Named for the United States' tallest peak, the Ohio-built
Buick Rainier is Buick's first truck since 1923. Buick began building trucks in 1909, continuing through 1918 before subsiding until 1922, then focusing solely on passenger cars a year afterward.
In the eighty-one years hence, trucks blossomed into SUVs: full-frame vehicles expected to power all four wheels and to conquer treacherous terrain; tow trailers; campers, and boats behind them, while carrying a family of five in comfort.
Giving an SUV good on-road ride qualities can undermine its control on poor roads. Moreover, emphasizing offroad ability can given front suspensions jounce characteristics akin to an allergy to on-road potholes and undulations. There's no doubt that engineering a Buick for this class is a difficult task, yet it is one that Buick was determined to tackle.
The first two goals were simple enough:
a truck does not have to ride and sound like one. In every segment in which it plays, Buick is determined to go one better than the benchmark. It is fitting, then, that - under design director William Davis - Buick's participation brings with it
ride quality heretowith alien to this segment; and, that
Rainier is the quietest SUV in its class.
Buick style and
power climb to new heights (to
eight inches of ground clearance, to be precise). Roof rack side-rails; exterior door handles, and even the fog lamps are bathed in chrome.
Step-in over the embossed, chrome sill-plates, and luxurious room for five abounds, accented by
chrome and dark burled walnut woodgrain.
Rainier is among the segment's roomiest for heads; shoulders, and hips - and when more cargo capacity is needed, split rear seats can be folded forward to free 80.1 cubic feet of space.
Discover the luxury of Buick Rainier
Rainier's driver holds a steering wheel of
genuine mahogany wood and leather. Ahead, chrome-trimmed gauges nestle in dark, burled-walnut woodgrain trim. Finished in black-on-platinum, their markings turning to turquoise at night, the
Rainier's gauges are both attractive, and easily read through polarized sunglasses.
Available touch-screen navigation, too, is immune to glare
in sunlight - what little glare there is, mind you, given that a large dot-matrix shield atop the windshield above the rear-view mirror and between the sun visors blocks direct light through a gap other manufacturers usually neglect.
Rainier intenders may opt for a
rear-seat DVD entertainment system.
Offered, too, is XM Satellite Radio, which beams over 150 channels of clear, digital-quality sound across 800 terrestrial repeaters to the
Rainier, sixty-seven of these channels being commercial-free music and news; sports; talk; comedy, and instant traffic and weather updates. Consumers can subscribe to the basic service for $12.99 a month. In addition, Buick customers with GMAC financing can choose to include the XM subscription in their car payments. Select XM with
Rainier, and receive three trial months of service.
Rainier's passengers travel surrounded in the opulence of
soft-touch door panels and
perforated leather upholstery, within which - up front - are perhaps the most effective
seat heaters ever devised. Astride front occupants are seat-belts that thoughtfully eliminate the usual reach to the side pillar.
Dual-zone air-conditioning, maintaining up to a twenty-five degree difference between the front seats, is standard, as are a digital compass; a driver information center; remote keyless entry; power front seats with two-position memory settings (first introduced for 1982 Buicks), and a theft-deterrent system.
Acoustics play a critical role in defining the character of an automobile.
"Apart from the look of a vehicle, its acoustic behavior is the aspect most directly observable to the user," notes BMW Director of Acoustics and Vibration Dr. Peter Zeller.
Rainier travels in silence -
a silence that sets a new standard for tough, body-on-frame SUVs.
For Buick, quiet is an important
ergonomic quality. Buick's
QuietTuning process is designed to
reduce or tune out unwanted noise and harshness throughout every area of the vehicle. Attention to areas such as exterior aerodynamics; component isolation, and fine-tuning of all related elements achieve the quietest ride and most desirable frequency ranges for every Buick. Gearbox noise; load reversal; auxiliaries; road noise; resonance effects; mechanical squeaks and rattles; idle noise, and pass-by noise must be minimized, while actuation (windows and other devices, for instance) and engines are to be tuned.
QuietTuning starts with a strong body-on-frame architecture, and
best-in-class body stiffness of 23 Hertz, which minimizes road noise and vibration. Premium Michelin all-season P245/60 R17 tires are standard, for a quiet ride and good traction.
Then, QuietTuning installs triple door seals; places additional sealing at
Rainier's C- and D-pillars; uses
acoustic laminate glass in the windshield, and arrays
more than twenty-six thick sound-absorbing pads in and under the hood; at the firewall, and across the body, all blocking and absorbing sound, and thus shielding the Buick traveler from the road.
QuietTuning works. Buick has found the
Rainier to be up to 25%
quieter than its competition, matching or exceeding many luxury cars (even at highway speeds). In tests at 35mph, with 90-degree crosswinds,
Rainier remained very stable, thanks to an aerodynamic side profile that helped minimize forces transferred to the chassis from wind-created side loads.
