This is a story about a car that came into my family’s life through the push of a button. It should have pushed all the right buttons for me. But it didn’t. Two prior COALs in this series have involved me buying cars from my mother. This one was the third (and last).
Isn’t there that one person in the life of every “car person”? That would be the owner who takes such great care of a car that when he or she is ready to replace it, there should be a fight over who gets to adopt the cream puff. My mother was always that car owner in my life. Once we kids were out of the house, Mom bought three new cars – two Crown Victorias (a navy blue 1985 and a dark cranberry 1993) and this one. Each of them, though several years old by the time I got them, had low miles, had always been garaged and well maintained, and was in gorgeous condition.
How she got the Buick is one of my favorite stories. By 2005, her 1993 Crown Victoria was twelve years old. That may have been the oldest car my mother ever owned, and she was from that generation that once a car got past a decade old, it was only a matter of time before it dissolves into a pile of rusty, greasy, broken parts on your (previously) clean garage floor. She looked at new Crown Victorias a time or two (I remember her telling me how much she liked one painted “Arizona Tan”, but she was reluctant to spend that much money, being retired and all.
My mother went from being a Ford girl to a Buick girl with the push of a button. My mother loved contests, and entered them whenever she could. In the summer of 2005, GM was running the second generation of its “Hot Button Contest”. Mom had seen the ads on TV and decided that she needed to enter. She waltzed into her local Buick dealer (because it was the GM dealer nearest to her home). She was taken to a car on the showroom floor and instructed to have a seat, then press the On-Star button. She did, then waited while the person on the other end of the link did whatever was necessary, and then Mom heard an excited voice through the radio speakers saying “Mrs. Cavanaugh, you have won a car!”
My mother’s choice of locations to enter the contest was fortuitous. The rules said that a winner would receive the lowest priced model of the brand used to enter the contest. Had she gone to a Chevrolet or Pontiac dealer, she would have won an Aveo or a Wave. These would not have been her kind of car at all, and would surely have been traded on something more to her tastes. But the smallest, least expensive Buick in 2005-06 was the Lacrosse.
The car would be a special order 2006, and she could choose to add any options (at her own cost) that she might want. She picked up a brochure, then she and I went through it to see what she might want to add. She picked the Cardinal Red paint, mainly because none of the other colors really stood out. She wanted the leather covered steering wheel (which required a package with some other things) and I advised her to choose the alloy wheels to avoid the plastic wheel covers. Those choices made, she ordered the car and waited.
It arrived in October of 2006, and I, Marianne and my sister met Mom and drove to the dealership. She was all dressed up because the GM representative had suggested that there might be a news crew there. We got there and other than getting to drive out in a nearly-free new car, the experience was a bit of a disappointment. There was nobody there from the news in her small city, and the owner of the dealership never even came out of his office to shake her hand. A salesman met her, spent a few minutes with the paperwork, showed her some features on the car, and that was that. Going to the Olive Garden for lunch was the most memorable part of the experience. In hindsight, perhaps I can understand the dealer’s lack of enthusiasm. “Hoo-boy, our winner is a 72-year-old retired lady, just like 96% of our other customers.” No demographic stretch for Buick occurred from this prize.
I remember being impressed with the car on that short drive to lunch and then back to her house. The 3.8L V6 and 4-speed automatic were decidedly old-school by 2006, but they were durable and pleasant in their operation. I was lukewarm on the styling, but I found the interior miles ahead of the GM W body cars from a few years previously – mainly because it did not look like it was designed in 1981. Mom liked the car a lot during the next nine years and 24,000 miles. She never loved it as much as she loved her Crown Victorias, but she also said more than once that she had reached the age where she liked the smaller size.
Last week’s COAL related the story of my Miata that began at the CC Auburn meetup in October of 2014. I remember that meetup so well because it was on our way to lunch on Saturday that I got a call from my sister telling me that our mother had landed in the hospital and likely needed some surgery for an intestinal issue. Mom had that surgery a few days later, but the procedure was long and difficult, with a recovery was touch and go for awhile. The short version is that Mom never fully recovered from the ordeal, with some early-stage dementia being pushed forward by quite a bit. She never drove the Buick again.
It was quite clear that she was not safe to drive and the red Lacrosse sat in her garage while she spent time in the hospital and a short-term transitional nursing/rehab facility (from which she continually pestered us about “going home”. My sister and I were petrified that she would want to drive again, and the solution was found in an ignition key recall that was being conducted (with some significant publicity) at the time. Edith was never one to put off necessary car service and was fine with me driving the Buick to Indianapolis to have the recall done. Then she was fine with us keeping the car for awhile because “it’s not good to let a car sit.” I did not ask her how sitting now was different from all the sitting it had done during the years when it had racked up under 2,700 miles a year. Mom did get home, but was only there for a couple of months before even she realized that she could not manage living on her own any longer and moved to an assisted living facility.
