Faults:

This car rides smooth. Like a brand new car. It is 100 degrees outside and the air does not work. I have tried to find the part that I need (heat & a/c control unit) and I can't find a used one anywhere. It seems as if Buick only made a few of these particular a/c parts. I have searched Memphis and the Internet for months now trying to find this part. Salvage yards/junk yards can find the digital one, but my particular car is manual.

Faults:

Main bearing seal is starting to leak oil.

Rear shocks needed to be replaced.

Brake lines and brake proportioners rusted over and needed to be replaced.

Exhaust problems.

Leaking valve cover seal.

Water pump failed.

Rack and pinion going bad.

Water leaking into the trunk.

Stumbles on acceleration.

Ignition key cylinder problems.

General Comments:

This was my first car which I bought in 2005 for about $2k. Got ripped off by the private seller, but that was my fault for not being experienced enough. However, I'm really surprised that it lasted as long as it has. The car has had and still has quite a bit of problems, a lot of which I repaired myself. However, overall it's a good reliable car.

Faults:

When I bought the car with 94k miles, the following things were wrong with it...

-Front-passenger speaker didn't work. The speaker in the driver's door worked intermittently.

-A few hundred miles after purchasing the car, the engine went bad due to a faulty oil pump repair... or so I was told. $1350 later...poof! "New" motor.

-Coolant sensor went bad, causing the coolant warning light to illuminate.

-The interior upholstery on the C-pillars is sagging badly.

General Comments:

Overall, the 1991 Buick Park Avenue is a nice car if you like large, plush, classically American cars.

I really liked the car for many reasons. The car was very well maintained. The white is still very glossy and burgundy cloth interior is spotless.

I loved how it rode... very soft and plush. The only bad thing about the soft Dynaride suspension is that it bottoms out VERY easily. When I had this car, I had to travel over a railroad crossing every day to and from work. If I didn't slow to a crawling pace, the front end would bottom out every single time. On the highway, the car floated beautifully soft and smooth. However, around town on smooth pavement, the ride had an odd jittery vibration to it that I've never experienced driving cars with far firmer suspensions around town.

The brakes had terrible feel. They were horribly spongy and had terrible fade. Although, they were very strong and were equipped with ABS.

The steering wheel feels a bit awkward because it's a tad large with a thin grip and the angle is a bit odd, even though it's adjustable. The steering itself is very inconsistent when making 90 degree turns. The horn buttons on the steering wheel are very cheaply and poorly designed and are notorious for falling off.

Performance is quite acceptable with the standard 3.8L V6. Take-off power feels a tad sluggish to me and is what I've experienced with most smaller 4cyl. powered cars. Passing power on the highway is excellent. The engine revs very low on the highway, which means low engine noise and better fuel economy. This car got about 30mpg on the highway, which is fantastic for a large car. Apparently just before I bought the car, a mechanic had replaced the oil pump. From my understanding, he used some type of grease installing the oil pump that shouldn't be used and it ruined the internal components of the engine. So only a few hundred miles after buying the car, the engine started knocking badly and had a noticeable loss of power. I drove it to a mechanic and he told me I had a choice of either having the engine rebuilt for a cost of roughly $2,500 or I could have a used motor installed, with roughly the same mileage as my car, for $1,350. I opted for the used motor, which runs excellent.

The 4-speed overdrive transmission is silky smooth and quiet. I hate transmission that downshift while driving on the highway. The engine provides enough power so that the transmission rarely has to downshift out of overdrive. Only on really steep hills will it downshift. When it does dowshift, it does so pretty much unnoticed.

The interior is very roomy and plush. The front seats are large and couch-like. The lumbar support and head restraints are very poor though. There's plenty of leg and head room front and back. The stereo and HVAC controls are logically designed and easy to use, however are placed in a dash location that is difficult to reach. It's quite a stretch.

The automatic climate control system works great. It's very logically designed, so it's easy to use. The A/C blows ice cold and the heater gets very hot, very quickly. The buttons are just hard to reach because of their location on the dashboard.

The stereo has great sound output. However, like I had mentioned, the front door speakers are temperamental.