Did you recently take on (or consider) a loan of 84 months or longer on a car purchase?
A reporter would like to speak with you about your experience; please reach out to PR@Edmunds.com by 7/25 for details.
A reporter would like to speak with you about your experience; please reach out to PR@Edmunds.com by 7/25 for details.
Options
Comments
I wonder what happened to my lovely 98 GLS; for it was not repurchased through the lemon law guidelines. My 99 GLS is in a holding pattern until I get the Fla condo broomed offically, furniture stored, and the wife back up to Mich. Her Caddy is semi-sold to a party going to Fla mid-Feb..I will get a Lincoln LS or a bloated Town Car w/suspension upgrade and larger engine.
b4z::::::::What are the plans for new condo???Its a shame if you have to spend time working!!!!Did you ever get your 3.5L so it starts on time , every time,and not just when it wants to run. My 3.5L is great; hate to brag, but let's rub it in.
The rest of the car sucks: doors, brakes, front end, and steering..Its a fun item for conversation though; and meeting other auto buffs who got shafted..
Interesting event which happened several months to an Intrigue owner who didn't like his car and I had to tell him that based on his problems he had no problems or not a leg to stand on in the complaint area..Car was totaled recently and no injuries.. Lease terminated!!!!
I believe the factory advises the dealer to decide whom they wish to defend.. To further shape the dealers vision/attitude some of the warranty claims are disavowed; charged back to the dealer instead.
Otherwords the honeymoon is over!!!! GM has made the decision to inform the public that Oldmobile cars are not selling well; and we are going to stop making them.. However to clean out our inventory of these troublemakers we will assume additional risk by offering an extended warranty. This peace offering is to smooze the public into buying a product that GM knows darn well is plagued with some screwed-up rapid wearing components.
Truthfully the 5/60 is an excellent deal and the rebates should get sweeter.
I am having a Charlie Brown moment. Arrghh.
dimensional 6 speaker cd systems.
My home system includes Sony ES and Mirage bipolar
and ported speakers. It sounds excellent and while i don't consider it to be a high end system i am extremely happy with it.
My question is, does the 6 speaker system sound right to you guys? It has good clarity and sounds good compared to most factory systems i have heard, but it does not have the tonal balance that my home system has.
It seems to boost some frequencies and cut others. Also the tone controls really effect a lot of the audio spectrum. What do y'all think?
Is the bose system an improvement?
Your thoughts would be appreciated.
While you are painting and sanding floors listen to music; and when you get into the car......... GOOOOO.
I tried the standard 6 speaker system and Bose, and I thought the Bose was a nice improvement sound pressure wise, but tonally I didn't hear a big improvement over the regular 6 speaker. Having the tweeters away from the midrange (and closer to your ears) on the Intrigue (like many cars) hurts left-right stereo imaging.
I just wanted to make sure i wasn't missing something.
Which Mirages are you running? My mains are m-3s that i bought in Jan. '92 before the si series came out. They were cosmetically damaged (unnoticeable) in shipping so i was able to buy them for $1500 instead of the retail of $2500!
That year I also purchased the center channel and a pair of Mirage M-260s for the rear.
My next purchase will be the paradigm 10" sub.
Although i really don't need anymore bass for music, Dolby Digital requires that i have that capability.
I bought a Sony ES receiver to replace my Sony ES Pro-Logic integrated amp about a year ago, and have enjoyed the improvement of AC3 and DTS.
I am also running a sony dvd player and a sony hifi vcr that i never use anymore since i went dvd.
I am embarrased to say that i have about 80 dvds in my collection.
Tell me about your home system and also your opinion of the mbquart speakers in the intrigue.
I have heard good things about them.
The car still does its "bog" deal when i try to start it. It will sometimes start then die immediately. It has never left me stranded though.
The MB Quarts are good, amazing highs, but in hindsight I probably could have got 95% of the performance for 30% cheaper. Put these or some nice Polks or high end Infinities in your doors and there is no need to change the rear speakers, just fade 90% to the front.
