Visit a showroom, sit in any one of the new Buicks, and practice this short, easy line:
My Buick.

Sounds good, doesn't it?

This was Buick in 1964.

Of its Riviera, Buick mused that it was a car aimed at the buyer who "would like to surround himself with quality... with things that are undeniably special."

Wrote reviewer Bill J. Jinkins for the Grapevine Sun in 1995, as he contemplated purchasing the new Riviera he was testing: "my gas card would thank me, my rear passengers would thank me, and my banker would give me a pat on the back."

Perhaps that's why Buick's slogan was once, It's all good.

The Buick is a reassuring ownership proposition, for three key reasons: its legendary, reassuring reliability (as recognized by many an independent study), its reassuring safety and protection, and the reassuring value that today's Buick offers.

Reassuring safety. Reassuringly timeless grace in design, and care in award-winning engineering. Reassuringly steadfast power. Reassuring ergonomics. This, and all the standard safety and convenience equipment, and standard warranties, adds up to one thing: standard peace of mind. As one might expect, from 106 years of experience.

It figures. They used to say that the Buick was the automobile of those possessed of "uncommon good sense."


All things mechanical require a little tender, loving care from time to time. There is no such thing as a maintenance-free car, and chances are there never will be. Yet some are closer than others.

In 1989, Buick's LeSabre was ranked #1 in North America and #2 in the world among 154 domestic and imported models in quality rankings by the independent market research firm, J.D. Power & Associates.

Since then, Buick has been top or near-top of the charts over and over again.

Buick: 1st overall in Long-Term Dependability, per the 2009 J.D. Power & Associates Vehicle Dependability study. The annual study measures problems experienced by the original owners of vehicles after three years.

Buick: 3rd overall in Long-Term Dependability, per the 2006 J.D. Power & Associates Vehicle Dependability study.

Buick: 2nd in the industry for Customer Service, per the 2006 J.D. Power & Associates Customer Service Index study. That same year, the University of Michigan's Customer Satisfaction Index found Buick to be 2nd overall in customer satisfaction.

Buick: 2005 Gold Plant Quality Award from J.D. Power, following 62,251 consumer responses, for the Oshawa #2 plant which produces the Buick LaCrosse. Buick also received this award in 2003 and in 2002.

Buick: 4th in J.D. Power's 2005 Initial Quality and Vehicle Dependability studies.

Buick: 5th in the 2004 J.D. Power & Associates Initial Quality study (Toyota: 9th).

Buick: 2nd in the 2004 J.D. Power & Associates Vehicle Dependability study (Toyota: 8th).

Buick: 2nd in the 2004 J.D. Power & Associates Customer Satisfaction study (Toyota: 28th).

As reviewer Tom Incantalupo put it, testing a LaCrosse for Newsday, "Buick is proof that you don't have to buy a Lexus to be treated well at the dealership - not if the surveys by market researchers J:D. Power & Associates and the folks at Consumer Reports are accurate" (Newsday, January 28th, 2005).

"I know of no other full-size sedan that has a better reputation for quality," wrote reviewer Richard Truett of the 1998 Buick LeSabre in the Indianapolis Star.

There was none.

Back in 1913, Buick distributor C.S. Howard took lyrical license with Buick's reputation for a reliability, a reputation which had taken a short decade to take hold:

If a quake should come and bury us,
And a million years had pass'd,
And then a club of scientists,
Would dig us out at last,
Among the things they'd find intact,
Is a Buick car - you bet,
For no one ever, ever has,
Worn out a Buick yet.

In 1908, the Roswell Automobile Company wrote to Buick that the three 1905 Buick Model Cs purchased to carry mail between Torrance and Roswell, New Mexico, had each logged 110,000 miles. This was believed to be the first time that three cars of the same make had ever managed such a distance.

While Cadillac installed self-starting systems across its range in 1913, Buick was busy adapting the technology for the following year, to suit its own demands. As the division explained in 1914, "a year ago, when untried, unproven self-starters were being bolted onto many an excellent car in any available place - a source of bitter disappointment in thousands of cases - the Buick management took a firm stand.

"It announced that no self-starter would be incorporated into any Buick car, until a starter had been found as good as the Buick car itself.

"Such a starter is the Delco, and the Delco installation in the Buick is something you may rely upon as a fulfillment of the Buick ideals, which means uninterrupted use of his investment to every Buick owner."

It was a Buick with which, in 1914, an Argentinean claimed to the first person to drive a car across South America, taking a 1912 Buick Model 28 from Buenos Aires over the Andes to Santiago, Chile.

With its 6-cylinder also completed and available in 1914, Buick would regularly improve it. In 1922, for its '23 models, Buick achieved increased engine life through a harder cylinder casting; a larger crankshaft, and stronger connecting rods; pistons, and main bearings.

Writer and traveler Lowell Thomas chose his own personal 1923 Buick to make his widely reported trip to Afghanistan, marking the first time that this country had been penetrated by automobile.

The following year, stronger frames and axles, with four-wheel brakes, characterized the 1924 Buick.