It became clear that our mother being car-less was going to be a long-term thing, and so the Lacrosse became available. In theory, this should have been a perfect fit in the JPC fleet. During the many chapters of this COAL series, have we all lost count of the number of times I found a lightly used, really well-kept older car and put it into daily service with mostly-great results? I know I have. Cars with little discreet AAA Plus or State Farm bumper stickers have always made great older daily drivers, so long as you are willing to put up with the kinds of cars that were popular with AARP members when they were new. (The cars, not the AARP members). But for reasons that are hard for me to explain, I came to detest this car.
What was so irritating about this poor innocent little Buick? I wrote about the experience after I spent a couple of months with it in 2015, and I will let those rants remain, as they were fresher then. The distilled version is that it was a PITA to get into and out of owing to the low roof and a B pillar that I bumped into every single time. The car also exhibited the longest accelerator pedal travel I have ever experienced. Where the 93 Crown Vic had a short throttle arc and an aggressive tip-in, the Buick was the opposite with a gas pedal that seemed to do very little without a conscious effort to push it harder. Within about a month I lost track of the times I looked at the speedometer and was going slower than I wanted to go, because I had not jammed the gas pedal down hard enough and kept it there. All those old folks who used to go too slow in their Buicks? Maybe it wasn’t just the drivers.
Finally, the slow steering and imprecise handling mated to a ride that was no quieter or smoother than average pushed me into a dark place. It was like GM found a way to incorporate all of the disadvantages of a 5,000 pound car but eliminate all of the advantages. Life, I decided, was just too short to drive a car that irritated me every time I drove it. The only thing I liked about it was that it reminded me of my mother, but that wasn’t enough for me to endure the other things.
There were so many things about this Buick that should have made it one of my favorites. First, you all know that I love good old fashioned ‘Murcan torque. I also love a really durable drivetrain. This Buick had both of those things. There are few cars from its era that can match the classic Buick 3.8 V6 and GM’s old 4-speed automatic transaxle in those categories. I also love older cars in really great condition, and this Buick was the next thing to a new car for the price of one that was approaching a decade old. I remembered not being in love with the big GM sleds I had driven several years earlier, but I had acknowledged that those were the cars that General Motors had been uniquely good at building, so I could appreciate their many areas of competence. But those cars had been designed in the 1970’s. A lot happened to GM after the late 1970’s, and not much of it was good.
The car got a reprieve, however, when my son John got an internship with a small advertising agency while he was in college. This required the lad to drive a 150-mile round trip about three days a week, and I became concerned that the old Crown Victoria might not be the best choice for that duty. Grandma’s Buick, however, was just the ticket. John adopted the Lacrosse, and as of early 2023 (and nearly seven years of living as a “real adult”) John is still rocking the Buick, with somewhere around 75k on the odo even now.
Some people name their cars, but this one has always been “The Buick”. There is no confusing it with all of the other Buicks owned by his family and friends – because there aren’t any other ones. But John has never been afraid to go his own way and an aging red Buick sort of fits his brand. It is unusual, but has some really good attributes for one willing to look past the surface. It also accommodates his 6’6″ frame very well. I have not asked his new bride about her opinion of the Buick. Maybe I should. The answer could be fun.
The Buick has been a good car. For John. As it has aged it has had some niggling issues with taillight sockets that are finicky about making a good connection and a plastic door handle that broke when he tried to open a frozen door. We pulled the door apart and replaced the broken handle with one bought online (and strengthened with JB Weld in the area prone to cracking). What is it about modern cars and breakable plastic door handles? Lately the aircon has started to mimic that of my 89 Cadillac, where it cools fine on the highway but not so well in the city. And whose idea was it to make the battery so inaccessible? But on the plus side, the car has lived outside for the better part of a decade now and the paint still looks great. There is no need to ask about the engine (with a basic design that dates to 1962) or the transmission (that goes back to 1982). Those things are barely broken in.
How long I owned this car is kind of a puzzler. At first I thought that I had only owned it for maybe 6 months. Or until John finished paying for it a couple of years later. But it turns out that I have owned this car for almost 8 years now. John and I keep having the conversation about his need to take the signed title to the BMV and get it formally put into his name, but who likes going to the BMV? It is one of those little things that keeps getting put off. License plates are coming due again, so maybe this will be the year I finally get rid of the Buick.
