Selling a junk or non-running Buick

Below: where the brand came from, how many owner complaints NHTSA holds for each Buick nameplate, and links to all 20 model pages.

A brand older than General Motors

Buick was founded in December 1899, and its founder was David Dunbar Buick, according to Wikipedia's Buick article. The article dates the Buick Motor Company to 1903-1908 and gives David Dunbar Buick's own years running it as 1903-1904. Today the brand belongs to General Motors and is headquartered in Detroit.

Many of the names on a junk Buick today go back decades before the EPA's list starts in 1984. Wikipedia lists the LeSabre as built from 1959 to 2005 and the Electra from 1959 to 1990. Older names in the same list include the Super (1939-1958), the Invicta (1959-1963) and the Wildcat (1963-1970). The two-seat Reatta ran only 1988-1991, which matches its four model years in the EPA data.

Which Buicks draw the most complaints

Owners have filed 20,651 complaints with NHTSA across the 20 Buick nameplates here, by our count on October 10, 2026. They are owners' reports, not recalls and not a reliability rating. A nameplate sold for two decades will pile up more of them than one sold for three years.

Three things stand out in the full list:

• The big sedans lead. The LeSabre and Regal together hold 6,995 complaints. Both ran for more than 20 model years in the EPA list.
• The Enclave is the newest model near the top. It is the only Buick still on sale with more than 1,000 complaints, at 2,501 across model years from 2008.
• The newest Buicks barely register yet. The Envista, sold since 2024, has 95. The Envision has 245. The latest Buicks are young, so their low counts say little about how they hold up.

At the other end, the Skyhawk has 7 and the Reatta 51. Both left the EPA list more than 30 years ago.

What the Buick lineup has in common

The four big sedans that ran into the 2000s, the LeSabre, Century, Park Avenue and Lucerne, account for 7,846 of the make's complaints between them. All four have ended; the Lucerne was the last, after 2011. So even the newest of them is now 15 model years old. Our guide on selling an old or high-mileage car covers a car in that spot.

The crossovers split the same way. The Rendezvous, Rainier and Terraza all left the EPA list by 2008, while the Enclave, Encore, Envision and Envista are still sold. If a newer one was totaled in a crash, see selling a wrecked car.

How to sell a Buick that won't run

Don't strip it first. The battery, tires and converter stay on, and the truck takes the whole Buick.

1. Find the year, model and rough mileage.
2. For your Buick, say whether the engine cranks, whether it rolls, and what parts are broken or missing.
3. Mention the title. Missing one? Start with selling a junk car with no title.
4. Describe where the Buick sits and anything that would block a tow truck.

Once it is gone, handle the plates, insurance and state notice.

Rather talk to someone? Call (877) 421-6008.

Every Buick model on this site

All 20 Buick nameplates the EPA has rated since 1984, sorted by first model year. Buicks whose EPA years reach 2026 or 2027 could still be in showrooms.