1924 saw the founding of GM's Milford proving ground, to provide engineers and designers with real-world information on vehicle performance under a battery of tests in a controlled environment. Milford began as a 1,125-acre facility with two buildings and 5½ miles of test roads (four miles of which were gravel). This alone, particularly given Milford's 1924 debut, compares favorably with the new 2.3-mile test track that Hyundai proudly advertised in 2006.

Today, Milford has evolved into more than three million square feet of property with 128 miles of different test roads of every conceivable material: 106 buildings and laboratories housing nearly 5,000 employees in a 7-day, 24-hour operation.

In 1994, Milford achieved two significant milestones: the 1-billionth test mile driven, and the 10,000th safety crash test conducted - both more than any other manufacturer. By 1997, fifteen million miles were logged annually at Milford, and 2.4 million gallons of gasoline consumed each year, as part of Buick and GM's quest for safety and quality.

Two years after Milford's 1924 construction, for 1926, Buick frames were heavier still (with chassis kept supple by zerk lubrication fittings); and again, for 1929, when thicker steel with deeper cross sections and stronger suspension components met steel-backed engine bearings. For 1934, an X-member was added to the frame for further strength.

Aesthetic durability was not ignored. For 1925, the Buick featured a more durable, and more aesthetically pleasing, nitrocellulose lacquer paint in place of a varnish-color finish. For 1926, Buick debuted aluminum hubcaps and gas filler caps.

The 1929 Buick replaced its vacuum tank with a mechanical fuel pump. An automatic choke debuted for 1935; by 1977, electric chokes were standard, and multi-port injection was coming, evolving to sequential and tuned-port injection in the years to follow.

It was at Buick that John Gretzinger, in charge of Buick quality and reliability in the Sixties, was empowered to shut the production line down if he felt, for any reason, that quality was not up to par (Buick: A Complete History, Terry B. Dunham & Lawrence R. Gustin, Automobile Quarterly, 2002).

It was at Buick that, to prove durability in 1960, Buick General Manager Ed Rollert asked PR director Gerald H. Rideout to drive a 1960 Invicta - non-stop - around the Daytona Speedway for 10,000 miles in 5,000 minutes (an average speed of 120 miles per hour). Buick worked out the on-the-fly refueling logistics. The car completed the run.

So impressive was the achievement that, when in 1962 Mickey Thompson searched for an engine to power his Harvey Aluminum Special for that year's Indianapolis 500, he chose the Buick V8. Modified to put out 330 horsepower, the car ran 92 laps before a rear-end gear problem forced Thompson out. The car's Buick heart was just fine.

For 1976, all Buick engines gained High-Energy Ignition (HEI), sending 35% more voltage to the spark plus and eliminating the old points and condenser. Meanwhile, Freedom Batteries required no maintenance, and had a built-in state of charge indicator.

For 1978, as Buick began pioneering the turbocharging of family vehicles, it introduced the industry's first electronic spark control system, retarding spark to control detonation during turbo boost. In those days, all turbocharged Buicks were road-tested for two miles to ensure reliability (a test applied and much touted by Hyundai in its 2006 advertising, thirty full years later).

In 1981 at Buick, several Buick plants turned to employee involvement programs to cut absenteeism and improve quality.

In 1983, Buick began using a high-tech videotex marketing system, dubbed the Electronic Product Information Center. A dealership video terminal and keyboard were linked by phone to Buick's own computer. The terminal displayed information in color and graphic form, and could be used to answer specific customer or salesman inquiries. With this system - commonplace today, but revolutionary back then - dealerships could have constant access to the Buick central computer for up-to-date information.

By late 1985 this system had evolved into Buick's Computerized Automotive Maintenance System, which permitted a dealership to hook into a car's electronic control module to send data directly to Buick headquarters, for analysis.

Meanwhile, new designs being evaluated used sensors to send signals to a computer inside a nearby van.

Also for 1985, just-in-time scheduling was introduced to the refurbished, 1.5 million square foot Buick City operation in Flint. Building ergonomic cars required building cars ergonomically! 22 separate docking locations put incoming materials near the areas where they would be used. Engines, seats, and transaxles were unloaded by robots - and another 200 robots were used in body assembly. At the separate Dimensional Verification Center, a Buick could be placed on a huge granite block, then measured to make sure that all fixtures and tooling were sufficiently precise.

When Buick handcrafted the 1988-91 Reatta in 24 steps, each carried out by small teams of skilled craftsmen in Lansing, Michigan, attention to detail was second to none. Each Reatta was meticulously hand sanded between primer coats, for instance, to remove even the smallest imperfections.

For 1990, Reatta received a standard auxiliary transmission cooler, a rarity to this day.

When the car was discontinued, the Reatta Craft Center had developed such unique capabilities that it was selected as the production site of General Motors' electric car. "We feel this is a fitting tribute to the craftsmanship represented in the Reatta," wrote Buick General Manager Edward H. Mertz, in a letter to Reatta owners.

In 1997, 90 years after the first Buick had run the event, a 1948 Buick Special completed the second Peking-to-Paris rally.

In 2000, a 1949 Buick Super wagon circled the globe, starting and ending in London.

In late 2001, a Buick Rendezvous won a silver medal in the 15,000-mile Inca Trail adventure drive.

Today, from design to production, longevity remains a cornerstone of Buick's product development and manufacturing targets.

