Buick Century - Problems, Statistics, and Analysis

Buick Century owners have reported a total of 1,374 problems for their cars built in the 10 model years listed in the chart below. The chart shows the number of problems reported across all service years for each given model year of the Buick Century. The 1999 Buick Century cars have the most problems reported (246 problems).

Table 1. Total number of problems by model year for Buick Century

Model Year	Number of Problems
2005 Century	22
2004 Century	42
2003 Century	139
2002 Century	164
2001 Century	151
2000 Century	203
1999 Century	246
1998 Century	219
1997 Century	107
1996 Century	80

Common problems of Buick Century

The following chart shows the 25 most common problems for Buick Century cars. The number one most common problem is related to the vehicle's engine and engine cooling (200 problems). The second most common problem is related to the vehicle's electrical system (153 problems).

Table 2. Common problems of Buick Century

Problem Category	Number of Problems
Engine And Engine Cooling	200
Electrical System	153
Exterior Lighting	149
Service Brakes	136
Visibility	116
Power Train	103
Steering	87
Air Bag	67
Vehicle Speed Control	61
Seat Belt	44

Structure	43
Gasoline Fuel System	34
Unknown Or Other	32
Suspension	30
Tire	28
Equipment	28
Other Fuel System	17
Seats	11
Latches/locks/linkage	8
Electronic Stability Control	7
Wheel	7
Interior Lighting	6
Air Brake	4
Parking Brake	2
Child Seat	1

Compare Reliability Across Model Years Using PPMY Index

It would not be fair to compare the Buick Century of an older model year to newer model years since older vehicles have been in service longer and thus are expected to have more problems. In order to compare the reliability across Century model years, we use the PPMY index which is defined as the problems reported per thousand vehicles per Year. A smaller PPMY index indicates greater reliability of the given model year cars.

PPMY = P / S / Y * 1000,

where P = total problems reported during the life of a Buick Century model year; S = total units sold of the model year; Y = years since the debut of the model year (the age of the vehicle).

The results are shown in Table 3.

Table 3. Use PPMY Index to Compare Reliability Across Century Model Years

Century Model Year	Problems	Sales [1]	Vehicle Age	PPMY Index
2005	22	40,051	14	0.04
2004	42	54,706	15	0.05
2003	139	148,270	16	0.06
2002	164	141,819	17	0.07
2001	151	126,283	18	0.07
2000	203	144,490	19	0.07

Number of Problems Reported During the First Year

Another way to measure the reliability across the model years of the Buick Century is to use the total number of problems reported during the vehicle's first year in service, as shown in the Table 4.

Table 4. Number of problems in vehicle's; first service year

Model Year	Problems Reported
2005 Century	1
2004 Century	5
2003 Century	8
2002 Century	20
2001 Century	10
2000 Century	20
1999 Century	22
1998 Century	32
1997 Century	14
1996 Century	12

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