General Motors attempted to correct the trajectory of the failing Oldsmobile division with the premium Aurora, but things didn’t work out. 

By 1990, the Oldsobile division at General Motors was in trouble. Olds had once been hailed as the carnaker’s technology leader with innovations that included Hydra-Matic and the famed Rocket V8. But now a younger generation of buyers associated the brand mainly with the failed diesel, the Rocket V8 engine-swapping scandal, and a senior-citizen owner base. Sales peaked in 1985 at around one million cars, then fell into rapid decline.

To reboot Oldsmobile’s image, GM planned a new halo product, to be presented as a luxury spinoff brand in much the same way Toyota had recently launched Lexus or Nissan with Infiniti. Although the project was stopped twice as rumors circulated that the entire Olds division was set for cancellation, the halo car appeared in showrooms in the spring of 1994 as the Aurora by Oldsmobile.

Based on a 1989 GM concept known as the Tube Car, Aurora styling featured a drag coefficient of .32, a full-width tail lamp at the rear, and a grille-less front end. At the time, no grille said bold and inconoclastic in car design lingo. Surfaces were smooth and sculpted, and the Olds logos wre replaced with a swooping, circled A to signify Aurora. Underneath, the Aurora was built on GM’s front-drive G-body platform, a competent package shared with the Buick LeSabre and Cadillac de Ville. Assembly was performed at GM’s Lake Orion, Michigan plant, 90 miles due east of Oldsmobile’s traditional home base in Lansing.

To power the Aurora, GM developed a smaller 4.0-liter version of the 4.6-liter Cadillac Northstar V8, also known as the Premium V. The double overhead-cam, four-valve design was rated at 250 hp—better than one horsepower per cubic inch with natural aspiration. Coupled to the high-tech V8 was a GM 4T80E transverse transaxle, a four-speed electronic automatic previously used only by Cadillac. With the premium powertrain, GM was clearly not trying to save its way to a profit with the Aurora.

Since its apparent competition included Mercedes, BMW, Lexus, and Infiniti, the Aurora was loaded with standard high-end features, including dual-zone climate control, leather seating, real wood interior trim, and a digitial trip computer. In surveys, owners cited comfort as among the Aurora’s best features. The option list was short: a power moonroof, a Bose audio system, and most notably, the Autobahn Package with a sportier final drive ratio and Michelin V-rated tires. For the spring ’94 launch, the base price was set at $31,370, a good $4,000 more than the 98, Oldsmobile’s next-costliest model.

Overall, the automotive press was bullish on the Aurora. The editors at Motor Trend, for example, reported that while the handling was not quite as good as BMW or Mercedes, the ride was superior. But the magazine’s owner survey found that GM’s spotty build quality and reputation for poor reliability and frequent repairs were among their most serious concerns.

And that, as much as anything, explains the Aurora’s failure to rebirth the Oldsmobile brand. The fault was not with what owners and the media found to be a pretty great car, but with greater problems long brewing at GM. Sales started off at a respectable 47,000 cars in MY ’95 but then, as the car continued with minor changes, steadily declined to fewer than 20,000 in ’99. A second-generation 2001 Aurora was introduced early in 2000, but by then the death of Oldsmobile was pretty much a foregone conclusion. On December 12, 2000, General Motors announced the phaseout of its oldest division.