1997 BUICK PARK AVENUE Owners Manual

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The 1997 Buick Park Avenue Owner’s Manual
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Seats and Restraint Systems
This section tells you how to use your seats and safety belts properly. It also explains the “SRS” system.
Features and Controls
This section explains how to start and operate your Buick.
Comfort Controls and Audio Systems
This section tells you how to adjust the ventilation and comfort controls and how to operate your audio system.
Your Driving and the Road
Here you’ll find helpful information and tips about the road and how to drive under different conditions.
Problems on the Road
This section tells what to do if you have a problem while driving, such as a flat tire or overheated engine, etc.
Service and Appearance Care
Here the manual tells you how to keep your Buick running properly and looking good,
Maintenance Schedule
This section tells you when to perform vehicle maintenance and what fluids and lubricants to use.
Customer Assistance Information
This section tells you how to contact Buick for assistance and how to get service and owner publications.
It also gives you information on “Reporting Safety Defects” on page
8-8.
Index
Here’s an alphabetical listing of almost every subject in this manual. You can use it to quickly find
sometlvng you want to read.
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GM -
GENERAL MOTORS, GM, the GM Emblem, BUICK,
the BUICK Emblem and the name PARK AVENUE are
registered trademarks of General Motors Corporation.
This manual includes the latest information at the time it
was printed. We reserve the right to make changes
in the
product after that time without further notice. For
vehicles first sold in Canada, substitute the name
“General Motors of Canada Limited” for Buick Motor
Division whenever it appears in this manual.
Please keep this manual in your Buick,
so it will be there
if you ever need it when you’re on the road. If you sell
the vehicle, please leave this manual in it
so the new
owner can use
it.
Litho in U.S.A.
Part
No. 25645978 B First Edition
..
WE SUPPORT VOLUNTARY TECHNICIAN
CERTIFICATION THROUGH
AUTOMOTIVE
National Institute for
SERVICE
EXCELLENCE
We support voluntary
technician certification.
For Canadian Owners Who Prefer a
French Language Manual:
Aux proprietaires canadiens: Vous pouvez vous
procurer un exemplaire de ce guide en fraqais chez
votre concessionaire
ou au:
DGN Marketing Services Ltd.
1500 Bonhill Rd.
Mississauga, Ontario L5T 1C7
@Copyright General Motors Corporation 1996
All Rights Reserved
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Walter Marr and Thomas Buick
Buick’s chief engineer, Walter L. Marr (left), and
Thomas D. Buick, son of founder David Dunbar Buick,
drove the first Flint Buick in a successful Flint-Detroit
round trip in July 1904.
David Buick was building gasoline engines by 1899, and
Marr, his engineer, apparently built the first auto to
be called a Buick in 1900. However, Buick traditionally dates its beginnings to 1903. That was the year the
company was reorganized, refinanced and moved from
Detroit to Flint. Buick has always been a product innovator. Buick engineers developed the “valve-in-head” engine,
a light, powerful and reliable
engine which would eventually influence the entire
automotive industry.
William C. Durant was instrumental in promoting
Buicks across the country using his Durant-Dort Carriage Co. outlets and salespeople as the nucleus
of a
giant distribution system. He knew the Buick as a “self-seller.”
If automobiles could be this good, he
thought, maybe it was time to switch from the horse and
buggy business to automobiles.
William C. (Billy) Durant
At the 1905 New York
Auto Show, Durant took
orders for
1,000 Buicks
before the company had
built
40. On Buick’s
success, Durant created a
holding company, September
16, 1908. He
called it General Motors.
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Durant also created a racing team that won 500 racing
trophies in 1909 and 1910, including successes at
Indianapolis two years before the Indy
500 began.
The success of Buick engines was visible not only on
the race track, but in endurance tests across the country and around the world. Buick was the only car to
complete a 1,000-mile Chicago-to-New York race in 1906. And a Buick was the first car to travel across
South America, driven from Buenos Aires, Argentina,
over the Andes to Santiago, Chile in 1914. Buick drew plenty of attention because
it could climb
hills and run through mud like no other car. Buick’s endurance and reliability were world famous.
During World War
I, Buick built Liberty aircraft engines
as well as Red Cross ambulances
so successfully that
one Buick ambulance was awarded the Croix de Guerre
by the French government.
As a builder of premier automobiles, Buick was hard hit
by the Great Depression. However, new General
Manager Harlow
H. Curtice created popular new models
including the Special and the Roadmaster. Buick sales
soon flourished.
1911 Model 21 Touring Car on Buick’s Test Hill
First Buick Factory
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In World War 11, Buick built aircraft engines, tanks and
other military hardware. This post-war period brought
great styling and engineering changes which resulted in
increased sales. The torque converter automatic
transmission, Dynaflow, was introduced in the
1948
Roadmaster. Buick’s famous “portholes” came along
in
1949.
1949 Roadmaster
A high-compression V-8 engine was introduced in 1953.
And Buick’s famous vertical pillar “toothy” grille
(introduced in
1942) became more massive in the
post-war era.
I953 Skylark
Motor Trend magazine named the 1962 Buick Special
“Car of the Year.” The first production
V-6 engine was
used in the Special.
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