The Oldsmobile Alero is a midsize car that was produced by General Motors for its

Oldsmobile Oldsmobile or formally the Oldsmobile Division of General Motors was a brand of American automobiles, produced for most of its existence by General Motors. Originally established as "Olds Motor Vehicle Company" by Ransom E. Olds in 1897, it produ ...

division. Introduced in 1998 as a 1999 model, the Alero was the replacement for both the Achieva and

Cutlass A cutlass is a short, broad sabre or slashing sword, with a straight or slightly curved blade sharpened on the cutting edge, and a hilt often featuring a solid cupped or basket-shaped guard. It was a common naval weapon during the early Age of ...

. The Alero was Oldsmobile's last new model nameplate, and — on April 29, 2004 — was also the last Oldsmobile ever built.

History

The design of the Alero was originally previewed in 1997 with the Alero Alpha

concept car A concept car (also known as a concept vehicle, show vehicle or prototype) is a car made to showcase new styling and/or new technology. They are often exhibited at motor shows to gauge customer reaction to new and radical designs which may or ...

, a V6-powered sport coupe that featured many design elements seen in the production Alero as well as some that were never meant for production. Its appearance was a revival of "

coke bottle styling Coke bottle styling is an automotive body design with a narrow center surrounded by flaring fenders which bears a general resemblance to a Coca-Cola classic glass contour bottle design. It was introduced by industrial designer Raymond Loewy on ...

", popular during the 1960s and 1970s. The Alero was sold either as a 4-door sedan or as a 2-door

coupe A coupe or coupé (, ) is a passenger car with a sloping or truncated rear roofline and two doors. The term ''coupé'' was first applied to horse-drawn carriages for two passengers without rear-facing seats. It comes from the French past parti ...

. It shared its chassis and many parts, including engines, with the

Pontiac Grand Am The Pontiac Grand Am is a mid-size car and later a compact car that was produced by Pontiac. The Grand Am had two separate three-year runs in the 1970s: from 1973 to 1975, and again from 1978 to 1980. It was based on the GM A platform. Productio ...

. All Aleros came in base ''GX'', mid-level ''GL'', or high-end ''GLS'' trim; the ''GL'' trim was split into three levels: 1, 2, and 3. The Alero experienced minimal changes during its 5-year run. Most of these changes were either in choice of engines or options. In 2003, the Alero's

daytime running lights A daytime running lamp (DRL, also daytime running light) is an automotive lighting and bicycle lighting device on the front of a roadgoing motor vehicle or bicycle, automatically switched on when the vehicle's handbrake has been pulled down, w ...

were changed from high-beam to low-beam. Chevrolet Alero front 20080121

The Alero was also sold in select countries in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

and in Israel between 1999 and 2001 as the

Chevrolet Chevrolet ( ), colloquially referred to as Chevy and formally the Chevrolet Motor Division of General Motors Company, is an American automobile division of the American manufacturer General Motors (GM). Louis Chevrolet (1878–1941) and ous ...

Alero, and was only available as a sedan. The car still featured its Oldsmobile badges even though sold under the Chevrolet brand, but since most European consumers would not recognize the badging,

badges were added to the grille and rear fascia for the 2000 model year. The Alero featured Chevrolet emblems throughout its entire run in Israel. The Alero was replaced in

, Israel, and

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

by the

GM Daewoo GM Korea Company ( ko, 한국지엠주식회사) is the South Korean subsidiary of multinational corporation General Motors. GMK is also the third largest automobile manufacturer in South Korea. GM Korea's roots go back to the former Daewoo Motor ...