It looks like an ok car from here Buick V6s as fitted to thousands of Aussie Holdens were a fairly good engine seals on the inlet manifold fail eventually but they keep plugging along,
At least someone got a good run out of it, one of those cars that just keeps doing its thing.
They ended production of the engine here in August of 2008 (according to Wiki) so this car was in the last couple of years of a long run.
I can only come up with one comment at this late hour, as my brain went to sleep a couple of hours ago…
Your mention of the accelerator pedal oddities reminds me of a couple of 1978 Buick LeSabres I owned some years back. One had a 403 Oldsmobile and the other was a 4bbl 350 Buick, and they both required a heavy foot to overcome the tension of the throttle return spring(s). I also owned or had use of a few other B-bodies of the same vintage: a 1981 Pontiac Catalina, a 1979 Catalina, and a 1978 Impala, which felt completely normal.
That gas pedal was really odd – the return spring was one factor, but the really long pedal travel was another, which was something I cannot recall experiencing before. My big GM B/C body cars from the mid-late 80s were nothing like that, though I recall fairly stiff return springs on them.
The car looks so much like the Ford Taurus beside it. Looks like GM took the Taurus and said to stylists, “Make me a Buick that looks like this Taurus.” The result was the LaCrosse. These were actually a nice car. I had a 2008 as a rental once. It drove nicely, had a comfortable ride, and was a nice car to drive long distances. Also comfortable seats. I drive small cars. I had a 2000 Ford Focus at the time. I hope it stays in the family and your son decides to keep it. It may be a “grandma car” but if it is in nice condition and with 75K it is a keeper as a “daily driver.” Lots of low cost miles left in it if the body is in good shape and it has a bullet proof power train. Enjoy it!
As one who has driven lots of big cars, I found this one disappointing. It was pretty nice on the highway, but I didn’t find the ride unusually good or the seats particularly comfortable. At the time it was kind-of-mine, we had 4 other cars here: Crown Vic, Miata, Sedona and the Honda Fit. I preferred every single one of them to driving the Buick, and not by a little.
This is a good looking car and if it fits a 6 ‘6″ lad, then I’d be all in making it a daily driver if the opportunity arose (and if I needed a vehicle which fortunately I do not).
Experience with a contemporary Oldsmobile 88 (3.8 and 4-speed auto) found these cars to be quick and quiet (but with a tad too-soft suspension) and oddly, not that much front legroom (and I’m not 6’ 6″). Also, the front seat backs were well aft of the “B” pillar.
I’m sorry to hear of the trials of aging your mother experienced; I would think that your attention and guiding presence were a comfort during those times of significant changes.
Not knowing what any man’s new bride may think of an AARP Buick, my unrequested advice is to not ask. Poking such an issue is rarely a good idea (ask me how I know).
Regarding the dept of Motor Vehicles, I have learned that as an old senior (78) current NJ COVID related rules say I do not need to go there in person to get a new photo for my driver’s license.
Ever.
They say my current photo should be fine. To be fair, my current photo makes me look like I’m 98, so it’s probably accurate enough regardless.
That B pillar thing is a mystery. I had never really noticed it in any other car – and I have had enough to make a pretty long series out of this. Every blessed time I got out of that Buick I banged my left shoulder on that cursed B pillar. It was like the car getting one last dig in before I could escape it after every irritating drive.
My mother’s last years with dementia and unable to live independently were a trial on all of us. Her timing turned out to be almost perfect when she died about three months before Covid came roaring over all of us.
Something seems like John will have this Buick for a while yet. A baby-seat or two in the back shouldn’t be a stretch…
Your mother was the ideal prior owner of a car. Too bad some of her maintenance traits aren’t universal. My father still has the ’98 Dodge half-ton he bought new. He’s no longer driving and the Dodge is thankfully parked in the garage. However, it is still sporting all its original belts and hoses and I don’t care to think about the tires (as a few years ago I discovered two of them were 13 years old – after he drove it the four hours to my house). But it’s rust free, likely due to its prophylactic film of funk as he has never once washed it.
Back to The Buick…it’s not the prettiest Buick ever built and the shot of the cockpit screams its W-body heritage. However, having experienced many a W-body subjected to a hard life, this Buick is highly endowed with durability. John may not have to buy a car again until he’s fifty.
My father was much less into regular maintenance. I had a chance to buy his late-90s FWD Continental – the V8 Taurus, if you will. I wasn’t in love with the car to start with, and while he took better care of cars as he got older, I just thought it best to not go there.
