Yahoo Autos 100,000 Miles Owning A Buick Regal TourX: What I've Learned
Driving at 60 miles per hour, it would take nearly 71 days to cover 100,000 miles. For my family’s 2018 Buick Regal TourX it has taken just a smidge over five years to rack up that kind of mileage. Twenty-thousand miles per year every year for five years. It’s clear we’ve absolutely loved having this Rioja Red beauty on our side. Several years of street parking, fender benders, and long road trips would normally have a car looking pretty beat up, but this beauty is looking all the better with a few blemishes. I love my wagon, and I’ll be sad to see it leave.
A few years ago I gave you all an update on what it was like to own this car for the first 10,000 miles. Since we’ve ten-ex’d that milestone, I figured it was time for an update.
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I can’t say that every one of those miles has been smooth sailing, but the vast majority of them have. Being that this is a 100,000 mile German automobile, it would be really surprising if it made it there unscathed.
Just over a year ago we were on a road trip to Rhode Island for the Audrain Concours when the situation went pear-shaped. Out of nowhere while driving on the highway, systems started dying and the dash was shouting them out one by one. Throttle control got erratic, the stabilitrak started hitting brakes at random, and the cruise control quit working. We got off at the next exit with an auto parts store and ran through a few possibilities. The battery was reading low voltage, so we swapped in a new one and everything seemed to be fixed.
About a thousand miles later the same symptoms arose again. If I left the car on a trickle charger overnight the problem would again go away. Three or four trips to the dealership revealed nothing, as it always had a topped-up battery when we took it in. Eventually we happened to be close to the dealer when the emergency braking started phantom braking worse than a Tesla on ‘autopilot’, so we dropped it off and took an Uber home. It turned out to be the body control module, and it was fixed and back to us in six days for around $600. Ever since, it’s been a sweetheart again.
Aside from that major issue, there have only been two small issues with the car that are annoying, but not a dealbreaker. The first is that we’ve had the front bumper tow plug cover replaced twice, and the first time we go on a winter roadtrip, it falls off again. Instead of paying to buy another one and get it painted again and again, we’ve just decided to live without it. The second is that the steering-wheel radar cruise switch needed to be replaced for cosmetic damage in 2021. I don’t recall exactly what it cost to replace, but it was annoyingly a few hundred dollars.
Aside from tires, oil changes, and a body control module, this car hasn’t had any failures. It’s been a great vehicle. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend one to anyone who wants one.
