Note: These pictures are of the actual car
When my wife’s 1992 Pontiac Bonneville was totalled by the insurance company, we started to look for a replacement car. Since the Bonneville was going to be replaced with a new version for 2000, we decided to check out the new model. Problem was that the 2000 Bonneville was going to be a late introduction, with the Buick LeSabre beating it out of the gate.
So, we decided to check out the new LeSabre. The local dealer had only one in stock and let us test drive it. We were impressed with the power and overall layout of the car, so we decided to order one to our specifications. It was ordered in Titanium Blue with cloth seats, power windows, A/C, and a center console. It took about 4 weeks for delivery and everything was good. We decided to bite the bullet and lease the car for three years. The money I would have spent on the car went, instead, into a mutual fund that was paying a decent dividend. This covered the lease payments, however, at the end of the third year we looked at the new LeSabres and couldn’t tell much difference. So we bought the car off of the lease at a nice discount.
Note: Not from the actual car, but illustrates the center console
Our car had bucket seats as opposed to the standard bench seat. In the middle was a console that had a deep center storage compartment. It also had a novel cup holder arrangement in the front. The front section would rotate forward 180 degrees and had handy space for two cups. We thought it odd that the transmission shifter was on the steering column, but the cup holder more than made up for the difference.
The trunk was even larger than the one in the 92 Bonneville, had a more generous opening, and also had a low liftover height.
The engine was the familiar 3800, but now in Series II configuration. It was very smooth and had ample power while returning 20 mpg city and 30 mpg highway. We only encountered two issues with the engine. The starter failed intermittently, usually when my wife was driving. A new starter cured that problem. There was a coolant leak at the junction of the upper and lower intake manifolds. This didn’t show up until 2016. It required the intake manifold to be removed for installation of revised gaskets.
The revised gaskets were made from aluminum instead of the plastic used on the original car. They are shown here attached to the engine block. The only hard part of this job was that there was a plastic coolant elbow that attached from the lower manifold to the water pump. To install the manifold with damaging the elbow, you had to install the elbow in the manifold, rotate it counterclockwise 90 degrees, and carefully insert the other end of the elbow to the water pump. I’ve seen a newer version of the elbow that is made from aluminum, which lessens the risk of damage when doing this installation.
The front brakes were finally replaced for the first time at 125,000 miles. The pads still had some life left in them, but the rotors were not long for this world. The rear brake pads are still original to this day at 144,000 miles.
My favorite part to replace on this LeSabre was the window regulator assembly. The cable would break, causing the window to drop down into the door. Not hard to replace once you figured out where the hidden fastener in the front door panel was. I had to replace three of the four units over time.
The air conditioning worked flawlessly from 1999 to 2016, when the condenser gave up the ghost. This was tricky to replace, as there were a couple of stiffeners between the grille and the condenser that had to be removed in order to get the condenser out.
The only issue with the body was the occurrence of rust just below the filler door. I haven’t seen too many of these cars, including the Pontiac Bonneville, that didn’t have this issue. Repair was simple, as I attached some new metal to the hole, applied some All Metal aluminum epoxy filler, sanded it smooth, and applied base/clear coat paint.
When we reached the odometer reading you see above, we decided that maybe after 17 years that we needed something newer with less miles. Looking at the pricing of similar LeSabres on the internet, we decided to ship the car to Florida for use during our annual vacation. Why not? We knew the history of the car and loved the way it drove and handled. The car it replaced was a 1988 Plymouth Reliant, which is the subject of a future COAL.
As you can see in the picture above, the replacement car is in the garage ahead of the 2000 LeSabre. Anyone care to guess what we bought?
Looks like another Buick , maybe a park avenue?
Park Aves had different taillights. That’s another LeSabre, likely newer but no more so than a 2002 as the right taillight gained a “LeSabre” badge for 2003-2005.
Hey, why mess with what works?
We bought a 2001 LeSabre Limited with only 28,000 miles. A real Grandma car.
Excellent! Congrats, and great post.
Have to ask, are cup holders an American fetish?
I never give them any thought and would not notice their absence, the nearest thing I can think of on British cars before the safety drive were folding picnic tables, I had them in my old Jags an Rovers, even Vanden Plas Allegro, not that thy were actually used much.
I do not recall such things in German, French or Italian cars
Cup holders do seem like a uniquely American preoccupation. Some of the early efforts by foreign brands to add them for the US market were…grudging. The first Boxsters, if I recall, had a flimsy plastic piece you were meant to clip into a vent. Guaranteed to launch hot coffee at you at the first opportunity.
