Buick Regal

Which Buick Regal years should you avoid?

Going by 2,975 owner complaints filed with NHTSA, the Buick Regal years to avoid are 1999, 1998, 2001, 2002 and 2003.

• 1999246 complaints, 2.1× a typical Regal year, most often about the engine; and 3.4× the usual share of fires, crashes and deaths for a car of its age (44 fires, 8 crashes, 1 death).
• 1998302 complaints, 2.6× a typical Regal year, most often about the engine; and 2.1× the usual share of fires, crashes and deaths for a car of its age (41 fires, 7 crashes).
• 20014.2× the usual share of fires, crashes and deaths for a car of its age (48 fires, 5 crashes).
• 20023.3× the usual share of fires, crashes and deaths for a car of its age (23 fires, 2 crashes).
• 20032.9× the usual share of fires, crashes and deaths for a car of its age (14 fires, 5 crashes).

2 more years cleared the same bar; they are marked in the table below.

Better bets: among years old enough for a low count to mean something, the 2014, 2016 and 2013 drew the fewest complaints without an unusual share of serious ones.

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 →