Did you recently take on (or consider) a loan of 84 months or longer on a car purchase?
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People still don't know what an Intrigue is. The other day, a guy asked me if my car was a Lexus.
Oh well. If you think about it, the demise of Intrigue just makes the car more special. I see very few of them on the road anyway. I like that.
Can't help you on the warranty, my 99 has been off warranty for a few months now. 4 years is a long time to be making payments on a non-warrantied car though. Hopefully they are low payments as 99 Intrigue GX's are worth about 15-16K Canadian. How many owners has the car had? If more than one, I would spring for a warranty. They are not the most reliable cars on the road. Some of us have been pretty lucky though. Did you get a service history on the car?
Look under the hood and see which engine you got; 3.8 or the 3.5 ???
dindak::::::I love the value of the Canadian $ as it is right now.
vcjumper:::::::I think one could get excited with a $1000 tuneup!!!!! That's the Canadian $ though; but then again it's trade-in time at those prices. That is just a suggestion; for 100k miles is a ploy and sounds like forever, but tuneups are not in my vocabulary... Stay away from the 89 and higher octanes of gas; then one should be able to go 125k miles before tuneups..
I pick up the car on Tuesday, so I can still cancel the deal and go for a 2000 with a 3.5.
vcjumper: The car is a Budget rental return and I have not yet seen the repair history. I usually buy new but could not afford a 2001 (and we wanted a bigger car than our VW Jetta).
If only 1700 are built per month, then they will shut down and there might not be any for 2002.
Rather than spending $1500+ on an extended warranty, maybe it would be best to buy a car with lower kilometers for $1500 more? 54,000KM is a long life as a rental car, most of them are sold off by 30,000km. Have you searched on www.trader.ca for Intrigues?
BTW, you can get a mid-to-late '99 with the 3.5.
desmier, unless your getting a killer deal I'd pass. A Budget rental hasn't been cared for the way a private owner car would have been. I don't know about Canada, but here in the US the deals on new Intrigues are great. That is if you can find one as they seem to be scarse.
b4z, yeah it seems I remember reading that post now. All I can say is that if GM is going to play that game, I'll be looking at 98 or 99 Aurora as I'm seeing more and more in the $18K range with low mileage. I still like the Intrigue and would love to use my $1500 loyalty coupon and get one at a low finance rate, but I'm not going to settle for color or equipment level that I don't want. For God's sake, why don't they just build the cars until Olds finally shuts down. They are actally advertising the heck out of Oldsmobiles these days and now they cut production way back. Real smart.
An Intrigue with loving care is a mess; so one with no care has got to be dead meat!!!!!!
I talked down a used car dealer on the 99 GX (54000 km) with 3800 to $300/month with Jetta and no cash down. This seemed to me to be the better deal. If I put out $1500 on an extended warranty, I would still be better off.
The Olds is no better or worse than, any other equivalent dollar per pound American car.
Those warranties can cost big $$ to make up for 18,000KM and a model year. Check the build dates, the 2000 could be a late 2000 and could have considerable more time on warranty than the 99 has left. This could be very important depending on how many KM's you will be putting on it.
If some owners have a front mounted license plate I would appreciate a response as to whether you have a rattle???? I assume that the plate is screwed into the styrofoam and keeps the facia from flopping!! Just a thought..
I'm curious about the Bravada numbers. Have you seen this thing, it is hot!
I believe it, because the selection of intrigues appears to be really low.
desmier : I would go for a 2000 with the 3.5L. One of the best midsize sedans on the road today. 3.8L is good also, but the 3.5L rocks! Try and find one with under 30K on it.
1415- no front plate, no rattle (other than strut/jounce noise when turning right/braking). I can't hear it unless windows are up and radio is off. Other than that, my interior does a Buddy Rich solo over most roads. That's why I love this car when the windows are down because I only hear wind, motor, and stereo. Interestingly, When I don't hear the noises, the car feels tight as a steel rod. When the windows are up, I feel like it's falling apart. Must be the psychological effects of noise.
b4z- what's the latest on your car? Seems like you were in a valley recently. are things looking up?
http://www.generalmotors.com/company/investor_information/operating_data/index.htm
in *.xml (Excell spreadsheet) format. Quattro also reads it without problems.
BTW, according to the GM spreedsheet, 2341 Intrigue were produced in Feb, 2001. Low number, but still not 1700.
3477 copies of 2002 Bravada were build in Febrary 2001.
rbb2::::::::It's highly unlikely that any dealer would remove the front facia on a car that has 38k miles.. To face the truth, GM has washed their hands on my car; user satisfaction on a car out of warranty is nil. I have stuffed several small sponges in various areas between the facia and bumper framework. I noticed that the plastic fasteners holding the headlight assemlies in place were not clipped tight and one left hand clip was completely out of track.
Cancelled my appt at the Troy dealer this am.. It ain't the struts; and in reviewing some old posting on this thread by various owners the flappy facia was the culprit..
oscarz2::::::::I imagine most convertibles are quieter than the Intrigue. My Cadillac which I never thought was overly silent is eerie sounding and one never has to reset the radio volume control. My hearing is about 40% shot and if I complain, you know it's bad.. The SLP exhaust is mellow!!!
desmier:::::::It's your money so you don't take what I say too serious!!!! Misery loves company.
