Oldsmobile Aurora

I have a question for Aurora owners since I've considered getting myself one. I looked at the Aurora (both the old and new body style) and liked it as a car, it seems to be pretty comfortable and it is a pretty nicely designed car and stylish. But my main concern is reliability, are the Auroras reliable and how do they hold up with time? Your opinion is appreciated.

Hi there. I just thought I'd offer my experience.

We have a 1997 Aurora that we "acquired" used from my wife's parents. My wife drives it back and forth to work. It currently has over 120,000 miles on it.

The bad: passenger window switch doesn't work (you can make it go up and down using the switch on the driver door)--which is probably just a switch but nothing I'm going to bother to replace at this point; passenger rear window doesn't open at all (again, I'm not concerned); the sunroof no longer stops when you close it (that is, it closes all the way and then flips up--normally if you held the switch forward it would stop all the way closed, and you'd have to let go and press it forward again to get it to flip up, and again, this is nothing I'm going to bother to fix); it runs hot in traffic (it holds to 200 degrees when driving, but stop in traffic and it heats up fast); it uses oil and has some sort of coolant leak somewhere that I can't find. We're just now starting to have what I think are some transmission slip-ups (hence my visit here today!).

The good: the engine still purrs like a charm; the ride is great; all the other gadgets on the car still work fine.

What I've had to replace (or have replaced): pads and rotors on all four tires (did myself); oil, of course; radiator (crack in the plastic at around 90,000 miles); some sort of light switch/sensor things under the steering wheel that cost a pretty penny (the lights flashed and the horn honked while driving).

Other than that, I'm very happy with this car. It's solid, the engine is fabulous, and it has weathered quite well (and I even accidentally went off-roading a few winters ago--oops).

If I had to, I'd buy one again. The only major downside now is that they have superchargers and require premium unleaded gas, and don't get great gas mileage.

G.--

as for your mystery coolant leak, I was told that the head gaskets let go on these motor because the head bolts loosen in the block (i think its aluminum??)

if you pull some plugs, you should see some bone white ones. pulling the heads requirres dropping the moter/trans out the bottom. thats what I was told. hopefully someone can confirm

i haven't had any of the problems you guys had, I've just done my general maint and I have over 200k on mine. well the only thing I had to fix was a sensor for the tranny that wouldnt' let met shift into drive. Other than that I drive the crap out of it. ITs been one of the best cars i've bought

I rencently purchased a 1997 olds aurora with 52,000 miles on it. We have had some minor issues with a noise in the steering column and the windows not rolling up on the passenger back. We were able to get these items fixed but our primary concern is defrosting the car in cold weather. We have tried just about everything and it appears that the windows continue to fog up even after 20 minutes of driving. Do any of you have any suggestions as to how to keep the windows fog free during colder weather? We have tried both the automatic and manual methods in trying to solve this problem? We determined that there is no filter inside the car that might be dirty or clogged, so what is next?

1st option - charge your A/C and defrost/defog with auto (ac on),
if it aint helping you most prolly have coolant leak at the heater core.

I live in moscow, it's been -20C recently, but i had no problems, defrosting and defogging takes no more than 10 minutes.

Overall, do not buy Aurora if you dont have steady good income.
She loves your money - like a beautiful woman =))

Cheers