2004 Oldsmobile Alero

Good news, bad news. Good news is Mrs. Shotgun has given me the go ahead to replace our 2006 Chevrolet Tahoe LT. Bad news is Mrs. Shotgun has given me the go ahead to replace our 2006 Chevrolet Tahoe LT. As much as I love cars the idea of car shopping, shopping in general mind you, makes me reach for the Midol. This is never fun.

Love ya, Big Guy. Gawn miss ya.

The Tahoe has to go because it gets terrible gas mileage and we hardly ever use it anymore since Mrs. Shotgun got a job that comes with a company car. We're allowed to use her company issued 2012 Camry LE for personal use (we pay a stipend each month) and since she enjoys her new job that puts the Tahoe on the firing line. Nothing personal, 'Hoe. You know I love you but your gas habit is eating us out of house and home. That $400 a month payment ain't doing us any favors either.

Company issued Camry is a bone stripper. That said, it's still a very impressive appliance car.

Armed with the same criteria that I used to find my beloved Monte Carlo a year and half ago I set forth to find something similar. I set a maximum price of $12,000 on cars.com with the net open as wide as possible for all makes and models 100 miles from our home in Avon Lake and sorted on lowest to highest mileage. Let's have at it!

The Alero is virtually identical mechanically to the Chevrolet Malibu (of this vintage), Pontiac Grand Am and Buick Skylark

Along with a gaggle of Hyundais and Mitsubishis and older Hondas (feh) the only thing that grabbed my attention was this blue and gold 2004 Oldsmobile Alero. 24,000 miles. $10,450. I called the dealership and it was available. Let's take a lookie.

The Alero is a nicely styled albeit small car. The trunk, relative to the size of the car, is huge.

Out of the shoot I had challenges with the Alero because it was a coupe. I knew that going in but in the flesh I knew this was going to be a major issue. I love coupes but for a family with two teenage boys
who have enough trouble getting into and out of my much larger Monte Carlo, this was not going to work.

I've always been a fan of the 1995 vintage Aurora. It seemed Oldsmobile used the Aurora's front end on all of their cars during the last 10 years in exsitence.

Pictures can be decieving too. Really? The photos don't convey how unperfect this car is. A nick here. Cut in the leatherlike seats here. A dent there. Hrmph. It rides as well as it could (it is afterall a 2004 Olds Alero not a 2012 Camry) and has some nice get up and go thanks to its relatively enormous 3.4 liter, 170 horsepower V-6 engine. I got way north of the legal limit on eastbound 480 very quickly but it wasn't all that fun. And at Ten and a Half large, despite the uber low mileage, this car was no bargain in my very humble opine.

This perfectly fine leather trimmed interior looks much more sumptuous in pictures than it does in person.

I got back to the dealership and my salesperson asked me what I thought and I told him bluntly that I had a problem with the price. "$10,000 is a lot of money for an 8 year old Alero" I told him. "Yeah. It is", he said. That was that.

Chrome 16 inch rims, big V6, only 24000 miles and it's a coupe! What's not to love? For $10,000?? Oh.

I'm planning on looking at 2005 Pontiac Bonneville on Friday. I'm taking the Tahoe with me so they can give me an idea of what its really worth. This project could take a while to complete.