-sourced Chevrolet Evanda/Epica. The Alero's production ended with a special Final 500 Edition. These last 500 Aleros featured custom logos inspired by vintage Oldsmobile logos, dark cherry metallic paint, and a plate featuring the car's number out of 500. The final Alero Final 500 Edition (#500 of 500), a ''GLS'' 4-door, also happened to be the final Oldsmobile ever built, and was signed under its hood by the employees of the General Motors Lansing plant. The final car left the Lansing Assembly Plant on April 29, 2004 and was then given to the R.E. Olds Transportation Museum. On December 15, 2017, this car was sold at auction for $42,000 to a dealer in Florida. Oldsmobile-Alero-coupe

A preview of the planned replacement for the Alero was seen in 2001 with the unveiling of the Oldsmobile O4 concept, designed by Bertone. The car was an open-top 4-seater with

an styling featuring some

traits, and powered by the latest ''

Ecotec Ecotec (capitalized ECOTEC, from 'Emissions Control Optimization TEChnology') is a General Motors (GM) and Opel Automobile GmbH (Opel) trademark that refers to a series of emissions technologies that were implemented throughout a range of GM engines ...

I4 engine A straight-four engine (also called an inline-four) is a four-cylinder piston engine where cylinders are arranged in a line along a common crankshaft. The vast majority of automotive four-cylinder engines use a straight-four layout (with the e ...

. The name had multiple meanings, including "Oldsmobile 4-Seater" as well as implying the year 2004 as a planned date for production. However, the O4 concept was unveiled a few weeks after

General Motors The General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is the largest automaker in the United States and ...

announced that they would be phasing out the Oldsmobile brand, meaning that production possibilities of the O4 would never be realized. Because of this, a second generation Alero was never built and the car was phased out with the Oldsmobile brand in 2004.

Trim levels

During its production, the Alero was available in four trim levels, all available in coupe or sedan body styles: The GX was the most basic trim level of the Alero. It included such features as a 2.4 L inline four-cylinder engine, 5-speed manual transmission, an AM/FM stereo (later, AM/FM stereo with single-disc CD player) with a four-speaker sound system, 15-inch (38 cm) black-painted steel wheels with decorative wheel covers, manual windows, power door locks, full instrumentation, air conditioning, velour door panel inserts, and cloth seating surfaces. The 3.4 L V6 engine available on all other Alero trim levels was not available on the base GX trim level. The GL was the midrange trim level of the Alero. It added the following features to the base GX trim level: an AM/FM stereo with cassette player (not applicable for later models), power windows, and 16-inch (40 cm) alloy wheels. The 3.4 L V6 engine was available as an option, though was standard equipment on the GL2 trim level. The GL1 trim level also offered the V6 engine option. The GLS trim level was the "luxury" trim level of the Alero. It added the following features to the already well-equipped GL trim level: an AM/FM stereo with cassette and single-disc CD player (later, an MP3-decoding single-disc CD player was added), an eight-speaker "premium" sound system with amplifier, keyless entry, power driver seat, leather upholstery and a security system. The 3.4 L V6 engine was standard for this trim level.

Engines

Variant prototypes

General Motors commissioned the construction of Alero

prototype A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process. It is a term used in a variety of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics, and Software prototyping, software programming. A prototyp ...

s either for testing or to gather public opinion on possible future plans for the Alero. These variants include: * Alero OSV - "Oldsmobile Speciality Vehicle", an experiment in an aftermarket parts brand for Oldsmobile. Based on the coupe it featured a custom body kit, a

supercharged In an internal combustion engine, a supercharger compresses the intake gas, forcing more air into the engine in order to produce more power for a given displacement. The current categorisation is that a supercharger is a form of forced induct ...

four-cylinder engine, custom interior, and special cherry red paint with ghosted Oldsmobile emblems in the rear quarter panels. * Alero OSV II - Another experimental vehicle, this time featuring an LX5

DOHC An overhead camshaft (OHC) engine is a piston engine where the camshaft is located in the cylinder head above the combustion chamber. This contrasts with earlier overhead valve engines (OHV), where the camshaft is located below the combustion c ...

