1997 Oldsmobile Aurora review from North America

They probably should have named this car the Gremlin, except that name was already taken.

We have fought electrical problems with this car every since we bought it.. First the lights would come on and off when the car was turned off and run down the battery. We managed to clean the light switch with some contact cleaner to wash out all the extra grease and finally that problem is solved.

The other huge problem with this car is that everything you will most likley to have to work on is extremely inaccessible. The starter is under the intake manifold! The water-pump is on the back end (drivers side) of the engine along with the waterpump belt which is driven off of one of the camshafts. Its probably the poorest designed engine I have ever seen for ease of maintenance. There is no ease of maintenance. I have no clue what the engineers were trying to achieve here. No wonder Oldsmobile had to shut down.

I can't wait to get rid of this car. My conscience will bother me for a while after I sell it to some poor unsuspecting soul. Although a brand new car will probably serve as a consolation prize to make me feel better. I would sell this car to my worst enemy if I could get them to buy it! The Oldsmobile Aurora drives great, but gets the Lemon Award for lack of reliability. After owning a great totally reliable Park Avenue Ultra this car is a total let down. Sigh.