Welcome to HUB Garage! The dumbest Automotive channel in all of YouTube and many years ago I bought a 1996 Buick Park Avenue Ultra a few years older than this one and proclaimed that it was the best used car for broke Millennials I Knew this because I had went through many Buicks in my time when I was a broke Millennial and it was a fantastic machine. Now years later, that is still absolutely the case. but I do want to expand my definition a little bit and include many cars from GM In the mid 2000s. now it's raining outside and I started to film this in the traditional way that I film a video but then I realized well this is why Top Gear had its style of filming in car reviews allow me to show you in England It rains a lot so the smart ons think of clever things to say in the voice recording booth rather than outside Now I get to have my face back on camera in the warmth and comfort of inside the car and I get to say my best presented voice this is my 2005 Cadillac Escalade The camera crew can all be outside getting Drive buys and roller shots while I'm inside talking about how amazing of a cheap daily driver.

The second generation Cadillac Escalade is which it is I Bought this for $88,500 two years ago and I've had very few issues. I did get a great deal. Obviously it is a big SUV that is gas guzzling so a lot of people would have issues with the 15 m per gallon. so the answer to that could be another GM product from the early 2000s.

and that's the Corvette. So if you're looking for fuel economy, you got it right here with a C5 Corvette Even with that LS and 350 horsepower is so aerodynamic and in a six-speed it's so lowly revved on the highway that you can can get 30 m per gallon on the highway right now I'm going 40 and I'm at less than 1,000 RPM just cruising down the road 100% Jake My loyal cameraman who's probably quitting after today bought this for only $10,000 and it is a great daily driver. If you don't need the extra room, it is a sports car. No back seat, very cramped which is why I still think even though these are two great choices with the Cadillac and the Corvette that the Buick is still the best.

and the one that I bought was, well, it's the best of the best. This is my latest purchase a 2005 Buick Park Avenue Ultra which means a Supercharg 3800 V6 which I think is underrated at 240 horsepower because when it boosts up, it has plenty of power when it's working. Uh, this one isn't. Unfortunately it is a one-owner car with only 75,000 mil.

This was a little old lady car that Unfortunately they kept for a while after the little old lady quit driving and it sat and it's developed some issues unfortunately. One thing that's not broken on this car is the Supple ride and the extremely comfortable seats. This is the last of the old school luxury when it came to General Motors. A few years after this they started dly chasing the Europeans and made sporty Buicks and sporty Cadillacs and well nobody wanted it and sales have declined.

If it weren't for the Escalade Cadillac would be pretty much out of business and Buick Well, if it weren't for China and the big enthusiasm for the Buick brand there, Buick wouldn't exist as well. This is the only one where the secret really isn't out yet. The Cadillac Escalade can still be pretty expensive. Like I said, the Corvette can be expensive wherein it's $15,000 I Bought this for $5500 knowing it had some issues, but still an amazing price for a car in great cosmetic condition with low miles that doesn't feel like a cheap plastic piece of junk.

and it actually does have some cool features. Let me show you, there's that 75 ,000 miles on the odometer. But the coolest part has to be the heads up display. all a Corvette in a Buick I Bet you never thought Buick had this.

It's a serious Performance Machine that is a big massive Buick but it is actually lighter than a BMW M2 Jake. My camera guy who just quit uh pointed that out to me and then you see all the room you have for activities here in the front thanks to this bench seat that does fold down into a center console armrest, but also since it's front-wheel drive, the floor is really flat as well. So spacious, so nice. The seats ridiculously comfortable.

Automatic climate control and a cool stereo Quirk which you can see the volume is all the way turned down at the moment. You have steering wheel controls which isn't unusual to work the stereo, but look what happens when I push them there is a ghost controlling the volume knob musle pain that is GM Engineering the mid 2000s I Love it! You still have your tape deck, there's the automatic climate control and the passenger can adjust their temperature I think 5 or 10 warmer or cooler with that knob over there. so you have dual zone as well and this one being very unique. with that heads up display you would think fully optioned but mercifully it doesn't have a sunroof which is a common thing to break on GM products of this era so that is a godsend.

and look how darn clean it is. Parts are still plentiful and cheap on these things, so that's that's why we pulled up to the Car Wizard. Obviously it needs to be sorted out quickly and I Can't imagine it costing too much, but let me give you a tour of the outside once we get inside in the warmth because that's why I Imagine top here had a studio as well. sorry H weard I'm not doing that.

it's doing it on its own. I Was told it has an intake vacuum leak which would explain all of this right. It could or it could be an airflow sensor we have to see. Yeah yeah, 2005 buy Park Avenue Ultra Little old lady special You see this.

