1997 Buick Riviera — reported problems

What owners report: issue areas

Owner complaints are classified by the system they concern: 47 classifications in all. One complaint can concern several systems, so these add up to more than the number of complaints.

• Steering10 (21.3%)
• Brakes7 (14.9%)
• Electrical system6 (12.8%)Official recall records for this system: 1, covering model years 1996.
• Engine5 (10.6%)
• Powertrain (transmission & drivetrain)3 (6.4%)
• Body & structure3 (6.4%)

Other / uncategorized: 1 classifications (2.1%) 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 (504 records, model years 1995–1999) are most frequently classified under: engine, brakes and steering.
• Manufacturer communications (351 records, model years 1995–1999) are most frequently classified under: powertrain (transmission & drivetrain), equipment & accessories 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

Evidence by model year

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

1. 1995 190 records for 1995 190
2. 1996 93 records for 1996 93
3. 1997 100 records for 1997 100
4. 1998 78 records for 1998 78
5. 1999 56 records for 1999 56

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

• 3mention a crash
• 5mention a fire
• 4mention 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

• Manufacturer communications NHTSA 56
• Investigations NHTSA 1
• Owner complaints NHTSA 43

Explore the underlying evidence records

Diagnostic codes found in evidence for this vehicle

These codes appear by explicit identifier in official records matched to this exact model and year.

• P1811 in 1 record

A code appearing in a record means the code was named in that document. It is not a diagnosis of this vehicle, not a fault this vehicle has, and not an indication of urgency. Diagnosis requires reading live data from the vehicle.