Alero final 500, oops.

Long story short, my cousin traded a push mower for an junk car. He said if he could use my trailer, he'd leave the car at my house and let me rip whatever parts off I wanted.

I was bored, so I figured why not. I cut the catalytic convertor off ($50-$100), took the battery out (I bet it'll charge up, if not 6 bucks), and pulled the wheels and tires off. Wheels are worth about 35-40 in scrap, and I'm using the tires for burnout tires for my mustang. Also pulled out a newer mid grade jvc head unit that I'll slap in my mustang as well.

While ripping parts off, I kept noticing badges that said (final 500 edition), but it's an alero so i didn't give it much thought.

After going inside, I kept wonder what the final 500 edition was, so I Google search it.

Turns out that the alero was the last cars oldsmobile ever made. The last 500 out the door were special collector editions. This was like 142 out of 500.

There's not really a huge market out there for them, and it definitely was not worth restoring... but a cool little piece of history.

I keep the all the badges and center caps to hang in the garage, because, well.... why not?

Anybody else every end up scrapping a semi rare car?

One of these final Aleros with only 4 miles on it, yeah 4, brought $12,600 at Barrett Jackson

That seems cool until you realize that the original sticker for an Alero like this was $23-$26k so this Alero with only 4 miles lost about 50% of its value while it was being "collected".

An original window sticker is last item on this page.

Always liked those cars.

Is the Alero the one with the duel exhaust except one exhaust was just the tip and you could see air though it?

In reply to John Welsh :

Yeah, rare and valuable don't always go hand in hand. Not a big fan of the aleros, mainly because I hate the 60 degree v6s that gm (and sister companies) put in so many cars of that era.

Just thought it was a cool bit of history. I could of bought it from him for probably 200 bucks, and I should have... I think it would of been fun to gut and spray it with a 75 or so shot. Could of been a (still slow, but faster than you expect) sleeper.

I parted out a 1968 Datsun 2000 Roadster that sat in a Wisconsin farm field for 7 years. Needed 100% restoration, engine frozen, and no title available. I think about it but at the time a decent 2000 would cost you $5000.

Was the car that got the 4.0 v8 ?

Never mind that was the Aurora

My 924s. Is one of 50 something made with the MO30 option. But I ripped all that out and put aftermarket suspension in it back in the 90s. Oh well.

About 20 years ago when I was about 13, I helped my uncle scrap a field full of last 60s to mid 70s novas.

There was about 35 or 40 of them, some were wrecked, some were just rollers, some complete but didn't run.

There were a bunch that would of made solid projects, but nope, all of them got crushed.

Project86fox wrote: In reply to John Welsh : Yeah, rare and valuable don't always go hand in hand.

My father's car is one of those. It's one of less than 50 1969 Pontiac LeMans Sport Coupes optioned with a 350 2-barrel Pontiac V8 and a TH400 transmission. Add in the bucket seats, floor console and floor shift, power brakes, front disc brakes, power steering, Rallye II wheels and limited-slip differential and it is likely 1 of 1. But, to pretty much anyone other than us, it's just fodder for a GTO clone.

Not super rare but I parted out a 1968 Ford Torino GT, convertible with about 70k miles on it. It had been sitting in an upstate NY field for several decades and was so rusty it just about ripped in two when we pulled it out. I had to jack it up in the middle to pull the doors off and it just sagged when I let the jack down. It was mostly held together by the driveshaft and the parking brake cables.

In 2002 when I bought the Elantra, I test drove an Alero as well. It's a test drive I'll never forget. Smash the gas and it aimed straight for the ditch (torque steer out the wazoo), the Quad 4 made all sorts of noise but it didn't really do anything and with 8700 miles the suspension made more noise than my 1978 C10 with cut springs. It was $2k cheaper than the Elantra... I bought the Elantra.

RossD wrote: Is the Alero the one with the duel exhaust except one exhaust was just the tip and you could see air though it?

I believe I have followed a car with those.

My dad and I had an Alero as a rental once while on a ski trip. I was probably 12 at the time and I still remember to this day how bad that car was.

I had to look up this turd. The fact that it is only a rebodied GrandAm is all anybody needs to know. Those were awful cars

mad_machine wrote: GrandAm............Those were awful cars

The wife bought a 1986 Grand Am SE new.

P-O-S. I hated that car more than the 1995 Lumina my in-laws gave my son.

And the wife first considered ordering a Monte Carlo SS then decided a Grand Am would be better in the Chicago snows. I'm still hacked about that decision.

Think of it as endangered animal hunting. The achievement of making something extinct. Only in a good way.

Brian wrote: Think of it as endangered animal hunting. The achievement of making something extinct. Only in a good way.

Perhaps curing a rare but horrendous disease is a better metaphor

NickD wrote:

Brian wrote: Think of it as endangered animal hunting. The achievement of making something extinct. Only in a good way.

Perhaps curing a rare but horrendous disease is a better metaphor

Project86fox is Cobra!

https://www.youtube.com/embed/mE2-7a_F_B0

APEowner wrote: Not super rare but I parted out a 1968 Ford Torino GT, convertible with about 70k miles on it. It had been sitting in an upstate NY field for several decades and was so rusty it just about ripped in two when we pulled it out. I had to jack it up in the middle to pull the doors off and it just sagged when I let the jack down. It was mostly held together by the driveshaft and the parking brake cables.

Well, slightly related.... a friend of mine now owns what seems to be the LAST 1968 Montego convertible... and although not rusty at all, it is completely dismantled... and in need of a fair bit of rerstoration

NickD wrote:

Brian wrote: Think of it as endangered animal hunting. The achievement of making something extinct. Only in a good way.

Perhaps curing a rare but horrendous disease is a better metaphor

I was thinking about a bit they did on top gear years ago, where they found a site with the numbers of registrations of any given car model. They made the joke better than I could.