By the numbers, Car and Driver, October 2003, measured 67dBA at a 70mph cruise.
This figure beat Acura's MDX and Lexus' GX470.
With a choice of two efficient, powerful engines; a
standard air suspension, and a
towing capacity of up to 6,700 pounds,
Rainier is among the most capable midsize SUVs on the market.
Discover the ability of Buick Rainier
Rainier's standard 4.2-liter DOHC inline-6 is of a classic configuration with inherent balance. Its
Variable Valve Timing (VVT) system adjusts the timing of intake and exhaust valves, enhancing the existing balance of power; efficiency, and low emissions.
A smoother way to make 291 horsepower and 277 foot-pounds of torque does not exist in this segment.
A more efficient SUV than Rainier does not exist in this segment, either.
Ward Auto World's Segmentation Leaders 2005 places the two-wheel-drive, inline-6
Rainier at the top of its class for efficiency, noting an expected 21mpg on the highway.
Yet Rainier also offers V8 power. Opt for the Gen IV 5300 5.3-liter OHV V8, a not-too-distant relative of Corvette C5's 5.7-liter, and gain the
300 horsepower and 330 foot-pounds of torque of two extra cylinders (and mid-7 second 0-60mph time). Eight-cylinder power comes with the efficiency of
Active Fuel Management, which
uses only half of the engine's cylinders when driving with a light load, yet seamlessly opens all cylinders when needed for brisk acceleration or for hauling heavy loads.
This technology, as offered by Buick, will extend to two million General Motors vehicles by 2008.
The Rainier rides atop
standard load-leveling air suspension at the rear: a five-link, solid axle features air springs that eschew steel coils for superior damping and improved isolation from road noise. Computer-operated vents on the air springs; suspension sensors, and an onboard air compressor allow the system to instantly adjust air spring pressure, maintaining a level ride height and varying the suspension's ride characteristics on demand. This results in
a smoother ride, because
the natural frequency of vibration of an air spring does not vary with loading as it does with metal springs. Air springs can be made very soft for lightly-loaded conditions, and yet the pressure automatically increased to match any increase in load, thus maintaining a constant spring vibration, no matter the circumstances. That's an important consideration when driving down poor roads at higher speeds, where many an SUV with
Rainier's on-road pliancy will leave you airborne, hanging on to the steering-wheel.
An independent, double-A arm configuration features up front. All-around Bilstein shocks help damp vibrations.
Rainier's chassis is of the body-on-frame variety: panels affixed to a frame incorporating hydroformed steel members for optimum strength and rigidity. Buick parent company General Motors was
the first to use hydroforming to produce truck and SUV frames. Water pressure shapes steel from within, producing a structurally stiff and strong frame that is free of welds. Frames are also
lighter in weight, which can lead to better fuel economy.
Rainier measures 113-inches in wheelbase. It's stout enough to pull between 5,700 and 6,700 pounds behind it.
On Rainiers so equipped, SmartTrak all-wheel-drive activates when the rear wheels begin to lose traction,
transferring up to 95% of available torque to the front wheels.
Traction control is standard on Rainier.
Standard on Rainier, too, is StabiliTrak, a sophisticated
electronic stability control system that subtly keeps
Rainier securely pointed in the right direction on ice; snow; gravel; wet pavement, and uneven road surfaces.
The measurements of an accelerator pedal position sensor; a brake master cylinder pressure sensor; a steering-wheel-angle sensor; a lateral accelerometer; a yaw rate sensor, and wheel-speed sensors are sent to a computer hundreds of times per second. If the driver is steering
Rainier through a curve, the system predicts the path the driver intends to take, and continually compares this with the vehicle's path. When the predicted paths and intended paths are the same, all is well. On slick surfaces, however, the difference between the steering-wheel angle and the direction in which
Rainier is actually turning is likely to be greater. The appropriate brake is applied and engine power is reduced to keep
Rainier on course.
StabiliTrak pulses the outside front brake in an oversteer situation, and the inside rear brake in an understeer situation.
The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates that
stability control can reduce single vehicle crashes involving SUVs by 67%. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) has also found electronic stability control systems to be very effective in reducing single-vehicle crashes.
"Making StabiliTrak technology standard on the Rainier underscores our commitment to providing Buick customers with a comprehensive package of luxury; comfort, and safety," explains Steve Shannon, Buick General Manager.
Approximately twenty 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
Rainier, like every 2006 Buick, features standard tire-pressure monitoring.
Additionally - 'tis a small thing, but
Rainier features standard Daytime Running Lamps (DRLs). Buick parent company General Motors cites studies proving that DRLs have helped reduce daytime multi-vehicle crashes by 12.5%, and pedestrian-car accidents by 15%. At time of writing, GM figures that up to 85,000 crashes may have been prevented by DRLs, since 1995.
