First Impressions of Buick Lucerne

[testcase]

"bump the onstar and ask for directions to The G-Spot diner"





and don't forget to floss after dinner........





with a pube :wink:

[Lew Zealand]

Have you seen the repair record for the Avalanche - it's very good, the best among the trucks IICR.

[tenders]

modelamac wrote:
If you are really sensitive, I think you will find that it has the torque converter lockup in both 3rd and 4th gears, making it essentially a 6 speed. My 200 Chevy Venture has this, as did our 2003 Saturn Vue v-6.

Could you explain this? I thought torque converter lockup increases the efficiency of an automatic transmission in high gear using a mechanical connection instead of a fluid connection during prolonged operation in the same gear.

What good is it in the second-to-highest gear, and how does this make a transmission like a 6-speed?

[Racer X]

I think he is confusing this with the Super Turbine 400 transmission that Buick used back in the '60s in the full sized cars. It has a variable pitch stator in the torque converter. it launches in high stall to give greater torque multiplication, and above a certain RPM/engine load (or a micro switch on the carb linkage) it would drop back to low RPM stall speed for greater fuel economy and less slippage.

I put one in my GSX, and it launches with a 3500 rpm stall converter, but drops back to a 1300 rpm stall converter driving down the freeway or around town. It is effectively like a 6 speed transmission. This is the transmission that the Turbo Hydramatic 400 transmission is based on. The 4L80E is the 4 speed overdrive version of the TH400, but lacks the mounting bosses and blocked passages in the casting to allow you to convert and make it into a dual stall overdrive 4 speed automatic. Its a shame, as a stock one is good for an 800 lb/ft engine, and way beyond that if modified properly.

[Grateful11]

JPK wrote:
That can't be........ I thought all american cars were crap and only a Toyota or Honda will do? At least thats what we are trying to be brainwashed to believe!

Todays "American" cars are waaaaay better than people realize. In most cases equal or better to the equivalent "Japanese" cars.

The big problem is the bad taste left in the mouth of those who had a piece of crap car from the 70's and early 80's. The misery lingers for a long time.

The other big problem is the "Fix it when it breaks" (US Cars attitudes) vs. "Spend $$ on PM" (Forn car attitudes). This has been discussed here before.

I just rolled 20k on my Avalanche and have not had any issues.

JPK

Being brainwashed by whom? If people can't find out on their own what's
good and what's not well too bad. I suppose all those people that
review vehicles at Edmunds.com are liars. I will say this it wasn't just
the 70's & 80's American vehicles that turned me off. I've bought 8
new American vehicles since '91. One '94 Chevy truck spent as much
time on the road as in the shop. '97 Ford truck they bought back because they
could get the tranny to stop leaking, 2 Ford Expeditions both of which started
using oil at the rate of 2 quarts between oil changes one at 40K miles
the other at 59K miles, 2 Ford Explorers built after 2000 one that had
seats that rode so bad it would practically kill you after 4 hours, the
other started leaking at the, IRS, rear end after 38K miles and Ford said sorry
it's out of warranty. Fixed it and traded that one for an '07 Honda CR-V that's had
nothing done to it in 17K miles. My Scion xA has 40K on it and it also
has had nothing done to it. Now let's go back to '91 when we bought a
new Ford Explorer 2WD, we still have it with 232K miles on it and no
major repairs, intake manifold gasket was probably the worst at about
$300. It appears to me that Ford's quality has gone down not up. We
did inherit an '02 Chevy Tahoe Z71 4x4 with 29K on it last year and so
far it's been awesome. There's another Ford truck in there somewhere
that we just didn't like. I've done all the routine maintenance on these
vehicles and the '91 proves I'm competent at it.

[JoeH]

JPK wrote:
That can't be........ I thought all american cars were crap and only a Toyota or Honda will do? At least thats what we are trying to be brainwashed to believe!

Todays "American" cars are waaaaay better than people realize. In most cases equal or better to the equivalent "Japanese" cars.

The big problem is the bad taste left in the mouth of those who had a piece of crap car from the 70's and early 80's. The misery lingers for a long time.

The other big problem is the "Fix it when it breaks" (US Cars attitudes) vs. "Spend $$ on PM" (Forn car attitudes). This has been discussed here before.

I just rolled 20k on my Avalanche and have not had any issues.

JPK

Not just the '70's and '80's US cars, also includes lousy experiences with models over the last 20 years. That is my own experience and that of people I know, including mechanics who work on them. And yes, I do my own maintenance, not of the fix it when breaks mode either. Only reason I owned US maker model cars was that they were cheaper to pick up used. I can come up with many examples of US models having quality problems from just the last 10-15 years. Sure, there has been some recent improvements in quality from the US makers, but not enough to clean up their reputation yet. Come back when you have 80-100K on your Avalanche and let us know if it is still issue free. One area the US makers cars have not been consistent on has been lasting past the warranty running out. Many problems that show up a year or two after has been consistent compared to the Japanese makes.

[Grumpyguy]

Actually, my Olds Intrigue has 103,000 miles on it. No problems.

GM has been making decent cars for awhile now. Ford has finally gotten there.

Don't know about Chrysler.

Lot more impression than reality. For instance, my friends mom traded her Dodge minivan in for the Toyota (2005) minivan. The Toyota is so bad that she said she longs for the Dodge back.

Now that is saying a whole lot.

[JoeH]

Then there is the Buick my parents bought new about half a dozen years ago. Was in the shop for one thing after another about every other month. Sometimes not available to them to drive for several days at a time until some part or another could be brought in. They ditched it before 3 years had gone and bought a Hyundai. Other than scheduled maintenance they have not had it in for any other work.

As for Chrysler, the mini-vans were one thing they had right for a number of years. At least until they started cutting corners on their auto transmissions. I have know quite a few who have had to repair or replace them after 75-100K miles starting in the late '90's. Same problem in their midsize cars using the same transmissions.

And then there are the engines Chrysler put into a number of models of cars that started blowing head gaskets after 40-50K in the mid to late '90's. They finally got that fixed about 7 or 8 years ago. But a lot of people had to pay for out of warranty repairs on those engines.

Ford had some of its own "mistake" cars during that period. But of the three US makers they look to have started earlier on fixing up their quality problems and making progress on doing that. But this is stuff they all should have started working on seriously in the '80's and on through the '90's. instead they left it until their backs were up against the wall.