Reliable, Luxurious, Great Value

Calling all first-time drivers, college students, recent college grads (which makes you poor), and maybe the occasional value-minded middle-aged used car shopper. Here's a great car if comfort, luxury features, reliability, and money are priority items on your used-car buying list: the 1988 Buick Century Limited.

Okay, so having graduated from college and having moved out to California with nothing but two suitcases and my laptop and a non-profit job, i needed to get a car for around $3000. And I wanted to make sure the car was worth every penny of that $3000. Yeah, I'd love to drive something sporty, something fast and flashy, but really, I can't afford it and the insurance cost for such a car would have made me homeless in 2 months. When I was in High School, I drove my mom's 1984 Buick Regal but it was not the most efficient car. I was looking at used Saabs, Volvos, Hondas, Buicks, Oldsmobiles, etc. and when I test drove this 88 Buick Century, I knew this was what I wanted. Why? Let's see:

EXTERIOR: 8
Not the most sexiest car in the world, but the more I look at it, the more I like its looks. I like the spoked wheel covers and the tail-light that extends the width of the rear of the car, the slight slope down of the hood, the nice, big, flat back window that gives great visibility when backing up my car (unlike today's cars which have a sloping back window and is too high and small). In fact, visibility is great all around. I like the solid feel of the car, the steel body that stands up to the abuses of parking lots and other cars crashing into me. Front and back bumpers are plastic, so minor bumps during parking, etc. doesn't destroy them. Bad points about the exterior: The windshield wipers are "external" and "pops" beyond the hood (it's not tucked away *under* the hood): this setup requires you to use only OEM windshield wipers, because using other wipers will cause the wipers to go beyond the "catch" and scrape your hood and the "catch" cuts into the wiper blades, your rubber blades are bent.

INTERIOR: 8
The gauges are no-nonsense and straight-forward. I personally like steering column-mounted shifters found on most American cars, since I'm so used to them. Plus it leaves space in the middle of the front for the armrest or another passenger. The most I've packed into this car was 7 people on a weekend trip up and down Napa Valley for wine tasting... I am used to the radio controls since I've driven an '84 Buick in the past with the same AC Delco cassette/AM/FM radio. I like the big dials and the bright LED clock. The Climate controls leave a bit more to be desired: They don't make much sense to people who are used to modern-day climate controls which are more or less standardized. It's not that ergonomic either. There's two slide levers: one of the temperature, and one for the type of A/C you want. Rotary/Dial controls make more sense to me (like those on modern day cars). When someone else drives my car, they have no clue what the difference between "BI-LEV" and "NORM" and "MAX" Air Conditioning are. I don't really know either, I just know the coolness goes from cold to coldest (Bi to Max). No combinations are allowed either: You can't defrost and have vent come through your dash. On winter days, you'd see me go from "Heater" to "Defrost", sliding the slider between those two (and sometimes I miss the intended location of the slider position). The cruise control buttons make sense, and the wipers are very intuitive (going from variable intermittent -> low -> high). The factory Cassette/Radio is average. And I don't feel like putting in an aftermarket CD changer/audio into this car, so I'm stuck with the factory unit. It's tolerable, but it ain't an Alpine or Pioneer with Polk tweeters and MTX subwoofers, you know... :) (See Comfort section for more comments)

COMFORT: 10
When you enter this car, you feel so comfortable like an old pair of jeans or a nice plush rocking chair. The plush velour seats and velour-lined doors sedate you. I actually like this much better than leather seats on luxury cars and of course the crummy cloth seats on all other cars. Carmakers don't make velour interiors anymore, what a shame. The power windows and doors are really convenient. The front bench seats are comfy and the lighted vanity mirror on the passenger side gets points from women passengers. The A/C is very strong and cold, and the heater is hot like they should be. I like the little dash-mounted map light which doesn't light up the whole car just for looking at a map.