Thanks for comments. I was surprize to see someone say Nissan's would be busted out. I live far from the rust belt and here in Houston Texas your car will go obsolete before it rusts through, and even my Maryland born '88 shadow is testament to that -- and I've driven to Canada a few times to go skiing and had the car white with road salt. I'd say production techniques have greatly increased corrosion resistance - I'm old enough (like many) to remember the dark days when cars would rust 2-3 years from the show room in some cases. I'm talking old Nova's, Aspen's, degas, Gremlins, Thunder birds, well beck, about anything but especially italian or english cars and [non-permissible content removed] trucks. I don't even see that many newer Toyota trucks rusting through. But I digress.
On the Intrigue, I like the 8 way seats on both sides, so I guess that means leather. Now leather is popular down here, but I've never had it in a car before. Since it is so popular, it can't be that bad in the heat can it?? I'd guess it gets hotter and retains heat a bit longer than the fabric. Has anyone had a leather car for more than 6 years? I hold my cars a long time and wonder about if the sun would brutalize the leather in a few years. We'd have the car garaged most of the time, but the sun here is brutal.
I agree, the dual climate control is a big plus over the competitive cars in this segment, and I'm married. Impala has dual temp controls, but after using a car with climiate control, it makes sense - you wouldn't want to have to turn the ac on and off at home would you?
The PCS seems hard to find, except for a dealer that has about 3 loaded GLS's with the PCS system. Its a cool feature, and cheap. Too bad the dealer hacks no nothing about it. I have to tell them what it does. We obviously don't get snow (I miss it) but it would be good for when you or wife overcooks a turn and the car starts to plow.
I also noticed the headlights doing a brief near-blink while test driving, and others reported it. Called service of a dealership owned by GM and they said they hadn't had trouble with it, but the guy was honest enough when I asked of other troubles to mention the brake rotors and steering shaft. Wonder what the deal is wtih the lights. On the brakes, it would seem the Chevy's police style brakes would cross-fit, are the olds brakes the same or whimpier? Has anyone looked at that before?
I do my own car repair and between the maxima and the Intrigue, the olds looks much easier to work on. the intake plenium had to be removed to get to the rear spark plugs on the maxima!
RE; price - The GL well equipped and the Max sort of equipped are about the same, the max can be more expensive with all the goodies. Olds has more standard features, Nissan nickle and dimes you, makes you get sunroof with the wheels, etc. My buddy has one and uses regular gas because he's cheap, didn't know they required premium gas...hmmm...between that and the increased insurance and purchase price, it might be too much. Not to mention the 17" tires are very expensive on the SE...
Slope
Overall, both are good cars it seems, I can't decide.
Does the maxima require the timing belt to be changed like Honda? The intrigue does not. That should save you about $400 every 60,000 miles.
I am wondering if the Intrigue has the driver info system like the Chevy Impala and the Buick Le Sabre (Dad recently rented a Lesabre)? It tells you current MPG, avg, coolent temp, miles to oil change, etc. I asked the sales guy and he didn't know, looked on a cheat sheet and didn't know, I didn't see it on the car, but it was listed as a feature on edmonds's page I think although under a cryptic name.
Does anyone know if its on the car and how it is accessed? The cars I was test driving had the manuals pulled out, otherwise I would have looked. Its a pretty cool feature, even tells you if a tire is going down.
Slope
ps. on the Gran Prix pages they are saying that the GP is being tested with a blown 3.5 for future models!
I'm in Houston, Texas.
Slope
Personally I thought Texans had better judgement on car selection.. I am impressed with your comment about Impala brake rotors, police issue, and whether they would adapt to an Intrigue. The Intrigues brakes are pure junkkkkkkk, so be warned. I think you can figure out which car will serve you better over the next 10 to 15 yrs..you should be able to buy a $25,000 Intrigue for around $18,500; and maybe shake the saleman down for a couple hundred and hit the sales mgr for 50.00..
