Junkyard Find: 2000 Oldsmobile Intrigue GLS, Phoenix Open Edition
The Oldsmobile Division had just six years to live when the Intrigue appeared in the 1998 model year, and this car was Oldsmobile’s final version of the long-lived GM W platform. I see thousands of W-bodies every year, during my junkyard travels, but it takes a special one to make me reach for my camera. Say, a supercharged Daytona 500 Edition Grand Prix, or a Lumina Euro, or a genuine Phoenix Open-badged Intrigue.
Here’s an example of the latter car that I found languishing in a Phoenix wrecking yard, just 30 miles from the Phoenix Open’s high-zoot venue.
I couldn’t find much information about the Phoenix Open Intrigues, other than that Oldsmobile was the sponsor of the tournament in 2000. My guess is that GM provided a brace of Olds vehicles for officials and VIPs to drive during the event. These badges look classy.
The car also has these little decals atop the pinstripes.
The standard engine in the 2000 Intrigue was the “Shortstar” DOHC V6, loosely based on the Northstar V8. It was good for 215 horsepower, which made the 3,455-pound Intrigue move acceptably well.
This car is a top-trim-level GLS model, which came with leather seats and other luxuries demanded by pro golfers in the year 2000.
I couldn’t get a mileage figure from the digital odometer, but the front seats are sufficiently beat to suggest that this car went around the block more than a few times.
“Start to command performance. Start something.”
Nothing down! Low payments!
Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Hagerty and The Truth About Cars.
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These were decent W-Body cars but by the time these as well as the Aurora were out Olds was trying to be GM's Infiniti or Lexus. Personally I prefer the Buick Regal GS or Pontiac Grand Prix with the far more durable 3800SC. A little praise for the Church of 3800. The grill less look of these later Oldsmobiles gave me the impression GM might merge the similar styling themed Saturn's in the model line. It might have saved both divisions.
I just bought another Oldsmobile from Copart in Kansas City: A 2002 Intrigue GLS (Tropic Teal - code 37) with 56,000 miles for $700. It had right front fender damage (looked terrible but I bought a replacement fender at Pick-a-Part for $24) Now it is showroom perfect, runs fantastic and I kept it from the wrecking yard for pure insurance company reasons. The two-tone interior in mint condition is an added bonus!