In testing, New Orleans teaches Buick engineers about the effects of humidity; Bemidji, Minnesota, where the temperature can sag to thirty below, tests Buick cold starting, and reveals the value of heated seats and heaters that wind up quickly.

Today, GM's Milford Proving Ground is capable of achieving temperatures between -40 degrees and 130 degrees Fahrenheit; of generating humidity and altitude effects from 700 feet below sea level to 12,500 feet, and of simulating air speeds of up to 100 miles per hour.

The Buick has earned a well-deserved reputation for distinguished solidity, long before the first ventiport was proudly punched through a fender and rendered in chrome.

Yet Buick Quality today is more than an enviable, overflowing shelf of accolades.

It is more than the legacy of a 3.8-liter (231 cid) V6 engine which has been progressively evolved for thirty years (in each, noted for its fierce durability). It is more than an engine that, virtually at its debut, featured an innovative High-Energy Ignition system and Early Fuel Evaporation for better starts on cold or wet mornings; longer service intervals, and better economy.

It is more than automatic transmissions that, since the mid-90s, have been content to use lifetime fluid, without changes, under normal driving conditions.

It is more than maintenance-free (and lighter) batteries for 1981, or than 100,000-mile coolant today.

It is more, even, than a conviction that there is no limit to how good a car can get.

The modern Buick must be as much about perceived quality as about the best quality ratings in the industry. It must, as had been said of the Buick Enclave, offer sensory exhilaration, enticing with carefully chosen interior textures, materials, and surfaces that thrill the fingertips.

Buick Quality is in the design: in sinuously sculpted panels of brilliantly burnished paint, panels that fit with eye-pleasing precision, shielding chronograph gauges and French-stitched, tanned leather.

Buick Quality lives in proven engineering. It is found in a seamless flow of power, and in precise, secure road feel. It is evident in easy, ergonomic clarity of information from gauge to eye, in comfortable proximity and linear feel of controls, in the linear response of a precisely calibrated chassis, and in rich detail throughout.

Buick Quality is precision in craftsmanship; in seats that hug and in chrome that gleams; in artful design and engineering, and in crisp fit and finish. Precision, to enrich the quality of life; precision that goes one better, in resolute refusal to be satisfied with the status quo. Leather can always be softer; an engine, more powerful; a cabin, quieter, and tolerances, tighter.

Buick Quality is a deeply held belief in a better way to build.

Buick Quality is deepset and lasting; it is the very essence and soul of Buick.


Buick active and passive safety - protection before, during, and after a crash - has ever been exemplary, with the goal that the Buick responds, in a crisis, as consistently as it does in normal driving.

Active safety - the technology to avoid trouble - is as important as passive safety. Active safety refers to the accident avoidance capabilities designed into a car that allow a driver to avoid a crash. These include factors such as steering, brakes, handling, and transient response; in sum, the total evasive capability of the car.

It is a problem that must be solved holistically. Take the LaCrosse, for instance. Its energy-absorbing, aluminum energy cradle, and magnesium instrument panel beam, not only lower the center of gravity, improving chassis and steering responsiveness, but also strengthen the passenger compartment. As used in the 2000 LeSabre, the magnesium beam helped Buick improved the car's torsional rigidity by 62%, and bending rigidity, by 27%, over the previous generation.


Tom McCahill of Mechanix Illustrated wrote in 1958, "this '59 Buick is one hell of a road car, with the traction of a leech. Many a lesser car on this wet road surface would have been off the shoulder like a French evening gown, and sailing to parts unknown."

The 1971 Buicks offered MaxTrac, a Buick exclusive, helping to stop fishtailing before it started. An on-board computer - more than 35 years ago - detected rear wheel spin and controlled the power to the rear wheels, reducing slipping on slick surfaces.

A more modern version of traction control surfaced at Buick for 1991. Today, by selectively applying brake pressure to individual wheels In low-traction conditions, such as ice; snow; gravel; wet pavement, and uneven road surfaces, Traction Control continues to help reduce wheel spin on loose or slippery surfaces, as standard equipment on all new Buicks.

Available All-Wheel Drive (AWD) systems in the Buick Enclave and 2010 LaCrosse feature the ability to transfer torque to some or all wheels, depending upon conditions. This allows this system to maximize fuel economy or traction, or choose the appropriate combination of the two.

Electronic stability control is proven to help reduce single-vehicle crashes, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety1. Indeed, Using sensors, StabiliTrak detects the difference between the steering-wheel angle and the direction you're actually turning, subtly, yet decisively, applying quick, precise force to the appropriate brakes to help the driver control the vehicle's direction to help keep it on course.

GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz emphasizes that StabiliTrak is programmed to be as unobtrusive as possible. "You just think you're one of the world's best drivers, and sadly the rest of the world doesn't recognize it.

"Our software guys will define a line all the way around the complex inside perimeter of the physical boundaries of the car, so that you can go all the way to the limits in any direction before the system takes over. The system still intervenes to save you from yourself, but you really have to take it to the very edge before it kicks in" (Corvette C6, Phil Berg, MBI, 2004).

Available on Buicks since May 1999, StabiliTrak electronic stability control is standard across Buick's 2009 range.


