Faults:
Panel on the left rear door keeps popping out.
Rear right turn signal sometimes stops due to a loose connection.
Rear left window sometimes refuses to go down.
Carpeting under the rear seats comes loose and sometimes out from under them altogether.
General Comments:
I was very excited when I first bought this car due to the failures and disappointments of my previous one. I did not know what to expect from it though. What I quickly realized though is that this car is not at all disappointing.
The 205 horsepower on the engine moves this car along and gives it appreciable speed. It would be a lot quicker were it not for the very wide first gear. Despite this it is still quick enough to be far from slow by any means.
The car is extremely dependable. I've sometimes abused it by accidentally underestimating its capabilities, but it still runs just like it did when I bought it and hasn't had any engine malfunctions yet.
The gas economy on the car is great considering what it is. I average 22 miles per gallon with city driving. I don't drive it very conservatively either.
The only annoying thing about this car is the fact that the wiring is sub-par (window and turn signal problems) and the carpeting is coming loose in multiple places. But other than these cosmetic shortcomings the car itself is great. The things that would make this car perfect would be better wiring, better carpeting, a little more horsepower, and a less wide first gear.
3rd Aug 2007, 18:32
Unfortunately this car proved to be much less reliable than it was when I first reviewed it. Several problems with the car's engineering lead it to eventually throw a rod. The first of which was a loose bolt at the junction block which caused the power on the car to sporadically and completely die.
I mismanaged the situation and when the power did cut on I accidentally neutral dropped the car which ruined the transmission. However, this would not have happened if the bolts were installed properly to begin with.
What lead to the car's demise was the fact that the 3800 series engine uses PLASTIC intake manifolds. This was a terrible corner to be cut on Oldsmobile's part for the intake manifold developed a hole and engine coolant leaked into the cylinders. I paid a hefty price to get the car repaired, however it died a week afterward because the oil in it was contaminated.
The car lived for 120,000 miles, which I suppose isn't TOO bad, however with today's competition from overseas, 120k is unacceptable. Japanese cars hit 250,000 miles on a regular basis.
Were Oldsmobile not so cheap in the design of this car, it may have survived even longer...