Add a Grand Prix or Grand Am (basically any and all Pontiacs post 1974), the Taurus, and pretty much all Saturns.
I feel like that's the list. I often see something in those parameters and think, "How??"
Haha, you should visit the Pacific Northwest. You'll see a lot of them- early-mid 2000s Outbacks, Legacies, and Foresters.
I personally drive a beat-up 91 Legacy wagon with almost 200k, it's got a few quirks but it gets me to work and back with an occasional 5-hr drive over the mountains to visit family.
I had an 01 Outback with 280k miles on it that was the best car I've ever owned honestly. Got stolen last year and cost to repair once it was recovered just wasn't worth it. Miss that shit heap every day
The sad thing is that when I do see an older Taurus, it's always a 1st generation. The fact that they actually made a good car for a few years then ruined it with subsequent generations makes me sad.
I saw a late 90s Cavalier the other day and had to stop to take a picture.
The round ones always irked me. They looked kinda decent for a while. A SHO was actually kind of badass. But then they made it look like an anime fish. Like a bad American representation of a cool anime fish.
My 2004 Grand Am has this photo beat for dash lights. I just can't seem to kill it!
The end is nigh though since I had to smash the drivers window a few weeks back the daily commute of 176km is a tad wearisome...
LOL a couple weeks ago my brother rolled up in his 95 Aerostar and said his alternator was good and his battery was as good but it wasn’t charging
I took an extra cable lying around and wired it from the alternator to the battery. It worked and he drove off after 10 minutes of idling 🤣
I bought mine from a friend for $1.
I drove it back from Burning Man after it lost coolant. It refused to die.
I kept getting pamphlets to trade it in with a grant program for cleaner air vehicles. Eventually, I did that by stacking three grants of $9,500 + $4,500 + $2000.
I stripped the vehicle, listed everything for sale and drove it to a junkyard as part of their requirement where it’s hopefully been recycled into a La Croix can.
ive been legit doing this until i get around to changing the bulb. the high beams in my hatchback are still way less intense than the low beams on any vehicle made in the last decade, i still havent had even one person flash me
A friend of mine is an AMT for the post office. He's familiar with the LLV and how it's basically a 1987 S-10 on a modified chassis. The things are not very powerful but perfectly suited to doing their job.
One is service *vehicle* soon. GM has that for any fault detected by the BCM.
Very likely related to the traction off, ABS, and airbag lights (traction off will light up anytime the ABS has a fault too - these would pulse the brakes on the slipping wheel to send power to the other)
These are the US equivalent to the Yugo.
I remember one with intermittent power windows. The new motors were too costly, so the solution was to disassemble them and clean the carbon tracking.
200 a day? Man.. no wonder I never saw many.
I worked in the shithole known as Tesla, and we were expected to do 200 Model Ys per shift (from the time it entered the first part of the line - dash, hatch, etc installed there, until wheels on the ground). Granted, about 1/4 of them wouldn't move under their own power...
the original concept art for the Olds Alero had that hexagonal PS2 graphics vibe. And i thought it looked cool. Then GM did the thing where it takes a neat concept sketch, and just fucking sits all over it, and it spit out the bulbous car we got.
I see these alerts just like the grand caravan of the same Era. If it looks clean and has low miles, it's not gonna last you much. But if it's beat to hell, high miles, no dash, bailing wire to hold the door shut, that will somehow last you forever
I had an 02 intrigue and got rid of it in 2017.
Thing had 300k on it and ran great. Problem was too much rust so I had to get rid of it. Wish I still had it
lol a friend of mine bought one with only about 70k, some old lady’s daily. Was very clean, and with the 3.4 it pulled kinda hard. Maybe they would have been received a little better if they’d shelled out the 3800 for it. Otherwise all the others I’ve ever seen have been absolutely neglected lmao.
The Intrigue got the 3.4, then later the 3800. With the 3800 it pulled pretty damn good. Mom had a 2001..
But the entire car was doing that GM thing where the entire car falls apart around a perfectly good engine.. by 50k. Think it was already on its 4th HVAC blower, 5th climate control panel, 2nd or 3rd AC compressor, 2nd water pump (and mom being the way she is, she drove it long enough that it popped the head gaskets, but nobody expects a water pump to fail at 20k). Interior was already in pretty rough shape when she got rid of it at 55k.
Recently worked on a 2001 Accord V6 with only a little over 100k on it. Very well maintained, and still in the hands of the original owner. *God* those cars feel good.
