Buick Lesabre

Which Buick Lesabre years should you avoid?

Going by 3,609 owner complaints filed with NHTSA, the Buick Lesabre years to avoid are 2000, 1999, 1998 and 1997.

• 2000669 complaints, 3.6× a typical Lesabre year, most often about the visibility.
• 19992.8× the usual share of fires, crashes and deaths for a car of its age (20 fires, 19 crashes, 2 deaths).
• 1998400 complaints, 2.2× a typical Lesabre year, most often about the engine.
• 1997394 complaints, 2.1× a typical Lesabre year, most often about the engine.

How this is worked out: each year is compared with a typical year of the same model, which takes most of the difference in sales out of it, and its share of serious failures is compared with every other car of the same model year, because older cars were complained about differently. A year needs 25 complaints to be judged at all. Complaints are unverified owner reports. Full method →