The German’s especially were very resistant to cup holders. I remember when MB finally got proper cup holders – the automotive magazines sang hosanna.
Now the new Subaru Assent has seating for either 7 or 8 people but 19 cup holders… Some minivans have cup holders specifically engineered for juice boxes.
It is a bit of a sickness.
My first car was a Holden (Opel) Astra which had two cup holder-esque indentations in the lid of the glove compartment. Utterly useless as one time I took a sharp turn and my coffee cup flew out and splattered all over the door.
Subsequent cars I’ve owned – almost all Aussie – have had centre console mounted cup holders. Thank goodness!
I remember for a while Consumer Reports seemed to make a point to discuss the cupholder situation in all of their automotive reviews. How many, where they were located, their construction, and how useful they found them. Eventually they stopped doing that, probably once everyone had them so it was no longer really a point of differentiation.
My ’70 C10 had cupholders. Stationary use only. The male end of the seatbelt (the retractable part) worked perfectly as a bottle opener. GM was ahead of the game.
Here’s a photo of the soda fountain at a QuikTrip gas station (a chain which is famous for their wide selection). You can even see the cups sticking out of the walls: they’re enormous. In fact, they’re so big that the bottoms are narrower than the top, so they can fit in the car’s cup holder while still holding a lot of liquid.
Now, WHY do Americans need to drink a 1.5 liter (56 oz) “cup” of soda in the car? That’s a whole different question… but clearly, we will not go thirsty!
Because vast numbers of Americans are taking the fast, easy way to diabetes by dint of addiction to liquid candy.
The multiple choice of drinks reminds me of my first ever visit to the supermarket in the United States. My mum told me I could choose one cereal box. Upon seeing the long shelves of countless boxes, my seven-year-old mind had a meltdown because I couldn’t make up my mind which one out of fifty or so to choose.
My mum grudgingly revised the cap to five boxes.
Most American kids decide by which box contains the best prize.
We are big on staying hydrated!
Seriously, it’s something I’ve never really thought about. However, for the distances covered here, and the related time to do so, it’s handy to have something to sip on. I spent this past Thursday driving all day and it’s great to have something to keep my whistle wet.
However, have I ever based any car buying decision upon cup holders? No, and I never will. It’s something when I discover it, it’s either a nice perk or, if it isn’t, my life will continue.
David42 captures it well although I’m not much of a soda drinker. Give me tea (with no ice), which I think appeals to the Englishman in me.
With the trend towards electric vehicles, I’m assuming manufacturers will eventually start using the unneeded gas tanks for soda. Just run a straw up to the passenger compartment. “Fill ‘er up with Red Pop, my good man!” 😉
I’m thinking electricity would work out well for chilling or heating (seasonally dependent) all those cup holders to keep drinks at a nice temperature. 🙂
But I prefer my drinks at room temperature so that would be lost on me.
Lee – I remember reading a Bill Bryson column he wrote after moving back to the USA and was bemoaning the fact that Volvo had learned through focus groups that one reason one of their models had been a slow seller in the US was lack of cupholders. I thought he was exaggerating until I started reading this site, and discovered that Americans are indeed obsessed with cupholders.
Having moved to the US I would point out that many Americans spend a hell of a lot of time in their cars, most of the country has hot summers, you need lots of coffee coz you never get any time off work, and fizzy pop is being pushed at you from every angle. Having said that, I never drink in the car, and when we lived in the UK my American wife coated our car interiors with sticky drinks, candy, and various containers and wrappers – so maybe it’s in the blood. There is a tendency to expect everything at your fingertips all the time.
Cupholders are, indeed, in an American’s DNA, and it began a long, long time ago with the freeeway system which begat the drive-thru fast-food restaurant and the once prevalent (but now long-gone) drive-in theaters. Starting in the late fifties, cars began having indentations in the glove compartment door for cups to be able to eat and drink in one’s car. To this day, I remember those in the glove compartent door of my parent’s 1964 Valiant.
As Americans spent more and more time in their vehicles, due to longer and longer commutes (and, really, just the wide-open geography of areas like the American southwest), the situation has gotten progressively worse, and an ever increasing number of cupholders (and other features like, say, onboard DVD players and headphone jacks) reflect that. Then, too, the design of today’s dashpads don’t really lend themselves to holding drink cups, either, so new locations had to be found.
