Last Oldsmobile to roll off assembly line Thursday

[MJN2]

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — The last Oldsmobile is scheduled to roll off a Lansing assembly line this week, ending production of an automobile line that began in the city in 1897.Thursday's end has been anticipated since December 2000, when General Motors (GM) announced it would discontinue the brand."Generations of people in Lansing have been touched by Oldsmobile, either by making them in the plant or driving them down the road," General Motors spokeswoman Kim Carpenter told the Lansing State Journal. "We want to give Oldsmobile the send-off it deserves."The last Oldsmobile will be an Alero, the only model still in production. General Motors has slowly phased out other Olds models the past few years.The final Alero will go to Lansing's R.E. Olds Transportation Museum.GM will mark the occasion with several events this week. On Wednesday, the automaker will unveil a commemorative Alero. The Final 500 Special Edition Aleros will bear special logos and certificates of authenticity."I can understand GM's business decision, but seeing Oldsmobile go is almost like a death of someone in the family," said Ken Nicholas, a long-time Olds enthusiast from Eaton Rapids.

[kostby]

Quote, originally posted by MJN2 »"We want to give Oldsmobile the send-off it deserves."Killing what was once GM's best-selling division is hardly the send-off it deserves! The 'send-off it deserves' would've been Cale Yarborough in an *ss-kicking 442 with the W-8 package doing donuts on the lawn of GM Headquarters!Let's hear it for brand-mismanagement!

[ragingfish]

It's sad...I never owned one, but the recent Alero was nice...Sad to see the end of anything that's been such a big part of history...

[MailGuy!]

That is very sad. With the Intrigue back in 97 the alero in 99 and the Aurora in 01? it looked like they were really making wonderful improvements in their cars. It's sad that GM thought the world would be better off with ugly a** Saturns than nice looking Olds. Seriously look at the last car they ever designed. The Aurora, I know it doesn't appeal to all but it was beautiful inside and out.

[ragingfish]

Today's the day...

[pmh013]

All the criminals in the Oldsmobile Gang in Regina, SK will be sad. The 80's Oldsmobiles are one of the most stolen cars in the city, giving us (well, I don't live there, but I live close enough) the distinguished title of "Car Theft Capital of Canada."

[Fformula88]

It is sad, but GM does have way too many divisions. They really tried to tie Olds's future to Saturn's back in the 90's. They figured when people grew out of their small S-series, they could sell them an Alero, Intrigue or Aurora. Thats why Olds went to those long skinny saturn like light clusters. Problem was, Saturn never developed their S series, and they lost buyers. They also failed to really connect those buyers to Olds. As a result Olds market share dwindled and it lost its place in the market.Was Olds a premium brand? An everyday brand? Above Pontiac? Equal to Pontiac? Where in relation to Buick? It lost its identity, and stopped attracting buyers. Not because the product was bad, but because it didn't distinguish itself. At the end of the day, GM is better off with one less division to compete with itself. They can slot Buick under Cadilac to get some premium buyers who are not all out luxo-car buyers, aim POntiac and the sporty end of the market, and use Chevy as its everyday brand. Yes, this leaves Saturn out of the loop too, but it should be cancelled next. Its losing its plastic panel identity, the Ion is a flop, the L series is dead, and Vue is being propped up by a Honda engine and is not nearly as good looking, or useful as the Equinox based on the same platform. Saturn has no identity either, and fewer customers. Its about to become another brand engineered division. They do not need more of that. Take the money from it and build some world class Chevy's and Pontiac's to really compete with the imports.

[ragingfish]

Personally, it would bother me more to see Saturn killed off than even olds.But then again, Olds shoulda been kept, and Buick shoulda been killed off. Buicks look so plain and boring. Olds at least had some flair in their designs...Just MHO anyway.

[MailGuy!]

Quote, originally posted by Fformula88 » Take the money from it and build some world class Chevy's and Pontiac's to really compete with the imports. I agree, get rid of Saturn and build some Chevy cars people would actually enjoy driving and owning. The concept of Saturn back in the early 90's was great. The execution was poor. Look at them now. I would be embarrased if I bought an ION. Sales are so weak they've resorted to flying a blimp that says ION on it around Phoenix this week.

[Roadpig]

The last Oldsmobile is scheduled to roll off a Lansing assembly line this weekIt'll be for the better...I hope.

[ragingfish]

Actually, the last one was built yesterday. *sniff*Sad, the end of an era.

[Fformula88]

Quote, originally posted by ragingfish »Personally, it would bother me more to see Saturn killed off than even olds.But then again, Olds shoulda been kept, and Buick shoulda been killed off. Buicks look so plain and boring. Olds at least had some flair in their designs...Just MHO anyway.Why would it bother you to kill Saturn? Just curious, as I don't think most people would even notice. There is a reason Buick was kept and is getting billions to be revived. They are one of the top 5 nameplates in quality surveys. Cadilac is the only other top 5 GM has, and the rest of their nameplates are far below those two. So they can certainly play up reliability for Buick in marketing and brand cache to compete with the likes of Lexus, Infiniti, and other premium brands. They also have the highest number of repeat buyers for any of GM's brands, where as Olds was one of the lowest. Since Buick owners come back for another Buick, you could lose a lot of sales by killing it, where as killing off Olds won't lose many repeat customers because they were not coming back anyway. Since the idea is to get conquest customers, you can double your efforts at Buick and then have a much better chance at retaining them down the road than Olds was doing. So its dead. In fact, owner retention is probably the reason Saturn has not been killed yet. There are still a lot of loyal Saturn owners, but I wonder how many will be left after they start moving into Ions.

