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The Final Oldsmobile Built Is Heading To Auction

A slice of General Motors history will cross the auction block today. The final Oldsmobile ever built before GM sent the brand to greener pastures will find a new home at the State Line Auto Auction in Waverly, New York.

The car is a 2004 Oldsmobile Alero, itself a reskinned Chevrolet Malibu/Pontiac Grand Am. Normally, an Alero fetches a couple thousand dollars, but we’re curious to see what this one brings in. Fox News reported on Thursday that the car has remained with GM since its production as part of the GM Heritage Collection. It’s not known why GM will part ways with it, however.

GM will also offer two other notable Oldsmobiles: a 1996 Oldsmobile Cierra and 1999 Oldsmobile Cutlass, both representing the final iteration of their model names. The Alero, however, features the signatures of every worker from the now-defunct Lansing, Michigan, car plant under the hood and trunk.

Oldsmobile was GM’s oldest brand after it was founded in 1897, which made the brand 107 years old at its time of death. Now, Buick remains the oldest; the brand was founded in 1903.

Former GM Authority staff writer.

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Comments

  1. The auction house has chosen not to release the cars’ final selling prices.

    Reply
  2. “1996 Oldsmobile Cierra “. No, that should be a 1996 Oldsmobile Ciera (only one “R”). I had a 1984 Ciera LS (when it was called the Cutlass Ciera) and I had it until 2010 with only one major engine repair. It was one of my best cars with a six seat interior and a huge trunk. It had the Buick 3.0 L V6 that was identical to the famous 3.8 L except for rod and crankshaft parts, yet it was good for over 25 MPG.

    BTW, the oldest registered vehicle still on the roads in the U.S. is a “Curved Dash”Oldsmobile at over 110 years. And it is also the very first vehicle with a dedicated song: “In My Merry Oldsmobile”.

    Reply
  3. I HAD AN OLDSMOBILE DELMONT 88 WITH THE 455 CU.IN. MOTOR IT GOT 20+ MPG ON THE HIGHWAY AND WAS UNDER 14 IN QUARTER MI. I DROVE IT OVER 250,000 MILES AND NEVER HAD A MAJOR REPAIR.BEST CAR I EVER OWNED!

    Reply
  4. I had a 2000 Alero GLS I bought that year slightly used.. Put 186,000 miles on it before I traded it in. Good car. Great looking car. Many of my friends commented how surprised they were at how nice it was inside. Most drove imports and had probably never been in an Olds….or at least not in a long time. I hope GM heritage keeps something from that era.

    Reply
  5. Intake gaskets on the 3.4 were still a problem during the Alero’s years of using that engine.

    My parents had a fully loaded 2002 including sport suspension. As a mainstream midsize car, it wasn’t bad. Good torque, strong feel to brakes, nice upscale design. It wasn’t a sport sedan by any stretch of the imagination, but it was sporty.

    I think that’s what did Olds in at the end. It was just too crowded of a market space, Olds didn’t have anything unique to keep it going. It’s easy to blame GM mis-management but it’s far more honest to see how much market share the Japanese, Korean, and to a lesser extent European brands had made. The slice of pie had shrunk too much.

    Reply
  6. 2004 was a very sad year for me. Oldsmobile was one of my favorite brands along with Pontiac. Some of my best ever cars were Oldsmobiles. I still enjoy a 1987 Cutlass Supreme coupe in two tone blue with bucket seats, full rally gauge cluster, alloy wheels shod with white letter tires, a 307 4BBL V8 tied to a 4 speed overdrive automatic and optional 3.08 rear gears and it only has 27K original miles.

    I also had a 2002 Olds Intrigue with the infamous 3.5 Shortstar V6 that was utterly bullet proof until I sold it with 150K miles, a 1989 black Cutlass Ciera with the 2.8 MFI V6 and 3 speed auto that lasted well over 200K miles before it’s 4th owner wrecked the front end, a 1994 white Cutlass Supreme sedan with every option they installed in this car including the 3.4 DOHC V6, moonroof, cranberry leather bucket seat interior, climate control and power everything and my grandparents 1985 Supreme coupe in gold with the 307 V8. All great cars!

    Reply

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