2001 Buick LeSabre from North America - Comments

I have been having a lot of problems with my 2001 Buick LeSabre in the past year or so. With only about 30,000 miles on this six-year-old car, I have already had to replace the bearings, rod ties, the water pump, the instrument panel, and more. Each trip to the repair shop costs around $1,000 or more. I cannot believe the car, though comfortable, has such shoddy materials and workmanship. Even after spending multi-thousands of dollars on repairs, the heater/AC lights still don't work properly, and I've given up on making everything perfect on this car.

The car was in very good shape in its first three years, when the warranty was in effect. Starting with the fifth year, it started having problems one after another.

What I hate the most is the repair bills are high, $1,000 or more at a time. I think I'd be better off buying a new car--NOT a Buick for sure; I'm not even sure if I'll go with another GM car.

Any recommendations for a reliable, full-size car? How is a Cadillac?

You asked for a recommendation... a Cadillac is great if you can afford one, but if you want to save ten to twenty thousand dollars check out the Lucerne. I traded in my 1999 LeSabre last year for a 2006 Buick Lucerne with the optional V8 and though I liked the LeSabre, the Lucerne is far superior. Give one a test drive and you will be convinced. The fit and finish are vastly improved as well as the handling. The V8 (derived from Cadillac) is silky smooth and very muscular. The leading consumer mag rates the Lucerne's repair frequency as "better than average". Another big advantage is that GM now provides an industry leading 100,000 mile / five year warranty. Try it, you'll like it!

Cadillac is a General Motors product.

I would stick with Buick if I were you. I like the fact that you traded a Toyota for your LeSabre. It is unfortunate you have not had better reliability with such low miles. LeSabres are generally reliable cars. I personally love the Park Avenue. I currently have a '99 and plan to trade it in the next year for one of the last '05's. I don't care for the look of the Lucerne, but the new Enclave is quite a looker if you can afford the initial price not to mention the gas bills.

I owned two Cadillac Deville's and had nightmare results when it came to repairs on them. Every bit as bad as what is described on the Buick, maybe worse. I was very disappointed that GM's top of the line car was not any more reliable.

I also I have an 01 LeSabre, and so far I have had the same problems with my wheel bearings, and also my tie rod and rotors, plus my car now has started to just die out on me; the radio and everything else will work, but I will have no power steering or brakes. I can't find out what's wrong with it.

My 2001 Le Sabre has had all four window motors fail. The cable inside seems to separate from the portion of the window assembly that pulls it back up. Each failure has left the window stuck in a down position. Each has cost nearly a thousand dollars to fix (with rental car included) and two of four failed on rainy days leaving us stuck at home with plastic sheeting waiting for a repair shop to open.

Anyone else have this problem? I cannot believe this is normal wear and tear on a 7 year old car, when no one I know has ever had a window fail in ANY model of car, foreign or domestic. Oh, the first failed just after the warranty expired, the second in year five and the last two just recently, two months apart.

The quality certainly was lacking in many of the 2000 and up Buick Lesabres. I had two prior to buying my 2001 brand new. I had to have the fuel pressure regulator replaced at 9,000 miles, all four wheel covers replaced under warranty (paint peeled off) and numerous other problems under warranty. The topper was when there was a recall for coolant problems, which GM "fixed" by adding bar's stop leak, resulting in a warped head 2 months later. GM would not repair, fortunately dealer repaired at no cost to me. Gas gauge doesn't work, window repaired. No more Buicks or any GM's for me.

I'm surprised at some of these comments. We sold our 32-year-old LeSabre last year in perfect condition with over 277,000 miles. It had never had a single repair except for 3 brake pad replacements. Our current GM vehicle has over 80,000 miles and has not even had a brake job (or anything else) yet. We're sold on Ford and GM, and have never had any problems with either manufacturer's products.