In December 2012 I took possession of my special order 2013 Buick Premium. I purchased the car from Mike Shaw Buick (now Alpine) in Colorado Springs, CO where I had purchased my new 2002 Buick Century several years prior. I special ordered the car so that I would have the options I wanted and not the options a dealer thought would sell. I elected for the addition of the towing package as well as some other items. While I really didn’t expect to tow anything the package made sure that I got beefed drivetrain parts and it is nice to be able to tow something if I needed to.

Over the years I have had some major issues.

The air conditioning system died resulting in several weeks waiting on the dealer to get the parts in and repair the car. Who knew some of that system was located behind the second-row seating?

While on a birthday trip through Rocky Mountain National Park, the transmission started slipping and making noise at low speeds. The dealer determined that a gear in the transmission was defective and had to replace it. There was another few weeks waiting for repairs.

Of course, we had every “Seat Belt” and “Air Bag” issue possible, each time costing us time, money and aggravation, until Buick announced recalls on the issues.

When I was just over 60k miles I was having my car serviced at the dealership. They discovered that my engine was leaking out of several seals, (I never spotted any oil leakers on the car or under the vehicle.) The engine was pulled, and as the dealer said all seals were replaced throughout the engine.

On Columbus Day, my wife and I has just left our residence and were about 5 miles from our home. We stopped at a traffic light and then waited for traffic to clear and made a turn when suddenly the DIC showed “Traction Control Off” and the “Check Engine” light came on at roughly the same time. The engine immediately reduced power and the engine started missing. I attempted to switch the Traction Control back on to remove the message to see if that cleared up the issue. The button had no impact on the Traction Control or drivability. We immediately knew something was seriously wrong and decided to turn back to my house. While the car was running rough, when we got above a few miles an hour the car ran a bit better. Better but not normal. At each intersection the car would almost stall out. At a couple of intersections, the engine stalled out but restarted. At an intersection near my house the car again stalled and when restarted there was no “Engine Warning” light on or “Traction Control OFF” DIC message.

Pulling into my garage it stalled a few times in my driveway with a slight uphill slant. We ended up pushing it into the garage. Thankfully we have USAA and they towed the car to the dealership. I attempted to turn the car around at the dealership when it came off the tow and the car didn’t have enough power to make it up a slight slanted driveway.

Yesterday I went to the dealership and give the Service Advisor a detailed explanation what took place. They mentioned when they started it to bring it in the shop, they noticed how rough it ran. I explained that after reviewing several forums and comments online about the car, there were a good number of complains that had the exact issue as mine. Most of the answers revealed that the “Throttle Body” may be the issue. Later that day they called and said they said the TB could NOT be the issue because the car would not run if the TB was the issue. I said I don’t believe that to be true. The said they did a compression test and said the #3 cylinder had no compression. All others were good. Today I told them they needed to recheck their tests to ensure that the issue was not dealing with the TB, Injectors, computer or spark, prior to me allowing them to take apart the engine to go on a fishing trip to see if it has to do with internal engine parts.

I find it extremely hard to believe that an engine with 84,000 miles that was dealer serviced and maintained throughout its lifetime, was running perfectly after the latest issue 20,000 ago (engine seals) would have a catastrophic failure internally on one cylinder at less than 35 miles per hour after waiting at a red light. My 1997 Mazda B2300 has 186,000 miles and drives perfectly. Even my 2002 century with 156,000 miles on it run without issues until a tree feel on it and totaled it. Hell, it even drove well after the tree killed it.

As of today, I have a $55,000, 4500-pound paper weight. Even if it gets repaired, I will be afraid that the engine is so delicate that we could have another catastrophic failure again next time I stop at a light. Not what I expected from Buick.

Has anyone else had the same issues?

Update: Dealer just called. They told me after they pulled the value cover off on the side of the cylinder in question ($270 to see) they discovered one of the springs on a value in the #3-cylinder broke causing the value to drop “inside the engine”. The cost to remove the head and see if the dropped value caused any damage to the position would be $2,500. When asked if they scoped the cylinder, they said they did, but they could not tell if there was any damage. That’s really seems odd, must be a cheaper scope. They then said the next step is to remove the head and check if there is any damage to the cylinder. Parts and labor would be $2,500. I asked that cost included fixing the head and replacing the springs and putting the engine back together. If one breaks which one is next? They said no. That’s just for tear down. When question why so expensive to just take it off, I was told it was 16 hours and they had to order parts? Huh? If you not putting it back in, what parts are needed?

I reached out to a shop that has a very good rep locally and they said $2,500 was crazy for just taking the head off. They said it would be about $700 and 9 hours of labor. They also said the first thing they would have done, prior to removing the head cover, would to have been scope the cylinder. They said scoping it would show everything unless the Dealer scope was not working, or they didn’t scope it. The scope should have shown the value in the cylinder. They also said that the $2,500 quote is ridiculous. Initially they first thought that the $2,500 was to remove the head (must come off anyway), fix whatever is needed, have the head resurfaced if needed, and put everything back together. It wasn’t. The Dealer wants $2,500 just for the exploration of the cylinder.

BTW…..If a new engine is needed because of damage they would charge me for a new engine, $270 to remove the head cover and $2500 to see if the engine needed replacing. At this point I am having the car towed from the dealer and fixed by the other shop. My luck with Buicks is only 50% now. Not great odds and it seems it is time to dump Buick and by something that has better odds and warranty