A Sad Day, the LeSabre is off to the Big Highway in the Sky...

Today, after 10 years of trusty reliable service I took my 2001 LeSabre to a wrecker's yard. It was a sad day. Yes. I know it's only a car, it's nothing but steel and plastic, but it was a member of the family and I put about 100,000 miles on it.
I would have fixed it and kept it, but the transmission was starting to slip, the front end was shot, and it had started to rust out in the back end. It was probably the most loaded out LeSabre I'd ever seen; a special order car, it had seat warmers on fabric seats! It had every option possible, it was the LeSabre Limited, and everything still worked.
But, as I said, it was showing it's age; the glass was cracked, half the light bulbs in the interior were out, every window regulator had been replaced at least once, the alternator howled, as did the A/C clutch, and it leaked. It also had this peculiar habit of turning on the cooling fans when the temperature was below freezing; so it didn't heat very well anymore. And, to top it off, the intake was leaking antifreeze into the combustion chambers, so it was over-pressuring thermostats and in the end didn't heat at all. (This is important when it's -40 like it was last week)
May it Rust in Peace...

 

WHAT??? You're junking a car... NO, a BUICK , ... that has been part of your life for so long, and it is ONLY twenty years old? What will your OTHER Buicks think about you???

 

His other Buicks are probably scared sh*less right now saying to one another " oh man if we don't get our s**t together and stop leaking all over the drive way and leaving him on the side of the road we're next, he means business "

 

In my opinion those are the last of the reliable big Buicks. 3800 for the win.
How many miles on it?

 

It had 200,000 miles on it, and yes, I did "love" that thing. If I could find another one that was just as loaded up with less than half the miles, I'd buy it. IMHO they were the best modern Buicks made.
And my other Buicks are quaking in their radials...

 

Should've pulled the heated power seat out of it!

 

The sad thing about this whole story is. I offered it up to a lot of those people, (you know the type, "Well, if you'd have called me, I'd have taken it off your hands") for free, just so that it could become useful to someone else. No takers, none at all. Spent 3 weeks trying to sell it for salvage and here again, no takers, no offers, insulting or otherwise. No one wanted it. All it needs is someone to take a little time and about $3000 in parts and fix it back up. If it hadn't have started rusting in the side-rails I would have done it myself; but I'm not about to screw around with another unibody again. So it had to go, and as you can see by the pictures, it still is in pretty good looking shape.
Oh yeah, the heater in the driver's seat was the one thing that didn't work, the passenger's one still did. It was also fully powered.

 

I think if you look you will not have trouble finding another. I think a PA Ultra would be a great substitute.

 

I agree, you should have no trouble finding a low mileage replacement and maybe even bump up to the more luxurious Park Ave or even a LeSabre with leather

 

That's what I thought too, but experience around here has taught me that if they do exist, they're very few and far between and people are hanging on to them. Most of the low mile examples I've seen are in Arizona or Florida, and owned by old people. Well, I got one of the prerequisites, I'm old. But to import one up here is not cost effective in the least. Most, no, I'll say all of the examples I've seen up here are all the same, about 200,000 miles and in need of some serious work, but great cars none the less.
I'm still looking...

 

3800 was a great engine and I long for those 60/40 seats often.

 

A friend of mine sold his truck last year and bought a VW something just for the engine to blow. Then he had no money to buy another car. His daytime job is giving meals to seniors (wheels on meals). Only part time so he could not afford another car. One of the women on his route gave him a 2001 LeSabre with 70,000 miles. Great car for a Good Guy.
Anyway I saw this on Craigslist. It is a 2003 LeSabre with less than 30,000 miles.

https://cnj.craigslist.org/cto/d/newark-2003-buick-lesabre-custom-low/7047729444.html

 

These are great cars and around here many still on the road with over 200K running like new.

 

My sister just junked her 2004 LeSabre....took it in for inspection and they said trans and brake lines were rusted. They said $2400 to fix.
But they would take it off her hands.....for nothing. Wish she had called me........

Pearl white ...ran great...mint tan leather interior.....

 

My mother in law had a ‘98 Park Ave (non sc), and it didn’t age well at all. Was super nice new, but the plastic intake failed at 60k (and hydrolocked, breaking the starter) and again at 120k. Somehow she suffered a broken rack and pinion housing twice, too. Paint failed, interior plastics all became loose, noisy and detached. (Who puts a power seat switch that fragile under the bolster?!). Trans crapped the bed at 125k. Had issues with the ‘Security’ system that the dealer sorta fixed a few times. Sold it about three years ago for $700 I think. It was a Georgia car, only rust was where the paint fell off the roof.
Patrick

 

when it is time to go, it is time to go!!

 

To bad you can’t get one in Florida, they are all over here

 

OK Now I got to ask How the heck can you guys drive these piles of junk. The torque steer is off the hook. FWD along with bone heads putting the the motor in sideways sucks. Short and long CVs..