1999 Oldsmobile Alero GLS review from North America

Brakes at 100,000kms. I don't know if the previous brakes were original, but I'm going to guess they were not. The brakes also had to be replaced at the 130,000km mark when we sold it. $200 Canadian each time.

Heater Fan resistor pack. Replaced 5 times between 86,000 and 130,000kms. $50 part + $100 repair.

Heater Fan Replaced Twice. $250 each time.

Low oil light came on once, added oil and checked levels. Oil seemed fine. The light stayed on until I took it in. The mechanic said that I probably had a small hole in the oil pan and when I would turn the pressure would drop indicating low oil or something. The problem never came back after that day. $100.

Driver side window came off tracks at 125,000 kms.

$500 repair.

Rust started to form around door sills at about 100,000kms.

This was my first car, purchased in 2003 for about $7,000 CDN. All in all it was a decent car. But I am not sure if my opinion is biased or not because until recently I have only owned GM and Ford vehicles which have a reputation for constant breakdown.

The Alero's styling is very nice, it looks like a nice car and gives that appeal that it may be worth a little more than it actually is. The interior was nice, I had the standard grey cloth, but it was comfortable. So comfortable I sometimes would fall asleep while driving. The back seat was terrible to sit in. Especially on longer rides. My passengers always complained. BTW I had the 2-door GLS.

The ABS and traction control helped in the snow. The car would handle great in all conditions.

The 2.4L Twin Cam was the smallest engine available, which gives the illusion that it would be good on gas. This thing was absolutely terrible on gas. The worst 4cyl gas consumption I have ever seen. I would get as low as 20 mpg highway some weeks. I took it in to my mechanic to get it looked at to see if there was anything wrong with the engine or fuel system and he couldn't find anything. I tried high performance filters and plugs/wires and nothing seemed to help. Basically my biggest problem was that I had this 140hp engine that got 10 less mpg then most Japanese cars with the same amount of horsepower, I just didn't see the trade off.

With the Alero I ran into many costly repairs, mainly the heater fan resistor packs. I replaced it 2 times every winter. I also replaced the heater fan twice because the resistor pack had shorted it out. This was really annoying because there were days when it was really cold and my heater wouldn't work, and I still had to drive to work for 50kms. I ended up selling the car for half of what it was worth, just to get rid of it.