Overview & Reviews

Owned by General Motors, Buick is one of this country's oldest brands, with a rich tradition of innovation that dates back more than a century. Though long known for catering to retirement-age customers with its full-size sedans, the automaker's lineup now includes SUVs and sport sedans designed to bring younger buyers into the showrooms of Buick dealers.

The company was founded in 1903 by David Dunbar Buick, a Scottish industrialist. He built his first car in 1904; called the Model B, it had a two-cylinder engine with an advanced-for-its-time overhead-valve cylinder head design. In 1907, Buick unveiled its first four-cylinder production car, dubbed the Model D. The following year, the Flint, Michigan-based Buick Motor Company was bought by William C. Durant as part of a new company called General Motors. By 1914, all Buicks were built with six-cylinder engines and purchased primarily by upper-class professionals, thus earning the nickname "doctor's cars."

The manufacturer proved itself a trailblazer in the early 1920s when it introduced four-wheel brakes. This technology had been seen before on custom-built cars, but Buick was the first to figure out how to successfully apply it to mass-produced vehicles. Eight-cylinder Buick cars emerged in the 1930s and became immensely popular; these advanced engines received steady improvements for several years. The '30s also saw Buick's introduction of the industry's first rear turn signal to use a flasher.

Models such as the Estate Wagon and the ever-popular Roadmaster kept Buicks happily ensconced in driveways all across the nation in the 1940s. In 1948, Buick introduced Dynaflow, the first torque converter-type automatic transmission offered in U.S. passenger cars. The 1950s and 1960s witnessed Buick continuing to zoom ahead of the curve; it was among the first to offer vehicles with power brakes and steering, and 12-volt electrical systems. The marque was also behind the introduction of the first American V6 passenger car engine and introduced the Riviera personal luxury coupe in the early '60s.

On the whole, though, Buick had made its name as a manufacturer of stately land yachts such as the Electra 225. To meet the changing times, the automaker downsized its full- and midsize models during the 1970s and began offering compact and midsize sedans for the 1980s. During the latter period and into the '90s, Buick changed things up by introducing the Regal Grand National muscle car and Reatta luxury coupe and convertible. But its core product continued to be luxury sedans aimed at an older audience.

Today, Buick specializes in sedans and crossover SUVs and is modifying its philosophy in the hopes of attracting younger buyers. Luxury and class are still common themes, but newer models have European influences in their handling and ride dynamics. As such, many modern Buicks, such as the compact Verano sedan provide a more entertaining drive and more contemporary styling than people might expect from this "old" nameplate.

User Reviews:

• 

  CPO Great Price and Value Compared to Mercedes - 2012 Buick LaCrosse
  By RF - September 2 - 7:15 pm

  Test Drove a 2011 Mercedes C300, it broke down on test drive ($23000) Shopped Buick Lacrosse and Impala Liked The Buick Touring CPO vehicle better for the money $23450. It has more features than I need, the AC/heated seats are really nice especially in South Carolina Summer. AC cools the car quickly, Bluetooth very easy to set up and use. Plenty of power not a race car but it was not designed as such either. Very quiet on the road, people complain about the engine noise - drive a Honda or Toyota and compare for yourself. Brakes are great - emergency stop in traffic when a car pulled out in front of us and stopped. Wing mirrors are the only down fall on this car huge blind spots difficult to get adjusted to avoid the blind spots

• 

  [non-permissible content removed] - 2006 Buick Terraza
  By J.r. - September 1 - 9:31 am

  They say first impressions are everything wrong dont let this lemon fool you! I liked the look features air ride and everything. We have three kids and needed to expand. It caught my eye on a used lot for a week before I looked. I took my family down (after reading aND knowing many electornic issues off the bat. If you have ever owned a Cadillac buick or a gm that has electectronically controlled EVERYTHING knows what I mean, and I am a die hard Gm guy, dont get me wrong so I gave it the benefit of the doubt. Took it for a ride turned out of the dealer made nasty sound from steering and cv joints Which were visibly sealed and OK looking, I came to the stop li b he and major four way intersection the light wenot green I hit the gas , and the transmission slipped so bad in first it made the vehicle stall. I subsequently started it back up continued down the road to the next light when the dash lights bEgan dimming and beeping at me. The light went green I hit the gas it s.lipped from first to second then shredded a serpentine belt in traffic was my entire family. I limped back With an 1/8 in of belt width on the pulley parked it and realized every bad thing I heard about the vehicle just happen we do including the service stability system because the compressor for rear air bags wasnt working. I then looked at a cross over kia rondo with a third row seat drove ito and bought it the next day its the best car Ive owned. For 2k less than the building know this kind walks all over this buick all day long. WORD OF ADVICE, DO NOT BUY OR EVERYTHING CONSIDER A BUICK TERRAZA or you will have it in the shop once a month with every shop unable to find or fix source of electronic issues. Dont let options fool you. BTW this van only had 79,000 MI on it. LEMON

• 

  3.5 stars... Because Edmunds doesnt offer halves - 2012 Buick LaCrosse
  By Sam - August 26 - 6:45 pm

