I try to keep an eye out Bring a trailer. It may seem like the era of skyrocketing car prices is over, but that’s not true – things have just calmed down a bit. Wild auction is still happening on site, whether it’s a flip or someone thinks the mileage is close to 100,000 miles Honda Elements worth more than 10,000 USD. For example, take this latest listing for a 20-year-old Oldsmobile.
General motive Eliminate Oldsmobile in 2004. As a tribute to the brand, the final 500 models in the brand’s lineup at that time — the Intrigue, Silhouette, Alero, Aurora and Bravada — all received a special “Final 500” edition. Apparently, thinking that someday these would be worth something, someone went out and bought one of the Final 500 Aleros and didn’t touch it for the next 20 years. This Final 500 Alero has just 84 miles on the odometer and is virtually in showroom condition.
All Final 500s are painted deep cherry red and receive special heritage-inspired Oldsmobile emblems throughout the vehicle. The interior is upholstered in Light Neutral leather and has Oldsmobile heritage badges embroidered on the seat backs. There are a few other options like 16-inch wheels, a rear spoiler, and a Sun & Sound package that gives the car an upgraded stereo and sunroof. It also has a performance suspension, which doesn’t matter much since it’s powered by a 200-horsepower 3.4-liter V6 mated to a 4-speed automatic transmission.
All of that seems to be enough to make someone grit their teeth, because the winner is 24,000 USD, which of course is crazy. Take away all the Final 500 special stuff and you’re left with an Alero, which was never that special in the first place. What’s even more interesting is that this thing has had three previous owners over the past 20 years. According to Carfax, the first two owners each owned it for a decade but never drove the car. Between the first and second owners, this Alero only had 42 miles on it, which tells me they either continued to store it in hopes it increased in value or wanted to flip it from time to time. Some in the comments also hoped that the winning bid would be close to the car’s original $26,400 MSRP; it ended up being $2,400 off.
I guess who won the bid, congratulations? I look forward to seeing this relisted in a few years as the owner tries to get back what they paid for it.
