needed that I traded for this car. There are some scratches that bug me, the cup holder makes annoying noises and my gas gauge isnt accurate. The speaker system isn’t anything special and on my list of upgrades. Unlike this post, I find the 2nd gen about twice as good looking compared to the first. I find the 1st anything but attractive (from the outside) the inside doesn’t look a whole lot different than mine.
My outside temperature gauge kicks in when it’s wet and displays the temperature as negative. For a 2002, I think it was ahead of its time, while the rain sensing wipers aren’t perfect, they do work, rear fog lights are wonderful safety feature, and I really like the idea of side impact air bags. It does have everything and more than I need. The drive feels solid and the self leveling rear suspension is interesting. Mine works, not sure if its needed but it’s there.
My center console doesn’t match up perfect though, so i dont know what the story behind that is.… I could keep ranting, but an 02 w/ 80,000 miles sounded great to me, and that Ford is GONE.
I’m late to the party, but I bought my 01 Aurora in 2012 with 124K and still have it. $4000 and I feel it was a bit high, but looks better every day. 209,000 miles and still going strong. May need a crankshaft sensor soon. It comes and goes, but car always starts, just not always on the first turn of key. 3 Minutes is longest I’ve ever had to fool with it. And that felt like an eternity. Other than that, it has had an oil pressure sender and a camshaft sensor, a groundwire fixed and the coily thing in the steering wheel that makes the buttons all work. The headlights are awful in the car, but that is probably it’s weakest point. Looks good still, inside and out. Leather is worn, but not ripped or otherwise compromised. Soft surfaces are coming loose at edges, but not bad enough to look bad. This may have been GMs best effort then, and possibly still.
I did drive a similar year Caddy Seville recently and noticed that it is very much like the Aurora, from the driver’s seat. And the body design is still current enough. The front is a bit roundy, but the redesigned tail is very much like many other cars after it.
It will still get 27 mpg on highway trips and is a pretty big car for today’s standards. I have the V6, which has enough power to move out of it’s own way when needed. great car and a shame that GM axed Pontiac and Olds. The Aurora llived on in other platforms to a degree, but the original was an original.
Good write-up, but I’d have to disagree with the author on the point of the facelifted Aurora being visually inferior. While the design may not have been as daring, I think that it is an objectively better looking car. From the cleaner creases and less-frail looking headlights, the redesign just seems more modern, if nothing else. While the lack of full-width taillight may seem like a step backward, may I remind everyone that the middle of that taillight doesn’t even light up? All they removed was a pointless lump of plastic. If the whole thing lit up, (like on the Buick Park Avenue) that would be a different thing, but as-is, no major loss.