2001 Oldsmobile Alero from North America - Comments

I bought a 2001 Alero new. From the start I have done all maintenance exactly as scheduled and recommended by GM. I also check it all over closely about twice a month and always wipe this spot on the engine here and tighten that gear clamp a little there and that is how I am with all vehicles and equipment I have ever owned. Have had to replace the starter due to occasional grinding at about 95000 km. Replaced tires, new battery, and once or twice have had the security system screw up and had to do the ten minute wait. Drove once from Saskatchewan to Halifax to Florida to Texas to California to home again. Got good gas mileage and no problems other than needed a front end alignment after hitting a dead porcupine laying on the road at night in Oregon.

Now have 177,000 kms and I must just live in an area where the good Aleros were shipped. I know 3 other people with Aleros from 2000, 01 and 02. Whenever I happen to see them for a few minutes we talk cars and we have all had great luck with the Alero.

I am sorry to hear so many people on the web sites with so many Alero problems. Here in Saskatchewan that doesn't seem to be the case and the owners, mechanics and dealers generally think the car is good and solid with lots of power and a normal amount of problems.

Maybe I have just been lucky or maybe it is because I keep such a close eye on vehicles and equipment, but I have never had a lemon, never had a vehicle break down in the middle of nowhere, never had a vehicle blow an engine, etc. My dad and my Grandpa were farmers and they had lots of equipment and it usually wasn't new so they had to keep a close eye on everything so that is where I developed that habit too.

All my uncles, brothers, cousins etc are all the same way and no one as far as I know has ever had serious vehicle problems other than occasional transmission or fuel system problems or driveshafts or something like that. Most of us keep vehicles for long periods of time and they finally simply wear out and die.

In the whole family tree, on the farming side we are mostly John Deere believers and have always had good luck there. On the vehicle side, we are mostly Ford trucks and a mixture of Ford/GM cars with a scattering of Hondas and Toyotas among the young kids off to University. Hardly anyone has any connections to Chrysler/Dodge it seems. like.

To the person who made the following post on: 10th Nov 2007, 14:56.

You must be the lucky one. I used to have a 2002 Alero GL2 V6 Fully Loaded with Sunroof. I owned the car for approximately 18 months and it is the worst car I have ever owned. In those 18 months I was nearly killed twice because of brake and electrical malfunctions. The first thing you're going to say to me is that "well maybe you got it from a bad dealer". I say nope, I got it from Saskatoon's largest Chevrolet Dealer, I'll give you a hint, they were also the only Oldsmobile dealer in Saskatoon before Olds was shut down. Perhaps the moto "You get what you pay for applies?" Well I paid around $13,000 for the car and it had 58,000kms on it and was still under warranty.

The car was an optimum used vehicle and it passed their "optimum inspection". When confronted with problems I discussed it with them and I was told the issues I'm experiencing are normal. That said, allow me to elaborate on the issues I had.

Perhaps the worst experience I had with it was 4 months after I purchased it. In April of 06 I was coming out of my parents place when I went to press the brakes and the pedal would not move. I was almost t-boned on the drivers side by an oncoming vehicle since I could not stop. I used the e-brake, but since there was ice I slid right in to the intersection. I took it to the dealership and their inspection found that the calipers had ceased, the back rotors had rusted through, and the brake booster was shot.

My next near death experience, it was the end of March 07 when I had a job interview in Regina (I graduated from the U of S in April of 07). I arrived in Regina and was driving down Ring Road when I hit the brakes and the entire car shut off and I almost drove in to the back of the semi in front of me. I reefed on the e-brake and tossed it in to the ditch. Fortunately I was okay and parked the car for several weeks and once I got the job I traded it in, that was the last straw, my safety is worth more to me than a car.

Now, lets discuss repairs. Brake pads, rotors, tires, windshield, that's normal maintenance so I'm not about to slag the car for that. The calipers ceasing I will. I have never seen a vehicle in our families history having a rotor cease. Now, the signal lights that don't work, is an issue of the car. The blower motor that rattles is poor engineering. The windows that stopped rolling down is an issue of poor design. The engine that began leaking fluid through the lower intake manifold gasket, well just google it and you'll see this is a recurring problem with ALL gm v6's. Lets look at the transmission that stopped shifting at 90,000kms, again, poor engineering.

The bottom line is, these cars are junk. The Alero is probably the main reason GM shut down all of Oldsmobile. Seeing the number of people on this site, and others, who experience the same issues as me also tells me it's just a poorly made car. Perhaps you got a good piece. Perhaps you got the 5% of these cars that aren't junk.

