Buick Park Avenue "Road Car"

[moparguy]

I've developed a "Need" for a big old, sofa like road car. Our newest vehicle and the one we use for most road trips is the wifes 2015 Ram 2500 truck. With the flat bed changing the aerodynamics (15 to 17 mpg now, down from 17 to 20 mpg) along with the 75 front 80 rear air pressures we run (due to towing a gooseneck horse trailer every few days) it's far from being a great freeway cruiser.


So, I'm in the market for a comfortable, non-gashog not too expensive used big car. I've never had or wanted a Buick but my net research tells me that a 1998 to 2005 or so Park Avenue gets 30ish mpg on the highway, drives and rides great and it's very quite. I've learned the 3.8 engine has a fine reputation as well with the only reoccurring problem being gaskets and actual intake manifold issues. These seem to me to be easily dealt with by being proactive in fixing.


Anyone have any personal experience with Park Avenues? Any gotchas beyond the intake manafold? I've located one about a 1,000 miles away with just under a 100k miles that looks like it could be our car. Carfax is good and it's under $3,000. Just not comfortable making that kind of effort to find a nice'ish car since I have no previous experience dealing with this type vehicle.


Thanks, RonR

 

[Tractorat]

I had a 2000 buick le sabre that I put 200k miles on with the same engine. Great car. If I kept it under 70 I could get as much as 34 or 35mpg on the road. Very comfortable and great driving. Never used any oil, best car Ive ever had.

 

[moparguy]

Tractorat, thanks for the reply. I started out shopping for a LeSabre but found that the Park Avenues were the same price and sometimes cheaper. If a nice low mileage LeSabre pops up that'd be fine for sure.

Did yours ever have intake gasket or intake issues?

What about "quite", I've been told they these cars are some of the quietest around. As I get older, I appreciate that more and more.

RonR

 

[jgillott]

My cousin has had large Buick for as long as I can remember. I know for sure that he has had at least a couple of Park Avenues over the years. He keeps buying new Buicks, so I assume that he really likes them.

 

[Tractorat]

Did yours ever have intake gasket or intake issues?

Yes, I had that prlblem and then took care of it at about 170k miles.

What about "quite", I've been told they these cars are some of the quietest around. As I get older, I appreciate that more and more.

Mine was very quiet. Tires make a big difference there as well. I had to pry that car out of my wifes hands. She did not want to give it up.

 

[Wayne M.]

I’m cloudy on the body coding, but the Park Ave was also a Bonneville, and I’d put a Impala in a similar class. Guy in my shop is a Park Av fan and drove his coast to coast recently.
Go for it!

 

[mwilson]

Also shop out the Lucerne. That model started out in ‘06 and shares the same platform as my Cadillac DTS. Most were equipped with the V6 but some were built with the Northstar V8. Not advocating the V8 but brought it up to illustrate the capability of the platform. We have one in the fleet and it has been a great car, very comfortable.
Bear in mind that with a 4 speed auto you might get 30 mpg but it’s not going to at 75 mph...
Go for it, when my DTS croaks I’ll happily go find another one..
Parts are reasonable in many cases as a lot of components are shared with other platforms. My car uses the same wheel bearings as an Impala for example..

 

[crispyboy]

If your looking for a good road car I would also consider a Mercury Marquis or Chrysler 300 if you can't find the Buick you want.

 

[Missouri Mule]

I had a 82 Buick regal ( 2 door) really liked that car. Had a v-6 pointing forward. Great mileage, nice ride decent good get up and go. Great get up and go when there was a radar gun pointed at the front of it ( my only complaint it. But I learned if it was taking off faster than normal I backed off the go pedal.)
Now for the my parents 98 Buick. Coming from SC many years ago with my mom. ( Actually I had to put coolant in it before we left.) I had to stop a lot to fill it back up. We almost made it back to the stand where I had left Mule but were short by approx 10 miles. Tow truck came to get car brother came out to get us. Some stupid plastic thing between the head and blocked warped. We found that piece of plastic could warp at 180 to 190 degrees. Do not know if it was actually a head gasket or what it was for.