I loved your last comment. It is probably a good thing this car will last him until he’s 50. He and his new bride are buying a house (which is a story in itself) so he may not be able to afford a new car until then. 🙂
I’m definitely with RL on the matter of NOT asking your daughter-in-law about the Buick. Then again, if she appreciates a seemingly reliable car with good paint, the answer might be positive.
The LaCrosse reminds me of the long stream of mid and full-sized GM and Chrysler sedans that a friend of mine consistently inherited as hand me downs from his father in the 2000s and 2010s. These were pretty mildly used four-door cars that had an average amount of power, were generally reliable at least around major drivetrain issues, and did I mention…4 doors? Those cars excelled at packing 2 child seats in the back and schlepping the misc detritus that families need to tote. And they were great on the Interstate where handling isn’t as much of an issue as smooth steady cruising with just enough interior elbow room so that all members of the family can stay out of each others spaces.
I’ve said it before when you’ve brought up this car’s origins, but I’m fascinated by the idea of someone actually winning something like a WHOLE CAR via a contest. My parents (who were of the same generation as your mom) were also fascinated with contests and sweepstakes and the like. They, on the other hand, never won a car…or much else that I can recall.
Oh, winning that car may have been the highlight of her life! She talked about it for years after, always with a kind of “wow, how amazing” attitude.
It really was a perfect car for her. It had a smaller footprint in her garage and was easy to maneuver. She was only about 5’2″, so she kept the seat far enough forward that she didn’t run into problems with the cursed B pillar. It has been a great car for John, who hasn’t needed to spend a lot of time thinking about it or dealing with problems.
I had an aunt who was very excited when she won a Dodge Aspen. After awhile, she stopped talking about it.
She didn’t have to tell us why.
JPC, your comment about the accelerator pedal seemingly having too long of travel sparked a couple of memories. My Pontiac had a similar issue, not once but twice. The first time was corrected with a reflash of the engine computer early in my ownership of the car. I don’t recall how I came to find that out anymore, but once it was discovered and applied, the car drove like I expected.
The second one was more recent. I had my car at my indy garage for an unrelated repair last summer and had asked them about a drivability issue with the car. It seems that on long freeway drives, the car did not respond the accelerator as it had previously. They put it on an OBD2 reader and found that the OEM O2 sensor was nearing the end of it’s life (13 years!). It wasn’t bad enough to trigger a CEL, but enough that I noticed it on the Interstate. You don’t mention in your post if the condition still exists, but if it still does, these might be some avenues to explore.
I’m glad you were able to find a good home for the car; I’ve always liked the later-gen W-bodies. By then, they were pretty well sorted out and good drivers. When my wife had to travel for work (pre-covid), her company had a late model (2012? 2013?) Chevy Impala they gave her to get to her destination. She really liked the car and even now will point them out to me when we see one in traffic.
Wow, I would never have thought that a reflash would affect the accelerator pedal operation, but now that you mention it, it could make sense.
I don’t think I have driven that car since 2015 or 2016, but John has not complained about anything. He drove it to Chicago for a friend’s wedding late last fall and it gave him no problems.
It really disappointed me that the Buick and I seemed unable to come to an understanding. I had always expected that with my history of finding AARP specials, I might eventually end up in a nice LeSabre or Park Avenue. In my mind I think I would like those better because they are 1) more in line with my tastes and 2) were the kinds of big, flagship cars that GM was really good at. But after the Lacrosse experience, I kind of wonder.
If it has drive by wire throttle, a reflash may exist for the issue. As to the full size Buicks, I think you might like later LeSabre or Park Avenues, also don’t overlook the Lucerne, it’s an updated G platform that replaced the LeSabre and Park Avenue in 2006. Just steer clear of the deathstar. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buick_Lucerne
Actually, by the time the FWD version ended up in the Lucerne, Bonneville GXP and DTS, the water cooled alternator had long been dumped, the headbolt issue had been resolved (thanks to beginning to use LS head bolts with the RWD version). The water pumps are still a bit flaky, although they are right on top and don’t involve anything other than their own belt (and of course a special tightening tool – oh, GM) and the oil use and oil pan leaks are still very common, almost endemic issues (the oil pan leak, or “Northstar drip” is due to the exhaust routing causing heat expansion and contraction and wouldn’t be noteworthy if the pan could be accessed without dropping the engine out of the car and removing it from the cradle – oh, GM). Not a budget vehicle but not the pretty universally terrible early versions that definitely earned the Deathstar and Northjunk nicknames.
