I don’t consider myself a [Insert Car Brand Here] guy. I’ve driven cars from Toyota, Acura, Ford, and Hyundai. I like a little bit of everything, from sedans and trucks to convertibles and SUVs, so I’m not aligned with one particular brand. But I recently realized how Buicks have been a part of major moments in my life. (I’m not a Buick guy, but maybe Buick is a Derek brand.)

The Bad Old Days

In the mid-1980s, my mom was driving my older brother Anthony and me back from her sister Clara’s house in Kentucky to our home in Texas. We were traveling in my mom’s old college car, a gray 1970s Buick Skylark (she can’t remember the exact model year, but given the years she was in college, it must’ve been from the early to mid-1970s), when it broke down in Cave City, Kentucky. A local service shop owner told my mom it would be 3-4 days before the necessary part came in. Five days later, we were back on the road, but the Buick brand wasn’t off to a good start in my young mind.

High School Hauler

Back when I was in high school, I cringed at the idea of station wagons. My parents drove a series of boxy, boring Toyota Cressida longroofs, so it was hard for me to get excited about the body style in general. One of my classmates, a friendly guy named Kamal, drove a final-generation (1991-1996) Buick Roadmaster Estate Wagon, complete with the faux-wood side panels. At the time, I both cheered him (he had wheels of some kind) and pitied him (for having to be seen in a big, dorky land yacht). Little did I know how time would change my perspective …

Hitting the Road

When I was a teenager, I had no wheels of my own lined up, but I knew a car of any kind was irrelevant until I obtained my driver’s permit. From what I recall, I didn’t get the whole process started as soon as I was eligible — I might have waited a year. Once it was time to get behind the wheel, I found myself piloting what must have been a 2000 or 2001 Buick Century, a sedan that managed to be simultaneously curvy and bland. Perhaps that’s a good thing because I didn’t flunk my evaluation by driving too enthusiastically. Even if I had gotten a little too rowdy with the gas pedal, I doubt the 175-horsepower 3.1-liter V-6 would’ve caused my instructor to clench his clipboard with a white-knuckle grip.

A Life-Changing Night

I can be a pretty awkward guy, but I’ve never had an awkward date with my wife Eli — except one: the night we got engaged in 2020. Although we had selected her engagement ring together, I wanted my proposal to come as a total surprise. I had been lying (lovingly) to Eli for weeks, telling her the finished ring was delayed because of the supply chain issues that were rampant at the time.

Eli had a hair appointment one afternoon, which meant that she wanted to go out on the town afterward with her new ‘do all fresh and styled. That was the perfect time to pop the question. Once Eli got home and I got dressed (with the ring box in the interior pocket of my navy blazer), I started driving my Buick Enclave Avenir review vehicle toward a significant place in the history of our relationship: Café No Sé in Austin, Texas. Shortly after Eli and started dating in 2016, we had tea there. I told her how I pictured her in the distant future; she asked me, “Are you there?”

On the way to the cafe, Eli and I were unusually quiet and tense. I didn’t want Eli to know what I had planned and she was confused. She knew something was off but, fortunately for me, she reasoned everything away — including my uncharacteristically semi-formal attire — as me just wanting to make the most of us getting out of the house. After a few small appetizers and a halting, nervous conversation, I got down on one knee and made it clear that I wanted to be in Eli’s future for the rest of my life. The awkwardness ended and the complimentary Veuve Clicquot started to flow.

Before we celebrated with dinner at Mattie’s, surrounded by the colors and calls of the peacocks that roam the grounds, Eli and I called our parents from the comfort and quiet of the Enclave’s generously equipped cabin to tell them the great news.

I’ll always remember that wonderful night and how a Buick carried both of us to our destiny. And now that I’m older and my tastes have changed, I realize just how wrong I was about Kamal’s Roadmaster all those years ago. As someone who grew up mostly in the ’90s, a fan of Americana, and a father, I daydream about owning one of those massive wagons and carrying my family in it, whether it’s to go on day trips or to pick up a Christmas tree and carry it back home on the roof. Buick has been a part of my life for so long, so why stop now?