1989 Buick Century Limited review from North America

Well this was a decent car up until about the 75,000 mile mark. After that it seemed to take the usual downhill slope that most American cars do at one point or another.

My problem is with the poor engineering design that made up the doors and the body work. Water found its way into the door paneling and if you're a Century owner of the late 80- early 90's you know what I'm talking about.

As far as the engine goes I loved the 3.3 V6. It was powerful enough to get you going when you needed it. The problem is after prolonged driving my torque converter and transmission started to go. Now the car doesn't accelerate without a hefty push of the gas. Then about 3 seconds later it starts to go. Shifting gears was very rough for the automatic as well.

My rear breaks were also a problem once I hit about 80000 miles. I'm not talking about the shoes or drums. It seems that mechanically there is a problem with the whole braking mechanism. When you first start driving the rear brakes seem to lock up and being in a snowy area I can tell you this is not fun. The car easily will swerve on you.

My last bicker about this car is handling. I read that one guy with a Century drove it to 110 mph. I say he's crazy. This car is not stable enough to do 80, let alone 110 mph. I would say steer clear if you're a speed junkie. After feeling how smooth and stable foreign cars are this car seems dangerous at higher speeds.

For a get you where you need to go car the Century is a perfect vehicle. It is comfortable, and a nice pleasurable ride as long as you're not going too fast.

I would say on the whole for being a 14 year old car it is not a safe bet with all the newer features that are available.

From my experience with this car it got me where I needed to go. No more, no less.

Overall it cost me more money than it was worth to maintain. In my opinion it wasn't a very reliable vehicle.