I am looking at a 99 park avenue,very clean 119000,most option including headsup display.3500 including tax and title is this about right for one with 119k on it.Also what should i look for as far as issues with these,all I know is the 3.8 is supposed to be a great motor,I have a deposit on the car so if this iis alittle high please let me know,asking price was 3995 on a small lot with clean cars.thanks

I've had my 01 Park Ave for nearly 4 years and still love it...especially the heads-up display.

You'll find a lot of info here about these cars. The engine is a very good engine, but there have been problems with the intake manifold gaskets. The power seat motors have also been weak spots on this generation of Park Ave's. A few problems here and there with the heated seats and the fuel gage, as well.

All in all, Park Avenues are very decent cars. Good luck with yours...and enjoy! :)

I ended up buying the car today,traded a 96 taurus and 1500 for it,does that sound like a decent deal,taurus was clean with 102000 miles,but buick is a total different type car.

The Park Avenue is a solid car that should give you a lot of pleasure. Beware, however, as these cars were victims of GM policy of pressuring suppliers to cut costs. As a result, the cars are loaded with fragile, failure-prone plastic components in critical areas.

My Park, a 2001 Base with the 1SE package, has had numerous expensive breakdowns related to plastics failure:

The power seat mechanisms - driver and passenger - failed at 40K. Plastic components in the actuators stripped. The repair bill was over $2000.00, covered under the extended warranty.

Now the driver's 4-way lumbar has failed due to a small plastic piece cracking at an attachment point. On the project list.

The driver's side heated seat failed recently due to an incredibly fragile connection point in the bottom cushion. Not plastic, but flimsy nonetheless. New seat skin on order, over $400.00.

Plastic power seat control bezel cracked and seperating from the side of the driver's seat. New bezel on order, $10.00

The trunk leaked where the left rear quarter panel meets the panel at the bottom corner of the rear window. Sealant was either missing or had shrunk and water seeped past. I had to replace the entire trunk lining and spare tire cover. $250.00

The plastic gear in the CD drive motor failed and the unit will not play CDs now.

Plastic gears in the blend door actuator failed, resulting in warm and cool air blowing from opposite sides of the dashboard vent outlets. Warranty cover this. $900.00.

The Series II 3800 has two very serious problems, one of which has resulted in a class-action lawsuit, both of which will kill your engine:

1. Base Parks are equipped with a thermoplastic upper intake plenum. Hot metal tubing from the EGR system runs through the plenum and slowly degrades the surrounding plastic. Coolant eventually finds its way through this weakened area and is sucked into the engine. The internet is filled with owners who have had catastrophic engine failure due to this design. Ultras have a reliable aluminum plenum.

2. Google "DexCool Lower Intake Lawsuit". DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP. I'll leave it at that.

Consider this: At 80K, my 3800 is now burning one quart of oil every 1200 miles. Both the Buick dealer and an excellent independent machanic have confirmed my worst fears: the valve seals are failing. Acidic DexCool has eaten the lower intake gasket and seeped into the valvetrain. That explains the cloud of blue smoke billowing from the tailpipe on hard acceleration now.

Many of the LEDs have failed in the dashboard control units requiring removal and rebuilding. LEDs are soldered in place and can not be easily serviced like incandescent bulbs.

Finally, your Park Avenue is prone to the typical GM failures:

Transmission Pressure Control Solenoid. Wheel Hub Bearing. Cam/crank Position Sensors. Intermediate Steering Shaft. Window Motors/regulators.

And then there's that front end vibration that plagues almost every Aurora/Riviera/Park/DeVille/Seville owner.

Would I buy another Park? Yes, but it would be an Ultra with an extended warranty.

But the damage by the cost cutters aside, the Buick Park Avenue is a hard car to hate. It's a beautiful piece of work, styled by veteran GM designer William Porter (who styled the '68 GTO, '70 Firebird, '73 LeMans/Grand Am, '95 Riviera). The interior was done by Paul Tatseos, another talented GM vet. The Park Avenue is truly a Buick, as it was one of the final products to be launched from Flint Michigan, the ancestral home of Buick, before GM sent the division on its deathmarch to Detroit.

Just tell 'em it's a four-door Riviera.

Good Luck.

First off...99parkave...I think you got a great deal...however, will probably have to face some of the issues mentioned by 1965...hopefully not!

1965...Great post...Reference quality...and you just described (part of) my life LOL.

BTW...I think you missed one 1965...the door handles. A plastic piece inside easily breaks...(GM again helping out the repair shops).

The bright side is if you like to tinker with cars, some/most/all of these problems can be fixed for less, and you will learn much about the car.

For instance, flush the Dex-Cool out. Change it every 2 years or replace with the "mixes with anything" antifreeze.

The 99's and up have less failure with the upper intake manifold (UIM) due to a reduced diameter EGR pipe. APN sells a sleeved intake which pretty much eliminates the problem. The 97 I have is on its 3rd intake, this time sleeved with the smaller EGR pipe. I am lucky I did not hydrolock the engine...drove it 100 miles blowing all kinds of white smoke and missing. Some day I would like to learn to fix this myself. Also, relace the lower intake gasket with the new aluminum frame one...protects against any bad Dex-Cool.