In fact, the single biggest dissuading component for me on the Lucerne would be the CXS’ magnetic ride suspension. It was one if the first vehicles to get Delphi’s supposed magic active suspension, and despite the heaps of praise the system got in the automotive press, at least on Ferraris and Corvettes and the DTS Performance, I legitimately was unimpressed with it in the Lucerne CXS cars I drove when they were new. They felt much, much worse overall than the traditional suspension on my mother’s very similar 2001 Aurora V8, with noticeably worse impact isolation and much floatier highway feel. And this wasn’t isolated to 1 example, I drove many in the Avis fleet. If a V6 isn’t adequate, the Lucerne CXL came with the V8 optionally (and rarely) and could get pretty much all the luxury items like heated and cooled memory seats, the heated washer fluid tank GM kept bragging about in ads (oh, GM), and navigation (if an old, low res screen with laggy operation and outdated mapping isn’t a demerit this many years later) with the base conventional suspension. Look for dual tailpipes and quad ventiports.
Perhaps this car can benefit from a pedal commander. They’ve seemed gimmicky to me but admittedly I don’t completely understand them. Yet I know a few folks who swear by them.
Hmm, I have not heard of those.
The LaCrosse has an e-pedal, as you probably know. The Pedal Commander changes the programming from the pedal output to the engine controller, so one can make the pedal as touchy or sodden as desired.
Like changing the touch sensitivity in MIDI…
Stuff like that which is no doubt adjustable in the computer should easily be subject to the owner’s preference.
Love the story about the contest. My grandparents, who were members of the Greatest Generation also won a car in a contest (a raffle), and they loved to tell that story. I can’t remember what kind of car it was, and I think this was back in the 50s or early 60s.
I, myself, have never entered any contest; I always assumed they were merely ways to get your information to sell it to mailing lists full of gullible people.
Got to admit that given the title of the article, and the tone at the outset, that I did not expect the car to still be in the family after all this time. Glad that your son got so much use out of it. And 75k miles is absolutely nothing, relatively speaking. He could still potentially keep it a lot longer. FWIW, I’ve never had a car with that low mileage, nor have I kept any car I’ve owned 8 years.
I think I knew one other person who won a car, and it was the parents of some friends. In that case, they won one of those stretched K cars (either the Dodge 600 or the Chrysler LeBaron something or other) in a late 80’s raffle. That was a case where you took what you won and liked it. Mom got the best win of all where she got to pick out and order the car just how she wanted it. I never asked whether it would have been possible to upgrade to a more expensive model.
I read later that GM got virtually no sales bump out of the two times they ran that promotion. And the second time was right before their bankruptcy, so we got the ultimate “old GM” experience, both the good and the bad.
The styling of the Buick LaCrosse was imitative, rather like the 1974 Plymouth and Dodge C-bodies which copied GM’s Olds and Buick full sizers but with more sharp corners. The LaCrosse aped the fish-faced 1996 Ford Taurus but kind of “melted” and more blob-like. At least Oldsmobile did not copy the Mercury Sable.
I had never paid that much attention to the resemblance until the day my daughter’s then-current boyfriend came to visit and parked next to the Buick. Once I saw that scene I knew I had to photograph it (and have never been able to un-see it).
I think it shares a bit too much with the ’96.
That’s a really cool story about your mom winning the car. What a great story for her last car, and it is even more fitting that her Grandson continues to enjoy it all these years later. I hadn’t seen your original rant, and reading it now is quite humorous! It’s funny how much we can hate an inanimate object when a few things just rub us the wrong way.
I can’t say I have ever been fan of any W-body car. I drove countless when I worked at GM, albeit, earlier iterations. I have never driven a Lacrosse, but assumed it would be about as unexciting and uninspiring as previous W-cars. Even though many of the FWD GM cars were better in every way on paper than the RWD cars they replaced, I just never cared for any of them. Even the better C/H Bodies never even remotely peaked my interest. There was just something synthetic and not genuine about a FWD car pretending to have attributes of GM former RWD cars.
We avoided these in the family, mostly, except for my Dad whose second wife inherited a 2000 Buick Century. It was his second wife’s parents car owned from new and was a low mileage car although somewhat rough around the edges. Dad had his ’07 Civic coupe at the time and they were night and day difference. Strangely Dad still enjoyed the Buick for its big interior and soft ride and used it fairly often (I think sometimes it was to “save” the Civic from pedestrian duties). I drove it numerous times and its overly floaty suspension and overall lethargic driving characteristics weren’t anything I enjoyed. That old Buick got little love and was used and abused as somewhat of a family communal car. It kept on ticking for a long time without too many issues, so I guess it had that going for it. Nevertheless, my feelings toward it were pretty on par with yours toward this Lacrosse, so I was not sad to see it go.
