1996 Buick Regal — reported problems

What owners report: issue areas

Owner complaints are classified by the system they concern: 264 classifications in all. One complaint can concern several systems, so these add up to more than the number of complaints.

• Brakes48 (18.2%)Official recall records for this system: 12, covering model years 1995–2020.
• Engine29 (11.0%)Official recall records for this system: 9, covering model years 1996–2004.
• Electrical system27 (10.2%)Official recall records for this system: 6, covering model years 1999–2013.
• Air bags (restraint system)22 (8.3%)Official recall records for this system: 2, covering model years 1995–2001.
• Fuel system22 (8.3%)Official recall records for this system: 4, covering model years 1996–2000.
• Steering21 (8.0%)Official recall records for this system: 9, covering model years 1995–2016.

Other / uncategorized: 9 classifications (3.4%) 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 (4,732 records, model years 1995–2020) are most frequently classified under: engine, electrical system and brakes.
• Safety recalls (141 records, model years 1995–2020) are most frequently classified under: brakes, lights and steering.
• Transport Canada recalls (109 records, model years 1995–2020) are most frequently classified under: lights, seat belts and brakes.
• Manufacturer communications (18,430 records, model years 1995–2020) are most frequently classified under: equipment & accessories, electrical system and engine.

"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

• 59reports included a mileage
• 86,825average 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 249 records for 1995 249
2. 1996 260 records for 1996 260
3. 1997 259 records for 1997 259
4. 1998 405 records for 1998 405
5. 1999 364 records for 1999 364
6. 2000 541 records for 2000 541
7. 2001 599 records for 2001 599
8. 2002 533 records for 2002 533
9. 2003 534 records for 2003 534
10. 2004 513 records for 2004 513
11. 2011 1,812 records for 2011 1,812
12. 2012 1,856 records for 2012 1,856
13. 2013 1,985 records for 2013 1,985
14. 2014 1,790 records for 2014 1,790
15. 2015 1,556 records for 2015 1,556
16. 2016 1,253 records for 2016 1,253
17. 2017 1,071 records for 2017 1,071
18. 2018 937 records for 2018 937
19. 2019 692 records for 2019 692
20. 2020 591 records for 2020 591

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

• 14mention a crash
• 16mention a fire
• 21mention 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 4
• Manufacturer communications NHTSA 43
• Investigations NHTSA 6
• Transport Canada recalls Transport Canada 3
• Owner complaints NHTSA 204

Explore the underlying evidence records