Oh wow that is a a very interesting period backup camera. What is that on the dash heads up display. Dude. Oh like a Corvette wow Really? yeah they had that on these.

They had it. You remember the game Killer Instinct? No it was on Nintendo 64 and it was like fighting game like a Street Fighter game. Oh okay and they had in their Ultra Ultra Ultra Ultra Ultra Ultra This is totally an Ultra. They do put Ultra everywhere.

Yeah Ultra you know I have a soft spot for these cars. Yeah and I found this one with only 75,000 miles actually Anthony Goo! Specially Motoc Cars.net who have bought several cars from the purple nurple Cadillac is one of them and the Lincoln that 97 Lincoln Mark uh Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark and I think one other but uh, this is the third or fourth one and yeah it's Ultra everywhere the last few years of this car. uh they really went all out with the port holes but we'll get to that in a second look at this backup camera. This is the funniest part.

Like it covers up the majority of the license plate. That's like a 1998 webcam or something. Were you camming back in the day? Wizard? Uh, we'll not talk about that, but you said that's how you met your wife. You guys made a video on that I don't want to talk about those videos.

Well, you didn't. You didn't make those kind of videos. but no, you guys met online and struck up a conversation there. We didn't do webcaming though, it was just messaging.

Oh well. okay. but you can tell this was an old person special with the AAA sticker. Commonwealth of Kentucky they stickered it up.

Is that why? Is it shaped like it's some kind of pyramid scheme? I don't know says High 12 International Yeah, it could be some pyramid scheme. it could be some senior citizen swinger group or something I don't know. but uh yeah. one owner 75,000 Mi but it's been sitting for a while and you heard that uh yeah, that weird idle sounds like a vacuum leak but overall in really nice shape and I love the color.

It seems like the rear is sitting just a little low. Oh yeah, it does have the air ride stuff which you're actually working on right now with my Cadillac but uh yeah, you to do it over again. but this last year or a few years of Park Avenue they just really blinged it out the port holes down the side to be like the old Buick and then the grill isal on these Ultas and this color man I had it shipped directly to you because I was told it had these issues and I didn't want to drive it all the way. but bad yeah.

So I'm kind of just taking it in for the first time and how many of these you've had like 12 a lot. Park Avenue Ultr is I think just three of them. but as far as Buick with 3800s many and then Road Masters I've had many of as well in your dealership days you went through a lot of third eight I did because I knew that they would be great cars for people on the cheap and I could buy them, they wouldn't have huge issues and I could sell them to people and they wouldn't have issues with them afterwards. and I'd have to pay all this money for a Toyota Camry with 200,000 miles or more for the same price you could get a grandma Buick usually in much nicer shape and have a better car in my opinion and almost the same reliability.

Yep, but this one's uh, being a bit of an exception right now. So I'm curious what you think is going on. You want to listen to it with the hood up? Yeah, let's pop the hood because there's no check engine light and it will randomly stall out every once in a while. So this is a supercharger.

The intake is metal, not plastic. Yeah, that's right. Good this guy. Mass air flow.

Yep. so go turn the engine off real quick. Okay, it was oneing to stall right then and there. Unplug it.

Yeah, if you unplug it, it goes into some kind of default mode. that. yeah, try it now. Okay, let start it up very easily that time and it's not almost dying, right? I Think they have a bad mass airfow sensor.

Okay, so no big deal. No. does look like the valve cover gaskets are leaking like you probably Serv as a supercharger, you see how the oh, yep, it has its own oil. Do you take it off? No, there's a drain.

just fill it up right there. Nobody ever. Services those. It seems like he did tell me about what he thought was a vacuum leak.

and then the uh, valve cover gaskets were leaking. which is pretty obvious. We could definitely do a smoke test and as we're diving and checking everything over just to verify there is no vacuum leak. but the fact that it ran like 100% better with that unplugged, that's pretty Telltale sign.

Okay, well. one thing I've never seen before is this: it's had the front stretch replaced. and why would they put stickers over them like that? They come brand new in the box with a sticker over the top. Yeah.