ENGINE: 7
This isn't a sports sedan. Nor is it a V8 luxury car. The 2.8L 125-hp V6 is very fuel efficient considering the weight of the car: I do around 20 miles city / 30 miles highway. The acceleration isn't that phenomenal, sometimes it takes a second for the car to downshift and accelerate when you're merging into the highway or passing on the highway. I like the sound of the engine revving while accerating: it's a V-6 revving kind of sound, nice and low, though not beautiful. But the engine is very quiet and does its job reliably. I have to comment that my transmission (now at 139,000 miles) gets confused around 45mph between 4th gear and the overdrive 5th gear, esp. when I'm going up a steep hill. It just shifts back and forth, not being able to figure out what gear it should be in. My solution is to just shift to "D" (not Overdrive D), forcing the car to stay in 4th gear.

RIDE: 8
This car rides like a Cadillac, a luxury car. Should remind you of your grandpa's car. It's very comfortable, and feels like you're floating. Which of course means that this car is not for those of you who "wants to feel the road" (that's why BMWs were made). It's for those looking for a very comfy ride, esp. on long trips. The wheels are quiet and wind noise is minimal. Handling, however, is a trade-off you get with "loose" suspension/ride (see next section):

HANDLING: 4
Tip for young people: Don't drive this like a sports car. Don't turn corners like a sports car at 35mph. Because if you do, this car will beg you for mercy and you will feel like the car is gonna turn over. Handling is not great with this car. I mean, if you drive nicely (like me), then it shouldn't matter. But you have to consider that turning corners is not the only activity where handling matters. What if you're avoiding an accident, a car, a deer, etc? Well, then I guess I have to just pray I can react quickly and my car can steer clear of it! It's one of the gripes I have with this car. The factory P185/75R14 tires aren't that thin or small, but perhaps wider tires can help with handling if you want to get custom tires/wheels.

RELIABILITY: 9
I would like to give this car a 10 Reliability rating, but I can't because of one incident which is my fault and not a fault of the car not being well-built and reliable. Let me just say that his car is well built and very very reliable. I was pleasantly surprised. I have never ever taken this to the car mechanic for (non-routine maintenance) repairs [except that one incident which I'll describe later] in the 3 years I've owned this car (1997 to 2000). It's so great, to have to not worry about this car. I just drive it, drive it, drive it, never thinking about repairs or costly maintenance. Just give it oil changes, change the coolant, etc. Okay, on with my incident: So in 1998, about a year after I got the car, the "Oil" light started to turn on and off in my car. When I had my '84 Buick Regal, it did the same thing, and that was because something was wrong with the indicator and it just kept turning on and off when you hit a bump the wrong way. So I checked the oil level and seeing that it was okay, I just dismissed the Oil light, and kept on driving. Well, I should have listened to my car!! What happened was that the oil pump had a clog in it and it wasn't pumping oil into my engine. Needless to say, I fried my engine. Got it rebuilt by a wonderful mechanic for a good price, and now my car engine is like new and very happy. No other problems ever. You can bet that now I will listen to my car and all the warning indicators!

SAFETY: 7
Like I said in the Exterior section, visibility is great in this car (and I'm short too), which makes it safe while backing up and changing lanes. The car feels solid and should stand up well in an accident. I've had minor fender-benders and usually the other car is in bad shape while I have a dent. But compared to modern-day cars, its safety is not excellent. Buick started putting airbags into Centurys the year after this (1989), so this car has no airbags. There's no ABS either.

VALUE: 10
For the money this is a great car. Very comfortable for long trips (or your commute, even!), packed with luxury features, quiet and smooth ride, and very very reliable. It's a family-kind of car, but great for people on a budget. This car's depreciation rate is low (esp. considering that most American cars depreciate fast), and it's because of its reliability. You could get a used Honda Accord, but you'd be missing out on comfort and features. And because it's a Buick, insurance rate is very low (b/c most Buicks are driven by old folks), another consideration for the budget-minded. The total cost of ownership (depreciation, insurance, maintenance/repairs) for this car is very low compared to other "comparable" cars.

You know, I told myself that I'm getting a new car whenever this car breaks down. I'm looking to buy a 2000 Buick Century Limited or 2000 Buick Regal LSE (notice a strange loyalty to Buicks?), but the problem is, it doesn't look like this car is going to break down anytime soon! It's so reliable, that I might end up keeping this car for many more years to come! Either that, or I'll just buy a new car and keep this one as second car, since I don't want to get rid of something that is so reliable and comfy...