The Complete Cost Of Maintaining A Buick

When you’re in the market for a new or used semi-luxury Buick, you’ll eventually wonder what a Buick generally costs in terms of maintenance. In this blog, we’ve done our absolute best to give you a complete rundown of the costs and what you can expect for different models and model years. Let’s start with a quick answer:

Buicks are pretty affordable cars to own, with average annual maintenance costs of $608 per year. This is slightly lower than the $646 average for all car brands. Parts for a Buick are somewhat more expensive than average, but they tend to last longer, which brings down the cost. Finally, Buicks cost more in maintenance than Acura and Lexus, but substantially less than Cadillac and Volvo.

However, that certainly doesn’t tell the whole story. Below, we’ll start by looking at the annual maintenance cost of the most popular models and their corresponding model years. Furthermore, We’ll look at the eight most common service points and discuss what a Buick costs you in this regard. We’ll also compare the annual maintenance cost of a Buick to 23 other car brands and discuss why a Buick is considered cheap or expensive in maintenance. Read on!

How Expensive Are Buick Models To Maintain?

Let’s first talk about how expensive Buick models are on their own. To do this, we gathered data from Repairpal and Caredge. In the table below, we’ve included different model years for five of the most popular Buick models that have been available for sale over the past years.

It’s good to know that we’ve combined data from two different sources because the information from one source is sometimes incomplete. Combining information, therefore, gives us a better understanding of the overall cost. Furthermore, no information was available for younger models of the LaCrosse and Regal.

We can see in the table below those 1-5-year-old models of the Enclave, Encore, and Envision (and presumably the LaCrosse and Regal, too) have lower maintenance costs than older models. This is logical and an observation we make with every car brand. Newer cars need less maintenance, and many repairs happen under warranty.

Furthermore, we see that Buick does seem to have reasonable maintenance costs overall. Older models (5-15 years old) usually have maintenance costs within the $400 – $600 per year range. This is an excellent sign. One of the main reasons for this is that the Encore, Envision, Lacrosse, and Regal are all subcompact – mid-sized SUVs. SUVs generally have higher maintenance costs, but the reasonable size makes their cost not that high.

Only older versions of the Enclave have maintenance costs in the $700 – $800 range, but this is also because the Enclave is the only full-size SUV. Its size means that maintenance costs will always end up at the higher range of the spectrum.

Also read:

• How Many Miles Can A Buick LaCrosse Last? (Answered)
• How Many Miles Can A Buick Enclave Last? (Answered)

Are Parts And Service Expensive For A Buick?

Oil Change

The oil change for a Buick costs an average of $99 – $128, depending on the model you’ve chosen. On average, an oil change costs $40 – $60 for conventional oil and $60 – 120 for full synthetic oil. What type of oil your Buick needs depends on the model; however, most Buicks do need full synthetic oil. This means oil changes for a Buick are much more expensive than average.

Brake Pads

Depending on the Buick you have, a brake pad replacement costs $187 – $325 per axle. Generally, larger SUVs have larger brake pads which means they cost more. This is also the case for the Buick Enclave; a brake pad replacement costs $292 – $325 for this car.

On average, brake pad replacement costs between $150 – $300 per axle. This means that Buick uses brake pads that are priced relatively average compared to the standard market rate.

Filters

Fuel filters need to be replaced every 20,000 – 30,000 miles on most cars. However, this is different for modern-day Buick vehicles. Buicks don’t have a serviceable fuel filter, meaning you won’t have to spend money replacing the fuel filter. Typically, replacing a fuel filter costs between $80 – $150. This means Buick saves you this amount of money every year or two.

Battery

Having batteries replaced on modern-day Buick seems to be quite an issue. Some people have reported being quoted $400 for a single battery replacement. Why this is is unclear. However, many owners’ manuals of Buicks don’t seem to explain how to change the battery, which is odd. Luckily, owners have reported successfully replacing them themselves, although it appears slightly more complex than an average battery replacement.