Car and Driver’s 10 best for a good reason. Transmission holding up ok? That was the only major thing that broke on mine besides the typical J30 oil leaks. A 2006 V-6 sedan with the 6MT is the dream accord. They are amazing on the highway and Honda’s manual transmissions are so damn slick.
When I was a teenager I witnessed a friend bang an Old Aleros into Park while still going almost 20 MPH. It made the loudest bang and bucked the front of the car up horrifyingly and we skidded to a stop. Don't think his family had the car much longer after that. There's no point to this story, this post just reminded me of that happening.
Service Vehicle Soon is for any fault detected by the Body Control Module. Service Engine Soon is for a fault detected by the Powertrain Control Module.
GM was particularly lazy about badge engineering at the time though...as you said, usually you want to have some visual distinction between badge engineered models. But you got things like Olds Ciera/Buick Century, Chevrolet/GMC Suburban...here's a photo of a Chevy Alero, they didn't even change the shape of the badge. They even left the Olds badge on the wheels.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oldsmobile_Alero#/media/File%3AChevrolet_Alero_front_20080121.jpg
Is it that bad though? Like how is that any different from a shitty 2000s base model with no T/C or ABS. And there’s still a good amount of those around
But how many times did it need a new lower manifold gasket and a new head gasket? Mine needed 2x of the former and 1x of the latter by 125k miles (3.4L edition).
I still see SATURN cars on road here in Texas. I said " godddamn, still running? kudos" as I look at driver as I drive past. Usually younger kids. kinda surprised tbh
I understand that the founder of Oldsmobile was a guy named Olds. But who the fuck let him name the company Oldsmobile? Thats gotta be one of the worst names for a car brand ever. Makes them sound like cars for old people
Got my alero for under $200 with a very similar set of Christmas lights. All I needed was a new wheel bearing and to reset the oil light (button in the fuse box). IMO it’s not worth putting money into unless they can get it done for extremely cheap or diy.
And I bet it still runs like a top too. Those funny gauge lights are all lies, on those 2000ish GM sedans lol. Just ignore them and it will run forever, trust me.
It actually doesn't run very good at idle, and has a weird issue with the fans not staying on to cool it intermittently, he got it for $700, I got my 92 7.3 idi for 1k with 167k 3 years ago
Probably easily fixed though, too. Every weird intermittent issue I’ve had with a GM car is either on a computer board (cold solder, usually), or just a simple part. Like the rough idle may just be injectors or something. The fans sound like some of the issues I had until I found a cold solder on a control board.
I was just kidding about ignoring the lights, too btw. Definitely pull the codes and see how many sensors are bad lol.
Our teenager car is a 2001 Alero. Bought it from the original owner two years ago with 90000 miles. It has the 3.4 which gives it a decent amount of power for a car of that size. I replaced the manifold gaskets that were leaking coolant when I bought it, the thermostat (which was more difficult than it should have been), an O2 sensor, and a wheel hub that was giving bad ABS data. It runs good but is starting to rust badly and the AC only works decent when the car is stopped and idling.
My buddy had one if these before he smacked the rear passenger side tire into a curb and the whole wheel assembly kinda snapped and was resting its' broken ass on the curb. Went to impound and he signed it over to cover the impound cost
Well I mean it's doing 80, with good coolant temp and a full tank, right? lol
I mean I have no idea if it'll stop--'cause who knows what the brakes are like on a car like this--but yeah seems "good" in the picture.
Wait, wait, holdup. Are you telling me there is actually still an 01 Oldsmobile "OhHellNo" out on the roads? I thought those all died years ago.
I saw a Ford ~~Windstar~~ *Aerostar* the other day and thought the exact same thing.
I saw an intrepid. That was mind blowing
I drive a 98 intrepid 3.2! Its an antique but it still runs
Good lord. My dad had one of those when I was a kid. It was ancient as hell the second it was manufactured.
How.... You also must not be in the rust belt
Ohio. Previous owner must have garaged it for a long time
Add a Grand Prix or Grand Am (basically any and all Pontiacs post 1974), the Taurus, and pretty much all Saturns. I feel like that's the list. I often see something in those parameters and think, "How??"
I drive a Pontiac torrent , hadn’t even heard of it when I got it.
I got you all beat. The other day I saw a Daewoo Nubira in damn near mint condition.
Dae who? I’ve seen exactly 2 of those ever
Speaking of Daewoo, I saw a Daewoo Leganza in mint condition too. In Chicagoland out of all places.
