Poor Oldsmobile-defunct since 2004. In their final years they made some very nice cars.I always liked the Intrigue-it was a very well equipped sedan, with a plush interior. I can buy one now pretty reasonably-are they decent cars?
The Intrigue was built on the same assembly line as the Pontiac Gran Prix. The Intrigue was designed to have a more “sports sedan” ride than the Grand Prix’s conventional straight-ahead power. It got good reviews for handling.
However, mechanically, the Gran Prix was never considered to be all that great. I don’t think the Intrigue was any better.
This seems more appropriate for IMHO than GQ.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
Just anecdotal here, but…
I’m currently driving a 2000 GL. It has right at 190,000 miles and is still going strong. I obviously drive the hell out of it and have for the past 5 years that I’ve owned it. Mostly city miles during the week and out of state fishing trips most weekends. Usually these involve driving on back roads of sand, gravel, snow and ruts.
No major problems to speak of. The electrical system is starting to have some problems and the transmission might be slipping a bit. The electric is probably my fault because I souped up the stereo system which, I think, often leads to electrical problems down the road.
I’ve done the usual maintenance work like changing out the brakes. To be honest, I’m pretty lax about changing the oil on time. Typically I drive it about double the miles I should between changes. Not proud of it, just pointing out that it has taken plenty of abuse.
If they still made them I would definitely buy another. After almost a decade I still think it’s a pretty good looking car. They seem less dated that most of that age.
There were 2 engines available with the Intrigue - the L36 3.8L OHV “3800 Series II” and the 3.5L DOHC “Shortstar”. The 3.5l was based on the “Northstar” V8 engine used in contemporary Cadillacs and was very reliable.
Unfortunately, the L36 of this generation suffered from a defect in the upper intake manifold which caused it to leak coolant into the engine. It also suffered from the “Dexcool” lower intake manifold issue that contemporary 3.1l GM V6s were famous to have. Both of these are very well known problems, and you can Google to see the specifics of each problem - there are solutions to each, but I would stick with only the 3.5l DOHC model.
Oldsmobile had achieved pretty good quality numbers before their demise… and if I recall some mental notes properly: it was a nice car and held up fairly well against it’s competition like the Camry or Maxima at the time.
here is a review and check out the links at the bottom for reliability, etc