The AC/heating actuators are replaced quite easy...find a $50-$100 one on e-bay and save the $900 (way too much to pay for this). Buy the service manual on e-bay and have fun learning about the car. Also, lots of help on this forum.

The seats/motors have been covered numerous times. The broken motors can be found in salvage, or just adjust them manually (takes some work) and leave them. I am in the process of putting non-heated cloth seats on my 99(car-part.com taps into salvage yards across the US)...more comfortable IMO...and do not need heat anyway (I say that while the temp. outside here in MT is -25 lol).

Took the entire lumbar out of the 99...thought it was giving me back trouble but it was probably from overdoing the snow shoveling (again lol). So the lumbar assembly sits in the garage if anyone wants (mine worked fine).

Power seat bezel...drive a couple long screws in (drill pilot holes first, watch where you are drilling) and the car will fall apart before that dumb bezel pops out again.

Also, Pioneer makes great car radios...mine just sits in the big hole, can see wires and all (did not use an installation kit)...so what if the temp. display no longer dims?

Anyways, you get the idea. 1965...Again, love your post. I too would like an Ultra some day, probably 2000 or up (with FE3 Gran Touring option). 2000 was the year they went with the stabiltrac and the side air bags. 2003 gets 17" wheels and the Gran Touring Suspension is standard.

Thanks for the kind words bigsky.

Yes, those door handles are terrible. Again, plastic substituting for steel in a critical area.

Your advice on DexCool is spot on, as are your other tech tips. Imagine the damage to GM's reputation that could have been avoided had the company faced the Dex issue early on.

I'm going to bite the bullet and do the plenum/lim gasket/valve seal baloney soon. The car is near mint and worth maintaining.

These cars were a high water mark for Buick. Too bad the public never understood them. I guess they were too busy drinking Asian KoolAid.

I am not a mechanic, just learning through dealing with these Park issues. Mostly going by what I have learned from others on the forums.

Can be fun to learn; no fun when you need to fix it fast and get back on the road.

Another hidden gem of the Park...good gas mileage. I have gotten 30-32 on the 97 (warm weather, level and steady open road). Amazing for the size of the car; one of the few "tanks" left.

Once again 1965, excellent summary of the Park.

Before the feds forced Massachusetts to adopt E10, my Park would regularly acheive 32-34 mpg on the road. Now, I get just under 30. In town mileage is significantly less, but if I'm easy on the pedal, I average around 23.

For a full-size car, those fuel economy numbers are unbeatable, and that''s with 20 year old technology.

The Buick Park Avenue is impossible to beat.

Wow! wish I could get one for 3500 including tax!! I'm looking at one now, a old guy bought it new, did all the maintenance at the dealer. 113,000.
I know the Dealers son, I can get a real good dear for $5,000 (before tax). I see others on the net going for $5,500 - $7,000.
Chris.

1. Base Parks are equipped with a thermoplastic upper intake plenum. Hot metal tubing from the EGR system runs through the plenum and slowly degrades the surrounding plastic. Coolant eventually finds its way through this weakened area and is sucked into the engine.


The size of the EGR tube from the LIM was reduced in the year 1999 on those 3800s. The extra air gap has the area running cooler from the air being inducted passing around it. The failure rate may be there, but it's not like it was with the earlier, full-sized EGR tubes.

2. Google "DexCool Lower Intake Lawsuit". DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP. I'll leave it at that.

Consider this: At 80K, my 3800 is now burning one quart of oil every 1200 miles. Both the Buick dealer and an excellent independent machanic have confirmed my worst fears: the valve seals are failing. Acidic DexCool has eaten the lower intake gasket and seeped into the valvetrain. That explains the cloud of blue smoke billowing from the tailpipe on hard acceleration now.


How frequently has the oil been changed? If you changed your oil with a quality oil at frequent intervals, I don't understand why you're having valve seals fail. It sounds like you're saying those fail due to DexCool seeping into the oil sump. The valve seals are in the heads.

Valve seals are changeable. That would be my suggestion. You're saying DexCool has deteriorated the LIM gasket; there is a replacement, metal-framed gasket that I would have the shop put in there tomorrow; it's a GM gasket. They can change the valve seals while it's apart. The Coolant will deteriorate the bearings if it actually is in the oil. You need to check.

How many times have you drained and refilled the DexCool since 2001? It should be done every 2 years/36,000 miles in my personal opinion. And that's true for any coolant.

Has the radiator been running low? Is there a brown sludge in the radiator top, cap, and reservoir other than the organic particulates from the sealer pellets GM puts into the radiators which also is brown?

If DexCool is run with radiator low with and air pocket, the DexCool deteriorates. So some maintenance oversight may have contributed. I suspect other similar antifreezes also deteriorate under the same conditions. The DexCool formula appears to have been changed approximately 1999-2000.