3.5 L V6 (used in the

Oldsmobile Intrigue The Oldsmobile Intrigue is a mid-size sedan that was manufactured from 1997 through 2002 by Oldsmobile. The Intrigue's design cues were first seen in 1995 with the Oldsmobile Antares concept car, being unveiled in production form in January 1996 ...

and

Aurora An aurora (plural: auroras or aurorae), also commonly known as the polar lights, is a natural light display in Earth's sky, predominantly seen in high-latitude regions (around the Arctic and Antarctic). Auroras display dynamic patterns of bri ...

) and featured custom dark green paint. * Alero 442 - A set of show cars based on the Alero coupe fitted with a body kit similar in design to the

Oldsmobile 442 The Oldsmobile 4-4-2 (also known as the 442) is a muscle car produced by Oldsmobile between the 1964 and 1987 model years. Introduced as an option package for US-sold F-85 and Cutlass models, it became a model in its own right from 1968 to 197 ...

. Each Alero 442 show car had a unique color, including white with gold stripes and white with pink stripes. * Alero California - A custom built version of the Alero coupe featuring parts including a large rear wing, racing seats, sport tires, and custom graphics painted in brown and yellow. * Alero Convertible - An experiment in the possibility of creating an Alero with a

convertible A convertible or cabriolet () is a passenger car that can be driven with or without a roof in place. The methods of retracting and storing the roof vary among eras and manufacturers. A convertible car's design allows an open-air driving expe ...

soft top to help broaden the appeal of the car to young buyers. The Oldsmobile O4 concept also hinted that the next generation Alero could have had a convertible model. * Alero Pace Car - Built by General Motors as part of their

fleet Fleet may refer to: Vehicles *Fishing fleet *Naval fleet *Fleet vehicles, a pool of motor vehicles *Fleet Aircraft, the aircraft manufacturing company Places Canada * Fleet, Alberta, Canada, a hamlet England * The Fleet Lagoon, at Chesil Beach ...

of Oldsmobile safety cars for the

Indy Racing League The IndyCar Series, currently known as the NTT IndyCar Series under sponsorship, is the highest class of regional North American open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars in the United States, which has been conducted under the auspices o ...

, featuring custom yellow, blue and white

checkered flag Racing flags are traditionally used in auto racing and similar motorsports to indicate track condition and to communicate important messages to drivers. Typically, the starter, sometimes the grand marshal of a race, waves the flags atop a flag s ...

graphics.

Safety

The

Insurance Institute for Highway Safety The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) is a U.S. nonprofit organization funded by auto insurance companies, established in 1959 and headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. It works to reduce the number of motor vehicle traffic collisio ...

(IIHS) gave the 1999–2005 Grand Am (which was built on the same platform as the 1999–2004 Alero) a ''Poor'' rating in its frontal crash test for its marginal structural integrity, a possible head injury, a potential right leg injury, and poor dummy control. The following are 2003

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA ) is an agency of the U.S. federal government, part of the Department of Transportation. It describes its mission as "Save lives, prevent injuries, reduce vehicle-related crashes" rela ...

(NHTSA) crash test ratings for the Alero. Coupe *Frontal driver: *Frontal passenger: *Side driver: *Side rear passenger: *Rollover: Sedan *Frontal driver: *Frontal passenger: *Side driver: *Side rear passenger: *Rollover:

Sales

References

External links

Oldsmobile Club of AmericaAleromod.com - The #1 Resource for Alero Owners & FansAleromod.com Upgrades - The Massive Compilation of Alero Modifications
{{Authority control Coupés Front-wheel-drive vehicles Mid-size cars

Alero The Oldsmobile Alero is a midsize car that was produced by General Motors for its Oldsmobile division. Introduced in 1998 as a 1999 model, the Alero was the replacement for both the Oldsmobile Achieva, Achieva and Oldsmobile Cutlass, Cutlass. Th ...

Sedans Cars introduced in 1998 2000s cars Vehicles built in Lansing, Michigan