On August 1st, 1923, as the new '24 Buicks debuted, the Buick became the first mass-produced automobile to offer 4-wheel brakes. For many years hence, the division would annually lay claim to having the best stopping system in the industry. Decades later, Road Test magazine wrote that "tangible evidence to support this contention has often been cited," and that "Buick probably has spent a bit more time, design, effort, and money on brake systems than a lot of the competition" (Road Test, August 1972).

For 1936, as its Special, Century, Roadmaster, and Limited lines topped 100 miles per hour, Buick began offering hydraulic brakes.

For 1963, Buick introduced finned aluminum front brakes; for 1967, the fins at the rear doubled in number (with the inside lip extended, to reach cooler air), and the vacuum booster was enlarged. For 1971, a proportioning valve controlled braking force, front to rear, to help give quick, smooth, straight-line stops.

Power-assisted front disc brakes were, for 1971, standard on large Buicks. This was rare for the era, a feature which only the Chevy Corvette, among American cars, shared.

Wrote Road Test magazine of the 1977 Buick Riviera, "the brakes exhibited proper proportioning, and short panic stopping distances" (Road Test, July 1977).

It was Corvette to which Road & Track compared the 1979 Riviera S-Type's brakes, "the best we've ever tested on any U.S. car except the Corvette and the Firebird Trans Am... the distances are very impressive, and the sort we generally associate with cars that are a great deal lighter than the Buick, or quite a bit more expensive, including the BMW 733i and Mercedes-Benz 450 SEL.

"Add zero fade and no control problems under hard braking, and we have a 3,900lb Detroit coupe that gets an excellent braking rating" (Road & Track, March 1979).

For 1985, the Regal separated brake boost from the power-steering pump, using an electric pump instead. The 1988 Regal featured all-around disc brakes as standard equipment, becoming the first 6-passenger American car to do so.

For 1986, Buick joined with West Germany's Alfred Teves GmbH to offer anti-lock brakes (ABS) on the Electra, releasing and applying pressure as frequently as 15 times per second to keep the driver in control. The technology permeated through Buick's line-up until, by 1994, every Buick featured standard anti-lock brakes. ABS reduces the chances of wheel lock-up by rapidly adjusting brake pressure. Preventing lock-up helps you maintain steering control during hard braking conditions.

When in 2005 Buick entered the minivan segment, its Terraza boasted the shortest stopping distances in its segment.


In 1996, Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine gave LeSabre a First for Safety award in the $18,000 - $25,000 category.

Based on the crash performance of a 1999 Buick Park Avenue, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) named it a Best Pick. The car brought Buick another First for Safety award from Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine.

So synonymous was Buick with safety that, by 1999, the division had earned more than 70 safety-related awards and honors in seven years. Even as Buick showed a convertible concept - the Cielo - that year, safety was very much at the forefront of the Buick philosophy. Forty years after having introduced padded dashboards across its range, Buick showcased a convertible which merged open-topped driving with hard-top safety and security, with roof rails running from the front of the passenger compartment to the rear end, to enhance overall body strength. The rails also guided Cielo's three opaque hard roof panels into the trunk when the driver engaged the convertible top.

Testing the 2000 LeSabre, a car with the most standard safety features in its class, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) named it a Best Pick. In addition to offering standard side air bags, LeSabre featured Catcher's Mitt high-retention front seats with self-aligning head restraints, to reduce the chance of whiplash injuries in a rear-end collision. LeSabre's seats were designed to absorb energy in a collision, pocketing an occupant's pelvis and lower back in the seat. The self-aligning head restraint, built into each front seat-back, used the rearward movement of the occupant's upper torso to rotate the head restraint closer to the occupant's head.

So effective was the feature that the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia (ICBC) made Canadian LeSabre buyers eligible for a $100 incentive. Meanwhile, AAA (the country's largest motorist organization) named LeSabre the top car in its price category.

During a collision, crush zones at front and rear are designed to collapse on impact, allowing them to absorb energy and keep the safety cage intact. Inside, energy-absorbing steering columns compress at a force less than that which causes significant rib fracture in most people, helping to reduce accident injuries.

In January 1987, Buick LeSabres, Skylarks, and Somersets received automatic seat-belt systems. By 1994, driver-side air bags were standard in all Buicks, with passenger-side air bags standard in LeSabre, Park Avenue, and Roadmaster.

Meanwhile, the 1995 Buick XP2000 concept showcased a Buick with eight air bags (standard on every Buick model today).

Yet the number of air bags in your Buick is but one factor determining your safety in a collision. Dual-depth air bags, a GM innovation, customize restraint levels by deploying in different sizes and at different pressures, depending on seat position, safety belt usage, and crash severity.

GM was, additionally, first to offer child-friendly side-impact air bags; because air bags are too important for "one size fits all."

Today, The New York Times writes of the Buick Lucerne, "the expected safety features are here: advanced air bags that deploy in different ways depending on how one is seated, inflatable curtains that protect the front and rear seats, electronic stability control to prevent spinouts, and anti-lock brakes with emergency brake assist, which apply full stopping power in a panic situation" (The New York Times, April 23rd, 2006).

Adds Tom Keane for the Helena/ Montana Independent Record, "when it comes to safety, this car provides first-class protection" (Helena/ Montana Independent Record, August 12th, 2006).