No noise problems. The car looks so sharp, handles like a dream and the ease at passing on the highway...wow! Would never buy a used one as they beg for abuse when it comes to speed.
Never heard of a car with a rattling bumper problem.
No wonder Olds is history.
Kinda cheap and junky; but a note posted by "limadelta" back on Aug 23,00 was a further clue. The wheel liners are unable to transmit much noise; so they are a none event. I am using thin plastic sponges as the insulation filler on the backside of the plastic facia..
barry45rpm, those finance deals are attractive. Especially with the extra $1500 off in loyalty money. However, I'm hearing more and more tales of low mileage 98 and 99 Auroras being sold at ridiculously low prices and being as I do like luxury cars, that is tempting. However, I don't think I'd buy an Intrigue used right now with all the incentives available on new ones. The problem now seems to be Intrigue supply as they aren't building very many. Maybe that will change.
GM powerbuy website, how accurate do you guys think their inventory lists are? It is supposed to be up to date, but I did some fooling around and found some interesting bits. Like at a Buick dealer in our region. They are one of the largest in this part of the state and probably have 12 or more Regals in stock at any given time. Powerbuy listed 4 LSs and 4 GSs for that dealer. All 4 of the LSs were light sandrift metallic and the GSs were silver and white. I haven't stopped off there to verify, but judging from my experience with them, this is not normal. A nearby Pontiac dealer yielded 3 Bonnevilles which again seems low compared to their size and volume.
Saw a couple Intrigues there too... still can't figure why they got rid of the remote fuel release door. I'm glad mine has the remote release. I do wish I had foglamps though. We've had a very very mild winter here out west. Only got a little bit of snow experience in the Intrigue but she sure feels solid. I don't seem to notice any rattling and I do have a front license plate bracket. Not many miles yet though (around 16K). I do have to say that the panels creak when I'm washing her though. That is pretty disappointing. Does anyone else think those wheels are a monster to clean? Whew.
Just went to the dealer to drop off the car. Nope, can't drive with a tech, they don't get in till 8:00 and won't be available to drive with me until 9:00. Well, I'm not so fortunate with my job that I can leave at 9:00 and then come back so I have to go at lunch which means that they won't have the car ready by the end of the day. I can hear them now, "we can't give you a free rental because you didn't drop it off until this afternoon". I HATE DEALERSHIPS!!!! It's almost worth hearing the noise just to avoid taking it in.
re rattles : Never heard one on my 2000 GL. I admit the car is not as quiet inside as it could be, but I love it anyway. Often have the stereo on with some hard rock or country cranked up anyway.
Brake calipers rattling????? I might be getting close to the funny farm..
dindak:::::::On my trips into our NAFTA partner trading country I pick up the FM Toronto station 92.1 at about London; great music around 2pm thru 5pm..
Article in the Detroit paper this am. about an interview with Buzz Hargrove, the CAW muscle in Canada. Everybody has a cause and an ego; he certainly has both. Did the CAW organize the Asian transplants in Ontario???? Camary, Honda, and the Ingersoll operation(joint venture GM & Suzuki) are ones I am thinking about..
The UAW has zero appeal to the transplants over in the states..
jg28... Just curious; why do you want the foglights? My 99 GL has them and, believe me, they are cosmetic at best. Functionally useless. Unless you're one of those folks that like to drive around with their fog lamps on all of the time to look "cool." Read about someone around here recently that got a ticket for driving with the fog lights on when there wasn't any fog. Seems it's against the law... hmmmm.
Also heard the new Bravada is pacing the Indy 500, and they cancel the division...sureal really.
Bravada pace truck was on Auto Week this morning (Speedvision). Looks pretty cool, but the Aurora was more fitting as a pace vehicle. It still saddens me that GM is dumping the best division.
Is it me or is the Bravada near Yukon pricing?
Is this normal?
I am religious about changing my oil every 3000 miles but have not done so this time due, to my busy schedule.
I passed the 5000 mile mark today and decided to check the oil.
Guess what? It was full!! The car used no oil in 5000 miles. I can't believe it.
I still blows blue smoke when i start it up. Go figure.
Your dealer certainly takes good care of you!!! Probably thought you had a Northstar and put in the extra oil..
into the car and drove up I-26 to Best Buy. Drove 70 mph in light traffic, this car really excels on the highway.
Went looking for "Airplane" on DVD but they were sold out. Settled for "Almost Famous" and a Pat Benatar concert from 1983.
On the way back there is a great way to get on the interstate where you don't have to merge and you get an extra long "acceleration" lane.
Rather than blow past everybody like i usually do, i gave the car half throttle in second gear, and held my foot at the same pressure on the gas pedal. It started accelerating slowly at first, then at about 3500 rpm it got up on the cam, and just walked away from all the other cars. I looked down and i was doing 80 mph with half throttle. And i was still accelerating.
This car's exhaust note above 4000 rpm is worth the price of admission. Even with all the problems i have had. I love it.
I have already watched the Pat Benatar DVD, the sound quality is decent, but the camera angles are bad. It is only 60 minutes long.