All in all, it's the kind of
reassurance for which Buick has long been known - the same philosophy that lends
Rainier's platinum-tipped spark plugs a 100,000-mile service life; its coolant, up to 150,000 miles of use, and a full-sized spare (just in case).
Buick parent company General Motors was
the first to offer child-friendly side-impact airbags.
Today, head-curtain side airbags that inflate from the roof rail between A-pillar and side window header are available on
Rainier. When the airbags deploy in a moderate to severe side impact, they are angled somewhat toward the window, to help provide protection for front- and second-row outboard passengers.
A rollover protection sensing system is included, triggering both the side-curtain airbags and safety-belt pretensioners in a rollover event. The rollover-sensing module, located on the center tunnel under the rear seat, uses a complex algorithm based on lateral and vertical accelerations; roll rate, and vehicle speed to determine whether to deploy the safety systems.
Like all 2006 Buicks, Rainier comes with
OnStar as standard equipment. Buick provides a complimentary Safe
& Sound subscription for one year. In the case of airbag deployment or
theft, the OnStar advisor works with police to assist in recovery.
Locked-out? Out of gas? Need a tow? Curious about a Check Engine alert? A live advisor can help.
Add Hands-Free Calling, and stay better connected on the road with a powerful three-watt digital/ analog system and external antenna for superior reception.
For Buick's first SUV, the environment was carefully considered. Using hydroforming to produce the frame rail and radiator support
has reduced scrap steel by several hundred tons per model year. Radiator side-air baffles consist of 91% post-consumer and post-industrial recycled material, some of which is rubber from post-consumer tires. Versus earlier GM SUVs, the extended oil-change interval saves an estimated 36.5 quarts of oil per truck over its expected life; the amount of lubricant required in the front axle is reduced by 0.4 liters, and despite considerable increase in functionality, more than a hundred wiring circuits were eliminated.
Lead-free dip primer and water-basecoat paints have been used on all
Rainiers. Recycled rubber-shoe soles and recycled polypropylene bumpers are used in the manufacture of water deflectors. Air bags are filled not with sodium azide, but with a heated, compressed-gas technology. Thousands of tons of molded plastic parts are marked for recycling at the factory, making recovery of those parts easier at the vehicle's end-of-life and greatly increasing the potential for landfill avoidance.
Rainier is built in Moraine, Ohio by over 4,000 team members. Moraine has been in operation since 1951.
Moraine itself has made great strides in environmental
awareness. An Energy Management System (EMS) tracks and monitors
energy usage throughout the plant. The generation of hazardous waste
overall was reduced by 65% from 1995 to 2000, while non-recycled
hazardous waste disposal dropped by 95% over the same period. Particular
attention has since been paid to the primer and painting process: primer
is lead free, with the use of a powder primer surfacer reducing
hydrocarbon emissions dramatically; solvents for cleaning basecoat spray
guns have been eliminated through a new gun-cap washer design, and the
combination of water-basecoat paints and an innovative carbon absorption
control system on the clearcoat paint booths have significantly reduced
solvent air emissions.
J.D. Power and Associates' 2006 Initial Quality study found
Rainier to be among the top three vehicles in the midsize SUV/ Crossover segment.
Strategic Vision's May 2005 Total Quality study, which surveyed 40,793 owners to gauge vehicle satisfaction, found the
Rainier among the Top 20 of more than 200 models in the industry.
Rainier
won its segment for 2005 as a whole, Strategic Vision calling it
Most Delightful in its Class, "explicitly delivering the right emotions that capture customer needs and values."
Rainier is available in nine exterior and two interior finishes, with a choice of two aluminum wheel designs.
What does the color of your Buick say about you?
General Motors color trend manager Christopher Webb spends up to two years studying and testing every Buick color, for durability in both senses of the word.
It is important work. Webb estimates that 34% of customers would walk out of the dealership if they could not get the color they wanted, up from 27% ten years ago.
In a recent copy of Buick's The Style Review in-house magazine, Webb cites studies that color influences mood and behavior.
Blue, for example, is known to be calming, while fiery oranges and yellows stimulate. White suggests purity; green is associated with nature and money, and purple is thought to represent royalty.
While such cultural associations tend to endure, trends in taste and preference change over time, reflecting the fluctuating moods and priorities of a society. Metallic car colors, for instance, soared in popularity during the recent tech revolution.
Today, Webb notes that "brown is an ascending luxury color and is making a big comeback... especially in interiors."
Yet Webb admits that color trends are currently in a state of flux.
"It's a generation change," he told The Style Review.
"Formerly, the more mature, luxury market wanted conservative colors - silvers; grays; blacks - while the youth market wanted high impact. That's been reversed somewhat."
Buick additionally offers chrome-plated assist steps, constructed of anodized aluminum with steel brackets, and featuring textured-plastic step pads.
A pet divider is also available for Rainier, providing maximum convenience with a net that unfolds easily and hooks conveniently at the top and bottom of the vehicle's rear cargo compartment.
