1995 Buick Park Avenue from North America - Comments

Coolant temp sensor broke and fell out of the radiator

$40 dollars for sensor, $7 for coolant,

Panic: priceless.

Spark plugs and wires

$30 dollars.

Air filter

$10 dollars.

Fuel filter

$7 dollars.

Thermostat (unnecessary, but might benifit in the future)

$8 dollars and a headache.

Hello, I’m 18 (baby Buick owner) and I have a 1995 Buick Park Avenue. I don’t see many reviews on 95's, was that a bad year?

While many think it looks like an old folks car I don’t think so. This is the best car I ever had (only the second car, the first one (mothers old car) was a Dodge Neon and was totaled by a mustang, thank you mustang driver) and I knew it would be a good car when I got it.

I did my research on cars while looking for a new one and ran across this sight and read all the good reviews for Buicks and the bulletproof 3.8 engine. I don’t know if mine is bulletproof because it has the plastic intake, hopefully it doesn’t go bad.

I was really looking for a cheap reliable car, maybe a early to mid 90's Oldsmobile or Buick. I wanted a reliable affordable car since I was starting college, not a race car or an underpowered car, (surprising for an 18 year old) but something that was decent.

When I went to the dealership were I got my car, after going to other outrageous dealerships, I was initially looking for a Buick LeSabre since it was a cheaper version of the Park Avenue and saw some, but the weren’t really that desirable or the were too high. I saw the Park Avenue early and decided that I would finally take a look thinking it wouldn’t be affordable because it had only a little over 100,000 miles. When the car salesman told the price for the car, I was shocked. After some more bargaining the car cost only a little over $2500 dollars before taxes. I think I got one over on the dealership. Other dealers were trying to sell me cars that were close to 200,000 miles and far less superior than my Park Avenue for more than $3000 dollars. Sorry about the long car buying experience, but it was my first (tear).

This car is far more that what I expected. It accelerates so flawlessly and smoothly that some times I don’t realize that I’m doing way higher than the posted speed limit. It seems to have no strain even with a car full of passengers and its speed surprises some (Some times people test you only to see your taillights in the sunset.).

The only problem this car has is that the heat only blows out of the passenger side, but not the drivers side, seems to be a common GM problem. I live in the south so the winter isn’t too bad (the highs lately have been the 60's and low 70's and it’s December) but I don’t want to freeze when it gets cold.

The only problem I’ve had was the coolant level sensor fell out the radiator and most of the coolant leaked. I glad I wasn’t far from home. The sensor was original and a cold spell came through and made the plastic connectors brittle and it fell out (theory), the part cost $40 dollars. That’s a lot for a college when student when it happens out the blue. Still I expect to have my Park Avenue a long time and hopefully it will last. I change the oil regular and plan to do all the maintenance I can to keep it running. I also hope I lose my lead foot because I don’t want to send my car to an early grave.

This car is faster than you would believe and I'm 18.

Doesn't mean you can drive it like a race car or small car. (I spent out a couple of times on turns and had some near rear end collisions)

Don't have to worry about hitting my head when I get in or out of the car (I'm 6'2)

Very luxurious for a cheap price.

Nice and roomy.

Looks good.

Insurance is cheap.

Can't seem to get better than 21mpg. I hope gas price don't go to $3 a gallon again.

You did good. VERY good. Our family's 1977 LaSabre has over 230,000 miles and is solid as a rock. You should get at least another 150,000 out of yours easily. Older GM cars are the best value in used cars and will be running for decades. My late father's 52-year-old GM car is still being driven by a nephew of mine. The Buick has topped the J.D. Powers list in owner satisfaction for years. There's a good reason for that: They are the best.

I forgot to put this under "What things have gone wrong"

car blows cold air on the driver's side when temp. set to 90 degrees

probably $$$!!! to fix at the dealership and they'll tell me everything except what's wrong with it. They want to charge $100 dollars just to look at it and they proabably know the solution. I'll just go get an interior heater for $20 dollars.

I finally fixed my heat. Wish I had discovered the solution months ago. Seem like someone got over on the previous owners. The piece attaching the rod for the dirver's side vent door was tied to the vaucum tubes for the HVAC unit, instead of connected to the motor. I'm very certian that this was done on purpose to get more money out of the previous owners. The only reason I discoverd this was by going to a junk yard to get a driver side actuator for my car. When I got home and went under my dash I discoverd this cone. All I did was cut the tie and attached the piece to the actuator motor and I had heat. It took me less than 2 minutes to do this, but 5 months to figure it out. To think, I was going to pay the dealership 100 dollars to look at my car with my tax refund and then the tell me something is wrong and it's going to cost $$$$ dollars. Glad I found the free solution

"Power to those who try to solve solutions instead of handing a problem to someone else." short term: power to do-it-yourselfers.

My 1995 Park Avenue is a good car 0verall, with 148,000 miles. My major complaint has been the AC = several expensive repairs.

It also had some problems with recurrent non-starting, but that turned out to be a faulty ground.

Overall, a great car. I bought another, and will do so again after I finally wear this one out. If you keep up with the preventive maintainence it really pays off.