With much better access to modern, efficient, inexpensive public transportation, I seriously doubt that people outside of the US spend a fraction of the time in their vehicles that Americans do.
There are actually still about 400 drive-in theaters operating in the U.S., a number that is actually up some from two decades ago. Of course, that’s still only 1/10 the number open in the early 1960s.
I only allow bottled water to enter my car, and with a resealable cap I find cupholders relatively unnecessary. You bring a sugary beverage with a straw, you’re walking.
Every car I get into I use the cupholders to hold my phone, wallet and other pocket items. I am a big fan of easy access storage like that, but with so many pointless efforts to streamline dashes into center consoles in modern times the cupholders become the only place to put stuff.
Stay hard, bro.
Cupholders are very much ingrained in our car culture, there is something inherently useful about them for all our quick beverage needs.
That said, I only use mine for holding my phone or wallet, or if I do put drinks in when I stop for fast food or other places, they’re always drinks that have resealable caps and they stay closed. After my admittedly quick driving led to a milkshake getting on my seat, I banned open containers from my car from that day forward. Unless its water, drinks ruin and stain car interiors like nobodies business, and considering I’m rather anal retentive about the cleanliness of my car, and will continue to be for any additional cars I own, those drinks better have a lid or remain unopened when they get inside the vehicle.
Cup holders are the new ashtrays. Years ago, people were impressed by how many ashtrays your car might have. (My Lincoln’s had four, each with its own lighter.) Tobacco use is down. Drive up coffee windows are booming though.
Lee Turner:
Cup holders have been a fixture in American cars for more than 25 years. My 1994 Ford Ranger truck had 2 just behind the floor shifter. Nowadays, a car that is sold in America “must” have more than 1 cup holder per passenger.
I’ve never been crazy about these late 90s-early 2000s Buicks, admittedly they look better than the Taurus/Sable of the same time period.
My parents had a Taurus with an “odd”, combination armrest/console….thingee. You folded the armrest forward and when it was in the down position you pulled a part that was hinged, forward, and you had 2 cupholders. I always thought that it was clever, yet overly complicated. The idea was that you could have a console when you wanted it, but you weren’t forced to live with it full time.
BTW, the Taurus/Sable gave you bucket seats but you were able to order your car with or without a floor shifter.
Personally I always liked the Park Avenue better than the LeSabre, and in that era I would have wanted my Buick with a bench seat just on general principle.
One thing you avoided with a cloth interior was the heated seats which I’ve heard are very problematic.
They were great cars. My mom went with a LeSabre Limited when the Cadillac turned out to be too big for her eyesight. It was a good choice at the time.
I find it very odd that the shifter isn’t in the console. First car I’ve seen like that.
Reminds me of the 1962 Chevrolet Impala SS. GM, more than anyone else, seemed to fight the “bucket seats + console = floor shift” convention.
Weirdest one I ever saw was a ’61 Falcon Futura with buckets, console, and – three on the tree! Ford was already putting the Dagenham four-speed behind the Falcon six, would it have been that hard to make it part of the Futura package?
They still are, in a way. The Impala was the last holdout of bench+column shift in a car, of course, but in all their full-size pickup trucks and SUVs, GM doesn’t have a single console shifter, even when the vehicle has a massive center console. Everything from a $26K Silverado WT to a $100K Escalade uses the same black plastic column shifter.
I mean this in the nicest way possible:
I take it you’re not familiar with nearly every American sedan since WWII?
83 LEBARON, this street and neighborhood look eerily familiar to me…mind telling me what City this is in?
Back around 2010 I came this close to buying a 2003 LeSabre. It had 39,000 miles and we were needing different vehicles.
This is a great color of blue. Plus, with this 3800, it’ll still be going well 20 years from now. Very good purchase!
I have a 93 Buick regal custom with a amazing 961 thousand miles and running strong as ever alot of new parts but og motor 👍 3800 motors r the best
I inherited my own curbside classic this summer, a 2001 from my mom when she bought a new car. Makes a great daily driver, and since it’s the last new car my dad bought before he died, I know it’s history and it has sentimental value. Think I’ll hang on to it…
I knew a guy who bought one of these new and put a crazy amount of miles on it before he got something else, something over 300k as I recall. Same color, even.
My mother had a 2004 edition of this LeSabre. It was a pretty good car. The 3800 has gobs of torque and could move!