We spend more and more time in our cars. They get us to work; they take us to play, and some even become part of the family. An OnStar-equipped car goes further.

Rest assured that, like all Buicks since 2006, LaCrosse comes with OnStar as standard equipment, thoughtfully packaged with a complimentary, 1-year Safe & Sound subscription.

It's a premium feature for a premium car; a premium car whose ambience and amenities befit its brand and stature. And it represents the kind of reassurance for which Buick has long been known: the same philosophy which lends LaCrosse's platinum-tipped spark plugs a 100,000-mile service life, and its coolant, an estimated 150,000 miles of usefulness in protecting your engine before needing a change.

As a Buick owner, you become one of 5 million OnStar subscribers. On average, OnStar talks to a subscriber once every two seconds, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. 40,000-50,000 calls come through on a typical day; 60 of these are emergency airbag deployment calls.

Between April and June 2008, an average 2,000 subscribers per month were helped by OnStar, following an air bag deployment. An average 8,000 emergencies per month were assisted by OnStar. An average 54,000 GM GoodWrench Remote Diagnostics instances were performed by OnStar, per month. An average 65,000 subscribers asked OnStar to send a signal to unlock their doors, per month. And an average 15 million calls per month were made by OnStar subscribers with Hands-free Calling.


Since 1997, Buick door locks have popped open automatically in the event of an air bag deployment. Today, with OnStar, you get the help you need even if you can't ask for it. In a crash, built-in vehicle sensors can automatically alert an OnStar Advisor, who is immediately connected to your vehicle, and who can request emergency help to be sent to you exact location.

In the real world, there's no such thing as a typical crash. You can hit something, or be hit by something, from any direction, and at any angle. Using Automatic Crash Response sensors built into your Buick, the Advisor can even relay critical crash information to emergency responders, such as the severity and type of the crash (rollover? multiple impacts?). As a result, responders are better equipped for any scene.

OnStar Advisors are available 24 hours per day, 7 days a week, and will stay on the line for as long as you need.

OnStar is the only safety, security, and communications system to combine these important safety features. Through April 2009, OnStar has applied for more than 500 patents for research it conducts in Detroit.


Not only can OnStar call for help if you can't, but it can guide you to your destination, or send you an e-mail when your car needs an oil change. Once a month, your Buick gathers information about its condition, organizes it, and sends it to you in an e-mail. The e-mail covers diagnostics, notifications (including recalls), and maintenance recommendations for your particular mileage and driving style.

The 1985 Buick Riviera offered a factory-installed cellular telephone. Today, all new Buicks come with Hands-free calling, built-in, with a powerful 3-watt digital/ analog system and external antenna for superior reception. Every Buick comes with its own phone number, enabling you to make and receive calls from your vehicle, at the touch of a button. There is no additional equipment to buy, or contracts to sign. It's easy to add minutes, while driving. Another benefit of hands-free calling is that it offers a better connection than a cellphone, and may well work in places your cellphone will not. To make a call, press the OnStar "phone" button, say "Dial," and the system prompts you from there. You can even program name-tags for frequently dialed numbers.

If you or someone in your vehicle has a disability or medical condition, OnStar can provide information on handicap-accessible rest stops and restaurants, or find nearby full-service stations that pump gas for you.

OnStar Turn-by-Turn navigation offers directions. Your Buick downloads directions from OnStar, and prompts you with street names and arrows.


As far back as 1923, Buick installed a transmission lock, promising that it would reduce theft insurance rates by 20%. Anti-theft ignition locks debuted in 1969; 1980 brought a theft-deterrent door and trunk lock mechanism, plus a starter interrupt system to prevent the engine from firing. 1986 saw the debut of touchpad-based Keyless Entry on the Electra; 1988 improved the theft-deterrent door-lock mechanism and saw car-specific identification stamped on major body panels; 1990 saw the introduction of the Buick/ GM Pass-Key anti-theft system, and 1994 brought forth the revised Pass-Key II.

Today, more than a million vehicles are stolen across the U.S. and Canada every year. Should you ever report your vehicle stolen, OnStar can pinpoint your vehicle's location using GPS information. If the car in question is a 2009 Buick, OnStar can even remotely slow a reported stolen vehicle down, under instruction from law enforcement.

Buick's programmable automatic door-locks have resisted carjacking since 1992, a system reprised from that used in the 1976 Electra. Today, if your keys get locked in the car, call OnStar and an advisor can remotely send a signal to quickly and easily unlock your door.

Can't remember where you parked? OnStar can remotely sound your horn and flash your lights, with a far greater range than your key fob, to help you easily find your vehicle.


We've talked much about Buick reliability. If, as tradition and J.D. Power & Associates surveys suggest, Buick reliability is a given, then one might expect that Buick would stand behind its cars.

This, it does, with a 4-year/ 50,000-mile bumper-to-bumper warranty which soundly beats Toyota and Honda. As a Buick owner, you enjoy no less a warranty than that offered by Cadillac.

A 5-year/ 100,000-mile powertrain warranty protects against problems with major driveline components, including the engine, transmission, transfer case, and axles. If makes roadside assistance, and courtesy transportation, available.

In short, it means that you're protected. So is the next owner. No questions, no hassles.