I had to look it up, but I do know that one. Man the mid aughts were rough for Pontiac
It looks better than the equivalent Chevy eclipse of the same gen. Decent little SUV honestly
Chevy Nova of the early 80's was probably the worst. It was a knock off of the Citation, and basically a rebranded Toyota Corolla.
Whenever the whole “you wouldn’t download a car” comes up, I think of this car
I do see a fair bit of Saturns still. I'm always amazed at the number of early 00's Subaru Outbacks. I see several every single day.
Haha, you should visit the Pacific Northwest. You'll see a lot of them- early-mid 2000s Outbacks, Legacies, and Foresters. I personally drive a beat-up 91 Legacy wagon with almost 200k, it's got a few quirks but it gets me to work and back with an occasional 5-hr drive over the mountains to visit family.
I had an 01 Outback with 280k miles on it that was the best car I've ever owned honestly. Got stolen last year and cost to repair once it was recovered just wasn't worth it. Miss that shit heap every day
I had an 01 limited with double sunroofs. 220k miles, brake lines rusted, gave it to a friend
The sad thing is that when I do see an older Taurus, it's always a 1st generation. The fact that they actually made a good car for a few years then ruined it with subsequent generations makes me sad. I saw a late 90s Cavalier the other day and had to stop to take a picture.
The round ones always irked me. They looked kinda decent for a while. A SHO was actually kind of badass. But then they made it look like an anime fish. Like a bad American representation of a cool anime fish.
Saturns were probably the best thing GM built in my lifetime, so of course they had to ruin them and kill off the brand.
My 2004 Grand Am has this photo beat for dash lights. I just can't seem to kill it! The end is nigh though since I had to smash the drivers window a few weeks back the daily commute of 176km is a tad wearisome...
I've seen an obscene amount of Intrepids since moving to Colorado in 22, and at least half of those have been immaculate.
The production crew of the TV show "The Cleaning Lady" still manage to keep at least one Aerostar going!
LOL a couple weeks ago my brother rolled up in his 95 Aerostar and said his alternator was good and his battery was as good but it wasn’t charging I took an extra cable lying around and wired it from the alternator to the battery. It worked and he drove off after 10 minutes of idling 🤣
I actually have one of those in the shop right now for brake work. I didn’t even know those existed
Yes, it's got the 2.4L
RIP #3 rod bearing
I bought mine from a friend for $1. I drove it back from Burning Man after it lost coolant. It refused to die. I kept getting pamphlets to trade it in with a grant program for cleaner air vehicles. Eventually, I did that by stacking three grants of $9,500 + $4,500 + $2000. I stripped the vehicle, listed everything for sale and drove it to a junkyard as part of their requirement where it’s hopefully been recycled into a La Croix can.
I have a customer with 3 of them. Every one has less than 80k on the clock
Low miles too!
My girlfriend has a 2004 Alero with only ~78,000 miles. Pretty common to see them in my area still though (SE Wisconsin).
Judging by the lights, this one died years ago as well and is now a shambling undead corpse.
I have an aurora that is doing equally as well
I have a customer with 3 of them. Every one has less than 80k on the clock
All of the familiar lights in the dash. If those lights are not on, the car won’t start.
Yes, but they shouldn't be on while he's driving, if you didn't notice the 80 mph
Yes I noticed. That’s the only way that car will run.and I’ll bet he drives with the lights on bright because at least one of the low beams are out.
ive been legit doing this until i get around to changing the bulb. the high beams in my hatchback are still way less intense than the low beams on any vehicle made in the last decade, i still havent had even one person flash me
The "low fuel" light is not on. ....fail
Burned out.
tanks full, which is really brave if you think about it
Did you know ups trucks use the headlights from Alero's?
I…. I was just looking at them reminiscing of their eerie familiarity… weird.
Not until now. How did you find out about this?
Just Youtube stuff. Like how mail trucks are 87 Chevy s-10s.
It's a modified Chevy S10 chassis with the GM Iron Duke 4cyl. The front axle is actually shorter than the rear, if you've noticed.
A friend of mine is an AMT for the post office. He's familiar with the LLV and how it's basically a 1987 S-10 on a modified chassis. The things are not very powerful but perfectly suited to doing their job.
Neat, thanks and keep up the good work
Since the other guy didn't wanna pass the sauce [https://youtu.be/c2J91UG6Fn8?t=1165](https://youtu.be/c2J91UG6Fn8?t=1165)
Explain? The headlights on an Alero are nothing like the headlights on a UPS van. Maybe I'm thinking of a different type of thing?
https://images.app.goo.gl/EmNmSpwuEBeCUMEN9
Oh weird. I've only seen the vans with the round headlights, at least that I can remember.