It started to nickle and dime her though around 2016.
Centre console, okeh, that meant specifying bucket seats instead of the bench. But am I to understand that power windows and A/C weren’t standard equipment?!
The car came standard with A/C, power windows, power locks, power brakes. Also ordered the CD/cassette stereo.
I love the Play-Skool designed dashboard and controls in this era of GM vehicles. I’m imagining a focus group of preschoolers arguing about which touch surface should feature the most nose goblins.
I want to like these (and especially the Park Avenue) but I drive a 2001 Suburban and I hate the interior.
These look even worse – plus here in Minnesota the used values are insanely high given how rusty they inevitably are.
My experience with the 3800 Series II (non-turbo) took a nose dive when the upper intake failed (hydro locked) @ 86k miles. Installed a Dorman replacement upper intake, lower intake gaskets, head gaskets, fluids, etc., etc. Motored 112k miles before the car was totaled.
Replacement vehicle also had the 3800 Series II, with 45K miles. The first thing I did (as a precaution) was replace the upper intake with a Dorman upper intake. Still motoring 8 years later with 171k miles and not an ounce of trouble.
Knock on wood.
I had a ’92 LeSabre which over a dozen years of daily commuting reached 330,000 before the head gasket blew. My mechanic said that a car run for that long and that far suffered metal fatigue and unless I loved the car and put a replacement engine in it, I might as well sell it for parts. Whenever I have a car that finally dies, I lose all love for it. I moved on to a Dodge Stratus and put virtually the same amount of miles on it, when it finally died. Now I’m stuck with a ’94 Toyota Corolla stripper, so basic it has crank windows and only a speedometer and temperature gauge. And no cup holders. It has about 175,000 on the clock. I’ll probably fall in love with it until it dies, too. My dream car is a Ford Crown Victoria. If and when I finally get one, I hope I’m not falling in love with the wrong car.
This story brings back memories!
Part 1 – I worked at Buick Customer Relations from 1996-1999. I was impressed (and still am) with the mighty 3800 V-6.
Part 2 – We were looking for another car in 2012-2013. We bought a 2002 Buick Regal from a local used car dealer that had about 95,000 miles on it, because my wife drove it and fell in love with it. I liked it very much as well, mostly due to the 3800.
Part 3 – It was time to replace another car. We loved the Regal so much that i narrowed the field down to a GM vehicle with another 3800. I ended up buying a 1-owner 2003 Regal Custom with 32,000 miles on it. Clean carfax. And in beautiful condition, other than not having been driven much by its elderly owner in the last couple of years before we bought it. So far, so good….
…but I learned the hard way that low-mileage ills can be just as bad as vehicles beaten to death with tons of miles. It needed new front control arms. New tires. New tie rod ends. The previous owner’s son had already replaced the steering rack and all of the transmission lines. I eventually had a small rust spot repaired. We had more problems needing fixed with this car than we ever had with the Regal, which had many times more miles on it.
The main reason I traded it toward my ’08 HHR is that the ABS would act up intermittently and without warning. My wife refused to drive the car because of that fact. So after a couple of years and about 20,000 more miles, it was gone.
Still, other than that issue, it drove beautifully, was quiet and comfortable, and got unbelievably great gas mileage.
learned the hard way that low-mileage ills can be just as bad as vehicles beaten to death … high miles”
True, cars are not “preserved” if parked for long time. In other words “Ran when parked” [over a decade ago].
Also, if take a low mile ‘grandad’ car and suddenly start adding miles, it shows its age fast. Got a “cream puff” low mile ’97 Altima in 2004 with ‘only’ 47k miles, and racked up miles, thinking “its like a new car”. But lots of oil leaks and other nagging issues, so traded in a year later. Of course, got good $, since it had “such low miles”, but passed the leaks on…
Well I am glad your 2000-2005 Lesabre gave you good mileage.
I had a 2005 Lesabre that I bought back in 2009 with less then 36,000 miles on it.
It was the biggest pile of 4 wheeled shit that I have ever owned. The car was taken care of nicely by an older couple that traded it in for a Lucernce
The car behaved for the first year but as soon as it hit 50,000 it turned into a big ass turd.