[joatmon]

I am kind of sorry to see Oldsmobile go away. First muscle car I ever drove was a 68 442. I had a 73 Cultass supreme for a while, that car could move out. .They should have used Zeppelin for Oldsmobile commercials instead of Cadillac.

[ragingfish]

Quote, originally posted by Fformula88 »Why would it bother you to kill Saturn? Just curious, as I don't think most people would even notice. Many may see saturns as boring, plain, and even ugly. I, on the other hand, have thought they had stellar appearance since their introduction in the mid to late 90s. Yes, I did start to question their intentions when by early 2000s they STILL had not really brought any of their designs into the modern day. But then they released the ION and the L series, both of which, at first, I was like "what were they thinking" but then the designs began to grown on me. I've come to REALLY like the styling of the ION, and the VUE is pretty sweet too.Their dent resistant panels, by the way, are one of the best design features in a car to date, and I still can't understand why other makes don't adopt some sorta similar system.That, and most importantly, Saturns have amazing safety tests. Two of my Saturn-owning friends were in separate collisions that totaled the car. They both walked away unharmed.

[scherry2]

Quote, originally posted by Fformula88 » this leaves Saturn out of the loop too, but it should be cancelled next. I wouldn't be suprised if GM sold its part of Saturn. It never came thru like GM wanted it to. and all the divisions put out the same looking cars except pontiac.

[wicked1981]

I have a 2003 Alero. Nice car.

[ragingfish]

Quote, originally posted by scherry2 »I wouldn't be suprised if GM sold its part of Saturn. It never came thru like GM wanted it to. It's part? Is there another investor in it? I thought it was a wholly-owned subsidary...Quote »and all the divisions put out the same looking cars except pontiac.Certainly not Caddy! At least not anymore...modern-day Caddy's are by far the most unique cars on the road IMHO...

[Fformula88]

I agree with the points you feel are Saturn strengths, except maybe styling. I have never thought they were a standout there. I am a huge fan of plastic body panels as experienced with my Fiero, and would love to see more cars with them.The problem now and in the future is GM will be removing the strengths you see in Saturn. They are slowly moving away from plastic body panels, and you will probably see all steel cars once the current vehicles are redesigned (ground up). The Ion and Vue will be around a while, but they will be the last. Any safety advantage will be lost compared to the rest of GM too, since all their cars will be based on corporate architectures. Ion is just a delta car derrivative, as will be the Chevy Cobalt. The Vue is riding on the same chasis as the new Chevy Equinox. They are going to get an all steel minivan, basically a rebadged Chevy.The reason I thought Saturn should be killed, is because it is no longer going to be unique. Who needs another GM division with rebadged cars. There is already Chevy Pontiac and Buick sharing the same basic hardware. Saturn's identity with the composite bodies is being thrown aside, and their unique platforms have already been tossed. I would think GM is just wasting money marketing a seperate division such as Saturn, which will have no advantage over Chevy in the marketplace, and is trying to attract the same customer as Chevy.

[MailGuy!]

Could not have put it better myself. Saturn is losing everything that would have made me want to get one.

[CTSandVIBE]

Quote, originally posted by ragingfish »Certainly not Caddy! At least not anymore...modern-day Caddy's are by far the most unique cars on the road IMHO...Amen, the Art & Science design theme hooked me in. There's no way to mistake a CTS, XLR, or SRX for another car. (Escalades could still be mistaken for their GM truck counterparts though.)

[CTSandVIBE]

Quote, originally posted by MailGuy! »Hey Man, Kudos to you for getting a CTS with the man. tran. During a bike ride this weekend a CTS V passed me on a test drive. From the sound that thing made... it's got some serious cajones!Thanks! Manual is a must. It's really hard to find one in a CTS. I had to have mine trucked in from Arkansas, they're so rare.The CTS-V is a monster! It's got a slightly modified LS-1, so imagine having Corvette power in a sedan shell. **drooooool**It's a shame that stick shifts are so rare in domestics anymore. +1 to Pontiac for having one in the Vibe. Now if only they had that option for the Grand Prixs.

[Sputnik]

Anyway... back to our regularly scheduled topic.

[CTSandVIBE]

Heh, sorry bout that, the thread did veer off to no-man's-land.The only good outcome of Olds' demise (that I can think of) is that you might be able to pick up a used 2001-2004 Intrigue, Aurora, or Alero for relatively cheap. All of them, very good cars.

[Fformula88]

Quote, originally posted by CTSandVIBE »It's a shame that stick shifts are so rare in domestics anymore. +1 to Pontiac for having one in the Vibe. Now if only they had that option for the Grand Prixs.A stick would be nice in a GP. I heard a rumor the other day that GM will be putting a V8 into the GP for the 2005 model year, as well as the Monte Carlo and Impala. Still will have an autobox, and I wonder how the FWD chasis is going to handle V8 power, but it does sound rather intriguing!