I traded in my Alero and bought a Mazda 3. Let me tell you, I'll never buy from GM again. Bye bye GM, you just lost 40 years of customer loyalty because you don't stand behind your product.

I have a 2002 Alero. I bought it at the beginning of 2005. It is an automatic, all power, Polo Green.

When I got it, it had 25,000 miles.

I had loved them since I first laid eyes on them. After I bought it, and I got it very cheap by the way... I was researching online. I was horrified, the only thing I could find on the model was complaints. I thought for sure I was doomed to have every common problem that I read about, due to the fact the car had such low miles and was 3 years old, and I got it so cheap.

This is the beginning of the third year with my car; I love it, I love it, I love it... however, I cannot say I would buy another one because of all the trouble others are complaining of. I could not be that lucky twice in a row.

The only problem I have had with my car in the 3 years I have had it, happened just last week. My CD Player wasn't working, so I had my dealership replace it with another factory stereo. Since they installed it, I haven't been able to get any radio stations, everything was static. I have a Rockford Fosgate punch system I am wanting to put in the car, but with the security system, I wasn't trying to have just anyone install the system.

My friend was looking at what was going to be involved in disabling the system. Upon looking up under the dash, he pointed out the antenna wire was just hanging there, and that was the problem with the radio. I let him pull my stereo out, to plug the wire in. The car was running when he did this. Nothing was unplugged or plugged in, the wire mysteriously ended up being too short??? Put everything back together, and went to shut the car off, couldn't turn the key past accessory and it was stuck in the ignition. The car was off, but the accessories remained on, with the key in the ignition. I drove it like this for 3 days, (broke right now right after Christmas, had to wait till payday to get it to the garage.).

Went to my moms, turned the car off, and it went to the off position with great ease. Keys came out. I was thrilled. when I went to start the car, the key goes in, door chimes come on, dome light, but I cannot turn the key at all. It is completely locked up, and the security light is also blinking. So... does anyone have any ideas what this could be? Someone said the lock cylinder went bad, but I just found it to be too much of a coincidence that it happened exactly at the time the stereo was removed.

Well, at any rate, overall, I am satisfied with my Alero, beyond satisfied, I love it! Guess you win some, you lose some. My sister and my cousin have Grand Ams, same year; my cousin loves hers, never had a problem, and my sister hates hers and wishes someone would steal it. She has pretty much the same problems with her grand am as others have with their Aleros.

Security Camera's.

Hello Alero Owners:

I have a 2001 Alero, and I have had all of the same problems that many of you had. The window has been repaired twice. The brakes had to be repaired before the warranty went out. I had to pay over $500.00 twice because the electrical system went out and I could not start my car. Once, it was repaired we it was also under warranty. I don't know what to say besides I had to park the car after the knob on the gears shifter popped off. I couldn't believe it when it dropped into my hand. This is the worst vehicle I ever had is what I thought.

So I go back to General Motors product and buys a 2006 Equinox off the show room floor and just before the warranty goes off in the summer, I took it to have the basic checkup. Also, they had to replace the starter and the left window was broke. I got my truck back and everything was fine until November when I went to turn on the heat. To my surprise, I had no heat. I went back to the dealer, now that the car is off warranty, and they say, that they did not cause the problem. I explained that I came to them with heat and they are the only ones who have repaired my vehicle and I wanted it fixed. They told me for them to even take a look at my vehicle it was going to cost me $165.00. I am so upset with General Motors because both cars are now paid for and both are broke.

What's a girl to do?

I am determine to put security camera's in my vehicle in different places when I take it for another repair at this same GMAC dealer. I plan to sue them when I catch them doing wrong because I know they pry on women and elderly.

Oh my goodness, the problems mentioned are the ones I've experienced. Won't start, with security light on - thanks for the 10 min. advice. Driver window won't work. Lights came on, so had to replace some assembly. CD player went out. Add radio buttons now peeling. There are others but what a great site this is, to allow people to share experiences. I thought the extra warranty GM offered would cover typical GM problems, but they continue past the 5 years - and with only 50,000 miles. Oh well.

The Lexus I bought used has run forever - pushing 200,000 miles with few issues. I hate to say buy 'foreign', but I think a Honda or Toyota (made in the US) would have served me better.

To 2001 Alero owners.

I went on-line today to see how many others have the same problems I've been having. To my dismay I see it's quite a list. Luckily I haven't had any of the electrical problems, but I did have to have the fan replaced, after warranty of course. I've replaced the brakes several times, had the calipers replaced. I have the same problem with the ABS system not working because of the hub assembly. I've replaced it once and now it needs it again. I was thinking about getting it fixed and getting rid of it, you helped me make up my mind, it's definitely going. I wish GM would have done something seeing as this has been such a big problem for everyone. It's sad to see so many of you will never buy a GM product again since my husband works there. I'm definately going to do more research for my next car.

