Good Bye 91PA

I guess we should have suspected that we get what we pay for. so for a car having 180,000 miles on it as $1600 I should not have expected as much. I did expect to do some of the maintenance work usual things that you would expect to go wrong with it but not to the extreme that we had. The front end I could justify although I was extremely disappointed that they do not last as long as the older ones do. Later we had oil pressuere problems, then the heater failed to work I replaced that only to find that the heater controls did not work and heat would only come out of the vent mode. and then it only came out on one side GM has dissapoointed me so much in that respect. For years I was a avid supporter of GM and this one has left a real sour taste in my mouth. So we have ditched the Buick for something else. I will be honest it will take a act of God before I will ever buy another GM car that is 1991 or newer. It would have been really nice if GM would have used the K.I.S.S. principle rather than "if its not new it wont sell" Maybe I am to too old school. But right now I am tired of spending time on the car only to have it nickle and dime us to death

I guess we should have suspected that we get what we pay for. so for a car having 180,000 miles on it as $1600 I should not have expected as much. I did expect to do some of the maintenance work usual things that you would expect to go wrong with it but not to the extreme that we had. The front end I could justify although I was extremely disappointed that they do not last as long as the older ones do. Later we had oil pressuere problems, then the heater failed to work I replaced that only to find that the heater controls did not work and heat would only come out of the vent mode. and then it only came out on one side GM has dissapoointed me so much in that respect. For years I was a avid supporter of GM and this one has left a real sour taste in my mouth. So we have ditched the Buick for something else. I will be honest it will take a act of God before I will ever buy another GM car that is 1991 or newer. It would have been really nice if GM would have used the K.I.S.S. principle rather than "if its not new it wont sell" Maybe I am to too old school. But right now I am tired of spending time on the car only to have it nickle and dime us to death

A couple years back, I thought the same way about Dodge that you do about GM. I had a 92' Dynasty, and it seemed that after I got it, every problem you can image just erupted on me! I said how much I hated that car, but in a way it gave me the inspiration to work on it and learn more about repairing vehicles in general, which ultimately led to my desire to go to school to become a technician. After time, I fixed every little problem it had on my own, and after a long year I grew to love that car.
About 2 years ago one of my closer friends sold me his 92' Park Avenue with 130,000k for 500 dollars! Its rear driver side door had been side swiped by an 18 wheeler, lug nuts did a number on the shell, and cleaned the chrome right off. The heater did not work (he bypassed the leaking heater core), the ELC pump wouldn't stop running, the driver window wouldn't go down, it didn't have a radio, and the overhead console would randomly fall from the ceiling during rough driving conditions! These name a few of the problems it had already, and SEVERAL more problems arose since then.
Personally, (and a lot of my friends and family think I'm crazy for saying this) I love all of the small problems it had, it was a learning experience for me. I had to remember, this was an 11 year old car at the time, it had been in storage for 4 of those previous years, and of course it's going to have problems! I don't necessarily blame GM about this, everything in this world wears out after time, and you just never know how the car was treated before you got it. I think if you haven't already ditched yout 91', that you should rethink your decisition. The problems you mentioned are not severe, the oil sending unit sounds like the culprit for your oil pressure being off, and the heat controls could be something as simple as a small electrical short, but you never know until you have it checked, or check it yourself if that's what you like to do. If the car doesn't have any other major problems, I wouldn't hate Buick or GM for the problems, because EVERY car out there has problems, and some are even found before the vehicle ever reaches 50,000k! I hope you reconsider, because I can tell you right now that they don't make cars like this anymore!

The car is history we traded it off. But as for the problems being minor true that they may be but after $2500 was dumped into it over 6 months and no cure or relief in site I finally drew the line. To much time and money went into a money pit. There may be ones out there that are great but unfortunately they are far and few between. There numbers are limited and that is why I am so mad. I had a Toyota Celica that had over 250,000+ and was still going before it got totalled. Now the sad part is for Toyota's is that a great number of them are that way and still go. GM used to be that way not no more. I have owned Buicks in the past and I liked them. One of the reasons why we got this one, but I will not buy another GM that is front wheel drive and or 1991 or newer, the ride was nice the fixing it all the time was a hassle. It consumed my time and energy. I realize periodic maintenance is needed but the time that it required was unbelievable. And I do blame GM for this because they never used to be this way. Just goes to show a sad progression to the disposable car. And more over to one the average guy can't fix. And this is applying to all domestic manufacturers not just GM.

Well just to defend the PA, I have a 2000, it has 96k on it. I bought it new and can not complain about how GM put it together over all. The only problems I had was to replace the spark plug wires at 70k, which I thought was too soon, and then the oil pressure sending unit connection/wires needed to be replaced. I got 80k out of the front brake pads and still going on the back pads, and got 70k out of the tires. The thing I like best is this is the biggest car I have owned, and it gets the best mileage, 30mpg on the highway. It also has all the bells and whistles on it and everything still works fine.
I believe you just got ahold of one that was abused, or just too far gone to bring back to original condition, and all makes/models will have these kinds of cars. What we call nickle and dime how ever is now hundreds of dollars here and hundreds there. This will be true for all cars with electronic gagets on them. No more points and condensers for $5.00, now its an ignition module for $180.00. Just my 2 cents.

This will be true for all cars with electronic gagets on them. No more points and condensers for $5.00, now its an ignition module for $180.00. Just my 2 cents.

That's a great point. The older cars took plugs every 10 K and points and water pumps went at 30 K. Alternators went at 50K or earlier -- my 98 is at 130 K miles and enver been replaced.

There is a shift in cost of maintaining the cars, isn't there!!!

The point being is that that the older ones you could work on them and as for the spark plugs had they had the technology then that we do now they too would go for longer periods. Alternators could be rebuilt for little or nothing and they went longer than your advertised 50,000 or less, I have have cars that had water pumps go for longer than 30,000 the average life expecctantcy is more in the lines of 90,000 or more.

But your missing the point when you go to replace your alternator (and replace you have to because they dont make kits for rebuilding them any more(at least ones that are not reasonably priced) the over all quality is not there (have you not noticed the lifetime guarantee on most parts you get anymore.) they didnt have that back in the day because they stood behind what they built. Yah every now and then one part would no go the distance but for the most part it was bang for the buck.
bks81 and Loekee75 had one that has gone the distance and yours is doing well but the miles are far fewer than what theirs or what mine had. No offense that would be like comparing apples to oranges.

You know something --- GM makes some of the best engines and trannys!!! Your loss!! The 3800 series 2 engine is ranked one of the 10 best in the world! The transmissions are great as well! There is NO such thing as a perfect world - but Buick is close to perfect as you can get! I have owned from different automakers and nobody campairs to GM, and in the different cars in the GM line up - Buick Park Avenue is the BEST! Why don't you research the Park Avenue! You want help with your car? we will all help, you want to cry about it? go buy a ford! In time you'll realize how stupid it was to degrade, and give up on a Buick Park Avenue! Good luck! :flipa:

Sorry, but that's just the way I feel about your thread!