This is a beautiful car and it was named not after a revolutionary, Russian cruiser, but after the Roman goddess of the morning dawn. Even without seeing the Aurora in person, but looking at the car in the photo, I am sorry that the brand Oldsmobile ceased to exist, because it has produced such a beautiful car. In the opinion of some, it is one of the best American cars made in the 90’s. Yes, – there were many good cars, but the Aurora is definitely special. Though it was produced on the same platform as the Buick Riviera, that in no way reduces its advantages. And in fact, it was the flagship of the company.
1997 Oldsmobile Aurora refers to the first generation of the car, which was produced from ’94 to ’99. The first show of the production car was held in Detroit in ’93. It is a very nice sedan and I like it better than the second generation car for a number of reasons. The first generation Aurora was offered exclusively with a V8, no V6 available here, though not for a long time, on the second generation car. The first-generation sedan was six inches longer and was comparable in length to the largest executive cars from Europe.
It is a large sedan, even by American standards, but its doors have no window frames. That’s the kind of thing you see most often on Japanese Subaru cars. The doors of the second-generation Aurora were already equipped with the usual frames.
In my opinion, the second Aurora has lost a number of bold, but very attractive solutions. For example, the large, stretched across all width of the stern, taillight is a thing of the past. Perhaps this is because Oldsmobile came to the fact that after a successful ’95, which was sold 45,677 cars of this model in the following years sales have been steadily falling. Maybe GM decided that the traditional – the age-old audience Oldsmobile is not ready to buy such an innovative car. It seems to me that in the second generation, the Aurora has lost some of its charm. And if I wanted to buy one today, I would look for a first generation car.
Today, seeing an Aurora on the road, a lot of people keep their eyes on it. In its time, Motor Week magazine called this Oldsmobile the best, luxury sedan of ’95.
1997 Oldsmobile Aurora for sale and price.
The new ’97 Aurora was priced at $34,860. The Oldsmobile was comparable in price to a BMW 528 with E39 body. But the fact is that the American car was much bigger and had a big enough (by the standards of the 90s) V8 engine. The BMW was equipped with in-line six with a capacity of 2.8 liters, though excellent, with significantly less performance.
Exterior and photos.
From the photo, it is easy to distinguish the first generation Aurora from the second generation by the shape of fog lights in the bumper. The first generation’s fog lights are stretched horizontally, while the second has a round shape. As mentioned above – the first-generation Aurora has a one-piece taillight and stretched across the entire width. The second-generation car had more traditional and separate taillights. The body panels themselves differ – the first car has smoother body lines, without any sharp edges.
At 205.4d body length, the first generation was 6d longer than the next generation car. This is somewhat unusual, because in the 90s, almost all, the world’s automakers, each next model made larger than the previous one. Perhaps Oldsmobile was trying to please a larger number of potential customers and therefore have reduced enough large sedan in size. The wheelbase is 113.8d.
On the hood lid you can see the logo -A. You can hardly say that Oldsmobile tried to take the Aurora into a separate sub-brand like Toyota did with Lexus, or Nissan did with Infiniti, but definitely they tried to emphasize that it’s not just Oldsmobile. You can also see the Aurora lettering on the taillight.
Note the side mirrors – they are mounted on long legs and are quite close to the side windows. When the rear gear was engaged, the right side mirror on ’97 cars automatically went down. This was done in order to avoid accidentally hitting a curb or other obstacle when reversing. Such a solution at that time was used for example on the Mercedes E-Class W210.
The radiator grille is almost absent here in its traditional form. Its role is performed by a narrow slot at the bottom of the bumper. You can see that the special hubcaps on the rims cover the bolts. The two exhaust system spigots hint that this is a powerful car and at one time it was actually a high performance car. The taillights are mounted on the sides of the license plate.
Interior and equipment.
Opening the doors of the 1997 Oldsmobile Aurora, you can see the frameless doors. For sedans, this solution can be called a rarity, in the 90’s among sedans, it was used mainly on the sedans – Legacy, or Impreza. It is also worth noting that the doors themselves are quite heavy, and the door hinges are powerful.
The steering wheel of the American sedan changes the degree of gravity depending on the speed and the wheels’ turn – it’s very useful both when driving at high speeds and when parking. The steering wheel has the logo A, but below the CD hole for the 1.5 din CD-ROM, you can see the inscription Oldsmobile. The Aurora has a Bose music system with a CD changer for 12 discs as an option. The interior mirror has a self-dimming feature, which in the 90’s was not found on every business car. Like many other American cars, Oldsmobile is equipped with double, sun visors. They allow you to cover the sun not only in front, but also in back.
I think it would be superfluous to talk about the softness of the sofas of real, American sedans. But the front seats of Aurora are equipped also with pneumatic paging. The seats are equipped with electric actuators, and the control keys are fixed on the door trim and are shaped like seats.
A very similar solution is used in the Mercedes of various models. In the middle there is not one but two cigarette lighters. On the gearbox lever you can see the button which is responsible for selecting the mode (I tried to show it on the photo). It is interesting that the climate control is also placed on the passenger side armrest. There are armrests on the rear sofa and cigarette lighters are built into the ashtrays.
The Oldsmobile sedan’s trunk compartment is very deep and equipped with a net. The trunk lid has a built-in light (I tried to show it in the photo). Although the trunk light is found on many – other cars, but in the case of the Aurora interesting place to install the light, – it is the aft part of the trunk.
Engine and Specifications 1997 Oldsmobile Aurora.
The only engine available for the Aurora was the 4.0 V8 Northstar with four valves per cylinder. This engine is notable for the fact that Lotus specialists were involved in its creation. It has an aluminum engine block and some parts are made of magnesium. The cylinder heads are very similar to those used in the Corvette. The power unit has a timing chain drive, which consists of 3 chains. The compression ratio is 10.3:1. The maximum horsepower of 250 and torque of 350Nm is very decent for its time. For comparison, Mercedes V8 M113 series engine with a cubic capacity of 4.3L made a little less than 280 horsepower.
As you probably already know, the Aurora has front wheel drive and the engine is mounted transversely. The four-speed, automatic transmission, the Hydramatic 4T80E, adapts to driving style and is electronically controlled. From zero to 60 mph, the Aurora is capable of accelerating in 8.8s. Such an Oldsmobile goes ΒΌ mile in 16.7s with an exit speed of 84 miles.
Just looking at the engine photos you might notice the Aurora V8 lettering on the engine cover. In ’97, the car got more powerful, front brakes. The rear suspension was air suspension, which is typical of large, American sedans and allowed to keep ground clearance constant, regardless of loading.
It’s a very nice car. Despite the fact that I am not a fan of biodesign, but Aurora really attracts with its lines of the body. In addition to its external beauty, it is a very comfortable and even today quite fast car.
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