I am glad to see your comments – I keep wondering if I was being too hard on the car for one reason or another, and that maybe I should have tried harder to like it. There was certainly nothing wrong with it mechanically, and it has been a really good car for my kid.
But you nailed it. I just never liked the way it felt or drove, and I have always wondered who among the engineering and executive ranks at GM liked the experience? I guess there must have been lots of others like you and me, the way the company shed market share and ended up in a bankruptcy.
Since I wrote this, I remembered the noisy steering column that seemed to affect all of the W cars. Good grief, how can a century-old auto manufacturer screw up a steering column?
Buick’s L car era; LeSabre, LaCrosse and Lucerne seemed to double down on a certain blandness that Buick has never quite recovered from, despite some final cars that I rather liked, including the Regal GS, Tour-X and the second generation LaCrosse, which defying the rules of gravity had become Buick’s flagship sedan.
It seemed like Tiger Woods was trying to promote the first generation LaCrosse as something beyond what it was – a replacement for the long running Century nameplate.
I think I understand your experience with the car. I had a week long rental of this car’s W body predecessor in the form of 1998 Buick Century. A red sedan with few options, it was perfectly competent in every way, and as a new family man traveling with our first child, it worked out great.
But, the handling, and to a degree, the ride; pure mush. How could one of the smaller cars I’d ever driven, modern and new, have such poor dynamics? At the time, even Buick recognized not everyone wanted a bowl of cream-of-wheat for a suspension, and offered the Century in Regal guise, presumably with a stiffer suspension to match its vaguely sportier looks.
I think you nailed it, the attributes of a 5,000 lb car without the advantages. The only other car in my life where I just didn’t care for the handling was my father’s 1976 Ford LTD.
It’s interesting that you found the acceleration less than exhilarating, that was the era of peak Buick 3.8, a lot of engine in Buick’s smallest car. Tiger Woods was promising more, too bad they didn’t name it Century and tune it to be Buick’s banker’s hot rod again.
I had been looking forward to the big engine/small car experience with this one, and it did scoot pretty well – but you really had to mean it and work to get it there by some very intentional work with that gas pedal.
This one kind of reminds me of how I have steered clear of cars in the middle of the size range for most of my life – they do many things competently, but rarely do anything really, really well.
My late and sorely missed M-I-L, a widow, was that person for me. In 1976 she traded in her ’68 Caprice 307 for a new ’76 Impala 350 with A/C, her first car with air. I knew it was to be the last true “full-size” Chevy and loving the “biggies” I babied it for her for 10 years, washing it every time we visited her, almost weekly, in Catonsville MD about an hour from our house. I changed the oil + filter (always Wix!) every 2000 miles, and did any work it needed, almost nothing really.
But when she decided to trade it in – on a Camry (smart!) – in 1986, it had only 33k miles and was essentially mechanically new, but around the lower rear window it had rusted so badly, despite my efforts to keep it touched up, that there were actual holes developing. Sadly I gave up in the idea, and by then we had bought a ’77 Gran Fury that I’m sure I would have liked better than the Impala anyway. Now if it’d been a ’77 Impala, it might all have been different!
It’s too bad about that rust!
It’s difficult to write anything meaningful about this gift horse but I won’t let that stop me. I’m glad that your mom won the car instead of paying for the whole thing so there’s that. Buick in ’06, well, that’s rough, right? LaCrosse, Lucerne (probably my pick if I had to choose one), then the Rainier (Trailblazer), Rendezvous (Woof), and the Terraza (Oy Vey). Thank goodness for China and their fondness of them, otherwise Buick as a nameplate would have been gone long ago I think.
I certainly don’t mean to bag on the car, after all it is still working fine and providing transport, however it exemplifies everything wrong with GM at the time. Not particularly interesting, not groundbreaking, not really inexpensive, and certainly not the competition for Lexus that I think Buick was fancying themselves as during this timeframe.
I’ve owned two Buicks of the modern era (both FWDers at that), and for the most part genuinely liked them so I’m hardly a hater. They just kind of lost their way. I actually like their current smallest offering Encore GX and think it’s their best car (of what, down to three total now?), it along with its platform-mate new Chevy TrailBlazer I actually think are some of GM’s best overall, its just too bad they aren’t from here and not really what one thinks of when one thinks Buick. I hope it continues to serve your son well, and yeah, don’t go there with your new daughter-in-law, you’ll open the gate towards some sort of overpriced three-row CUV…Offer to hand down the Sedona when that time might be right.
