1999 Buick Century — reported problems

What owners report: issue areas

Owner complaints are classified by the system they concern: 284 classifications in all. One complaint can concern several systems, so these add up to more than the number of complaints.

• Engine38 (13.4%)Official recall records for this system: 1, covering model years 1999.
• Brakes29 (10.2%)Official recall records for this system: 3, covering model years 1999–2000.
• Visibility (glass, wipers, mirrors)28 (9.9%)Official recall records for this system: 2, covering model years 1997.
• Lights24 (8.5%)Official recall records for this system: 7, covering model years 1997–1999.
• Air bags (restraint system)15 (5.3%)Official recall records for this system: 1, covering model years 2000–2001.
• Electrical system15 (5.3%)Official recall records for this system: 1, covering model years 1999.

Other / uncategorized: 13 classifications (4.6%) were not assigned to a specific system by the source. They are counted but not treated as an issue area.

These are counts of records held by CarFaultIQ, not a failure rate. More records can simply mean more vehicles were sold or more owners reported. No vehicles-in-service figure exists in this data, so no reliability or risk score can be derived from it.

What the records are about, by source

Each source is kept separate: owner complaints, recalls, manufacturer communications and investigations are different kinds of record and are never added together. All model years.

• Owner complaints (2,830 records, model years 1995–2005) are most frequently classified under: brakes, lights and electrical system.
• Manufacturer communications (3,512 records, model years 1995–2005) are most frequently classified under: equipment & accessories, engine and electrical system.

"Most frequently classified under" reports how the records are filed by the source. It is not a finding about causes, and a record can be filed under more than one system. Read the individual records

Mileage reported when the issue occurred

• 104reports included a mileage
• 66,504average of those mileages

This is the mileage owners recorded at the time they reported, not an expected failure mileage and not a prediction for any individual vehicle. The lowest and highest figures on record are not shown: they are unverified odometer entries that include zeros and implausibly high readings, so they would not describe a real range. A median is not shown either, because the stored figures are group totals and a median cannot be recovered from them.

Evidence by model year

Records held per model year. Select a year to narrow this page to it.

1. 1995 138 records for 1995 138
2. 1996 110 records for 1996 110
3. 1997 208 records for 1997 208
4. 1998 316 records for 1998 316
5. 1999 342 records for 1999 342
6. 2000 527 records for 2000 527
7. 2001 543 records for 2001 543
8. 2002 542 records for 2002 542
9. 2003 529 records for 2003 529
10. 2004 445 records for 2004 445
11. 2005 517 records for 2005 517

Counts are not adjusted for how many vehicles were sold in each year, so a taller year is not necessarily a worse year.

Reports mentioning outcomes

• 18mention a crash
• 4mention a fire
• 18mention an injury

These are counts of records whose report mentioned the outcome. They are not a severity rating and not a safety assessment of this vehicle.

Official records held

• Safety recalls NHTSA 5
• Manufacturer communications NHTSA 98
• Transport Canada recalls Transport Canada 4
• Owner complaints NHTSA 235

Explore the underlying evidence records