[roaddirt]

Well, I have taken my Buick to another Buick dealer, again.
The car was well warmed up when Service Chancellor took it for drive with me on passenger side. As soon as we reached cruising speed around 35-40 mph, the RPM dropped down and the car exhibited famous “poor acceleration”.
He asked me if this is my problem and I confirmed. He said that was OK, the car behaved like it was supposed to. I was stunned.
He technically said “You need to keep in mind that Buick is a luxury car designed for smooth cruising, comfort and better fuel economy. Let’s say you want to cruise at 35 mph. As soon as it passes 35 MPH, first time you set up steady speed it will always switch to 4th gear and lock up torque converter, even if the current speed more suites 3rd gear. Being in 4th gear at 35-40mph will not give you any quick acceleration or passing power. What you need is to disengage “torque lock up” with any known technique like releasing and pressing pedal deeper, touching brake pedal or pressing harder to downshift. He said that PCM is not even so smart to disengage torque lock up when the car is going uphill and the car start bogging down. You need to press harder to downshift or even choose lower gear manually. WOW.

It seemed to me as a lot of leg shifting and science for an automatic trany. According to him the car is OK, it is design. My only problem is that I own a Buick Century.

My understanding was that other GM products like, let’s say Pontiac Grand Prix, will behave quite differently with the same engine and seemingly the same transmission due to sportier design targeted to younger people.

Comments are very welcome.