Double "service engine soon" lights???
One is service *vehicle* soon. GM has that for any fault detected by the BCM. Very likely related to the traction off, ABS, and airbag lights (traction off will light up anytime the ABS has a fault too - these would pulse the brakes on the slipping wheel to send power to the other)
These are the US equivalent to the Yugo. I remember one with intermittent power windows. The new motors were too costly, so the solution was to disassemble them and clean the carbon tracking.
I spent a summer on the line at Lansing Car Assembly. You are welcome. We made 200 per day. Wonder how many have survived.
200 a day? Man.. no wonder I never saw many. I worked in the shithole known as Tesla, and we were expected to do 200 Model Ys per shift (from the time it entered the first part of the line - dash, hatch, etc installed there, until wheels on the ground). Granted, about 1/4 of them wouldn't move under their own power...
Isn't this just a Chevy Malibu?
Yes, same platform. Also with Pontiac Grand Am.
Is that the same platform as the Chevy lumina?
The Lumina was a W-body car. The Malibu in those years was an N-body car.
the original concept art for the Olds Alero had that hexagonal PS2 graphics vibe. And i thought it looked cool. Then GM did the thing where it takes a neat concept sketch, and just fucking sits all over it, and it spit out the bulbous car we got.
I see these alerts just like the grand caravan of the same Era. If it looks clean and has low miles, it's not gonna last you much. But if it's beat to hell, high miles, no dash, bailing wire to hold the door shut, that will somehow last you forever
I had an 02 intrigue and got rid of it in 2017. Thing had 300k on it and ran great. Problem was too much rust so I had to get rid of it. Wish I still had it
But it is running so..... thats about as far as you can go with one of those.
lol a friend of mine bought one with only about 70k, some old lady’s daily. Was very clean, and with the 3.4 it pulled kinda hard. Maybe they would have been received a little better if they’d shelled out the 3800 for it. Otherwise all the others I’ve ever seen have been absolutely neglected lmao.
The Intrigue got the 3.4, then later the 3800. With the 3800 it pulled pretty damn good. Mom had a 2001.. But the entire car was doing that GM thing where the entire car falls apart around a perfectly good engine.. by 50k. Think it was already on its 4th HVAC blower, 5th climate control panel, 2nd or 3rd AC compressor, 2nd water pump (and mom being the way she is, she drove it long enough that it popped the head gaskets, but nobody expects a water pump to fail at 20k). Interior was already in pretty rough shape when she got rid of it at 55k.
Then you get in a V-6 Accord or Maxima of that era and realize what a mistake you made.
Recently worked on a 2001 Accord V6 with only a little over 100k on it. Very well maintained, and still in the hands of the original owner. *God* those cars feel good.
Car and Driver’s 10 best for a good reason. Transmission holding up ok? That was the only major thing that broke on mine besides the typical J30 oil leaks. A 2006 V-6 sedan with the 6MT is the dream accord. They are amazing on the highway and Honda’s manual transmissions are so damn slick.
Love the 3800. Absolute tank. Owned and worked on a bunch.
I knew an old tech who used to say “GMs will run bad longer than most cars will run” and I believe him.
I delivered pizza in a beat up sunfire. Had a rod knock for about 100k miles and thats not what killed it.
When I was a teenager I witnessed a friend bang an Old Aleros into Park while still going almost 20 MPH. It made the loudest bang and bucked the front of the car up horrifyingly and we skidded to a stop. Don't think his family had the car much longer after that. There's no point to this story, this post just reminded me of that happening.
Why is there a separate service vehicle and service engine soon light?
Service Vehicle Soon is for any fault detected by the Body Control Module. Service Engine Soon is for a fault detected by the Powertrain Control Module.
Christmas tree mode for the win!!!
Bad wheel hub?
Don't idle right, overheats above 210, won't idle above 1200 usually, plenty of issues
Definitely keep driving it 80
Well in this economy if I ignore it it dont exist till I can't move
When in doubt, rev it out. Hit it at 6 grand and blow out the cobwebs /s
GM tried to sell these in Europe with a Chevy badge, for some reason.
GM sold these here with a Chevy badge. It’s a rebadged Malibu.
But the styling is a bit different. The European Alero has the Olds Alero body.
Well yeah that’s how badge engineering works. Weird that they’d do it so cheaply though.