 

[Mark31]

I bought a low mileage "slightly wrecked" 98 Regal and loved it. But too many vehicles to feed made me let it go. Many years later it caught on fire. There was something about changing the plug wire looms to prevent oil leaking from valve cover gaskets from getting back onto the plugs. In my opinion, the 3.8/3800 is one of the best engines ever. They last and last, good fuel mileage, enough power for "civilian" use, bottom end strong enough for turbochargers and superchargers. If I liked the rest of the car and it looked like it had "treated with a little respect", I would pounce on it! Mark

 

[moparguy]

Well, after more effort than I expected it'd take we have a 2001 Park Avenue in the driveway. Picked it up last week with 70300 miles and per Carfax and my observations they appear to be correct original miles. We had to drive a bit, like near 400 miles to pick it up and on the return trip it drove and rode great. Got 28.5 mpg while running 70/75 mph across I-40 from Nashville Tn to central Arkansas. Research tells me that at 65 mph it should do 30 to 32 mpg. We'll see.

Now to service it out, change ALL fluids and do the upper and lower intake manifold gaskets along with a new plastic intake manifold. The last items are preventive maintence since they are one of the few weak points I've learned about on the 3.8.

The good news the old cruiser was just as quite and comfortable on the road as hoped.

Was sorta like an old pair of favorite comfortable shoes.​

I do like that it doesn't have all the digital things that require a lot of attention to operate, everything is easy and intuitive. Funny, when you use the steering wheel control for radio volume the knob on the radio turns. This car may well be at the breaking point of technology transiting from analog to digital, at least in the cockpit.

 

[SnoKing]

I’m cloudy on the body coding, but the Park Ave was also a Bonneville, and I’d put a Impala in a similar class. Guy in my shop is a Park Av fan and drove his coast to coast recently.
Go for it!

We had a rental Impala with the 3.8 V6 7 or 8 years ago and it was big, comfortable and got great fuel mileage. We did a big loop of Central Eastern states for a week and a half and it always returned 30+ MPG. The final leg was at 65 MPH for 180 miles and it logged 34.5 MPG. Some will say that is one of the best engines GM ever made!

 

[BIGNASTY]

A boss has a Buick Lacrosse its a nice car, don't know the paticulars of milage but the fit and finish of the car is impeccable & SOLID AS A ROCK

 

[BarryG]

This is certainly a bit off topic but your description of "sofa ride" made me recall a 75 caddy sedan deville I had at one time many years ago. Good mileage, not on your life with that 500 ci engine and big ol' rochester spread bore 4 brl carb on it. If you mashed the go pedal to the floor you could darn watch the gas gauge fall. However the ride was incredible and am not sure I have been a car since that had as good a ride. The proverbial land yacht for sure it was like driving your sofa as well as the rest of the house down the road.

 

[Tuesdak]

Should do the spark plugs while you are doing the manifold. 70K is close enough to the ideal 100K life. Make sure they are torqued properly as I had one of the early (new to market at the time) platinum plugs I used in an 1985 3.8 come loose, melt the plug down, and ruin the cats. Valve cover gasket leaks can coat sensor connectors with oil: some years the ECM went nuts when the knock sensor quit reporting from said oil leaks. Do always keep an eye on the coolant level as the intake leak can come back at any time, any miles.

Transmissions behind the engine will be your biggest worry. The engine just outlives several transmissions...

 

[moparguy]

J, Great advise an it's pretty much what I had in mind. Sounds like you either put a lot of miles on a 3.8 or turn wrenches for a living.

On the transmission, been a fan of changing fluid at around the 50k mark as a PM item for a long time. My usual method is to disconnect a line at the radiator cooler and let it pump till the flow Just starts to diminish, turn the key off, change filter and then do a refill.

I'm wondering if there's value in trying to find a upgrade from the factory recommended Dexron 3 fluid (is it still even available). Perhaps Dexron-VI? Most fluids are backwards compatible but I'm pretty much playing a guessing game in this arena.

Another item I'm considering is doing multiple straight water flushes of the cooling system and going green on the coolant. I bought two gallons of Prestone Dex full strength, but may return it. Your thoughts are welcome.

Thanks for the advise, RonR