Just updating info on my car. Seems like many people give reviews on their car, but never do any follow ups. I think that's the best way to give a good perspective view of your car. It seem that many comments have bee geared toward imports vs. domestics especially in the Toyota forum. I personally think that people forget that cars are machines and machine will need repairs. I also think that people view cars as expensive because the cost a lot to fix if you don't fix them yourselves. When I got my tire plugged for a slow leak at repair shop a customer asked how much would it cost to change their spark plugs. They were told it would cost at least $200 dollars. I changed mine for $30 dollars when I did it on my own. I asked them how much it would cost to change my transmission fluid they told me $130 dollars. I can do that my self for under $50 dollars using premium materials. So a car can be expensive If you don't D.I.Y. Anyway back to my car. I'm at 115,000 miles now and my car is running just a good as it was the day I got it except for some minor annoyances like the commonly known wheel vibration a high speeds. Most say their cars start to vibrate at speeds of 65mph to 75mph, mine starts at 55mph. I rotated the tires hoping this would solve the problem. It didn't. I read that Michelin tires stop the vibration, but I can't afford that and it seems only to be coming from the front drives side. I hope it's not a warped rotor, but I don't have vibrations when I braking. This brings up the second problem which I concerned about. When I brake I hear a grinding noise from the rear brakes. It can be very loud at times. I checked the rear shoes and they were OK. they were almost as thick as new shoes. I've read that the 90's GMs have brake problems including my park avenue. Also the brake fluid I dark brown. It also seems that I have been losing some brake fluid, but it's not a lot. I know some brake fluid will be lost due to brake wear, but since this car model has a brake problem I'm concerned with any slight change in the braking system. Recently my lights would not turn of I tried everything and I finally pulled the fuse for the automatic lights and put it back in and my lights have been working fine since. it seems that I have avoided many electrical problems even though I can see potential for future problems. Since I had the car the interior lights (radio, dashboard) cut of one time, but came back on within a few seconds. Also my transmission wouldn't shift twice. One of the times I had been traveling at high speeds and slowed down suddenly (what can I say I'm only 18) and put it in reverse, but it wouldn’t move. I just put the car back in park and reverse and everything was OK. I also think my car has been in a wreck at some point and time. There is a crack on each side of the front of the car and the sticker for the tire pressure is blank. Can anyone tell be the correct tire pressure for a park avenue? I noticed that the vibration intensity was higher when a increased the tire pressure (trying to get better gas mileage: didn’t work) and lower when I decreased the tire pressure. Kinda lengthy. My future updates won't be this long.

Another update: Recently my power antenna stop letting down. I though I was going to be out of big buck to replace a new one. Then I remembered that you have to clean the antenna every once in awhile. I looked at the antenna and it had residue build up on it. I used a towel and dishwasher liquid and cleaned it and started working again. Taught me a lesson. You have to actually do maintenance on other parts of the car besides the engine and drive-train.

I have a 95 lesabre and when I bought it used many years ago, it too had that vibration problem. I tried rotating tires and balancing to no avail. Then I got it aligned and it corrected it a bit, but alignement was still off. The mechanic at Pepboys informed me that there's only so much he can adjust with the stock shocks so I got new shocks and aligned (wasn't expensive at all).

Now the problem is resolved, plus my tires last forever. Before getting the new shocks I was replacing front tires every 6 months, no kidding.

I'm happy with the car, didn't need much fixing in the 75k miles I've had it and it's at 135k now.

I've never had issues with the brakes, so I cannot comment on that.

Another update: My power antenna stop letting down. It was probably my fault. I would constantly cut the radio on and off all the time. This time I just have a question for anyone reading. About how long do park avenues/lesabre transmissions last? When I went to the junk yard most of the GM cars seemed to die around 170,000 miles. What should I expect?

My '93 Park Ave transmission crapped out at 114K miles.

Park Ave's are great if you don't mind being mistaken for an old coot. Not too popular with the ladies though...

I forgot to mention this in a recent update, but when I was change out my power steering fluid (changed to synthetic) I left my flash light in the engine compartment (yes I was an idiot). Well I I start the car, but it would start. I tried again and I finally started. I was making terrible noises. So I finally decide to pull back in the driveway. When I let the hood up the flashlight was stuck in the drive belt (really the belt a melted the outer casing of the flashlight). The outer edge of the drive belt was cut a little bit. Which I glad because I not going to be happy if I had to replace it. Maybe what saved me was that the drive belt seemed to be new when I got the car, plus I was on for only about 30 seconds and didn't reach the batteries.

I finally solved my vibration problem. Got some new tires and a alignment today. Now the car rides as smooth as ever. No vibration and the new tires just make the ride so much more comfortable.

The day after I got my new tires my rear wheel cylinder busted. Couldn't figure out why my car braking distance was increasing. But a puddle around my back tire solved the problem. The rebuild kit was only 3 dollars and and was fairly simple to replace and I decided to replace both sides for cheap insurance. I went on and got some new brake shoes since the other ones were cracked down the middle. Taking of the shoes, 13 dollars, is the easy part, putting them back on is like night and day. took me two days to put on one side, but only two hours for the side (I learned from my mistakes). The total cost was about 50 dollars because of tools, brake fluid, and other things necessary to do the job.

Just came from a recent, 180 miles one way, trip. My car performed flawlessly. I was worried about my intake manifold since I now have 121,000 miles on my car so I took of the 3800 series II cover to get all the air I could to it. I got 26.8 mpg, with the a/c running, on the way there with a 30 minute traffic crawl and traveling at 70 mph. On the way back I got 30.3 mpg with no traffic stops and the a/c running.

The amazing thing to me was that I was traveling at 70 mph and some times 80 mph. this car gets good highway mileage for a large car. When I'm at home the most I get out of my car is 22 mpg with mixed city/highway driving.

To answer about how long a P. A.'s tranny last: I had my tranny completely rebuilt at 169,000 miles. I love the car, but this was a costly repair ($1800.00) The passenger door lock must be a common problem in the buicks. I too also have the vibration at higher speeds. By the way my Park Avenue is a 1994.

Another update. My car now has 123,600 miles on it. Recently the a/c stopped working and my check engine light came on last night. I was at a stoplight and when the light changed, I hit the gas and the car stumbled and has been idling rough since, and seems as if it is about to stall out. Does anyone have any ideas? Could it be the camshaft sensor?