Over the past 13 years my driving mileage is probably close to 600k and sure was lucky to have stayed away from Oldsmobile for the first ten of those years!!!!
with......intrigue brakes!!! Because they are larger.
Talk about twilight zone truth is stranger than fiction stuff.
You will probably get your windows tinted.
A friend of mine says everybody has garages and carports down there due to the damage that the sun causes to peoples paint jobs and interiors.
I understand even the apartments have carports.
The intrigue is a 90 degree design and does have a balance shaft.
The accord is a 60 degree design and is inherently smoother than a 90 degree design. I do not know if the accord needs or has a balance shaft. The one i drove before i bought my intrigue was incredibly smooth. But lacked the low end toque of the 3.5L olds motor.
One thing I disagree with is 1415's assessment of Intrigue brakes. They are the best I have seen in any car in this class and are very well rated. The ABS works well as does the traction control. Maxima is a nice car also, so which ever you decide on I'm sure you will be happy. They were my two final choices also.
On the stereos -- I have what I consider a higher end but not a tweak home setup of carver 125x5 channel home theater amp, a new sherwood dts 5.1 receiver used a preamp, Polk 12a reference monitors (the big daddies about chest high on stands) and polk 300 center. No sub yet, saving for one, looking at the sunfire.
Stock Car radios, they all suck, even bose. Except for the Lexus iS300, it has a rocking stereo. I haven't been in all cars, but the one's weve been in have been pretty sucky. YMMV. Dunno personally what to do, I've had my clunker shadow broken into for my sony disk headunit, which was old and woudl hardly play a disk anymore and the display was half working. So, I hesitate to go again the full aftermarket route with allthe wiring and stuff. wheel controls are also nice on the OEM stuff. hard call, replacing the spearks is a step, but as I've foudn before its usually the head unit too that's at fault.
Bad news on the driver info center, the dang cheap chevy has that, and the magnabeam dash support, and a side air bag. Funny how GM let their divisions get so screwed up.
Funny how 1415 says he figured texans had better car selection -- didnot know if he was referring to my present beater or my choice, he cut down both the Olds and the Nissan it seemed. The dodge shadow is a clunker but at the time it was my first car and chevy similar was 4k more, the toyota was 5k more, etc. This has been a pocket rocket - not the fastest but for the money, a bargin. Problem has been headgaskets. Other than that and paint, I can't complain, original exhaust, waterpump, fuel pump, cv joints, etc.
Had to laugh about comments of road noise - if you rode in my car you'd know what road noise really is!!! I use ear plugs onlong trips. All these new cars sound really quiet to me! the Max is Avg, anyone know the DB rating of the olds at 60-70mph?
One thing about the max, I think it uses prem fuel, costs more to buy, more to insure. But it is a sweet car.
I'll post what I finally end up getting. The supercharged GTP is atractive too...but in Houston we don't need roughsuspension to go straight and flat!
Slope
bz4:::::::The GP crowd is really hard up to start looking at the Intrigue brakes for improvement/upgrade. Strange world..The Florida condo sale is bumping along--too many turkeys involved and I am hoping that the buyer walks at this stage..I could use a couple more months before a move..
All you car buffs keep your eye on the road and try to help "slope" pick out his next set of wheels..Sounds like we may be getting our chain yanked!!!
BTW. Maxima does use premium fuel.
One point about the leather seats... the lower cushion is about 2 or 3 inches longer in the leather interior... no kidding. If you have long thighs (I'm 6-3 and 165 lbs, mostly legs!) then you have a built-in excuse to pay the bucks for them. And, actually, I probably complain more about them being cold in the winter than hot in the summer. Believe me, our Oklahoma summers are as bad as Houston; just not as humid. Of course, our Intrigue has the light tan seats, so they probably don't get as hot as a darker color would; this may be something to take into consideration regardless of what you buy.
Certificates are being mailed out this month.
Good for 5 (yes five) years as long as you still own your current olds at time of purchase.
Good for $1500 on Olds or $1000 on ALL gm cars including SAAB and Saturn.