Meanwhile, all new Buicks offer the same, 4-year/ 50,000-mile length of roadside assistance coverage (1-800-ROADSIDE). Locked out? Out of gas? Need a tow? Buick has you covered for 4 years and 50,000 miles. This is peace-of-mind coverage that beats Toyota, and Honda offers none at all. At Buick, such reassurance is complimentary.

Recently, MarketWatch.com Inc. referenced the program in an article praising roadside assistance plans as being "among the few purchases that pays for itself the first time you use it" ('Motorist's best friend,' Marshall Loeb, MarketWatch.com Inc., May 21st, 2006).

Your Buick dealership even offers a year of roadside assistance with pre-owned Buicks.

On-board diagnostics began at Buick for 1977, enabling a mechanic to hook up a diagnostic test instrument to check operation of the ignition switch, coil, starter, and other critical circuitry, in faster fashion than traditional methods allowed. By 1996, all Buicks were OBD-II (on-board diagnostic II) compliant, for more accurate diagnoses and quicker repairs. Anti-lock brake control units were also revised to make the ABS more durable and easier to service.

All Buick suspensions are lubed for life, a design begun with the 1988 Regal.

Body integrity is vital at Buick. As far back as 1983, the Century offered standard Plastisol-R protection in critical spots. By the year, more and more galvanized panels entered the Buick line-up, with the 1986 LeSabre becoming the first Buick to offer double-sided, galvanized sheetmetal on both sides of the hood and fenders. Going a step further, the whole 1986 Riviera's body - roof apart - was double-side, hot-dipped galvanized. The same process would be applied to the 1988 Regal, and to other Buicks going forward.

Today, to maintain your Buick's appearance and value, additional clear coat is sprayed over every vehicle, in critical areas. For additional protection against chipping, vulnerable lower body-panel areas receive an application of anti-chip protection. Galvanized steel with a zinc coating, and protective anticorrosion dips, are used extensively. Exhaust systems, today as since 1991, are made of stainless steel.

So confident is Buick in the body integrity of its products that it warranties its cars against corrosion for 6 years.


Buick's first closed car, protecting its occupants from the elements, came with the 1910 Buick Model 41, rather preempting the industry by 10 years.

1932 Buicks received a cruciform-braced frame. Decades later, side-guard beam construction and a double-panel roof featured in even the affordable Skyhawk of 1975, these double panels not only strengthening the structure, but serving as a canvas for a perforated and bonded, contoured inner panel to keep the passenger compartment quiet. Nylon-blend, cut-pile carpeting further refined this lowliest of Buicks beyond customer expectations for the segment.

The Skyhawk was evidence that the features of Big Buicks could be flexible, comfortably moving to Buicks of a new, smaller size. We speak here not merely of options, but of dual-rate body mounts, and well-padded instrument panels, head restraints, and sun visors. Indeed, when full-size Buicks were downsized for 1977, their new, smaller chassis was a direct descendant of their predecessors, for proven hardware in a first-year model, while meeting the needs of a more efficient era.

A heater was made available for 1923. For 1924, 4-wheel disc brakes were introduced.

By 1927, Buicks featured one-piece windshields, and illuminated speedometers and gasoline gauges.

The Buick's starter received a revision for 1934, preventing it from being used to move the car when the ignition was locked. A glove-box lock followed for 1935.

For 1934, an octane selector altered the spark timing to allow the use of either standard or premium fuel.

For 1936, directional indicators became standard equipment, a first in the industry.

The 1938 Buick's all-around coil springs prolonged rear tire life, and provided for increased control in the event of a blowout.

Tire pressure became particularly important at Buick in 1980, in the wake of the second gas crisis, when new, higher-pressure tires offered less rolling resistance. By 1981, they were self-sealing, too.

Then, as now, approximately 20 square inches connect you and your car to the road. Your car's tires are among the most important aspects of your safety and its performance. That's why every new Buick features standard tire-pressure monitoring.

It also explains why General Motors opened its Tire and Wheel Systems Laboratory at the GM proving ground in Milford, back in 1968: to oversee the design, development, validation, and engineering release of all tires used on GM's North American vehicles.

Today, the development of every new Buick involves a series of rigorous tire tests, under a variety of load and driving conditions, measuring critical performance characteristics to ensure optimum ride smoothness, fuel economy, braking, and handling.


All the reassurance of a Buick adds up to a fine value - and value has long been a Buick cornerstone.

As early as November 1904, Motor Age found the Buick to be "a little machine that has attracted an immense amount of attention in the past few weeks, owing to its high power and low price" (Buick: A Complete History, Terry B. Dunham & Lawrence R. Gustin, Automobile Quarterly, 2002).

"As you may know, Buick today is outselling every other car listing about $1,200, by a margin of two to one," wrote the Decker Automobile Company, a dealership chain, to prospective customers in 1929, explaining that value was a critical piece of Buick's success.

Offering a value proposition is part of a commitment to what Buick Motor Division described as product integrity in the Sixties. "When Buick builds a LeSabre, Buick builds a high-priced car - and puts a low price on it," Buick explained in 1964.

Two years later, the company said of its flagship, "some think a man who can afford a Buick Electra 225 is above thinking about money.

"We tend to doubt it."