I kind of tried to moderate my tone for this installment, and not let some old anti-GM prejudices get in the way. But there was a lot here to not like, and yes, GM was in sorry shape in 2005-06 (but seemed to think that they were doing a smashingly good job). I really doubt that my mother would have gone out searching for one of these had GM not been so generous with this one.
In their favor, they continue to ply the roads here. I rarely see Pontiacs of those last years, but the Buick L cars remain at work for those who need maximum car for the money. But now that you mention it, I rarely see those folks smiling behind the wheel. 🙂
I love your story of your mom winning this car. I had to laugh though at the dealership’s decision not to invite the local press to the great “Exchanging the Keys” ceremony – it’s hard to imagine someone being more typical of the demographic that Buick dealers didn’t need to market to.
These folks below are probably who the dealership was hoping for:
I guess it didn’t really surprise me that the press wasn’t invited, although it would have been free publicity for a place with a bunch of Buick minivans in the lot. What did surprise me was that the dealership treated her as nothing more than a corporate obligation. What was funny was that once the warranty was up, she started taking the Buick to her Ford dealer for service because she really liked the service guy she had dealt with there. I wonder if that Buick dealer’s attitude cost it a service customer.
The only people I knew who bought these were either elderly, or inherited one from an elderly person. So this one fits the bill as well.
Our 2007 Dodge Caravan has a very long travel accelerator pedal, but managed to simultaneously have an aggressive tip in and not much action down at the bottom. I almost got our family flattened by an 18 wheeler soon after buying it, I pulled out a bit close in front of one, pushed the gas pedal all the way down and found there was…nothing…extra…there… Luckily we lived but I did get a good blast on the air horn.
Anyway, good for you not keeping a car that irritated you. I think only really old cars with character should be irrititating.
” I think only really old cars with character should be irrititating.”
I love it! At least you get something in return for the irritation that way.
A great read! Wonderful to hear about your mother winning the car, she must’ve been so excited, but what strange problems you had with it. Awkward entry, and banging the pillar getting out? It seems strange GM never picked up on these things in the prototype stage. And that accelerator issue sounds bizarre.
Not being familiar with these Buicks, at first I thought it was a Taurus. The resemblance is uncanny – but I’m not too familiar with them either, being somewhat rare down here.
My wife won a car in a supermarket competition she didn’t even remember entering, a promotion for Australian mandarins (so the colour was a given!). She had to go to the state capital to get it, and like your mother, she dressed up for the photo, but nothing came of it. The salesman took care to instruct her in operating all the controls as she had a 150km drive in peak hour traffic to get home. Great fun to drive, but not really practical for an older couple with young grandchildren in car seats, ahe traded it on a small SUV after four years.
Congratulations on that win! At least you got something fun.
As someone who owns and rocks a 2005 version, I love my buick, I don’t know what you’re actually meaning with the gas pedal travel, maybe a difference in the years, but mine has no such travel as that, and I wear steel toe boots when I drive as well so I notice how much my foot presses down, and yes it is a bit lower but once ya figure your flow into the car I slide right in an out (5’9″, 185, delivery/courier driver), I’ve been using it for driving for a good 1 1/2 years and only issues I’ve had is power steering relief hose leaking and exhaust issues (like actual exhaust rusting and falling off), I love the v6, proper power when ya need to get around dumbasses doing 10 under the speed limit, always get compliments on her and how she sounds, no name either, 3rd buick btw, and also as someone that knows a little about cars, easy to work on at least, has room opposed to newer more compact cars, thank you for your post!!!
Glad your son found the beauty in the imperfections that this batch of LaCrosses
I will be the first to acknowledge that just because I didn’t like it doesn’t make it a bad car. I am glad that yours is something that makes you happy.
JP, Another great story in the Cavanaugh Car Chronicles. I loved the part about your Mother winning the car and that it now lives and drives on with the next generation. My condolences on your mother’s passing and my favorite car of hers would be the Pontiac Grand LeMans which I believe was not one of your favorites. 🙂
It was a LUXURY LeMans, thank you very much. 🙂
As much as I didn’t like it then, I have to look back and acknowledge what a competent driver it was. The steering and suspension was better than almost anything else I had driven up to that time, even with the bias ply tires it had. The 2 bbl Pontiac 350 was something of a dog, but most everything else about the car was quite well done. Except maybe for interior trim materials, but that was not a problem restricted to GM back then.
Great story and I can totally relate to your mom.