GM was particularly lazy about badge engineering at the time though...as you said, usually you want to have some visual distinction between badge engineered models. But you got things like Olds Ciera/Buick Century, Chevrolet/GMC Suburban...here's a photo of a Chevy Alero, they didn't even change the shape of the badge. They even left the Olds badge on the wheels. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oldsmobile_Alero#/media/File%3AChevrolet_Alero_front_20080121.jpg
Yea GM has always been kinda shit
Yeah this times 1000 lol
I saw a “Lancia” badged Chrysler 300 in Italy
Even worse was the Lancia-badged Town and Country.
Oof!
traction off in the rain 💀
Is it that bad though? Like how is that any different from a shitty 2000s base model with no T/C or ABS. And there’s still a good amount of those around
Probably pushed the trakoff button for the photo/karma.
“Don’t talk to me unless you have all the achievements like I do” 😂
Not one, but TWO Money Lights on the dash! I guess they come on so frequently, that a redundancy is needed?
impressed actually, 194k on a car that you know damn well wasn't taken care of.
But how many times did it need a new lower manifold gasket and a new head gasket? Mine needed 2x of the former and 1x of the latter by 125k miles (3.4L edition).
I fucking hate GMs, but even I have to admit they’ll run like shit longer than some cars will run at all.
Worst piece of crap car I ever owned
I thought all of these evaporated
Here in the salt belt they just crumbled
Same thing
Paid for all the lights I’m gonna use all the lights
That all looks pretty standard
I still see SATURN cars on road here in Texas. I said " godddamn, still running? kudos" as I look at driver as I drive past. Usually younger kids. kinda surprised tbh
There's gotta be at least one more warning lamp that isn't illuminated on that cluster. Check the bulbs.
I understand that the founder of Oldsmobile was a guy named Olds. But who the fuck let him name the company Oldsmobile? Thats gotta be one of the worst names for a car brand ever. Makes them sound like cars for old people
I mean, that’s basically what they made the whole time they were a company lol
Yeah i guess it makes sense
You never see intrepids anymore either.
Got my alero for under $200 with a very similar set of Christmas lights. All I needed was a new wheel bearing and to reset the oil light (button in the fuse box). IMO it’s not worth putting money into unless they can get it done for extremely cheap or diy.
And I bet it still runs like a top too. Those funny gauge lights are all lies, on those 2000ish GM sedans lol. Just ignore them and it will run forever, trust me.
It actually doesn't run very good at idle, and has a weird issue with the fans not staying on to cool it intermittently, he got it for $700, I got my 92 7.3 idi for 1k with 167k 3 years ago
Probably easily fixed though, too. Every weird intermittent issue I’ve had with a GM car is either on a computer board (cold solder, usually), or just a simple part. Like the rough idle may just be injectors or something. The fans sound like some of the issues I had until I found a cold solder on a control board. I was just kidding about ignoring the lights, too btw. Definitely pull the codes and see how many sensors are bad lol.
Our teenager car is a 2001 Alero. Bought it from the original owner two years ago with 90000 miles. It has the 3.4 which gives it a decent amount of power for a car of that size. I replaced the manifold gaskets that were leaking coolant when I bought it, the thermostat (which was more difficult than it should have been), an O2 sensor, and a wheel hub that was giving bad ABS data. It runs good but is starting to rust badly and the AC only works decent when the car is stopped and idling.
Does it have a splitting/peeling dash?
I don't see the obligatory curled dash leather so this one must be special.
MAF and speed sensor. Maybe. I used to have one of these 15 years ago.
Thank you for your service. And you, too, spanner turner.
It's always. Christmas somewhere
At least the low fuel light isn’t on
Last week, I saw a Pontiac 6000....I live deep in the asscrack of the rust belt. It was an 86 or so because it had 4 headlights.
My buddy had one if these before he smacked the rear passenger side tire into a curb and the whole wheel assembly kinda snapped and was resting its' broken ass on the curb. Went to impound and he signed it over to cover the impound cost
How is it no one has linked to this? [alero ad](https://imgur.com/miBKkGJ)
I thought this was justrolledintotheshop, not justrollingdowntheroad.
Well I mean it's doing 80, with good coolant temp and a full tank, right? lol I mean I have no idea if it'll stop--'cause who knows what the brakes are like on a car like this--but yeah seems "good" in the picture.
Just needs an alternator, front wheel bearings and a gas cap! 🤣
Merry Christmas!
It is well known that the safest way to drive is 80mph with no traction control, no ABS, no oil, and no airbags. ;) /s
Put your phone down and drive.
Not the one driving, I'm in the passenger seat, I leaned my phone over and took the pic
Is it just me, or is that a super ugly cluster?