More recently, Buick told Park Avenue customers, "just because you have it doesn't mean you have to spend it."

IntelliChoice's Complete Car Cost Guide named the Buick Park Avenue a Best Luxury Car Value for 1992 and 1993, after considering price, depreciation, financing, insurance, taxes, fuel, maintenance, and repairs over a 5-year period. In 1996, both Park Avenue and LeSabre took the award.

Car Smart magazine called the 1995 LeSabre an Absolute Best New Car Value, and made the 1996 Park Avenue Ultra its Recommended Buy.

The 1998 Park Avenue won Kiplinger's Car Buying Guide Best-In-Class, Best New Car award in the $25,000 - $35,000 category, while LeSabre took Family Circle magazine's Family Sedan of the Year.

The 1999 Century was chosen a Consumers Digest Best Buy.

AAA gave the 2000 LeSabre Top Honors, and Top Car standing among all domestic and import models in the $20,000 - $25,000 price range.

In 2000, Buick's dealership network won Strategic Vision's Dealer Total Quality Award for Best Dealership Experience, $20,000 - $30,000 vehicles, for the second year running, based on the responses of 33,760 new car buyers.

In 2001, Buick LeSabre received the Good Housekeeping Institute Women's Automotive Satisfaction Award for the third consecutive year.

It's fair to say that the Buick theme has consistently been that a fine car investment is measured not by its price, but its pleasure.

"We are certain you will enjoy your entire ownership experience with us," predicts Buick today.

"Why? Because our philosophy is to treat each and every customer exactly as we would like to be treated. Our goal is to exceed your expectations in all we do - and to retain your business for a lifetime."

Indeed, J.D. Power & Associates' 2006 Customer Service survey placed Buick second in the industry, as the brand upheld the excellence of its sales and service experience.

Over fifteen years ago, Buick became one of the first car companies worldwide to pioneer a new-vehicle inspection and delivery process. Today, it is known as Buick Quality Plus Delivery. Not only is your new Buick thoroughly inspected and explained to you by the dealer before you take delivery, but each and every Buick customer receives a follow-up survey to measure their satisfaction with the quality of both their automobile, and their sales experience. This information helps Buick Motor Division and Buick dealerships improve service in the future.

When it comes to preventative maintenance, Buick stands with you in keeping your Buick at optimum performance. The Buick Owner Center at http://www.buick.com/owners accepts the registrations of Buick through 1993, offering e-mail reminders about service visits, history of services performed, on-line owner's manuals and warranties, recall notices, and do-it-yourself videos.

That's reassuring - and it's typically Buick. It was Buick, after all, who in 1903 reassured one Billy Durant that automobiles were not repugnant; that the horseless carriage was the way forward. Durant borrowed a 1904 Buick and was so impressed that he invested in the company, joining its board of director, selling 1,108 Buicks at the 1905 New York Auto Show before the company had built even 40, and going on to found General Motors on September 16th, 1908. Buick led GM - and American - production that year. Indeed, the consistency of Buick was critical to General Motors' early years, as the nascent corporation experienced considerable financial trouble.

Thus was Buick the cornerstone of General Motors. Buick would reward both its parent company and its customers several times over, with - as early as 1914 - standard electric self-starting, standard headlights, and its first 6-cylinder engine.

In World War I, Buick would give back to the nation, building 1,338 8- and 12-cylinder Liberty aircraft engines; 1.2 million 3-inch mortar shells; 1.2 million mortar bases; 1.05 million shell casings; 397,000 cartridge containers; 3,500 trucks and ambulances; 11,000 sets of truck axles, and even a series of experimental tanks.

The French government awarded a Buick ambulance the Croix de Guerre. The car was returned to the United States, and can be seen today at the Washington Red Cross museum.

Buick was giving back to its parent company, too. "When times were bad in the early 1920s, it was the profits from Buick that kept GM going," recalled Forbes columnist Jerry Flint recently, adding a period quote from GM leader Alfred P. Sloan: "it was Buick that made any kind of General Motors car line worth talking about" ('Reinventing Buick,' Forbes, March 4th, 2003).

Remarks author Lawrence Gustin, "the evidence strongly suggests that Buick, the financial rock on which Durant founded General Motors in 1908, remained the financial rock that pulled GM through the disaster of 1920-21, until Sloan's strong new management techniques could build GM into what has become the largest manufacturing empire in history" (Buick: A Complete History, Terry B. Dunham & Lawrence R. Gustin, Automobile Quarterly, 2002).

By 1923, and back to full-time regular production, Buick had built its one-millionth car. The Buick brand was now prominent internationally.

In 1941, Buick production set a new record at 316,251. Soon, there were Hellcats on the Buick assembly line, as the automaker joined America's World War II effort, promising, "until total victory, we dedicate ourselves to one objective: when better war goods are built, Buick workmen will build them.

"This is a war not only of men in uniform, but of men in work clothes, engineers in their short sleeves, executives at their desks. Every machine, every drawing board, every conference table where decisions are made concerning war goods - all these are battle stations where part of the work of forging Victory goes on," said Buick General Manager Harlow H. Curtice, Time magazine's 1955 Man of the year, and later President of GM.

