intrigued

Well I probably have the best perspective on this as my family owned a 1995 series 2 Regency - all digital stuff with all the options, and a 2000 intrigue GLS. I's way a lot has to do with personal preference as both are great cars wfor what they are. The 98 moves fairly well for a huge luxo barge. the 3800 is extremley reliable and parts and service on it are cheap. The car is very fomortable and has a compliant ride but it deffinetly rides handles like a large car - you feel its size another words- espically in banking highway turns where it leans into it a lot. The intrigue doesn't have as much interior space of course. IT has better interior space than a present day acord though, and has a trunk that can almost match the cavernous trunk of the 98. The 98 will eat shocks and springs and brakes every 30-40 miles with combined city highway driving. The intrigue is much faster. The 3.5 lx5 shortstar is the smoothest v6 by far that GM had in this era. It likes to rev to the redline when you get on the gas but it loafs along gradually accelerating most of the time and returns pretty much identical milage to the 3800 powered intrigue. We had our lx5 intrigue for 105k miles and with one tuneup at 95k miles the engine was burning no oil and ran like th eday we bought it. My friend boaught the car and loves it. It's still running strong with him. With a car that has 40+ k miles on it I would check to see if it's burning oil. What I've read about this engine is that if you got a well put together one - the vast majority of them - than it will last you just as long as a 3800. If you got a bad one it will show in the first 30k miles so you should be able to tell on close inspection whether this is a good one or not. Just make sure to pay attention to the oil, and see how it feels when it drives. This is a low maitenance engine but make sure you get a good one because repairs will cost significantly more. The intrigue's inteior is maybe a bit less premium in fit, finish and materials but is ergonomically superior and has very comfortable seats. The intrigue has a sporty yet compliant ride and handles like a smaller car when you push it. brakeing performance of the intrigue is far superior in both pedal modulation and stopping distances - larger disks and newer generation ABS are the reason. Overall they're two very different cars. The intrigue will cost less to maintain in temrs of suspension and brakes but could potentially cost more in terms of drive train maintenance. The 98 is cavenous and a great car to stretch out and relax in but can be a little boring to drive. The intrigue is a far more spirited car to drive but is still realative roomy and much more modern. That's my breakdown. Personally I'd get the intrigue because the 98 is too slow for my taste and too big for living in an urban area where I have to squeeze cars into parrelle spaces but I can deffinetly see reason who one would want a 98. Cheers, Dan

I so want to get a solid rust free project 69 camaro, strip the paint give it a sick paint job, rebuild the suspension and brakes and drop this bad boy under the hood. Do you think that could be done for 20- 25 grand?

I have fond memories of that generation of 98, our saved my moms life. The tornado was alway an impressive personal luxury coupe. You should see about getting the engine replaced with an SC 3800, really make that Olds rocket take off!

right handed, but I would have to say that my observations from living with a lefthanded father that you are correct about different thought processes.

My parents new Aura averaged 24.3 mpg in mixed driving on it's first tank which I was very impressed with. That includes a good amount of spirited take offs on my part. I can''t wait to take this car on a long trip, I have a feeling with the tall 6th gear, turning about1950 rpms at 80 mph, that for a long haul this car will get seriously good milage. My malibu SS, well broken in with 22k miles, only manages to average about 20-21.5 mpg a tank. I did one time on a long haul manage 27 mpg, but that was a long highway trip with no traffice and good weather.

Yeah gmtruckguy, lease rate through GMAC on these are pretty miserable. There seam to be leases available acording to the purchasing options on saturn.com but none are good. I'm going to call my dealership out of curioisty tomorrow. I'm going to begas in late July, maybe I'll get lucky, who knows?

Hi all, I had thorghly enjoyed my ownership experience with my Malibu SS over the last year. Then my brother Got a Mustang and my folks got an Aura and I feel like I have the bland car of the family. The aura destorys the malibu in every way, sick powertrain blows away the 3900 4 speed combo, better styling and features for the price. My brothers Mutang has a deffinet cool factor and the RWD is great though the 4.0 V6 in it is pretty crappy and it has a solid axel and is a ford. So I was thinking what I would do to replace the malibu if I did take the plunge and this is the scheme I came up with IF I decided to get a new car. I decided the only way to get a GM RWD car thats both cool affordable and powerful would be to get the Sky redline. I would sell the Malibu in Private sale for somewhere between 13,500 and 15,000. (I won the car outright, paid off my GM loans nice and fast.) I would put down half of that on a smart lease and pocket the rest. If I put down say 6-7000 on a laoded, 31000 msrp sky redline what do you think monthly payments would work out to on a 3 year lease?