RE: getting another mopar - Well, it may sound funny to be looking at GM as a quality improvement, but I do think their motors are "generally" (specific engines) higher tech, and the transmissions for DC have been a major sore point. I also think they over-rate the HP on their newer motors, they don't seem to perform as well as you would calculate a car with that power to weight ratio would go. I've taken care of my car with mobil 1, doing my own service & repairs, but there's a reason you don't see as many shadows on the road as you used to - 3 head gaskets on mine. The neon is a fine handling car, but I'd get a focus ZTS, except my wife's preg and since you don't pay much of a MPG penalty with these new tech cars, I'm upgrading to a bigger and more comfortable ride!
Brakes: Funny how the mfg's drag thier feet and claim innocence of crappy brakes. You can still get drums on cars, why? cheap. Drums really suck, but they are cheap. Most mid 80's GM's (and others) had brakes that would barely stop a vehicle from 80 mph once w/o fading, they were engineered for minimum standards. Look at motorcycles if you want to see what technology can do. Huge, multipiston calipers (some with 6 pistons) floating disks, cross drilled. These are capable of hauling the bikes down from 150mph many times a lap w/o fading.
The shadow is beater but funny, back then Chrysler was trying to save money sourcing parts I think and put the same stuff on everything, vans, new yorkers, etc. I know as I have the service manual. The brakes on my '88 Shadow are big and ventilated, as they are beefy enough for a minivan in the front, rear are cheap drums, but it does stop like nobody's business. I doubt they do that now, may weigh too much or cost too much, but sure simplifed their parts bins no doubt.
I'm goingto have to hit the dealer, I thought the sunroof was part of the GLS package, but its shown as extra on the web sites. I keep getting about (invoice) 24, 175 for a GLS with the rebate. The Maxima is 24,900 for SE like I want and 25,200 for GLE. Basically close enough to not make much difference to me. Gonna come down to the cars...
See ya - Slope
I am looking to buy a new car. I am not a car-crazy individual. I just need a nice-looking ride, for an affordable price, and one that will have some longetivity w/out too much time at a mechanic. Early on, I was considering the Ford Taurus (2000+), but I am now expanding my search (partially out of peer pressure -- "you don't want a "Ford" do you?). I am also wedded to the Volvo s70, but am concerned about reliability issues (well-documented in the Volvo forum).
Well I still have a rebellious streak -- I am considering the Olds', quite a move for a 32 year-old. I am seeking input on people's opinions about the longevity, reliability, and power of the Intrigue. I am looking to buy a used 2000 (if I can find one with low miles -- seems like a lot of rental cars on the market).
Edmunds has expressed a lot of hostility to the Intrigue (my guess, somewhat unfairly). What do Intrigue owners think of the car? Good price, but will it last for a while w/out too much trouble.
Will be back sometime around the 5th of Feb. Condo will go way 1/29 and furniture to storage, then off to Sarasota for a couple days; on to Ocala to look a a house and then return to Detroit. It was a shortened winter in Fla; but after 11yrs I was sick of the crowded east coast; but loved the weather!!!The Caddy will see its first snow I imagine..
Find me a good set of aftermarket rotors for the Intrigue..See you all in Feb....
As for longevity, I think the car will be fine over the long haul. I bought this car (as opposed to my previous leases) so I plan on keeping it for a minimum of 6 years. It's not a perfect car, but it is a very good alternative to the Accord and Maxima. The Taurus is no match for this car though.
My dad is thrilled that I am considering the Olds. He has a Caddy. I am not impressed by the Camry whatsoever -- think it is a bunch of hype. Ok, they are reliable, but they are not the only reliable cars.
I am looking at the Nissan Maxima, though. It really seems to be boiling down to a competition between a Maxima, Volvo s70, and an Intrigue. I could probably afford a new Intrigue, but would rather purchase a pre-owned Maxima and Volvo (to discount the steep first two-years depriciation from my costs).