I think if you read the sticker so say something along the lines of installation or oh it says under depression removed nut would cause serious injury. Well those could definitely come off because I'm not going to do that. So far we have gotten to the bottom of the installing issue. Cool.

Well I guess there's the rear suspension to look at and see if there's anything else. The only deal killer on these in my opinion is rust and this one came from a Southern state. It's supposed to be really clean underneath so I'd love to see for myself if you have time. Yeah we'll put it on the lift and take a look Man it is running so much better with the mass air flow unplugs.

But it did turn on the check engine light. So the wizard is a wizard not just with Ferraris and Lamborghinis you worked on Plenty of hoopties in your day. Oh yeah, I know these I could work on them with like with a blindfold? totally don't you? just love these wheels. they look like little turbin.

Yeah yeah, they're special with the park. AV Ultra I had one in the exact same spec. didn't have the heads up display that was the one I gave away to Jake Oh the camera guy that just quit, uh, two years ago for Christmas. Oh yeah, you got the big van yeah that you gave to Dave's parents right? Mhm.

they're still using it and he got the buck. The breuck I Think the only person that still has the original car from that is uh Elliott with the BMW Oh yeah well I'm feeling a little fry. Let's start from the back today. I Always like the back end a little better.

Anyways, all right. Well here's a hot rod here with a dual exhaust. Yes, dual tips and also I'm Healed up enough now with my throat and everything that you don't have to thrust me around the shop. I Yeah, it's wonderful to have you back on your feet and normal.

So rear air ride was an issue. What do we got? Look at the holes. Look at that. a oh my goodness.

Well okay, that's why it's kind of low in the back. I've seen so many of these like hundreds of these. They're bad. It's a it's a very common thing and they still sell everything.

OEM As far as the air shocks and the pump and things, yeah, everything works. It's probably possibility the pump could be dead because they're blown out. You can see the holes that it pumped and pumped and pumped until we won't know until we test it. but definitely the rear air suspension is not working well.

It's interesting how they divide up the fuel tank across the exhaust through the middle, giving sort of a little extra hump on one side. Yeah, it's supposed to be. everything uneven on one side, isn't it? I I Guess that does make sense. but uh yeah with the center out exhaust, it's very strange.

It is looks like someone put a new fuel filter in. Oh okay. nice shiny one that's good. I Don't see any major rust back through here.

It looks pretty good. It looks really darn good actually. Just light surface right there. No, that's just dirt dust for the most part.

Yeah, a little bit with the scraping. but yeah, look at that floor. Wowa the brakes have 30% remaining or less the back, but probably $5 an Auto Zone probably. So there's that Center exhaust going up because you don't have a drive shaft.

Yep, and your cat is still here. It hasn't been stolen. That's good. Not Rusty Not even the brake lines are rusted.

It's amazing. I Think the only seepage we're seeing here on the bottom is from the valve cover gasket. They're like literally like pouring down the sides. Yeah, that's what we're seeing there.

very common 3800 thing, but also a very about the easiest valve cover gasket to do on the planet, right? Yeah, they're very easy. Transmission is dry. Mhm Check. Oh, the brakes are probably 20% remaining in the front here.

So I Need brakes brakes all the way around? I Wonder how the tires are age wise from a car that's been sitting a lot? Let's see. Yeah, almost 10 years old? Yeah, some maybe tires. No radiator leaks or anything like that. Yeah, with a few little fix UPS here or there, this will be a real sweet ride.

So you think maybe a th000 bucks? oh probably more along 1,500 or more. Okay I paid $5,500 for it so that still be 7 grand for a 75,000 miile rust free comfortable cruiser with good power. That's fun. It is fun.

They are fast. Why are these still a total? Secret I Don't know, you know I've done videos in the past telling people like the 3800 you should buy these and the comments are usually like I wouldn't be caught dead in there I'm not 95 years old or but then like the Crown Victoria the Lincol Town Car Mercury Grand Marquee Great cars but they don't get that good a gas mileage maybe 20 m per gallon and you know a bit of a dinosaur of an engine. That is cool, but this is a lot more exciting in my opinion to drive except maybe like a Mercury Marauder is go in the panther platform but those are kind of defective engines. those are Wor ship those cars and this, well people don't care.

30 m per gallon on these. Yeah, pretty close usually. Yeah. I Got a really nice one and you probably should too.

Thank you so much for watching.