Buick produced 74,797 Pratt & Whitney Bomber Engines; 2,507 M-18 Hellcat Tank Destroyers; 640 M-39 Armored Tractors; 19,428 M-4, M-10, and M-26 Tank Power Trains; 2,952 90mm and 4.7-inch Anti-Aircraft Gun Mounts; 148,196 Diesel Engine Crankshafts; 2,424,000 75mm Steel Cartridge Cases; 1,149,300 57mm shell bodies; 9,719,000 20mm shell bodies; 3,120,000 aluminum cylinder heads for Pratt & Whitney Engines; 52,200 aluminum cylinder blocks for Rolls-Royce Engines, and 204,500 cylinder blocks and heads for army truck engines. The total period worth of the war materials delivered by Buick to the Armed Forces exceeded one billion dollars.

With the arrival of peace in 1945, Buick was - in October of that year - again ready to pick up where it had left off. In the 1950s, Buick defined optimism; in the '60s, the rational styling of a new era. With the 1979 Riviera S-Type, Buick received Motor Trend's Car of the Year award, the magazine proclaiming it "the leading edge of Detroit technology, combining interesting weight-saving materials and engineering approaches... in a way that's synergistic: the sum becomes greater than its parts."

The Buick was a lot of car in the beginning - and it's a lot more car today.

Buick has long offered a reassuring degree of choice; not simply the adaptability of '96 LeSabre, Park Avenue, and Riviera's Personal Choice features (memory door locks, seats, and lighting), but a more inherent degree of selection.

The new 1982-84 Regal sedan gave the midsize Buick sedan customer a rear-wheel drive alternative to the new, front-wheel drive 1982 Century, whose layout was gradually permeating its way through the line-up.

Then, even as Buick focused on packaging front-wheel drive and downsized platforms in a manner acceptable to the Buick driver, it revived the rear-wheel drive Roadmaster for 1991, as an Estate, and as a sedan from 1992 through 1996.

Post-Millennium, with the LaCrosse and Lucerne, Buick was the only premium automaker to offer midsize and full-size choices between overhead-valve and dual-overhead-cam engines. Why the choice? The better to fit your driving style.

Overhead-valve engines, which have one intake and exhaust valve per cylinder, are generally described as torquers, touting strong low-end performance - and up to 30 mpg, in a full-size Buick, on the highway.

Meanwhile, overhead-cam engines have two intake and two exhaust valves per cylinder, allowing more air to flow into the combustion chamber and more exhaust gas to flow out of it. Their strength is better performance at high rpms.


Today, CO2 emissions from cars and light trucks have decreased significantly since the mid-1970s, as fuel efficiency has increased.

The Eighties brought attention to an aerodynamic approach to fuel efficiency, visible at Buick with the 1977-80 Century Aeroback, and full-size '80 LeSabres and Electras that were restyled with aerodynamics in mind, riding on higher-pressure tires with less rolling resistance.

When the Buick Century debuted for 1982, it offered the lowest coefficient of drag in the line-up. Its flush-mounted glass and tall, 2.97:1 final drive answered the call for more efficient vehicles - and, impressively, at the most affordable end of the Buick brand.

For 1984, Buick Special Products Engineering released the results of its studies in efficiency: Multi-Port Injection (MFI) technology came to the 3.8-liter V6, analyzing air/ fuel requirements and sending a charge to all six cylinders during each engine revolution. Meanwhile, the Regal and Riviera T-Types' Sequential Fuel Injection (SFI) gave each cylinder a precisely metered charge, just before firing, for best performance all the way from idle to full load.

In 1972, Hot Rod magazine mused, "no argument about it: Buick didn't start the performance car movement... but they seem to be the only automaker able to hang on to performance and deliver clean air at the same time" (Hot Rod, February 1972). Since the mid-1960s, vehicle tail-pipe emissions of hydrocarbons (HC), carbon monoxide (CO), and oxides of nitrogen (NOx) have significantly decreased; in the United States and Canada, by 99%; 96%, and 95%, respectively. Now, for 2009, there's a Lucerne model which can use E85 FlexFuel, a high-octane, cleaner-burning blend of 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline. This is a mostly renewable fuel that can be made from biodegradable wastes and several plants, such as switchgrass, willow, and corn.

Using E85 ethanol can actually help improve your vehicle's performance, thanks to a higher octane rating, which allows for more horsepower and torque.

Lucerne's engine control module helps to identify what fuel or blend of fuels is running through the system, and makes the adjustments accordingly.

More than 1,500 E85 ethanol pumps are available nationwide. That number will only continue to grow, with already more than 7 million E85-capable vehicles on the road in the United States. GM is the leader, with more than 3 million FlexFuel vehicles on the road.

Using E85 ethanol reduces dependence on petroleum, supports the domestic agriculture industry, and reduces greenhouse gas and smog-forming emissions.

The next generation of ethanol will come from things such as grass clippings and wood-chips, and rotting plants. Use of this blend will create even fewer greenhouse gas emissions than when ethanol is made from corn.

GM is ready, looking to have half of annual vehicle production be E85 or biodiesel capable by 2012.

They used to say that the Buick was the automobile of those possessed of "uncommon good sense" ... (more)

They used to say that the Buick was the automobile of those possessed of "uncommon good sense" ...