For everyone with electrical problems on their Aleros, look to the fuse block on the drivers side of the dash. When you open the door there will be a removable panel where the fuse block is. Check for any corrosion in the fuse block by pulling some of the fuses and relays. Have seen water leaks from the top corner of windshield leak water on the fuse block, and they cause all kinds of electrical problems. I would not recommend trying to clean this up, I would replace whole block and repair the water leak.

All that I can say if you buy a used car, you don't know how it has been maintained.

Bought my 2001 Alero V6 new off the lot 09/2001. Very pleased with this vehicle. As of 05/21/2008 I have driven the car 436,000 miles with no major problems.

My problem experienced are listed on "Excellent car, Wish I could buy another" article. Original engine (no overhaul). I am still driving on a daily basis with a weekly commute to work of 1100 miles round trip. This is used as a daily driver, complete with trailer hitch for hauling twin seadoo trailer.

Still gets 28.4 mpg. Does not burn any oil between changes (12,000 mile oil (synthetic) changes).

Have written GM congratulating them on the reliability and design of this vehicle. There only comment was that it was not unusual for Loyal GM customers to contact them with 500k up to 1 million miles on there cars. I answered yeah, right... And how many engines and how old were these vehicles.

In return for my letter of commendation of their engineering, GM sent me a free oil change. I returned their certificate with a note reading "The only reason this vehicle has performed as it has is that I have been using 100% Synthetic oil since day one. Thanks for the certificate, but save it for somebody who uses your service centers."

I bought my car brand new in 2001, with the extended warranty covered to 65000 miles. Well, in the warranty time I had the following things repaired.

Both front spin sensors rusted out (poor design), blower motor resistor (poor design, re-designed).

Other than that the car has worked great, the usual things needed replaced.

Tires, brakes, however the rotors have never needed replaced, fluid changes.

I added a remote start added around 50k, which is when the security started acting goofy, I think the bypass module fixed it.

My 2001 Malibu needed the manifold seal, which is same engine in Alero, mine has the 2.4l (under warranty, every GM 3100 V6).

Now we're at 80k and all hell has broken loose at once. ABS, trac-off, SVS light, are all one. I suspect another bad wheel sensor, didn't really care to get it looked at.

Passenger front window fell off the track, and yes you can't buy just the plastic clips, stupid.

Hazard mount broke, turn signals work though. The turn signals BTW are controlled through the hazard relay built into the hazard button. Replacing that part will solve that problem.

Dome light falls out sometimes, pops back in though. Oh, and the rear defrost quit. But now I have no choice but to get it looked at.

Today the car just shut off on my brother while driving it. It is not the fuel pump, the car starts right back up and keeps going. Did not shut off on me at all on the way home. Cycled the engine about 10 times and could not duplicate hard starting or stall, though it has had this problem recently. I'm getting the oil changed and an estimate on all problems.

They made this car to work for a certain amount of time before everything started to break. It's not coincidence by any chance, they know how long parts will last so it will make the dealer a killing on repairs. I treat all my cars respectfully and have all odd things checked and repaired.

I have about given up on this car. I own it, but I don't want to sink $800 or $1000 for something else to go wrong at 90k miles. Forget it, I'll get another car.

I wrote the above comment. I have an update for anyone who is troubled by this car stalling. The dealer just told me that the "crankshaft position sensor" is bad. Will cost $119 to fix, which is pretty fair. My dealer is pretty good at finding what's wrong with my car. Also, the LF ABS hub sensor is bad, 2nd time replacing. They last about 4 years before needing replaced. I guess I'll keep her for a while, I thought the stalling problem would outweigh what the car is worth.

I have a 2003 Alero and yes it is a piece of junk. I have replaced the front hub aka wheel bearings on both sides. Garage in town did the second one almost for free. I have the security issue which from all the information that I have read is the BCM which I'll purchase and install. The brakes grate like they are bad but have lots of surface on the pads so I'll replace the rotors in another month. Interior plastic parts seem a bit on the cheap side. I am trading this car off as soon as I fix the security issue as I see this car as an endless money pit. I have also reset the passenger side window back on its track with a touch of super glue on each plastic clip and have yet to try it. Too bad the quality is so poor as it gets great gas mileage and it is a very nice looking car. No wonder GM is sinking like a rock in a deep pond.