This family of intrigue/regal buyers went for the aura this month! I think next year the Aura will sell between 60-75k I think it will be like the CTS was for Cadillac. The CTS only sold about 38k for the first model year. Then it steadily made gains all the way through 2005 and held u bout steady through 2006 with relativley small losses for a last year vehicle this year. It will take time for the perceptions to change and GM is keeping the aura on such a quick product cycle that it will stay fresh for a while. Give it time, it will catch on.

It's a smart lease. Base price for a totally stipped XR is 292 a month.

Hi all. Well last weekend my parents, or rather I, pciked up their new 2007 Aura XR. We had ordered it optioned as follows. Ocean Mist exteiorior, Ebondy Leather Interior with Sunroof. Other than that just the standard XR loadout which is considerable anyways. The MSRP was going to be 27k and Payments were going to be 333 a month with $1995 and first payment due at pickup. MY dad and I, as some of you know Dad has MS and doesn't drive anymore, got dropped off by my Mom o pick up her new car while she went to do errands. IT wasn't the car we ordered. It was close but there were some differences. It was the right colors and trim but instead of the sunroof it had the Panormaic roof as well as the advanced audio system, including the rear seat wirless headhpones and six disx CD changer. I had steared them away from the Panoramic roof orignally because of the rattles I heard people taking about even though I had driven several panormic equippe G6s and never had the problem. I went up to our salesman when he broguth out the paperwork on this new almost 30k msrp Aura intent on telling him we have a problem here, this isn't the car we wanted. He beat me to it by gretting me and appoligizing profusley, saying he was so sorry but the car that they though they still had for us on an outside lot was sold and the kid they had sent to check if the car was still in inventory thought that this car was the one we wanted. I was about to say something like "that's all well and good but what are you going to do to make it up to us?" But I held that response and he went on to say that even though this car was worth 3k more they would lease it to us at the same price as the one he quoted. Also hthey would forgive the first months payment that we were suppose to pay that day and that they would give us free oilchanges for the life of the lease. I mentioned how I had heard the roof rattles and he responded telling me that they had only had one aura so far wit that problem and that if we heard any rattles bring it in and they'd stip and replace it while giving us a free loaner. My dad and I were both impressed with the service and respect shown to us by the dealer and salesman and what they did to make up for this littl stocking snafu. MY dad and I were especially happy to get the more expensive car for the same price and as long as the roof stays solid we really love the view it gives. If it doesn't, well it's only a lease and in 39 months, or sooner if we pull ahead we can get something else. Driving impreshions- I drove it off the showroom floor (literally) and took the senic route home. The dealer was 20 miles away from home so I had plenty of time to put the car through its paces. it rides more solidly than any Epsilon sedan I have driven and I have driven ever single one and have owned a Malibu SS for about a year. Even though it road more solidly it easily tied the G6 GTP I had driven in terms of handling. The 3.6 / 6 speed combo is incredible. The engine is incrediablly quite during normal acceleration where you let the 6 speed do its job (which it does seamlessly and indetectably) keeping the revs below 2500 while still moving the car very quickly. When you get on it you get a highly refined rich exhast note with the tranny willing to drop 2-3 gears at a downshift if you give it enough gas. The engine is read able and willing to race to its 7000 rpm redline, and I mean race! This thing loves to rev when you dig deep in the throttle. The paddleshifters are great. I came off a stop light that was set back from the right turn I was making in first gear. I took the car all the way to the 7k rpm redline through the apex of the turn only earning subtle tire shirp and shifted into 2nd to take the car to about 65. The paddleshifters are the best manumatic mode I have ever used in a GM car. The torque stear s very well managed, much better than my malibu SS, and was rarley felt at all. With the tracton and stilibtrack set to off I floored the car from a dead stop in manual first gear. The car accelerated in a straigt line with almost zero torque stear but didin't go very fast as it laid down about 60 feet of rubber and didn't get traction till I shifted into second gear! The car's stereo is the best I have heard in a saturn and probably equal to anything in the GM stable short of a Cadillac. The Seat's are supportive and comfortable with 8 way poer a seat heates standard. The car's interios is much quier than my friends current gereration accord. My glowing praise of the drive train and ride aside the car does have a few design shortcomings, though nothing major. The trunk is shallow for some reason, probably the sleaker body lines than my tallish malibu has. The interioe is well assembled but I certain parts of the dash are overly hard plastic. I wish the car came with a DVD nav option though the turn by turn worked very well. Overall it's a great car. I wish it had been out when I got my malibu i would have certainly gotten it myself. Oh yeah fuel econemy seams to be spot on if not better than the EPA and that was with some agressive driving the first quarter tank. I'll have pictures up tomorrow. I'm going home again this weekend and will take some pics. Overall I have to give saturn a solo homerun. This car won't make them toop of the class but it gives them serious credientials that will allow them to change perception and get more peope willing to pay the price of entry of the next Aura. This car is the tying run. The next one will put saturn in the lead.

