As my 98 Pontiac Bonneville was getting older, I thought about looking for a newer car. It was 2009 and I knew that the 3800 engine was out of production, so I decided to see what was out in the market. I wanted a 3800 engine owing to my positive experiences with them, so the field was narrow. Buick LaCrosse, Pontiac Grand Prix, and Buick Lucerne.
I didn’t like the styling on the Grand Prix, so that was crossed off my list. That left the two Buicks. Looking at dealer inventories in my area, the prices were about $3000 more than I wanted to pay. After test driving a couple of Lucernes, I decided that it would be the car I would pursue. One day I was looking at the cars on eBay Motors out of boredom and curiosity. I like to look at the salvage cars to see what insane prices some people ask because they think that their pile of oxidized iron is valuable. On this day, however, I was looking at Lucernes. There were two that caught my eye, one in Florida and one in Texas. The Texas car was pretty well equipped, but it had dark aftermarket tinting on all of the windows. Not for me. The one in Florida was a 2007 with 20,000 miles. Still under factory warranty for two more years, so what was the risk? I put in a bid, but did not meet the reserve price. I then contacted the dealer and asked would he take an offer. Apparently, I was the only bidder on this car. The salesman called me within an hour and asked what my offer was. I told him and he said “SOLD.” When would I like to pick it up? He even offered to take a personal check as payment.
I proceeded to purchase a one-way ticket to Orlando on Southwest for $80 and then booked a local shuttle to Daytona Beach for $30. Arriving on a Saturday afternoon, the salesman picked me up at the shuttle office and took me to the dealership. After I gave the car an inspection, finding nothing wrong, I finished the paperwork within 30 minutes and started my 1000 mile trip home. One small glitch was the itemization of the dealer doc fee for $200. I told the salesman that I didn’t pay doc fees and his response was “What do you care, you’re paying the total price you offered for the car.” He had a point. The car performed flawlessly on the two day trip home and I had saved over $3000 compared to dealer prices in my hometown.
My Lucerne is a CX model with cloth bucket seats. It had the usual A/C, automatic, power seats, power windows, and CD stereo. The base car came with a front split bench seat that wasn’t very comfortable, but the bucket seats have enough side bolster to be very comfortable.
The 3800 engine is the Series III, which added even more refinement to an already great engine. It also has an aluminum intake manifold and aluminum upper intake manifold gaskets! The aluminum upper intake hasn’t been seen since 1993. The engine has good low end power and the car averages 24 MPG on my mixed highway/city loop. In town mileage is only 18 MPG, but on highway trips I have been able to achieve 30 MPG.
As you might expect, the trunk of this car is HUGE in keeping with the H body tradition. The Lucerne is on the same body platform as the Cadillac DTS, but the DTS has a lower beltline. The Lucerne is a quieter car than my LeSabres and is better assembled.
An early modification I made was to replace the OEM radio with a custom unit. AM/FM radio stations in this area are mostly talk, hip hop, or some other noisy music format with lots of advertising. This radio has a HD tuner, which allows me to listen to several good jazz, contemporary, or oldies music stations with virtually no advertising. Another plus is that I can store music on a thumb drive and play it, or plug in my iPod.
An early failure was the driver’s outside door handle, which looks like metal but is really plastic. In the winter, the door seals at the top will freeze to the body whenever there is any moisture present. The first time this happened, I just tugged on the door handle harder. Mistake. The handle broke and I had to get into the car from the right side. Fortunately, the car was still under warranty and the handle was replaced at no cost. Now, whenever the door sticks, I wedge an ice scraper between the upper door frame and the body and gently maneuver it until the door comes free. I keep the scraper handy in the trunk. I also learned to spray the upper door gasket with silicone lubricant in the fall.
There have been two major repairs to the Lucerne since I have owned it. The first involved the right front wheel bearing.
One day when I started the car, the instrument panel display started flashing a warning about ABS failure and a chime starting ringing. Checking the car with my scanner, it told me that the sensor in the RF wheel had failed. This was easy enough to replace, as there are three screws securing it to the knuckle. The hardest part was removing the rotor, which was secured to the hub with a torx head screw. Of course, the insert in the screw for the torx bit rounded off, so I had to drill the screw out.
The other major repair was the A/C condenser. There are two screws which join the condenser’s connection to the coolant lines together. One can be removed from the inside, the other requires removal of the front bumper cover to gain access. Ouch!
One thing I continually dislike about this car is the A pillar and mirror design. On my earlier H body LeSabres and Bonnevilles, the mirror was attached to the door several inches back. Between the thickness of the Lucerne A pillar and the attachment of the side view mirror right next to it, there is a severe blind spot that is created. Doesn’t impair my vision most of the time, but on twisty roads it is a problem.
The Lucerne is 11 years old and has been in my possession for 9 years. It came with 20,000 miles and it now has 70,000 miles. Starts right up when I need it, and takes me where I want to go without complaint. Very comfortable for road trips with lots of usable room. Unfortunately, this will be my last 3800 engine and I will keep on enjoying it for many more years.
My escort station wagon’s doors would always freeze up to the body and I would have to get in from the cargo door then push the door open from the inside
I never broke a door handle as they were the !ift up type
I kept half of a spring type wooden clothes pin in my coat pocket, it’s small doesn’t scratch and is enough to pry the frozen door open
Reminds me of when I locked my keys inside my 1970 Chevelle. Happened to be in sight of the line cooks at the White Rose System in Highland Park NJ (old school hamburger place). I went inside, gave my order and the order dude said “and?”, so I said “that’s it”, he said “and?” louder. I said “and a wire coat hanger to open my door”. Everyone laughed.
I jokingly asked if they wanted the hanger back, the dude said “fold it up and keep it in your pocket for the next time.” Everyone laughed again.
How refreshing. A Buick with a Buick engine. So un-GM these days.
Sounds like you made a smart purchase, given your love for larger GMs with the 3800, the deal you got, and the amount of time it’s served you with minimal issues.
I always liked the Lucerne for what it was, and think it was a much improved effort over the LeSabre and Park Avenue. The rear styling is a bit reminiscent of the VW Phaeton.
With regards to dealer doc fees, everyone has to pay them, even dealer employees. They are pure profit for the dealer, but at least at the dealers I’ve worked at they help offset the cost of giving the car a full-detail the day of delivery, registering the car to save the client a trip to the RMV, and having a product specialist give the client a full-tutorial on all of the car’s tech features.
Doc fees in Michigan are not mandatory. Some dealers advertise that they don’t charge them at all. I purchased a Jeep several years ago using Chrysler employee plan and there were no doc fees charged, per the agreement with the UAW. I’m not sure if they’re mandatory in Florida, where I purchased this car. As I said, it didn’t matter in this case since I paid what I offered and the dealer backed the fees out of the offered price. IMO, they just replaced the old “dealer prep” fee but legally through legislation.
Only in the car biz could you take a profit item (doc fee) and account for it as a Cost of Sales.
Yup, we’re all sleaze bags. I don’t know how I sleep at night. Maybe I should just run away… and be forced to pay the airline’s fee of $30 to check my first bag, the hotel’s daily “resort fee” of $50 even if I don’t want to use the “fitness center” that consists of a windowless room with two 15-year old treadmills and some yoga mats.
Maybe I can find salvation in adopting a puppy from the local animal shelter… but I’ll have to pay the mandatory $90 fee to have it spayed/neutered, even if I don’t want to help control the pet population.
Fees exist everywhere, whether we like them or not. And of course no one, myself included, likes them. But as long as they’re disclosed, there’s nothing illegal about them.
And with regards to car dealer doc fees, as a salesperson, I have no say in them, as I do not with local tax, title, registration, and insurance fees.
Not true. A relative bought a brand new pickup recently and they tried to charge him dealer fees at the final stage. He said no way. The deal was finished to his satisfaction. Some of us don’t entertain such BS.
Some dealers try to portray dealer fees as being legally REQUIRED but what they are skirting around is the fact that they are legally PERMISSIBLE.
The Lucerne always seemed to be a pretty nice car and it looks like you got a good one. However, its attractive styling has been seen before – mainly in the 2003 Infiniti Q45. Separated at birth?
Year 2000 styling by Citroen cloned all over the world
To be fair, everyone was doing that bug-eyed schtick at the time.
I remember checking these out at the auto show when they were new and thinking “Why DO people make fun of Buicks?”. The whole package just seemed very competent, and it’s nice to be vaildated in my assessment, and to hear that your experience has been positive.
Agreed that the looks of the Lucerne were enticing – enough so to get me to inspect it at a Buick dealer after years (decades?) of ignoring the store.
I especially liked the Lucerne in a maroon metallic. If I remember correctly, the top of the line car had a Northstar V-8 and that was intriguing to me.
Though it looked good (especially from the rear) and was very roomy and comfortable, I just could not bridge the gap to buying a four door sedan.