  Performance: The acceleration and engine on the 3.6 is great. The steering is very tight. Literally if you sneeze and jerk the wheel you are off the road. The Transmission on these has some issues, or more appropriately I think it is the TCM. Paired with brake issues it can make for a nasty situation when trying to stop. When the transmission downshifts sometimes the RPMs kick up causing the car to surge forward, other times it doesnt like to shift into 6th gear and despite being at 3000RPM for a unlimited time it will not upshift without putting it in manual mode and doing it yourself. Brakes are strongly front centric. I never feel pull on the rear brakes. The only comment I can make on comfort is, that if you are tall of a big guy/woman getting in and out will be uncomfortable. The way the seat sits even back as far as it goes still puts a significant amount of your legs beyond the front of the door, thus making you pull your legs back and spin in the seat before being able to put your legs on the ground. The interior is decent. I have noticed that some of the chrome coating on some of the accents starts peeling off. I did like the LED highlights in the car, and the leather is supple, soft, and comfortable. As others have posted, the car has some visibility safety issues. Blind spots are a HUGE issue. If you are backing out of a angled parking space, best of luck youre not going to be able to see a vehicle or person approaching. Backing up is difficult in the car period, lane changing requires a full head/body turn to see if someone is near the normal blind spot. A simple though not a thorough fix is to buy 2 stick on blind spot mirrors, and put them up in the top outside corner of your normal mirrors. This helps tremendously in traffic. In the technology department there are 2 big issues. 1 the Navigation system is horrid. Half the time the computerized compass is backwards or wrong. There is also an issue with the climate control. A lot of the time the AC will not turn off without power cycling" the entire system. For instance I live in the northern part of the USA. Sometimes it is AC in the afternoon and after sunset it becomes heat time. If I use the AC button to turn off AC, then up the temperature to 75-80 degrees it still blows cold air. I have to power cycle the console with the AC selected as off, then power it on and the heat will work. Reliability is good, minus the issues Im having with the brakes and transmission. I couldnt be happier with the 300+ horsepower V6 in this car. Value is about par for the course for a mid sized sedan. The cost is a little above what I think it should have been just based on safety alone. But overall it is pretty economical. The car is E85 capable. Running E85 I average about 22mpg on a 65 mile round trip mixed city/highway driving. On Unleaded with 10% Ethanol I average betwen 24.5 and 25 on the same trip. If you keep this car at 65mph with relatively few stops over long distance it will push out high 20s low 30s mpg.

• 

  Cylinders - 2009 Buick Enclave
  By sdj - August 26 - 2:25 pm

  Bought my car with 4000 miles in 2010. A year after I bought it it started kicking back when on cruise and going uphill. Took it in to dealership. They said they replaced this and that but every year after that I kept taking it back for the same problem of kicking back when going uphill. As soon as the warranty ran out I had to take it in again and this time ended up paying over $700 to fix two of the cylinders. Have tried cleaning out carbon. It is even worse now than it ever was. Cant drive it with cruise on because it has started kicking back even on straight flat roads. Check engine light constantly comes on and we have spent close to $1500 just trying to get things looked at to try and figure out the problem. Have called GM to try and have them reimburse my dollars and stand behind their product but they wont. For such a huge company, its too bad that they treat their customers this way. Im disgusted and now looking to get rid of it with 76K miles. I do not recommend purchasing this vehicle to anyone. I wont even try to sell it outright because I wouldnt feel right selling it to another innocent individual.

• 

  Early First Impressions - 2015 Buick Enclave
  By Paul Horvick - August 21 - 9:46 am

  We spent some time looking to replace our 2011 Toyota Sienna. Looked at the Toyota Highlander, new Honda Pilot and the Enclave. Because of a bad back, getting in and out of a car that has a high floor lip, or low ceiling is hurtful. The Enclave is a perfect size for ingress and egress with no back strain. In fact, the seats are marginally higher than those on the Sienna (and we loved the Sienna). The car was delivered with radio issues it would not accept the signal from Sirius/XM to put it into subscription mode. A neighbor also just got a new Enclave and had the same issue. I am sure it will be resolved, but it does speak to the necessity of having a good warranty that covers the electronics (and, at 48 month warranty, it is excellent.) Steering is heavier than I would have thought not really an issue, just an observation. The interior is quite plush and upscale quiet. Kind of the old school luxury feel. Many consumer reviews comment on how comfortable it is on the go. I would say that is a matter of opinion. Our Sienna rode much better and was much less truck-like. Even in town, you notice every bump. Granted it is a soft bump, but somewhat disappointing compared to the Sienna. Controls, although there are many due to the sophisticated technology, are pretty intuitive. Sight lines forward are great rear mirror vision is less than the Sienna due to rear headrests etc. Passenger side sight line is poor. The "blind spot" warning system is nearly a must have option. One odd thing, and it is a negative in my view, is that there is nothing stopping anyone from opening the gas cap. I would have assumed that at least some basic security would be in place, but nope...just push the cover and it pops open. Easy for sure, one less thing to go wrong I suppose, but I like the security of an in-cabin release. Resale value of the unit is (based upon a cursory review) rather typical of American vehicles. However, if you buy at the end of the model year, there are big discounts to be had. Ours had an MSRP of over $48000, and the cash price was $37000, and that puts the later resale in a much more competitive mode. It is a good looking SUV, and comes in a nice range of rich looking colors and interiors. We have the dark brown, and it is very rich looking. Time will tell if we made a good choice with the Enclave. As much as I want to love it, I am disappointed by the harshness of the ride. I wont downgrade the review for that, because it is so subjective. But, if you are expecting a cloud like ride....it is not there.

