2000 Oldsmobile Intrigue sterling edition review from North America

The transmission had to be re-built at 20 000KM.

The transmission had to be replaced at 37 000KM.

I really like this car. It handles very well especially at highway speeds.

It's comfortable and the fit and finish is as good as any GM model.

However, almost since my wife drove it off the lot it had a problem. From a stop it would sometimes seem to rev up then lurch ahead. Last summer we took it to the dealer. We got the usual "we can't find a problem" blarney from the service manager. A call to the owner and GM Canada Customer Service and the service manager agreed to keep it for a month while we were on vacation.

They found what they thought to be the problem and re-built the transmission.

All was well for about six months then it started "lurching" again. The last month as we were about to leave the grocery I shifted into reverse, the whole car seemed to jump in the air... then nothing; no reverse, no forward, nothing.

We had it towed back to the dealer who agreed to replace the transmission with a brand new one on warranty.

Now, I've no complaints about that however the fact they did it without much fuss makes me wonder if GM knows something about these transmissions it's not sharing.

I hope the transmission was just a fluke, the kind of thing that's inevitable when you make a million widgets a day. Fingers crossed.