What are you opinions about the Olds Aurora? How many have owned or driven one? Would you buy one?

Personally, I love them. My parents owned one which I got the pleasure to drive quite a bit. Loads of power, and plenty of speed, plus all the luxury you could want, and solid as a rock. Olds at its best, in my opinion...well, except for the Delta 88, of course.

0-60 stock on these babies is right at 8 seconds, which ain't bad if you consider that they weight right at 4,000 lbs. That Northstar 4.0 makes a wide, broad torque band, and peaks at 250hp & 260 ft/lbs of torque. With just a little tinkering (intake and exhaust), given that the 4valve/cylinder configuration has twice the overall potential of a 2valver, I'd say you'd be looking at 275hp at the least.

The only problem from there is where to go next. There aren't really any aftermarket parts for them. The compression ratio is too high for any real boost. Of course, you could get plenty speed parts from the Indy racing guys...they all use Aurora motors, though they're very heavily modified. They would likely have some parts that would fit though.

What I think is funny, though, is that a salesman once told me (when I asked about the Aurora vs. a Trans Am) "oh, there's no contest. The Aurora is MUCH faster." Haha. Don't get me wrong, I love Olds, but I'd laugh pretty hard to see an Aurora beat an LS1. It could happen, but the Olds would have to be really built up.

DK

P.S. The great thing about Auroras is that they are being sold now for very cheap prices! It isn't because of low quality, it's just that the consumer demand isn't very high, which I can't understand. Once Olds got the "old person car" image, I guess nothing could save it.

those northstar engines are sweet, but just about impossible to work on. even in a bigger caddy the engine compartment is very tight. have a customer with a northstar powered caddy that needs an oil pan gasket, he's gonna wait till it gets really bad because either the engine needs to come out, or you need to find a way to support it from the top and take out the whole subframe. i give them a thumbs up for power, but 2 thumbs down for fixibility.

This is true, but look what Cadillac is doing lately. They are definitely shifting away from the "older person" styling and getting into SUV's and how about that XLR? It's like a Corvette for crying out loud

not to get too far away from the Aurora topic... but once Olds got rid of the 88 and 98, the biggest, cushiest car left was the Aurora, and then when they downsized THAT to an even smaller, sportier car it left most of Olds's older buyers out in the cold.

I'm not knocking the Aurora.... I think it's a great car, but it might have been too much of a shift getting rid of the 88 and 98 and not keeping a bigger cushier sedan in the line for the older customers.

as an example: when I was working at the Olds dealer I remember an older couple bringing in their early 90's Regency 98 and wanting to trade it in for a newer model. The salesman had nothing new to offer them! He tried to put them in an Intrigue, then an Aurora, but they didnt want a car like that. They kept saying that it was "too stiff". Of course we know that that "stiffness" means better handeling and cornering but this older couple that probably wil never break 55 on the highway doesn't care about that. I saw Oldsmobile loose another loyal customer right there... and because MANY of the customers were older I'm sure this happened alot.

Well, I think it was small mistakes like that which caused oldsmobile to "shut down" This is the last year the the Aurora and I think that is really sad. I would love to have and Aurora someday. They are going for good prices and they are powerful. Not to mention they have leather seats. My dream Aurora is a whit one with a sunroof! It's sad to see the Aurora...and of course olsmobile...go, but that just means our cars will become classics sooner, and in 30 or 40 years, they will be really cool to have.

Hold on to your oldsmobiles people. Oldsmobile is going to be worth something very soon... Something that you cannot buy anymore always gets very pricey...

Especially the 60's and early 70's, since they're already classics.

There arent too many major car companies that have gone under (well, discontinued production if that sounds better), I kinda wonder what will happen in the long run...

In the older days, they made cars so easy to work on, and simple nothing to complex, like my 85 olds, and probably most of the 80's and early olds owners at this forum can say its relatively easy to work on yours cars. Back than alotta people use to repair the cars themselves, but these days the newer cars need to be taken to mechanics, its sort of doing it on purpose for more business for the dealership later on when those tough to replace or change parts need changing, and also making it compact also makes it lighter in some cases and more aerodynamic for the engine comparements and the whole front ends.

That is verry true. My brother has a 88 fiero and you would think it would be darn near impossible to work on the engine because it is such a small car, when in fact it's easier to work on his engine then mine
I also have a friend who went from having a 85 5.0 Mustang to having a 92 grand am. He finds it harder and harder to fix his grand am! I guess it's just another reason old cars rox!

Amen to that... it also helps that I have a TON of open room under the hood. I can probably change all 8 of my spark plugs in under 2 minutes! there's absolutely nothing in the way.

My 3.3 pretty easy to work on, i still have lots of room and so does my dad's 94 w/ the 2.2L. however the coilpacks on my dad's engine are on the back side under the exhaust and hard as hell to get to. tons of roomm and they put them there, probalby so the average home mechanic would get fustrated and take it somewhere to fix it.

yeah, changing plug wires on those cars is always such a pain. they are pretty accesible from the bottom if the car is on a lift... but a car shouldn't have to be off the ground to get to the plug wires and coil packs.

i can't complain much about working on my car. the only thing that is a pain is the back plugs because my arm doesn't really fit between the strut tower bar and the firewall, but thats my fault i guess, strut tower bar wasn't there from the factory.

airbagged ciera...wait till you have to replace a crank sensor on the '94...THEN you'll truly understand "pain in the ass"...the crank sensor is in the side of the block underneath the ignition module and coil packs, and usually swells and cracks due to being coated in oil and subjected to high temperatures for so long...I've had instances where the top broke off during removal, and the only way to get it out was to pull the oil pan and knock the remainder of the crank sensor thru the block and let it fall out the bottom of the engine...

There is a BIG difference between worken in my 85 Ciera Brougham Holiday Coupe then my dad's 2000 Civic LX. In his car everything is packed as close together as possible so that when something needs to be fixed, it needs a trip to the shop so it can be put up in the air. Change the oil on my Olds is a 5 min. job, on the Civic it takes 5 min just to squize under that little car, find the tinny oil filter, and the hard to see drain plug. I have to give GM and Olds a 95 out of 100 for building a car with enough room to get my hands in places I couldn't touch in the Civic.

I think it's just harder to work on newer cars period and it is done on purpose to get business after the sale. My frined's 89 honda is a dream to work on We've removed and re-installed and engine in 3 hrs. the distributor only goes in one way so you can't mess up timing. It's the same w/ my car lot's of room to work, I can figure out almost all problem's. It was especially true w/ my old 83 cutlass 4dr that was easy to fix.

that is so true my mom s 03 grand vitra i tryed to fix and there was no way in hell i could figure out any of that shit