I sold Buick for many years, and so I may be a little partial to them. But I can say that I’ve never had one bad Buick and have always liked the once I owned. My family (due to me selling them??) has also owned a lot of them with great luck in all but two 1985’s (both Park Ave’s with that trans issue). Me and my family have owned every model nearly from the Skylark (me, 2 of them), Century’s (me, my aunt), Regal (brother), Lesabre (parents, several of them), Park Ave (brother and parents) and Lacrosse (me, parents). Those were just the new ones. There were many used Buick’s in the family too including an interesting 1984 Century with the 4.3 Diesel. Again, all very reliable.
Funny that you have a pic of “the Buick” sitting next to a Ford Taurus. For a while, I worked at a dealership that sold both Ford and Buick. Although I have no problems with Ford (and I’ve put a lot of miles on both CV and Taurus’ police interceptors when I was a cop), there’s no way on earth that I’d ever pick a Taurus over any Buick. But that’s just me.
Thanks for the great article.
There is no denying that this Buick has been a really good car in terms of its durability and reliability. And I would also probably rather have an old Buick than an old Taurus, as most of the Taurus’ of my experience did not age nearly as well.
I will acknowledge that I had never really loved GM cars on a purely subjective level, but came at this one with an open mind, as it was the most modern I had experienced. Those who liked the way GM did things (or who didn’t notice or care) would have been fine with this one.
Sorry to hear about your Mom’s passing (and previously, your Dad’s).
My Dad has been gone 7 years, and rather than a Lacrosse, his last car was a 2006 Chevrolet Impala…actually his last 2 cars were Impalas. When he passed, my Mother assumed the car, and gave up her 2009 Focus to my sister then my nephew. She finally gave up her license in 2021, though in reality we’d been driving her most places she needed to get to for several years, only letting her drive to destinations where she didn’t have to go out on the main highway. I took my Dad to the DMV to change his driver’s license to an ID card in 2015, he hadn’t driven since maybe 2012 when he first got diagnosed with cancer. My Mom, who’s one day younger than my Dad, has a bad back, and that combined with more frequent testing required for older drivers pushed us to get her to give up driving. She’s a very slight person, maybe 4′ 8″ and 70lbs, and even with power steering, the practice driving sessions I took her on mostly in parking lots (since she seldom drove, and I knew they’d want to see her drive behind the wheel at the DMV) her back bothered her (she’s had scoliosis all her life, but as she’s gotten older the effects of the problem have become more pronounced such that she’s frequently in pain).
Even though she’s still with us, I took liberty as executor of her estate, and with her consent rather than sell the Impala, we had it “sold” to my youngest surviving sister for $1 so she could have a 2nd car to replace her (even older) daily driver eventually. The Impala still only has maybe 73k miles on it, our last long distance trip with it was in 2011 (back then we were making at least annual trips 1/2 way across the country to visit relatives but they stopped once my Dad got diagnosed with cancer). We live in the sunbelt (and the car is garaged) so the paint is kind of OK, but the car has a little body rash, some due to my Mom, and some to my sister, but avoiding to have to buy a replacement car by my sister is worth well more than the amount we might get for it should we sell it. Like your Mom’s lacrosse, it’s not my ideal car either, but I’ve grown affectionate to it, despite some hickups (most recent when the fuel pressure sensor on top of the fuel tank went such that the check engine light went on such that we couldn’t pass inspection; the prior Impala my Dad owned had an access panel in the trunk where you could get to the sensor without dropping the tank, of course it was cost reduced out of the Impala we actually had the problem where we could have used that easy access).
The other irritation I found when the battery died…without a lock cylinder to the trunk, and without the fold-down rear seat, there’s no way to get into the trunk if you have a dead battery…and that’s the natural place we’d kept our battery jump box (and booster cables themselves)…so if your battery goes bad far from civilization, and you have no tools outside the trunk, you’re in trouble if you want to help yourself out of the situation.
At least I know that now though and can kind of adjust to it (though I don’t like it).
Aging parents bring all kinds of issues, for both them and for us. That Impala sounds like it was a loyal member of the family.
I know, I hate the lack of lock cylinders in modern vehicles trunks/hatches. And nowadays, drivers doors.
The styling of the Lacrosse seems like a scaled down evolution of our 2003 LeSabre dubbed Moby Dick. This was our son’s college car after outliving it’s first two elderly owners. Currently it’s his sister’s learner car and family runabout when our Mazda is otherwise occupied because Moby is marginally easier to park then my pickup and gets better mileage.
Haha, I love the name Moby Dick, which is what my mother named my 59 Plymouth Fury. Those old LeSabres were great first cars. One of my brothers had one for his first car. It was, like all of them, owned by an old person for a long time then bought as an inexpensive but really clean used car.