On average, replacing a car battery costs between $120 – $240, meaning that Buick have costly batteries. This is mainly because of the difficulty of replacing them. However, owners also report that their battery lasts upward of 5 years which is a good sign.

Timing Belt/Chain

Replacing a timing belt or chain is quite expensive to do. Since Buicks use a timing chain instead of a belt, the replacement cost will be higher. Expect to replace them between 100,000 – 150,000 miles and pay around $1,000. On average, replacing a timing belt will cost between $500 and $1,000. This means that replacing a timing chain is slightly more expensive than average for a Buick.

Tire Rotation And Replacement

Rotating tires is the same procedure for every car. For Buicks, you can therefore also expect to pay around $50 for all four. Replacing wheels is a different story. The larger the car, the more expensive the wheel will be. Expect to pay around $150 – $300 per tire for a Buick; the Enclave will probably end up on the higher range of this spectrum, up to $500 per tire. On average, a single tire costs $50 on the low end for sedans and smaller cars, whereas it can cost up to $500 per tire for SUVs and trucks that require a premium tire. Buicks aren’t really budget-friendly, but they also aren’t that expensive.

Spark Plugs

Replacing a set of spark plugs on a Buick will need to happen every 30,000 miles and cost between $128 – $354. Buick Enclaves are the most expensive to replace the spark plugs, costing $297 – $354, whereas the Encore costs $128 – $145 for a set.

On average, it costs $75 – $250 to replace a set of spark plugs. Therefore, Buicks have a fairly standard price for this procedure.

Headlight Bulbs

Most Buicks use HID-headlights. These high-intensity headlights are costly to replace. Replacing a set of headlights on your Enclave or Envision will cost between $360 – $581. However, the cost for replacing a headlight on a LaCrosse or Encore will most likely be between $100 – $150 (likely because they don’t use HID lights). On average, replacing headlight bulbs costs between $100 – $150 for a set, so how expensive it is depends on the Buick you have.

Are Buick More Or Less Expensive To Maintain Compared To Other Brands?

Furthermore, we also think it’s a good idea to compare the overall maintenance cost of a Buick to 23 other carmakers. The reason for doing this is that it gives us a great understanding of how well a brand performs, how reliable it is and how much it truly costs compared to other options in the market.

In the table below, you’ll see immediately that Buick is pretty high up the list. It ends up on a number ten spot, to be exact. For context, the higher the car brand ranks in this table, the cheaper maintenance is. Therefore, seeing an up-class brand like Buick on the higher end of the list is a good sign.

Now, let’s see how the Buick really compares to its competition. On average, Buicks have a maintenance cost of $608 per year. This is higher than the average maintenance costs of Acura cars ($501) and Lexus ($551). However, it’s also much lower than the annual cost of a Cadillac ($783) and Volvo ($769).

Do We Consider Buick To Be Expensive Or Cheap And Why So?

We can conclude from this that Buick does really well compared to other brands. Logically, they aren’t as cheap as brands backed by Honda (Acura) and Toyota (Lexus) because these Asian countries have a global advantage in terms of resources and labor. However, Buick does so much better than Cadillac and Volvo while delivering a similar, if not better, quality that it does seem a solid option if you’re in the market for one.

One of the more interesting questions here is why Buick and Cadillac, even though they are both owned and made by General Motors, are so far apart on the cost spectrum?

One of the most logical explanations is that Buick seems to have higher reliability, which results in fewer breakdowns and, therefore, less money spent on maintenance. On the reliability ranking list that Repairpal makes, it becomes clear that Buick is in spot 13, whereas Cadillac ends up on spot 26 (out of 32). In short, it seems Buick is just able to design a better car than Cadillac.

Sources

• https://repairpal.com/estimator/buick
• https://caredge.com/buick

Stefan K.

Hi! My name is Stefan; I’m the owner and lead writer at TheDriverAdviser.com.

I’m an active writer on this blog myself, as well as a novice car mechanic. For the really technical stuff, I find writers with experience as a mechanic or who have studied mechanical engineering.

Read more about our fantastic team on our about page!