Other visibility problem on the 2000 Buick Lesabre
1 fire 1 of the 185 reports for this failure mention a crash, a fire, an injury or a death. Those are the owner's words on the complaint form, not a verified finding, and one report can mention more than one.
When other visibility problem gets reported
Owners of the 2000 Buick Lesabre report other visibility problem at a median of 60,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 40,000 miles and a quarter after 85,000 miles, from 118 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 75,000 miles. It is the 1st most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 23,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 110,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 86,980 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
A spread this wide points at use rather than design. Towing, climate, service history and city mileage all move a failure like this, so the median is a weak guide to any individual car.
18% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23,140 miles | 40,000 miles | 60,000 miles | 84,750 miles | 110,120 miles |
Read the 10th percentile as “one report in ten arrived this early”. Exact figures are shown in this table because it is the table of record; everywhere else on the site they are rounded to the precision the sample can carry.
What a percentile can and cannot tell you here
These five numbers describe the readings owners gave, in order. The median is the middle one: half the reports arrived below it. The 10th and 90th are the edges of the bulk of the distribution, and the distance between them is the part worth reading. A tight spread — say 70,000 to 95,000 miles — points at something that wears out on a schedule, and the schedule is knowable. A wide one, 20,000 to 190,000, points at a fault that hits some cars and never troubles others, which means the mileage on the listing in front of you tells you very little about your odds.
What these figures are not is a survival curve. Every reading here comes from a car whose owner filed a complaint, so the sample contains only failures: it cannot say what share of the fleet made it past 150,000 miles untouched, because those owners had nothing to report. Nor is the mileage the moment of failure — it is the odometer reading as recalled at the time of filing, which may be weeks later and is sometimes rounded to the nearest ten thousand by the person typing it.
Percentiles are shown at all only once 8 readings exist for the vehicle and mode. Below that the middle of a handful of numbers is noise wearing a decimal point, so the figures are withheld rather than dressed up.
What happens, and what it costs
Of these reports, 1 a fire is mentioned. Owners write their own complaints and the agency does not verify them, so read this as what the reports say happened rather than as a confirmed count.
Putting it right typically runs $150–$1,400 at an independent US shop. That range is an editorial estimate held in this site's failure-mode catalogue, not a figure from NHTSA, and it is a repair cost rather than a diagnosis cost.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 7 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2003, at a median of 25,000 miles, and latest on the 1999 at 140,000 miles.
By volume the 2000 is the worst of them, which makes this a problem of this specific year rather than of the model as a whole.
If one year stands out to the left, that is the year to avoid; if the whole line sits at a similar mileage, this is wear rather than a defect in one production run.
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
What owners wrote
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.
The vehicles power window motors failed. This resulted in the passenger side front and rear windows sticking in the half way down position. The motor was replaced but the problem recurred. *nlm all four windows has had replacement motors. The front passenger window has been replaced twice. There is no warning before failure. The motors were gm parts, also the replacement motors. Scc
I am complaining about my 2000 buick lesabre.in april 20, 2003 I rolled down my drivers side window and it would not go back up. I took it to a buick dealer. They wanted nearly $400 to repair the window. I called the buick customer service department who called the buick dealer and talked to the manager. It was agreed to split the price 50-50. On may 24th the rear window on the passenger side failed. I tested the other back window and it failed. Again I called the customer service department. They refused to do anything this time. A few days later I called again and spoke with a different representative. He refused to do anything and backed up the first persons decision without any consideration to my problem. He also refused to give me the zone office phone number for buick. When asked to speak to someone higher up I was told no. I said I was going to write a letter and was told it wouldnt matter what I did it was settled. I did send a letter to buick and he was right, it didn't matter. They still refused to do anything about the problem. The case number is 1-93076844. This is the worst experience I have ever had with customer…
I am on my 3rd power window being replaced in my car. The dealership claims they haven't seem this happen before - but as you can see from all the complaints this is a common occurrence with this year model. I called the gm customer service and they are to call me back - but they also acted like this was so unusual to have 3 power windows go out within a years time. The most important question I have is whether it will continue to happen at $400 a window or are they replacing it with improved parts? Who knows... *la
Also reported on the 2000 Buick Lesabre
Other electrical problem
Window regulator or power window failure
Other engine problem
Other body or interior problem
Other wheel or tire problem
Steering rack, gear or tie rod failure
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 185 is a floor and not a count of affected cars. Mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers. And the mode itself is assigned by software reading the complaint text, which is reliable in bulk and fallible one report at a time.
Questions this page answers
At what mileage does other visibility problem happen on the 2000 Buick Lesabre?
Across 118 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 60,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 40,000 miles and a quarter after 85,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other visibility problem on the 2000 Buick Lesabre?
185 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 3.0 per 1,000 vehicles. Complaints are voluntary, so this is a floor rather than a count of affected cars.
What this is and is not. These are the mileages at which owners chose to complain to a federal agency, which is not the same as the mileage at which the part fails on every car. It skews toward failures that happened outside warranty, cost real money, or frightened someone. It is still the only public dataset that carries failure mileage at all, and the shape of a few hundred readings is informative even when a single one is not. Methodology · JSON · this failure on other cars
Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed