2002 BUICK Regal

Long Term Review

Comfort Rating: 4 Performance Rating: 4 Interior Rating: 5 Reliability Rating: 3 Safety Rating: 4 Technology Rating: 5 Value Rating: 5

My family owned this car for around 9 years. It was my first car and I took a lot of pride in it as it is a car to be proud of. We had a special edition style and handling package with two tone paint and firmer, more reactive suspension. While the car isn't particularly special in the curves, it felt awesome until you near the limit and realize how front heavy it is. The engine was plenty powerful to have fun with, and consistently gave me 29 mpg HWY without fail. ABS worked great. Traction control worked surprisingly well even in deep snow up to the bumper. Never got my car stuck in the winter except for once when it was practically buried overnight. We did have some problems over the course of the ownership. The worst one was the ignition switch which shut the car off in heavy traffic. Other than that, we also had to replace the swaybar, a window motor, window switches, AC clutch, 3 wheel bearings, fender rust and well that's about it. Pretty good car, but still nickle and dimed over the years. Probably cost less then 2k for everything over 9 years. It was really built well though. Maintained it perfectly and it was still driving like new at almost 170k. There were no weird squeaks, rattles or anything which is amazing considering how high quality the monsoon radio and speaker system was. YOU WANT THE MONSOON! The only wear it showed were a few chips on the aftermarket hood, some fine cracks in the leather, and a light tick from a lifter in the bullet proof Buick 3.8L until she warmed up. Car was broke in but showed no signs of slowing down. I trusted it fully to the day I sold it. It wasn't babied either. Maintained and serviced well was not used lightly. Ditched during winter twice, but no damage was ever taken.