2001 Oldsmobile Alero GL2 review from North America

Front Brakes began pulsating at 7,162 and the dealer told me that they could not find anything wrong. When I brought it back in again @ 16,000 for the same problem (now the steering wheel would shave in a 2" arch) I was told that I needed pads and that they were out of warranty. I replaced the pads with Raybestos Quiet Stops, but the problem didn't go away. I did have the rotors checked while they were hot (after a 200 mile drive) and the shop found that the rotors were warped 20% past maximum.

This time I went to the dealer with a $25 bill in hand and they turned the rotors. I'm now at 31,500 and the problem has returned, the pads I put on

are still good so it's time to fight the

dealer for a new pair of rotors (the existing ones can't be turned). I did find out that GM uses a soft iron rotor

on all of the N-bodies (explains the rust spots that appear over night) and that replacements from Raybestos, Auto-Zone and most other 3rd party manufacturers are an iron/nickle alloy,

these don't seem to have the warping problem.

Grinding noise from the front and to a lesser degree from the back at low speed and during slow turns. The dealer couldn't find any problem, now I find out that there is a TSB 02-03-10-003 from June '02 that shows that the problem is caused by the tires. I just put 4 new Michelins on today and the noise is gone.

CD's self-ejecting that are "fogged up"

when the AC is on. There's a bulletin on this also 01-08-44-004 that calls for an AC plenum seal replacement.

Keyless entry had a range problem that the dealer blamed on bad batteries, the final problem after 3 visits is the receiver. Seams that there is a problem with the units that are internal to the radio, installing an external receiver

takes care of this.

Whistling noise from the back of the car when doing over 60 mph, dealer told me that they couldn't find the problem. Found the solution in newsgroup and put

silicone sealer around the spoiler to trunk pylons.

Cruise control indicator lamps did not turn on when the cruise control was on. After having it 3 days, the service rech found the problem was caused by a grounded wire in the drivers door (?).

Cruise control will downshift when it needs to pickup more that 3 mph when on the freeway instead of using the accelerator. The dealer claims that they all do it, but after driving roughly 20 different Grand Ams and Aleros rentals over the last year, I can definitely say they don't. I'm still fighting this one.

Overall, it really hasn't been a bad car and a lot of this would never have happened if GM changed the composition of their rotors.

Thank God for ALLDATA, it's much easier

to fight with the dealer when you have the bulletin in hand and well worth the $20 USD.

The car accelerates cleanly and quickly and handles like a BMW 5 series.

The "Fun and Sun" sound package (AM/FM/Cass/CD) is clean and crisp, but does need a bit of tweaking once you switch from the auto equalizer modes.

Seating handles 2 adults and 2-3 small children without any problem, but if you need to put adults in back, they'll wish they had the extra 6" that a Taurus or Sable has.

If GM had the sense that God gave a goat they'd roll the Alero into the Buick line or kill the Malibu and add it as an

upper end Chevy.