I drove an Intrigue recently on a rental -- it drove really nicely. The S70 is just TOO expensive to have the reliability issues it has endured -- but I also rented one recently. It is an absolutely amazing car. As a previous Volvo owner, I have a bias for this car -- BUT am willing to be a maverick and try something new-- especially the Intrigue which seems to combine a lot of options with a low price.
Slopedirk, on the 2001 GLS the sunroof is only available as part of the PCS package. On the GX and GL it's available separately. I'm not sure I like how they bundle the options on the GLS. For example, I would like a GLS and would like a sunroof and maybe PCS, but could care less for the chrome wheels and could pass on the spoiler. Yet to get a sunroof on the GLS, you have to get the package and get them all. On the GL you can get them separately, but you don't get the auto dimming rearview mirror(a must if you've had one before) or the wood trim on the doors and console. I would imagine that you should be able to get the Intrigue with discounts for less than a considerably equipped Maxima. And while I don't buy a car solely for it's warranty, the 5 year 60,000 mile warranty Olds is now giving is another value added feature.
by the way, are there any "problem" years on the aurora? considering 98-99...
Anyway, my concerns with the headroom and the sunroof were false on first impression, with the power seat down in back I had 1" of head room - that previously was swaying me toward the Maxima. Since it was "cold" we kicked on the heated seats - and whoh nellie! Never had anything like that before but was sure dang nice! too bad we'd only use it 2 months of the year tops, but maybe my wife (who gets cold in the car) would run it keep warm. It took less than 1 mile to heat up toasty! ABS, trans, everything worked well. It was rainng hard and thunder/lighting so I couldn't tell if it flickered or not but car worked well.
Pricing - for similar major option groups, with rebate its about 1000 cheaper than a maxima with leather/auto/climate. The chevy is impressive but only 800 less and looks cheap inside and out. The Honda is well made and drives really nice, but no comparison in my book.
I got an offer of 100 over invoice right away (remember salesman gets 500 from olds), so I'm going to see what we can do better on that, but probably not much.
FYI, I'm looking at a blue metalic GLS. Yes, you can't get sepaate on the package with sunroof and all that. that's the way cars are now.
Guy told me to sell my shadow to some high school student (in a poor neighborhood he was probably thinking), rather than get 500 on trade in.
Sorry to babble, but we're excited, I don't buy cars very often.
oh yea, the olds does do some limited driver info, like "oil change needed" "oil low" via idiot lights, but not the screen display "miles to empty" and mpg avg like buicks. Too bad. I like that feature, Can't have everything ...
Slope
I would like to have PCS and head-up display with my Regal. Yet they are available only with Olds and Pontiac, correspondingly. Impala have bigger trunk, but is not available with supercharger...
Slopedirk...Congrats on your color choice! The dark blue looks great with tan leather. I picked up my 2000 GLS on 1 NOV 00 and will be turning 10K this week on it. The 3.5 engine is a gem. Too bad GM doesn't know what they've got in Oldsmobile.
My Impala saga continues....car is basically parked at the dealer waiting for some new 'parts' to fix the front end problems...very dissapointed to say the least...an 11 month old and babied car should not have this kind of repairs. Based on other negative posts in the Impala/Montecarlo forums, it is no secret that the front end of these cars and the Aluminum engine cradle component is PURE JUNK! GM needs to step up to the plate and conduct a massive recall of these cars...there is no TSB or fix for the front end problems!!!
I symphatize with the Intrigue owners that have had to put up with GM's lack of quality control and manufacturing defects..this is UNACCEPTABLE.
I am considering pursuing a 'buyback' if GM wants to keep my loyalty and $$$ going to their pockets..if not all the way to arbitration and Fl lemon law.
If you haven't looked at a Regal GS - they have incredible performance - a real sleeper. Styling is arguably too conservative - but that's certainly individual taste. There don't appear to be major problems associated with them and resale may hold up better than an Oldsmobile.
It's worth a look anyway - if for no other reason than to drive that incredible supercharged 3.8L in the GS. BTW - it does require premium gas like the Maxima.
Best wishes in your search for the perfect ride.
Ken