1995 Buick Regal Custom from North America - Comments

The interior is a train wreck. Don't touch anything the wrong way or it will break. The arm rest, the plastic stuff that coats the cup holders, the lids to the cup holders, the head liner, and the door handle all have broken or failed in one way or another.

American car manufactures seem to have a serious problem getting paint to stick to their cars, and this one is no exception. The clear coat and paint are peeling off everywhere.

Weird things went wrong early on. Like the water pump seal (why would that fail other than a bad job in the first place?).

Working on this car is almost always an exercise in frustration. Even changing the oil; the oil filter was put in such a stupid spot that they had to put this cheap stupid plastic deflector thing under it, so that when you took the filter off, the oil didn't go all over the engine, and on your wheel and everywhere else, other than just down into the tub. That is just one example. The brakes are easy enough to get to, but that's about it.

Recently the exhaust manifold cracked. This, evidently is a common problem. A new one costs close to 700 bucks from the dealership (the only place I could find one; it's the rear one (right), not the front easy one to get to). And this leads me to the main problem with this car. They only produced this engine for three years and now parts are becoming a real problem.

When something wasn't leaking or cracking or having something fall off, it was a real joy to drive (looking at it always made me wince). In the snow it was as good, if not better than any 4 wheel drive thing. And the power was impressive. Gas mileage on longer trips was impressive too considering it was the 3.8 liter. I just wish things were easier to get to and lasted longer. Just over 100K and it looks like it is either 2k in repairs (with things that shouldn't have broken and were badly designed) or drive it for another year and plan on getting another car then.

I don't know why they never made this car with a stick, maybe then more people, or other people other than the fogies would have bought them.

Another brand GM mishandled and drove into the ground.

Lots of potential with that drive train, but poorly executed with the exterior design (so ugly!!! (we got it for free from grandma -- I would never buy an american car) ), cheap interior, bad paint, poorly designed/made exhaust parts, and design of things like the oil filter placement.

Sorry you had trouble with the exhaust manifold (usually it's just a simple flexible rubber donut that goes bad there, hope you didn't get the ripoff treatment from a mechanic), but regardless I've found my Regals (91-96), I've owned four of them, to be a great alternative to a Camry or Maxima, yes even a BMW 3-series... very reliable, much more so than a VW Jetta, and very durable, efficient and powerful if you choose the 3800 V-6, the one to have.