My folks tried getting their points transfered but GM put the brakes on that idea. The thing with this card that saturn takes is you only earn a 20 percent of the points you would with the nromal GM card with the same amout of money spent.

Hey BV. My friend who bought the seat next to me (so we could have two seats between us and take other people to them games when we couldn't make the games ourselves) is gay. Maybe you'd like to meat him? It's funny, since I've been a more active baseball fan I have disocvered that my friend knows by far more about baseball than I do, largley dispelling the preconception I had that I would know more about the game than him. I recently accused him of only knowing so much about it because of his attraction for the players. He responded that it was for the love of the game though he does have a crush on David Wright and would like John Maine more except for the fact that he thinks "pitchers are wierd." Anyways, I just closed my office door and am changing into my Mets gear. I will soon be departing Norwalk CT for Shea Stadium in Queens NY. Normally about an hour drive. Today, I'll be happy if I get there by the second inning because of traffic. I also hope the game doesnt get called because of rain. Nothing like paying 10 bucks worth of gas 9 in tolls and 14 in parking just to wait around for a game to be called. Anyways my inane ranting is due to my excitment... let's go METS!!!

Thats funny Chevy, Im iun a somewhat similar situation. Half my family are Yankee fans and Half are Mets fans. Up untill 2000 we lived Quite harmoniously but ever since then we go to war during baseball season. My Dad, Grandmother (Mom's mother who lives with us.) and Aunt (Mom's sister who lives with us) are all Yankee fans. My Mom, my brother and myself are all Mets fans. (so was my Grandfather on my mom's side who lived with us until he passed away two year ago.) As you can see the married couples were split down the middle. My brothers wife is a Boston fan so she routes for the Mets by default.

I thought as a point of interest I would post something about the impending subway series in NY. I was born just a bit outside of Queens and have been, for my entire life, a huge Mets fan. Such a huge Mets fan that at the age of 20 I have became a season ticket holder at the begging of this season (with much hard earned cash bartending as my second job.) Even though I've probably been to about 60 Mets games prior to this year I have never been able to get my hands on subway series tickets at a resonable price, or at least not at a price I could afford to pay because I would likely have payed an unresonable price just to go. So as long as it doesn't get rained out tonight I will be attending the first of the three game series. I predict Mets domination due to their superior pitching and the general athletisism of the much younger faster and better fielding team. Who will by watching or going? Who will you be rooting for?

I'll have pictures up as soon as they take delivery. That should be in less than two weeks. It will probably be sooner but there is now way I am driving home this weekend to see it when I have three Yankees Mets games to go to this coming weekend. Let's go Met's!