In the 3 years i owned it I had to replace the following:
1. Intake manifold gaskets(replaced with the metal ones)
2. A/C compressor
3. Rear air suspension system (After several repairs on this I ended up just replacing the whole damn system with coil overs and got rid of the air system)
4. Drivers taillight had a leak and water kept getting into it and killing the light bulb
5. Power locks
6. Possessed Onstar system that would randomly activate the call onstar button(thank god I did not have subscription)
The last straw was that at about 72,000 miles or so, the car would bang shift after it warmed up.
I ended up dumping it at a carmax and buying a Saturn Aura which was a good car for the 6 months I owned it(till a drunk rear ended me and it was totaled)
About 2014 I ended up buying a low mileage Buick Lesabre from the 92-99 generation and it was a great car. It was much better made then the 2005 Lesabre
I know the feeling on the 90’s LeSabre. I have a 92 Lesabre with 221,000 miles on it and still runnin awesome. I was also just recently given a 95 LeSabre, same color bit with cloth interior as a parts car for my 92. The thing with the 95 is, is it won’t upshift from 2nd gear. Everything else on the car is in excellent shape. The kicker about the 95……… It only has 73,000 miles on it. Guess which car I’m using for parts. No brainier.
You and I had the same experience, except my 2001 Lesabre, all with under 100K miles, required the following:
– every dash light and switch backlight were replaced by me. They are all soldered in and thus not easily user-replaceable. If you go to the dealer for this, they have to replace every part at a cost of close to $2K: instrument cluster, radio, hvac control head, headlight switch, trip computer switch assembly, driver’s door switch assembly, steering wheel cruise control switches.
– front wheel bearings
– HVAC blower motor
– radio (constant 3A draw, would kill battery in a day or two)
– wiper motor, TWICE
– every single window regulator
– headlight switch (sticks on “ON” position)
– fuel line (leaking o-rings at engine, and I didn’t know about that repair kit where you just replace the end of the line)
There are 3-4 other items which I also replaced that I can’t even remember right now, but my MIL still has the car and it also now has had the wiper motor replaced again for the THIRD time (and I used an AC/Delco part as well when I replaced it the second time) and the rear air shocks have now failed, with about 130K miles on the car now.
This was the least-reliable car, American or foreign, that I have ever owned. And I had a 1988 Buick Electra T-Type for 16 years and it had 220K miles on it when I sold it; that was probably the best car that I have ever owned. So I’m not anti-Buick or anti-GM, but man oh man did the Lesabre put me off early 2000s GM cars (trucks are a different story, I’m buying a 2003 Yukon from my neighbor this week and giving it to some friends).
I’m glad that the author has had success with his.
Oh, one other word of warning: these cars have a multiplexed-electrical system in them with VIN-encoded modules which will NOT talk to any module with a non-matching VIN. So if you go to the junkyard to get any electronic module from the car (and there are 10-15 total including instrument cluster and radio), be prepared for a visit to your nearby GM dealer so they can use their TECH 2000 scantool to reprogram the VIN so it will work in your car. And if you buy a new part online, you still have to visit your dealer to get the VIN encoded into it before it can work. Factor that additional cost into your repair decision.
I feel your pain.
I forgot to mention that the driver’s side front door speaker died. That would not normally be an issue as I use the back ones more but on this car all dings/chimes(such as low fuel, headlights on or keys left in the ignition etc) were piped through that speaker so when it died I got no chimes and locked my keys in the car twice.
I had my first headlight switch stick on on and when I replaced it I just left it on auto so it turned on by itself at night. If I needed them on during a time that was not night(for example when it rained and I needed to turn them on with the wiper(it is the law in my state) ) I just would throw a black cotton hand towel over the light sensor and the car would think it was night and turn on the lights
I have some kind of draw with my truck that has killed the battery when sitting for 2 weeks parked. It has happened 2 over the last 2 years and both times were when it sat for 2 weeks in November. I had left it sit for weeks at a time all year and it started up fine. It is just those 2 times separated by a year.
The battery was new in both instances.
Now I just leave the Neg cable off the battery if it sits and it have given me no more trouble.
I took over my father’s 2004 Le Sabre, with 41,400 miles, last July. I had already bought a new improved upper intake manifold, the better gaskets, and the metal elbows. Have yet to put them into the car but it just reached 42,000 miles. Soon though.
Your comment about the window regulators caught my attention. Makes me hate power windows even more. As for the condenser it was replaced, along with the radiator, a year ago when my father had a fender bender and repair was made. He was just shy of 91 so it was time, visually, to stop driving very reluctantly.
