tlmart

It's hilarious that GM now has to move Saturn upmarket into where Olds used to be. I'm new here so forgive me if I'm beating a dead horse. If GM didn't like "Olds" as a name, they twice could have renamed the division while retaining the heritage. In the mid-80's, they seemed to be going down the road of switching to "Cutlass", as you had the Calais, Ciera, Cruiser, and Supreme. Of course, once they switched to FWD and went to the awful body cladding, the Cutlass name lost its luster. Then, of course, the "This is not your father's Oldsmobile" campaign, which will be taught for generations as the worst ad campaign in automotive history. Aurora was an opportunity for Olds to recover, it was a great car but they never could quite capitalize on it. I could have seen them using "Aurora" as a marque with the new Olds logo and have alphanumerics for model names. Sigh.

I have to say I'm surprised what good luck everyone has had with their Aleros. My wife had a 2000 Alero and it was embarrassing how poorly that car was put together. To say the interior plastics were cheap is an understatement. Fuel door never fit right, rear door leaked air like a wind tunnel, you couldn't keep a set of brakes on the car. At 72,000 miles, it blew a head gasket and the transmission started to go. :banghead: Having said this, the Alero, and the rest of Oldsmobile, had great styling at the end of their run. It's too bad that GM cheaped out on quality (maybe it got it right by your '04s?) However, GM provided Olds with some of the most idiotic marketing in memory and that killed it. I've lived all my life around Lansing and it hurt when they ended Olds.