• 

  Typical Early 2000s GM Quality - 2005 Buick Terraza
  By Noah - August 20 - 7:38 pm

  This is the car my family bought used a few years ago, and I wish they had done research first. It is better than the 98 Venture we had, but not by much. I will address build quality first, and frankly the build quality is disappointing. Basically the whole interior is hard plastic (the dashboard of my grandmothers 96 Bonneville is softer), and there are noticeable gaps between many of the panels. There is padding on the upper door panels, but it is very minimal. Fortunately, we have not had problems with the power doors like other people have. We have, however, experienced the very common light flicker problem. As for how this car drives, that is also not very good. Acceleration is terrible, possibly because of the 3500 engine vs. the weight of the vehicle. Getting up to highway speeds requires stomping on the gas pedal, and there is a noticeable delay between pressing the pedal and any acceleration. Potentially dangerous. As for steering, its not bad, but you are sharply reprimanded by a high-pitched squeaking and resistance if you try to turn the wheel with the brake pedal fully applied. When going over a bump, the entire car rattles. It is extremely annoying. Interior comfort isnt that bad. The third-row seats are kind of stiff, but I dont think theyve ever really been used. All other seats are comfortable enough. However, like I mentioned before, padding on the front doors is minimal. Legroom in the second row is barely enough, and the funny thing is that the third row actually has more legroom than the second. Other miscellaneous things include: somewhat sub-par gas mileage (about 17 mpg), the unimpressive CD player (randomly stops working), and visibility (hindered by full-size rear headrests and thick C-pillars). Overall, the only thing this car really has going for it is seat comfort. The gray interior is very blah, driving dynamics are not good, and build quality is poor compared to some of the other GM cars of the time (the Lesabre, for example). But its what we have, so I suppose Ill just have to deal with it.

• 

  2005 Buick LeSabre seats burst in flames - 2005 Buick LeSabre
  By Betty Scrogham Conway - August 19 - 12:59 am

  I want to make everyone aware who owns a buick lesabre. My aunt owned a 2005 buick leSabre and loved the car because it drove good, it was good with gas miles, the interior had plenty of room. Yesterday my aunt was driving the car coming back from Taylorsville, Ky. and she reached about one mile west of Mt. Washington,Ky. and mom and husband was in the car with her when my mom yelled at my aunt to stop the car because it was on fire. My aunt pulled off of the road and was yelling for help and yelling for everyone to get out of the car and the back seat under on the driver side was burning out of control. In a matter of a few minutes this car was completely destroyed by fire and it is believed the cause of the fire was from the battery which sits underneath the rear seat on the driver side. I am so lucky that my family is alive, but it could have been much worse. I want to make everyone aware if the battery is under the rear seat you will not want a car that is not safe. My mom was with my aunt and she was in the back seat on the passenger side and saw the seat in flames and yelled to my aunt to stop the car because it was on fire. If my mom had not been back there to see the seat burning and my aunt was in the car, this could have been worse. So, think twice before you buy one of these cars because next time it may be you, your children, your parents, or some other loved one. Betty Scrogham Conway

• 

  Make a mistake going from my Tahoe to this - 2011 Buick Enclave
  By Anna S - August 15 - 11:47 pm

  I gave up my Tahoe to go to this because my two older children had moved out of the house and I did not need such a large vehicle. I intended on keeping this car for many years and giving it my daughter when she started driving. It has been in the shop with so many issues we now intend on trading it in next year and going back to a Tahoe. We have had problems from the motor mount, the drive train, the axle bearings and several other things. Thank goodness we had bought an extended warranty so we have not had much out of pocket cost. The Buick dealership has been very nice and apologetic about all the problems. It is a comfortable car but it is not as comfortable as I feel it should be.

• 

  less then a 1 star - 2008 Buick Lucerne
  By marian newhouse - August 7 - 10:10 pm

  it is the worst car ever.

• 

  vacation killer - 2010 Buick Enclave
  By Paul Urnise - August 7 - 2:05 am

  You will more than likely have costly air conditioning issues in excess of 1,100 When you will need it most like perhaps your dream vacation, it will more than likely fail you. Tried to drive it to Florida from Missouri and we made it to Tennessee and what do you know, electrical issues. Ruined our dream vacation. Do yourself a favor and look elsewhere, and when I say elsewhere I mean stay away from GM products.