2001 Buick Century	>> page 2
written and submitted by: Horace Cooper

When Bennigan's not Ruth's Chris is the Order of the day!

Christmas in Houston, Texas is nothing like Christmas in Northern Virginia. It's a rare day indeed when the temperature drops below freezing, let alone anything like a snow day happening. It's probably a minority view, but I like that. So I was looking forward to not having to worry about shoveling snow and driving on ice when I flew to Houston for the holiday. Believing that the more hospitable temperatures encourage tradition and comfort and very little change thereby making this Christmas like so many others before, imagine my surprise, when my mother arrived at the airport in her 2001 Buick Century. Now my tastes for cars runs more towards Audi and Lexus than it does to Chevy or Buick, but even I got an educational experience. For the next 4 days, I was in for almost a "treat," or at least a tasty snack.

Driving in a variety of conditions, highway, neighborhoods, even off road gave me a chance to really see what this car would be like. Although it's no racer X in disguise, I was surprised at its strengths and I've concluded that it's probably an ideal car for your mother and mine.

The Buick Century had 116 miles on the odomoter. It was dark blue with a slightly darker blue cloth interior. Growing up with various japanese econoboxes, I'd quickly assumed that nothing beats the feel of a leather skinned seat for long distance driving. I've always felt that all the naugas that had given their lives so that my econobox could have naugahyde seats did so in vain. Either gray, brown or black, these fake plastic, vinyl seats weren't very supportive, didn't look attractive, and generally belied the low costs of the car they came in.

Somehow, I skipped over cloth. Maybe it was the newness of the car, but the cloth seats were actually fairly attractive to the eye. Not unlike the texture and feel of your grandmother's living room couch. However, it also had the lateral support of my grandmother's couch. In addition, I wonder what the spill of a Taco Bell Buritto Grande will do to it? Time will tell.

Under the hood is a 3.1 liter V-6 with a 4 speed automatic transmission putting out 175 hp while mananging 20 mpg city and 30 mpg highway. This engine is more than adequate to power this car. In fact, in many ways this engine is one of this cars greatest assets.

This Century is a real 6 passenger car. A column shifter with the front seats split 60/40. I've always wondered what would happen to the middle passenger if the driver and the outward passenger needed to move their seats to different positions. Buick employs a unique seat adjustment system. It's a combination electric/manual seat controls for driver and passenger. The seat moves forward and up/down with power. However, the seat back is a manual lever for various adjustments. This manual level would seem more appropriate to a 2 door coupe than a four door sedan.

I sat inside and immediately noticed that the outdoor mirrors were a little too small. A very simple and efficient remote control maneuvered each into position, but to really position them for safe (read high speed) use I had to manually push the mirror on the driver's side to get it into the best position. On the other hand, there's plenty of room in this car. As an averaged sized person, it's a stretch to reach across to the passenger door. And with the seatbelt on, you're lucky to get to the glovebox. Don't think of trying to open a door other than the driver's from behind the wheel.

The guages are very simple. Very simple. Not cheap, just simple. Just like my old Mazda 323 Hatchback, there's no tachometer. Unlike my 323, you don't need one. Rather than a circular guage, the speedometer stretches across the dashboard horizontally. There's a temperature guage, gas guage, and a host of idiot lights. One in particular I found interesting. An oil change light indicator tells you on the fly whether its time for an oil change. No longer is it necessary to get your hands dirty checking the oil. According to the manual this allows for up to 10000 miles between oil changes definitely making life easier for a car owner who's either disinterested or too busy for car related maintenance.

The exterior styling is subtle. It's modern yet American. There's nothing that stands out about its appearance, but there's nothing to be angry about either. It had a little too much shiny silver around the grillwork and exterior for my tastes, but this car isn't targeted to me. Turns out, that's one of the things that attracted my mother to the car. The doors close with a solid yet distincly American feel to them. It's not a Mercedes, but it's not econobox either. I was disappointed by the hood however, which felt far too light and tinny for a car of this size. Fortunately Mom's not likely to be opening and closing it alot.

We open the trunk to put my luggage in. The trunk opens using the key fob just like it does on most cars. However, unlike others, there is no secondary switch inside the car. Is this a cost saving feature? There's plenty of room in the trunk however. Probably 8 pieces of luggage could fit back there. The rear seats don't fold down, but with a trunk this big, they don't have too. Also theres a grocery net to keep items from moving around as standard equipment. And if that's not enough, there's plenty of storage space inside the car. The front armrest, the glovebox, both front doors and the back of the seats had more than enough space to keep things.

Driving off from the airport parking lot I notice how smooth and silky the transmission is. General Motors has really developed the smooth shifting transmission into an art form. The speed limit in Texas is 70 mph and even in the metropolitan area its 65 mph. I noticed how effortlessly it accelerated. I was expecting to have to put my foot into to take off. And take off it did. I told my mother I was just trying to merge. The drive from the airport was about 65 miles, all highway. Quite a few cars were on the road heading to their Christmas destination if the way they were weighted down was any indication.

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