Whether 2000 or 2004 they look the same to me. I gave up long ago paying attention to the different models once they started to all look alike. Mine below.
I had this exact car in this same color of the same model year but optioned a bit differently. It was the Custom like this one but with a grey cloth interior, power moon-roof, 12 disk trunk mounted CD changer, power everything, touring suspension with 16″ rubber, leather wheel, rear sway bar and 3.05 axle ration instead of the 2.86 found in regular LeSabres. The way it was optioned had as much to do with it’s purchase as the excellent shape it was in with about 36K miles.
I had the car for about 4 years and put an additional 120K miles on it for a total of 156 before trading it in for a newer car with low miles. The only things I ever did to that car were a re-surface of the front rotors a few months after I bought it due to a slight warping, a recall that replaced the high pressure power steering line and the intake gaskets were replaced around 130K along with a metal elbow that replaced the now brittle plastic one. Other than that the A/C still blew cold as a meat locker, the auto level suspension still worked perfectly and surprisingly I never had to replace power window regulator/motor. Nothing inside broke or showed any sign of wear and the dealer I turned it into was shocked how nice it still looked and held up.
As for driving it this was, at the time, one of the nicest driving cars I have owned, very solid, quiet, comfortable and with the upgraded suspension it would handle quite well. I was always amazed at the power that 3800 pumped out. Despite making the same power and torque as the 96-99 version this car felt noticeable quicker and the engine sounded and felt more refined.
A close friend of mine also had a 00 LeSabre but in red with tan leather seats, base suspension and no roof. He also had it for about 5-6 years and put a lot of miles on it and besides the minor issues I had above never had any real trouble with it. Sadly his car was smashed up badly in a highway car accident and totaled with well over 150K miles and a 2009 Lucerne was the replacement vehicle but that as they say is another story.
A few little tidbits about this car. The 00 is identifiable from other years because it didn’t have flared out rocker moldings. Late run 00 and 01-05 LeSabres all had flared out rockers. The 16″ cross lace rims as on the vehicle in this story were offered as an option right through to 2005. In 2003 the alloy wheel changed appearance both in 15 and touring suspension 16″ sizes. For 2005 the touring 16″ wheels changed yet again and were the base alloy wheels offered on the 2006-2008 Lucerne. Also of note the 04/05 chrome wheel that was std on the Celebration and an option on other models was lifted right off the same year Cadillac Seville.
Having sold probably well over a thousand of these cars at various dealerships we owned over the years the trouble spots on these are well known. The big ones are intake manifold replacements along with the plastic elbow which over time became brittle from the heat under hood. Second is the window regulators. Thankfully those are rather cheap and easy to replace and I was personally doing them in around a half hour or so from experience. The 00’s had the issue with the high pressure power steering line and that was recalled under a silent TSB I recall. Some cars with the 4T65 trans axle had what some referred to as the bang shift episode where after the car heats up the transmission would whine and bang between gears until you shut the car off and restarted after which it might be fine for a while. This was the fabled pressure control solenoid problem that could be cured two different ways one of which was a new replacement bore and solenoid or a replacement spring kit that could be installed by simply dropping the transmission pan. Wheels bearings were hit and miss as was the mentioned headlight switch issue but overall these were pretty decent reliable cars with good maintenance and many a good one are still seen driving on a daily basis in Upstate, NY area despite being in the snow belt.
The 2000 Bonneville was released in summer 1999. But, the ads hardly showed the car. This was the era of GM’s “Procter & Gamble” marketing era, all about images.
One billboard I remember shows 3 UK Palace Guards with tall black fur hats, and a woman with dark up-do as counterpoint. Message was “be different, get a Bonneville”. But the car was on the bottom, with only grille showing, as an afterthought.
The biggest PITA I had was finding the correct rear air shocks. The “GM approved replacement” was the Monroe 49228 (MAX-AIR). They were about twice the size of the originals. The hose connections didn’t match, and talk about a rough ride! It was bad enough driving the car. Sitting in the back seat was unbearable.
I was given another pair. No difference. Then I was given a spring kit to install in the air compressor to “lower the PSI”. Again, no difference.
After researching I found the Monroe MA882 was the perfect/exact replacement. Once again that nice smooth ride.
Too bad GM parts had their heads up their …
I’m sure there were many unhappy customers as a result.
Unless you are a tug boat enthusiast.
I actually had so many issues, i converted mine to Monroe coilovers.
Interestingly enough the ride was not really bad.