My folks have been looking into getting a new car recently. Their criteria was midsized FWD/AWD v6 car. Now my folks had always been on the get a new car every 3 years or so cycle until my dad decided to retire from his law practice in 2003 because he couldn't take the stress and how it exhaserbated his illness anymore (he has MS.) So now he teaches law and does internal stuff at Yale. With our house in westport finally sold and our expenses realigned after four years of learning to live more economically and on less in general, he and my mom felt it's time to replace their 2000 intrigue. Now I have to give props to the intrigue. best car we have ever owned hands down. 95k miles and all that's been done to it has been, 1 new battery, 1 set of new tires, 1 set of new rotors and pads and an oil change very 5-6k miles. Thats all and the cars been great. We sold it to a friend for $3500 with th understanding that the car needs a tuneup (barley it still runs great but it does hesitate just a tick if you floor it off the line now) and a new set of shocks and springs. Now that we had found a good home for our old car, we had to decide what we were going to consider. My parents have bought exclusivley GM cars since the late 70s. My dad had a bad experience with a Plymouth once and for some reason never really liked Fords. He bought two citations in a row in both 79 and 81. They were great cars for us. Both exceeded 300k miles no problem. From there they moved to Oldmobile and have been there ever since. three 98 Regencys, 1 Delta 88, a Cutlass ciera, 2 aleros and an intrigue later there are no more oldsmobiles to buy. Straight off we ruled out Cadillac as too expensive, or at least more than we wanted to spend. I got a malibu SS recently and like it but its a little too racy for my parents taste. I ruled out the W-bodies for them because I don't think they should be driving a car I feel, while competent, is at least one generation past it's prime. That left us with two contenders. The G6 or the Aura. After some diliberation my parents will be leasing (as my mom barley drives 8k a year now) a new 2007 Aura XR in Ocean mist with an Ebony leather interior. It's a sharp looking car and boy does it drive well. I rguarly borrow my friends 2004 accord EX v6 and this things blows it away. It handles as well as the Accord but with a much more compliant ride. the 3.6 is smooth and sounds great all the way to redline and the 6 speed tranny shifts seamlesly unlike the crappy Honda 5 speed. So it looks my family is becoming a saturn one. At least we're staying within GM and buying the car of the year.

If I hand wash and wax my car it will be perfect and spotless before I finally finish. One time this resulted in a four hour car wash. Thats why I normally just take the car to a car wash these days and I touch up the few spots they miss. I also like the front or rear windows to be done the same amount. My only other real quirks are how I dress myself and what I keep in my pockets. I always pick out what I will wear for work the next day the night before. I arrange them very specifically so i don't have to think about the order I put stuff on. Once I am dressed my watch goes on my left arm as I am right handed, then pen goes in my shirt pocket. Wallet goes in back left keys and gum go in front right and cell goes in front left. I am most anal about people messing around with files on my PCs. If you move a file and I catc you your just flat out dead.

Id like to know how many fusions are being fleeted bow that the Taurus is gone.

Saturn is doing alright but I really expected them to be selling more Aura's by now. Buick's just this side of Dead, They can't get the Enclave fast enough and they need the EP2 LAcrosse and another product after that pronto. Chevrolet is looking alright. The Impala is still strong and the cars that were week are ones that are about to replaced or refreshed. Either way only about 20k sales difference for the entire divison which really isn't bad at all considering a lot fo things are slumping slightly after being on the market for a few year. But guess waht GM has enhanced or completley new models to replace those starting to loose steam right around the corner! They finally got their product cycle working right. Pontiac seams to be doing very well on the retail side. They were up for the month retail wise despite the heavily fleeted GP being way down. Looks like the rentals are bing pulled out of pontiac and they are still clinging to their volume with reduced incentives to boot! Cadillac is an interesting story. Trucks and SRX are doing great. ALL the cars are down. I know the new CTS will do wonders for the CTS family. Hopefully the STS refresh does the trick too. Hummer is hurting but they have some new products around the bend. OVerall GM is doing pretty well.

I'm a little suprised that only two people expressed excitment. I guess HP fans are underrepresented among car enthusiests. Still with over 100 million copies fold in the US along its hard to belive that there aren't more fans.

Hi all, I just wanted to ask, since Ihave never seen any mention in the lounge, is anyone hwere a big Harry Potter fan? I am a huge one and I can't wait for the seventh and final book to come out this July 21st, Harry Potter and the Deathley Hallows. I enjoy the movies but as with most good books the movies don't hold a candle to the books. Anyways just asking. can't wait for the 112 days till the book release.

Visual the movie was stunning. The fight sequences were amazing. The script was a huge steaming turd thought. There were parts that made me burst out laughing and it was NOT the intention of the director. The part where evreyone was chanting traitor made me crack. They were all so monotone when they were chanting 'traitor' it seemed like they were zombies. It just was silly at parts.

Are you serious? That's awsome. I hope he gets back to you and says yes. IF you're pulling my leg that's just mean though.

thats a damn powerful engine. I hope they bring it to the US and spread it over the rest of the foreign Caddies.

I think that the Olds Profile concept was epsilon based also. It had the exact proportions of a malibu MAXX, though it supported AWD. AWD was stil lsomething being tinkered with for epsilon at that point though. It also had a 3.5 liter engine making 250 hp and 260 ftlbs. Most people thought it was an uprated shortstar. I found it was only an 18 valve engine though. Could this have been an LX9 like in the malibu but with the 3 valve per cylinder heads? The Pofile was a much better concept of Old's future than the O4 I think...