All makes / Oldsmobile

Oldsmobile problems by model

Owners have filed 10,430 complaints with NHTSA about the 10 Oldsmobile models with enough data to profile here, covering 47 model years from 1990 through 2004. The Alero draws the most at 2,937, 28.2% of the make's total.

Models10

Model years47

Complaints10,430

Crashes556

Deaths23

Read this first

Complaint volume tracks how many cars a make sold as much as how they held up, and NHTSA complaints are unverified owner reports rather than confirmed defects. Nothing on this page compares Oldsmobile against another manufacturer. Use it to find the model, then the model year, then read what owners of that year actually filed.

Every Oldsmobile model

Model	Model years	Complaints	Most-reported year	Top system that year
Alero	6 1999–2004	2,937	2000 810	Exterior lighting (20.7%)
Cutlass	10 1990–1999	1,852	1991 266	Service brakes, hydraulic (28.9%)
Intrigue	4 1998–2001	1,505	1998 665	Steering (26.5%)
Bravada	6 1994–2002	958	2002 337	Power train (16.3%)
Silhouette	6 1997–2002	920	1998 225	Engine and engine cooling (16.0%)
Aurora	4 1995–2001	892	1995 406	Fuel system, gasoline (42.1%)
88	6 1992–1999	820	1998 213	Engine and engine cooling (40.8%)
Achieva	3 1995–1997	326	1996 116	Electrical system (25.0%)
Cutlass Supreme	1 1995–1995	113	1995 113	Air bags (34.5%)
Ciera	1 1996–1996	107	1996 107	Service brakes, hydraulic (26.2%)

Model years shown are those with at least 100 complaints on file, the gate every page on this site has to clear.

Reading the numbers

Across every Oldsmobile model year on the site, electrical system is the system named most often: 1,517 complaints, 18.8% of those filed under a named system. Individual model years diverge from that sharply, which is the reason to read the year rather than the badge.

The three most-reported Oldsmobile models (Alero, Cutlass and Intrigue) account for 60.3% of the make's complaint volume. That is a concentrated picture: most of what gets reported about Oldsmobile here comes from three nameplates. Bear in mind that a nameplate selling in the millions will out-file a niche one whatever its record.

Of the 10,430 complaints, 556 describe a crash, 362 describe a fire and 23 report a death.

Most-reported Oldsmobile model years

2000 Oldsmobile Alero 810 complaints · 20.7% exterior lighting 1991 Oldsmobile Cutlass 266 complaints · 28.9% service brakes, hydraulic 1998 Oldsmobile Intrigue 665 complaints · 26.5% steering 2002 Oldsmobile Bravada 337 complaints · 16.3% power train 1998 Oldsmobile Silhouette 225 complaints · 16.0% engine and engine cooling 1995 Oldsmobile Aurora 406 complaints · 42.1% fuel system, gasoline 1998 Oldsmobile 88 213 complaints · 40.8% engine and engine cooling 1996 Oldsmobile Achieva 116 complaints · 25.0% electrical system 1995 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme 113 complaints · 34.5% air bags

The single heaviest model year of each Oldsmobile nameplate, 1990–2004. Heaviest is not worst. Read it alongside the model page.