Caution:
Our Don't Buy List -Read Why!

Oldsmobile

The Don't Buy List is based on our judgement and we only invite you to follow our logic.

Buying a car is one of the largest buying decisions you will make. We are only trying to help you make an intelligent decision.

At times, getting a low price is not enough. Take for example, the Daewoo. What seemed like a great price has only come back to haunt buyers. Many are losing an enormous amount in the resale, warrantee, parts, and insurance.

GM mistakes: Saturn was sacrificed for Oldsmobile. The Olds competed with the Buick and was phased out, GM bought into Daewoo it went bankrupt. GM bought into Isuzu, it has financial troubles, GM invested in Fiat it is verging on extremely serious trouble, GM competes with itself on too many levels: GMC trucks vs. Chevy, Buick vs. Pontiac, GM once controled 50% of US market now about 30%. Why? Poor decision making by management. Now GM has invested heavy into the troubled Saab -- just another mistake!

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Oldsmobile

The Oldsmobile is being phased out.

It's the end of the line for this make. And it's about time! For years this was a step up car between the Chevy and Cadillac. The only problem standing in the way of this goal was the Buick.

The Buick was too similiar and shared many of the same platforms and components with the Oldsmobile. Ultimately, consumers believed the Buick was the better make. The Oldsmobile lost out.

The Oldsmobile had a stodgy image. GM tried to change the make into a more exciting car to compete with imports. The strategy did not work.

The future resale value of the Oldsmobile will potentially plundge. We recommend that you do not buy this car.

Saturn Story

GM--Saturn. The airwaves and media outlets are filled with stories about Saturn trying to reinvent itself this week. Saturn was the long-shot project to create a new car division from scratch that for a moment in time actually succeeded - until GM bumbling snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. Let's not forget that GM squandered Saturn's future to "save" Oldsmobile - which turned out to be an unmitigated disaster. Olds general manager John Rock was a fun guy with a penchant for the colorful quote, but his crusade to "save" Oldsmobile was totally misguided and hurtful to the long-term health of Saturn - and the corporation. By the time the "save Oldsmobile" campaign was finished, Saturn was left with no future product plans and a fanatically loyal group of customers who had nowhere to go after they grew out of their basic Saturns - except to the imports. GM's skewed logic at the time insisted that they'd sell Oldsmobiles to Saturn buyers looking to move up to bigger vehicles. Right. We covered the Saturn fiasco extensively in a Rant entitled the "The Sad Saga of Saturn" .

If GM had focused their energies on Saturn, who knows what Saturn might look like now? Imagine if Saturn offered a full line of vehicles competitive with the imports - something that GM has still not managed to do with any consistency. And until GM can convince import buyers to buy their products on their own merits, they'll always be behind the eight ball - littering the street with incentives to lure consumers into their showrooms.