2008 Buick Lacrosse
This year drew an ordinary 250 complaints for a Buick Lacrosse — the model's median is 169. What they were about is the unusual part: 27.6% of them mention bag, against 10.3% across the model's other years.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 250 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 169 |
| Involving a crash | 12 |
| Involving a fire | 6 |
| Recalls | 2 |
| EPA combined | 20 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- bag — 27.6% of this year's complaints, against 10.3% across the model's other years (2.7×). Owners wrote it as: bag, air bag, indicator, bag light.
- seat — 19.6% of this year's complaints, against 5.3% across the model's other years (3.7×).
- headlights — 18.4% of this year's complaints, against 5.7% across the model's other years (3.2×). Owners wrote it as: headlights, switch, beams, high beams.
Words owners used for the same problem are counted together, so a fault written four different ways is measured once. Grouped by which complaints they appear in, not by a list anyone wrote in advance.
What owners wrote
THE FRONT PASSENGER SIDE AIR BAG OFF WARNING INDICATOR ILLUMINATED WHILE THE SEAT WAS BEING OCCUPIED. THE VEHICLE WAS NOT DIAGNOSED OR REPAIRED. THE [VIN] WAS NOT NOTIFIED OF THE FAILURE. THE FAILURE MILEAGE WAS 60,000.
WHILE DRIVING VARIOUS SPEEDS, THE FRONT PASSENGER AIR BAG SENSOR WARNING INDICATOR ILLUMINATED ALTHOUGH THE SEAT WAS OCCUPIED. THE VEHICLE WAS TAKEN TO A DEALER. THE TECHNICIAN DIAGNOSED THAT THE SENSOR NEEDED TO BE REPLACED. THE VEHICLE WAS REPAIRED, BUT THE…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 15V519000 EXTERIOR LIGHTING Fixed free of charge.
- 14V355000 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM Fixed free of charge.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Buick Lacrosse was compared against its own history rather than against other cars, which removes popularity and age from the answer — a common car draws more complaints at equal reliability, and an older one has had longer to accumulate them. A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints.
This is a fault record, not a review. Nobody files a federal complaint to say the car was fine, so it shows what tends to go wrong — not whether owners liked it, and not whether it is a good car.
Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . Look this vehicle up directly on NHTSA's site to check anything here.
Own a 2008 Buick Lacrosse? What happened to yours?
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