This could be an interesting driver for $3000. Great shape low miles Aurora Oldsmobile 1999 - cars & trucks - by... (craigslist.org)
I wouldn't be surprised to see these skyrocket in price sometime in the near future. The Aurora really was a forward-thinking car for the time and quite a departure for Oldsmobile. These were somewhat technologically advanced for their time and I remember thinking these were some of the most refreshing and unique car designs on the road when they came out. Honestly, I think the design holds its own, even today. I can't remember now, didn't these have issues of some kind with the V8 engine, or the suspension components...or something?
The V8 in these are bassicly a small bore Northstar, and they can have the same head gasket issues as the Cadillac versions. They were nice cars, but I would be leary of all the period "high Tech" features, as I don't know how to repair them when they go bad.
Jeff's right. The worst part of these cars outside the Northstar issues everyone knows about is the high tech options going bad. Some cars are better about this than others, I don't know much about the Olds side of these cars but I know the Pontiac ones had some really crazy expensive and difficult to repair options like HUD. A 1999 is old enough that most things should still be relay and +12V control, it gets bad after 2004-2005 when everything goes to CAN bus serial controllers. Get the service manual and wiring diagrams and you're probably ok... if you can actually find the specialty parts and plastics as GM plastic from this era is notoriously cheap and fragile, even 10-15 years ago.
I have had a 2001 Eldorado ETC since new. I can attest to the head gasket issues for the Northstar V8. For mine, the high tech features continue to operate normally and the interior still looks good - currently at 144k miles. (Knock on the wood steering wheel.)
Glad to hear your Eldorado is doing well, at least the Olds on C/L has Standard gauges, not digital ones. That is a big plus IMO. But for the asking price you probably can't go wrong. Even if you had to redo the head gaskets & head bolts in the near future. I did the head bolts on my older brothers 1998 Eldorado about 5-6 years ago. It really wasn't that bad, but it took me 2 weekends to complete the job. It only had 75K miles on it. It now has over 150K. And he is happy with it,
I was thinking it was a baby Northstar, but I couldn't remember for sure. While I'm sure an Aurora would be fun to own for at least a little while, I wouldn't want to deal with its obsolescence either. They're neat for what they are, but I'd be extremely leery about buying one. While I totally agree, I'm not sure that will be enough to keep these from rising in value sometime in the future. Either through new and upcoming interest from younger buyers and/or not quite fully understanding what they're getting into. In today's market, I wouldn't be surprised if these skyrocket at some point. Even if only for a year or two. I've heard as long as the head bolts are done before the 80k mark that the Northstar is an otherwise solid and reliable engine. A family friend of ours had a 1993 Eldorado with a miraculous 580k miles on the original head bolts! It not grenading with that amount of mileage is probably a one in a million though.
I think alot depends on if the owner changes the coolant at regular intervals of around 5 years regardless of the miles. My brother beleived the 100,000 mile claim on the coolant, and his was around 15 years old when the the inner head bolts pulled the aluminum threads out of the block. I have convinced him to change the coolant every 5 years even after replacing the original fin thread head bolts with the repair kits course thread bolts. He hasn't had an issue yet. But the coolant is only around 5-6 years old now. I dought he will change it before he wears out the car. I think the acid build up in the coolant starts a dissimilar metal corrosion issue, and the fine thread bolts don't hold up to it well. All the bolts that pulled on his engine were thru holes into the coolant passages. I think they are like Pontiac 301's your either get a good one or a bad one. My mother put over 300,000 trouble free miles on a 301 4bbl in her 1980 Buick Lesabor. I would spin a main bearing on most of mine in under 50,000 miles, but i did get over 130,000 mile out of the only one I bought new, a 79 Firebird Formula 4-speed. So who knows.