It is a wonderful thing when man and car create a bond. After my failed attemt to bond with an 06 Lacrosse, I have wondered if I would have more success with one of these.
If your door handle fails again the fix is cheap and easy, as I discovered on the Lacrosse which one of my kids still has. The handle is inexpensive and the secret is to fill all of the open space around the little protrusion that houses threads for the screw with J B Weld.
I have a nearly identical Lucerne. Also had to replace the driver’s door handle and right front wheel bearing. Mine has more than double the amount of miles as yours so I’ve had a couple more recent repairs. The quality of this car compared to a Grand Prix is like night and day. The visibility with that thick pillar is atrocious…I usually check three times before turning because you literally cannot see a car that is RIGHT there. The bank-vault silence of the car and your surroundings might not help either.
I think the bench seat version (which I have) is identical to your “bucket” seat; the bench seat middle is a third separate seat and not technically a bench.
I have an 06 CX with 230,000 miles on it and I’m going for 300k. Also have an 08 with over 100k and an 09 with 30k ( it was quite a deal.) Have a Le Sabre with 90k. Prior to that, I owned 5 Old 98s with the 3800 series. Love that engine. Of the Lucernes, I like the way the 06 drives best. Plenty of power, good maneuvering. Just don’t like the blind spots in the design. I’m old and fond the CX’s cloth buckets much more comfortable than the leather ones.
Share some pictures of your Oldsmobile’s! They are becoming thin on the ground. Hopefully some of your old Olds are still on the road with someone.
THose 3.8 Buick motors were quite good we got em in Holdens unfortunately theyve been replaced by an inferior engine thats all noise no action, low rev torque is where its at and the newer effort has none.
As a fan of the 3800 engine, thanks for this post. I hadn’t paid a lot of attention to the Lucerne, and had no idea they came with a 3800.
There are still plenty of the ’90s era C & H bodies around here for me to get my 3800 fix, but good to see what I’ll be driving a decade from now.
Yes,it IS possible to get a good deal on ebay. My last 2 vehicles were purchased
there. Both were as described. Just lucky?,no,I would like to think that excellent
communication was the key,plus honest sellers. Both were privately owned.
A car that could have been so much more, but no doubt symptomatic of GM’s disarray as it approached bankruptcy. As one who remembers GM in the 1960s and the beautiful, prestigious cars produced then by Buick (we had a ’65 Electra 225), the marque’s decline in public estimation, and the collapse of GM itself, seems almost too sad and incredible.
Great to hear a first-hand experience of a Lucerne, a car that’s always intrigued me (oops, wrong platform – something that’s always had an aurora of competence? A car I find DeVille-ishly interesting?)
I’ll admit though that I’ve never really had any interest in the V6 ones of these. I know the 3800 is a very competent engine, nicely torquey and surprisingly economical, but when the Lucerne launched with it, it was well behind rivals in both power and torque. And a four-speed auto? The Lexus ES had six speeds. Now in terms of day-to-day drivability there mightn’t have been a huge chasm between the Lucerne and ES but it felt like the Lucerne was just rehashing what was already in GM’s parts bin and that wasn’t good enough for a brand with premium aspirations. Yes, there was the optional Northstar but even it was looking outmoded against rivals.
There had been reports the Lucerne was to make way for a Zeta-based, rear-wheel-drive replacement but that got scuttled by GM’s bankruptcy. If that had been planned for, say, a 2009/10 launch, then the Lucerne would have effectively just been a stopgap. But it ended up being axed without a replacement and a few years later and full-size sedan sales even further reduced, we can probably see the wisdom in just keeping the LaCrosse. And the redesigned second-gen LaCrosse was definitely in the Lexus ES’ ballpark.
Now don’t get me wrong, I like the Lucerne. I like it a helluva lot more than the first-gen LaCrosse and it’s not a bad car. It just could’ve been better. I’ll take one of the rare Super models in Cocoa metallic with the high-output Northstar.
As for the 3800, ’tis a fine engine but there are other good engines out there… So what’s next for you?
What’s next is a good question. None of the engine choices out there thrill me a lot. No trucks or SUVs, so that will limit what I buy next.
But the world is your oyster. I was disappointed with the 3.6 V6 in my Calais but I know it’s been improved over time. Chrysler’s got the excellent Pentastar V6. Ford has the 3.5 and 3.7, not to mention their EcoBoost models.
H body? My understanding is that these are G body based like the Aurora.