1998 Buick Regal LS Gran Touring Package from North America - Comments

When we first got it the rear door panels were loose and one of the rear door locks didn't work with the key-less entry system. All of these minor items were covered under the excellent warranty though.

The car has a lot of light bulbs, so there is usually one out somewhere. The fog lights are somewhat temperamental; when one goes out, the computer will not let the other one come on. I guess they did this so that the car would not look tacky driving around with only one fog light.

This has been a truly wonderful car. Now that I've said that, it may suddenly go, but even if it went now I would never regret my parents buying it. We bought it when it had only 22,000 miles on it for a steal at $17,000. A new one just like it was/is $28,000.

The car is very comfortable overall. The seats make you a little sore after a few hours, but we have never been uncomfortable to go any distance in it.

There are all sorts of little pleasant features everywhere. The dual-zone a/c controls are nice and the CD/Cassette Concert Sound II stereo system is laid out very well.

The instruments are laid out similarly to the Porsche 911 with "Pumpkin Patch" colored backlighting as in a Saab, very cool!

Four-wheel disk brakes with ABS are very reassuring. They are very appropriate for a car of this size with that wonderful V6 pumping (smoothly and silently) under the hood.

This car is cheap to run with somewhat normal sized tires and it gets around 27 mpg.

I have 1998 Regal LS as well. I work in a garage and know that the GM 3.8 V6 is powerful and reliable. We very rarely see any problems with them. In fact the only problem we see sometimes is an upper plenum leaking. (that's the black plastic thing right under the cover over the engine). if it does go, it shouldn't cost more that $650 to replace.

Review update: 140,000 miles. Still no problems. One recall on the steering bearing. This was replaced within a couple of hours by the dealer who gave my mom a free loaner while the Regal was in there. They never charged one dime for anything, and she did not even buy the car from this dealer! The loaner was an Impala, and while she was glad that they gave it to her, she was anxious to get the Regal back. Still going strong! Still looks and goes like new!

Update: 143,000 miles. The starter failed one night in Savannah, an hour away from home, on River Street. Not the most fun place to be late at night. All of the towing companies in Savannah were too busy towing cars from the Civic Center to come tow ours home. We finally called a towing company in our home town to come get the car. Fortunately, my dad had his car, so we were not without wheels. The gentleman who picked up the car fixed it the next day within an hour for a little over $200, much faster and more reasonable than any dealer would have been. The car starts better than new now and I have even more confidence in the car to take us anywhere.

Update: 162,000 miles. We sold the Regal today to buy a new Camry. My mom still loved the Regal dearly, but my dad and I wanted her to get the Camry and then it so happened that a friend was in immediate need of a good car for not much money, so we sold the Regal to them. The Regal was an excellent car the entire eight years that we had it and I have absolutely no regrets about buying it. The fact that we drove the car for that long and put so many miles on it with it only breaking down once is very satisfying. I drove the Regal some distance for the last time today to deliver it to the new owner and it still cruised the interstate like it did when it was new, so I feel that it will continue to be a good car for our friend and that the Camry will do the job for my folks just as well or better.